'The service that I truly did his life, Hath left me open to all injuries.

War. Indeed, I think, the young king loves

you not.

Ch. Just. I know, he doth not; and do arm 5
myself,

To welcome the condition of the time;
Which cannot look more hideously upon me
Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.

Enter Lord John of Lancaster, Gloster, and Cla-10
rence, &c.

War. Here come the heavy issue of dead
Harry:-

Q, that the living Harry had the temper
Of him, the worst of these three gentlemen!
How many nobles then should hold their places,
That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!

Ch. Just. Alas, I fear, all will be overturn'd.
Lan. Good morrow, cousin Warwick.
Glo. Cla. Good morrow, cousin.

Lan. We meet like men that had forgot to speak.
War. We do remember; but our argument
Is all too heavy to admit much talk.

Lun. Well, peace be with him that hath made
us heavy!

Ch. Just. Peace be with us, lest we be heavier! Glo. O, good my lord, you have lost a friend indeed:

War. Here comes the prince.

Enter King Henry.

Ch. Just. Good morrow; and heaven save your inajesty!

K. Henry. This new and gorgeous garment,
majesty,

Sits not so easy on me as you think.-—--
Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear;
This is the English, not the Turkish court;
Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,

But Harry, Harry:-Yet be sad, good brothers,
For, to speak truth, it very well becomes you;
Sorrow so royally in you appears,

That I will deeply put the fashion on,
15 And wear it in my heart. Why then, be sad:
But entertain no more of it, good brothers,
Than a joint burthen laid upon us all.
For me, by heaven, I bid you be assur'd,
I'll be your father and your brother too;

20 Let me but bear your love, I'll bear your cares.
Yet weep that Harry's dead; and so will I:
But Harry lives, that shall convert those tears,
By number, into hours of happiness.

25

And I dare swear, you borrow not that face
Of seeming sorrow; it is, sure, your own. [find, 30
Lan. Though no man be assur'd what grace to
You stand in coldest expectation:

I am the sorrier; 'would, 'twere otherwise.
Cla. Well, you must now speak Sir John Fal-
staff fair;

Which swims against your stream of quality.
Ch. Just. Sweet princes, what I did, I did in
honour,

Led by the impartial conduct of my soul;
And never shall you see, that I will beg
A ragged and forestall'd remission'.----
If truth and upright innocency fail me,
I'll to the king my master that is dead,
And tell him who hath sent me after him.

you most;

Lan. &c. We hope no other from your majesty.
K. Henry. You all look strangely on me:-and
[To the Ch. Just.
You are, I think, assur'd I love you not.
Ch. Just. I am assur'd, if I be measur'd rightly,
Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me.

K. Henry. No! How might a prince of my
great hopes forget

So great indignities you laid upon me?
What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
The immediate heir of England! Was this easy?
35 May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten?

Ch. Just. I then did use the person of your

father;

The image of his power lay then in me:
And, in the administration of his law,
40 Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,
Your highness pleased to forget my place,
The majesty and power of law and justice,
The image of the king whom I presented,
And struck me in my very seat of judginent2;

Whereon,

Meaning, a base, ignominious pardon, begged by a voluntary concession of offence, and anticipation of the charge. The chief justice, in this play, was Sir William Gascoigne, of whom the following memoir is given by Sir John Hawkins: While at the bar, Henry of Bolingbroke had been Is client; and upon the decease of John of Gaunt, by the above Henry, his heir, then in banishpent, he was appointed his attorney, to sue in the court of Wards the livery of the estates descended to him. Richard II. revoked the letters patent for this purpose, and defeated the intent of them, And thereby furnished a ground for the invasion of his kingdom by the heir of Gaunt; who becoming terwards Henry IV. appointed Gascoigne chief justice of the King's Bench in the first year of his reign. In that Station Gascoigne acquired the character of a learned, an upright, a wise, and an inpid judge. The story so frequently alluded to of his committing the prince for an insult on his rson, and the court wherein he presided, is thus related by Sir Thomas Elyot, in his book entitled, The Governour: "The moste renomed prince king Henry the fyfte, late kynge of Englande, durynge the lyfe of his father, was noted to be fiers and of wanton courage: it hapned, that one of his erantes, whom he well fauoured, was for felony by him committed, arrained at the kynges benche: whereof the prince being aduertised, and incensed by lyghte persones aboute him, in furious ge came hastily to the barre, where his seruant stode as a prisoner, and commaunded hym to be gyued and set at libertie: wherat all men were abashed, reserued the chiefe justice, who humbly norted the prince, to be contented, that its seruaunt mought be ordred, accordynge to the augiunte lawes of this realme; or if he wolde haue hym saued from the rigour of the lawes, that

