SECOND PART

OF

KING HENRY IV.

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL NOTICE.

SHAKSPEARE is supposed to have written this play in 1598. Its action comprehends a period of nine years, com mencing with Hotspur's death, 1403, and terminating with the coronation of Henry V. 1412-13. Many of the tragic scenes in this second portion of the history are forcible and pathetic; but the comedy is of a much looser and more indecent character, than any in the preceding part. Shallow is an odd though pleasing portrait of a brainless magistrate; and a character, it is to be feared, not peculiar to Glostershire only. In thus exhibiting his worship to the ridicule of an audience, Shakspeare amply revenged himself on his old War wickshire prosecutor. On the character of Falstaff, as exhibited in the two plays, Dr. Johnson makes the following admirable remarks: "Falstaff! unimitated, unimitable Falstaff, how shall I describe thee; thou compound of sense and vice; of sense which may be admired, but not esteemed of vice which may be despised, but hardly detested. Falstaff is a character loaded with faults, and with those faults which naturally produce contempt. He is a thief and a glutton, a coward and a boaster; always ready to cheat the weak, ana prey upon the poor; to terrify the timorous, and insult the defenceless. At once obsequious and malignaut, he satirizes in their absence those whom he lives by flattering. He is familiar with the prince, only as an agent of vice; but of this familiarity he is so proud, as not only to be supercilions and haughty with common men, but to think his interest of importance to the Duke of Lancaster. Yet the man thus corrupt, thus despicable, makes himself necessary to the prince that despises him, by the most pleasing of all qualities, perpetual gaity; by an unfailing power of exciting laughter, which is the more freely indulged, as his wit is not of the splendid or ambitious kind, but consists in easy scapes and sallies of levity, which make sport, bus Paise no eavy. It must be observed, that he is stained with no enormous or sanguinary crimes, so that his licentiousness is not so offensive but that it may be borne for his mirth.”

With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd,
Out-rode me. After him, came spurring hard,

Hath beaten down young Hotspur, and his A gentleman almost forspent with speed,

North. What news, lord Bardolph? every To fright our party.

And I will take it as a sweet disgrace,

And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.

The ragged'st nour that time and spite dare bring,

Mor. You are too great to be by me gain-To said:

Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.
North. Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's
dead.

I see a strange confession in thine eye:
Thou shak'st thy bead, and hold'st it fear or sin,
To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so :
The tongue offends not, that reports his death :
And he doth sin, that doth belie the dead;
Not be, which says the dead is not alive.
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,.
Remember'd knolling a departing friend.
Bard. I cannot think, my lord, your son is

dead.

Mor. I am sorry I should force you to be-
lieve

That, which I would to heaven I had not seen:
But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,
Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out-
breath'd

To Harry Monmouth: whose swift wrath beat
down

The never-daunted Percy to the earth,

From whence with life he never more sprung

up.

In few, his death (whose spirit lent a fire
Even to the dullest peasant in his camp,)
Being bruited ‡ once, took fire and heat away
From the best temper'd courage in his troops:
For from his metal was his party steel'd;
Which once in him abated, 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 loss,
Lend to this weight such lightness with their
fear,

That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim,
Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety,
Fly from the field: Then was that noble Wor-

In poison there is physic; and these news,
Having been well, that would have made me
sick,

Being sick, have in some measure made me well:
And as the wretch whose fever-weaken'd joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckle under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire

Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs,
Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with
grief,

Are thrice themselves: hence therefore, thou
nice || crutch;

A scaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel,
Must glove this hand: and hence, thou sickly
quoit,¶

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

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 stage,
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead!
Tra. This strained passion doth you wrong,
my lord.

Bard. Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from
your honour.

