I will not fend them.--I will after strait, And tell him fo; for I will eafe my heart, 9 Although it be with hazard of my head. North. What, drunk with choler? ftay, and paufe a while:

Here comes your uncle.

Enter Worcester.

Hot. Speak of Mortimer!

Yes, I will speak of him; and let my foul
Want mercy, if I do not join with him:
Yea, on his part, I'll empty all these veins,
And fhed my dear blood drop by drop i'the duft,
1 But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer
As high i'the air as this unthankful king,
As this ingrate and cankred Bolingbroke.

North. Brother, the king hath made your nephew mad. [To Worcester. Wor. Who ftrook this heat up after I was gone? Hot. He will, forfooth, have all my prisoners : And when I urg'd the ranfom once again

Of

my wife's brother, then his cheek look'd pale, And on my face he turn'd an eye of death, 2 Trembling even at the name of Mortimer.

Wor. I cannot blame him; was he not proclaim'd, By Richard that is dead, the next of blood?

North. He was; I heard the proclamation : And then it was, when the unhappy king (Whose wrongs in us, God pardon!) did fet forth

Although it be with hazard, &c.] So the firft folio, and all the following editions. The quarto's read,

Although I make a hazard of my head. JOHNSON, But I will lift the downfall'n Mortimer] The quarto of 1599 reads, down-trod Mortimer; which is better. WARB. All the quarto's that I have feen read dozen-trod, the three folio's read down-fall. JOHNSON.

an eye of death,] That is, an eye menacing death. Hotfpur feems to defcribe the king as trembling with rage rather than fear. JOHNSON,

Upon

Upon his Irish expedition;

From whence he, intercepted, did return

To be depos'd, and fhortly murdered.

Wor. And for whofe death, we in the world's wide mouth

Live fcandaliz'd, and foully fpoken of.

Hot. But foft, I pray you.-Did king Richard then Proclaim my brother Edmund Mortimer

Heir to the crown?

North. He did myself did hear it.

Hot. Nay, then I cannot blame his coufin king,
That wifh'd him on the barren mountains ftarv'd.
But shall it be, that you, that fet the crown
Upon the head of this forgetful man;
And for his fake wear the detefted blot
Of murd'rous fubornation?-fhall it be,
That you a world of curfes undergo;
Being the agents or bafe fecond means,
The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather ?—
(O pardon me, that I defcend fo low,
To fhew the line and the predicament
Wherein you range under this fubtle king)
Shall it, for fhame, be spoken in these days,
Or fill up chronicles in time to come,
That men of your nobility and

Did

To

power gage them both in an unjuft behalfAs both of you, God pardon it! have done, put down Richard, that sweet lovely rose, And plant this thorn, 3 this canker, Bolingbroke? And shall it, in more fhame, be further spoken, That you are fool'd, difcarded, and shook off By him, for whom these shames ye underwent ? No; yet time ferves, wherein you may redeem Your banish'd honours, and restore yourselves Into the good thoughts of the world again.

3

this canker, Bolingbroke ?] The canker-rofe is the dog-rofe, the flower of the Cynofbaton. STEEVENS.

Revenge

Revenge the jeering, and 4 difdain'd contempt
Of this proud king, who ftudies day and night
To answer all the debt he owes unto you,

Even with the bloody payment of your deaths:
Therefore, I fay

Wor. Peace, coufin, fay no more.
And now I will unclafp a fecret book,
And to your quick-conceiving difcontents
I'll read you matter deep and dangerous;
As full of peril, and advent'rous fpirit,
As to o'er-walk a current, roaring loud,
5 On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.

Hot. If he fall in, good night-or fink or swimSend danger from the eaft unto the weft,

So honour cross it from the north to fouth,

And let them grapple.-O! the blood more ftirs To rouze a lion, than to start a hare.

North. Imagination of fome great exploit Drives him beyond the bounds of patience.

Hot. By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap,

4

↑ — disdain'd —] For difdainful. JOHNSON.

To

On the unfteadfast footing of a spear.] That is of a fpear laid

acroís.

WARBURTON.

