Who, ne'er fo tame, fo cherish'd, and lock'd up,

Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.

Look how we can, or fad, or merrily,
Interpretation will mifquote our looks;
And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,
The better cherish'd, still the nearer death.
My nephew's trespass may be well forgot,
It hath the excuse of youth, and heat of blood;
And an adopted name of privilege,-

A hare-brain'd Hotfpur, govern'd by a spleen:
All his offences live upon my head,

And on his father's; we did train him on;
And, his corruption being ta'en from us,
We, as the spring of all, fhall pay for all.
Therefore, good coufin, let not Harry know,
In any cafe, the offer of the king.

VER. Deliver what you will, I'll fay, 'tis fo.
Here comes your coufin.

Enter HOTSPUR and DOUGLAS; and Officers and Soldiers, behind.

Hor. My uncle is return'd:-Deliver up My lord of Westmoreland.-Uncle, what news?

Dr. Farmer, with great propriety, would reform the line as I have printed it. In all former editions, without regard to measure, it ftood thus:

Sufpicion, all our lives, fhall be ftuck full of eyes. All the old copies read—fuppofition. STEEVENS.

The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE. 5- an adopted name of privilege,

A bare-brain'd Hotfpur,] The name of Hotspur will privilege him from cenfure. JOHNSON.

6 Deliver up

My lord of Westmoreland.] He was " impawned as a furety for the fafe return" of Worcester. See Act IV. fc. iii.

MALONE.

WOR. The king will bid you battle presently. DOUG. Defy him by the ford of Westmoreland.* Hor. Lord Douglas, go you and tell him fo. DOUG. Marry, and fhall, and very willingly.

[Exit. WOR. There is no feeming mercy in the king. Hor. Did you beg any? God forbid!

WOR. I told him gently of our grievances,
Of his oath-breaking; which he mended thus,-
By now forfwearing that he is forfworn:
He calls us rebels, traitors; and will scourge
With haughty arms this hateful name in us.

Re-enter DOUGLAS.

DOUG. Arm, gentlemen; to arms! for I have thrown

A brave defiance in King Henry's teeth,
And Weftmoreland, that was engag'd,' did bear it;
Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.
WOR. The prince of Wales ftepp'd forth before

the king,

And, nephew, challeng'd you to fingle fight.

Hor. O, 'would the quarrel lay upon our heads; And that no man might draw fhort breath to-day,

Doug. Defy him by the lord of Weftmoreland.] This line, as well as the next, (as has been obferved by one of the modern editors,) properly belongs to Hotfpur, whofe impatience would fcarcely fuffer any one to anticipate him on fuch an occafion.

MALONE.

8 Lord Douglas, go you &c.] Douglas is here ufed as a trifyllable. MALONE.

9 And Weftmoreland, that was engag'd,] Engag'd is delivered as an hostage. A few lines before, upon the return of Worcester, he orders Westmoreland to be dismissed. JOHNSON.

But I, and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me, How show'd his tafking? feem'd it in contempt?

VER. No, by my foul; I never in my life Did hear a challenge urg'd more modeftly, Unless a brother fhould a brother dare To gentle exercife and proof of arms. He gave you all the duties of a man ; Trimm'd up your praises with a princely tongue; Spoke your defervings like a chronicle; Making you ever better than his praise, By ftill difpraifing praise, valued with you: And, which became him like a prince indeed, He made a blushing cital of himself; +

4

2 How for'd bis tafking?] Thus the quarto, 1598. The others, with the folio, read-talking. STEEVENS.

I know not whether taking is not here ufed for taxing; i. e. his fatirical reprefentation. So, in As you like it:

66

my taxing, like a wild goofe, flies." See p. 559, n. 3. Tafking, however, is fufficiently intelligible in its more ufual acceptation. We yet fay," he took him to talk.” MALONE.

