Heaven witness with me, when I here came in,
And found no course of breath within your majesty,
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
(And dead almost, my liege, to think you were),
I spake unto the 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. Other, less fine in carat, is more precious, Preserving life in med'cine potable28:

But thou, most fine, most honour'd, most renown'd, Hast eat thy bearer up. Thus, my most royal liege, Accusing it, I put it on my head;

To try with it, as with an enemy,

That had before my face murder'd my father,The quarrel of a true inheritor.

But if it did infect my blood with joy,

Or swell my thoughts to any strain of pride;
If any rebel or vain spirit of mine

Did, with the least affection of a welcome,
Give entertainment to the might of it,
Let God for ever keep it from my head!
And make me as the poorest vassal is,
That doth with awe and terror kneel to it!
K. Hen. O my son!

Heaven put it in thy mind, to take it hence,
That thou might'st win the more thy father's love,
Pleading so wisely in excuse of it.

Come hither, Harry, sit thou by my bed;

And hear, I think, the very latest counsel
That ever I shall breathe. Heaven knows, my son,

28 It was long a prevailing opinion that a solution of gold had great medicinal virtues; and that the incorruptibility of the metal might be communicated to the body impregnated with it. Potable gold was one of the panaceas of ancient quacks.

By what by-paths, and indirect crook'd ways,
I met this crown; and I myself know well,
How troublesome it sat upon my head: ook
To thee it shall descend with better quiet,
Better opinion, better confirmation; @giptoviti
For all the soil29 of the achievement goes s
With me into the earth. It seem'd in me, greM
But as an honour snatch'd with boisterous hand;
And I had many living, to upbraid

My gain of it by their assistances;

Which daily grew to quarrel and to bloodshed, Wounding supposed 30 peace: all these bold fears31, Thou see'st with peril I have answer'd:

i

For all my reign hath been but as a scene
Acting that argument; and now my death
Changes the mode32: for what in me was purchas'd33,
Falls upon thee in
a more fairer sort;
So thou the garland wear'st successively34,
Yet, though thou stand'st more sure than I could do,
Thou art not firm enough, since griefs are green:
And all thy friends, which thou must make thy friends,
Have but their stings and teeth newly ta'en out;
By whose fell working I was first advanc'd,
And by whose power I well might lodge a fear
To be again displac'd: which to avoid,

I cut them35 off; and had a purpose now

29 Soil is stain, spot, blemish.

30 Supposed peace is imagined peace, counterfeit, not real. 31 Fears are objects of fear; terrors.

32 The mode is the state or form of things.

33 Purchas'd here signifies obtained by eager pursuit. It is from the French pourchas, and was sometimes so spelled when used to signify the obtaining of lands or honours by any other means than by title or descent. See Spelman's Glossary, in purchacia; and Minshew's Guide to the Tongues, in pourchas.

34 i. e. by order of succession. Johnson observes that 'every usurper snatches a claim of hereditary right as soon as he can. So did Richard Cromwell in his first speech to parliament:For my own part being, by the providence of God, and the disposition of the law, my father's successor, and bearing the place in the government that I do,' &c,-Harleian Miscellany, vol. i. p. 21.

35 Mason proposes to read I cut some off, which seems indeed necessary. The sense would then be, Some I have out off, and many I intended to lead to the Holy Land.'

To lead out many to the Holy Land;
Lest rest, and lying still, might make them look
Too near unto my state. Therefore, my Harry,
Be it thy course, to busy giddy minds as
With foreign quarrels; that action, hence borne out,
May waste the memory of the former days.
More would I, but my lungs are wasted so,
That strength of speech is utterly denied me.
How I came by the crown, O God, forgive36!
And grant it may with thee in true peace live!
P. Hen. My gracious liege,

You won it, wore it, kept it, gave it me;
Then plain, and right, must my possession be:
Which I, with more than with a common pain,
'Gainst all the world will rightfully maintain,

Enter PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, WARWICK, Lords, and Others.

