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For this they have been thoughtful to invest
Their sons with arts and martial exercises:
When, like the bee, culling from every flower

The virtuous sweets,

Our thighs pack'd with wax, our mouths with honey,
We bring it to the hive; and, like the bees,
Are murder'd for our pains. This bitter taste
Yield his engrossments to the ending father.

75

74. culling] toling Q; toyleing Dering MS. 75-79. The... father.] arranged as by Capell (after Q); as five lines, ending Wax, Hiue; paines. engrossements, Father. Ff. 75. The... sweets] om. Q. 76. thighs pack'd] thigh, packt Q. 78. murder'd] Pope; murdred Q; murthered Ff. Rowe; Yeelds Q, Ff 1, 2; yields Ff 3, 4.

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79. Yield]

with wax and honey to our hive." Usually the bee is described as returning to the hive with thighs laden with honey, as in Dekker, The Honest Whore, Part II. (Pearson, ii. 167): "All here

are

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one swarme of Bees, and strive To bring with wearied thighs honey to the Hiue," and the same author's Whore of Babylon (Pearson, ii. 229): "Bees. bring thighs laden With honey." We read, however, in Middleton, The Family of Love, v. iii: "bees... Come home crura thymo plenæ," a passage pointing to Virgil, Elizabethan references to the method Georgics, iv. 181, as the source of in which the bee carries its booty to the hive. Modern research has shown that the worker bee carries pollen in a cavity on the central joint of the hind pair of legs, that the nectar having been the mouth and thence down the gullet sucked from the flower is conveyed into into the honey-bag, and that the wax is secreted in wax-pockets situated on the ventral surface of the abdomen." Again it is not the worker-bees who are murdered for their pains; the workers massacre the drones when swarming time is over and the supply of honey decreases. Little was directly known of the habits of the bee in the sixteenth century, though its natural history became again the subject of study with Edward Wotton (1492-1555) and Conrad Gesner, whose works "contain numerous trustworthy observations" (J. Arthur Thomson).

78, 79. This... engrossments] The treasures he has stored up yield this bitter taste. Ending, dying; cf. Rape of Lucrece, 1612.

Re-enter WARWICK.

Now, where is he that will not stay so long
Till his friend sickness hath determined me?
War. My lord, I found the prince in the next room,
Washing with kindly tears his gentle cheeks,
With such a deep demeanour in great sorrow,
That tyranny, which never quaff'd but blood,
Would, by beholding him, have wash'd his knife
With gentle eye-drops. He is coming hither.
King. But wherefore did he take away the crown?
Re-enter PRINCE HENRY.

80

85

Lo, where he comes.

Come hither to me, Harry.

Depart the chamber, leave us here alone.

90

[Exeunt Warwick and the rest.

Prince. I never thought to hear you speak again.

King. Thy wish was father, Harry, to that thought:

I stay too long by thee, I weary thee.
Dost thou so hunger for mine empty chair
That thou wilt needs invest thee with my honours
Before thy hour be ripe? O foolish youth!

95

Thou seek'st the greatness that will overwhelm thee.
Stay but a little; for my cloud of dignity

Is held from falling with so weak a wind

That it will quickly drop: my day is dim.

100

Thou hast stolen that which after some few hours

Were thine without offence; and at my death
Thou hast seal'd up my expectation:

81.

80. Re-enter W.] Capell; Enter W. Ff; Enter W. Q (after line 81). hath] hands Q. 84. deep] om. Oxford. 89. Re-enter .] Re-enter Prince. Capell; Enter Prince Henry. Ff; Enter Harry. Q (after line 87). .] Capell; exeunt. Q; Exit. Ff. 94. mine] my Ff. 95. my] mine Ff.

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90. Exeunt

forget his cruel nature, and let fall his weapon!" Tyranny, cruelty; cf. Venus and Adonis, 737. By beholding, beholding; cf. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, II. ii: "[will] any noble or true spirit. think his own worth impeached, by beholding his [Brisk's] motley inside?" and Dekker, Old Fortunatus (Pearson, i. 150).

93. by] with. Herford explains as "in thy opinion."

103. seal'd up] confirmed. Middleton, Mayor of Queenborough, 11. ii: "I'll... seal the deed up."

Thy life did manifest thou lovedst me not,
And thou wilt have me die assured of it.
Thou hidest a thousand daggers in thy thoughts,
Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart,
To stab at half an hour of my life.