he

Whereon, as an offender to your father,
I gave bold way to my authority,
And did commit you. If the deed were ill,
Be you contented, wearing now the garland,
To have a son set your decrees at nought;
To pluck down justice from your awful bench;
To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword
That guards the peace and safety of your person:
Nay, more; to spurn at your most royal image,
And mock your workings in a second body."
Question your royal thoughts,make the case yours;
Be now the father, and propose a son':
Hear your own dignity so much profan'd,
See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,
Behold yourself so by a son disdained;
And then imagine me taking your part,
And, in your power, so silencing your son:
After this cold considerance, sentence me;
And, as you are a king, speak in your state,--
What I have done, that misbecame my place,
My person, or my liege's sovereignty.

K.Henry. You are right, justice, and you weigh
this well;

Therefore still bear the balance, and the sword:
And I do wish your honours may increase,
"Till you do live to see a son of mine
Offend you, and obey you, as I did.
So shall I live to speak my father's words;-
Happy am I, that have a man so bold,
That dares do justice on my proper son:
And not less happy, having such a son,
That would deliver up his greatness so

Into the hands of justice.-You did commit me:
For which, I do commit into your hand
The unstained sword that you have us'd to bear;
With this remembrance,-That you use the same
5 With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit,
As you have done 'gainst me. There is my hand;
You shall be as a father to my youth:
My voice shall sound as you do prompt mine ear;
And I will stoop and hunible my intents
10To your well practis'd, wise directions.-
And, princes all, believe me, I beseech you;-
My father is gone wild into his grave,
For in his tomb lie my affections';
And with his spirit sadly I survive,
15 To mock the expectations of the world;
To frustrate prophecies; and to raze out
Rotten opinion, who hath writ me down
After my seeming. The tide of blood in me
Hath proudly flow'd in vanity, 'till now:
20 Now doth it turn, and ebb back to the sea;
Where it shall mingle with the state of floods,
And flow henceforth in formal majesty.

Now call we our high court of parliament: And let us chuse such limbs of noble counsel, 25 That the great body of our state may go

30

In equal rank with the best-govern'd nation;
That war, or peace, or both at once, may be
As things acquainted and familiar to us;-
In which you, father, shall have foremost hand.-
[To the Lord Chief Justice.
Our coronation done, we will accite,
As I before remember'd, all our state:

he shulde opteyne, if he moughte, of the kynge his father, his gratious pardon, wherby no lawe or justyce shulde be derogate. With whiche answere the prince nothynge appeased, but rather more inflamed, endeuored him selfe to take away his seruant. The iudge considering the perilous example, and inconuenience that mought therby insue, with a valvant spirite and courage, commanded the prince upon his alegeance, to leaue the prisoner, and depart his way. With which commandment the prince being set all in a fury, all chafed and in a terrible maner, came vp to the place of iugement, men thynking that he wold haue slayne the iuge, or haue done to hym some damage: but the iuge sittynge styll without mouing, declaring the maiestie of the kynges place of iugement, and with an assured and bolde countenat nce, had to the prince, these wordes foliowyng, Syr, remembre your selfe, I kepe here the place of the kyng your soueraine lorde and father, to whom ye owe double obedience, wherfore eftesoones in his name, I charge you desyste of your wylfulnes and vnlaufull enterprise, & from hensforth giue good example to those, whiyche hereafter shall be your propre subiectes. And nowe, for your contempte and disobedience, goo you to the prysone of the kynges benche, wherevnto I commyttee you, and remayne ye there prisoner vntyll the pleasure of the kynge your father be further knowen.' With whiche wordes beinge abashed, and also wondrynge at the meruaylous grauitie of that worshypfulle justyce, the noble prince layinge his weapon aparte, doynge reuerence, departed, and wente to the Kynges benche, as he was commanded. Whereat his seruauntes disdaynynge, came and shewed to the kynge all the hole affaire. Whereat he awhyles studyenge, after as a man all rauyshed with gladnesse, holdynge his eien and handes vp towarde heuen, abraided, saying with a loude voice, O mercyfull God, howe moche am I, aboue all other men, bounde to your infinite goodnes, specially for that ye haue gyuen me a iuge, who feareth nat to minister iustyce, and also a soune, who can suffre semblably, and obeye iustyce?" And here it may be noted, that Shakspeare has deviated from history in bringing the chief justice and Henry V. together; for it is expressly said by Fuller, in his Worthies in Yorkshire, and that on the best authority, that Gascoigne died in the life-time of his father, viz. on the first day of November, 14 Henry IV. See Dugd. Origines Juridic. in the Chronica Series, fol. 54. 56. Mr. Malone adds, that in the foregoing account of this transaction, there is no mention of the prince's having struck Gascoigne, the chief justice.-Speed, however, who quotes Elyot, says, on I know not what authority, that the prince gave the judge a blow on the face. To defeat the process of justice. 2i. e. to treat with con

