Lives so in hope, as in an early spring

We see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit,
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair,
That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build,5
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection:
Which if we find outweighs ability,

What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least, desist

6

To build at all? Much more, in this great work,
(Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up,) should we survey

The plot of situation, and the model;
Consent upon a sure foundation ;7

This passage is allowed on all hands to be corrupt, but a slight alteration will, I apprehend, restore the true reading:

Yes, if this present quality of war

Induc'd the instant action. HENLEY.

Mr. M. Mason has proposed the same reading. STEEVens. in this present quality of war;] This and the following nineteen lines appeared first in the folio. That copy reads:

Yes, if this present &c.

I believe the old reading is the true one, and that a line is lost; but have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, because it *makes sense. The punctuation now introduced appears to me preferable to that of the old edition, in which there is a colon after the word action.

Bardolph, I think, means to say, "Indeed the present action (our cause being now on foot, war being actually levied,) lives," &c. otherwise the speaker is made to say, in general, that all causes once on foot afford no hopes that may securely be relied on; which is certainly not true. MALONE.

5

When we mean to build,] Whoever compares the rest of this speech with St. Luke, xiv. 28, &c. will find the former to have been wrought out of the latter. HENLEY.

6

at least,] Perhaps we should read-at last.

STEEVENS.

7 Consent upon

a sure foundation;] i. e. agree.

So, in As

Question surveyors; know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his opposite; or else,
We fortify in paper, and in figures,
Using the names of men, instead of men:
Like one, that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost
A naked subject to the weeping clouds,
And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.

HAST. Grant, that our hopes (yet likely of fair birth,)

Should be still-born, and that we now possess'd
The utmost man of expectation;

I think, we are a body strong enough,
Even as we are, to equal with the king.

BARD. What! is the king but five and twenty thousand?

HAST. To us, no more; nay, not so much, lord Bardolph.

For his divisions, as the times do brawl,

Are in three heads: one power against the French,"
And one against Glendower; perforce, a third
Must take up us: So is the unfirm king

In three divided; and his coffers sound
With hollow poverty and emptiness.

ARCH. That he should draw his several strengths together,

you like it, Act V. sc. i: "For all your writers do consent that ipse is he." Again, ibid. sc. ii: “consent with both, that we may enjoy each other." STEEVENS.

8

3-one power against the French,] During this rebellion of Northumberland and the Archbishop, a French army of twelve thousand men landed at Milford Haven, in Wales, for the aid of Owen Glendower. See Holinshed, p. 531.

STEEVENS.

And come against us in full puissance,
Need not be dreaded.

HAST.

If he should do so,"

He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh Baying him at the heels: never fear that.

BARD. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hither?

HAST. The duke of Lancaster, and Westmoreland:1

Against the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth:
But who is substituted 'gainst the French,
I have no certain notice.

• If he should do so,] This passage is read, in the first edition, thus: If he should do so, French and Welsh he leaves his back unarmed, They baying him at the heels, never fear that. These lines, which were evidently printed from an interlined copy not understood, are properly regulated in the next edition, and are here only mentioned to show what errors may be suśpected to remain. JOHNSON.

I believe the editor of the folio did not correct the quarto rightly; in which the only error probably was the omission of the word to:

To French and Welsh he leaves his back unarm❜d,
They baying him at the heels: never fear that.

MALONE.

This is an anachronism.

The duke of Lancaster, &c.] Prince John of Lancaster was not created a duke till the second year of the reign of his brother, King Henry V. MALONE.

This mistake is pointed out by Mr. Steevens in another place. It is not, however, true, that "King Henry IV. was himself the last person that ever bore the title of Duke of Lancaster," as Prince Henry actually enjoyed it at this very time, and had done so from the first year of his father's reign, when it was conferred upon him in full parliament. Rot. Parl. 111, 428, 532. Shakspeare was misled by Stowe, who, speaking of Henry's first parliament, says, "-then the King rose, and made his eldest son Prince of Wales, &c. his second sonne was there made Duke of Lancaster." Annales, 1631, p. 323. He should there fore seem to have consulted this author between the times of finishing the last play, and beginning the present. RITSON.

ARCH.

Let us on;2

And publish the occasion of our arms.

The commonwealth is sick of their own choice,
Their over-greedy love hath surfeited :-
An habitation giddy and unsure

Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
O thou fond many!3 with what loud applause
Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou would'st have him be?
And being now trimm'd in thine own desires,
Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him,
That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up.
So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge
Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard;

And now thou would'st eat thy dead vomit up,
And howl'st to find it. What trust is in these

times?

They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die,
Are now become enamour'd on his grave:
Thou, that threw'st dust upon his goodly head,
When through proud London he came sighing on
After the admired heels of Bolingbroke,
Cry'st now, O earth, yield us that king again,
And take thou this! O thoughts of men accurst!
Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst.

2 Let us on; &c.] This excellent speech of York was one of the passages added by Shakspeare after his first edition. POPE. This speech first appeared in the folio. MALONE.

30 thou fond many!] Many or meyny, from the French mesnie, a multitude. DOUCE.

4

-in thine own desires,] The latter word is employed here as a trisyllable. MALONE.

I do not perceive that a trisyllable is wanted on this occasion, as any dissyllable will complete the verse; for instance:

And being now trimm'd in thine own surtout.

Desires, like surtout, is a word of two syllables. STEEVENS.

:

MoWB. Shall we go draw our numbers, and set

on?

HAST. We are time's subjects, and time bids be

gone.

[Exeunt.

ACT II. SCENE I.

London. A Street.

Enter Hostess; FANG, and his Boy, with her ;
SNARE following.

and

HOST. Master Fang, have you enter'd the action? FANG. It is entered.

HOST. Where is your yeoman? Is it a lusty yeoman? will a' stand to't?

FANG. Sirrah, where's Snare?

HOST. O lord, ay: good master Snare.

SNARE. Here, here.

FANG. Snare, we must arrest sir John Falstaff. HOST. Yea, good master Snare; I have entered him and all.

SNARE. It may chance cost some of us our lives, for he will stab.

HOST. Alas the day! take heed of him; he 'stabbed me in mine own house, and that most beastly: in good faith, a' cares not what mischief he doth,

Where is your yeoman?] A bailiff's follower was, in our author's time, called a serjeant's yeoman. MALone.