P. John. Fare you well, Falstaff: I, in my con- | And draw no swords but what are sanctified. Humphrey, my son of Gloster, K. Hen. And how accompanied? do not know, my lord. K. Hen. Is not his brother, Thomas of Clarence, with him? P. Humph. No, my good lord; he is in presence here. Cla. What would my lord and father? K. Hen. Nothing but well to thee, Thomas of Shall better speak of you than you deserve. [Exit. Fal. I would you had but the wit; 'twere better than your dukedom-Good faith, this same young sober-blooded boy doth not love me: nor a man cannot make him laugh;—but that's no marvel, he drinks no wine. There's never any of these demure boys come to any proof: for thin drink doth so over-cool their blood, and making many fish-Shall meals, that they fall into a kind of male green-sickness; and then, when they marry, they get wenches: they are generally fools and cowards ;-which some of us should be too, but for inflammation. A good sherris sack2 hath a two-fold operation in it. It ascends me into the brain; dries me there all the foolish and dull, and crudy vapours which environ it makes it apprehensive, quick, forgetive, full of nimble, fiery, and delectable shapes; which delivered o'er to the voice (the tongue,) which is the birth, becomes excellent wit. The second property of your excellent sherris is, the warming of the blood; which, before cold and settled, left the liver white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity How chance, thou art not with the prince thy broand cowardice: but the sherris warms it, and makes it course from the inwards to the parts extreme. It He loves thee, and thou dost neglect him, Thomas; illumineth the face: which, as a beacon, gives Thou hast a better place in his affection, warning to all the rest of this little kingdom, man, to Than all thy brothers: cherish it, my boy; arm: and then the vital commoners, and inland And noble offices thou may'st effect petty spirits, muster me all to their captain, the Of mediation, after I am dead, heart; who, great, and puffed up with this retinue, Between his greatness and thy other brethren :doth any deed of courage; and this valour comes Therefore, omit him not: blunt not his love: of sherris: So that skill in the weapon is nothing, Nor lose the good advantage of his grace, without sack; for that sets it a-work; and learning, By seeming cold or careless of his will. a mere hoard of gold kept by a devil; till sack For he is gracious, if he be observ'd ; commences it, and sets it in act and use. 5 Hereof He hath a tear for pity, and a hand comes it, that Prince Harry is valiant: for the cold Open as day for melting charity: blood he did naturally inherit of his father, he hath, like lean, steril, and bare land, manured, husbanded, and tilled, with excellent endeavour of drinking good, and good store of fertile sherris; that he is become very hot, and valiant. If I had a thousand sons, the first human principle I would teach them, should be,--to forswear thin potations, and addict themselves to sack. Enter BARDOLPH. How now, Bardolph? Bard. The army is discharged all, and gone. Fal. Let them go. I'll through Glostershire; and there will I visit master Robert Shallow, esquire: I have him already tempering between my tinger and my thumb, and shortly will I seal with him. Come away. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Westminster. A Room in the Palace. Enter KING HENRY, CLARENCE, PRINCE HUMPHREY, WARWICK, and others. K. Hen. Now, lords, if heaven doth give suc- To this debate that bleedeth at our doors, lord, means stand my friend, be my patron or bene- 1 Condition is most frequently used by Shakspeare for nature, disposition. The prince may therefore mean, I shall in my good nature speak better of you than you deserve.' 2 Vide note on King Henry IV. Part 1. Act. i. Sc. ii. 3 Inventive, imaginative. 4 It was anciently supposed that all the mines of gold, &c. were guarded by evil spirits. See the Secret Won. ders of Nature and Art, by Edw. Fenton, 1569, p. 91. 5 Commences it, that is brings it into action. Tyrwhitt thinks it is probable that there is an allusion to the commencement and act of the universities, which give to students a complete authority to use those hoards of learning which have entitled them to their degrees. As the dictionaries of the poet's time explain this matter, the conjecture seems probable. 6 A pleasant allusion to the old use of soft war for sealing. 7 Ready, prepared. To-morrow for our march are we address'd.' ther? Yet, notwithstanding, being incens'd, he's flint ; Learn this, 10 A flaw is a sudden gust of violent wind; alluding to the opinion of some philosophers, that the vapours be ing congealed in the air by cold (which is the most intense in the morning,) and being afterwards rarefied and let loose by the warmth of the sun, occasion those sudden and impetuous gusts of wind which are called flaws. Shakspeare uses the word again in King Henry VI. and in his Venus and Adonis. 11 Though their blood be inflamed by the temptations to which youth is peculiarly subject. 12 Aconitum, or aconite, wolfs-bane, a poisonous herb. Rush is sudden, hasty, violeni. K. Hen. Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds; The blood weeps from my heart, when I do shape, War. My gracious lord, you look beyond him The prince but studies his companions, guage, "Tis needful, that the most immodest word The prince will, in the perfectness of time, By which his grace must mete the lives of others; K. Hen. 'Tis seldom-when the bee doth leave In the dead carrion.-Who's here? Westmoreland? Enter WESTMORELAND. K. Hen. And wherefore should these good news Will fortune never come with both hands full, I should rejoice now at this happy news; P. Humph. Comfort, your majesty! O my royal father! West. My sovereign lord, cheer up yourself, look up! War. Be patient, princes; you do know, these fits tween :9 West. Health to my sovereign! and new hap- Say, it did so, a little time before And the old folk, time's doting chronicles, piness Added to that that I am to deliver! Prince John, your son, doth kiss your grace's hand: K. Hen. O Westmoreland, thou art a summer Which ever in the haunch of winter sings Har. From enemies heaven keep your majesty; The Earl Northumberland, and the Lord Bardolph, 1 Affections, in the language of Shakspeare's time, are passions, desires. Appetitus animi. 2 A parallel passage occurs in Terence : quo modo adolescentulus Meretricum ingenia et mores posset noscere Mature ut cum cognovit, perpetuo oderit.' 3 As the bee, having once placed her comb in a car cass, stays by her honey, so he that has once taken pleasure in bad company will continue to associate with those that have the art of pleasing him. That our great grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died. hence dull and slow were synonymous. 'Dullness, slowness; tarditas, tardivete. Somewhat dull or slowce; tardiusculus, tardelet;' says Baret. But Shakspeare uses dulness for drowsiness in the Tempest. And Baret has also this sense :- Slow, dull, asleepe, drousie, astonied, heavie; torpidus. It has always been thought that slow music induces sleep. Ariel enters playing so lemn music to produce this effect, in the Tempest. The notion is not peculiar to our great poet, as the following 5 Mure for wall is another of Shakspeare's Latin-exquisite lines, almost worthy of his hand, may witisms. It was not in frequent use by his cotemporaries. Wrought it thin is made it thin by gradual detriment: wrought being the preterite of work. 4 The detail contained in Prince John's letter. 6 To fear anciently signified to make afraid, as well as to dread. A vengeance light on thee that so doth feare me, or makest me so feared.'-Baret. 7 That is, equivocal births, monsters. 8 i. e. as if the year. 9 An historical fact. On Oct. 12, 1411, this happened. 10 Johnson asserts that dull here signifies melan ness : 'Oh, lull me, lull me, charming air, Grief who need fear Down let him lie, And change his soul for harmony." choly, gentle, soothing, Malone says that it means (From Wit Restored, 1658.) They are attributed to producing dullness or heaviness.' The fact is that Dr. Strode, who died in 1644. P. Humph. He alter'd much upon the hearing it. For this the foolish over-careful fathers With joy, he will recover without physic. The king your father is dispos'd to sleep. War. Will't please your grace to go along with us P. Hen. No; I will sit and watch here by the This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep, Into one giant arm, it shall not force Cla. [Exit. Re-enter WARWICK, and the rest. Doth the king call! War. What would your majesty? How fares your grace? K. Hen. Why did you leave me here alone, my lords? Cla. We left the prince my brother here, my liege, Who undertook to sit and watch by vou. Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their brains with care, Their bones with industry; For this they have engrossed and pil'd up Their sons with arts, and martial exercises : Our thighs pack'd with wax, our mouths with honey, Now, where is he that will not stay so long Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks; Re-enter PRINCE HENRY. [Exeunt CLARENCE, PRINCE HUMPHREY, Lords, Sc. P. Hen. I never thought to hear you speak again. K. Hen. Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought: I stay too long by thee, I weary thee. Dost thou so hunger for my empty chair, thee. That thou wilt needs invest thee with mine honours K. Hen. The prince of Wales? Where is he? To stab at half an hour of my He is not here. War. This door is open; he is gone this way. P. Humph. He came not through the chamber where we stay'd. K. Hen. Where is the crown? who took it from my pillow? War. When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here. K. Hen. The prince hath ta'en it hence :--go, seek him out; Is he so hasty, that he doth suppose Find him, my lord of Warwick; chide him hither. [Exit WARWICK. This part of his conjoins with my disease, And helps to end me..-See, sons, what things you are ! How quickly nature falls into revolt, 1 The hint only of this beautiful scene is taken from Holinshed, p. 541. The poet has wrought up the bare bald narration of the chronicler in the most pathetic and poetical manner. 2 Gates. 