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K. Hen. Why then, good morrow to you all,' my lords, Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you? War. We have, my liege,

K. Hen. Then you perceive, the body of our kingdom How foul it is; what rank diseases grow, And with what danger, near the heart of it.

War. It is but as a body, yet, distempered; Which to his former strength may be restored, With good advice, and little medicine.

My lord Northumberland will soon be cooled,

K. Hen. O Heaven! that one might read the book of fate,

And see the revolution of the times

Make mountains level, and the continent

Weary of solid firmness) melt itself

Into the sea! and, other times, to see

The beachy girdle of the ocean

Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock,
And changes fill the cup of alteration

With divers liquors! Ô, if this were seen,

The happiest youth-viewing his progress through,
What perils past, what crosses to ensue-

Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.

'Tis not ten years gone,

Since Richard, and Northumberland, great friends,
Did feast together, and, in two years after,
Were they at wars. It is but eight years since
This Percy was the man nearest my soul;
Who, like a brother, toiled in my affairs,
And laid his love and life under my foot;
Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard,
Gave him defiance. But which of you was by,3
(You, cousin Nevil, as I may remember,)

[TO WARWICK.

1 This mode of phraseology, where only two persons are addressed, is used again in King Henry VI. Part 2.

2 This and the three following lines are from the quarto copy.

3 The reference is to King Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 2: but neither Warwick nor the king were present at that conversation. Henry had then asrended the throne.

4 The earldom of Warwick was at this time in the family of Beaucha np,

When Richard with his eyes brimfull of tears,
Then checked and rated by Northumberland—
Did speak these words, now proved a prophecy?
Northumberland, thou ladder, by the which
My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne;
Though then, Heaven knows, I had no such intent,
But that necessity so bowed the state,

That I and greatness were compelled to kiss :——
The time shall come, thus did he follow it,
The time will come, that foul sin, gathering head,
Shall break into corruption ;-so went on,
Foretelling this same time's condition,
And the division of our amity.

War. There is a history in all men's lives,
Figuring the nature of the times deceased;
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life; which in their seeds,
And weak beginnings, lie intreasured.

Such things become the hatch and brood of time;
And, by the necessary form of this,

King Richard might create a perfect guess,
That great Northumberland, then false to him,
Would, of that seed, grow to a greater falseness;
Which should not find a ground to root upon,
Unless on you.

K. Hen.

Are these things then necessities? Then let us meet them like necessities:

And that same word even now cries out on us;

They say, the bishop and Northumberland

Are fifty thousand strong.

War.

It cannot be, my lord;

Rumor doth double, like the voice and echo,
The numbers of the feared:-Please it your grace
To go to bed; upon my life, my lord,

The powers that you already have sent forth,

and did not come into that of the Nevils till many years after; when Anne the daughter of this earl, married Richard Nevil, son of the earl of Salisbury, who makes a conspicuous figure in the Third Part of King Henry VI. under the title of earl of Warwick.

Shall bring this prize in very easily.

To comfort you the more, I have received
A certain instance, that Glendower is dead.1
Your majesty hath been this fortnight ill;

And these unseasoned hours, perforce, must add
Unto your sickness.

K. Hen.

I will take your counsel;

And, were these inward wars once out of hand,
We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. Court before Justice Shallow's House in Gloucestershire.

Enter SHALLOW and SILENCE, meeting; MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, BULL-CALF, and Servants, behind.

Shal. Come on, come on, come on; give me your hand, sir, give me your hand, sir: an early stirrer, by the rood. And how doth my good cousin Silence ? Sil. Good morrow, good cousin Shallow.

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Shal. And how doth my cousin, your bedfellow? and your fairest daughter, and mine, my god-daughter Ellen?

Sil. Alas, a black ouzel, cousin Shallow.

Shal. By yea and nay, sir, I dare say, my cousin William is become a good scholar. He is at Oxford, still, is he not?

Sil. Indeed, sir; to my cost.

Shal. He must then to the inns of court shortly. I was once of Clement's inn, where, I think, they will talk of mad Shallow yet.

Sil. You were called-lusty Shallow, then, cousin. Shal. By the mass, I was called any thing; and I would have done any thing, indeed, and roundly too. There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire, and

1 Glendower did not die till after king Henry IV Shakspeare was led into this error by Holinshed.

2 The rood is the cross or crucifix (rode, Sax.).

black George Bare, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele, a Cotswold man,'-you had not four such swinge-bucklers in all the inns of court again: and, I may say to you, we knew where the bona-robas were; and had the best of them all at commandment. Then was Jack Falstaff, now sir John, a boy, and page to Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk.

Sil. This sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about soldiers?

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Shal. The same sir John, the very same. I saw him break Skogan's head at the court gate, when he was a crack, not thus high; and the very same day did I fight with one Sampson Stock fish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's Inn. O, the mad days that I have spent! and to see how many of mine old acquaintance are dead!

Sil. We shall all follow, cousin.

Shal. Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very sure: death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all: all shall die. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair? Sil. Truly, cousin, I was not there.

Shal. Death is certain.-Is old Double of your town living yet?

Sil. Dead, sir.

Shal. Dead-See, see!-he drew a good bow:— And dead!-he shot a fine shoot:-John of Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on his head. Dead! he would have clapped i' the clout at twelve score; and carried you a forehand shaft a fourteen and fourteen and a half, that it would have done a

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1 The Cotswold hills in Gloucestershire were famous for rural sports of all kinds.

2 Swinge-bucklers and swash-bucklers were terms implying rakes and rioters.

3 "Buona-roba as we say, good stuff; a good, wholesome, plump-cheeked wench." Florio.

4 Shakspeare probably got his idea of Scogan from his jests, which were published by Andrew Borde in the reign of king Henry VIII. 5 A crack is a boy.

6 Hit the white mark at twelve score yards. By the statute 33 Hen. VIII. c. 9, every person turned of seventeen years of age, who shoots at a less distance than twelve score, is to forfeit six shillings and eight pence.

man's heart good to see.

now?

How a score of ewes

Sil. Thereafter as they be: a score of good ewes may be worth ten pounds.

Shal. And is old Double dead?

Enter BARDOLPH, and one with him.

Sil. Here come two of sir John Falstaff's men, as I think.

Bard. Good morrow, honest gentlemen: I beseech you, which is justice Shallow?

Shal. I am Robert Shallow, sir; a poor esquire of this county, and one of the king's justices of the peace. What is your good pleasure with me?

Bard. My captain, sir, commends him to you; my captain, sir John Falstaff; a tall gentleman, by Heaven, and a most gallant leader.

Shal. He greets me well, sir: I knew him a good backsword-man. How doth the good knight? may I ask how my lady his wife doth ?

Bard. Sir, pardon; a soldier is better accommodated, than with a wife.

Shal. It is well said, in faith, sir; and it is well said indeed too. Better accommodated!-it is good: yea, indeed, it is; good phrases are surely, and ever were, very commendable. Accommodated!-it comes from accommodo: very good; a good phrase.1

Bard. Pardon me, sir; I have heard the word. Phrase, call you it? By this good day, I know not the phrase; but I will maintain the word with my sword, to be a soldierlike word, and a word of exceeding good command. Accommodated: that is, when a man is, as they say, accommodated; or, when a man is,-being,-whereby, he may be thought to be accommodated; which is an excellent thing.

1 It appears that it was fashionable in the Poet's time to introduce this word accommodate upon all occasions. Ben Jonson, in his Discoveries, calls it one of the perfumed terms of the time.

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