SCENE III.

Changes to the archbishop of York's palace.

Enter archbishop of York, Hastings, Thomas Mowbray (earl marfbal) and lord Bardolph.

York. Thus have you heard our cause, and know

our means;

And, my most noble friends, I pray you all,
Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes.-
And first, lord marshal, what fay you to it?

Mowb. I well allow the occafion of our arms;
But gladly would be better fatisfied
How, in our means, we should advance ourselves,
To look with forehead bold and big enough
Upon the power and puiffance of the king?
Haft. Our prefent mufters grow upon the file
To five-and-twenty thousand men of choice;
And our supplies live largely in the hope
Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns
With an incensed fire of injuries.

Bard. The question then, lord Haftings, ftandeth thus

Whether our present five-and-twenty thousand
May hold up head without Northumberland?
Haft. With him we may.

Bard. Ay, marry, there's the point :
But if without him we be thought too feeble,
My judgment is, we should not 3 ftep too far
Till we had his affiftance by the hand.
For in a theme fo bloody-fac'd as this,
Conjecture, expectation, and furmise
Of aids uncertain, fhould not be admitted.

York. 'Tis very true, lord Bardolph; for, indeed, It was young Hotspur's cafe at Shrewsbury.

3

-Step too far] The four following lines were added in the fecond edition. JOHNSON.

Bard.

Bard. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with

hope,

Eating the air on promife of fupply;

Flattering himself with project of a power
Much smaller than the fmalleft of his thoughts:

And fo, with great imagination,

Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,
And, winking, leap'd into deftruction.

Haft. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt
To lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope.
Bard. Yes, in this prefent quality of war,
Indeed of inftant action; a cause on foot

4 Yes, in this prefent quality of war,

Indeed the inftaut action;] These first twenty lines were first inferted in the folio of 1623.

The first claufe of this paffage is evidently corrupted. All the folio editions and Mr. Rowe's concur in the fame reading, which Mr. Pope altered thus,

Yes, if this prefent quality of war
Impede the inftant act.

This has been filently followed by Mr. Theobald, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton; but the corruption is certainly deeper; for in the prefent reading Bardolph makes the inconvenience of hope to be that it may caufe delay, when indeed the whole tenor of his argument is to recommend delay to the reft that are too forward. I know not what to propofe, and am afraid that fomething is omitted, and that the injury is irremediable. Yet, perhaps, the alteration requifite is no more than this:

Yes, in this prefent quality of war,
Indeed of infant action.

It never, fays Haftings, did harm to lay down likelihoods of hope. Yes, fays Bardolph, it has done harm in this prefent quality of war, in a state of things fuch as is now before us, of war, indeed of inftant action. This is obfcure, but Mr. Pope's reading is ftill lefs reasonable. JOHNSON.

I have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, though I think we might read,

if the prefent quality of war Impel the inftant action.

Haftings fays, it never yet did hurt to lay down likelihoods and forms of hope. Yes, fays Bardolph, it has in every cafe like ours, where an army inferior in number, and waiting for fupplies, has, without that reinforcement, impell'd or hastily brought on an immediate action. STEEVENS.

Bb 4

Lives

Lives fo in hope, as in an early spring

We fee the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit,
Hope gives not fo much warrant, as despair

That frofts will bite them. When we mean to build,
We first furvey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we fee the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the coft of the erection :
Which, if we find outweighs ability,

What do we then but draw a-new the model
In fewer offices? or, at least, desist

To build at all? Much more, in this great work,
(Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down,
And fet another up) fhould we furvey
The plot of fituation, and the model;
Confent upon a fure foundation;

Question furveyors; know our own eftate,
How able fuch a work to undergo,
To weigh against his oppofite; or else,
We fortify in paper, and in figures,
Ufing the names of men instead of men:
Like one that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created coft
A naked fubject to the weeping clouds,
And wafte for churlish winter's tyranny.

Haft. Grant, that our hopes, yet likely of fair birth,
Should be ftill-born, and that we now poffefs'd
The utmoít man of expectation,

I think we are a body strong enough,

Even as we are, to equal with the king.

Bard. What is the king but five-and-twenty thou
fand?

Haft. To us, no more; nay, not fo much, lord
Bardolph.

For his divifions, as the times do brawl,

Are in three heads: one power against the French, And one against Glendower; perforce a third Muft take up us: fo is the unfirm king

In three divided; and his coffers found

With hollow poverty and emptinefs.

York. That he fhould draw his feveral ftrengths together,

And come against us in full puiffance,
Need not be dreaded.

Haft. 5 If he fhould do fo,

He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh Baying him at the heels: never fear that.

Bard. Who, is it like, fhould lead his forces hither? Haft. The duke of Lancaster and Westmorland : Against the Welsh, himself and Harry Monmouth : But who is fubftituted 'gainst the French

I have no certain notice.

York. Let us on;

And publish the occafion of our arms.

The commonwealth is fick of their own choice;
Their over-greedy love hath furfeited.-

An habitation giddy and unfure

Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
O thou fond many! with what loud applaufe
Didft thou beat heaven with bleffing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou would'ft have him be?
And now, being trimm'd up in thine own defires,
Thou, beaftly feeder, art fo full of him,
That thou provok'ft thyfelf to caft him up.
So, fo, thou common dog, didft thou difgorge
Thy glutton bofom of the royal Richard;
And now thou would'ft eat thy dead vomit up,
And howl'ft to find it. What truft is in these times?

5 If he should do fo,] This paffage is read in the first edition thus: If he should do fo, French and Welsh he leaves his back unarm'd, they baying him at the heels, never fear that. Thefe lines, which were evidently printed from an interlined copy not understood, are properly regulated in the next edition, and are here only mentioned to fhew what errors may be fufpected to remain. JOHNSON.

6 Let us on, &c.] This excellent fpeech of York was one of the paffages added by Shakespeare after his first edition. POPE.

They,

They, that when Richard liv'd, would have him die,
Are now become enamour'd on his grave:

Thou, that threw'ft duft upon his goodly head,
When through proud London he came fighing on
After the admired heels of Bolingbroke,
Cry'st now, O earth, give us that king again,
And take thou this! O thoughts of men accurst!
Paft and to come feem beft; things present worst.
Mowb. Shall we go draw our numbers, and fet on?
Haft. We are time's fubjects, and time bids be gone.
[Exit.

ACT II. SCENE I

A ftreet in London.

Enter Hoftefs, with two officers, Phang, bis boy, and Snare following.

HOSTESS.

"ASTER Phang, have you enter'd the action? Phang. It is enter'd.

MAST

Hoft. Where is your yeoman? Is it a lufty yeoman? Will a' ftand to it?

Phang. Sirrah, where's Snare?

Hoft. O lord, ay, good mafter Snare.

Snare. Here, here.

Phang. Snare, we must arrest Sir John Falstaff. Hoft. Ay, good master Snare; I have enter'd him and all.

Snare. It may chance cost some of us our lives, for he will stab.

Hoft. Alas the day! take heed of him; he stabb'd me in mine own house, and that most beastly: he cares

not