My well-known body to anatomize
Among my houfhold? Why is Rumour here?
I run before king Harry's victory;
Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,

Hath beaten down young Hotfpur, and his troops, Quenching the flame of bold rebellion

Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I
To speak fo true at first? my office is

To noise abroad,—that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's fword;
And that the king before the Douglas' rage
Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,"
Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-fick: the pofts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learn'd of me; From Rumour's

tongues

They bring fmooth comforts falfe, worse than true [Exit.

wrongs.

"And this worm-eaten hold of ragged ftone,] The old copies read-worm-eaten hole. MALONE.

Northumberland had retired and fortified himself in his castle, a place of ftrength in thofe times, though the building might be impaired by its antiquity; and, therefore, I believe our poet

wrote:

And this worm-eaten hold of ragged ftone. THEOBALD, Theobald is certainly right. So, in The Wars of Cyrus, &c. 1594:

"Befieg'd his fortrefs with his men at arms,

"Where only I and that Libanio ftay'd

66

By whom I live. For when the hold was loft," &c.

Again, in King Henry VI. P. III:

"She is hard by with twenty thousand men,

"And therefore fortify your hold, my lord." STEEVENS.

SECOND PART OF

KING HENRY

IV.

ACT I. SCENE I.

The fame.

The Porter before the gate; Enter Lord BARDOLPH.

BARD. Who keeps the gate here, ho?—Where is

the earl?

PORT. What fhall I fay you are?

Tell thou the earl,

BARD.
That the lord Bardolph doth attend him here.

PORT. His lordship is walk'd forth into the or

chard;

Please it your honour, knock but at the gate,

And he himself will answer.

BARD.

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND.

Here comes the earl.

NORTH. What news, lord Bardolph ? every mi

nute now

Should be the father of fome ftratagem:*

fome stratagem:] Some fratagem means here fome great, important, or dreadful event. So, in the third Part of King Henry VI. the father who had killed his fon, fays:

"O pity, God! this miferable age!

"What fratagems, how fell, how butcherly!

"This mortal quarrel daily doth beget!" M. MASON.

The times are wild; contention, like a horfe
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose,
And bears down all before him.

BARD.

Noble earl,

I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.

NORTH. Good, an heaven will!

BARD. As good as heart can wish:The king is almost wounded to the death; And, in the fortune of my lord your fon, Prince Harry flain outright; and both the Blunts Kill'd by the hand of Douglas: young prince John, And Weftmoreland, and Stafford, fled the field; And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk fir John, Is prifoner to your fon: O, fuch a day, So fought, fo follow'd, and fo fairly won, Came not, till now, to dignify the times, Since Cæfar's fortunes!

NORTH. How is this deriv'd? Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury? BARD. I fpake with one, my lord, that came from

thence;

A gentleman well bred, and of good name,
That freely render'd me these news for true.
NORTH. Here comes my fervant Travers, whom
I fent

On Tuesday last to liften after news.

BARD. My lord, I over-rode him on the way; And he is furnish'd with no certainties,

More than he haply may retail from me.

Enter TRAVERS.

NORTH. NOW, Travers, what good tidings come with you?

TRA. My lord, fir John Umfrevile turn'd me
back

With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd,
Out-rode me. After him, came, fpurring hard,
A gentleman almoft forfpent with speed,'
That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse:
He afk'd the way to Chefter; and of him
I did demand, what news from Shrewsbury.
He told me, that rebellion had bad luck,
And that young Harry Percy's fpur was cold:
With that, he gave his able horse the head,
And, bending forward, ftruck his armed heels +
Against the panting fides of his poor jade'
Up to the rowel-head; and, ftarting fo,

3

4

forfpent with Speed,] To forfpend is to wafte, to exhauft. So, in Sir A. Gorges' tranflation of Lucan, B. VII: -crabbed fires forpent with age." STEEVENS. - armed heels-] Thus the quarto, 1600. The folio, 1623, reads-able heels; the modern editors, without authority,agile heels. STEEVENS.

poor jade-] Poor jade is ufed not in contempt, but in compaffion. Poor jade means the horse wearied with his journey. Jade, however, feems anciently to have fignified what we now call a backney; a beaft employed in drudgery, oppofed to a horse kept for fhow, or to be rid by its mafter. So, in a comedy called A' Knack to know a Knave, 1594:

"Befides, I'll give you the keeping of a dozen jades,
"And now and then meat for you and your horfe."

This is faid by a farmer to a courtier. STEEVENS.

Shakspeare, however, (as Mr. Steevens has obferved,) certainly does not use the word as a term of contempt; for King Richard the Second gives this appellation to his favourite horse Roan Barbary, on which Henry the Fourth rode at his coronation : "That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand."

MALONE.

6 — rowel-head;] I think that I have obferved in old prints the rewel of those times to have been only a single spike.