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Thy maiden sword.

Las. But, foft! who have we here? Did you not tell me, this fat man was dead?

P. Henry. I did; I saw him dead, breathless

and bleeding

- Upon the ground.

Art thou alive? or is it fantasy

That plays upon our eye-fight? I pr'ythee, speak;
We will not trust our eyes, without our ears :
Thou art not what thou seem'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 himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can affure you.

P. Henry. Why, Percy I kill'd myself, and faw

thee dead.

Fal. Diest thou?-Lord, lord, how this world is given to lying !-I grant you, I was down, and - out of breath; and so was he: but we rose both at an inftant, and fought a long hour by Shrewfbury clock. If I may be believ'd, so: 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.

Lan. This is the strangest tale that e'er I heard.
P. Henry. This is the strangest 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.

[Aretreat is founded.

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

Wales, Lord John of Lancaster, Earl of Weft-
moreland, with Wortefter, and Vernon, prifoners.
K. Henry. Thus ever did rebellion find rebuke.-

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

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

Wor. What 1 have done, my fafety urg'd me to;
And I embrace this fortune patiently,
Since not to be avoided it falls on me. [non too:

K. Hen. Berr Worcester to the death, and Ver-
Other offenders we will paufe upon.-

[Excunt Worcester and Vernon, guarded.
How goes the field?
[he faw

P. Henry. The noble Scot, lord Douglas, when
The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him,
The noble Percy flain, and all his men
Upon the foot of fear,-fied with the rest;
And, falling from a hill, he was so bruis'd,
That the purfuers took him. At my tent
The Douglas is; and I beseech your grace,
I may dispose of him.

K. Her. With all my heart.

P. Hen. Then, brother John of Lancaster, to you This honourable bounty shall belong:

Go to the Douglas, and deliver him

Up to his pleasure, ransomlefs, and free:
His valour, shewn upon our crests to-day,
Hath taught us how to cherifh fuch high deeds,
Even in the bosom of our adverfaries.

K. Hen. Then this remains, that we dividę
our power.-

You, fon John, and my coufin Westmoreland, [Exeunt. Towards York shall bend you, with your dearest

Fal. I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He fpeed, that rewards me, heaven reward him! If 1 do To meet Northumberland, and the prelate roop grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge, and leave fack, and live cleanly, as a nobleman should do. [Exit, bearing off the body.

SCENE V.

Another part of the Field.

Who, as we hear, are bufily in arms :
Myself, and you, fon Harry, will towards Wales,
To fight with Glendower, and the earl of March.
Rebellion in this land shall lofe his sway,
Meeting the check of fuch another day:
And fince this Business so fair is done,

The trumpets found. Enter King Henry, Prince of Let us not leave 'till all our own be won. [Exeunt,

SECOND

KING HENRY IV.

Rum.

IN

1

DUCTION.

Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues.

PEN your ears; 0

For which of you will
ftop
The vent of hearing, when loud Rumour speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping weft,
Making the wind my poft-horfe, ftill unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
Upon my tongues continual flanders ride;
*The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I fpeak of peace, while covert enmity,
Under the smile of fafety, wounds the world :
And who bat Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful mufters, and prepar'd defence;
Whilft the big year, fwoll'n with fome other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no fuch matter? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by furmises, jealoufies, conjectures;
And of fo eafy and fo plain a stop,

That the blunt monfter with uncounted heads,
The still-difcordant wavering multitude,

Can play upon it. But what need I thus

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is Rumour here?

My well-known body to anatomize
Among my houshold? Why
Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,
I run before king Harry's victory;
Hath beaten down young Hotspur, and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I
To fpeak fo true at first? My office is
To noife abroad, that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's fword;
And that the king before the Douglas' rage
Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumour'd through the peafant towns
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged ftone,
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
Where Hotfpur's father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty-fick the pofts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news
Than they have learn'd of me; From Rumour's

tongues

They bring smooth comforts falfe, worse than true

wrongs.

REPRESENTED.

[Exit.

FALSTAFF, POINS, BARDOLPH, PISTOL,
PETO, and PAGE.

SHALLOW, and SILENCE, Country Justices.

bis fons. Davy, fervant to Shallow.

PHANG and SNARE, two Serjeants.

MOULDY,

SHADOW,

WART,

FEEBLE,

against the
King.

BULLCALF,

}

Recruits.

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of the King's

DOLL TEARSHEET.

party.

Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, &c.

SCENE, England.

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The transactions comprized in this History take up about nine years. The action commences with the account of Hotspur's being defeated and killed; and clofes with the death of king Henry IV. and the coronation of king Henry V.

Enter

Enter Northumberland.

