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Pluck down my officers, break my decrees;
For now a time is come to mock at form.
Harry the fifth is crown'd:-Up, vanity!
Down, royal state! all you sage counsellors,
hence!

And to the English court assemble now,
From every region, apes of idleness!

Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your scum:
Have you a ruffian that will swear, drink, dance,
Revel the night; rob, murder, and commit
The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?
Be happy, he will trouble you no more :
England shall double gild his treble guilt:
England shall 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 in every innocent.
O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!
When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?
O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,
Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants!

P. Hen. O, pardon me, my liege! but for my tears,

[Kneeling.

The moist impediments unto my speech,
I had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke,
Ere you with grief had spoke, and I had heard
The course of it so 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,
Let me no more from this obedience rise,—
(Which my most true and inward duteous spirit
Teacheth,)-this prostrate and exterior bending!
Heaven witness with me, when I here came in
And found no course of breath within your

majesty,

How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign,
O, let me in my present wildness die;
And never live to shew the incredulous world
The noble change that I have purposed!
Coming to look on you, thinking you dead,
(And dead almost, my liege, to think you were,)
I spake unto the crown as having sense,
And thus upbraided it :-The care on thee de-
pending

Hath fed upon the body of my father;
Therefore, thou, best of gold, art worst of gold.
Other, less fine in carat, is more precious,
Preserving life in med'cine potable;"

But thou, most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd,

Med eine potable. The allusion is here to aurum polabile, a preparation of gold to which great virtues were formerly ascribed.

Hast eat thy bearer up.'-Thus, my most royal liege,

Accusing 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 swell my thoughts to any strain of pride;
If any rebel or vain spirit of mine
Did, with the least 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 poorest vassal is,
That doth with awe and terror kneel to it.
K. Hen. O my son!

Heaven put it in thy mind to take it hence,
That thou might'st win the more thy father's
love,

Pleading so wisely in excuse of it.
Come hither, Harry sit thou by my bed;
And hear, I think, the very latest counsel
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
How troublesome it sat upon my head:
To thee it shall descend with better quiet,
Better opinion, better confirmation;
For all the soil of the achievement goes
With me into the earth. It seem'd in me
But as an honour snatch'd with boisterous hand;
And I had many living, to upbraid
My gain of it by their assistances;
Which daily grew to quarrel, and to bloodshed,
Wounding supposed peace: all these bold fears,
Thou see'st, with peril I have answered:
For all my reign hath been but as a scene
Acting that argument; and now my death
Changes the mood: for what in me was pur-
chas'd,

Falls

upon thee in a more fairer sort; So thou the garland wear'st successively. Yet, though thou stand'st more sure than I could do,

Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green; And all my friends, which thou must make thy friends,

Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out;
By whose fell working I was first advanc'd,
And by whose power I well might lodge a fear
To be again displac'd: which to avoid,
I cut them off; and had a purpose now
To lead out many to the Holy Land;
Lest rest, and lying still, might make them look
Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry,

Be it thy course, to busy giddy minds With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out,

May waste the memory of the former days.
More would I, but my lungs are wasted so,
That strength of speech is utterly denied me.
How I came by the crown, O Heaven forgive!
And grant it may with thee in true peace live!
P. Hen. 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,
'Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain.

Enter PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, Warwick, Lords, and others.

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

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RECENT NEW READING.

Sc. I. p. 268.-"To a loud trumpet, and a point of war." "To a loud trumpet and report of war."-Collier.

Let us look at the entire passage as we have printed it in the text:

"Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself,

Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace,
Into the harsh and boist'rous tongue of war?
Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,
Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine
To a loud trumpet, and a point of war?"

Mr. Collier says-" Here 'point of war' can have no mean· ing." The above ought to be printed thus, on the authority of the Corrector,

"Your tongue divine

To a loud trumpet and report of war."

In 'Waverley' we have the following passage:-" The trumpets and kettledrums of the cavalry were next heard to perform the beautiful and wild point of war appropriated as a signal for that piece of nocturnal duty." Of course, when Walter Scott wrote this passage he was deceived by the "no meaning" of the common Shaksperes. Had the word become obsolete when the Corrector changed it to report? or was the Corrector a caterer for the public taste himself, or one who waited upon the caterers to register their "emendations," in all cases where it was desirable to

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1 SCENE I.-" Gualtree forest."

THIS forest is in the North Riding of Yorkshire. and was formerly called Galtres forest. It is thus mentioned by Skelton :

"Thus stode I in the frythy forest of Galtres." Frythy is woody.

2 SCENE I." Whose white investments figure innocence."

The ordinary costume of a bishop, not only when he was performing his episcopal functions, but when he appeared in public, and even when he travelled, was a vestment of white linen. From a passage in a letter of Erasmus, it appears that Fisher, bishop of Rochester, when he was about to cross the sea, laid aside his linen vest, "which they always use in England."

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3 SCENE I." Their beavers down.'

In Hamlet, Act I. Scene II., we find this passage, "He wore his beaver up." In the first Part of Henry IV., page 213, we have seen that the beaver was sometimes used to express a helmet generally. The passage before us, and the passage in Hamlet, have been considered contradictory; and some have supposed that Shakspere confounded the beaver and visor. Douce shews that both the beaver and visor moved up,-and when so, the face was exposed; when the beaver was down, the face was covered; -and the beaver and visor were both down in the battle or the tournament. The following representations, which are taken from Meyrick and Skelton's Ancient Armour, will be more satisfactory than any verbal description:

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1. 2. 3. Helmet belonging to a suit of cap-a-pee armour, of the date 1495, preserved in the collection of Sir Samuel Meyrick, Goodrich Court. 1. Profile of the helmet, with the opening for the face closed by the visor a, and the beaver, b. 2. Ditto, half opened by the elevation of the visor, a. 3. Front view, ditto.

