a bait for the old pike, I see no reason, in the law | Had not been here, to dress the ugly form
of nature, but I may snap at him. Let time shape, Of base and bloody insurrection
and there an end.

[Exit. With your fair honours. You, lord archbishop,-
Whose see is by a civil peace maintain'd;
Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd:
Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor❜d;
Whose white investments figure innocence,
The dove and very blessed spirit of peace,-
Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself,
Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace,
Turning your books to graves," your ink to blood,
Into the harsh and boist'rous tongue of war?
To a loud trumpet, and a point of war?
Your pens to lances; and your tongue divine

West. You speak, Lord Mowbray, now you know Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.

Mowb. Ay, but our valuation shall be such,
That every slight and false-derived cause,
Yea, every idle, nice," and wanton reason,

Who knows, on whom fortune would then have Shall, to the king, taste of this action:

But, if your father had been victor there,
He ne'er had borne it out of Coventry:
For all the country, in a general voice,
Cried hate upon him; and all their prayers, and
love,

Were set on Hereford, whom they doted on,
And bless'd, and grac'd indeed, more than the king.
But this is mere disgression from my purpose.-
Here come I from our princely general,

To know your griefs; to tell you from his grace,
That he will give you audience: and wherein
It shall appear that your demands are just,
You shall enjoy them; every thing set off,
That might so much as think you enemies.
Mowb. But he hath forc'd us to compel this offer;
And it proceeds from policy, not love."

West. Mowbray, you overween, to take it so;
This offer comes from mercy, not from fear;
For, lo! within a ken our army lies;
Upon mine honour, all too confident
To give admittance to a thought of fear.
Our battle is more full of names than yours,
Our men more perfect in the use of arms,
Our armour all as strong, our cause the best;
Then reason wills, our hearts should be as good:-
Say you not then, our offer is compell'd.

something about redress of public wrongs should have 8 The old copy reads confin'd. Johnson proposed to fallen from the archbishop. Johnson proposed to read read consign'd; which must be understood in the Latin quarrel instead of brother in the first line, and explain-sense, consignatus, signed, sealed, ratified, confirmaed the passage much as I have done. I have merely ed; which was indeed the old meaning according to the superadded the line, which seems to me necessary to dictionaries. Shakspeare uses consign and consigning complete the sense, and make Westmoreland's reply in other places in this sense. intelligible.

1 The thirty-seven following lines are not in the quarto.

2 i. e. their lances fixed in the rest for the encounter. 3 It has been already observed that the beaver was a moveable piece of the helmet, which lifted up or down, to enable the bearer to drink or breathe more freely. The perforated part of the helmets, through which they could see to direct their aim. Visiere, Fr. 5 Truncheon.

Be it so. Here is return'd my lord of Westmoreland. Re-enter WESTMORELAND.

West. The prince is here at hand: Pleaseth your lordship,

To meet his grace just distance 'tween our armies? Mowb. Your grace of York, in God's name then set forward.

come.

Arch. Before, and greet his grace: my lord, we [Exeunt. SCENE II. Another Part of the Forest. Enter, from one side, MoWBRAY, the Archbishop, HASTINGS, and others: from the other side, PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, WESTMORELAND, Officers, and Attendants.

P. John. You are well encounter'd here, my
cousin Mowbray :-

Good day to you, gentle lord archbishop ;-
And so to you, Lord Hastings,-and to all.-
My lord of York, it better show'd with you,
When that your flock, assembled by the bell,
Encircled you, to hear with reverence
Your exposition on the holy text;
Than now to see you here an iron man,1
Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,
Turning the word to sword, and life to death.
That man that sits within a monarch's heart,
And ripens in the sunshine of his favour,
Would he abuse the countenance of the king,
A'ack, what mischiefs might he set abroach,
In shadow of such greatness! With you, lord

bishop,

It is even so:-Who hath not heard it spoken,
How deep you were within the books of God?"
To us, the speaker in his parliament:
To us, the imagin'd voice of God himself:
The very spener, and intelligencer,
Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven,
And our dull workings:3 O, who shall believe,
But you misune the reverence of your place;
Employ the countenance and grace of heaven,
As a false favourite doth his prince's name,
In deeds dishonourable? You have taken up ;4
Under the counterfeited zeal of God,
The subjects of the substitute, my father;
And, both against the peace of heaven and him,
Have here up-swarm' them.