tempt your acts executed by a representative. i. e. image to yourself a son. i. e. admonition. The meaning seems to be-My wild dispositions having ceased on my father's death, and being now as it were buried in his tomb, he and wildness are interred in the same grave. i. e. seriously, gravely. Sad is opposed to wild. i. e. the assembly, or general meeting of the floods: for all rivers, running into the sea, are there represented as holding their sessions. And

And (heaven consigning to my good intents)
No prince, nor peer, shall have just cause to say,-
Heaven shorten Harry's happy life one day! [Exe.
SCENE III.

Shallow's Seat in Glostershire.
Enter Fulstaff, Shallow, Silence, Bardolph, the
Page, and Davy.

5

Shal. Nay, you shall see mine orchard: where, in ay arbour, we will eat a last year's pippin of 10 my own graffing, with a dish of carraways', and so forth;-come, cousin Silence;-and then to bed.

Fal. You have here a goodly dwelling, and a rich. Shal. Barren, barren, barren; beggars all, beg-15 gars all, Sir John:-marry, good air.- -Spread, Davy, spread, Davy: well said, Davy.

Fal. This Davy serves you for good uses: he is your serving-man, and your husband-man.

Shal. A good variet, a good varlet, a very good 20 varlet, Sir John.-By the mass, I have drank too much sack at supper:a good varlet. Now sit down, now sit down:-come, cousin.

Sil. Ah, sirrah! quoth-a,-

We shal do nothing but eat, and make good chear, 25

[Singing.

And praise heaven for the merry year;
When flesh is cheap and females dear,
And lusty lads roam here and there;

So merrily, and ever among so merrily, &c. 30 Fal. There's a merry heart!-Good master Silence, I'll give you a health for that anon.

Shal. Give master Bardolph some wine, Davy. Davy. Sweet sir, sit:-I'll be with you anon; -most sweet sir, sit.-Master page, good master 35 page, sit: Proface! What you want in meat, we'll have in drink. But you must bear; The heart's' all.

3

[Exit.

Shal. Be merry, master Bardolph;-and my little soldier there, be merry.

-Sil. [Singing] Be merry, be merry, mywife has all;
For women are shews, both short and tall:
'Tis merry in hall, when beards wag all,
And welcome merry shrove-tide.

Bemerry, be merry, &c.

Fal. I did not think, master Silence had been a man of this mettle.

Sil. Who, f? I have been merry twice and once, ere now.

3

5

40

45

Re-enter Davy.

Davy. There is a dish of leather-coats for you. [Setting them before Bardolph.

Shal. Davy,
Davy. Your worship?--I'll be with you
straight.-A cup of wine, sir?

Sil. [Singing] A cup of wine, that's brisk and fine,
And drink unto the leman mine ;—

And a merry heart lives long-a.
Fat. Well said, master Silence.

Sil. An we shall be merry, now comes in the sweet of the night.

Fal. Health and long life to you, master Silence!
Sil. Fill the cup, and let it come;
Pll pledge you a mile to the bottom.

Shal. Honest Bardolph, welcome: If thou want'st any thing, and wilt not cal!, beshrew thy heart.-Welcome, my little tiny thief; [to the page] and welcome, indeed, too.---I'll drink to master Bardolph, and to all the cavaleroes about London.

