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SECOND PART

OP

KING HENRY IV.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

SHAKSPEARE is supposed to have written this play in 1598. Its action comprehends a period of nine years, commencing with Hotspur's death, 1403, and terminating with the coronation of Henry V. 1412-13. Many of the tragic scenes in this second portion of the history are forcible and pathetic; but the comedy is of a much looser and more indecent character, than any in the preceding part. Shallow is an odd though pleasing por trait of a brainless magistrate; and a character, it is to be feared, not peculiar to Glostershire only. In thus exhibiting his worship to the ridicule of an audience, Shakspeare amply revenged himself on his old WarOn the character of Falstaff, as exhibited in the two plays, Dr. Johnson makes the wickshire prosecutor. following admirable remarks: "Falstaff unimitated, unimitable Falstaff, how shall I describe thee; thou compound of sense and vice; of sense which may be admired, but not esteemed; of vice which may be despised, but hardly detested. Falstaff is a character loaded with faults, and with those faults which naturally produce contempt. He is a thief and a glutton, a coward and a boaster; always ready to cheat the weak, and prey upon the poor; to terrify the timorous, and insult the defenceless. At once obsequious and malignant, be satirizes in their absence those whom he lives by flattering. He is familiar with the prince, only as an agent of vice; but of this familiarity he is so proud, as not only to be supercilious and haughty with common men, but to think his interest of importance to the Duke of Lancaster. Yet the man thus corrupt, thus despicable, makes himself necessary to the prince that despises him, by the most pleasing of all qualities, perpetual gaity; by an unfailing power of exciting laughter, which is the more freely indulged, as his wit is not of the splendid or ambitious kind, but consists in easy scapes and sallies of levity, which make sport, but raise no envy. It must be observed, that he is stained with no enormous or sanguinary crimes, so that his licentiousness is not so offensive but that it may be borne for his mirth,"

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Make fearful musters and prepar'd defence;
Whilst the big year, swoll'n with some other

grief,

Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures;
And of so easy and so plain a stop,

That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still-discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus
My well-known body to anatomize

Among my household? Why is Rumour here ?
I run before king Harry's victory;

Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,

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 retain 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,
Out-rode me. After him, came spurring hard,

Hath beaten down young Hotspur, and his A gentleman almost forspent with speed,

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That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied
horse:

He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him
I did demand, what news from Shrewsbury.
He told me, that rebellion had bad luck,
And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold;
With that, he gave his able horse the head,
And, bending forward, struck his armed heels
Against the panting sides of his poor jade
Up to the rowel-head; and, starting so,
He seem'd in running to devour the way,
Staying no longer question.

North. Ha!——Again.

Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold!
Of Hotspur, coldspur ? that rebellion
Had met ill-luck!

Bard. My lord, I'll tell you what ;-
If my young lord your son have not the day,
Upon mine honour, for a silken point
I'll give my barony: never talk of it.
North. Why should the gentleman, that rede
by Travers,

Give then such instances of loss?

Bard. Who, he?

He was some hilding fellow, that had stol'a
The horse he rode on; and, upon my life,
Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more

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North. What news, lord Bardolph ? every To fright our party.

minute now

Should be the father of some stratagem : +
The times are wild; contention, like a horse
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose,
And bears down all before him.

Bard. Noble earl,

I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.
North. Good, an heaven will!
Bard. As good as heart can wish :-
The king is almost wounded to the death;
And, in the fortune of my lord your son,
Prince Harry slain outright; and both the
Blunts

Kill'd by the hand of Douglas: young prince
John,

And Westmoreland, and Stafford, fled the field;
And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk Sir John,
Is prisoner to your son: O such a day,
So fought, so follow'd, and so fairly won,
Came not, till now, to dignify the times,
Since Cæsar's fortunes!

North. How is this deriv'd?

Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury 1
Bard. 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.

Northumberland eastle.
Important or dreadful event.

North. How doth my son and brother?
Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek
Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.
Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,
So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,
And would have told him, half his Troy was

burn'd:

But Priam found the fire, ere he bis tongue,
And I my Percy's death, ere thou report'st it.
This thou would'st say,-Your son did thus and

thus,

Your brother, thus; so fought the noble Doug.
las;

Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds:
But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed,
Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise,
Ending with-brother, son, and all are dead.
Mor. Douglas is living, and your brother, yet:
But, for my lord your son,-

North. Why, he is dead.

