Rebuke and dread correction wait on us,
And they shall do their office. So, be gone;
We will not now be troubled with reply:
We offer fair, take it advisedly.

[Exeunt WORCESTER and VERNON. P. HEN. It will not be accepted, on my life: The Douglas and the Hotspur both together Are confident against the world in arms.

K. HEN. Hence, therefore, every leader to his charge;

For, on their anfwer, we will fet on them:
And God befriend us, as our cause is just!

[Exeunt King, BLUNT, and Prince JOHN. FAL. Hal, if thou see me down in the battle, and bestride me, fo; 'tis a point of friendship.

P. HEN. Nothing but a coloffus can do thee that friendship. Say thy prayers, and farewell. FAL. I would it were bed-time, Hal, and all well. P. HEN. Why, thou owest God a death.

[Exit. FAL. 'Tis not due yet; I would be loth to pay him before his day. What need I be fo forward with him that calls not on me? Well, 'tis no matter; Honour pricks me on. Yea, but how if honour prick me off when I come on? how then? Can honour fet to a leg? No. Or an arm? No. Or take away the grief of a wound? No. Honour

9 and beftride me,] In the battle of Agincourt, Henry, when king, did this act of friendship for his brother the Duke of Gloucefter. STEEVENS.

So again, in The Comedy of Errors:

"When I beftrid thee in the wars, and took

"Deep fears, to fave thy life." MALONE.

2 Exit.] This exit is remarked by Mr. Upton. JOHNSON.

hath no skill in furgery then? No. What is honour? A word. What is in that word, honour? What is that honour? Air. A trim reckoning!-Who hath it? He that died o' Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No. Doth he hear it? No. Is it infenfible then? Yea, to the dead. But will it not live with the living? No. Why? Detraction will not fuffer it-therefore I'll none of it: Honour is a mere fcutcheon, and fo ends my catechism.

SCENE II.

The Rebel Camp.

Enter WORCESTER and VERNON.

[Exit.

WOR. O, no, my nephew muft not know, fir

Richard,

The liberal kind offer of the king.

VER. 'Twere beft, he did.

WOR.

Then are we all undone.

It is not poffible, it cannot be,

The king fhould keep his word in loving us ;
He will fufpect us ftill, and find a time
To punifh this offence in other faults:
Sufpicion fhall be all ftuck full of eyes : 4
For treafon is but trufted like the fox;

3 Honour is a mere fcutcheon,] This is very fine. The reward of brave actions formerly was only fome honourable bearing in the fhields of arms bestowed upon defervers. But Falstaff having faid that honour often came not till after death, he calls it very wittily a fcutcheon, which is the painted heraldry borne in funeral proceffions: and by mere fcutcheon is infinuated, that whether alive or dead, honour was but a name. WARBURTON.

4 Sufpicion fhall be all fuck full of eyes:] The fame image of fufpicion is exhibited in a Latin tragedy, called Roxana, written about the fame time by Dr. William Alabafter. JOHNSON.

Who, ne'er fo tame, fo cherish'd, and lock'd up,

Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.

Look how we can, or fad, or merrily,
Interpretation will mifquote our looks;
And we fhall feed like oxen at a stall,
The better cherish'd, ftill the nearer death.
My nephew's trespass may be well forgot,
It hath the excufe of youth, and heat of blood;
And an adopted name of privilege,

5

A hare-brain'd Hotfpur, govern'd by a spleen: All his offences live upon my head,

And on his father's; we did train him on;
And, his corruption being ta'en from us,
We, as the spring of all, fhall pay for all.
Therefore, good coufin, let not Harry know,
In any cafe, the offer of the king.

VER. Deliver what you will, I'll fay, 'tis fo.
Here comes your cousin.

Enter HOTSPUR and DOUGLAS; and Officers and Soldiers, behind.

Hor. My uncle is return'd:-Deliver up My lord of Westmoreland."—Uncle, what news?

