Fal. Rob me the exchequer the first thing thou do'ft; and 5 do it with unwash'd hands too.

Bard. Do, my lord.

P. Henry. I have procur'd thee, Jack, a charge of foot.

Fal. I would it had been of horse. Where shall I find one that can steal well? O, for a fine thief, of two-and-twenty, or thereabout! I am heinously unprovided. Well, God be thanked for thefe rebels, they offend none but the virtuous; I laud them, I praise them.

P. Henry. Bardolph!
Bard. My lord!

P. Henry. Go, bear this letter to lord John of Lancafter,

My brother John; this to my lord of Weftmorland.
Go, Poins, to horfe, to horfe; for thou and I

6

Have thirty miles to ride ere dinner time.———

Jack,

Meet me to-morrow in the Temple-hall

At two o'clock i'the afternoon:

There fhalt thou know thy charge; and there receive Money, and order for their furniture.

The land is burning; Percy ftands on high;

And either they, or we, must lower lie.

[Exeunt Prince, Peto, and Bard. Fal. Rare words! brave world!

breakfast, come :

Hostess, my

O, I could with this tavern were my drum!

[Exit.

do it with unwab'd hands too.] i. e. Do it the first thing in the morning, even without ftaying to wash your hands. STEEVENS.

Poins, to horfe,-] I cannot but think that Peto is

again put for Poins. I fuppofe the copy had only a PWe have Peto afterwards, not riding with the prince, but lieutenant to Falftaff. JOHNSON.

I have adopted Dr. Johnfon's emendation. STEEVENS.

ACT IV. SCENE I

W

The camp near Shrewsbury.

Enter Hotspur, Worcester, and Douglas.

HOTSPUR.

ELL faid, my noble Scot. If fpeaking truth, In this fine age, were not thought flattery, Such attribution fhould the Douglas have,

As not a foldier of this season's stamp

Should go fo general current through the world.
By heaven, I cannot flatter; I defy

The tongues of foothers; but a braver place
In my heart's love hath no man than yourself:
Nay, task me to my word; approve me, lord.
Doug. Thou art the king of honour:

No man fo potent breathes upon the ground,
But I will beard him.

Hot. Do fo, and 'tis well:

Enter a Messenger.

What letters haft thou there?—I can but thank
you.
Mell. Thefe letters come from your father.
Hot. Letters from him! why comes he not himself?
Mess. He cannot come, my lord; he's grievous fick.
Hot. Heavens! how has he the leifure to be fick
In fuch a juftling time? who leads his powers?
Under whofe government come they along?

7 Meff. His letters bear his mind, not I.

Hot.

7 Meff. His letters bear his mind, not I his mind.] The line

fhould be read and divided thus,

Meff. His letters bear his mind, not I.
Hot. His mind!

Hotspur

Hot. His mind!

Wor. I pr'ythee, tell me, doth he keep his bed? Meff. He did, my lord, four days ere Î set forth; And at the time of my departure thence,

He was much fear'd by his phyficians.

Wor. I would the state of time had first been whole, Ere he by sickness had been visited;

His health was never better worth than now.

Hot. Sick now! droop now! this ficknefs doth infect

The very life-blood of our enterprize;

'Tis catching hither, even to our camp.
He writes me here, that inward fickness-
And that his friends by deputation could not
So foon be drawn; nor did he think it meet
To lay fo dangerous and dear a trust

On any foul remov'd, but on his own.
Yet doth he give us bold advertisement,
That with our small conjunction we should on,
To fee how fortune is difpos'd to us:
For, as he writes, there is no quailing now;
Because the king is certainly poffefs'd
Of all our purposes. What fay you to it?
Wor. Your father's fickness is a maim to us.
Hot. A perilous gash, a very limb lopt off:-
And yet, in faith, 'tis not:-His prefent want
Seems more than we shall find it.-Were it good,
To fet the exact wealth of all our ftates
All at one caft? to fet fo rich a main
On the nice hazard of one doubtful hour?
It were not good: for 9 therein should we read

The

Hotspur had asked who leads his powers? The Meffenger anfwers, His letters bear his mind. The other replies, His mind! As much as to fay, I inquire not about his mind, I want to know where his powers are. This is natural, and perfectly in character. WARBURTON. 8 On any foul remov'd,-]

On any lefs near to himfelf; on

any whose intereft is remote. JOHNSON.

