Enter Northumberland.

Welcome, my lord: what is the news?

North. Firft to thy facred state wish I all happiness; The next news is, I have to London fent

The heads of Salifbury, Spencer, Blunt, and Kent: The manner of their taking may appear

At large difcourfed in this paper here.

[Prefenting a paper. Boling. We thank thee, gentle Percy, for thy pains; And to thy worth will add right-worthy gains.

Enter Fitzwalter.

Fitz. My lord, I have from Oxford fent to London The heads of Brocas, and Sir Bennet Seeley; Two of the dangerous conforted traitors, That fought at Oxford thy dire overthrow.

Boling. Thy pains, Fitzwalter, fhall not be forgot; Right noble is thy merit, well I wot.

Enter Percy, with the bishop of Carlife.

Percy. The grand confpirator, Abbot of Westminster.
With clog of conscience, and four melancholy,
Hath yielded up his body to the grave:
But here is Carlifle living, to abide

Thy kingly doom, and fentence of his pride.
Boling. Carlifle, this is your doom:

Chufe out fome fecret place, fome reverend room
More than thou haft, and with it joy thy life;
So, as thou liv'ft in peace, die free from ftrife.
For though mine enemy thou haft ever been,
High fparks of honour in thee I have seen.

Enter Exton, with a coffin.

Exton. Great king, within this coffin I prefent
Thy bury'd fear: herein all breathless lies
The mightiest of thy greatest enemies,

Richard of Bourdeaux, by me hither brought.

Baling.

Boling. Exton, I thank thee not; for thou haft wrought

A deed of flander with thy fatal hand,

Upon my head, and all this famous land.

Exton. From your own mouth, my lord, did I this deed.

Boling. They love not poison, that do poifon need,
Nor do I thee: though I did wish him dead,
I hate the murderer, love him murdered.

The guilt of confcience take thou for thy labour,
But neither my good word, nor princely favour:
With Cain go wander through the fhade of night,
And never fhew thy head by day, nor light.
Lords, I proteft, my foul is full of woe,

That blood fhould fprinkle me, to make me grow.
Come, mourn with me for what I do lament,
And put on fullen black, incontinent:

I'll make a voyage to the Holy-land,

To wash this blood off from my guilty hand:-
March fadly after; grace my mourning here,
In weeping over this untimely bier. [Exeunt omnes

This play is extracted from the Chronicle of Hollinfhed, in which many paffages may be found which Shakespeare has, with very little alteration, tranfplanted into his fcenes; particularly a fpeech of the bishop of Carlisle in defence of king Richard's unalienable right, and immunity from human jurifdiction.

Jonfon who, in his Catiline and Sejanus, has inferted many fpeeches from the Roman hiftorians, was perhaps induced to that practice by the example of Shakespeare, who had condefcended fometimes to copy more ignoble writers. But Shakefpeare had more of his own than Jonfon, and, if he fometimes was willing to spare his labour, fhewed by what he performed at other times, that his extracts were made by choice or idleness rather than neceffity.

This play is one of thofe which Shakespeare has apparently revifed; but as fuccefs in works of invention is not always proportionate to labour, it is not finished at laft with the happy force of fome other of his tragedies, nor can be faid much to affect the paffions, or enlarge the understanding. JoHNSON,

THE FIRST PART OF

HENRY IV.

WITH THE

LIFE AND DEATH

O F

HENRY, Sirnamed HOTSPUR.

Perfons Represented.

King HENRY the Fourth.
Henry, prince of Wales,

John, duke of Lancaster, Sons to the king.

Worcester.

Northumberland.
Hotspur.
Mortimer.

Archbishop of York.
Douglas.

Owen Glendower.
Sir Richard Vernon.
Sir Michael.

Weftmorland.

Sir Walter Blunt.

Sir John Falstaff.

Poins.

Gadfhill.

Peto.

Bardolph.

Lady Percy, wife to Hotfpur.

Lady Mortimer, daughter to Glendower, and wife to Mortimer.

Hostess Quickly.

Sheriff, vintner, chamberlain, drawers, two carriers, travellers, and attendants.

The perfons of the drama were first collected by Rowe.

SCENE, England.