Mor. The lives of all your loving complices Lean on your health; the which, if you give

o'er

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 surety binds his followers.
My lord your son had only but the corps,
But shadows, and the shows of men, to fight:
For that same word, rebellion, did divide
The action of their bodies from their souls;
And they did fight with queasiness, constrain'd,
As men drink potions; that their weapons only
Seem'd on our side, but for their spirits and

souls,

This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
As fish are in a pond: But now the bishop
Turns insurrection to religion:
Suppos'd sincere and holy in his thoughts,
He's follow'd both with body and with mind;
And doth enlarge his rising with the blood
of fair king Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret

SCENE II.-London.-A Street.

Enter Sir JOHN FALSTAFF, with his PAGE bearing his Sword and Buckler.

Fal. Sirrah, you giant, what says the doctor to my water?

Page. He said, Sir, the water itself was a good healthy water: but, for the party that owed it, he might have more diseases than be knew for.

Fal. Men of all sorts take a pride to gird at me: The brain of this foolish-compounded clay, man, is not able to vent any thing that tends to laughter, more than I invent, or is invented on me: I am not ouly witty in myself, but the cause that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee, like a sow, that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one. If the prince put thee into my service for any other reason than to set me off, why then I have no judgment. Thou whoreson inandrake, thou art fitter to be worn in my cap, than to wait at my heels. I was never manned with an agate till now but I will set you neither in gold nor silver, but in vile apparel, and send you back again to your master, for a jewel; the juvenal, the prince your master, whose chin is not yet fledged. I will sooner have a beard grow in the palin of my hand, than he shall get one on his cheek and yet he will not stick to say, his face is a face-royal: God 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 sixpence out of it; and yet he will be crowing, as if he had writ man ever since his father was a bachelor. He may keep his own grace, but be is almost out of mine. I can assure him.What said master Dumbleton about the satin for my short cloak and slops?

Page. He said, Sir, you should procure him better assurance than Bardolph: he would not take his bond and your's; he liked not the security.

Atten. He, my lord: but he hath since done good service at Shrewsbury; and as I hear, is now going with some charge to the lord John of Lancaster.

Ch. Just. What, to York? Call him back again.

Attend. Sir John Falstaff!

Fal. Boy, tell him, I am deaf.

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

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

Attend. Sir John,-

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

Atten. You mistake me, Sir.

Fal. Why, Sir, did I say you were an honest man? setting my knighthood and my soldiership aside, I had lied in my throat if I had

said so.

Atten. I pray you, Sir, then set your knighthood and your soldiership aside; and give me leave to tell you, you lie in your throat, if you say I am any other than an honest man."

Fal. I give thee leave to tell me so! I lay aside that which grows to me! If thou get'st any leave of me, hang me: if thou takest leave, thou wert better be hanged: You hunt-counter, hence! avaunt!

your health.

Ch. Just. Sir John, I sent for you before your expedition to Shrewsbury.

Atten. Sir, my lord would speak with you. Ch. Just. Sir John Falstaff, a word with yon. Ful. My good lord!-God give your lordship good time of day. I am glad to see your lordship abroad: I heard say, your lordship was sick; I hope your lordship goes abroad by advice. Your lordship, though not clean past your youth, Ful. Let him be damned like a glutton! may hath yet some smack of age in you, some relish his tongue be botter !-A whoreson Achitophel! of the saltness of time; and I most humbly be a rascally yea-forsooth knave! to bear a gen-seech your lordship, to have a reverend care of tleman in hand, and then stand upon security -The whoreson sinooth-pates do now wear nothing but high shoes, and bunches of keys at their girdles; and if a man is thorough with them in honest taking up, then they must stand upon security. I had as lief they would put ratsbane in my mouth, as offer to stop it with security. I looked he should have sent me two and twenty yards of satin, as I am a true knight, and he sends me security. may sleep in security; for he hath the horn of Well, he abundance, and the lightness of his wife shines through it and yet cannot he see, though he have his own lantern to light him.--Where's Bardolph ?

Page. He's gone into Smithfield, to buy your worship a horse.

Fal. I bought him in Paul's, and he'll buy me a horse in Smithfield: an I could get me but a wife in the stews, I were manned, horsed, and wived.