Arch.

Good, my lord of Lancaster,
I am not here against your father's peace:
But, as I told my lord of Westmoreland,
The time misorder'd doth, in common sense,
Crowd us, and crush us, to this monstrous form,
To hold our safety up. I sent your grace
The parcels and particulars of our grief;

Mowb. If not, we ready are to try our fortunes
To the last man.
Hast.

And though we here fall down,
We have supplies to second our attempt;

If they miscarry, theirs shall second them:
And so, success of mischief shall be born;
And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up,
Whiles England shall have generation.

P. John. You are too shallow, Hastings, much
too shallow,

To sound the bottom of the after-times.

West. Pleaseth your grace to answer them di

rectly,

How far-forth do you like their articles?

P. John. I like them all, and do allow them well.
And swear here by the honour of my blood,
My father's purposes have been mistook;
And some about him have too lavishly
Wrested his meaning, and authority.-
Upon my soul, they shall. If this may please you,
My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redress'd;
Discharge your powers unto their several counties,
As we will ours: and here, between the armies,
Let's drink together friendly, and embrace;
That all their eyes may bear those tokens home,
Of our restored love and amity.

Arch. I take your princely word for these re
dresses.

P. John. I give it you, and will maintain my word; And thereupon I drink unto your grace.

Hast. Go, captain [To an Officer,] and deliver to the army

This news of peace; let them have pay, and part;
I know, it will well please them; Hie thee, captain.
[Exit Officer
Arch. To you, my noble lord of Westmoreland.
West. I pledge your grace: And, if you knew
what pains

I have bestow'd to breed this present peace,
You would drink freely: but my love to you
Shall show itself more openly hereafter.
Arch. I do not doubt you.

West.
I am glad of it.--
Health to my lord, and gentle cousin, Mowbray.
Mowb. You wish me health in very happy season;
For I am, on the sudden, something ill.

Arch Against ill chances, men are ever merry ;
But heaviness foreruns the good event.

West. Therefore be merry, coz: since sudden

sorrow

Mowb. This had been cheerful, after victory.
Arch. A peace is of the nature of a conquest;
For then both parties nobly are subdued,
And neither party loser.

P. John.
Go, my lord,
And let our army be discharged too.

[Exit WESTMORELAND

The which hath been with scom shov'd from the And, good my lord, so please you, let our trains

With grant of our most just and right desires:
And true obedience of this madness cur'd,
Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.

1 Holinshed says of the Archbishop, that, 'coming
foorth amongst them clad in armour, he encouraged and
pricked them foorth to take the enterprize in hand.'
2 This expression has been adopted by Milton:-
Around him all the sanctities of heaven

Stood thick as stars.'

8 Dull workings are labours of thought.

4 Raised up in arms.

March by us; that we may peruse the men
We should have cop'd withal.

Arch.
Go, good Lord Hastings,
And, ere they be dismiss'd, let them march by.
[Exit HASTINGS,
P. John. I trust, my lords, we shall lie to-night
together.-

6 Alluding to the dragon charmed to rest by the spells of Medea.

7 Succession.

8 Approve.

9 It was Westmoreland who made this deceitful proposal, as appears from Holinshed:- The earl of Westmoreland, using more policie than the rest, said, whereas our people have been long in armour, let them depart home to their woonted trades: In the mean time let us drink togither in signe of agreement, that the people

5 Common sense is the general sense of general on both sides may see it, and know that it is true, that

danger.

we be light at a point.'

Re-enter WESTMORELAND.

Now, cousin, wherefore stands our army still?
West. The leaders, having charge from you to
stand,

Will not go off until they hear you speak.
P. John. They know their duties.

Re-enter HASTINGS.

