Thy maiden sword.

of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, Earl of WestLan. But, soft! who have we bere?

moreland,zithWorcester,und Vernon,prisonete. Did you not tell me, this fat man was dead?

K.Henry. Thusever did rebellion find rebuke. P. Henry. I did; I saw him dead, breathless Ill-spirited Worcester! did we not send grace, and bleeding

5 Pardon, and terms of love to all of you? Upon the ground.

And would'st thou turn our offers contrary? Art thou alive? or is it fantasy

Misuse the tenor of thy kinsman's trust? That plays upon our eye-sight? I pr‘ythee,speak; Three knights upon our party slain to-day, We will not trust our eyes, without our ears: A noble earl, and many a creature else, Thou art not what thou seem'st,

10 Had been alive this hour, Fal. No, that's certain ; I am not a double If, like a christian, thou liadst truly borne man: hout if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Betwixt our armies true intelligence. Jack. There is Perey: [throwing the body down] Wor. What I have done, my safety urg'd me to; it your father will do me any honour, so ; if not, And I embrace this fortune patiently, Jet him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be 15 Since not to be avoided it falls on me. (non too; either earl or duke, I can assure you.

K.Henry. Bear Worcester to the death, and VerP.Henry. Why, Percy I killed myself, and saw

Other offenders we will pause upon.thee dead.

[Exeunt Worcester and Vernon, guarded. Fal. Didst thou?-Lord, lord, how this world How goes the field?

(he saw is given to lying !—I grant you, I was down, and 20 P. Henry. The noble Scot, lord Douglas, when out of breath; and so was he: but we rose both The fortune of the day quite turn’d from him, at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrews- The nobie Percy slain, and all his men bury clock. If I may be believ'd, so : if not, lei Upon the foot of fear,-fled with the rest; them, that should reward valour, bear the sin And, falling from a hill, he was so bruis'd, upon their own heads. I'll take it upon my death, 25 That the pursuers took him. At my tent I gave him this wound in the thigh; if the man The Douglas is; and I beseech your grace, were alive, and would deny it, I would make him I may dispose of him. cat a piece of my sword.

K. Henry. With all heart.

[you Lan. This is the strangest tale that e'er I heard. P. Henry. Then, brother John of Lancaster, to P.Henry. This is the strangest fellow, brother 30 This honourable bounty shall belong: John.

Go to the Douglas, and deliver him Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back: Up to his pleasure, ransomless, and free: For iny part, if a lie may do thee grace,

His valour, shewn upon our crests to-day, I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have. Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds,

[A retreat is sounded. 35 Even in the bosom of our adversaries. The trumpet sounds retreat, the day is ours. K. Henry. Then this remains,—that we divide Come, brother, let's to the highest of the field,

our power. To see what friends are living, who are dead. You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland,

[Ereunt. Towards York shall bend you, with your dearest Fal. I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He 40

speed, that rewards me, heaven reward bim! If I do To meet Northumberland, and the prelateScroop, grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge, and leave Who, as we hear, are busily in arms: sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do. Myself,--and yoii, son Harry, will towards Wales,

[Erit, bearing off the body. To fight with Glendower, and the earl of March. SCENE

145 Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,
V.

Meeting the check of such another day:
Another part of the Field.

And since this business so fair is done,
The trumpets sound. Enter King Henry, Prince! Let us not leave'till all our own be won, [Excunt,

my

a

SECOND

K I N G HENRY IV.

OF

Ι Ν D C Τ

IN DU C TI O N. Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues. My well-known body to anatomize Rum.OPEN your ears; For which of you will Among my houshold: Why is Rumour here? stop

I run before king Harry's victory; The vent of hearing, when loud Rumour speaks Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury, 1, froin the orient to the drooping west, 5 Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops, Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold Quenching the flame of bold rebellion The acts commenced on this ball of earth:

Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean Î Up pon my tongues continual slanders ride;

To speak so true at first? My office is The which in every language I pronounce, To noise abroad,—that Harry Monmouth fell Stuffing the ears of men with false reports. 10 ('nder the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword; I speak of peace, while covert enmity,

