The rugged'ft hour that time and spight dare bring,
To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!
Let heaven kifs earth! Now let not nature's hand

Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die!
And let this world no longer be a ftage,
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bofoms, that, each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead!

Tra. This ftrained paffion doth you wrong, my lord: Sweet earl, divorce not wifdom from your honour. Mort. The lives of all your loving complices Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er To stormy paffion, muft perforce decay.

You caft the event of war, my noble lord,

And fumm'd the account of chance, before you faid,-
Let us make head. It was your prefurmise,

That, in the dole of blows your fon might drop:
You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge

More likely to fall in, than to get o'er:

с

You were advis'd, his flesh was capable

Of wounds, and scars; and that his forward fpirit
Would lift him where moft trade of danger rang'd;
Yet did you fay,-Go forth; and none of this,
Though strongly apprehended, could restrain
The 'stiff-borne action: What hath then befallen,
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 lofs,
Knew that we ventur'd on fuch dangerous feas,
That, if we wrought out life, 'twas ten to one:
e caft]-calculated, weighed.
advis'd,]-fenfible.

.

dole-diftribution.

ffiff-borne]-refolutely carried.

engaged ]-partakers, interested in.

And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd
Choak'd the respect of likely peril fear'd;
And, fince we are o'er-fet, venture again.
Come, we will all put forth; body, and goods,

Mort. 'Tis more than time: And, my most noble lord,
I hear for certain, and do speak the truth,-
The gentle archbishop of York is up,
With well-appointed powers; he is a man,
Who with a double furety binds his followers.
My lord your fon had only but the corps,
But fhadows, and the fhews of men, to fight:
For that fame word, rebellion, did divide
The action of their bodies from their fouls;
And they did fight with queafinefs, constrain'd,
As men drink potions; that their weapons only
Seem'd on our fide, but, for their fpirits and fouls,
This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
As fish are in a pond: But now the bishop
Turns infurrection to religion:

Suppos'd fincere and holy in his thoughts,
He's follow'd both with body and with mind;
And doth enlarge his, rifing with the blood
Of fair king Richard, fcrap'd from Pomfret ftones:
Derives from heaven his quarrel, and his caufe;
Tells them, he doth bestride a bleeding land,
Gafping for life under great Bolingbroke.
* And more, and lefs, do flock to follow him.
North. I knew of this before; but, to fpeak truth,
This prefent grief had wip'd it from my mind.
Go in with me; and counfel every man

h Choak'd the refpea]-Stifled the apprehenfion.
bestride]-ftand over to defend.

And more, and lefs,]-Numbers great and fmall.

The

The apteft way for fafety, and revenge :

Get pofts, and letters, and make friends with speed ;
Never fo few, and never yet more need.

[Exeunt.

Enter Sir John Falstaff, with his Page bearing his fword and buckler.

Fal. Sirrah, you' giant! what fays the doctor to my water?

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

n

Fal. Men of all forts take a pride to gird at me: The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent any thing that tends to laughter, more than I invent, or is invented on me: I am not only witty in my felf, but the cause that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee, like a fow, that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one. If the prince put thee into my service for any other reafon than to fet me off, why then I have no judgment. Thou whorfon mandrake, thou art fitter to be worn in my cap, than to wait at my heels. I was never mann'd with an agate 'till now but I will neither fet you in gold nor filver, but in vile apparel, and fend you back again to your mafter, for a jewel; the juvenal, the prince your master, whose chin is not yet fledg'd. I

1 giant !]-ironically.

that owed it,]-from whom it proceeded.

knew for.]-could either account for, or cure.

to gird at me :]-to have a fling at me.

♪ I was never mann'd with an agate 'till now :]-mafter of one, with a man cut upon it, 'till I was prefented with thee,

9 the juvenal,]-the youngster.

will fooner have a beard grow in the palm of my hand, than he fhall get one on his cheek; yet he will not stick to fay, his face is a face-royal. Heaven may finish it when he will, it is not a hair amifs yet: he may keep it still as a face-royal, for a barber fhall never earn fixpence out of it; and yet he will be crowing, as if he had writ man ever fince his father was a batchelor. He may keep his own grace, but he is almoft out of mine, I can affure him. What said mafter Dombledon about the fattin for my short cloak, and flops?

Page. He faid, fir, you should procure him better affurance than Bardolph: he would not take his bond and yours; he lik'd not the fecurity.

Fal. Let him be damn'd like the glutton! may his tongue be hotter !-A whorefon Achitophel! á rafcally yea-forfooth knave! to bear a gentleman in hand, and then stand upon fecurity !-The whorefon smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high fhoes, 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 fecurity. I look'd he should have fent me two and twenty yards of fattin, as I am a true knight, and he fends me fecurity. Well, he may fleep in fecurity; for he hath the horn of abundance, and the lightness of his wife fhines through it: and yet cannot he fee, though he have his own lanthorn to light him.Where's Bardolph ?

W

a face royal,]-requiring the razor as little, as that on the coin, called a royal, or real.

• Dombledon] Double-done, Double-down-from charging doublyDumbleton, the name of a town in Gloucestershire.

to bear a gentleman in band,]-to promife, to keep him in expec

tation.

"thorough with them in honeft taking up,]-deep in their books, by taking up goods on credit.

bis own lantborn]-on his forehead.

Page.

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

a horie.

Fal. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield: if I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were mann'd, hors'd, and wiv'd.

Enter the Lord Chief Justice, and Servants.

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

Fal. Wait clofe, I will not fee him.

Ch. Juft. What's he that goes there?
Serv. Falstaff, an't please your lordship.

Ch, Juft. He that was in queftion for the robbery ? Serv. He, my lord: but he hath fince done good fervice at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is now going with fome charge to the lord John of Lancaster.

Ch. Juft. What, to York? Call him back again.
Serv. Sir John Falstaff!

Fal. Boy, tell him, I am deaf.

Page. You must speak louder, my mafter is deaf.

Ch. Just. I am fure, he is, to the hearing of any thing good.-Go, pluck him by the elbow; I muft fpeak with him. Serv. Sir John,

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

Serv. You mistake me, fir.

Fal. Why, fir, did I fay you were an honeft man? fetting my knighthood and my foldiership afide, I had lied my throat if I had faid fo.

in

"I bought him in Paul's]-I picked him up in St. Paul's churchyard, then the refort for all idle people." Who goes to Wefiminfter

for a wife, to St. Paul's for a man, and to Smithfield for a horse, "may meet with a whore, a knave, and a jade." Frov.