Bard. Here comes the earl.

"North. What news, lord Bardolph? Every minute now

Should be the father of fome stratagem:

The times are wild; contention, like a horfe
Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loofe,
And bears down all before him.

Bard. Noble earl,

I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.
North. Good, an heaven will!

Bard. As good as heart can with:
The king is almoft wounded to the death;
And, in the fortune of my lord your fon,
Prince Harry flain outright and both the Blunts
Kill'd by the hand of Douglas: young prince John,
And Weftmoreland, and Stafford, fled the field;
And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk fir John,
Is prifoner to your fon.: O fuch a day,
So fought, fo follow'd, and fo fairly won,
Came not, 'till now, to dignify the times,
Since Cæfar's fortunes!

North. How is this deriv'd ?

Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury?
Bard, I fpake with one, my lord, that came
from thence;

A gentleman well bred, and of good name,
That freely render'd me thefe news for true.

North. Here comes my fervant Travers, whom

I fent

On Tuesday laft to liften after news.

:

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North. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf 5,
Foretells the nature of a tragick volume:
So looks the ftrond, whereon the imperious flood
Hath left a witness'd ufurpation.-
Say, Morton, did'it thou come from Shrewsbury?

Mort. I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord';
Where hateful death put on his uglieft mask,
To fright our party.

North. How doth my fon and brother ?
Thou trembleft; and the whiteness in thy cheek
Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.
Even fuch a man, so faint, so spiritlefs,
So dull, fo dead in look, so woe-begone 6,
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,
And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd:
But Priam feand the fire, ere he his tongue,
And I my Percy's death, ere thou report it it.
This would'il thou fay,--Your fon did thus, and thus;
Your brother, thus; to fought the noble Douglas;
Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds :
But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed,
Thou hait a figh to blow away this praife,

Bard. My lord, I over-rode him on the way; Ending with-brother, fon, and all are dead.

And he is furnish'd with no certainties,
More than he haply may retail from me.

Enter Travers.

North. Now, Travers, what good tidings come
with you?

Tra. My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back
With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd,
Out-rode me. After him, came, spurring hard,
A gentleman almoft forfpent with fpeed,
That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloody'd horfe:
He aik'd the way to Chefter; and of him
I did demand, what news from Shrewsbury.
He told me, that rebellion had bad luck,
And that young Harry Percy's fpur was cold:
With that, he gave his able horse the head,
And, bending forward, ftruck his armed heels
Againft the panting fides of his poor jade 2
Up to the rowel-head; and, starting fo,
He feem'd in running to devour the way,
Staving no longer question.

North. Ha!-Again,

Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold?
Of Hotfpur, coldspur? that rebellion
Had met ill luck?

Bard. My lord, I'll tell you what ;-
If my young lord your fon have not the day,
Upon mine honour, for a filken point 3

Mort. Douglas is living, and your brother, yet: But for my lord your fon,

North. Why, he is dead.

See, what a ready tongue fufpicion hath!
He, that but fears the thing he would not know,
Hath, by inftinct, knowledge from other's eyes,
That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet fpeak, Morton;
Tell thou thy earl, his divination lies;
And I will take it as a fweet difgrace,
And make thee rich for doing me fuch wrong.

Mort. You are too great to be by me gainfaid:
Your fpirit is too true, your fears too certain.

North. Yet, for all this, fay not that Percy's dead.
I fee a frange confeffion in thine eye:
Thou shak lì thy head; and hold'st it fear 7, or fin,
To fpeak a truth. If he be flain, fay fo:
The tongue offends not, that reports his death:
And he doth fin, that doth belie the dead;
Not he, which fays the dead is not alive.
Yet the firft bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a lofing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a fullen bell,
Remember'd knoiling a departing friend.

Bard. I cannot think, my lord, your fon is dead.
Mort. I ana forry, I should force you to believe
That. which I would to heaven I had not feen:
But these mine eyes faw him in bloody state,

Mr. Steevens

• To forffendis to waste, to exhauft. 2 Jade seems anciently to have fignify'd what we now call a hackney; a beaft employed in drudgery, opposed to a horfe kept for show, or to be rid by its matter. 3 A point is a ftring tagged, or lace., 4 Forbilderling, i. e. bafc, degenerate. obferves, that in the time of our poet, the title-page to an elegy, as well as every intermediate leaf, Mos totally black. 6 i, e. fo far gone in woe. 7 Fear for danger.

