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What! canft thou not forbear me half an hour?
Then get thee gone, and dig my grave thyfelf,
And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear,
That thou art crowned, not that I am dead.
-Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse,
Be drops of balm to sanctify thy head:
Only compound me with forgotten dust;
Give that, which gave thee life, unto the worms.-
Pluck down my officers, break my decrees;
For now a time is come to mock at form,
Henry the Fifth is crown'd:-Up, vanity!
Down, royal ftate! All you fage counfellors, hence!
And to the English court affemble now,
From every region, apes of idleness !

Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your fcum:
Have you a ruffian that will fwear, drink, dance,
Revel the night; rob, murder, and commit
The oldeft fins the newest kind of ways?

Be happy, he will trouble you no more:

2

England fhall double gild his treble guilt;

appears to have been unacquainted with the poet's manner, firft added the word frail to fupply the fyllable which he conceived to be wanting. The quarto writes the word bower. The other editors have followed Rowe. STEEVENS.

2

England fhall double gild his treble guilt ;] Evidently the nonfenfe of fome foolish player: for we must make a difference between what Shakefpeare might be fuppofed to have written off hand, and what he had corrected. Thefe fcenes are of the latter kind; therefore fuch lines by no means to be esteemed his. But except Mr. Pope (who judiciou"y threw out this line) not one of Shakespeare's editors feem ever to have had fo reafonable and neceffary a rule in their heads, when they fet upon correcting this author. WARBURTON.

I know not why this commentator should speak with so much confidence what he cannot know, or determine fo positively what fo capricious a writer as our poet might either deliberately or wantonly produce. This line is indeed fuch as difgraces a few that precede and follow it, but it fuits well enough with the daggers bid in thought, and whetted on the flinty hearts; and the answer which the prince makes, and which is applauded for wisdom, is not of a train much higher than this ejected line. JOHNSON.

England

England fhall give him office, honour, might;
For the Fifth Harry from curb'd licence plucks
The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog
Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent.
O my poor kingdom, fick with civil blows!
When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
What wilt thou do 3 when riot is thy care?
O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,
Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants.

P. Henry. O pardon me, my liege! but for my

tears,

The moist impediments unto my fpeech,

[Kneeling.

I had fore-ftall'd this dear and deep rebuke,
Ere you with grief had fpoke, and I had heard
The course of it fo far. There is your crown;
And He that wears the crown immortally,
Long guard it yours! If I affect it more
Than as your honour and as your renown,
4 Let me no more from this obedience rise;
Which my moft 5 true and inward-duteous fpirit
Teacheth this proftrate and exterior bending!
Heaven witness with me, when I here came in,
And found no courfe of breath within your majefty,
How cold it ftruck my heart! If I do feign,
O let me in my present wildness die,

And never live to fhew the incredulous world
The noble change that I have purposed!
Coming to look on you, thinking you dead,
(And dead almoft, my liege, to think you were)

3

when riot is thy care?] i. e. Curator. A bold figure. So Eumæus is ftiled by Ovid, Epist i.

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immundæ cura fidelis haræ." T. T.

4 Let me no more, &c.] This is obfcure in the construction, though the general meaning is clear enough. The order is, this obedience which is taught this exterior bending by my duteous Spirit; or, this obedience which teaches this exterior bending to my inwardly duteous fpirit. I know not which is right. JOHNSON.

S

VOL. V.

true-] Is loyal. JOHNSON.

Hh

I fpake

I spake unto the crown, as having sense,

And thus upbraided it: "The care on thee depend

«ing

"Hath fed upon the body of

my father; "Therefore thou best of gold art worst of gold: "Other, lefs fine in carrat, is more precious, Preferving life in med'cine potable:

"But thou, most fine, most honour'd, moft renown'd, "Haft eat thy bearer up." Thus, my most royal liege,

Accufing it, I put it on my head;

To try with it, as with an enemy
That had before my face murder'd my father,
The quarrel of a true inheritor.

But if it did infect my blood with joy,

Or fwell my thoughts to any ftrain of pride; any rebel or vain spirit of mine

If

Did, with the leaft affection of a welcome,
Give entertainment to the might of it;
Let heaven for ever keep it from my head,
And make me as the pooreft vaffal is,
That doth with awe and terror kneel to it!
K. Henry. O my fon!