See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath ?
He that but fears the thing he would not

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KING HENRY

And I will take it as a sweet disgrace,

And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.

ragged'st hour that time and spite dare
bring,

Mor. You are too great to be by me gain-To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!

said:

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,
If he be slain, say so:
To speak a truth.
The tongue offends not, that reports his death:
And he doth sin, that doth belie the dead;
Not be, which says the dead is not alive.
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
Remember'd knolling a departing friend.

Bard. I cannot think, my lord, your son is

dead.

lieve

Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not nature's
hand

And let this world no longer be a stage,
Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die !
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead!
Tra. This strained passion doth you wrong,
my lord.

Bard. Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from
your honour.

Mor. The lives of all your loving complices
Lean on your health; the which, if you give

o'er

Mor. I am sorry I should force you to be-To stormy passion, must perforce decay.
You cast the event of war, my noble lord,
Aud summ'd the account of chance, before you
said,-
That in the dole of blows your son might
Let us make head. It was your presurmise,
drop:

That, which I would to heaven I had not seen:
But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,
Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out-
breath'd

To Harry Monmouth: whose swift wrath beat
down

The never-daunted Percy to the earth,

From whence with life he never more sprung

up.

In few, his death (whose spirit lent a fire
Even to the dullest peasant in his camp,)
Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
From the best temper'd courage in his troops:
For from his metal was his party steel'd;
Which once in him abated, all the rest
Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead.
And as the thing that's heavy in itself,
Upon enforcement, flies with greatest speed;
So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss,
Leud to this weight such lightness with their

fear,

That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim,
Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety,
Fly from the field: Then was that noble Wor-

cester

Too soon ta'en prisoner: and that furious Scot,
well-labouring
The bloody Douglas, whose
Had three times slain the appearance of the
king,

sword

'Gan vail his stomach, and did grace the

shame

Of those that turn'd their backs; and, in his
flight,

Stambling in fear, was took. The sum of all
Is, that the king hath won; and hath sent out
A speedy power to encounter you, my lord,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster,
And Westmoreland; this is the news at full.
North. For this I shall have time enough to

inourn.

In poison there is physic; and these news,
Having been well, that would have made me
sick,

Being sick, have in some measure made me well:
And as the wretch whose fever-weaken'd joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire

Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs,
Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with
grief,

Are thrice themselves: hence therefore, thou nice crutch;

A sealy gauntlet now, with joints of steel,
Mast glove this hand and hence, thou sickly
quoit,¶

Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,
Whach princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to

bit.

Now bind my brows with iron; and approach

• Return of blows.

¡ Reported.

Triling.

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Or what hath this bold enterprize brought forth,
More than that being which was like to be?
Bard. We all, that are engaged to this loss,
we ventur'd on such dangerous
Knew that

seas,
That, if we wrought out life, 'twas ten to one:
And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd
And, since we are o'erset, venture again.
Chok'd the respect of likely peril fear'd;
Mor. 'Tis more than time: And, my most
Come, we will all put forth; body and goods.
noble lord,

The gentle archbishop of York is up,
I hear for certain, and do speak the truth,-
Who with a double surety binds his followers.
With well-appointed powers; he is a man,
But shadows, and the shows of men, to fight:
My lord your son had only but the corps,
For that same word, rebellion, did divide
The action of their bodies from their souls;
And they did fight with queasiness, constrain'd,
As men drink potions; that their weapons only
Seem'd ou our side, but for their spirits and
souls,

This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
As fish are in a pond: But now the bishop
Suppos'd sincere and holy in his thoughts,
Turus insurrection to religion:
And doth enlarge his rising with the blood
He's follow'd both with body and with mind;
of fair king Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret

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In few words.
$ Let fall.
Cap.

• Distribution.

[Exeunt.

↑ Greater.

SCENE II.-London.-A Street.

Enter Sir JOHN FALSTAFF, with his PAGE

bearing his Sword and Buckler.

Fal. Sirrah, you giant, what says the doctor to my water?

Page. He said, Sir, the water itself was a good healthy water: but, for the party that owed it, he might have more diseases than he knew for.

