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* Upon the naked fhore at Ravenspurg.
And now, forfooth, takes on him to reform
Some certain edicts, and some strait decrees,
That lay too heavy on the commonwealth :
Cries out upon abufes, feems to weep
Over his country's wrongs; and, by this face,
This feeming brow of juftice, did he win
The hearts of all that he did angle for.
Proceeded further; cut me off the heads
Of all the favourites, that the abfent king
In deputation left behind him here,
When he was personal in the Irish war.
Blunt. Tut, I came not to hear this.
Hot. Then to the point.

In short time after he depos'd the king;
Soon after that, depriv'd him of his life;

And, in the neck of that, 3 talk'd the whole ftate.
To make that worse, suffer'd his kinsman March,
(Who is, if every owner were right plac'd,
Indeed his king) to be incag'd in Wales,
There without ranfom to lie forfeited:
Difgrac'd me in my happy victories;
Sought to entrap me by intelligence;
Rated my uncle from the council-board;
In rage difmifs'd my father from the court;
Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong:
And in conclufion, drove us to feek out

+ This head of fafety; and, withal, to pry
Into his title, the which we find

Too indirect for long continuance.

2 Upon the naked fhore, &c.] In this whole fpeech he alludes again to fome paffages in Richard the Second. JOHNSON. tafk'd the whole ftate.] I fuppofe it should be tax'd the whole ftate. JOHNSON.

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Tafk'd is here used for tax'd; it was common anciently to employ these words indifcriminately. mines, by Danert, folio, 4th edit. Philip by the fpace of many years

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"nor tasks." STEF ENS.

Memoirs of P. de Com1674, p. 136, "Duke levied neither fubfidies

This bead of fafety-] This army, from which I hope

for protection. JOHNSON.

Blunt.

Blunt. Shall I return this anfwer to the king? Hot. Not fo, Sir Walter; we'll withdraw awhile. -Go to the king; and let there be impawn'd Some furety for a safe return again,

And in the morning early fhall my uncle
Bring him our purpofes. And fo farewell.

Blunt. I would you would accept of grace and love!
Hot. It may be fo we fhall.

Blunt. Pray heaven, you do!

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[Exeunt.

Enter the archbishop of York, and Sir Michael.

York. Hie, good Sir Michael, bear this 5 fealed brief With winged hafte to the lord Marefhal;

This to my coufin Scroop; and all the reft

To whom they are directed.-If you knew

How much they do import, you would make hafte.
Sir Mich. My good lord,

I guess their tenor.

York. Like enough, you do.

To-morrow, good Sir Michael, is a day
Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men
Muft bide the touch: for, Sir, at Shrewsbury,
As I am truly given to understand,

The king, with mighty and quick-raised power,
Meets with lord Harry: and I fear, Sir Michael,-
What with the ficknefs of Northumberland,
(Whose power was 6 in the first proportion)
And what with Owen Glendower's abfence thence,
(Who with them was 7 a rated finew too,

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fealed brief] A brief is fimply a letter. JOHNS. in the firft proportion] Whofe quota was larger than that of any other man in the confederacy. JOHNSON. a rated finew too,] So the firit edition, i. e. accounted a strong aid. POPE.

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A rated fine fignifies a ftrength on which we reckoned; a help of which we made account. JOHNSON.

Y 2

And

And comes not in, o'er-rul'd by prophecies)-
I fear, the power of Percy is too weak

To wage an inftant trial with the king.

Sir Mich. Why, my good lord, you need not fear;

There's Douglas and lord Mortimer.

York. No, Mortimer is not there.

Sir Mich. But there is Mordake, Vernon, lord Harry
Percy,

And there's my lord of Worcester; and a head
Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen.

York. And fo there is: but yet the king hath drawn
The special head of all the land together;-
The prince of Wales, lord John of Lancaster,
The noble Weftmorland, and warlike Blunt;
And many more corrivals, and dear men
Of eftimation and command in arms.

Sir Mich. Doubt not, my lord, they fhall be well oppos'd.

York. I hope no lefs; yet, needful 'tis to fear.
And to prevent the worft, Sir Michael, speed:
For, if lord Percy thrive not, ere the king
Difmifs his power, he means to vifit us :-
For he hath heard of our confederacy,-
And 'tis but wisdom to make ftrong against him;
Therefore make hafte: I muft go write again
To other friends; and fo farewell, Sir Michael.

[Exeunt.

ACT

'ACT V. SCENE I.

The camp at Shrewsbury.

Enter king Henry, prince of Wales, lord John of Lancafter, earl of Westmorland, Sir Walter Blunt, and Falstaff.

HOW

K. HENRY.

OW bloodily the fun begins to peer Above yon busky hill! the day looks pale At his diftemperature.

P. Henry. The fouthern wind

Doth play the trumpet 9 to his purposes;
And, by his hollow whistling in the leaves,
Foretels a tempeft, and a bluftering day.

K. Henry. Then with the lofers let it fympathize; For nothing can feem foul to thofe that win.

[The trumpet founds.

Enter Worcester and Sir Richard Vernon.

K. Henry. How now, my lord of Worcester? 'tis not well

That you and I should meet upon fuch terms
As now we meet. You have deceiv'd our truft;
And made us doff our eafy robes of peace,
To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel:

AaV.] It feems proper to be remarked, that in the editions printed while the author lived, this play is not broken into acts. The divifion which was made by the players in the first folio, feems commodious enough, but, being without authority, may be changed by any editor who thinks himself able to make a better. JOHNSON.

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to his purpojes ;] That is, to the fun's, to that which the fun portends by his unusual appearance. JOHNS.

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This is not well, my lord, this is not well.
What say you to't? will you again unknit
This churlish knot of all-abhorred war,
And move in that obedient orb again,
Where you did give a fair and natural light;
And be no more an exhal'd meteor,
A prodigy of fear, and a portent

Of broached mifchief, to the unborn times?
Wer. Hear me, my liege..

For mine own part, I could be well content
To entertain the lag end of my life
With quiet hours; for, I do protest,

I have not fought the day of this dislike.

K. Henry. You have not fought it! how comes it then?

1 Fal. Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it. P. Henry. Peace, chewet, peace.

Fal. Rebellion lay in his away, and he found it.

Prince. Peace, chevet, peace.] This, I take to be an arbitrary refinement of Mr. Pope's; nor can I eafily agree, that chevet is Shakespeare's word here. Why fhould prince Henry call Falltaff bolfer, for interpofing in the difcourfe betwixt the king and Worcester? With fubmiffion, he does not take him up here for his unreasonable size, but for his ill-tim'd and unfeafonable chattering, I therefore have preferved the reading of the old books. A cherwet, or chuet, is a noify chattering bird, a pie. This carries a proper reproach to Falstaff for his medling and impertinent jeft. And befides, if the poet had intended that the prince fhould fleer at Falstaff on account of his corpulency, I doubt not but he would have called him belfter in plain English, and not have wrapp'd up the abuse in the French word chevet. In another paffage of this play, the prince honeftly calls him quilt. As to prince Henry, his ftock in this language was fo fmall, that when he comes to be king he hammers out one fmall fentence of it to princess Catherine, and tells her, It is as eafy for him to conquer the kingdom as to speak fo much more French. THEOBALD.

Peace, cherwet, peace.] In an old book of cookery, printed in 1596, I find a receipt to make chewets, which from their ingredients feem to have been fat greafy puddings; and to these it is as probable that the prince alludes. Both the quarto's and folio fpell the word as it now ftands in the text, and as I found it in the book already mentioned, STEEVENS,

Wor.

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