3 A biggin was a head-band of coarse cloth; so called because such a forehead-cloth was worn by the Beguines, an order of nuns. Upon his head he wore a filthy coarse biggin, and next it a garnish of night-caps.' Nash, speaking of a miser in his Pierce Penniless. life. What! canst thou not forbear me half an hour? 4 i. e. circle; probably from the old Italian rigolo, a 7 i. e. ended. It is still used in that sense in legal conveyances. Si. e. confirmed my opinion. 9 Hour, anciently written hower, is used sometimes as a dissyllable, as well by Shakspeare as others. 10 This playing upon words seems to have been high. ly admired in the age of Shakspeare. England shall give him office, honour, might: The moist impediments unto my speech, How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign, But thou, most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd, To try with it,-as with an enemy, That had before my face murder'd my father,- But if it did infect my blood with joy, Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride; Did, with the least affection of a welcome, That doth with awe and terror kneel to it! How troublesome it sat upon my head: That ever I shall breathe. Heaven knows, my son, By what by-paths, and indirect crook'd ways, I met this crown; and I myself know well, I The Variorum Shakspeare reads:- Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed, Let me no more from this obedience rise (Which my most true and inward duteous spirit Teacheth,) this prostrate and exterior bending! Johnson and others have considered this passage as obscure in the construction; but it was only made so by their wrong pointing. The obvious sense is, Let me no more rise from this obeisance, which my most loyal and inwardly duteous spirit teacheth this prostrate and exterior bending.' Obeisance and obedience were formerly used indiscriminately the one for the other. Truth is always used for loyalty. 2 It was long a prevailing opinion that a solution of gold had great medicinal virtues; and that the incorruptibility of the metal might be communicated to the body impregnated with it. Potable gold was one of the pa nacea of ancient quacks. 3 Soil is stain, spot, blemish. 4 Supposed peace is imagined peace, counterfeit, not real. 5 Fears are objects of fear; terrors. 6 The mode is the state or form of things. Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out; 7 Purchas'd here signifies obtained by eager pursuit. It is from the French pourchas, and was sometimes so spelled when used to signify the obtaining of lands or With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out, May waste the memory of the former days. You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me; Enter PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, WARWICK, K. Hen. Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster. P. John. Health, peace, and happiness, to my royal father! K. Hen. Thou bring'st me happiness, and peace, son John; But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown P. Hen. honours by any other means than by title or descent. See Spelman's Glossary, in purchacia; and Minshew's Guide to the Tongues, in pourchas. 8 i. e. by order of succession. Johnson observes that 'every usurper snatches a claim of hereditary right as soon as he can.' So did Richard Cromwell in his first speech to parliament :-For my own part being, by the providence of God, and the disposition of the law, my father's successor, and bearing the place in the government that I do,' &c.-Harleian Miscellany, vol i. p. 21. 9 Mason proposes to read 'I cut some of, which seems indeed necessary. The sense would then be, Some I have cut off, and many I intended to lead to the Holy Land.' 10 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. 11 At length he recovered his speech and understanding, and perceiving himselfe in a strange place, which he knew not, he willed to know if the chamber had anie particular name, whereunto answer was made, that it was called Jerusalem. Then said the king, Lauds be given to the Father of Heaven, for now I know that I shall die here in this chamber, according to the prophesie, SCENE I. Glostershire. A Hall in Shallow's Shal. By cock and pye,' sir, you shall not away to-night. What, Davy, I say! Fal. You must excuse me, master Robert Shallow. Shal. I will not excuse you; you shall not be excused; excuses shall not be admitted; there is no excuse shall serve; you shall not be excused.Why, Davy! Davy. Here, sir. Enter DAVY. Shal. With red wheat, Davy. But for William cook:Are there no young pigeons? Davy. Yes, sir. Here is now the smith's note, for shoeing, and plough-irons. Davy. I grant your worship, that he is a knave, sir: but yet, God forbid, sir, but a knave should have some countenance at his friend's request. An honest man, sir, is able to speak for himself, when a knave is not. I have served your worship truly, sir, this eight years; and if I cannot once or twice in a quarter bear out a knave against an honest man, I have but a very little credit with your worship. The knave is mine honest friend, sir; therefore, I beseech your worship, let him' be counte nanced. Look about, Davy. [Exit DAVY.] Where are you, Bard. I am glad to see your worship. Bardolph:-and welcome, my tall fellow. [To the Fal. I'll follow you, good master Robert Shallow. Bardolph, look to our horses. [Exeunt BARDOLPH and Page.] If I were sawed into quantities, I Shal. Davy, Davy, Davy,―let me see, Davy; should make four dozen of such bearded hermit'slet me see-yea, marry, William cook, bid him staves as master Shallow. It is a wonderful thing, come hither.