9

therein should we read

The very bottom, and the foul of hope ;] To read the bottom

X 3

and

The very bottom, and the foul of hope;
The very lift, the very utmoft bound
Of all our fortunes.

Doug. Faith, and fo we should;

Where now remains a fweet reverfion.
We may boldly spend upon the hope of what
Is to come in:

A comfort of retirement lives in this.

Hot. A rendezvous, a home to fly unto, If that the devil and mifchance look big Upon the maidenhead of our affairs.

Wor. But yet, I would your father had been here. The quality and hair of our attempt Brooks no divifion: it will be thought By fome, that know not why he is away, That wisdom, loyalty, and mere dislike Of our proceedings, kept the earl from hence; And think, how fuch an apprehension

and foul of hope, and the bound of fortune, though all the copies, and all the editors have received it, furely cannot be right. I can think on no other word than risque.

Therein should we rifque

The very bottom, &c.

The lift is the felvage; figuratively, the utmoft line of circumference, the utmost extent. If we should with less change read rend, it will only fuit with lift, not with foul, or bottom. JOHNSON.

A comfort of retirement- -] A fupport to which we may have recourfe. JOHNSON.

2 The quality and hair of our attempt] The hair feems to be the complexion, the character. The metaphor appears harth to to us, but, perhaps, was familiar in our author's time. We fiil fay, fomething is against the hair, as against the grain, that is, against the natural tendency. JOHNSON.

In an old comedy call'd The Family of Love, I meet with an expreffion which very well fupports Dr. Johnson's first explanation.

66

They fay, I am of the right hair, and indeed they may stand to't."

Again, in The Coxcomb of B. and Fletcher,

May turn the tide of fearful faction,

And breed a kind of queftion in our cause:
For well you know, 3 we of the offering fide
Muft keep aloof from strict arbitrement;
And ftop all fight-holes, every loop, from whence
The eye of reafon may pry in upon us.
This abfence of your father draws a curtain,
That fhews the ignorant a kind of fear
Before not dreamt of.

Hot. You ftrain too far;

I rather of his abfence make this use ;-
It lends a luftre, and more great opinion,
A larger dare to our great enterprize,

Than if the earl were here: for men must think,
If we without his help can make a head,
To push against the kingdom; with his help,
We shall o'erturn it topfy-turvy down.

-Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
Doug. As heart can think: there is not fuch a word
Spoke of in Scotland, as this term of fear.

3

we of the offering fide-] All the later editions read offending, but all the older copies which I have feen, from the firft quarto to the edition of Rowe, read we of the off'ring fide. Of this reading the fenfe is obfcure, and therefore the change has been made; but fince neither offering nor offending are words likely to be mistaken, I cannot but fufpect that offering is right, especially as it is read in the first copy of 1599, which is more correctly printed than any fingle edition, that I have yet feen, of a play written by Shakespeare.

The offering fide may fignify that party, which, acting in oppofition to the law, ftrengthens itself only by offers; encreafes its numbers only by promijes. The king can raise an army, and continue it by threats of punishment; but thofe, whom no man is under any obligation to obey, can gather forces only by offers of advantage: and it is truly remarked, that they, whofe influence arifes from offers, must keep danger out of fight.

The offering fide may mean fimply the affailant, in oppofition to the defendant; and it is likewife true of him that offers war, or makes an invasion, that his caufe ought to be kept clear from all objections. JOHNSON.