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(Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross
We are impressed and engag'd to fight,)
Forthwith a power of English shall we levy;
Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' womb
To chase these pagans, in those holy fields,
Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet,
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd
For our advantage, on the bitter cross.
But this our purpose is a twelvemonth old,
And bootless 'tis to tell you-we will go ;
Therefore we meet not now :—Then let me hear
Of you my gentle cousin Westmoreland,
What yesternight our council did decree,
In forwarding this dear expedience.d

West. My liege, this haste was hot in question,
And many limits of the charge set down
But yesternight: when, all athwart, there came
A post from Wales, loaden with heavy news;
Whose worst was,-that the noble Mortimer,
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
Was by the rude hands of that Welchman taken,
And a thousand of his people butchered:
Upon those dead corps there was such misuse,
Such beastly, shameless transformation,
By those Welshwomen done, as may not be,
Without much shame, re-told or spoken of.

K. Hen. It seems then, that the tidings of this broil

Brake off our business for the Holy Land.

West. This, match'd with other, did, my gracious lord;

For more uneven and unwelcome news

Came from the north, and thus it did import.
On Holy-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald,s

c Therefore we meet not now:] i. e. Not on that account do we now meet;we are not now assembled, to acquaint you with our intended expedition.MALONE.

d

limits-] i. e. Estimates.

e expedience.] i. e. Expedition.

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f Young Harry Percy,] This Harry Percy was surnamed, for his often pricking, Harry Hotspur, as one that seldom times rested, if there were anie service to be done abroad."-Holinshed's History of Scotland, p. 240.

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Archibald,] Archibald Douglas, Earl Douglas.

That ever-valiant and approved Scot,

At Holmedon met,

Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour;
As by discharge of their artillery,

And shape of likelihood, the news was told;
For he that brought them, in the very heat
And pride of their contention did take horse,
Uncertain of the issue any way.

K. Hen. Here is a dear and true-industrious friend,
Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse,
Stain'd with the variation of each soil

Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours;
And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.
The earl of Douglas is discomfited;

Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights,
Balk'dh in their own blood, did sir Walter see
On Holmedon's plains: Of prisoners, Hotspur took
Mordake the earl of Fife, and eldest son

To beaten Douglas ; and the earls of Athol,
Of Murray, Angus, and Mentieth.

And is not this an honourable spoil?
A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not?
West. In faith,

It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.

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K. Hen. Yea, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me
In envy that my lord Northumberland
Should be the father of so blest a son:

A son who is the theme of honour's tongue;
Amongst a grove, the very straightest plant;
Who is sweet fortune's minion, and her pride:
Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and dishonour stain the brow
Of my young Harry. O, that it could be prov'd,
That some night tripping fairy had exchang'd
In cradle clothes our children where they lay,
And call'd mine-Percy, his-Plantagenet!

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and eldest son

To beaten Douglas ;] He was son of the duke of Albany, regent of Scotland. The author was led into this mistake, by the omission of a comma in the early edition of Holinshed.-STEEVENS.

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Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.

But let him from my thoughts:-What think you coz',
Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners,
Which he in this adventure hath surpriz'd,

To his own use he keeps; and sends me word,
I shall have none but Mordake earl of Fife.

West. This is his uncle's teaching, this is Worcester, Malevolent to you in all aspects ;*

Which makes him prune himself,' and bristle up
The crest of youth against your dignity.

K. Hen. But I have sent for him to answer this:
And, for this cause, awhile we must neglect
Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.

Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we
Will hold at Windsor, so inform the lords:
But come yourself with speed to us again;
For more is to be said, and to be done,
Than out of anger can be uttered."
West. I will my liege.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

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The same.

Another Room in the Palace."

Enter HENRY Prince of Wales, and FALSTAFF.

Fal. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

the prisoners,] Percy had an exclusive right to these prisoners, except the earl of Fife. By the law of arms, every man who had taken any captive, whose redemption did not exceed ten thousand crowns, had him clearly for himself, either to acquit or ransom, at his pleasure. Percy could not refuse the earl of Fife to the king, for being a prince of the blood royal, (son of the duke of Albany, brother to King Robert III.) Henry might justly claim him by his acknowledged military prerogative.-TOLLET and STEEVENS.