Hast. My lord, our army is dispers'd already: Like youthful steers unyok'd, they take their courses East, west, north, south; or, like a school broke up, Each hurries toward his home, and sporting-place. West. Good tidings, my Lord Hastings; for the

which

I do arrest thee, traitor, of high treason:And you, lord archbishop,-and you, Lord bray,

Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while?
When every thing is ended, then you come :
These tardy tricks of yours will, on my life,
One time or other break some gallows' back.

Fal. I would be sorry, my lord, but it should be thus; I never knew yet, but rebuke and check was the reward of valour. Do you think me a swallow, an arrow, or a bullet? have I, in my poor and old motion, the expedition of thought? I have speeded hither with the very extremest inch of possibility; I have foundered nine score and odd posts: and here, travel-tainted as I am, have, in my pure and immaculate valour, taken Sir John Colevile of the dale, a most furious knight, and valorous enemy: But what of that? he saw me, and yielded; that I Mow-may justly say with the hook-nosed fellow of Rome,' I came, saw, and overcame.

Of capital treason I attach you both.
Mowb. Is this proceeding just and honourable?
West. Is your assembly so?

P. John. It was more of his courtesy than your deserving.

Fal. I know not; here he is, and here I yield him: and I beseech your grace, let it be booked with the rest of this day's deeds; or, by the Lord, I will have it in a particular ballad else, with mine own picture on the top of it, Coleville kissing my foot: To the which course, if I be enforced, if you do not all show like gilt two-pences to me; and I in the clear sky of fame, o'ershine you as much as the full moon doth the cinders of the element,* which show like pins' heads to her; believe not the word of the noble : Therefore let me have right, and

Arch. Will you thus break your faith?
P. John.
I pawn'd thee none
I promis'd you redress of these same grievances,
Whereof you did complain; which, by mine honour,
1 will perform with a most christian care.
But, for you, rebels,-look to taste the due
Meet for rebellion, and such acts as yours.
Most shallowly did you these arms commence,
Fondly' brought here, and foolishly sent hence.-
Strike up our drums, pursue the scatter'd stray;
Heaven, and not we, have safely fought to-day.-let desert mount.
Some guard these traitors to the block of death;
Treason's true bed, and yielder up of breath.

[Exeunt.2 SCENE III. Another Part of the Forest. Alarums: Excursions. Enter FALSTAFF and COLEVILE,

meeting.

Fal. What's your name, sir? of what condition are you and of what place, I pray?

Cole. I am a knight, sir; and my name is Colevile of the dale.

Fal. Well then, Colevile is your name; a knight is your degree; and your place, the dale: Colevile shall still be your name; a traitor your degree; and the dungeon your place,-a place deep enough: so shall you still be Colevile of the dale.

Cole. Are not you Sir John Falstaff?

P. John. Thine's too heavy to mount.
Fal. Let it shine then.

P. John. Thine's too thick to shine.
Fal. Let it do something, my good lord, that may
do me good, and call it what you will.
P. John. Is thy name Colevile ?3

Cole.

It is, my lord
P. John. A famous rebel art thou, Colevile.
Fal. And a famous true subject took him.
Cole. I am, my lord, but as my betters are,
You should have won them dearer than you have.
That led me hither: had they been rul'd by me,

thou, like a kind fellow, gavest thyself away; and
Fal. I know not how they sold themselves: but
thank thee for thee.

I

Re-enter WESTMORELAND

Fal. As good a man as he, sir, whoe'er I am.
Do ye yield, sir? or shall I sweat for you? If I do
sweat, they are drops of thy lovers, and they weep
for thy death therefore rouse up fear and trem-To York, to present execution :6--
bling, and do observance to my mercy.
Cole. I think, you are Sir John Falstaff; and in
that thought, yield me.

P. John. Now, have you left pursu?
West. Retreat is made, and execution stay'd.
P. John. Send Colevile, with his confederates,

Fal. I have a whole school of tongues in this belly of mine; and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name. An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were simply the most active fellow in Europe: My womb, my womb, my womb undoes me.-Here comes our general.

