Hot. Lord Douglas, go you and tell him fo. Doug. Marry, and fhall; and very willingly. [Exit Douglas. Wor. There is no feeming mercy in the king. Hot. Did you beg any? God forbid ! Wor. I told him gently of our grievances, Of his oath-breaking; which he mended thus, By now forfwearing that he is forfworn. He calls us rebels, traitors; and will scourge With haughty arms this hateful name in us.

Re-enter Douglas.

Doug. Arm, gentlemen, to arms! for I have thrown A brave defiance in king Henry's teeth,

3 And Westmorland, that was engag'd, did bear it ; Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on. Wor. The prince of Wales ftept forth before the king,

And, nephew, challeng'd you to fingle fight.

Hot. O, would the quarrel lay upon our heads;
And that no man might draw fhort breath to-day,
But I, and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me,
How fhew'd his talking? feem'd it in contempt?
Ver. No, by my foul: I never in my life
Did hear a challenge urg'd more modeftly,
Unless a brother fhould a brother dare,
To gentle exercise and proof of arms.
He gave you all the duties of a man;

Trimm'd up your praises with a princely tongue;
Spoke your defervings like a chronicle;
Making you ever better than his praise

+ By still difpraifing praise, valu'd with you.

And,

3 And Weftmorland, that was engag'd,-] Engag'd is delivered as an hostage. A few lines before, upon the return of Worcester, he orders Weftmorland to be difmiffed. JOHNSON.

4 By ftill difpraifing praife, valu'd with you.] This foolish line is indeed in the folio of 1623, but it is evidently the player's nonfenfe. WARBURTON.

And, which became him like a prince indeed,
5 He made a blushing cital of himself,
And chid his truant youth with fuch a grace,
As if he mafter'd there a double fpirit,
Of teaching, and of learning, inftantly.
There did he paufe: but let me tell the world,
If he out-live the envy of this day,

England did never owe so sweet a hope,
So much mifconftrued in his wantonnefs.
Hot. Coufin, I think, thou art enamoured
Upon his follies; never did I hear
Of any prince, fo wild, at liberty.
But, be he as he will, yet once ere night
I will embrace him with a foldier's arm,
That he shall shrink under my courtesy.

Arm, arm with speed. And fellows, foldiers, friends,
Better confider what you have to do,

Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue,
Can lift your blood up with perfuafion.

Enter a Messenger.

Me. My lord, here are letters for you.
Hot. I cannot read them now.-

O gentlemen, the time of life is fhort;

This line is not only in the first folio, but in all the editions before it that I have feen. Why it should be cenfured as nonsense I know not. To vilify praife, compared or valued with merit fuperior to praife, is no harsh expreffion. There is another objection to be made. Prince Henry, in his challenge of Percy, had indeed commended him, but with no fuch hyperboles as might reprefent him above praife; and there feems to be no reason why Vernon fhould magnify the prince's candor beyond the truth. Did then Shakespeare forget the foregoing fcene? or are fome lines loft from the prince's fpeech?

6

JOHNSON.

He made a blushing cital of himself,] Cital for taxation.

POPE.

Of any prince, fo wild, at liberty.] Of any prince that. played fuch pranks, and was not confined as a madman.

JOHNSON.

Το

To spend that shortness bafely, 'twere too long,
Tho' life did ride upon a dial's point,
Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
And if we live, we live to tread on kings;
If die, brave death, when princes die with us!
Now for our confciences, the arms are fair,
When the intent for bearing them is juft.

Enter another Messenger.

Meff. My lord, prepare; the king comes on apace. Hot. I thank him, that he cuts me from my tale, For I profess not talking; only this

Let each man do his best.And here draw I
A fword, whose temper I intend to stain
With the best blood that I can meet withal,
In the adventure of this perilous day.
7 Now-Esperance!-Percy!-and set on;
Sound all the lofty inftruments of war,
And by that mufic let us all embrace :
For, heaven to earth, fome of us never shall
A fecond time do fuch a courtesy.

[They embrace, then exeunt. The trumpets found.

SCENE III.

