How foul it is; what rank diseases grow, And see the revolution of the times Make mountains level, and the continent (Weary of solid firmness) melt itself Into the sea! and, other times, to see Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock, With divers liquors! O, if this were seen3, The happiest youth,-viewing his progress through, What perils past, what crosses to ensue, Would shut the book, and sit him down and die. "Tis not ten years gone, Since Richard, and Northumberland, great friends, 6 Distempered means disordered, sick; being only in that state which foreruns or produces diseases. 7 When I have seen the hungry ocean gain Increasing store with loss, and loss with store, What perils past, what crosses to ensue ;' it may be necessary to remark that the perils are spoken of prospectively, as seen by the youth in the book of fate. The construction is What perils having been past, what crosses are to ensue.' Who like a brother toil'd in my affairs, [To WARWICK. War. There is a history in all men's lives, Figuring the nature of the time's deceas'd: The which observ'd, a man may prophesy, With a near aim, of the main chance of things As yet not come to life; which in their seeds, And weak beginnings, lie intreasured. Such things become the hatch and brood of time; And, by the necessary form of this, King Richard might create a perfect guess, 9 The reference is to King Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 2: but neither Warwick nor the king were present at that conversation. Henry had then ascended the throne; either the king's or the poet's memory failed him. 10 The earldom of Warwick was at this time in the family of Beauchamp, and did not come into that of the Nevils till many years after when Anne, the daughter of this earl, married Richard Nevil, son of the earl of Salisbury, who makes a conspicuous figure in the Third Part of King Henry VI. under the title of Earl of Warwick. VOL. V. EE That great Northumberland, then false to him, Would, of that seed, grow to a greater falseness; Which should not find a ground to root upon, Unless on you. K. Hen. Are these things then necessities? Then let us meet them like necessities : And that same word even now cries out on us; War. It cannot be, my lord; Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo, The numbers of the fear'd;-Please it your grace To go to bed; upon my life, my lord, The powers that you already have sent forth, Shall bring this prize in very easily. To comfort you the more, I have receiv'd And these unseason'd hours, perforce, must add Unto your K. Hen. I will take your counsel: And, were these inward wars once out of hand, We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Court before Justice Shallow's House in Gloucestershire. Enter SHALLOW and SILENCE, meeting; MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, BULL-CALF, and Servants, behind. Shal. Come on, come on, come on; give me your hand, sir, give me your hand, sir: an early stirrer, by the rood1. And how doth my good cousin Silence? Shak 11 Glendower did not die till after King Henry IV. speare was led into this error by Holinshed. Vide note on the First Part of King Henry IV. Act iii. Sc. 1, p. 190. The rood is the cross or crucifix. Rode, Sax. Sil. Good morrow, good cousin Shallow. Shal. And how doth my cousin, your bedfellow? and your fairest daughter, and mine, my god-daughter Ellen? Sil. Alas, a black ouzel, cousin Shallow. Shal. By yea and nay, sir, I dare say, my cousin William is become a good scholar: He is at Oxford, still, is he not? Sil. Indeed, sir; to my cost. Shal. He must then to the inns of court shortly: I was once of Clement's-inn; where, I think, they will talk of mad Shallow yet. Sil. You were called lusty Shallow, then, cousin. Shal. By the mass, I was called any thing; and I would have done any thing, indeed, and roundly too. There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire, and black George Bare, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele a Cotswold man2,-you had not four such swinge-bucklers3 in all the inns of court again: and, I may say to you, we knew where the bona-robas* were; and had the best of them all 2 The Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire were famous for rural sports of all kinds; by distinguishing Will Squele as a Cotswold man, Shallow meant to have it understood that he was well versed in manly exercises, and consequently of a daring spirit and athletic constitution. In the reign of King James I. Mr. Ro'bert Dover, a public spirited attorney of Barton on the Heath, Warwickshire, established there annual sports, which he superintended in person. They were celebrated in a scarce poetical tract, entitled Annalia Dubrensia, 1636, 4to. The games included wrestling, leaping, pitching the bar, handling the pike, dancing, and hunting. Slender tells Page that he has heard say that his fallow greyhound was outrun upon Cotsall. See Merry Wives of Windsor, Sc. 1. 3 Swinge-bucklers and swash-bucklers were terms implying rakes and rioters in the time of Shakspeare. See a note on sword and buckler men in the First Part of King Henry IV. Act i. Sc. 3, p. 121. 4 Buona-roba, as we say, good stuff; a good wholesome plump cheeked wench.' Florio. at commandment. Then was Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, a boy and page to Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk. Sil. This Sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about soldiers? Shal. The same Sir John, the I saw very same. him break Skogan's 5 head at the court gate, when he was a crack, not thus high: and the very same day did I fight with one Sampson Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's Inn. O, the mad days that I have spent! and to see how many of mine old acquaintance are dead! Sil. We shall all follow, cousin. 5 There has been a doughty dispute between Messieurs Ritson and Malone whether there were two Scogans, Henry and John, or only one. Shakspeare probably got his idea of Scogan from his jests, which were published by Andrew Borde in the reign of King Henry VIII. Holinshed, speaking of the distinguished persons of King Edward the Fourth's time, mentions' Scogan, a learned gentleman, and student for a time in Oxford, of a pleasaunte witte, and bent to mery devises, in respecte whereof he was called into the courte, where giving himself to his natural inclination of mirthe and pleasaunt pastime, he plaied many sporting parts, althoughe not in suche uncivil manner as hath bene of hym reported.' The uncivil reports have relation to the above jests. Ben Johnson introduces Scogan with Skelton in his Masque of The Fortunate Isles, and describes him thus:Skogan, what was he? O, a fine gentleman, and master of arts Of Henry the Fourth's time, that made disguises Daintily well. In rhyme, fine tinkling rhyme, and flowing verse, With now and then some sense! and he was paid for't, Are nowadays.' Among the miscellaneous pieces appended to Speght's Chaucer is a Moral Balade, sent to our Prince Henry and his brothers ' at a supper among the marchants in the vintry, by Henry Scogan. One of Chaucer's poems is entitled 'L'Envoy of Chaucer to Scogan.' 6 A crack is a boy. |