Enter the LORD CHIEF JUSTICE ¶ and an
ATTENDANT.

Page. Sir, here comes the nobleman that committed the prince for striking him about Bardolph.

Fal. Wait close, I will not see him.

Ch. Just. What's he that goes there?
Atten. Falstaff, an't please your lordship.
Ch. Just. He that was in question for the
robbery ?

• Owned.

of a man.
root supposed to have the shape
6 In their debt.
A little figure cut ia an agate.
verb: Who goes to Westminster for a wife, to St.
Alluding to an old pro-
Paul's for a man, and to Smithfield for a horse, may
neet with a whore, a knave, and a jade.
William Gascoigne, Chief Justice of the King's Bench.j
ག Sir

Fa. And please your lordship, I hear his thajesty is returned with some discomfort from

Wales.

Ch. Just. I talk not of his majesty :-You would not come when I sent for you.

Fal. And I hear moreover, his highness is fallen into this same whoreson apoplexy.

Ch. Just. Well, heaven mend him! I pray, let me speak with you.

Fal. This apoplexy is, as I take it, a kind of lethargy, an't please your lordship; a kind of sleeping in the blood, a whoreson tingling.

Ch. Just. What tell you me of it? be it as it is.

from study, and perturbation of the brain: I Fal. It hath its original from much grief: have read the cause of his effects in Galeu; it

is a kind of deafness.

disease; for you hear not what I say to yon.
Ch. Just. I think, you are fallen into the

Fal. Very well, my lord, very well: rather, an't please you, it is the disease of not listening, the lady of not marking, that I am troubled

withal.

Ch. Just. To punish you by the heels, would amend the attention of your ears; and I care not, if I do become your physician.

Ful. I am as poor as Job, my lord, but not so patient: your lordship may minister the potion of imprisonment to me, in respect of poverty; but how I should be your patient to follow your prescriptions, the wise may make itself. sonie dram of a scruple, or, indeed, a scruple

bailiff.

Ch. Just. I sent for you, when there were | John of Lancaster, against the archbishop and matters against you for your life, to come speak the earl of Northumberland. with me.

Fal. As I was then advised by my learned counsel in the laws of this land-service, I did

not come.

Ch. Just. Well, the truth is, Sir John, live in great infamy.

Fal. He that buckles him in my belt, not live in less.

Fal. Yea; I thank your pretty sweet wit for it. But look you pray, all you that kiss my lady peace at home, that our armies join not in a hot day! for, by the Lord I take but two shirts out you with me, and I mean not to sweat extraordina rily if it be a hot day, an I brandish any thing but can-my bottle, I would I might never spit white again. There is not a dangerous action can peep out his head, but I am thrust upon it: Well, I cannot last ever: But it was always yet the trick of our English nation, if they have a good thing, to make it too common. If you will needs say, I am an old man, you should give me rest. I would to God, my name were not so terrible to the enemy as it is. I were better to be eaten to death with rust, than to be scoured to nothing with perpetual motion.

Ch. Just. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great.

Fal. I would it were otherwise; I would my means were greater, and uny waist slenderer. Ch. Just. You have misled the youthful prince.

Fal. The young prince hath misled me: I am the fellow with the great belly, and he my dog. Ch. Just. Well, I am loath to gail a newhealed wound; your day's service at Shrewsbury hath a little gilded over your night's exploit on Gads-hill: you may thank the unquiet time for your quiet o'er-posting that action. Fal. My lord?

Ch. Just. But since all is well, keep it so: wake not a sleeping wolf.

Fal. To wake a wolf, is as bad as to smell a

fox.

Ch. Just. Well, be honest, be honest; And God bless your expedition !

Ful. Will your lordship lend me a thousand pound, to furnish me forth?

Ch, Just. Not a penny, not a penny; you are too impatient to bear crosses. Fare you well; Commend me to my cousin Westmoreland.