Fal. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me: The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to vent any thing that tends to laughter, more than I invent, or is invented on me: I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee, like a sow, that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one. If the prince put thee into my service for any other reason than to set me off, why then I have no judgment. Thou whoreson mandrake, thou art fitter to be worn in my cap, than to wait at my heels. I was never manned with an agate till now but I will set you neither in gold nor silver, but in vile apparel, and send you back again to your master, for a jewel; the juvenal, the prince your master, whose chin is not yet. fledged. I will sooner have a beard grow in the palm of my hand, than he shall get one on his cheek and yet he will not stick to say, his face is a face-royal: God may finish it when he will, it is not a hair amiss yet: he may keep it still as a face-royal, for a barber shall never earn sixpence out of it; and yet he will be crowing, as if he had writ man ever since his father was a bachelor. He may keep his own grace, but he is almost out of mine. I can assure him. What said master Dumbleton about the satin for my short cloak and slops?

Page. He said, Sir, you should procure him better assurance than Bardolph: he would not take his boud and your's; he liked not the security.

now wear

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Attend. Sir John,――

Fal. What a young knave, and beg! Is there not wars? is there not employment? Doth not the king lack subjects? do not the rebels need soldiers? Though it be a shame to be on any side but one, it is worse shame to beg than to be on the worst side, were it worse than the name of rebellion can tell how to make it.

Atten. You mistake me, Sir.

Fal. Why, Sir, did I say you were an honest man? setting my knighthood and my soldiership aside, I had lied in my throat if I had said so.

Atten. I pray you, Sir, then set your knighthood and your soldiership aside; and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man.

Fal. I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that which grows to me! If thou get'st any leave of me, hang me: if thou takest leave, thou wert better be hanged: You hunt-counter,' bence! avaunt!

your health.

Ch. Just. Sir John, I sent for you before your expedition to Shrewsbury.

Atten. Sir, my lord would speak with you. Ch. Just. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you. Fal. My good lord!-God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to see your lordship abroad: I heard say, your lordship was sick; I hope your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, Fal. Let him be damned like a glutton! may hath yet some smack of age in you, some relish his tongue be botter!-A whoreson Achitophel! of the saltness of time; and I most humbly bea rascally yea-forsooth knave! to bear a gen-seech your lordship, to have a reverend care of tleman in hand, and then stand upon security! -The whoreson smooth-pates do nothing but high shoes, and bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is thorough with them in honest taking up, then they must stand -upon security. I had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth, as offer to stop it with security. I looked he should have sent me two and twenty yards of satin, as I am a true knight, and he sends me security. Well, he may sleep in security; for he hath the born of abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it: and yet cannot be see, though he have his own lantern to light him.--Where's Bardolph ?

Page. He's gone into Smithfield, to buy your worship a horse.

Fal. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield: an I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived.

Enter the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE and an
ATTENDANT.

Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for striking him about Bardolph.

Ful. Wait close, I will not see him.

Ch. Just. What's he that goes there?
Atten. Falstaff, an't please your lordship.
Ch. Just. He that was in question for the
robbery ?

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Fa.. Ant please your lordship, I hear his majesty is returned with some discomfort from Wales.

Ch. Just. I talk not of his majesty :-You would not come when I sent for you. Fal. And I hear moreover, his highness is fallen into this same whoreson apoplexy.

Ch. Just. Well, heaven mend him! I pray, let me speak with you.

Ful. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy, an't please your lordship; a kind of sleeping in the blood, a whoreson tingling.

Ch. Just. What tell you me of it? be it as

it is.

Fal. It hath its original from much grief: have read the cause of his effects in Galen; it from study, and perturbation of the brain: I is a kind of deafness.

Ch. Just. I think, you are fallen into the disease; for you hear not what I say to you.

Fal. Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please you, it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking, that I am troubled

withal.

Ch. Just. To punish you by the heels, would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not, if I do become your physician.

Fal. I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient: your lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to me, in respect of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, the wise may make some dram of a scruple, or, indeed, a scruple itself.

bailiff.

Scene II.

Ch. Just. I sent for you, when there were | John of Lancaster, against the archbishop and matters against you for your life, to come speak the earl of Northumberland. with me.

Fal. As I was then advised by my learned counsel in the laws of this land-service, I did

not come.

Ch. Just. Well, the truth is, Sir John, live in great infamy.

Fal. He that buckles him in my belt, not live in less.

you

can

Ch. Just. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.