By heaven, methinks, &c.] Gildon, a critic of the size of Dennis, &c. calls this fpeech, without any ceremony," a ri"diculous rant and abfolute madnefs." Mr. Theobald talks in the fame ftrain. The French critics had taught thefe people juft enough to understand where Shakespeare had tranfgreffed the rules of the Greek tragic writers; and, on thofe occafions, they are full of the poor frigid cant of fable, fentiment, diction, unities, &c. But it is another thing to get to Shakespeare's fenfe: to do this required a little of their own. For want of which, they could not fee that the poet here ufes an allegorical covering to exprefs a noble and very natural thought.-Hotfpur, all on fire, exclaims against huckftering and bartering for honour, and dividing it into shares. O fays he, could I be fure that when I had purchased honour I should wear her dignities without a rival-what then? Why then,

By heav'n, methinks it were an easy leap

To pull bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon: i.e. though fome great and fhining character, in the most elevated

orb,

To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon;
Or dive into the bottom of the deep,

Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drowned honour by the locks;
So he, that doth redeem her thence, might wear
Without corrival all her dignities:

But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!

orb, was already in poffeffion of her, yet it would, methinks, be eafy by greater acts, to eclipfe his glory, and pluck all his honours from him;

Or dive into the bottom of the deep,

And pluck up drowned honour by the locks:

i. e. or what is fill more difficult, though there were in the world no great examples to incite and fire my emulation, but that honour was quite funk and buried in oblivion, yet would I bring it back into vogue, and render it more illuftrious than ever. So that we fee, though the expreffion be fublime and daring, yet the thought is the natural movement of an heroic mind. Euripides at least thought fo, when he put the very fame fentiment, in the fame words, into the mouth of Eteocles, "I will not, madam, difguife my thoughts; I would fcale "heaven, I would defcend to the very entrails of the earth, if "fo be that by that price I could obtain a kingdom." WARB. Though I am very far from condemning this fpeech with Gildon and Theobald, as abfolute madness, yet I cannot find in it that profundity of reflection and beauty of allegory which the learned commentator has endeavoured to difplay. This fally of Hotspur may be, I think, foberly and rationally vindicated as the violent eruption of a mind inflated with ambition and fired with refentment; as the boafted clamour of a man able to do much, and eager to do more; as the hay motion of turbulent defire; as the dark expreffion of indetermined thoughts. The paffage from Euripides is furely not allegorical, yet it is produced, and properly, as parallel. JOHNSON.

7 But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship !] I think this finely expreffed. The image is taken from one who turns from another, fo as to ftand before him with a fide-face; which implied neither a full conforting, nor a feparation. WARB.

I cannot think this word rightly explained. It alludes rather to drefs. A coat is faid to be faced when part of it, as the fleeves or bofom, is covered with fomething finer or more spiendid than the main substance. The mantua-makers ftill use the word. Half-fac'd fellowship is then "partnership but half"adorned, partnership which yet wants half the fhew of dignities and honours. JOHNSON.

Wor:

8

Wor. He apprehends a world of figures here, But not the form of what he should attend. -Good coufin, give me audience for a while. Hot. I cry you mercy.

Wor. Those same noble Scots

That are your prisoners

Hot. I'll keep them all;

By heaven, he shall not have a Scot of them;
No, if a Scot would fave his foul, he shall not:
I'll keep them, by this hand.

Wor. You start away,

And lend no ear unto my purposes.-
Those prisoners you shall keep.

Hot. Nay, I will; that's flat

He faid, he would not ransom Mortimer;
Forbad my tongue to speak of Mortimer;
But I will find him when he lies asleep,
And in his ear I'll holla, Mortimer!
Nay, I'll have a ftarling fhall be taught to speak
Nothing but Mortimer, and give it him,
To keep his anger ftill in motion.

Wor. Hear you, coufin; a word.

Hot. All ftudies here I folemnly defy, Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke: 9 And that fame fword-and-buckler prince of Wales, But that, I think, his father loves him not, And would be glad he met with fome mifchance, I'd have him poifon'd with a pot of ale.

Wor. Farewell, kinfman! I will talk to you, When you are better temper'd to attend.

8 - a world of figures here,] Figure is here ufed equivocally. As it is applied to Hotfpur's speech it is a rhetorical mode; as oppofed to form, it means appearance or shape.

JOHNSON.

9 And that fume fword-and-buckler prince of Wales,] A royster or turbulent fellow, that fought in taverns, or raised disorders in the ftreets, was called a Swafh-buckler. In this fenfe fwordand-buckler is ufed here. JoHNSON.

North.