Enter SIR WALTER BLUNT.

Blunt. I come with gracious offers from the king, If you vouchsafe me hearing, and respect.

Hot. Welcome, Sir Walter Blunt; And 'would to God,

You were of our determination!

Some of us love you well:
: and even those some
Envy your great deserving, and good name;
Because you are not of our quality 3,
But stand against us like an enemy.

Blunt. And God defend, but still I should stand so,
So long as, out of limit, and true rule,
You stand against anointed majesty!

But, to my charge.-The king hath sent to know
The nature of your griefs; and whereupon
You conjure from the breast of civil peace
Such bold hostility, teaching his duteous land
Audacious cruelty: If that the king

Have any way your good deserts forgot,-
Which he confesseth to be manifold,-

He bids you name your griefs; and, with all speed,
You shall have your desires, with interest;
And pardon absolute for yourself, and these,
Herein misled by your suggestion.

Hot. The king is kind; and, well we know, the king
Knows at what time to promise, when to pay.
My father, and my uncle, and myself,

Did give him that same royalty he wears:

And, when he was not six and twenty strong,
Sick in the world's regard, wretched and low,
A poor unminded outlaw sneaking home,-
My father
gave him welcome to the shore:

3 Quality, in its general sense, anciently signified profession, occupation. Shakspeare here gives it metaphorically for one of the same fraternity or fellowship. Vide note on Hamlet, Act ii, Sc. 2. In The Tempest we have 'Ariel and all his quality. 4 Grievances.

And,-when he heard him swear, and vow to God,
He came but to be duke of Lancaster,
To sue his livery 5, and beg his peace;
With tears of innocency, and terms of zeal,-
My father, in kind heart and pity mov'd,
Swore him assistance, and perform'd it too.
Now, when the lords, and barons of the realm
Perceiv'd Northumberland did lean to him,

6

The more and less came in with cap and knee;
Met him in boroughs, cities, villages;

Attended him on bridges, stood in lanes,
Laid gifts before him, proffer'd him their oaths,
Gave him their heirs as pages; follow'd him,
Even at the heels, in golden multitudes.
He presently, -as greatness knows itself,-
Steps me a little higher than his vow

Made to my father, while his blood was poor,
Upon the naked shore at Ravenspurg7:
And now, forsooth, takes on him to reform
Some certain edicts, and some strait decrees,
That lie too heavy on the commonwealth :
Cries out upon abuses, seems to weep
Over his country's wrongs; and, by this face,
This seeming brow of justice, did he win
The hearts of all that he did angle for.
Proceeded further; cut me off the heads
Of all the favourites, that the absent king
In deputation left behind him here,
When he was personal in the Irish war.
Blunt. Tut, I came not to hear this.
Hot.

Then, to the point:

5 That is, to sue out the delivery or possession of his lands. This law term has been already explained in King Richard II. Act ii, Sc. 1, p. 32.

6 The greater and the less.

7 The whole of this speech alludes to passages in King Richard II.

In short time after, he depos'd the king;
Soon after that, depriv'd him of his life;

And, in the neck of that, task'd the whole state :
To make that worse, suffer'd his kinsman March
(Who is, if every owner were well plac'd,
Indeed his king) to be engag'd9 in Wales,
There without ransome to lie forfeited:
Disgrac'd me in my happy victories;
Sought to entrap me by intelligence :
Rated my uncle from the council-board;
In rage dismiss'd my father from the court;
Broke oath on oath, committed wrong on wrong:
And, in conclusion, drove us to seek out
This head of safety; and, withal, to pry
Into his title, the which we find

Too indirect for long continuance.

Blunt. Shall I return this answer to the king? Hot. Not so, Sir Walter; we'll withdraw awhile. Go to the king; and let there be impawn'd

Some surety for a safe return again,

And in the morning early shall mine uncle
Bring him our purposes: and so farewell.

Blunt. I would, you would accept of grace and love.
Hot. And, may be, so we shall.

Blunt.

'Pray heaven, you do! [Exeunt.

8 So in Painter's Palace of Pleasure: Great mischiefes succedyng one in another's necke. Task'd is here used for taxed: it was common to use these words indiscriminately, says Steevens. Taskes were tributes or subsidies, and should not be confounded with taxes, which are carefully distinguished by Baret. He interprets telonium, the place where taskes or tributes are paied.' Philips, in his World of Words, says 'Tasck is an old British word, signifying tribute, from whence haply cometh our word task, which is a duty or labour imposed upon any one.'

9 The old copies read engag'd, which Theobald altered to incag'd without reason: to be engaged is to be pledged as an hostage. So in Act v, Sc. 2:

'And Westmoreland that was engag'd did bear it.'

SCENE IV.

York. A Room in the Archbishop's House.

Enter the Archbishop of York, and a Gentleman.

Arch. Hie, good Sir Michael; bear this sealed brief1,

With winged haste, to the lord marshal2;
This to my cousin Scroop; and all the rest
To whom they are directed: if you knew

How much they do import, you would make haste.
Gent. My good lord,

I

guess their tenor.

Arch.

Like enough, you do.

To-morrow, good Sir Michael, is a day,
Wherein the fortune of ten thousand men
Must 'bide the touch: For, sir, at Shrewsbury,
As I am truly given to understand,

The king, with mighty and quick-raised power,
Meets with Lord Harry: and I fear, Sir Michael,—
What with the sickness of Northumberland
(Whose power was in the first proportion),
And what with Owen Glendower's absence, thence
(Who with them was a rated sinew too3,
And comes not in, o'er-ruled by prophecies),-
I fear, the power of Percy is too weak

To wage an instant trial with the king.

Gent. Why, good my lord, you need not fear; there's Douglas,

And Lord Mortimer,

Arch.

No, Mortimer's not there.

Gent. But there is Mordake, Vernon, Lord Harry Percy,

1 A brief is any short writing, as a letter, &c.

2 Thomas Lord Mowbray.

3 A strength on which we reckoned, a help of which we made

account.

And there's my lord of Worcester; and a head
Of gallant warriors, noble gentlemen.

Arch. And so there is: but yet the king hath drawn
The special head of all the land together :-
The prince of Wales, Lord John of Lancaster,
The noble Westmoreland, and warlike Blunt;
And many more cor-rivals, and dear men
Of estimation and command in arms.

Gent.Doubt not, my lord,they shall be well oppos'd. Arch. I hope no less, yet needful 'tis to fear; And, to prevent the worst, Sir Michael, speed: For, if Lord Percy thrive not, ere the king Dismiss his power, he means to visit us,For he hath heard of our confederacy.And 'tis but wisdom to make strong against him; Therefore, make haste: I must go write again To other friends; and so farewell, Sir Michael. [Exeunt severally.

ACT V.

SCENE I. The King's Camp near Shrewsbury.

Enter KING HENRY, PRINCE HENRY, PRince
JOHN of Lancaster, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and
SIR JOHN FALSTAFF.

K. Hen. How bloodily the sun begins to peer
Above yon busky1 hill! the day looks pale
At his distemperature.

1 I do not know (says Mr. Blakeway) whether Shakspeare ever surveyed the ground of Battlefield, but he has described the sun's rising over Haughmound Hill from that spot as accurately as if he had. It still merits the name of a busky hill.' Milton writes the word, perhaps more properly, bosky, it is from the French boscageux, woody.