an inftant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believ'd, fo; if not, let them, that should reward valour, bear the fin upon their own heads. I'll take it upon my death, I gave him this wound in the thigh: if the man were alive, and would deny it, I would make him eat a piece of my fword.

2

P. JOHN. This is the ftrangeft tale that e'er I heard.

P. HEN. This is the ftrangeft fellow, brother
John.-

Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back:
For my part, if a lie may do thee grace,
I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.

[A retreat is founded.
The trumpet founds retreat, the day is ours.
Come, brother, let's to the highest of the field,
To see what friends are living, who are dead.

Exeunt Prince HENRY and Prince JOHN. FAL. I'll follow, as they fay, for reward. He that rewards me, God reward him! God reward him! If I do grow great, I'll grow lefs; for I'll purge, and leave fack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman fhould do.

2

[Exit, bearing off the body.

I gave him this wound in the thigh:] The very learned Lord Lyttelton obferves, that Shakspeare has applied an action to Falftaff, which William of Malmsbury, tells us was really done by one of the Conqueror's knights to the body of King Harold. I do not however believe that Lord Lyttelton fuppofed Shakspeare to have read this old Monk. The ftory is told likewife by Matthew Paris and Matthew of Weftminfter; and by many of the English Chroniclers, Stowe, Speed, &c. &c. FARMER.

རྩྭ

SCENE V.

Another Part of the Field.

The trumpets found. Enter King HENRY, Prince
HENRY, Prince JOHN, WESTMORELAND, and
Others, with WORCESTER and VERNON, prifoners.

K. HEN. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.3

Ill-fpirited Worcester! did we not fend grace,
Pardon, and terms of love to all of you?
And would'st thou turn our offers contrary?
Misuse the tenor of thy kinfman's trust?
Three knights upon our party flain to-day,
A noble earl, and many a creature else,
Had been alive this hour,

If, like a christian, thou hadst truly borne
Betwixt our armies true intelligence.

WOR. What I have done, my fafety urg'd me to;

And I embrace this fortune patiently,

Since not to be avoided it falls on me.

K. HEN. Bear Worcester to the death, and Ver

non too:

Other offenders we will paufe upon.

[Exeunt WORCESTER and VERNON, guarded. How goes the field?

P. HEN. The noble Scot, lord Douglas, when he faw

The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him,

3 Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.] Thomas Churchyard, in a catalogue of his own printed works, prefixed to his Challenge, 1593, informs us, that he had published a booke called A Rebuke to Rebellion [dedicated] to the good old Earle of Bedford."

STEEVENS.

1

The noble Percy flain, and all his men
Upon the foot of fear,-fled with the rest;
And, falling from a hill, he was fo bruis'd,
That the purfuers took him. At my tent
The Douglas is; and I beseech your grace,
I may difpofe of him.

K. HEN.

With all my heart.

P. HEN. Then, brother John of Lancafter, to

you

This honourable bounty fhall belong:

Go to the Douglas, and deliver him

Up to his pleasure, ranfomlefs, and free:
His valour, fhown upon our crests to-day,

Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds,
Even in the bofom of our adversaries.'

K. HEN. Then this remains,-that we divide our

power.

You, fon John, and my cousin Westmoreland,
Towards York fhall bend you, with your dearest
fpeed,

To meet Northumberland, and the prelate Scroop,
Who, as we hear, are bufily in arms:

Hath taught us-] This reading, which ferves to exclude an inelegant repetition, (and might have been derived from the quarto 1598, corrected by our author,) is refused by Mr. Malone. See the fubfequent note: and yet, are we authorized to reject the fitteft word, merely because it is not found in the earliest copy ? In a note on p. 587, Mr. Malone accepts a reading from a late quarto, which he acknowledges to be of no value. STEEVENS.

Hath fhown us-] Thus the quarto, 1598. In that of 1599, Shown was arbitrarily changed to taught, which confequently is the reading of the folio. The repetition is much in our author's manner. MALONE.

5 Here Mr. Pope inferts the following fpeech from the quartos:
"Lan. I thank your grace for this high courtesy,
"Which I fhall give away immediately."

