Yet herein will I imitate the sun :
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds
To smother up his beauty from the world,
That, when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may be more wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours, that did seem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,

To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But, when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
So, when this loose behaviour I throw off,
And pay the debt I never promised,
By how much better than my word I am,
By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;8
And, like bright metal on a sullen ground,
My reformation, glittering o'er my fault,
Shall show more goodly, and attract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.

I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;

Redeeming time, when men think least I will. [Exit.

The same.

SCENE III.

Another Room in the Palace.

Enter King HENRY, NORTHUMBERLAND, WORCESTER, HOTSPUR, Sir WALTER BLUNT, and Others.

K. Hen. My blood hath been too cold and temperate, Unapt to stir at these indignities,

8

-shall I falsify men's hopes:] To falsify hope is to exceed hope, to give much where men hoped for little.

This speech is very artfully introduced to keep the prince from appearing vile in the opinion of the audience; it prepares them for his future reformation; and, what is yet more valuable, exhibits a natural picture of a great mind offering excuses to itself, and palliating those follies which it can neither justify nor forsake.

And you have found me; for, accordingly,
You tread upon my patience: but, be sure,
I will from henceforth rather be myself,

Mighty, and to be fear'd, than my condition;
Which hath been smooth as oil, soft as young down,
And therefore lost that title of respect,

Which the proud soul ne'er pays, but to the proud.

Wor. Our house, my sovereign liege, little deserves The scourge of greatness to be used on it;

And that same greatness too which our own hands
Have holp to make so portly.

North. My lord, ——

K. Hen. Worcester, get thee gone, for I see † danger And disobedience in thine eye: O, sir,

Your presence is too bold and peremptory,
And majesty might never yet endure
The moody frontier1 of a servant brow.

You have good leave 2 to leave us; when we need
Your use and counsel, we shall send for you.

You were about to speak.

[Exit WORCESTER.

[TO NORTH.

Yea, my good lord.

North.
Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded,
Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took,
Were, as he says, not with such strength denied,
As is deliver'd to your majesty:

Either envy, therefore, or misprision

Is guilty of this fault, and not my son.
Hot. My liege, I did deny no prisoners.

9 I will from henceforth rather be myself,

Mighty, and to be fear'd, than my condition;] i. e. I will from henceforth rather put on the character that becomes me, and exert the resentment of an injured king, than still continue in the inactivity and mildness of my natural disposition.

66

ተ I do see"- MALONE.

The moody frontier -] Frontier was anciently used for forehead.

2 You have good leave ] i. e. our ready assent.

A

But, I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage, and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my sword,
Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly dress'd,
Fresh as a bridegroom; and his chin, new reap'd,
Show'd like a stubble-land at harvest-home;
He was perfumed like a milliner;

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held
A pouncet-box 3, which ever and anon

He gave his nose, and took't away again;-
Who, therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in snuff: 4- and still he smil'd and talk'd;
And, as the soldiers bore dead bodies by,
He call'd them-untaught knaves, unmannerly
To bring a slovenly unhandsome corse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.

With many holiday and lady terms

He question'd me; among the rest, demanded
My prisoners, in your majesty's behalf.

I then, all smarting, with my wounds being cold,
To be so pester'd with a popinjay,

5

Out of my grief and my impatience,

Answer'd neglectingly, I know not what;

He should, or he should not;

for he made me mad,

To see him shine so brisk, and smell so sweet,
And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman,

Of guns, and drums, and wounds, (God save the mark!)
And telling me, the sovereign'st thing on earth
Was parmaceti, for an inward bruise;

And that it was great pity, so it was,

That villainous salt-petre should be digg'd

A pouncet-box,] A small box for musk or other perfumes then in fashion: the lid of which, being cut with open work, gave it its name; from poinsoner, to prick, pierce, or engrave.

4 Took it in snuff:] Snuff is equivocally used for anger, and a powder taken up the nose.

6

To be so pester'd with a popinjay,] i. e. a parrot.

grief-] i. e. pain.

Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly; and, but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a soldier.
This bald unjointed chat of his, my lord,
I answer'd indirectly, as I said;
And, I beseech you, let not his report
Come current for an accusation,

Betwixt my love and your high majesty.

Blunt. The circumstance consider'd, good my lord, Whatever Harry Percy then had said,

To such a person, and in such a place,
At such a time, with all the rest re-told,
May reasonably die, and never rise
To do him wrong, or any way impeach
What then he said, so he unsay it now.

K. Hen. Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners;
But with proviso, and exception, —

That we, at our own charge, shall ransome straight
His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;

1

Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betray'd
The lives of those that he did lead to fight
Against the great magician, damn'd Glendower;
Whose daughter, as we hear, the earl of March
Hath lately married. Shall our coffers then
Be emptied, to redeem a traitor home?
Shall we buy treason? and indent with fears, 7
When they have lost and forfeited themselves?
No, on the barren mountains let him starve;
For I shall never hold that man my friend,
Whose tongue shall ask me for one penny cost
To ransome home revolted Mortimer.

Hot. Revolted Mortimer! ·

He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,

But by the chance of war;

To prove that true, Needs no more but one tongue for all those wounds,

7

and indent with fears,] i. e. bargain and article with fears.

Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took,
When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,

In single opposition, hand to hand,

He did confound the best part of an hour

8

In changing hardiment with great Glendower:

Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink, 9

Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood;
Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks,
Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds,
And hid his crisp head1 in the hollow bank
Blood-stained with these valiant combatants.
Never did bare and rotten policy

Colour her working with such deadly wounds;
Nor never could the noble Mortimer
Receive so many, and all willingly :

Then let him not be slander'd with revolt.

K. Hen. Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him,

He never did encounter with Glendower;

I tell thee,

He durst as well have met the devil alone,
As Owen Glendower for an enemy.

+Art not ashamed? But, sirrah, henceforth
Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer :
Send me your prisoners with the speediest means,
Or you
shall hear in such a kind from me

As will displease you. — My lord Northumberland,

8

·hardiment —] An obsolete word, signifying hardiness, bravery, stoutness. Spenser is frequent in his use of it.

9 · three times did they drink,] It is the property of wounds to excite the most impatient thirst. The poet therefore hath with exquisite propriety introduced this circumstance, which may serve to place in its proper light the dying kindness of sir Philip Sydney; who, though suffering the extremity of thirst from the agony of his own wounds, yet, notwithstanding, gave up his own draught of water to a wounded soldier. HENLEY.