Exeunt CHIEF JUSTICE and ATTENDANT. Fal. If I do, fillip me with a three-man beetle. A man can no more separate age and

Ch. Just. What! you are as a candle, the bet-covetousness, than he can part young limbs and ter part burnt out.

Fal. A wassel candle, my lord; all tallow: if I did say of wax, my growth would approve the truth.

Ch. Just. There is not a white hair on your face, but should have his effect of gravity.

Ful. His effect of gravy, gravy, gravy. Ch. Just. You follow the young prince up and down, like his ill angel.

lechery: but the gout galls the one, and the pox
piuches the other; and so both the degrees pre-
vent + my curses.—Boy !——
Page. Sir?

Fal. What money is in my purse?
Page. Seven groats and twopence.

Ful. I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse: borrowing only lingers and lingers it out, but the disease is incurable. Ful. Not so, my loid; your il angel is-Go, bear this letter to my lord of Lancaster ; light; but, I hope, he that looks upon me, will this to the prince; this to the earl of Westmoretake me without weighing and yet, in some land; and this to old mistress Ursula, whom I respects, 1 grant, I cannot go, I cannot tell have weekly sworn to marry since I perceived the Virtue is of so little regard in these costermon-first white hair on my chiu: About it; you know ger times, that true valour is turned bear-herd: where to find me. [Exit PAGE.] A pox of Pregnancy is inade a tapster, and hath his this gout! or, a gout of this pox! for the one quick wit wasted in giving reckonings: all the or the other plays the rogue with my great tor. other gifts appertinent to man, as the malice of It is no matter, if I do halt; I have the wais this age shapes them, are not worth a goose-for my colour, and my pension shall seem the berry. You, that are old, consider not the ca- more reasonable: A good wit will anake use of pacities of us that are young you measure the aay thing; I will turn diseases to commodity. heat of our livers with the bitterness of your galls and we that are in the vaward of our youth, I must confess, are wags too.

Ch. Just. Do you set down your name in the scroll of youth, that are written down old with all the characters of age? Have you not a moist eye? a dry hand? a yellow cheek? a white beard a decreasing leg? an increasing belly? Is not your voice broken? your wind short? your chin double? your wit single? and every part about you blasted with antiquity? and will you yet call yourself young? Fie, fle, fie, Sir John!

Ful. My lord, I was born about three of the clock in the afternoon, with a white head, and something a round belly. For ny voice,-I have lost it with hollaing, and singing of anthems. To approve my youth further, I will not: the Truth is, I am only old in judgment and understanding; and he that will caper with me for 2 thousand marks, let him lend me the money, and have at him. For the box o'the ear that the prince gave you, he gave it like a rude prince, and you took it like a sensible lord. have checked him for it; and the young lion repents: marry, not in ashes and sackcloth; but in new silk and old sack.

Ch. Just. Well, heaven send the prince a better companion!

Fal. Heaven send the companion a better prince! I cannot rid my hands of him.

Ch. Just. Well, the king bath severed you and Prince Harry: I hear you are going with lord

[Exit.

SCENE III-York.-A Room in the Arch-
bishop's Palace.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, the Lords
HASTINGS, MOWBRAY, and BARDOLPH.
Arch. Thus have you heard our cause, and

known our meaus ;

And, my most noble friends, I pray you all,
Speak plainly your opinions of our hopes:
And first, loid marshal, what say you to it?

Morb. 1 well allow the occasion of our arms;
But gladly would be better satisfied,
How, in our means, we should advance our
selves

To look with forehead hold and big enough
Upon the power and poissance of the king.

Hast. Our present musters grow upon the

file

To five and twenty thousand men of choice;
And our supplies live largely in the hope
Of great Northumberland, whose bosom burns
With an incensed fire of injmies.

Bard. The question then, lord Hastings,
standeth thus :-

Whether our present five and twenty thou
sand

May hold up head withont Northumberland.
Hast. With him, we may.

A large wooden hammer so heary as to regnire three men to wield it. ↑ Annegate.