But Dr. Johnson judiciously fuppofes it to have been rejected by
Shakspeare himself. STEEVENS.

e

Myfelf, and you, fon Harry, will towards Wales,
To fight with Glendower, and the earl of March.
Rebellion in this land fhall lose his fway,
Meeting the check of fuch another day:
And fince this business so fair is done,"

Let us not leave till all our own be won. [Exeunt.

6 And fince this business so fair is done,] Fair for fairly. Either that word is here used as a diffyllable, or business as a trifyllable. MALONE.

Bufinefs is undoubtedly the word employed as a trifyllable.

STEEVENS.

Vol. XI.

Frf_433,

The following Obfervations arrived too late to be inferted in their proper place, and are therefore referred to the conclufion of Mr. Malone's note, p. 375.

Neither evidence nor argument has in my opinion been yet produced, fufficient to controvert the received opinion, that the character of Falstaff was originally reprefented under the name of Oldcastle. The contraction of the original name Old, left ftanding in the firft edition, as the prolocutor of one of Falftaff's fpeeches, this addrefs of "Old lad of the caftle," the Epilogue to King Henry V. plainly understood, the tradition mentioned by Mr. Rowe, and the united teftimony of contemporary or fucceeding writers, not to infift on the opinions of the most eminent criticks and commentators, seem irrefragable. It has been obferved, that if the verfes be examined in which the name of Falstaff occurs, it will be found that Oldcastle could not have flood in thofe places;" and that " thofe only who are entirely unacquainted with our author's history and works, can suppose him to have undergone the labour of new-writing each verfe." Thefe verfes, I believe, are in number seven; and why he, who wrote between thirty and forty plays with ease, cannot be reasonably supposed to have fubmitted to the drudgery of new-writing feven lines, to introduce an alteration commanded by his fovereign, is to me utterly incomprehenfible. But what need after all, of new-writing? There was but a fingle fyllable, in difference between the two names, to be fupplied; which might surely be effected, in some places at least,

without an entirely new line. The verfes in queftion are, at present, as follows:

1. "Away, good Ned. Falstaff fweats to death;"

2. "And asking every one for fir John Falstaff;"

3. "Give me my fword and cloak; Falstaff good night;" 4. "Now, Falstaff, where have you been all this while ?" "Fare you well, Falstaff, I, in my condition;"

5.

6. "Well, you must now fpeak fir John Falstaff fair;" 7. Go, carry fir John Falstaff to the Fleet;" And may be fuppofed to have stood originally thus:

1. "Away, good Ned. Oldcastle fweats to death;"
2. "And aiking every one for fir John Oldcastle;"
3. "Give me my fword and cloak; good night, Oldcastle;"
4. "Now, Oldcastle, where've you been all this while?" or,
"Oldcastle, where have you been all this while?"
"Fare you well, Oldcastle, I, in my condition;"
6. You must now fpeak fir John Oldcastle fair;"
"Go, carry fir John Oldcastle to th' Fleet;" or,
Carry fir John Oldcastle to the Fleet."

5.

7.

Now, it is remarkable, that, of these seven lines, the first actually requires the name of Oldcastle to perfect the metre, which is at prefent a foot deficient, and confequently affords a proof that it was originally written to fuit that name and no other; the Second and fifth do not require the alteration of a fingle letter; the third but a flight tranfpofition; and the fourth, fixth, and seventh, the addition at moft of a fingle fyllable. So that all this mighty labour, which no one acquainted with our author's history and works can fuppofe him to have undergone, confifted in the subftitution of Falstaff for Oldcastle, the tranfpofition of two words, and the addition of three fyllables! a prodigious and infurmountable fatigue to be fure! which might have taken no less space than two long minutes; and which, after all, he might probably and fafely commit to the players.

However the character of Sir John Oldcastle, in the original play, might be performed, he does not, from any paffage now in it, appear to have been either a pamper'd glutton or a coward; and therefore it is a fair inference that all thofe extracts from early writers, in which Oldcastle is thus defcribed, refer to our author's character fo called, and not to the old play. If it be true that Queen Elizabeth, on feeing both or either of these plays of Henry IV. commanded Shakspeare to produce his fat knight in a different fituation, the might at the fame time, out of respect to the memory of Lord Cobham, have fignified a defire that he would change his name; which, being already acquainted with another cowardly knight of the fame chriftian name, one Sir John