Read'ring

You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge
More likely to fall in, than to get o'er:
You were advis'd, his flesh was capable
Of wounds, and fears; and that his forward fpirit
Would lift him where moft trade of danger rang'd;
Yet did you fay, - Go forth; and none of this,
Though strongly apprehended, could reftrain
The ftiff-borne action: What hath then befallen,
Or what hath this bold enterprize brought forth.
More than that being which was like to be?

Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out-To stormy paffion, muft perforce decay.
breath'd,
[down You caft the event of war, my noble lord,
To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat And fumm'd the account of chance, before you faid,
The never-daunted Percy to the earth,
Let us make head. It was your pre-furmife,
From whence with life he never more sprung up. That, in the dole of blows your fon might drop:
In few, his death (whofe fpirit lent a fire
Even to the dullest peafant in his camp)
Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
From the beft temper'd courage in his troops:
For from his metal was his party steel'd;
Which once in him abated 2, all the rest
Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead.
And as the thing that's heavy in itself,
Upon enforcement, flies with greatest speed;
So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's lofs,
Lend to this weight fuch lightness with their fear,
That arrows fled not fwifter toward their aim,
Than did our foldiers, aiming at their fafety,
Fly from the field: then was that noble Worcester
Too foon ta'en prifoner: and that furious Scot,
The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring fword
Had three times flain the appearance of the king,
'Gan vail his stomach, and did grace the shame
Of those that turn'd their backs; and, in his flight,
Stumbling in fear, was took. The fum of all
Is, that the king hath won; and hath fent out
A fpeedy power, to encounter you, my lord,
Under the conduct of young Lancafter,
And Westmoreland: this is the news at full.

North. For this I shall have time enough to mourn.
In poifon there is phyfick; and these news
Having been well, that would have made me fick,
Being tick, have in fome measure made me well:
And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckle 4 under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire

Out of his keeper's arms; even fo my limbs,
W'eaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,
Are thrice themselves: hence therefore, thou nice
crutch;

A fcaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel,
Muft glove this hand: and hence, thou fickly quoif;
Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,
Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron: And approach
The rugged'ft hour that time and spight dare bring,
To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!
Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die!
And let this world no longer be a ftage,
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bofoms, that, each heart being fet
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,

And darknefs be the burier of the dead! [my lord :

Bord. We all, that are engaged to this loss,
Knew that we ventur'd on fuch dangerous feas,
That, if we wrought out life, 'twas ten to one :
And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd
Choak'd the respect of likely peril fear'd;
And, fince we are o'er-fet, venture again.
Come, we will all put forth; body, and goods.
Mort. 'Tis more than time: And, my moft
noble lord,

I hear for certain, and do speak the truth,
The gentle archbishop of York is up,
With well appointed powers; he is a man,
Who with a double furety binds his followers,
My lord your fon had only but the corps,
But fhadows, and the shews of men, to fight:
For that fame word, rebellion, did divide
The action of their bodies from their fouls;
And they did fight with queasiness, conftrain'd,
As men drink potions; that their weapons only
Seem'd on our fide, but for their fpirits and fouls,
This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
As fish are in a pond: But now the bifhop
Turns infurrection to religion :

Suppos'd fincere and holy in his thoughts,
He's follow'd both with body and with mind;
And doth enlarge his rifing with the blood
Of fair king Richard, fcrap'd from Pomfret ftones:
Derives from heaven his quarrel, and his caufe;
Tells them, he doth beftride a bleeding land,
Gafping for life under great Bolingbroke;
And more and less 7 do flock to follow him.

North. 1 knew of this before; bat, to fpeak

fruth,

This prefent grief had wip'd it from my mind.
Go in with me; and counfel every man
The aptest way for fafety, and revenge:

Get ports, and letters, and makefriends with fpeed;
Never fo few, and never yet more need. [Exsunt.

SCENE

A ftreet in London..

II.

Bard. This ftrained paffion doth you wrong, Enter Sir John Fulfaff, with bis page bearing his

Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour.

Mort. The lives of all your loving complices

Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er

fword and buckler.

Fal. Sirrah, you giant! what says the doctor to

my water?

2 i, e. reduced to a

• Quittance is return. By faint quittance is icant a faint return of blows. lower temper, or, as it is usually called, let down. 3 1. c. began to fall his courage, to let his fpirits fink under his fortune. 4 i. e. bend, yield to preffure. 5 The dole of blows is the diftribution of blows; dile originally fignifying the portion of alms (confifting either of meat or money) given away at the door of a nobleman. That is, ftands over his country to defend her as the lies bleeding on the ground. 7 i. c. greater and lefs.

Page.

':

Page. He faid, fir, the water itself was a good healthy water but, for the party that owed it, he might have more difeafes than he knew for.

a horfe in Smithfield: if I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were mann'd, hors'd, and wiv'd.