Blunt, lead him hence; and see you guard him sure.
[Exeunt sone with COLEVILE.
hear, the king my father is sore sick:
And now despatch we toward the court, my lords;
Our news shall go before us to his majesty,—
Which, cousin, you shall bear,-to comfort him;
And we with sober speed will follow you.

I

Fal. My lord, I beseech you, give me leave to go through Glostershire: and, when you come to Enter PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, WESTMORE-Court, stand my good lord," 'pray, in your good

now ;

1 i. e. foolishly.

LAND, and others.

[Exit WEST.

report.

P. John. The heat is past, follow no further 6 At the king's coming to Durham the Lord HastCall in the powers, good cousin Westmoreland.-ings, Sir John Colevile of the dale, &c. being convicted of the conspiracy, were there beheaded.'-Hanshed, p. 530. It is to be observed that there are two accounts of the termination of the archbishop of York's conspira cy, both of which are given by Holinshed. He states 2 It cannot but raise some indignation to find this that on the archbishop and earl marshal submitting to horrid violation of faith passed over thus slightly by the the king and to his son Prince John, there present, poet without any note of censure or detestation.-John- their troopes skaled and fledde their wayes; but being son. That Shakspeare followed the historians is no pursued, many were taken, many slain, &c.; the archexcuse; for it is the duty of a poet always to take the bishop and earl marshall were brought to Pomfret to the side of virtue. I had some doubt whether I should re-king, who from thence went to Yorke, whyther the pr tain this reflection upon the poetical justice of Shakspeare; but I have been determined to do so by the hope that it may lead to the discussion of the passage. I would not willingly believe that the poet approved this abominable piece of treachery 3 Cæsar.

5 It appears nounced as the old copies

4 A ludicrous term for the stars. Colevile was designed to be pro'able; it is often spelt Colleville in

soners were also brought, and there beheaded.' It is this last account that Shakspeare has followed, but with some variation; for the names of Colevile and Hastings are not mentioned among those who were beheaded at York.

7 Johnson was so much unacquainted with ancient phraseology as to make difficolties about this phrase, which is one of the most common petitionary forms of our ancestors. Stand my good lord or be my good

P. John. Fare you well, Falstaff: I, in my con- | And draw no swords but what are sanctified.

dition,1

Shall better speak of you than you deserve. [Exit. Fal. I would you had but the wit; 'twere better than your dukedom-Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me: nor a man cannot make him laugh ;—but that's no marvel, he drinks no wine. There's never any of these demure boys come to any proof: for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood, and making many fishmeals, that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness; and then, when they marry, they get wenches: they are generally fools and cowards;-which some of us should be too, but for inflammation. A good sherris sack? hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull, and crudy vapours which environ it makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes; which delivered o'er to the voice (the tongue,) which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherris is,-the warming of the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity and cowardice: but the sherris warms it, and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extreme. It illumineth the face: which, as a beacon, gives warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to arm: and then the vital commoners, and inland petty spirits, muster me all to their captain, the heart; who, great, and puffed up with this retinue, doth any deed of courage; and this valour comes of sherris: So that skill in the weapon is nothing, without sack; for that sets it a-work; and learning, a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil;4 till sack commences it, and sets it in act and use. Hereof comes it, that Prince Harry is valiant: for the cold blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, steril, and bare land, manured, husbanded, and tilled, with excellent endeavour of drinking good, and good store of fertile sherris; that he is become very hot, and valiant. If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I would teach them, should be,--to forswear thin potations, and addict

themselves to sack.

Enter BARDOlph.

How now, Bardolph?

Bard. The army is discharged all, and gone. Fal. Let them go. I'll through Glostershire; and there will I visit master Robert Shallow, esquire: I have him already tempering between my finger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him. Come away. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV. Westminster. A Room in the Palace. Enter KING HENRY, CLARENCE, PRINCE HUMPHREY, WARWICK, and others.

K. Hen. Now, lords, if heaven doth give suc-
cessful end

To this debate that bleedeth at our doors,
We will our youth lead on to higher fields,

lord, means stand my friend, be my patron or bene-
factor, report well of me.