And that the king before the Douglas' rage Under the smile of safety, wounds the world: Stoop'd bis anointed head as low as death. And who but Rumour, who but only I,

This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns Make fearful musters, and prepar'd defence; Between that royal field of Shrewsbury Whilst the big year, swoln with some other grief, 15 And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone, Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war, Where Hotspur's father, uld Northumberland, And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe

Lies crafty-sick: the posts come tiring on, Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures; And not a man of them brings other news And of so easy and so plain a stop,

Than they have learn'd of me; From Runour's That the blunt monster with uncounted heads, 120

tongues The still-discordant wavering multitude, They bring smooth comforts false, worse thantrue Can play upon it. But what need I thus

wrongs.

[Erit.

his sons.

WART,

PERSONS REPRESENTE D. King HENRY the Fourth.

(FALSTAFF, Poins, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, HENRY, Prince of Wales, afterwards

Pero, and Page.
King,

SHAllow, and Silence, Country Justices. John, Duke of Bedford,

DAVY, sertant to Shallow, HUMPHREY, Duke of Gloster,

Phang and Snare, tro Serjeants. THOMAS, Duke of Clarence,

MOULDY, Earl of NORTHUMBERLAND,

SHADOW, SCROOP, Archbishop of York,

Recruits. Lord MOWBRAY,

FEEBLE, Lord HASTINGS,

against the

BULLCALF,
Lord BARDOLPH,

King.
Sir John COLEVILE,
TRAVERS,

Lady NORTHUMBERLAND.
MORTON,

Lady Percy. Earl of WARWICK,

Ilostess QUICKLY. Eari of WESTMORELAND,

DOLL TEARSHEET. GOWER,

of the King's party. HARCOURT, Lord Chief Justice,

Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, &c.-SCENE, Engbund.

ACT I.
SCENE 1.

Bard. Tell thou the earl,
Northumberland's Castle at Warkworth. That the lord Bardolph doth attend him here.
The Porter at the Gate; Enter Lord Bardolph. Port. His lordship is walk'd forth into the or-
Burd. WHO
keeps the gate here, ho?-

chard; is

5 Please it your honour, knock but at the gate, Port. What shall I say you are ?

And he himself will answer. *The transactions comprized in this History take up about nine years. The action commences with the account of Hotspur's being defeated and killed; and closes with the death of king Henry IV. and the coronation of king Henry V.

Enter

a

a

Enter Northumberland.

I'll give my barony: never talk of it. Bard. Here comes the earl.

North. Why should the gentleman, that rode North. What news, Lord Bardolph? Every

by Travers, minute now

Give then such instances of loss?
Should be the father of some stratagem:

5 Bard. Who, he ?
The times are wild; contention, like a horse He was some hilding fellow, that had stoln
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose, The horse he rode on; and, upon my life,
And bears down all before him.

Spoke at adventure. Look, here comes morenews. Bard. Noble earl,

Enter Morton. I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury. 10 North. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leal”, North. Good, an heaven will!

Foretells the nature of a tragick voluine; Burd. As good as heart can wish:

So looks the strond, whereon the imperious flood The king is almost wounded to the death; Hath left a witness'd usurpation.And, in the fortune of my lord your son,

Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury? Prince Harry slain outright: and both the Blunts 15 Mort. I ran froin Shrewsbury, my noble lord; Kill'd by the hand of Douglas: young prince John. Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask, And Westinoreland, and Stafford, îled the field; To fright our party; And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk sir John, North. Slow doth my son and brother? Is prisoner to your son: O such a day,

Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek, So fought, so tollow'd, and so fairly won, 20 Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand. Came not, 'till now, to dignify the times,

Even such a nian, so faint, so spiritless, Since Cæsar's fortunes.

So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone“, North. How is this deriv'd?