3 By ftill difpraifing praise, valued with you:] This foolish line is indeed in the folio of 1623, but it is evidently the player's nonfenfe. WARBURTON.

This line is not only in the first folio, but in all the editions before it, that I have feen. Why it should be cenfured as nonfenfe I know not. To vilify praife, compared or valued with merit fuperior to praife, is no harth expreffion. There is another objection to be made. Prince Henry, in his challenge of Percy, had indeed commended him, but with no fuch hyperboles as might represent him above praife; and there feems to be no reason why Vernon fhould magnify the Prince's candour beyond the truth. Did then Shakspeare forget the foregoing fcene? or are fome lines loft from the Prince's fpeech? JoHNSON.

I do not fufpect any omiffion. Our author in repeating letters and fpeeches of former fcenes in his plays, feldom attends minutely to what he had written. I believe, in these cases he always trufted to memory. MALONE.

↑ He made a blushing cital of himself:] Mr. Pope obferves, that by cital is meant taxation; but I rather think it means recital.

And chid his truant youth with fuch a grace,
As if he master'd' there a double fpirit,
Of teaching, and of learning, instantly.
There did he paufe: But let me tell the world,—
If he outlive the envy of this day,

England did never owe so sweet a hope,
So much mifconftrued in his wantonnefs.

Hor. Coufin, I think, thou art enamoured
Upon his follies; never did I hear"
Of any prince, so wild, at liberty: "—
But, be he as he will, yet once ere night

The verb is used in that fenfe in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, A& IV. fc. i:

"That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives." Again, in K. Henry V. A&t V. fc. ii:

5

"Whofe want gives growth to the imperfections
"Which you have cited," &c. COLLINS.

he mafter'd-] i. e. was master of. STEEVENS.

6 Upon his follies; never did I bear-] The old copies on his follies. Mr. Pope introduced the fyllable neceffary to metre. Mr. Malone, however, tells us, that-bear is used, in this inftance, as a diffyllable, and confequently, I fuppofe, would read the line as follows:

On his follies; | never | did I | he-ar. STEEVENS.

7 Of any prince, fo wild, at liberty:] Of any prince that played fuch pranks, and was not confined as a madman. JOHNSON.

The quartos 1598, 1599, and 1608, read-so wild a libertie. Perhaps the author wrote-fo wild a libertine. Thus, in Antony and Cleopatra:

Tie up the libertine in a field of feasts."

The oldeft reading, however, may be the true one; for in The Comedy of Errors the fame phrafeology occurs again:

66

-prating mountebanks,

"And many fuch like liberties of fin." STEEVENS. Our author uses the expreffion in the text again, in King Richard III:

My hair doth stand on end to hear her curfes.
"And fo doth mine. I mufe, why she's at liberty."

MALONE.

I will embrace him with a foldier's arm,
That he shall shrink under my courtesy.

Arm, arm, with speed: -And, fellows, foldiers, friends,

Better confider what you have to do,

Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue,
Can lift your blood up with perfuafion.

Enter a Meffenger.

MESS. My lord, here are letters for you.
Hor. I cannot read them now.-

O gentlemen, the time of life is fhort;
To spend that shortnefs bafely, were too long,
If life did ride upon a dial's point,

Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
An if we live, we live to tread on kings;
If die, brave death, when princes die with us!
Now for our confcience,-the arms are fair,
When the intent of bearing them is juft.

Enter another Messenger.

MESS. My lord, prepare; the king comes on apace. Hor. I thank him, that he cuts me from my tale, For I profess not talking; Only thisLet each man do his best: and here draw I A fword, whose temper I intend to stain With the best blood that I can meet withal In the adventure of this perilous day. Now,-Esperance !-Percy!-and set on.

Now,-Efperance!] This was the word of battle on Percy's fide. See Hall's Chronicle, folio 22. РОРЕ.

Efperance, or Efperanza, has always been the motto of the Percy family. Esperance en Dieu is the prefent motto of the Duke of