Davy. I hope to see London once ere I die.
Bard. An I might see you there, Davy,-
Shal. You'll crack a quart together. Ha! will
you not, master Bardolph?

Bard. Yes, sir, in a pottle pot.

Shal. I thank thee:-The knave will stick by thee, I can assure thee that: he will not out; he is true bred.

Bard. And I'll stick by him, sir.

[One knocks at the door. Shal. Why, there spoke a king. Lack nothing: be merry. Look who's at door there: Ho! who knocks?

Fal. Why, now you have done me right.

[To Silence, who drinks a bumper.
Sil. [Singing] Do me right, and dub me knight:
Samingo'.- -Is't not so?
Fal. "Tis so.

Sil. Is't so? Why, then say, an old man can do
somewhat.
[Re-enter Davy.
Davy. An it please your worship, there's one
Pistol come from the court with news.

Fal. From the court? let him come in.-
Enter Pistol.

How now, Pistol?
Pist. Sir John, 'save you,

sir!

Fal. What wind blew you hither, Pistol?
Pist. Not the ill wind which blows no man

A comfit or confection so called in our author's time, according to Dr. Warburton; but a dish of apples of that name, according to Dr. Goldsmith; and Mr. Steevens says, there is a pear called a carraway, which may be corrupted from caillouel, Fr. 2 Here the double sense of the word dear must be remembered. Italian, from profaccia; that is, much good may it do you. That is, the inten tion with which the entertainment is given. This was the term by which an airy, splendid, irregular fellow was distinguished. To do a man right and to do him reason, were formerly the usual expressions in pledging healths. He who drank a bumper expected a bumper should be drank to his toast. It was the custom of the good fellows in Shakspeare's days to drink a very large draught of wine, and sometimes a less palatable potation, on their knees, to the health of their mistress. He who performed this exploit was dubb'd a knight for the evening. Samingo, that is, San Domingo, as Sir T. Hanmer has rightly observed. But what is the meaning and propriety of the name here, has not been shewn. Justice Silence is here introduced as in the midst of his cups: and Mr. Warton says, he remembers a black letter balad, in which either a San Domingo or a signior Domingo, is celebrated for his miraculous fe ts in drinking. Silence, in the abundance of his festivity, touches upon some old song, in which this convivial saint or signior was the burden. Perhaps too the pronunciation is here suited to the character.

7

good.

good. Sweet knight, thou art now one of the greatest men in the realm.

Sil. Indeed I think 'abe; but goodman Puff of Barson.

Pist. Puff?

Puff in thy teeth, most recreant coward base!
Sir John, I am thy Pistol, and thy friend,
And helter-skelter have I rode to thee;
And tidings do I bring, and lucky joys,
And golden times, and happy news of price.
Fal. I pr'ythee now, deliver them like a man
of this world.
[base

Pist. A foutra for the world, and worldlings
I speak of Africa, and golden joys.

ride all night:-Oh, sweet Pistol!-Away, Bardolph.-Come, Pistol, utter more to me; and, withal, devise something to do thyself good.Boot, boot, master Shallow; I know, the young 5 king is sick for me. Let us take any man's horses; the laws of England are at my commandment. Happy are they which have been my friends; and woe to my lord chief justice!

Pist. Let vultures vile seize on his lungs also! 10Where is the life that late I led', say they : Why, here it is; Welcome these pleasant days. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.

A street in London.

Fal. O base Assyrian knight, what is thy news: 15 Enter Hostess Quickly, DollTear-sheet, & Beadles

'Let king Cophetua know the truth thereof.

Sil. And Robin Hood, Scarlet, and John.[Sings.
Pist. Shall dunghill curs confront the Helicons?

[ing. 20

And shall good news be baffled?
Then, Pistol, lay thy head in Furies' lap.
Shal. Honest gentleman, I know not your breed-
Pist. Why then, lament therefore.

Shal. Give me pardon, sir.--If, sir, you come with news from the court, I take it, there is but two ways; either to utter them, or to conceal 25 them. I am, sir, under the king, in some authority.

Pist. Under which king, 'Bezonian? speak, or

die.

Shal. Under king Harry.

Pist. Harry the fourth? or fifth?

Shal. Harry the fourth.

Pist. A foutra for thine office!

Sir Johr, thy tender lambkin now is king;
Harry tue fifth's the man. I speak the truth:
When Pistol lies, do this; and fig me', like
The bragging Spaniard.

