2 * Upon the naked fhore at Ravenspurg. In short time after he depos'd the king; And, in the neck of that, 3 talk'd the whole ftate. + This head of fafety; and, withal, to pry 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. 3 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 "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 Blunt. I would you would accept of grace and love! Blunt. Pray heaven, you do! [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. I guess their tenor. York. Like enough, you do. To-morrow, good Sir Michael, is a day The king, with mighty and quick-raised power, 6 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. 7 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)- 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 And there's my lord of Worcester; and a head York. And fo there is: but yet the king hath drawn Sir Mich. Doubt not, my lord, they fhall be well oppos'd. York. I hope no lefs; yet, needful 'tis to fear. [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; 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 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. 9 to his purpojes ;] That is, to the fun's, to that which the fun portends by his unusual appearance. JOHNS. This is not well, my lord, this is not well. Of broached mifchief, to the unborn times? For mine own part, I could be well content 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. |