I am the prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
To share with me in glory any more:

Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;
Nor can one England brook a double reign,
Of Harry Percy, and the prince of Wales.

Hor. Nor fhall it, Harry, for the hour is come
To end the one of us; And 'would to God,
Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!
P. HEN. I'll make it greater, ere I part from

thee;

And all the budding honours on thy creft
I'll crop, to make a garland for my head.

Hor. I can no longer brook thy vanities.

[They fight.

Enter FALSTAFF.

FAL. Well faid, Hal! to it, Hal!-Nay, you fhall find no boy's play here, I can tell you.

Enter DOUGLAS; he fights with FALSTAFF, who falls down as if he were dead, and exit DOUGLAS. HOTSPUR is wounded, and falls.

Hor. O, Harry, thou haft robb'd me of my youth: 8

I better brook the lofs of brittle life,

8 O, Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth:] Shakspeare has chofen to make Hotfpur fall by the hand of the Prince of Wales; but there is, I believe, no authority for the fact. Holinfhed fays, "The king flew that day with his own hand fix and thirty perfons of his enemies. The other [i. e. troops] of his party, encouraged by his doings, fought valiantly, and flew the Lord Percy, called Henry Hotspur." Speed fays Percy was killed by an unknown hand. MALONE.

Than those proud titles thou haft won of me; They wound my thoughts, worse than thy fword my fleth:

*

But thought's the flave of life, and life time's fool;
And time, that takes furvey of all the world,
Must have a stop." O, I could prophecy,
But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue :-No, Percy, thou art duft,
And food for-

[Dies.

P. HEN. For worms, brave Percy: Fare thee well,
great heart!

Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou fhrunk!"
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
But now, two paces of the vileft earth

Is room enough: 3-This earth, that bears thee dead,+

And time,

Must have a flop.] Hotfpur in his laft moments endeavours to confole himself. The glory of the prince wounds his thoughts; but thought, being dependent on life, muft ceafe with it, and will foon be at an end. Life, on which thought depends, is itself of no great value, being the fool and fport of time; of time, which with all its dominion over fublunary things, muft itself at laft be ftopped. JOHNSON.

Hotfpur alludes to the Fool in our ancient farces, or the reprefentations commonly called Death's Dance, &c. The fame allufion occurs in Meafure for Measure, and Love's Labour's Loft. STEEVENS.

The fame expreffion is to be found in our author's 106th Sonnet: "Love's not Time's fool." MALONE.

2 Ill-weav'd ambition, &c.] A metaphor taken from cloth, which fhrinks when it is ill-weav'd, when its texture is loofe. JOHNSON. 3 A kingdom for it was too fmall a bound; &c.]

"Carminibus confide bonis-jacet ecce Tibullus;
"Vix manet è toto parva quod urna capit." Ovid.

JOHNSON.

4 -that bears thee dead,] The most authentick copy, the

Bears not alive fo ftout a gentleman.
If thou wert fenfible of courtesy,

I should not make fo dear a fhow of zeal:-
But let my favours hide thy mangled face;"
And, even in thy behalf, I'll thank myself
For doing these fair rites of tenderness.
Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven!
Thy ignomy fleep with thee in the grave,
But not remember'd in thy epitaph!-

[He fees FALSTAFF on the ground.
What! old acquaintance! could not all this flesh
Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell!
I could have better spar'd a better man.
O, I should have a heavy mifs of thee,
If I were much in love with vanity.
Death hath not ftruck fo fat a deer to-day,
Though many dearer,' in this bloody fray :-

quarto of 1598, and the folio, have-the dead. The true reading is found in a quarto of no authority or value, 1639; but it is here clearly right. MALONE.

5 -fo dear a show-] Thus the first and best quarto. All the fubfequent copies have-fo great, &c. MALONE.

6 But let my favours hide thy mangled face;] We fhould readfavour, face, or countenance. He is ftooping down here to kifs Hotfpur. WARBURTON.

He rather covers his face with a scarf, to hide the ghaftliness of death. JOHNSON.

See p. 518, n. 5. MALONE.

ignomy] So the word ignominy was formerly written. Thus, in Troilus and Creffida, Act V. fc. iii:

"Hence broker lacquey! ignomy and fhame," &c.

Again, in Lord Cromwell, 1602:

"With fcandalous ignomy and flanderous fpeeches."

See Vol. IV. p. 265, n. 4. MALONE.

REED.

8 -fo fat a deer-] There is in thefe lines a very natural

Embowell'd will I fee thee by and by;
Till then, in blood by noble Percy lie.

[Exit.

FAL. [Rifing flowly.] Embowell'd! if thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder me,* and eat me too, to-morrow. 'Sblood, 'twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me fcot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I am no counterfeit : To die, is to be a counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man, who hath not the life of a man: but to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valour is-difcretion; in the which better part, I have faved my life. 'Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead: How if he fhould counterfeit too, and rife? I am afraid, he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I'll make him fure: yea, and I'll fwear I kill'd him. Why may not he rife, as well as I?

mixture of the serious and ludicrous, produced by the view of Percy and Falstaff. I wish all play on words had been forborn.

JOHNSON. I find the fame quibble in The Two Angry Women of Abington,

1599: "Life is as dear in deer, as 'tis in men." Again, in A Maidenhead well Loft, 1632, a comedy by Heywood: "There's no deer fo dear to him, but he will kill it.”

STEEVENS.

Fat is the reading of the firft quarto 1598, the moft authentick impreffion of this play, and of the folio. The other quartos have→→ fair. MALONE.

66

So fat a deer, feems to be the better reading, for Turbervile, in The Terms of the Ages of all Beafts of Venerie and Chafe, obferves, You fhall fay by anie deare, a great deare, and not a fayre deare, unless it be a rowe, which in the fifth year is called a fayre rowe-bucke." TOLLET.

9 -many dearer,] Many of greater value. JOHNSON. 2 to powder me,] To powder is to falt. JOHNSON.

Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody fees me. Therefore, firrah, [Stabbing him.] with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me.

[Takes HOTSPUR on his back.

Re-enter Prince HENRY and Prince JOHN.

P. HEN. Come, brother John, full bravely haft
thou flesh'd

Thy maiden fword.

P. JOHN.

But, foft! whom have we here?

Did you not tell me, this fat man was dead?

P. HEN. I did; I faw him dead, breathlefs and
bleeding

Upon the ground..

Art thou alive? or is it fantasy

That plays upon our eyefight? I pr'ythee, speak;
We will not truft our eyes, without our ears :-
Thou art not what thou feem'ft.

FAL. No, that's certain; I am not a double man:" but if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy: [Throwing the body down.] if your father will do me any honour, fo; if not, let him kill the next Percy himfelf. I look to be either earl or duke, I can affure you.

P. HEN. Why, Percy I kill'd myself, and faw thee dead.

FAL. Didft thou?-Lord, lord, how this world is given to lying!-I grant you, I was down, and out of breath; and fo was he; but we rose both at

9 -a double man:] That is, I am not Falftaff and Percy together, though having Percy on my back, I feem double.

JOHNSON.

Dryden has adopted this phrase in his

Indian Emperor:

• I kill'd a double man; the one half lay "Upon the ground, the other ran away!"

Steever: