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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 smooth comforts falfe, worse than true [Exit.

wrongs.

SECOND PART OF

KING HENRY IV.

ACT I. SCENE I.

The Jame.

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?

BARD.

Tell thou the earl,

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.

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Should be the father of fome ftratagem:8
The times are wild; contention, like a horse
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 wifh:-
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 thefe news for true.
NORTH. Here comes my fervant, Travers, whom
I fent-

On Tuesday laft to liften after news.

BARD. My lord, I over-rode him on the way;

5 fome ftratagem:] 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 Stratagems, how fell, how butcherly!!

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

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And he is furnifh'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,9
That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horfe:
He afk'd the way to Chefter; and of him
I did demand, what news from Shrewsbury.
He told me, that rébellion 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 jade2

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

Τ

2

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 hackney; a beaft employed in drudgery, oppofed to a horfe kept for thow, 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 observed,) cer

Up to the rowel-head; 3 and, ftarting so,
He feem'd in running to devour the way,4
Staying no longer question.

NORTH.

Ha!Again.

Said he, young Harry Percy's fpur was cold?
Of Hotfpur, coldfpur?5 that rebellion

Had met ill luck!

BARD.
If my young

lord

your

My lord, I'll tell you what ;fon have not the day,

tainly does not ufe 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:

3

"That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand."

MALONE.

rowel-head;] I think that I have obferved in old prints the rowel of thofe times to have been only a fingle spike. JOHNSON.

4 He feem'd in running to devour the way,] So, in the Book of Job, chap. xxxix: “He swalloweth the ground in fiercenefs and rage.'

The fame expreffion occurs in Ben Jonfon's Sejanus:

"But with that speed and heat of appetite,

"With which they greedily devour the way
"To fome great fports." STEEVENS.

So Ariel, to defcribe his alacrity in obeying Profpero's commands:

"I drink the air before me." M. MASON.

So, in one of the Roman poets (I forget which): curfu confumere campum. BLACKSTONE.

The line quoted by Sir William Blackstone is in NEMESIAN: ·latumque fuga confumere campum. MALONE.

5 Of Hotfpur, coldfpur ?] Hotspur feems to have been a very common term for a man of vehemence and precipitation. Stanyhurst, who tranflated four books of Virgil, in 1584, renders the following line:

Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile.

"To couch not mounting of mayfter vanquisher hoatSpur. STEEVENS,

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