Drew Priain's curtain in the dead of night, Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury? And would have told him, halfhis Troy was burn'd: Burd. I spake with one, my lord, that came 25 But Priam found the fire, ere he his tongue, from thence;

And I my Percy's death, ere thou report'st it. A gentleman well bred, and of good name, This would'st thou say,-Yourson did thus, and thus; That freely rendered me these news for true. Your brother, thus; so fought the noble Douglas; North. Here comes my servant Travers, whom Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds : I sent

30 But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed, On Tuesday last to listen after news.

Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise, Bard. My lord, I over-rode him on the way; Ending with—brother, son, and all are dead. And he is furnish'd with no certainties,

Mort. Douglas is living, and your brother, yet: More than he haply may retail from me.

But for my lord your son,
Enter Travers.

135 North. Why, he is dead.
North, Now, Trayers, what good tidings come See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath!

He, that but fears the thing he would not know, Tra. My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back Hath, by instinct, knowledge from other's eyes, With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd, That, what he fear'd is chanc'd. Yet speak, Morton; Out-rode me. After him, came, spurring hard, 40 Tell thou thy earl, his divination lies ; A gentleman almost forspent' with speed, And I will take it as a sweet disgrace, That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloody'd horse: And make thee rich for doing me such wrong. He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him

Mort. You are too great to be by me gainsaid: I did demand, what news from Shrewsbury. Your spirit is too true, your fears ton certain. Ile told me, that rebellion had bad luck, 145 North. Yet, forallthis, say not that Percy's dead. And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold: I see a strange confession in thine eye: With that, he gave his able horse the head, Thou shak'st thy head; and holdst it fear', or sin, And, bending forward, struck his armed heels To speak the truth. If he be slain, say so: Against the panting sides of his poor jade? The tongue offends not, that reports his death: ['p to the rowel-head; and, starting so, 50 And he dotlı sin, that doth belie the dead; He seem'd in running to devour the way, Not he, which says the dead is not alive. Staving no longer question.

Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
North. Ha! Again,

Hath but a losing office; and his tongue
Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold? Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
Of Hotspur, coldspur? that rebellion

55 Remember'd knolling a departing friend. Had met ill luck

Bard. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. Bard. My lord, I'll tell you what;

Jort. I am sorry, I should force you to believe If my young lord your son have not the day, That, which I would to heaven I had not seen: Upon mine honour, for a silken point'

But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state, To forspend is to waste, to exhaust. * Jade seems anciently to have signified that we now call a hackney; a bcast employed in drudgery, opposed to a horse kept for show, or to be rid by its master. Poor jade here means the horse wearied with his journey. A point is a string tagged, or lace. * For hilderling, i. e. base, degenerate. 5 Mr. Steevens observes, that in the time of our poet, the title-page to an elegy, as well as every intermediate leaf, was totally blank. • i. e. sofur gone in woe. Four fur danger.

Reud'ting

with you?

Rend'ring faint quittance', wearied and out- To stormy passion, must perforoe decay, breath'd,

[down You cast the event of war, my noble lord, To Harry Moninouth ; whose swift wrath beat And summ’dtheaccountofchance, before you said, -The never-daunted Percy to the earth,

Let us make head. It was your pre-surmise, From whence with life he never more sprung up. 5 That, in the dole of blows your son might drop: In few, his death (whose spirit lent a fire

You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge Even to the dullest peasant in his camp)

More likely to fall in, than to get o'er : Being bruited once, took fire and heat away You were advis'd his flesh was capable From the best temper'd courage in his troops: Of wounds, and scars; and that his forward spirit For from his metal was his party steeld; 10 Would litt him where inost trade of danger rangd; Which once in him abated', all the rest

Yet did you say,-Go forth; and none of this, Turn’d on themselves, like dull and heavy lead. Though strongly apprehended, could restrain And as the thing that's heavy in itself,

The stiff-born action: What hath then befallen, l'pon enforcement, flies with greatest speed;