Fal. Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look you pray, all you that kiss my lady peace at home, that our armies join not in a hot day! for, by the Lord I take but two shirts out with me, and I mean not to sweat extraordinarily if it be a hot day, an I brandish any thing but my bottle, I would I might never spit white again. There is not a dangerous action can peep out his head, but I am thrust upon it: Well, I cannot last ever: But it was always yet the trick of Fal. I would it were otherwise; I would my our English nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too common. If you will needs say, I means were greater, and my waist slenderer. misled the youthful I am an old man, you should give me rest. Ch. Just. You have would to God, my name were not so terrible to I were better to be eaten misled me: Ithe enemy as it is. and he my to death with rust, than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion. Ch. Just. Well, I am loath to gail a newbealed wound; your day's service at Shrewsbury bath a little gilded over your night's exploit on Gads-hill: you may thank the unquiet time for your quiet o'er-posting that action. Fal. My lord?

prince.

Fal. The young prince hath am the fellow with the great belly, dog.

Ch. Just. But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a sleeping wolf.

Ch. Just. Well, be honest, be honest; And
God bless your expedition!

Fal. Will your lordship lend me a thousand
pound, to furnish me forth?

Ch. Just. Not a penny, not a penny; you are Fare you well: too impatient to bear crosses. Commend me to my cousin Westmoreland. Exeunt CHIEF JUSTICE and ATTENDANT. Fal. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle. A man can no more separate age and Ch. Just. What! you are as a candle, the bet-covetousness, than he can part young limbs and ter part burnt out.

Fal. To wake a wolf, is as bad as to smell a fox.

Fal. A wassel candle, my lord; all tallow: if I did say of wax, my growth would approve the truth.

Ch. Just. There is not a white hair on your
face, but should have his effect of gravity.

Fal. His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy.
Ch. Just. You follow the young prince up
and down, like bis ill angel.

lechery: but the gout galls the one, and the pox
pinches the other; and so both the degrees pre-
vent + my curses.-Boy!--
Page. Sir?

Fal. What money is in my purse?
Page. Seven groats and twopence.

Fal. I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable. Fal. Not so, my lord; your ill angel is-Go, bear this letter to my lord of Lancaster ; light; but, I hope, be that looks upon me, will take me without weighing: and yet, in some respects, I grant, I cannot go, I cannot tell Virtue is of so little regard in these costermonger times, that true valour is turned bear-herd: Pregnancy is made a tapster, and hath his quick wit wasted in giving reckonings: all the other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of this age shapes them, are not worth a gooseberry. You, that are old, consider not the capacities of us that are young you measure the beat of our livers with the bitterness of your calls; and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confess, are wags too.

Ch. Just. Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age? Have you not a moist eye? a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard? a decreasing leg? an increasing belly is not your voice broken? your wind short f your chin double? your wit single? and every part about you blasted with antiquity? and will you yet call yourself young? Fie, ne, fie, Sir John!

Fal. My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a white head, and something a round belly. For my voice,-I have lost it with bollaing, and singing of anthems. To approve my youth further, I will not: the truth is, I am only old in judgment and understanding; and he that will caper with me for 2 thousand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him. For the box o'the ear that the prince gave you,-he gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. have checked him for it; and the young lion repents = marry, not in ashes and sackcloth; but in new silk and old sack.

-Ch. Just. Well, heaven send the prince a
better companion!
Fal.

Heaven send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my hands of him.

this to the prince; this to the earl of Westmore-
land; and this to old mistress Ursula, whom I
have weekly sworn to marry since I perceived the
first white hair on my chin: About it; you know
where to find me. [Exit PAGE.] A pox of
this gout! or, a gout of this pox! for the one
or the other plays the rogue with my great toe.
It is no matter, if I do halt; I have the wars
for my colour, and my pension shall seem the
more reasonable: A good wit will make use of
[Exit.
any thing; I will turn diseases to commodity.

SCENE 111.-York.-A Room in the Arch-
bishop's Palace.

HASTINGS, MOWBRAY, and BARDOLPH.
Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, the Lords
Arch. Thus have you heard our cause, and

known our means;

And, my most noble friends, I pray you all,
Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes:
Mowb. I well allow the occasion of our arms;
And first, lord marshal, what say you to it?
But gladly would be better satisfied,
How, in our means, we should advance our-

selves

To look with forehead bold and big enough
Hast. Our present musters grow upon the
Upon the power and puissance of the king.
file
To five and twenty thousand men of choice ;
And our supplies live largely in the hope
Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns
With an incensed fire of injuries.

Bard. The question then, lord Hastings,
standeth thus :-

Whether our present five and twenty thou
sand

May hold up head without Northumberland.
Hast. With him, we inay.

A large wooden hammer so heavy as to require
↑ Anticipate.

Ch. Just. Well, the king hath severed you and
Prince Harry: I hear you are going with lord, three men to wield it.

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