Heaven put it in thy mind to take it hence,
That thou might'ft win the more thy father's love,
Pleading fo wifely in excuse of it.

Come hither, Harry, fit thou by my bed;

And hear, I think, the very latest counfel

That ever I fhall breathe. Heaven knows, my fon,
By what by-paths and indirect crook'd ways
I met this crown; and I myself know well
How troublesome it fat upon my head.
To thee it fhall defcend with better quiet,

in medicine potable:] There has long prevailed an opinion that a folution of gold has great medicinal virtues, and that incorruptibility of gold might be communicated to the body impregnated with it. Some have pretended to make potable gold among other frauds practifed on credulity.

JOHNSON.
Better

Better opinion, better confirmation;

For all the 3 foil of the atchievement goes
With me into the earth. It feem'd in me
But as an honour fnatch'd with boisterous hand,
And I had many living, to upbraid

My gain of it by their affiftances;

Which daily grew to quarrel, and to blood-fhed,
8 Wounding fuppofed peace. 9 All these bold fears
Thou feet with peril I have answered;

For all my reign hath been but as a scene
Acting that argument; and now my death

Changes the mode: for what in me was purchas'd, Falls upon thee in a more fairer fort,

So thou the garland wear'ft 2 fucceffively.

Yet, though thou ftand'ft more fure than I could do,
Thou art not firm enough, fince griefs are green;
And all thy friends, which thou must make thy friends,
Have but their ftings and teeth newly ta'en out,
By whofe fell working I was first advanc'd,
And by whofe power I well might lodge a fear

7

foil-] Is fpot, dirt, turpitude, reproach.

JOHNSON.

• Wounding fuppofed peace.] Suppofed for undermined.

WARBURTON. Rather counterfeited, imagined, not real. JOHNSON. All these bold fears] We fhould certainly read, All their bold feats,

9

i. e. Plots, commotions of confpirators. WARBURTON. There is no need of alteration.

Fear is here ufed in the

active fenfe, for that which caufes fear. JoHNSON.

Changes the mode:-] Mode, here, does not fignify fashion, but time and measure in finging, or the pitch in fpeaking: Modus, a word peculiar to the ancient drama: for the metaphor is continued from the words immediately preceding,

as a scene

Ading that argument

WARBURTON.

Mode is here, in its ufual fenfe, the form or state of things. Nothing is more eafy than to make obfcurities and clear them.

2

JOHNSON.

-fucceffively.] To order of fucceffion. Every ufurper fnatches a claim of hereditary right as foon as he can.

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To be again difplac'd: which to avoid

I cut them off; and had a purpose now
3 To lead out many to the Holy Land;
Left reft, and lying ftill, might make them look
Too near into my ftate. Therefore, my Harry,
Be it thy course to bufy giddy minds

With foreign quarrels; that action, hence, borne out,
May wafte the memory of the former days.
More would I, but my lungs are wafted fo,
That ftrength of speech is utterly deny'd me.
4 How I came by the crown, O God, forgive!
And grant it may with thee in true peace live!
P. Henry. My gracious liege,

You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me;
Then plain and right must my possession be:
Which I, with more than with a common pain,
'Gainft all the world will rightfully maintain.

Enter lord John of Lancaster, Warwick, &c.

K. Henry. Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster.

Lan. Health, peace, and happiness to my royal father!

K. Henry. Thou bring'ft me happiness and peace, fon John;

But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown

3 To lead out many to the Holy Land;] As plaufible as this reading is, it is corrupt. Shakespeare, I think, wrote,

To lead our many―our many or meiny, i. e. Our people.
WARBURTON.

As plaufible as this emendation is, I think it wrong. The fenfe is: Of those who affifted my ufurpation, fome I have cut off, and many I intended to lead abroad. This journey to the Holy Land, of which the king very frequently revives the mention, had two motives, religion and policy. He durft not wear the ill-gotten crown without expiation, but in the act of expiation he contrives to make his wickednefs fuccefsful. JOHNSON.

How I came, &c.] This is a true picture of a mind divided between heaven and earth. He prays for the prosperity of guilt while he deprecates its punishment. JOHNSON.

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