i

The First Part of HENRY IV.

ACT I. SCENE. I.

*

Peace after Civil War.

SoFi

O fhaken as we are, fo wan with care, Find we a time for frighted peace to pant, And breathe fhort-winded accents of new broils To be commenc'd in ftronds a far remote.

No more the thirsty entrance of this foil (1) Shall damp her lips with her own childrens' blood:

No

(1) Shall damp.] . e. Wet, moiften: the old editions, and with them the Oxford, read dawb; there feems to be fomething VOL. III.

B

greatly

No more fhall trenching war channel her fields,
Nor bruife her flowrets with the armed hoofs
Of hoftile paces. Thofe oppofed files,
Which like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
All of one nature, of one substance bred,
Did lately meet in the inteftine fhock
And furious close of civil butchery,
Shall now, in mutual, well-befeeming ranks,
March all one way; and be no more oppos'd
Against acquaintance, kindred and allies:
The edge of war like an ill-fheathed knife,
No more
fhafi cut his mafter.

King Henry's Character of Percy, and of his Son Prince Henry.

Yea there thou mak'ft me fad and mak'st me fin
In

envy, that my lord Northumberland

Should be the father of fo bleft a fon:
A fon who is the theme of honour's tongue,
Amongst a grove the very straiteft plant,
Who is fweet fortune's mirror and her pride:
Whilst I by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and difhonour stain the brow
Of my young Harry..

SCENE III. Prince Henry's Soliloquy.

I know you all, and will a while uphold
The unyok'd humour of your idleness :
Yet herein will I imitate the fun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds

To

greatly like Shakespear in that word, but I have kept damp, as it is generally approv'd. The word files, in the fourth line following, is in the old editions eyes, and thus altered by Mr. Warburton: others read arms. I don't know whether eyes might not be justified, but I think fiks preferable. See UPT. p. 343.

To fmother up his beauty from the world,
That when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may more be wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mifts
Of vapours that did feem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To fport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they feldom 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 fo much fhall I falfify mens' hopes;
And, like bright mettle on a fullen ground,
My reformation glitt'ring o'er my fault,
Shall fhew more goodly and attract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to fet it off.
I'll fo offend, to make offence a skill;
Redeeming time, when inen think least I will,

SCENE IV.

Hotfpur's Defcription of a finical
Courtier.

But I remember when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathlefs and faint, leaning upon my fword;
Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly drefs'd:
Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin, new-reap'd,
Shew'd like a stubble-land at harvest home.
He was perfumed like a millener;
And 'twixt his finger and his thumb, he held
(2) A pouncet-box, which ever and anon

He

(2) Pouncet-box] A fmall box for mufk, or other perfumes then in fashion, the lid of which being cut with open work, gave it its name: from poinfoner, to prick, pierce, or engrave. So fays Mr. Warburton, and then condemns the next lines as a

R 2

tupid

He gave his nofe: (and took't away again;
Who, therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in fnuff). And ftill he smil'd and talk'd:
And as the foldiers bare dead bodies by,
He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a flovenly unhandfome coarse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
With many holiday and lady terms
He queftion'd me; amongst the rest, demanded
My prifoners, in your majefty's behalf.

(3) I then, all fmarting with my wounds, being cold, Out of my grief, and my impatience

To be fo peiter'd with a popinjay,
Anfwer'd neglectingly, I know not what;

He fhould, or fhould not; for he made me mad,
To fee him fhine fo brifk, and smell fo fweet,
And talk fo like a waiting gentlewoman,

Of

guns and drums and wounds; (God fave the mark!) And telling me the fovereign't thing on earth

Was

tupid interlopation of the players: they are certainly not very eafy to be defended, but we find many fuch conceits as thefe in Shakespear.

(3) I then, &c.] When I first read this paffage, I mark'd the lines, as I have printed them, and turning to the ingenious Mr. Edward's Canons of Criticifm (p. 13.) I found he was of opinion, the lines fhould be fo tranfpofed: by this means the fenfe of the paffage is quite clear, and we have no occafion for any alteration." Mr. Warburton in order to make a contradiction in the common reading, and fo make way for his emendation, mifreprefents Hotspur as at this time [when he gave this anfwer] not cold, but hot. It is true, that at the beginning of the fpeech he defcribes himself as

Dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathlefs and faint, &c.-

Then comes in this gay gentleman, and holds him in an idle difcourfe, the heads of which Hotspur gives us; and it is plain by the context, it must have lafted a confiderable while. Now the more he had heated himself in the action, the more when he came to ftand ftill any time would the cold air affect his wounds, &r."