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SCENE IV. King Henry the 4th to his Son.

Had I fo lavish of my prefence been,
So common hackney'd in the eyes of men,
So ftale and cheap to vulgar company;
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had ftill kept loyal to possession;
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark, nor likelihood.
But being feldom seen, I could not stir
But, like a comet, I was wonder'd at!
(10) That men would tell their children, " This

is he."

Others would say, "Where? which is Bolinbroke ?"
And then I stole all courtesy from heav'n,
And drest myself in much humility,

That I did pluck allegiance from mens hearts,
Loud shouts and falutations from their mouths,

Even in the prefence of the crowned king.
Thus did I keep my person fresh and new,
My prefence like a robe pontifical,

Ne'er seen, but wonder'd at: and so my state,
Seldom, but sumptuous, shewed like a feaft,
And won, by rarene's, such folemnity.
'The skipping king, he ambled up and down
With shallow jesters, and rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled, and foon burnt: (11) 'scarded his state :

(10) That be, &c.] At pulchrum est digito monstrarier, & dicier bic eft. Perfius.

Oh it is brave to be admired, to fee
The crowd with pointing fingers cry,

t

"That's he."

DRYDEN,

(11) 'Scarded, &c.] i. e. discarded, threw off. This reading is Mr. Warburton's: the old one is, carded: this elifion is not unusual with the poets; frequently amongst the older ones we have fueign for difdain, .

B 5

Mingled

:

Mingled his royalty with carping fools;
Had his great name profaned with their scorns;
And gave his countenance, against his name,
To laugh with gybing boys, and stand the push
Of every beardless, vain comparative:
Grew a companion to the common streets,
Enfeoff'd himself to popularity:
That being daily swallow'd by mens eyes,
They furfeited with honey, and began
To loath the taste of sweetness; whereof a little
More than a little is by much too much.
So when he had occafion to be seen,
He was but, as the cuckow is in June,
Heard, not regarded: seen, but with fuch eyes,
As, fick and blunted with community,
Afford no extraordinary gaze;
Such as is bent on fun-like majesty,
When it shines feldom in admiring eyes :
But rather drowz'd, and hung their eye-lids down,
Slept in his face, and rendred such afpect
As cloudy men use to their adversaries,
Being with his presence glutted, gorg'd, and full.

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*

I saw young Harry, with his beaver on,
His cuiffes on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,
Kife from the ground like feather'd Mercury
And vaulted with fuch ease into his feat,
As if an angel dropt down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery pegaffus,
And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

* On] Others read up; and there seems great probability in it,

ACT

ACT V.

SCENE II.

!

Falstaff's Catechism.

(12) Well, 'tis no matter, honour pricks me on. But how, if honour prick me off, when I come on? How then? Can honour set to a leg? No; or an arm ? no: or take away the grief of a wound? No: Honour hath no skill in surgery then? No: what is honour ? a word. What is the word honour? air: a trim reckoning. Who hath it? he that dy'd a Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No: doth he hear it? No? is it insenfible then? yea, to the dead: but will it not live with the living? No: why? detraction will not fuffer it. Therefore, I'll none of it; honour is a meer scutcheon; and so ends my catechifm.

(12) Well, &c.] In the king and no king of Beaumont and Fletcher, we have a character, plainly drawn from Shakespear's Falstaff; how short it is, and must neceffarily be of the original, I need not observe. "I think, fays Mr. Theobald, in his first note on that play, the character of Beffus must be allowed in general a fine copy from Shakespear's inimitable Falstaff. He is a coward, yet wou'd fain fet up for a hero oftentatious without any grain of merit to fupport his vain-glory: a lyar throughout, to exalt his assumed qualifications; and lewd, without any countenance from the ladies to give him an umbrage for it. As to his wit and humour, the precedence must certainly be adjudg'd to Falstaff, the great original." The authors, in the third act, have introduced him talking on the same subject with Falstaff here ; though not in the fame excellent manner, (an account of which see in Mr. Upton's observations on Shakespear, p. 113.) Beffus. "They talk of fame, I have gotten it in the wars, and will afford any man a reasonable penny-worth; fome will fay, they could be content to have it, but that it is to be atchiev d with danger; but my opinion is otherwise for if I might stand still in cannon-proof, and have fame fall upon me, I would refuse it; my reputation came principally by thinking to run away, which no body knows but Mardonius, and, I think, he conceals it to anger me, &c." The falfe and foolish notions of fame and honour are no where, that I know of, so well and juftly eenfured, as in Mr. Wollaston's religion of Nature delineated, fect 5. p. 116. printed in 1726.

SCENE

SCEHE V. Life demands Action.

(13) O gentlemen, the time of life is short :
To spend that shortness basely were too long,
Tho' life did ride upon a dial's point,
Still ending at th' arrival of an hour.

(13) O gentlemen, &c.] See All's well that ends well. Act 5. Scene 4, and the note. Virgil beautifully observes Stat fua cuique dies, breve & irreparabile tempus Omnibus eft vitæ ; fed famam extendere factis Hoc virtutis opus.

Æn. 10.

To all that breathe is fixt th' appointed date,
Life is but short, and circumfcrib'd by fate:
'Tis virtue's work by fame to stretch the span,
Whose scanty limit bounds the days of man.

PITT.

The

(13)

The Second Part of HENRY IV.

Prologue to the Second Part of Henry IV.
RUMOUR.

From the orient to the drooping west,

I Making the wind my post-horfe, ftill unfold

The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
(1) Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,

The

(1) Upon my, &c.] In the stage-direction, rumour is said to enter painted full of tongues. Shakespear, in his description of rumour, had doubtless a view either to Virgil's celebrated description of fame, or Ovid's description of her cave in the 12th book of his metamorphoses: I shall give the reader part of both: and in as close a tranflation as possible, that he may judge the better.

Monftrum, borrendum, &c.

A monster, hideous, vast; as many plumes
As in her body stick, so many eyes
Towards waking (wondrous to relate)
There grew beneath; as many babbling tongues,
And lift'ning ears as many: By night she flies
Noisy thro' shades obscure, 'twixt earth and heav'n
Nor are her eyes by pleasing slumber clos'd;
Watchful and prying round, by day, she sits
On fome high palace top, or lofty tow'r,
And mighty towns alarms: nor less intent
On spreading falshood, than reporting truth. &

See Trap. Virg. Æn. 4

Atria turba tenent, &c.
*Hither in crowds the vulgar come and go;
Millions of rumours here fly to and fro:
Lies mixt with truth, reports that vary still,
The itching ears of folks unguarded fill :
They tell the tale; the tale in telling grows,
And each relater adds to what he knows;
Rash error, light credulity are here,
And causelefs transport and ill-grounded fear;

(To the cave of fame)

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