Some helmets were, however, so constructed, that the beaver, being composed of falling overlapping plates, exposed the face when it was down.

4. "An armet" (from specimens in Goodrich Court) of the time of Philip and Mary, the umbril of which has attached to it three wide bars to guard the face, over which the beaver, formed of three overlapping lames perforated, is made to draw up.

5. "A helmet" (ditto) of the time of Queen Elizabeth. This has a visor and beaver. The latter when up exposes the face, while in the armet, Fig. 4, such a position guards it. I HISTORIES.-VOL. I. 2 N

This "armet," however, appears to have been of an unusual construction. Shakspere alludes to the common beaver both in Hamlet and in the passage before us; and in these no contradiction is involved.

4 SCENE III. "I will have it in a particular ballad," &c.

In Ben Jonson's 'Bartholomew Fair' we have the following passage: "O, sister, do you remember the ballads over the nursery chimney at home, o' my own pasting up? there be brave pictures Very few ballads of Shakspere's time appeared without the decoration of a rude wood-cut; some. times referring to the subject matter of the ballad, sometimes giving a portrait of the queen. These fugitive productions, Gifford says, came out every term in incredible numbers, and were rapidly dispersed over the kingdom, by shoals of itinerant syrens."

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I think he's gone to hunt, my lord, at Windsor."

The forest of Windsor was the favourite hunting 279

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The following extracts from Holinshed describe the progress of the insurrection of Scroop and Northumberland. These passages are evidently the historical authorities which the poet consulted:—

"Raufe Nevill, Earl of Westmoreland, that was not far off, together with the lord John of Lancaster, the king's son, being informed of this rebellious attempt, assembled together such power as they might make, and coming into a plain within the forest of Galtree, caused their standards to be pight down in like sort as the archbishop had pight his, over against them, being far stronger in number of people than the other, for (as some write) there were of the rebels at the least eleven thousand men. When the Earl of Westmoreland perceived the force of alversaries, and that they lay still and attempted not to come forward upon him, he subtilely devised how to quail their purpose, and forthwith dispatched messengers unto the archbishop to understand the cause, as it were, of that great assemble, and for what cause, contrary to the king's peace, they came so in armour. The archbishop answered, that he took nothing in hand against the king's peace, but that whatever he did, tended rather to advance the peace and quiet of the commonwealth, than otherwise, and where he and his company were in arms, it was for fear of the king, to whom he could have no free access by reason of such a multitude of flatterers as were about him, and therefore he maintained that his purpose was good and profitable, as well for the king himself, as for the realm, if men were willing to understand a truth and herewith he showed forth a scroll in which the articles were written, whereof before ye have heard. messengers returning unto the Earl of Westmoreland showed him what they had heard and brought from the archbishop. When he had read the articles, he showed in word and countenance outwardly that he liked of the archbishop's holy and virtuous intent and purpose, promising that he and his would prosecute the same in assisting the arch

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bishop, who, rejoicing hereat, gave credit to the earl, and persuaded the Earl Marshal against his will as it were to go with him to a place appointed for them to commune together. Here, when they were met with like number on either part, the articles were read over, and without any more ado, the Earl of Westmoreland and those that were with him agreed to do their best to see that a reformation might be had according to the same. The Earl of Westmoreland using more policy than the rest: Well (said he) then our travail is come to the wished end; and where our people have been long in armour, let them depart home to their wonted trades and occupations in the mean time let us drink together, in sign of agreement, that the people on both sides may see it, and know that it is true that we be light at a point. They had no sooner shaked hands together but that a knight was sent straightways from the archbishop to bring word to the people that there was a peace concluded, commanding each man to lay aside arms, and to resort home to their houses. The people beholding such tokens of peace as shaking of hands and drinking together of the lords in loving manner, brake up their field and returned homewards: but in the mean time, whilst the people of the archbishop's side withdrew away, the number of the contrary part increased, according to order given by the Earl of Westmoreland, and yet the archbishop perceived not that he was deceived, till the Earl of Westmoreland arrested both him and the Earl Marshal, with divers other. Their troops being pursued, many were taken, many slain, and many spoiled of that they had about them, and so permitted to go their ways."

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"The Earl of Northumberland and the Lord Bardolf, after they had been in Wales, in France, and Flanders, to purchase aid against King Henry, were returned back into Scotland, and had remained there now (1408) for the space of a whole year; and as their evil fortune would, whilst the king held a

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council of the nobility at London, the said Earl of Northumberland and Lord Bardolf, in a dismal hour, with a great power of Scots, returned into England, recovering divers of the earl's castles and seigniories, for the people in great numbers resorted unto them. Hereupon encouraged with hope of good success, they enter into Yorkshire, and there began to destroy the country. king advertised hereof, caused a great army to be assembled, and came forward with the same towards his enemies: but ere the king came to Nottingham, Sir Thomas (or, as other copies have, Raufe) Rokesby, sheriff of Yorkshire, assembled the forces of the country to resist the earl and his power, coming to Grimbaut Brigges, beside Knaresborough,

there to stop them the passage; but they, returning aside, got to Weatherby, and so to Tadcaster, and finally came forward unto Branham Moor, near to Hayselwood, where they chose their ground meet to fight upon. The sheriff was as ready to give battle as the earl to receive it, and so with a standard of St. George spread, set fiercely upon the earl, who, under a standard of his own arms, encountered his adversaries with great manhood. There was a sore encounter and cruel conflict betwixt the parties, but in the end the victory fell to the sheriff. The Earl of Northumberland was slain in the field, and the Lord Bardolf was taken, but sore wounded, so that he shortly after died of the hurts."

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