SCENE IV. King Henry the 4th to his Son. Had I fo lavish of my prefence been, is he." Others would say, "Where? which is Bolinbroke ?" That I did pluck allegiance from mens hearts, Even in the prefence of the crowned king. Ne'er seen, but wonder'd at: and so my state, (10) That be, &c.] At pulchrum est digito monstrarier, & dicier bic eft. Perfius. Oh it is brave to be admired, to fee 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; * I saw young Harry, with his beaver on, * 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 : (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, PITT. The (13) The Second Part of HENRY IV. Prologue to the Second Part of Henry IV. From the orient to the drooping west, I Making the wind my post-horfe, ftill unfold The acts commenced on this ball of earth: 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 See Trap. Virg. Æn. 4 Atria turba tenent, &c. (To the cave of fame) New |