Malevolent to you in all aspects;] An astrological allusion, Worcester is represented as a malignant star that influenced the conduct of Hotspur.HENLEY.

1 Which makes him prune himself,] The metaphor is taken from a cock, who in his pride prunes himself; that is, picks off the loose feathers to smooth the rest. To prune and to plume, spoken of a bird, is the same.-JOHNSON.

m Than out of anger can be uttered.] That is, "more is to be said than anger will suffer me to say: more than can issue from a mind disturbed like mine." -JOHNSON.

¤ Another room in the Palace.] The editors do not appear to have attributed the subsequent dialogue to an appropriate situation. Falstaff seems to have been unknown to the court, and a mere tavern companion of the prince's. The conversation was most probably imagined to take place in the street. It must be recollected, that in the old copies no place of action is giver.

P. Hen. Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou would'st truly know." What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day? unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping houses, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame colour'd taffata; I see no reason, why thou should'st be so superfluous to demand the time of the day.

Fal. Indeed, you come near me, now, Hal for we, that take purses, go by the moon and seven stars: and not by Phoebus,-he, that wand'ring knight so fair. And, I pray thee, sweet wag, when thou art king,-as God save thy grace, (majesty, I should say: for grace thou wilt have none,)

P. Hen. What! none?

Fal. No, by my troth; not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter.

P. Hen. Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly.

Fal. Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us, that are squires of the night's body," be called thieves of the day's beauty; let us be-Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon: And let men say, we be men of good government; being governed as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we-steal.

P. Hen. Thou say'st well; and it holds well too: for the fortune of us, that are the moon's men, doth ebb and flow like the sea; being governed as the sea is, by the moon. As, for proof, now: A purse of gold most resolutely snatched on Monday night, and most dissolutely

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thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know.] Falstaff, as a minion of the moon, wishes to know how near it is to night, and therefore mis-expresses his purpose, by asking the time of the day.

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he, that wand'ring knight so fair.] These are most probably the words of some forgotten ballad.-STEEVENS.

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squires of the night's body,] i. e. Constant attendants on the night,a squire of dames, which appears to be the idea in Falstaff's mind, was one devoted to the fair sex. Thieves of the day's beauty. Of is here used for by; the meaning is, “let not us, who are votaries of the night, be called thieves by the day.

spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearing-lay by ;" and spent with crying-bring in now, in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder; and, by and by, in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows.

Fal. By the Lord, thou say'st true, lad. And is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?

P. Hen. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the castle. And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance ?t

Fal. How now, how now, mad wag? what, in thy quips, and thy quiddities? what a plague have I to do with a buff jerkin?

P. Hen. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hostess of the tavern?

Fal. Well, thou hast called her to a reckoning, many a time and oft.

P. Hen. Did I ever call for thee to pay thy part?

Fal. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou hast paid all

there.

P. Hen. Yea, and elsewhere, so far as my coin would stretch; and, where it would not, I have used my credit.

Fal. Yea, and so used it, that were it not here apparent that thou art heir apparent,-But, I pr'ythee, sweet wag, shall there be gallows standing in England when thou art king? and resolution thus fobbed as it is, with the rusty curb of old father antick the law? Do not thou, when thou art king, hang a thief.

P. Hen. No; thou shalt.

q got with swearing-lay by ;] i. e. Swearing at the passengers they robbed, lay by your arms; or rather, lay by was a phrase that then signified stand still, addressed to those who were preparing to rush forward.-WAR

BURTON.

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and spent with crying-bring in :] i. e. More wine.

my old lad of the castle.] There is a tradition preserved by Fuller in his Worthies, folio, 1662, p. 258, that the first part of Falstaff originally bore the name of Old Castle. This appellation therefore of Prince Henry had a double property, as a quibble upon his name, and also from characters of his description being so called in the cant language of Shakspeare's day.-Gabriel Harvey tells us of "Old lads of the Castle with their rapping babble."

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And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?] To understand the propriety of the prince's answer, it must be remarked that the sheriff's officers were formerly clad in buff. So that when Falstaff asks, whether his hostess is not a sweet wench, the prince asks in return whether it will not be a sweet thing to go to prison by running in debt to this sweet wench.-JOHNSON.

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