SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV. ACT I. The Porter before the gate; Enter Lord BARDOLPH. SCENE 1.-The same. W Bardolph. HO 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 Shrewbury. Bard. As good as heart can wish :— Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts [1] Stratagem means here some important or dreadful event. 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? That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse: North. Ha! Again. Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold? 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 Trav ers, 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 sing spike JOHN ON. 3 So in Job xxxix."H swalloweth the grown 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 the imperious flood Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury? North. How doth my son, and brother? And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd: 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. Mort. You are too great to be by me gainsaid Your spirit is too true,your fears too certain. North. Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead. 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 uot be amiss to observe, that, in the time of our poet, the title page to an elegy, as well as every intermediate leaf, was totally black. STE (6) Fear for danger. WARB. 24 VOL. IV. And he doth sin, that doth belie the dead; Remember'd knolling a departing friend.7 Bard. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. Mort. I am sorry, I should force you to believe That, which I would to heaven I had not seen : But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state, 8 Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out-breath'd, 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 bell that solicited prayers for the soul passing into another world. STEEV. (8) By faint quittance is meant a faint return of blows. STEEV. (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. JOHNS. (1) Began to fall his courage, to let his spirits sink under his fortune. JOHNS North. For this I shall have time enough to mourn. Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs, : Must glove this hand and hence, thou sickly quoif; Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit. Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set Tra. This strained passion doth you wrong, my lord. You cast the event of war, my noble lord, And summ'd the account of chance, before you said,- (2) Bend; yield to pressure. JOHN. (3) The conclusion of this noble speech is extremely striking. There is no need to suppose it exactly philosophical; darkness, in poetry, may be absence of eyes, as well as privation of light. Yet we may remark, that by an ancient opinion it has been held, that if the human race, for whom the world was made, were extirpated, the whole system of sublunary nature would cease. JOHNS (4) The dole of blows is the distribution of blows. Dole originally signified the portion of alms (consisting either of meat or money) that was given away at the door of a nobleman. STEEV. |