K. Hen. Look, look, here comes my John of Lancaster.

P. John. Health, peace, and happiness, to my royal father!

K. Hen. Thou bringst me happiness, and peace, son John;

But health, alack, with youthful wings is flown
From this bare, wither'd trunk: upon thy sight,
My worldly business makes a period.-

Where is my lord of Warwick?
P. Hen.
My lord of Warwick!
K. Hen. Doth any name particular belong
Unto the lodging where I first did swoon?
War. "Tis called Jerusalem, my noble lord.
K. Hen. Laud be to God!-even there my life
must end37,

36 This is a true picture of a mind divided between heaven and earth. He prays for the prosperity of guilt, while he deprecates its punishment..

At length he recovered his speech and understanding, and perceiving himselfe in a strange place, which he knew not, he

It hath been prophesied to me many years,
I should not die but in Jerusalem;
Which vainly I suppos'd, the Holy Land:-
But, bear me to that chamber; there I'll lie;
In that Jerusalem shall Harry die.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I. Glostershire. A Hall in Shallow's

House.

Enter SHALLOW, FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, and

Page.

Shal. By cock and pye1, sir, you shall not away to-night. What, Davy, I say!

willed to know if the chamber had anie particular name, whereunto answer was made, that it was called Jerusalem. Then said the king, Lauds be given to the Father of Heaven, for now I know that I shall die here in this chamber, according to the prophesie of me declared, that I should depart this life in JerusaIem.'-Holinshed, p. 541.

The late Dr. Vincent pointed out a remarkable coincidence in a passage of Anna Comuena (Alexias, lib. vi. p. 162, ed. Paris, 1658), relating to the death of Robert Guiscard, king of Sicily, in a place called Jerusalem, at Cephalonia. In Lodge's Devils Conjured is a similar story of Pope Sylvester; but the Pope outwitted the Devil. And Fuller, in his Church History, b. v. p. 178, relates something of the same kind about Cardinal Wolsey, of whom it had been predicted that he should have his end at Kingston. Which was thought to be fulfilled by his dying in the custody of Sir William Kingston.

1 This adjuration, which seems to have been a popular substitute for profane swearing, occurs in several old plays. Thus in Soliman and Perseda, 1599:-By cock and pie and mousefoot." In Wily Beguiled, 1606-'Now by cock and pie, you never spake a truer word in your life.' In The Two Angry Women of Abingdon, 1599:

'Merry go sorry, cock and pie, my hearts.

By cock is supposed to be a corruption or disguise of the name of God in favour of pious ears: but the addition of pie has not yet been satisfactorily accounted for. It has been conjectured that it may be only a ludicrous oath by the common sign of an alehouse, The Cock and Magpie, or Cock and Pie, being a most ancient and favourite sign. It should appear from the following

Vol. V.

15*

Fal. You must excuse me, master Robert Shal

low. Shal. I will not excuse you; your shall not be excused; excuses shall not be admitted; there is no excuse shall serve; you shall not be excused.Why, Davy!

Davy. Here, sir.

Enter DAVY.

Shal. Davy, Davy, Davy,-let me see, Davy; let me see:-yea, marry, William cook, bid him come hither. Sir John, you shall not be excused.

Davy. Marry, sir, thus; those precepts2 cannot be served: and, again, sir,-Shall we sow the headland with wheat?

Shal. With red wheat, Davy. But for William cook: Are there no young pigeons?

Davy. Yes, sir.--Here is now the smith's note, for shoeing, and plough-irons.

Shal. Let it be casts, and paid:-Sir John, you shall not be excused.

.

Davy. Now, sir, a new link to the bucket must needs be had;-And, sir, do you mean to stop any of William's wages, about the sack he lost the other day at Hinckley fair?

Shal. He shall answer it:--Some pigeons, Davy; a couple of short-legged hens; a joint of mutton; and any pretty little tiny kickshaws, tell William cook.

Davy. Doth the man of war stay all night, sir? Shal. Yes, Davy. I will use him well; A friend

passage, in A Catechisme containing the Summe of Religion, by George Giffard, 1583, that it was not considered as of the sacred name. a corruption 'Men suppose that they do not offende when they do not sweare falsely; and because they will not take the name of God to abuse it, they sware by small things; as by cock and pie, by the mousefoot, and many such like.'

2 Precepts are warrants. Davy has almost as many employ. ments as Scrub in The Beaux Stratagem.

3 i. e. cast up, computed.