That ever-valiant and approved Scot, At Holmedon met, Where they did spend a fad and bloody hour; And shape of likelihood, the news was told; K. HEN. Here is a dear and true-industrious friend, Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse, Betwixt that Holmedon and this feat of ours; Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, Balk'd in their own blood," did fir Walter fee 66 5 Stain'd with the variation of each foil-] No circumstance could have been better chosen to mark the expedition of Sir Walter. It is ufed by Falstaff in a fimilar manner, As it were to ride day and night, and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to fhift me, but to ftand flained with travel." HENLEY. 6 Balk'd in their own blood,] I fhould fuppofe, that the author might have written either bath'd, or bak'd, i. e. encrusted over with blood dried upon them. A paffage in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632, may countenance the latter of these conjectures: "Troilus lies embak'd "In his cold blood." Again, in Hamlet : -horribly trick'd "With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, fons, Again, in Heywood's Iron Age: Again, ibid: bak'd in blood and duft.” as bak'd in blood." STEEVENS. Balk is a ridge; and particularly, a ridge of land: here is therefore a metaphor; and perhaps the poet means, in his bold and careless manner of expreffion : "Ten thousand bloody carcaffes piled up together in a long heap."" A ridge of dead bodies On Holmedon's plains: Of prisoners, Hotspur took To beaten Douglas; and the earl of Athol piled up in blood." If this be the meaning of balked, for the "Piled up in a ridge, and in their own blood," &c. But without A balk, in the fenfe here mentioned, is a common expreffion in Balk'd in their own blood, I believe, means, lay'd in heaps or bil- "Mordake the earl of Fife, and eldeft fon To beaten Douglas;] The article-the, which is wanting in Mordake earl of Fife, who was fon to the duke of Albany, re- 8 and Menteith.] This is a mistake of Holinfhed in his English Hiftory, for in that of Scotland, p. 259, 262, and 419, he fpeaks of the earl of Fife and Menteith as one and the fame perfon. STEEVENS. In Chapman's translation of the Shield of Achilles, 4°. 1598, the word balk also occurs: " amongst all these all silent stood their king, "Upon a balk, his scepter in his hand." Steevery And is not this an honourable spoil? It is a conqueft for a prince to boast of. K. HEN. Yea, there thou mak'st me fad, and mak'ft me fin In envy that my lord Northumberland A fon, who is the theme of honour's tongue; Of my young Harry. O, that it could be prov'd, Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners," In faith, It is- Thefe words are in the first quarto, 1598, by the inaccuracy of the tranfcriber, placed at the end of the preceding fpeech, but at a confiderable distance from the laft word of it. Mr. Pope and the fubfequent editors read-'Faith 'tis &c. MALONE. 2 the prifoners,] Percy had an exclufive right to these prifoners, except the earl of Fife. By the law of arms, every man who had taken any captive, whofe redemption did not exceed ten thoufand crowns, had him clearly for himself, either to acquit or ranfom, at his pleasure. It feems from Camden's Britannia, that Pounouny castle in Scotland was built out of the ranfom of this very Henry Percy, when taken prifoner at the battle of Otterbourne by an ancestor of the prefent earl of Eglington. TOLLET. Percy could not refuse the Earl of Fife to the King; for being a prince of the blood royal, (fon to the Duke of Albany, brother to King Robert III.) Henry might juftly claim him by his acknowledged military prerogative. STEEVENS. Which he in this adventure hath surpriz❜d, WEST. This is his uncle's teaching, this is Worcefter, Malevolent to you in all aspects; Which makes him prune himself,' and bristle up The creft of youth against your dignity. K. HEN. But I have fent for him to answer this; Coufin, on Wednesday next our council we WEST. I will, my liege. [Exeunt. 2 Malevolent to you in all afpe&s;] An aftrological allufion. Worcester is reprefented as a malignant ftar that influenced the conduct of Hotspur. HENLEY. 3 Which makes him prune himself,] The metaphor is taken from a cock, who in his pride prunes himself; that is, picks off the loofe feathers to fmooth the reft. To prune and to plume, spoken of a bird, is the fame. JOHNSON. Dr. Johnfon is certainly right in his choice of the reading. So, in The Cobler's Prophecy, 1594: "Sith now thou doft but prune thy wings, "And make thy feathers gay." Again, in Green's Metamorphofis, 1613: "Pride makes the fowl to prune his feathers fo." But I am not certain that the verb to prune is juftly interpreted. In The Booke of Haukynge, &c, (commonly called The Booke of St. Albans) is the following account of it: "The hauke proineth when the fetcheth oyle with her beake over the taile, and anointeth her feet and her fethers. She plumeth when she pulleth fethers of anie foule and cafteth them from her." STEEVENS. 4 Than out of anger can be uttered.] That is, " More is to be faid than anger will fuffer me to say: more than can issue from a mind disturbed like mine." JOHNSON. Enter HENR HENRY Prince of Wales, and Falstaff. FAL. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad? P. HEN. Thou art fo fat-witted, with drinking of old fack, and unbuttoning thee after fupper, and fleeping upon benches after noon, that thou haft forgotten to demand that truly which thou would'st truly know.' What a devil haft thou to do with the time of the day? unless hours were cups of fack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the figns of leaping-houses, and the bleffed fun himself a fair hot wench in flamecolour'd taffata; I see no reason, why thou should'st be fo fuperfluous to demand the time of the day. FAL. Indeed, you come near me, now Hal: for we, that take purfes, go by the moon and seven stars; and not by Phoebus,-he, that wandering knight fo fair. And, I pray thee, fweet wag, when thou art sto demand that truly which thou would'st truly know.] The Prince's objection to the queftion feems to be, that Falstaff had afked in the night what was the time of the day. JOHNSON. This cannot be well received as the objection of the Prince; for presently after, the Prince himself fays: "Good morrow, Ned," and Poins replies: "Good morrow, fweet lad." The truth may be, that when Shakspeare makes the Prince with Poins a good morrow, he had forgot that the fcene commenced at night. STEEVENS. 6 Phœbus,-he, that wandering knight fo fair.] Falstaff starts the idea of Phœbus, i. e. the fun; but deviates into an allufion to El Donzel del Febo, the knight of the fun in a Spanish romance tranflated (under the title of The Mirror of Knighthood, &c.) during the age of Shakfpeare. This illuftrious perfonage was "moft excellently faire" and a great wanderer, as thofe who travel after him throughout three thick volumes in 4to. will difcover. Perhaps the words "that wandering knight so fair," are part of fome for |