Fal. What is the old king dead?

30

35

Pist. As nail in door: the things I speak, arejust. Fal. Away, Bardolph; saddle my horse.-Mas-40 ter Robert Shallow, chuse what office thou wilt in the land, 'tis thine.-Pistol, I will double-charge thee with dignities.

Bard. O joyful day!--I would not take a knighthood for my fortune.

Pist. What? I do bring good news?
Fal. Carry master Silence to bed.-Master
Shallow, my lord Shallow, be what thou wilt, I
am fortune's steward. Get on thy boots; we'll

1451

Host. No, thou arraut knave; I would I might die, that I might have thee hang'd: thou hast drawn my shoulder out of joint.

Bead. The constables have deliver'd her over to me; and she shall have whipping-cheer enough, I warrant her: There hath been a man or two, lately, kill'd about her.

Dol. Nut-hook, nut-hooks, you lie. Come on; I'll tell thee what, thou damn'd tripe-visag'd rascal; if the child I now go with, do miscarry, thou hadst better thou hadst struck thy mother, thou paper-fac'd villain.

Host. O the Lord, that Sir John were come! he would make this a bloody day to somebody. But pray God, the fruit of her womb miscarry! Bead. If it do, you shall have a dozen of cushions again; you have but eleven now. Come, I charge you both go with me; for the man is dead, that you and Pistol beat among you.

Dol. Pll tell thee what, thou thin man in a censer! I will have you as soundly swing'd for this, you blue-bottle rogue! you filthy famish'd correctioner if you be not swing'd, I'll forswear

half-kirtles'.

Bead.Come,come, you she knight-errant; come. Host. O, that right should thus overcome might! Well; of sufferance comes ease.

Dol. Come, you rogue, come; bring me to a justice.

Host. Ay; come, you starv'd blood-hound.
Dol. Goodman death! goodman bones!
Host. Thou atomy, thou!

Dol. Come, you thin thing; come, you rascal111!
Bead. Very well.

2

[Exeunt

'Lines taken from an old bombast play of King Cophetua; of whom, we learn from Shakspeare, there were ballads too. See Love's Labour's Lost. This is a term of reproach, frequent in the writers contemporary with our poet. Bisognoso, a needy person; thence, metaphorically, a base scoundrel. To fig, in Spanish higas dar, is to insult by putting the thumb between the fore and middle finger. From this Spanish custom we yet say in contempt, "a fig for you." 4 Words of an old ballad. It has been already observed on the Merry Wives of Windsor, that nut-kook seems to have been in those times a name of reproach for a catchpole; or mut-hook might probably have been as common a term of reproach as rogue is at present. That is, to stuff her out that she might counterfeit pregnancy. 'These old censers of thin metal had generally at the bottom the figure of some saint raised up with a hammer, in a barbarous kind of imbossed or chased work. The hungerstarved beadle is compared, in substance, to one of these thin raised figures, by the same kind of humour that Pistol, in the Merry Wives, calls Slender a laten bilboe. A name probably given to the beadle, from the colour of his livery; or perhaps the allusion may be to the great flesh-fly, commonly called a blue-bottle. A half-kirtle was the same kind of thing as we call at present a short-gown, or a bed-gown: and was the dress of the courtezans of the time. 10 Atomy for anatomy. were called rascal deer.

9

11 Lean deer

SCENE

Ful. Come here, Pistol; stand behind me.O, if I had time to have made new liveries, I would have bestow'd the thousand pound I borrow'd of you. [To Shallow.] But 'tis no matter; this poor show doth better: this doth infer the 20 zeal I had to see him.

Jut. But to stand stained with travel, and sweating with desire to see him: thinking of nothing eke; putting all affairs else in oblivion; as it there were nothing else to be done, but to see him. Pist. 'Tis semper idem, for absque hoc nihil est: 35 Tis all in every part.

Fal God save thee, my sweet boy!
King. My lord chief justice, speak to that vain
Ch. Just. Have you your wits? know you what 55
'tis you speak?

At ceremonial entertainments, it was the custom to strew the floor with rushes. 2 Imp means progeny; and is probably derived from img-un, a Welch word, which primitively signifies a sprout, a 3 Protune, in our author, often signifies love of talk, without the particular idea now given it.