* Upon the naked shore 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 abuses, seems to weep
Over his country's wrongs; and, by this face,
This seeming brow of justice, 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 absent 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 state.
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 :
Disgrac'd me in my happy victories ;
Sought to entrap me by intelligence;
Rated my uncle from the council-board;
In rage dismiss'd my father from the court;
Broke oath on bath, committed wrong on wrong:
And in conclusion, drove us to seek out
+ This head of safety; and, withal, to pry
Into his title, the which we find
Too indirect for long continuance.

2

3

? Upon the naked More, &c.] In this whole speech he alludes again to some pastages in Richard the Second. Johnson,

task'd the whole ftate.] I suppose it should be tax'd the whole state. JOHNSON.

Task'd is here used for tax'd; it was common anciently to employ these words indiscriminately. Memoirs of P. He Come mines, by Danert, folio, 4th edit. 1674, p. 136, “ Duke " Philip by the space of many years levied neither subsidies

nor tasks." STEF Ens.

4 This head of safety ;-) This army, from which I hope for protection. JOHNSON.

Blunt.

Blunt. Shall I return this answer to the king ?

Hot. Not so, Sir Walter; we'll withdraw aw hile.
-Go to the king; and let there be impawn’d
Some furety for a safe return again,
And in the morning early shall my uncle
Bring him our purposes. And so farewell.

Blunt. I would you would accept of grace and love!
Hot. It may be so we shall.
Blunt. Pray heaven, you do!

[Exeunt.

SC EN E IV.

YORK. Tbe archbishop's palace. Enter the archbishop of York, and Sir Michael. York. Hie, good Sir Michael; bear this 5 sealed brief With winged haste to the lord Mareshal; This to my cousin Scroop; and all the rest 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
Must 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 sickness of Northumberland,
(Whose power was 6 in the first proportion)
And what with Owen Glendower's absence thence,
(Who with them was 7 a rated sinew too,

- sealed brief] A brief is simply a letter. Johns.

in the first proportion Whose 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.

A rated finem fignifies a strength on which we reckoned ; a help of which we made account. JOHNSON.

Y 2

And

6

7

And comes not in, o'er-ruld by prophecies) -
I fear, the power of Percy is too weak
To wage an instant 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 so 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 Westmorland, and warlike Blunt;
And many more corrivals, and dear men
Of estimation and command in arms.
Sir Mich. Doubt not, my lord, they shall be well

oppos’d.
York. I hope no less; yet, needful 'tis to fear.
And to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed:
For, if lord Percy thrive not, ere the king
Dismiss his power, he means to visit us :
For he hath heard of our confederacy,-
And 'tis but wisdom to make strong against him;
Therefore make hafte: I must go write again
To other friends, and so farewell, Sir Michael.

[Exeunt.

ACT

'ACT V. SCENE I.

HA

The camp at Shrewsbury. Enter king Henry, prince of Wales, lord John of Lon

caster, earl of Westmorland, Sir Walter Blunt, and Falstaff.

K. Henry.
OW bloodily the sun begins to peer

Above yon busky hill! the day looks pale
At his diftemperature.

P. Henry. The southern wind
Doth play the trumpet 9 to his purposes ;
And, by his hollow whistling in the leaves,
Foretels a tempest, and a blustering day.

K. Henry. Then with the losers let it sympathize;
For nothing can seem foul to those 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 such terms As now we meet.

You have deceiv'd our trust;
And made us doff our easy robes of peace,
To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel :

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

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

This

9

Y 3

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 exhald meteor,
A prodigy of fear, and a portent
Of broached mischief, to the unborn times?

Wir. Hear me, my liege.
For mine own part, I could be well content
To entertain the lag end of
With quiet hours; for, I do proteft,
I have not fought the day of this disike.
K. Henry. You have not fought it! how comes it

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

my life

1 Fal. Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.

Prince. Peace, chevet, peace.] This, I take to be an arbitrary refinement of Mr. Pope's; nor can I easily agree, that chever is Shakespeare's word here. Why should prince Henry call Falitaff boljier, for interposing in the discourse betwixt the king and Worceiter? With submillion, he does not take him up here for his unreasonable size, but for his i!l-tim'd and unseafonable chattering, I therefore have preserved the reading of the old books. A chewet, or chuet, is a noisy chattering bird, a pie. This carries a proper reproach to Falitaff for his medling and impertinent jeit. And besides, if the poet had intended that the prince should feer at Falsaff on account of his corpulency, I doubt not but he would have called him belfer in plain English, and not have wrapp'd up the abuse in the French word chevet. In another passage of this play, the prince honestly calls him quilt. As to prince Henry, his stock in this language was so small, that when he comes to be king he hammers out one small sentence of it to princess Catherine, and tells her, It is as easy for him to conquer the kingdom as to speak so much more French. THEOBALD.

Peace, checuet, 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 spell the word as it now stands in the text, and as I found it in the book already mentioned, STEVENS,

Wor,