-Sir John, you shall not be excused. to see the semblable coherence of his men's spirits Davy. Marry, sir, thus ;-those precepts cannot and his: They, by observing him, do bear thembe served: and, again, sir,-Shall we sow the head-selves like foolish justices; he, by conversing with land with wheat? them, is turned into a justicelike serving-man; their spirits are so married in conjunction with the participation of society, that they flock together in consent, like so many wild geese. If I had a suit to master Shallow, I would humour his men, with the imputation of being near their master: if to his men, I would curry with master Shallow, that no man could better command his servants. It is certain, that either wise bearing, or ignorant carriage, is caught, as men take diseases, one of another: therefore, let men take heed of their company. will devise matter enough out of this Shallow, to keep Prince Harry in continual laughter, the wearing-out of six fashions (which is four terms, or two actions,) and he shall laugh without intervallums. O, it is much, that a lie, with a slight oath, and a jest, with a sad brow," will do with a fellow that never had the ache in his shoulders! O, you shall see him laugh, till his face be like a wet cloak ill Shal. Let it be cast, and paid:-Sir John, you shall not be excused. Davy. Now, sir, a new link to the bucket must needs be had;-And, sir, do you mean to stop any of William's wages, about the sack he lost the other day at Hinckley fair? Shal. He shall answer it :- -Some pigeons, Davy; a couple of short-legged hens; a joint of mutton; and any pretty little tiny kickshaws, tell William cook. Davy. Doth the man of war stay all night, sir? Shal. Yes, Davy. I will use him well; A friend i' the court is better than a penny in purse.4 Use his men well, Davy; for they are arrant knaves, and will backbite. Davy. No worse than they are back-bitten, sir; for they have marvellous foul linen. Shal. Well conceited, Davy. About thy business, Davy. Davy. I beseech you, sir, to countenance William Visor of Wincots against Clement Perkes of the hill. Shal. There are many complaints, Davy, against that Visor; that Visor is an arrant knave on my knowledge. laid up. Shal. [Within.] Sir John! I as by cock and pie, by the mouse foot, and many such of me declared, that I should depart this life in Jerusa-like. lem.-Holinshed, p. 541. The late Dr. Vincent pointed out a remarkable coincidence in a passage of Anna Comnena (Alexias, lib. vi. p. 162, ed. Paris, 1658,) relating to the death of Robert Guiscard, king of Sicily, in a place called Jerusalem, at Cephalonia. In Lodge's Devils Conjured is a similar story of Pope Sylvester; but the Pope cutwitted the Devil. And Fuller, in his Church History, b. v. p. 178, relates something of the same kind about Cardinal Wolsey, of whom it had been predicted that he should have his end at Kingston. Which was thought to be fulfilled by his dying in the custody of Sir William Kingston. I This adjuration, which seems to have been a popular substitute for profane swearing, occurs in several old plays. By cock is supposed to be a corruption or disguise of the name of God in favour of pious ears: but the addition of pie has not yet been satisfactorily accounted for. It has been conjectured that it may be only a ludicrous oath by the common sign of an alehouse, The Cock and Magpie, or Cock and Pie, being a most ancient and favourite sign. It should appear from the following passage, in A Catechisme containing the Summe of Religion, by George Giffard, 1583, that it was not considered as a corruption of the sacred name. "Men suppose that they do not offende when they do not sweare falsely; and because they will not take the name of God to abuse it, they sware by small things; 2 Precepts are warrants. Davy has almost as many employments as Scrub in the Beaux Stratagem. 3 i. e. cast up, computed. 4 A friend in court is worth a penny in purse,' is one of Camden's proverbial sentences. See his Remaines, 4to. 1605. 5 Wilnecote or Wincot, is a village in Warwickshire, near Stratford. The old copies read Woncot. tice in Shakspeare's time. Sir Nicholas Bacon, in a 6 This is no exaggerated picture of the course of jus speech to parliament, 1559, says, 'Is it not a monstrous some for gain, enditing others for malice, bearing with disguising to have a justice a maintainer, acquitting him as his servant, overthrowing the other as his enemy D'Ewes, p. 34. He repeats the same words again in 1571. 16. 153. A member of the house of commons. in 1601, says, A justice of peace is a living creature, that for half a dozen chickens will dispense with a dezen of penal statutes,' &c. ̧ Consent is accord, agreement; a combination for any particular purpose. Baret renders' secta, a divers consente in sundry wilful opinions.' 8 i.e. admitted to their master's confidence. 9 There is something humorous in making a spend. thrift compute time by the operation of an action for debt. 10 i. e. a serious face. |