King HENRY the Fourth: HENRY, Prince of Wales, afterwards THOMAS, Duke of Clarence; Prince JOHN of Lancaster, afterwards Earl of WESTMORELAND ; GOWER; HARCOURT ; } his sons. of the king's party. Lord Chief Justice of the king's bench. A Gentleman attending on the chief justice. SCROOP, Archbishop of York; Lord MOWBRAY; Lord HASTINGS; Lord BARDOLPH; Sir JOHN Colevile ; enemies to the king. TRAVERS and MORTON, domestics of Northumberland. FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and Page. POINS and PETO, attendants on Prince Henry. SHALLOW and SILENCE, country justices. DAVY, servant to Shallow. MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, and BULLCAlf, re: cruits. FANG and SNARE, sheriff's officers. Rumour. A Porter. A Dancer, speaker of the Epilogue. Lady NORTHUMBERLAND. Lady PERCY. Hostess QUICKLY. DOLL TEAR-SHEET. Lords and other Attendants; Officers, Soldiers, Messenger, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, &c. SCENE-England. SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV. ACT I. SCENE I.-The same. The Porter before the gate; Enter Lord BARDOlph. Bardolph. WHO keeps the gate here, ho?-Where is the earl? Port. What shall I say you are? Bard. Tell thou the earl, That the lord Bardolph doth attend him here. Port. His lordship is walk'd forth into the orchard; Please it your honour, knock but at the gate, And he himself will answer. Enter Northumberland. Bard. Here comes the earl. North. What news, lord Bardolph ? every minute now Should be the father of some stratagem:1 The times are wild; contention, like a horse Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose, Bard. Noble earl, I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury. Bard. As good as heart can wish :- Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts [1] Stratagem means here some important or dreadful event. VOL. V. MASON. North. How is this deriv'd? Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury? Bar. I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence; A gentleman well bred, and of good name, That freely render'd me these news for true. North. Here comes my servant, Travers, whom I sent On Tuesday last to listen after news. Bard. My lord, I over-rode him on the way; And he is furnish'd with no certainties, More than he haply may retail from me. Enter TRAVERS. North. Now, Travers, what good tidings come with you? Tra. My lord, sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd, Outrode me. After him, came, spurring hard, A gentleman almost forspent with speed, That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse: North. Ha! -Again. Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold? Had met ill luck! Bard. My lord, I'll tell you what ; If my young lord your son have not the day, I'll give my barony: never talk of it. North. Why should the gentleman, that rode by Travers, Give then such instances of loss? Bard. Who, he? He was some hilding fellow, that had stol'n The horse he rode on: and, upon my life, [2] I think that I have observed in old prints the rowel of those times to have been only a single spike. JOHNSON. [3] So in Job, xxxix." He swalloweth the ground in fierceness and rage." [4] A point is a string tagged, or lace. JOHNSON. Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news, North. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf, So looks the strond, whereon th' imperious flood Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury? North. How doth my son, and brother? North. Why, he is dead. See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath! He, that but fears the thing he would not know, Hath, by instinct, knowledge from others' eyes, That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton; Tell thou thy earl, his divination lies; And I will take it as a sweet disgrace, And make thee rich for doing me such wrong. I see a strange confession in thine eye : Thou shak'st thy head; and hold'st it fear, or sin, The tongue offends not, that reports his death: [5] It may not be amiss to observe, that, in the time of our poet, the fitie-page to elegy, as well as every intermediate leaf, was totally black. STEEVENS. [6] Fear for danger. W KBURTON. And he doth sin, that doth belie the dead; Bard. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. From whence with life he never more sprung up. Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear, And Westmoreland: this is the news at full. [7] The bell, anciently was rung before expiration, and thence was called the passing bell, i. e. the hell that solicited prayers for the soul passing into another world. STEEVENS. [8] By faint quittance is meant a faint return of blows. STEEVENS. [9] Abated is not put here for the general idea of diminished, nor for the notion of blunted, as applied to a single edge. Abated means reduced to a lower temper, or, as the workmen call it, let down. JOHNSON. [1] Began to fall his courage, to let bis spirits sink under his fortune. JOHNS, |