Enter the Lord Chief Justice, and Servants. Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for striking him about Bardolph.

Fal. Wait clofe, I will not fee him.
Ch. Juft. What's he that goes there?
Serv. Falstaff, an't please your lordship.
Ch. Juft. He that was in question for the rob-
bery?

Lancafter.
Cb. Juft. What, to York? Call him back
again.

Fal. Men of all forts take a pride to gird at me: The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to invent any thing that tends to laughter, more than I invent, or is invented on me : I am not only witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee, like a fow, that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one. If the prince put thee into my fervice for any other reason than to fet me off, why then I Serv. He, my lord: but he hath fince done have no judgement. Thou whorefon 2 mandrake, good fervice at Shrewsbury; and, as I hear, is thou art fitter to be worn in my cap, than to wait now going with fome charge to the lord John of at my heels. I was never mann'd 3 with an agate 'till now but I will neither fet you in gold nor filver, but in vile apparel, and fend you back again to your mafter, for a jewel; the juvenal 4, the prince your master, whose chin is not yet fledg'd. I will fooner have a beard grow in the palm of my hand, than he shall get one on his cheek; yet he will not stick to fay, his face is a face-royal. Heaven may finish it when he will, it is not a hair amiss yet he may keep it still as a face-royal, for a barber shall never earn fixpence out of it 5; and yet he will be crowing, as if he had writ man ever fince his father was a batchelor. He may keep his own grace, but he is almost out of mine, I can affure him. What faid mafter Dombledon about the fattin for my short cloak, and flops ?

Page. He faid, fir, you should procure him better afsurance than Bardolph: he would not take his borid and yours; he lik'd not the security.

Serv. Sir John Falstaff!
Fal. Boy, tell him I am deaf.

Page. You must speak louder, my master is deaf.

Ch. Juft. I am fure he is, to the hearing of any thing good. Go, pluck him by the elbow; I must speak with him.

Serv. Sir John,

Fal. What! a young knave, and beg! Is there not wars is there not employment Doth not the king lack subjects? do not the rebels want foldiers Though it be a shame to be on any fide but one, it is worse shame to beg than to be on the worst fide, were it worse than the name of rebellion can tell how to make it.

Sere. You mistake me, fir.

Fal. Why, fir, did I fay you were an honest man? Setting my knighthood and my foldierthip afide, I had lied in my throat if I had faid fo.

Fal. Let him be damn'd like the glutton! may his tongue be hotter ! -A whorefon Achitophel! a rafcally yea-forfooth knave! to bear a gentleman in hand, and then stand upon fecurity! -The Serv. I pray you, fir, then fet your knighthood

and your foldiership afide; and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man.

whorefon smooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes, and bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is thorough with them in honeft taking up, then they must stand upon-security. I Fal. I give thee leave to tell me fo! I lay afide had as lief they would put ratfbane in my mouth, that which grows to me! If thou get'st any leave as offer to stop it with fecurity. I look'd he should of me, hang me; if thou tak'ft leave, thou wert have fent me two-and-twenty yards of fattin, as I better be hang'd: You hunt-counter, hence! am a true knight, and he fends me fecurity. Well,

he may fleep in fecurity; for he hath the horn of abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it and yet cannot he fee, though he have his own lanthorn to light him. Where's Bardolph ?

Page. He's gone into Smithfield to buy your worship a horfe. Fal. I bought him in Paul's 8, and he'll buy me

avaunt!

Serv. Sir, my lord would fpeak with you.
Cb. Juft. Sir John Falstaff, a word with you.

Fal. My good lord!-God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to fee your lordship abroad: I heard fay, your lordship was fick: I hope, your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, hath yet fome smack of age in you, fome relith of the

4 i. e. the

6 That

I i. e. to gibe. 2 Mandrake is a root supposed to have the shape of a man. 3 That is, I never before had an agate for my man. Our author alludes to the little figures cut in agates, and other hard ftones, for feals; and therefore Falstaff says, I will fet you neither in gold nor filver. young man. 5 Mr. Steevens thinks, "this quibbling allusion is to the English real, rial, or royal; and that the poet fecins to mean, that a barber can no more earn fixpence by his face-royal, than by the face stamped on the coin called a royal; the one requiring as little shaving as the other." is, to keep a gentleman in expectation. 7 To be thorough seems to be the fame with the prefent phrafe to be in with (in debt) a tradefman. 8 At that time the refort of idle people, cheats, and knights of the poft. • This judge was Sir William Gascoigne, chief justice of the king's-bench, He died December 17, 1413, and was buried in Harwood church, in Yorkshire, 40 That is, blunderer.

faltners

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