Or what hath this bold enterprize brought forth,
So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss, 15 More than that being which was like to be
Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear, Burd. We all, that are engaged to this loss,
That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim, Knew that we ventur'd on such dangerous sease
Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety, That, if we wrought out life, 'twas ten to one:
Fly from the tield: then was that noble Worcester And yet we ventur’d, for the gain propos'd
Too soon ta'en prisoner: and that furious Scot, 20 Choak'd the respect of likely peril fear'd;
The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword, And, since we are o'erset, veinture again.
Had three times slain the appearance of the king: Corne, we will all put forth ; body, and goode.
'Gan vail his stomach', and did grace the shame Mort. 'Tis more than time: And, my most
Of those that turn'd their backs; and, in his Higlit,

noble lord,
Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all 25 I hear for certain, and do speak the truth,-
Is,-that the king hath won; and hath sent out The gentle archbishop of York is up,
A speedy power, to encounter you, my lord, With well appointed powers; he is a man,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster,

Who with a double surety binds his followers. And Westmoreland: this is the news at full. My lord your son had only but the corps,

North. For this Ishall have time enough to mourn. 30 But shadows, and the shews of men, to night;
In poison there is physick; and these news For that same word, rebellion, did divide
Having been well, that would have made me sick, The action of their bodies from their souls;
Being sick, have in some measure made me well: And they did fight with queasiness, constrain'd,
And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints, As men drink potions; that their weapons only
Like strengthless hinges, buckle* under lite, 35 Seem'd on our side, but for their spirits and souls,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire

This word, rebellion, it had troze them up,
Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs, As fish are in a pond: But now the bishop
Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief, Turns insurrection to religion:
Are thrice themselves: hence therefore, thou nice. Suppos’d sincere and holy in his thoughts,
crutch;

40 He's follow'd both with body and with mind; A scaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel,

And doth enlarge his rising with the blood Must glovethis hand: and hence, thou sicklyquoif; Offairking Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret stones: 'Thou art a guard too wanton for the head, Derives from heaven his quarrel, and his cause; Which princes, flush'd with conquest, aiın to hit. Tells them, he doth bestride a bleeding land“, Now bind my brows with iron : And approach 45Gasping for life under great Bulingbroke: The rugged'st hour that time and spight dare bring, And more and less' dojlock to follow him. To'frown upon the enrag’d Northumberland! North. I knew of this before ; but, to speak Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not nature's hand

truth, Kerp the wild flood confin’d! let order die! This present grief had wip'd it from my mind. And let this world no longer be a stage, 5. Go in with me; and counsel every man To feed contention in a lingering act;

The aptest way for safety, and revenge: But let one spirit of the first-born Cain

Get posts, and letters, and make friends with speed; Reign in all bosoins, that, each heart being set Never so few, and never yet more need. [Ere. On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,

SCE E II. And darkness be the burier of the dead! (my lord: 55

A street in London. Bard. This strained passion doth you wrong,

Enter Sir John Falstaff, with his page bearing Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour.

his sword and buckler. Mort. The lives of all your loving coinplices Fal. Şirrah, you giant! what says the doctor Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er to my water?

Quittance is return. By faint quittance is meant a faint return of blows. >j. e. reduced to a lower temper, or, as it is usually called, let down. i. e. began to fall his courage, to let his spirits sink under bis fortune. *i. é, bend, yield to pressure. The dole of blows is the distribution of blows; dole originally signifying the portion of alms (consisting either of meat or money) given away at the cloor of a nobleman. • That is, stands over his country to defend her as she lies bleeding on the ground. it. e. greater and liss.

Page

5

Page. He said, sir, the water itself was a good ja horse in Smithfield : If I could get me but a wife healthy water: but, for the party that owed it, he in the stews, I were mann'd, hors'd, and wir'd. might have more diseases than he knew for.

