I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.

[A retreat is sounded. The trumpet sounds retreat, the day is ours. Come, brother, let's to the highest of the field, To see what friends are living, who are dead.

[Exeunt Prince HENRY and Prince JOHN. Fal. I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward him! If I do grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do.

[Exit, bearing off the body.

SCENE V. Another Part of the Field.

The Trumpets sound. Enter the KING, Prince HENRY, Prince JOHN, WESTMORELAND, and Others, with WORCESTER, and VERNON, prisoners.

King. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.
Ill-spirited Worcester! did we not send grace,
Pardon, and terms of love to all of you ?
And would'st thou turn our offers contrary ?
Misuse the tenor of thy kinsman's trust?
Three knights upon our party slain to-day,
A noble earl, and many a creature else,
Had been alive this hour,

If, like a Christian, thou hadst truly borne

Betwixt our armies true intelligence.

Wor. What I have done, my safety urg'd me to;

And I embrace this fortune patiently,

Since not to be avoided it falls on me.

King. Bear Worcester to the death, and Vernon too: Other offenders we will pause upon.·

[Exeunt WORCESTER and VERNON, guarded.

How goes the field?

Prince. The noble Scot, lord Douglas, when he saw

VOL. V.

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The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him,
The noble Percy slain, and all his men
Upon the foot of fear, fled with the rest;
And falling from a hill he was so bruis'd,
That the pursuers took him.' At my tent
The Douglas is, and I beseech your grace,
I may dispose of him.

King.

With all my heart.

Prince. Then, brother John of Lancaster, to you This honourable bounty shall belong.

Go to the Douglas, and deliver him

Up to his pleasure, ransomless, and free:
His valour, shown upon our crests to-day,
Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds,
Even in the bosom of our adversaries.

John. I thank your grace for this high courtesy, Which I shall give away immediately.2

King. Then this remains, that we divide our

power.

You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland,
Towards York shall bend you, with your dearest speed,
To meet Northumberland, and the prelate Scroop,
Who, as we hear, are busily in arms:

Myself, and you, son Harry, will towards Wales,
To fight with Glendower, and the earl of March.
Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,
Meeting the check of such another day:
And since this business so fair is done,
Let us not leave till all our own be won.

[Exeunt.

1 Thus Holinshed: «To conclude, the kings enemies were vanquished and put to flight, in which flight the earle of Dowglas, for hast falling from the crag of an hie mounteine, brake one of his cullions, and was taken, and, for his valiantnesse, of the king franklie and freelie delivered."

H.

2 This speech of Prince John, though in all the first four quartos, is strangely left out by Mr. Knight, merely because it is wantng in the folio.

H.

Pistol. Sir John, thy tender lambkin now is king;

Harry the Fifth's the man.

ACT v. Sc. 3.

INTRODUCTION

ΤΟ

THE SECOND PART OF HENRY IV.

In our Introduction to The First Part of Henry IV. authority was produced, such as to put it well nigh beyond question, that the original name of Falstaff was Oldcastle. It was seen, also, that if such were the case, the change must have been made before February 25, 1598, at which time the play was entered in the Stationers' Register, and "the conceited mirth of Sir John Falstaff" mentioned in the entry. That THE SECOND Part of King HENRY THE FOURTH was also written before that date, appears highly probable, to say the least, in that the quarto edition retains Old. as prefix to a speech in Act i. sc. 2, which unquestionably belongs to Falstaff. And the same thing might be further argued from Falstaff's being spoken of, in Act iii. sc. 2, as having been page to Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk ;" which was true of Sir John Oldcastle, and has been justly adduced by Mr. Halliwell as evidence that Falstaff originally bore that name. Nothing more has been discovered from which to infer the probable date of the writing.

The play was published in 1600, in a quarto pamphlet of fortythree leaves, the title-page reading as follows: "The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, continuing to his death, and coronation of Henry the Fifth With the humours of Sir John Falstaff, and swaggering Pistol. As it hath been sundry times publicly acted by the Right Honourable, the Lord Chamberlain his servants. Written by William Shakespeare. London: Printed by V. S. for Andrew Wise and William Aspley. 1600." The play is not known to have been published again till in the folio of 1623. These two editions differ greatly, several of the best parts having first appeared in the folio, and on the other hand a few passages of inferior quality being found only in the quarto. And there are many smaller differences of text, too numerous to mention, and of such a nature as to infer that the folio must have been printed from an independent manuscript, and that the play had been