The King entereth with his power. Alarm to the battle. Then enter Douglas and Sir Walter Blunt.

Blunt. What is thy name, that in the battle thus Thou croffeft me? what honour doft thou seek Upon my

head?

7 Now Esperance!] This was the word of battle on Percy's fide. See Hall's Chronicle, folio 22. РОРЕ.

Efperance, or Esperanza, has always been the motto of the Percy family. Efperance in Dieu is the prefent motto of the earl of Northumberland, and has been long ufed by his predeceffors. Sometimes it was expreffed Efperance ma Comforte, which is ftill legible at Alnwick caftle over the great gate.

PERCY.

8 For, heaven to earth,-] i. c. One might wager heaven to earth.

WARBURTON.

Doug. Know, then, my name is Douglas; And I do haunt thee in the battle thus, Because fome tell me that thou art a king. Blunt. They tell thee true.

Doug. The lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought Thy likeness; for instead of thee, king Harry, This fword hath ended him: fo fhall it thee, Unless thou yield thee as my prifoner.

Blunt. I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot, And thou fhalt find a king that will revenge Lord Stafford's death.

Fight, Blunt is flain; then enter Hotspur.

Hot. O Douglas, hadft thou fought at Holmedon thus,

I never had triumph'd over a Scot.

Doug. All's done, all's won; here breathlefs lies the king.

Hot. Where?
Doug. Here.

Hot. This, Douglas! no. I know his face full well: A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt; Semblably furnish'd like the king himself.

Doug. Ah! fool, go with thy foul whither it goes! A borrow'd title haft thou bought too dear. Why didft thou tell me that thou wert a king? Hot. The king hath many marching in his coats. Doug. Now by my fword, I will kill all his coats; I'll murder all his wardrobe piece by piece,

Until I meet the king.

Hot. Up, and away;

Our foldiers ftand full fairly for the day.

Other alarms, enter Falstaff.

[Exeunt.

Fal. Though I could 'fcape 9 fhot-free at London, I fear the shot here; here's no fcoring, but upon the

pate.

foot-free at London,-] A play upon hot, as it means the part of a reckoning, and a miffive weapon discharged from artillery. JOHNSON.

pate.Soft! who art thou? Sir Walter Blunt? there's honour for you; here's no vanity!-I am as hot as molten lead, and as heavy too: heaven keep lead out of me! I need no more weight than mine own bowels.-I have led my raggamuffins where they are pepper'd: there's not three of my hundred and fifty left alive; and they are for the town's end, to beg during life. But who comes here?

Enter prince Henry.

P. Henry. What, ftand'ft thou idle here? lend me thy fword:

Many a nobleman lies ftark and stiff
Under the hoofs of vaunting enemies,

Whofe deaths are unreveng'd. Lend me thy fword. Fal. O Hal, I pr'ythee, give me leave to breathe a while. 2 Turk Gregory never did fuch deeds in arms,

So Heywood, in his Epigrams on Proverbs,
"And it is yll commynge, I have heard fay,
"To the end of a foot, and beginnyng of a fray."

as

STEEVENS.

here's no vanity!] In our author's time the negative, in a common fpeech, was ufed to defign, ironically, the excess of a thing. Thus Ben Jonfon, in Every Man in bis Humour, fays,

"Ohere's no foppery!

" 'Death, I can endure the ftocks better." Meaning, as the paffage fhews, that the foppery was exceffive. And fo in many other places. But the Oxford Editor not apprehending this, has altered it to there's vanity! WARB.

I am in doubt whether this interpretation, though ingenious and well fupported, is true. The words may mean, here is real honour, no vanity, or no empty appearance. JOHNSON. I believe Dr. Warburton is right: the fame ironical kind of expreffion occurs in The Mad Lover of B. and Fletcher,

Here's no villainy!

"I am glad I came to the hearing."

Again, in Ben Jonfon's Tale of a Tub,

"Here was no fubtle device to get a wench!"

STEEVENS.

2 Turk Gregory never did fuch deeds in arms,-] Meaning Gregory the Seventh, called Hildebrand. This furious frier

furmounted