Enter the Lord Chief Justice, and Sertants. Fal. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird' at Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that comme: The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, 5 mitted the prince for striking him about Barman, is not able to invent any thing that tends to

dolph. laughter, inore than I invent, orisinvented on me: Ful. Wait close, I will not see him. I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that Ch. Just. What's he that goes there? -wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee, Serv. Falstati, an't please your lordship. like a sow, that hath overwhelmed all her litter 10 Ch. Just. He that was in question for the robbut one. If the prince put thee into my service bery? for any other reason then to set me off, why then I Serv. Ile, my lord: but he hath since done have no judgment. Thou whoresonomandrake, good service at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is thou art litter to be worn in my cap, than to wait now going with some charge to the lord John of at my heels. I was never mann'd' with an agale 15 Lancaster. 'till now; but I will neither set you in gold nor Ch. Just. What, to York: Call hiin back silver, but in vile apparel, and send you back again again. to your master, for a jewel; the juvenal, the Sero. Sir John Falstaff! prince your master, whose cirin is not yet fledg'u. Fal. Boy, tell him I am deaf. I will sooner have a beard grow in the palm of my 20 Puge. You must speak louder, my master is hand, than he shall get one on his cheek; yet be deaf. will not stick to say, his face is a face-royal. Hea- Ch. Just. I am sure he is, to the hearing of any ven may finish it when he will

, it is not a hair thing good.--Go, pluck him by the elbow ; I a:niss yet: he may keep it still as a face-royal, for must speak with him. a barber shall never earn sixpence ont of ii'; and 25 Serv. Sir John, yet he will be crowing, as if he had writ manerer Ful. What! a young knave, and beg! Is there since hi; father was a batchelor. He may keep his not wars? is there not employment? Doth not own grace, but he is almost out of mine, I can as. the king lack subjects? do not the rebels want sure him.- -Whatsaid master Dombledon about soldiers? Though it be a shame to be on any side the sattin for my short cloak, and slops? 30 but one, it is a worse shame to beg than to be on

Page. He said, sir, you should procure bim bet- the worst side, were it worse than the name of ter assurance than Bardolph: he would not take rebellion can tell how to make it. his bond and yours; he lik'd not the security. Sero. You mistake me, sir.

Fal. Let him be damn'd like the glutton: may Fal. Why, sir, did I say you were an honest his tongue be hotter !-A whoreson Achitophel ! 35 man? Setting my knighthood and iny soldiership a rascally yea-forsooth knave! to bear a gentle aside, I had lied in my throat if I had said so. manin hånd', and then stand upon security! - The Serv. I pray you, sír, then set your knighthood whoreson sinooth-pates do now wear nothing but and your soldiership aside; and give me leave to high shoes, and bunches of keys at their girdles; tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am and if a man is thorough with them' in honest 40 any other than an honest man. taking up, then they must stand upon-security. I Fal. I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth, that which grows to me! If thou get'st any leave as offer to stop it with security. Llooh'd he should of me, hang me; if thou tak’st leave, thou wert have sent me two-and-twenty yards of sattin, as 1 better be hang'd: You hunt-counter", hence! ain a true knight, and he sends ine security. Well, 45 avaunt! be may sleep in security; for be hath the horn of Sero. Sir, my lord would speak with you. abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines Ch. Just. Sir

John Falstaif, a word with you. through it: and yet cannot he see, though he have Ful. My good lord !–God give your lordship his own lanthorn to light him.- Where's good time of day. I am glad to see your lordship Bardolph

50 abroad: I heard say your lordship was sick: I Page. Ilo's gone into Smithfield to buy your hope, your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your vi orship a horse.

lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath Fal. I bouglit bin in Paul's', and he'll buy me lyet some smack of age in yot, some relish of the

'i. e. to gibe. ? Mundrake is a root supposed to have the shape of a man. 3 That is, I never before liad an agate for my man. Our author alludes to the little figures cut in agates and other hard stones, for seals; and therefore l'alstaff says, I will set you neithur in gold nor silver. *i. e. the young min.' Mr. Steevens thinks, “ this quibbling allusion is to the English real, rial, or royal; and that the poet seems to mean, that a barber can no more earn sixpence by his face-royal, than by the face stamped on the coin called a royal; the one requiring as little shaving as the other.”

6 That is, to keep a gentleman in expectation. "To be thorough seems to be the same with the present phrase to be in with (in debt) a tradesman. * At that time the resort of idle people, cheats, and knights of the post. This judge was Sir William Gascoigne, chief justice of the king's-bench. lle died December, 17, 1413, and was buried in Harwood church, in Yorkshire. That is, blunderer.

7

10