105

What! canst thou not forbear me half an hour?
Then get thee gone and dig my grave thyself,
And bid the merry bells ring to thine ear
That thou art crowned, not that I am dead.

Let all the tears that should bedew my hearse
Be drops of balm to sanctify thy head:
Only compound me with forgotten dust;

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Give that which gave thee life unto the worms.
Pluck down my officers, break my decrees;
For now a time is come to mock at form:
Harry the fifth is crown'd: up, vanity!

Down, royal state! all you sage counsellors, hence! 120
And to the English court assemble now,
From every region, apes of idleness!

106. hidest] hidst Q; hid'st Ff. 107. Which] Whom Q. 108. life] fraile life F 3; frail life F 4. III. thine] thy Ff. 119. Harry] Henry Ff.

106. Thou... thoughts] Cf. Middleton and Dekker, The Roaring Girl, iv. ii: "Thou'st stuck ten thousand daggers through my heart."

...

107. stony heart] From Ezekiel, xi. 19. So in 2 Henry VI. v. ii. 50, 51: "My heart is turn'd to stone and while 'tis mine It shall be stony." 109. for bear] spare. III, 112. bid dead] For the thought, cf. Sir Thomas Wyat (Pearson's Dekker, iii. 86), where Guilford warns Lady Jane: "The flattering belles that shrilly sound At the Kings funeral with hollow heartes, Will cowardly call thee Soueraigne.' For the contrast between coronation bells and those that ring for the dead, cf. Wilkins, Miseries of Enforced Marriage, iv: "like bells whose music rings On coronation day for joy of kings. . . not like tolls, That summons living tears for the dead souls." Allusion is frequently made to the duty of mourners to ring for the dead. See Fletcher, The Wild-Goose Chase, Iv. iii: "Oriana. I shall die to-morrow; And will

...

you ring the bells?" Middleton,

Michaelmas Term, IV. iv: "Quo. What a beloved man did I live! My servants gall their fingers with ringing, my wife's cheeks smart with weeping," etc.; Chapman, An Humorous Day's Mirth, xi: “my father and my mother died both in a day, and I rung me a peal for them." Hentzner (Travels in England, 1598) noted the English fondness for bell-ringing. In London, he says, "it is common for a number of them, that have got a glass in their heads, to go up into some belfry, and ring the bells for hours together "(Rye). Cf. Jonson, The Magnetic Lady, iv. iii.

114. balm] the consecrated oil used to anoint the king at his coronation. T. Heywood, Edward the Fourth, Part I. (Pearson, i. 55): "the balm vpon his head."

118. form] laws and good usages. So in Sir Thomas More, II. iv: "Submyt you... Geue vp yourselfe to forme, obay the maiestrate," and Ford, Love's Sacrifice, 1. i: "Should form [i.e. usage, ceremony] . . . Prevail above affection."

120. state] dignified ceremonial, pomp.

Now, neighbour confines, purge you of your scum:

Have you a ruffian that will swear, drink, dance,

Revel the night, rob, murder, and commit
The oldest sins the newest kind of ways?
Be happy, he will trouble you no more;
England shall double gild his treble guilt,
England shall give him office, honour, might;
For the fifth Harry from curb'd licence plucks
The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog
Shall flesh his tooth on every innocent.
O my poor kingdom, sick with civil blows!

When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
What wilt thou do when riot is thy care?
O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,
Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants!
Prince. O, pardon me, my liege! but for my tears,
The moist impediments unto my speech,
I had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke,
Ere you with grief had spoke and I had heard
The course of it so far. There is your crown;
And He that wears the crown immortally

123. neighbour confines] hyphen Ff. 124. ruffian] ruffin Q.

swill F I.

124, 125. swear, night? Rob? Murder? Ff. gill'd Ff 1-3; guil'd F 4. 132. on] in Ff.

138. O

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125

130

135

140

124. will]

murder,] sweare? "drinke? dance? 124. dance] and dance Ff 3, 4. 128. gild] Q; 128. guilt] gilt Q. 131. muzzle] mussel Q. tears,] as two lines Ff. 139. moist] most Ff.

123. confines] regions, as in Julius Cæsar, III. i. 272.