Dr. Farmer, with great propriety, would reform the line as I have printed it. In all former editions, without regard to measure, it ftood thus:

Sufpicion, all our lives, fhall be ftuck full of eyes. All the old copies read-fuppofition. STEEVENS.

5

The emendation was made by Mr. Pope. MALONE.

— an adopted name of privilege,—

A bare-brain'd Hotspur,] The name of Hotspur will privilege him from cenfure. JOHNSON.

6 -Deliver up

My lord of Westmoreland.] He was " impawned as a furety for the fafe return" of Worcester. See A& IV. sc. iii.

MALONE.

WOR. The king will bid you battle presently. DOUG. Defy him by the lord of Westmoreland.' HOT. Lord Douglas, go you and tell him fo.3 DOUG. Marry, and fhall, and very willingly.

[Exit. WOR. There is no feeming mercy in the king. Hor. Did you beg any? God forbid!

WOR. I told him gently of our grievances, Of his oath-breaking; which he mended thus,By now forfwearing that he is forfworn: He calls us, rebels, traitors; and will fcourge With haughty arms this hateful name in us.

Re-enter DoUGLAS.

DOUG. Arm, gentlemen; to arms! for I have thrown

A brave defiance in King Henry's teeth,
And Weftmoreland, that was engag'd,' did bear it;
Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.

WOR. The prince of Wales ftepp'd forth before

the king,

And, nephew, challeng'd you to fingle fight.

HOT. O, 'would the quarrel lay upon our heads; And that no man might draw fhort breath to-day,

Doug. Defy him by the lord of Westmoreland.] This line, as well as the next, (as has been obferved by one of the modern editors,) properly belongs to Hotfpur, whofe impatience would fcarcely fuffer any one to anticipate him on fuch an occafion.

MALONE.

Lord Douglas, go you &c.] Douglas is here used as a trifyllable.
MALONE.

9 And Weftmoreland, that was engag'd,] Engag'd is delivered as an hoftage. A few lines before, upon the return of Worcester, he orders Weftmoreland to be difmiffed. JOHNSON.

But I, and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me,
How fhow'd his talking? feem'd it in contempt?

VER. No, by my foul; I never in my life
Did hear a challenge urg'd more modeftly,
Unless a brother fhould a brother dare
To gentle exercise and proof of arms.
He gave you all the duties of a man;

Trimm'd up your praises with a princely tongue;
Spoke your defervings like a chronicle;
Making you ever better than his praise,
By ftill difpraising praife, valued with you: 3
And, which became him like a prince indeed,
He made a blushing cital of himself; +

2 How show'd his talking?] Thus the quarto, 1598. The others, with the folio, read-talking. STEEVENS.

I know not whether tasking is not here used for taxing; i. e. his fatirical reprefentation. So, in As you like it:

66

my taxing, like a wild goofe, flies."

See P. 559, n. 3. Talking, however, is fufficiently intelligible in its more ufual acceptation. We yet fay, " he took him to task." MALONE.

3 By ftill difpraising praife, valued with you:] This foolish line is indeed in the folio of 1623, but it is evidently the player's nonfenfe. WARBURTON.

This line is not only in the first folio, but in all the editions before it, that I have feen. Why it should be cenfured as nonfenfe I know not. To vilify praife, compared or valued with merit superior to praise, is no harsh expreffion. There is another objection to be made. Prince Henry, in his challenge of Percy, had indeed commended him, but with no fuch hyperboles as might represent him above praife; and there feems to be no reason why Vernon fhould magnify the Prince's candour beyond the truth. Did then Shakspeare forget the foregoing fcene? or are fome lines loft from the Prince's fpeech? JOHNSON.

I do not fufpect any omiffion. Our author in repeating letters and fpeeches of former fcenes in his plays, feldom attends minutely to what he had written. I believe, in these cases he always trusted to memory. MALONE.

He made a blushing cital of himself:] Mr. Pope obferves, that by cital is meant taxation; but I rather think it means recital.