Bard. I am glad to see your worship.

Shal. I thank thee with all my heart, kind master Bardolph:-and welcome, my tall fellow. [To the Page.] Come, Sir John. [Exit SHALLOW.

Fal. I'll follow you, good master Robert Shallow. Bardolph, look to our horses. [Exeunt BARDOLPH and Page.] If I were sawed into quantities, I should make four dozen of such bearded hermit'sstaves as master Shallow. It is a wonderful thing, to see the semblable coherence of his men's spirits and his: They, by observing him, do bear themselves like foolish justices; he, by conversing with them, is turned into a justicelike serving-man; their spirits are so married in conjunction with the participation of society, that they flock together in consent7, like so many wild geese. If I had a suit to master Shallow, I would humour his men, with the imputation of being near their master: if to his men, I would curry with master Shallow, that no man could better command his servants. It is certain, that either wise bearing, or ignorant carriage, is caught, as men take diseases, one of another: therefore, let men take heed of their company. I will devise matter enough out of this Shallow, to keep Prince Harry in continual laughter, the wearing-out of six fashions, (which is four terns, or two actions9), and he shall laugh without intervallums. O, it is much, that a lie, with a slight oath, and a jest, with a sad brow 10, will do with a fellow that

7 Consent is accord, agreement; a combination for any particular purpose. Baret renders 'secta, a divers consente in sundry wilful opinions.' See note on Macbeth, Act ii. Sc. 1, p. 240. 8 i. e. admitted to their master's confidence.

9 There is something humorous in making a spendthrift compute time by the operation of an action for debt.

10 i. e. a serious face. So in The Winter's Tale:

My father and the gentlemen are in sad talk.'

never had the ache in his shoulders! O, you shall see him laugh, till his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up.

Shal. [Within.] Sir John!

Fal. I come, master Shallow; I come, master Shallow. [Exit FALSTAFF.

SCENE II.

Westminster.

A Room in the Palace.

Enter WARWICK, and the Lord Chief Justice.

War. How now, my lord chief justice? whither away?

Ch. Just. How doth the king?

War. Exceeding well; his cares are now all ended. Ch. Just. I hope, not dead.

War.

He's walk'd the way of nature;

And, to our purposes, he lives no more.

Ch. Just. I would, his majesty had call'd me with him:

The service that I truly did his life,

Hath left me open to all injuries.

War. Indeed, I think, the young king loves you not. Ch. Just. I know, he doth not; and do arm myself, To welcome the condition of the time; Which cannot look more hideously upon me Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.

Enter PRINCE JOHN, PRINCE HUMPHREY, CLARENCE, WESTMORELAND, and Others. War. Here come the heavy issue of dead Harry: O, that the living Harry had the temper Of him, the worst of these three gentlemen! How many nobles then should hold their places, That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!

Ch. Just. Alas! I fear, all will be overturn'd.

P. John. Good morrow, cousin Warwick.
P. Humph. Cla. Good morrow, cousin.

P. John. We meet like men that had forgot to speak.

War. We do remember; but our argument Is all too heavy to admit much talk.

P.John. Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy!

Ch. Just. Peace be with us, lest we be heavier! P. Humph. O, good my lord, you have lost a friend, indeed:

And I dare swear, you borrow not that face

Of seeming sorrow; it is, sure, your own.

P. John. Though no man be assur'd what grace to find,

You stand in coldest expectation:

I am the sorrier; 'would, 'twere otherwise.

Cla. Well, you must now speak Sir John Falstaff fair;

Which swims against your stream of quality.
Ch. Just. Sweet princes, what I did, I did in ho-

nour,

Led by the impartial conduct of my soul;
And never shall you see, that I will beg
A ragged and forestall'd remission 1.-
If truth and upright innocency fail me,
I'll to the king my master that is dead,
And tell him who hath sent me after him.
War. Here comes the prince.

1 'A ragged and forestalled remission' is a remission or pardon obtained by beggarly supplication. Forestalling is prevention. In a former scene the prince says to his father:

'But for my tears, &c.

I had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke.'

Enter KING HENRY V.

Ch. Just. Good morrow; and heaven save your majesty !

King. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, Sits not so easy on me as you think.

Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear;
This is the English, not the Turkish court;
Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,

But Harry Harry: Yet be sad, good brothers,
For, to speak truth, it very well becomes you;
Sorrow so royally in you appears,

That I will deeply put the fashion on,
And wear it in my heart.

Why then, be sad:
But entertain no more of it, good brothers,
Than a joint burden laid upon us all.

For me, by heaven, I bid you be assur'd,
I'll be your father and your brother too;
Let me but bear your love, I'll bear your cares.
Yet weep, that Harry's dead; and so will I:
But Harry lives, that shall convert those tears,
By number, into hours of happiness.

P. John, &c. We hope no other from your majesty. King. You all look strangely on me;-and you most; [To the Chief Justice. You are, I think, assur'd I love you not.

Ch. Just. I am assur'd, if I be measur'd rightly, Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me. King. No!

How might a prince of my great hopes forget

2 Amurath IV. emperor of the Turks, died in 1596; his second son, Amurath, who succeeded him, had all his brothers strangled at a feast, to which he invited them, while yet ignorant of their father's death. It is highly probable that Shakspeare alludes to this transaction. The play may have been written while the fact was still recent.

So great indignities you laid upon me?
What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
The immediate heir of England? Was this easy 3
May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten?

3?

Ch. Just. I then did use the person of your father;
The image of his power lay then in me:
And, in the administration of his law,
Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,
Your highness pleased to forget my place,
The majesty and power of law and justice,
The image of the king whom I presented,
And struck me in my very seat of judgment;
Whereon, as an offender to your father,
I gave bold way to my authority,

And did commit you. If the deed were ill,
Be you contented, wearing now the garland,
To have a son set your decrees at nought;
To pluck down justice from your awful bench;
To trip the course of law, and blunt the sword
That guards the peace and safety of your person;
Nay, more; to spurn at your most royal image,

3 Was this easy? was this a light offence? Thus in King Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 1 :—

These faults are easy, quickly answer'd.' And Lord Surrey has :

--

Easy sighes, such as folks draw in love.'

Baret has: " very easily or lightly; perfacile; legierement.'

4 It has already been remarked that Sir William Gascoigne, the chief justice in this play, died in the reign of Henry IV.; and consequently this scene has no foundation in fact. Shakspeare was misled by Stowe, or probably was careless about the matter. While Gascoigne was at the bar Henry of Bolingbroke was his client, who appointed him his attorney to sue out his livery in the Court of Wards; but Richard II. defeated his purpose. When Bolingbroke became Henry IV. he appointed Gascoigne chief justice. In that station he acquired the character of a learned, upright, wise, and intrepid judge. The story of his committing the prince is told by Sir Thomas Elyot, in his book entitled The Governor; but Shakspeare followed the Chronicles.