124. dance] Dancing is frequently catalogued in the drama with drinking, swearing and other familiar vices; e.g. in Jonson, Every Man in his Humour. 1. iv: "He and his wild associates. Swear, leap, and dance, and revel night by night." Men in their cups appear to have indulged in dancing so that it was regarded as one of the forms of debauchery associated with the licence of the tavern. See Peele, Jests of George Peele (Bullen, ii. 396), where, in a description of a tavern supper, we read that George's friends, who were passing merry, no chere wanting, wine enough, music playing," were 'skipping and dancing" when George left them.

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126. kind of ways] Capell proposed to read kinds of way, but change is unnecessary. "Kind of way" is a

group substantive (cf. Porter, Two Angry Women of Abington [Haz. Dods., vii. 309]: "each kind of way"), inflected in the plural as in the text.

128. double guilt] For quibbles on "gild" or "gilt " and " guilt," see Henry V. ii. Cho. 26, Macbeth, 11. ii. 55, 56, and Sir Thomas Wyat (Pearson's Dekker, III. iii): "these light crownes, that with blood are double guilt.' Edward the Third, IV. iv: "double guild."

"

132. flesh] A metaphor from the use of "flesh" in the sense "to stain a weapon by plunging it into flesh," as in 1 Henry VI. IV. vii. 36.

133. civil] inflicted in civil war; cf. "civil wounds” in Richard II. 1. iii. 128. 140. dear .] grevious, as often; or "earnest." Deep, severe.

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143. immortally] eternally, as in Peele, Order of the Garter (Bullen, ii. 336); "that your names immortally

Long guard it yours! If I affect it more

Than as your honour and as your renown,

145

Let me no more from this obedience rise,
Which my most inward true and duteous spirit
Teacheth, this prostrate and exterior bending.
God witness with me, when I here came in,

And found no course of breath within your majesty, 150
How cold it struck my heart! If I do feign,
O, let me in my present wildness die,

And never live to show the incredulous world
The noble change that I have purposed!
Coming to look on you, thinking you dead,

155

And dead almost, my liege, to think you were,

I spake unto this crown as having sense,

And thus upbraided it: "The care on thee depending
Hath fed upon the body of my father;

Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold:

160

Other, less fine in carat, is more precious,
Preserving life in medicine potable;

147. inward... duteous] true, and inward duteous Ff.

148, 149. bending.

... me,

God... me, when] bending, God... me. When Q; bending. Heauen when Ff. 157. this] the Ff. 160. worst of] worse then Q. 161. fine in carat, is more] Rowe (reading carrat); fine in Charract, is more Ff 1-3; fine in Carract, is more F 4; fine, in karrat more Q.

may shine In these records, not earthly, but divine"; and in The Contention between Liberality and Prodigality, II. iv. So "immortal"= eternal, in Ford, Love's Sacrifice, Iv. ì.

144. affect] aspire to (as in 2 Henry VI. IV. vii. 103), or "care for, love." 146. obedience] attitude of obedience or submission, obeisance. We owe to Capell the insertion of a comma after Teacheth in line 148, which gives a more satisfactory sense than the punctuation of Q and Ff.

147. inward] sincere.

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150. course] current. Peele, Edward the First, sc. xxv : 66 remorse doth stop my course of speech." 151. cold struck] it chilled, disspirited. Cf. Edward the Third, III. ii: "These . . . surmises strike many cold vnto the heart"; Dekker, If This Be Not a Good Play, etc. (Pearson, iii. 350): "Strikes it so cold to thy heart?" Middleton, Father Hubburds Tales (Bullen, viii. 76); and The Phoenix, I. vi: "News as cold to the heart as an old man's kindness."

...

Also Greene, Defence of Conny-Catching (Grosart, xi. 90).

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161. less. carat] less fine in respect to the standard of purity of gold (pure gold being 24 carats), less pure. So fig. in Jonson, The Magnetic Lady, 1. i: "I cannot cry his caract up enough: He is unvaluable." The word also occurs as the name of a measure of weight for gold and precious stones (about 3 grains), as in Comedy of Errors, IV. i. 28 (charect, F); Jonson, The Fox, 1. i: "Tell him, it [a pearl] doubles the twelfth caract," and The Magnetic Lady, 1. i.

161. precious] With a play on the senses of "precious": (1) of great price; and (2) of medicinal value, efficacious, as in Middleton, A Mad World, my Masters, III. ii, where

aurum potabile or his tincture" is named as an ingredient in a "precious cordial" and is pronounced by Sir Bounteous to be "Very precious, sir."

162. medicine potable] Cf. J. Shirley, The Arcadia, III. ii: "if this be gold, 'tis liquid, and yet too thick to be

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