1 Condition is most frequently used by Shakspeare for nature, disposition. The prince may therefore mean, I shall in my good nature speak better of you than you deserve.'

2 Vide note on King Henry IV. Part 1. Act. i. Sc. ii. 3 Inventive, imaginative.

Our navy is address'd,' our power collected,
Our substitutes in absence well invested,
And every thing hes level to our wish:
Only, we want a little personal strength;
And pause us, till those rebels, now afoot,
Come underneath the yoke of government.
War. Both which, we doubt not but your ma-
Shall soon enjoy.
jesty
K. Hen.

Where is the prince your brother?
Humphrey, my son of Gloster,
P. Humph. I think, he's gone to hunt, my lord,
at Windsor.

K. Hen. And how accompanied?
P. Humph.
I do not know, my lord.
K. Hen. Is not his brother, Thomas of Clarence,
with him?

P. Humph. No, my good lord; he is in presence
here.

Cla. What would my lord and father?

K. Hen. Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of
Clarence.

How chance, thou art not with the prince thy bro-
ther?

He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas;
Thou hast a better place in his affection,
Than all thy brothers: cherish it, my boy;
And noble offices thou may'st effect
Of mediation, after I am dead,
Between his greatness and thy other brethren :-
Therefore, omit him not: blunt not his love:
Nor lose the good advantage of his grace,
By seeming cold or careless of his will.
For he is gracious, if he be observ'd ;a
He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
Open as day for melting charity:
Yet, notwithstanding, being incens'd, he's flint;
As humorous" as winter, and as sudden
As flaws congealed in the spring of day. 10
His temper, therefore, must be well observ'd:
Chide him for faults, and do it reverently,
When you perceive his blood inclin'd to mirth:
But, being moody, give him line and scope;
Till that his passions, like a whale on ground,
Confound themselves with working.

Thomas,

Learn this,

And thou shalt prove a shelter to thy friends;
A hoop of gold, to bind thy brothers in;
That the united vessel of their blood,
Mingled with venom of suggestion,1í
(As, force perforce, the age will pour it in,)
Shall never leak, though it do work as strong
As aconitum,12 or rash gunpowder.

Cla. I shall observe him with all care and
love.

K. Hen. Why art thou not at Windsor with him,
Thomas?

Cla. He is not there to-day; he dines in London.
K. Hen. And how accompanied? canst thou tell

that?

Cla. With Poins, and other his continual followers.

8 i. e. if he has respectful attention shown him.
9 His qualities were beauteous as his form,
For maiden-tongu'd he was, and therefore free:
i
Yet if men mov'd him, was he such a storm
As oft twixt May and April is to see,
When winds breathe sweet, unruly though they be.'
Shakspeare's Lover's Complaint.

now is.

4 It was anciently supposed that all the mines of gold, &c. were guarded by evil spirits. See the Secret Won-Humorous was used for capricious, as humoursome ders of Nature and Art, by Edw. Fenton, 1569, p. 91. 5 Commences it, that is brings it into action. Tyrwhitt thinks it is probable that there is an allusion to the commencement and act of the universities, which give to students a complete authority to use those hoards of learning which have entitled them to their degrees. As the dictionaries of the poet's time explain this matter, the conjecture seems probable.

6 A pleasant allusion to the old use of soft wax for
sealing.
7 Ready, prepared.

To-morrow for our march are we address'd.'
King Henry V.

the opinion of some philosophers, that the vapours oe-
10 A flaw is a sudden gust of violent wind; alluding to
ing congealed in the air by cold (which is the most in-
tense in the morning,) and being afterwards rarefied
and let loose by the warmth of the sun, occasion those
sudden and impetuous gusts of wind which are called
VI. and in his Venus and Adonis.
flaws. Shakspeare uses the word again in King Henry

11 Though their blood be inflamed by the temptations to which youth is peculiarly subject.

12 Aconitum, or aconite, wolfs-bane, a poisonous herb. Rush is sudden, hasty, violent.