The scene* between Northumberland, his wife,+ and daughter-in-law, is Shakspeare's creature, and of fair proportions. But the earl did now determine, as Shakspeare relates, to return into Scotland; he gave way to the solicitations of the females of his family, and, instead of joining the rebel force, betook himself to Wales. The reasoning of Lady Percy, plausible though fallacious, might well have prevailed with one of stouter heart. I will give only her apostrophe to her dead husband.

"By his light

Did all the chivalry of England move

To do brave acts. He was indeed the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
He had no legs, that practised not his gait;
And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant;

For those that could speak low and tardily
Would turn their own perfection to abuse,
To seem like him: so that in speech, in gait,
In diet, in affections of delight,

* Act ii. Sc. 3.

† This was his second wife, Maude, sister and heir of Anthony, Lord Lucy, and widow of Gilbert Umfraville, Earl of Angus. Hotspur's mother was Margaret, daughter of Ralph, Lord Neville of Raby. Collins, ii. 265.

October 8th, 1403, after the battle of Shrewsbury, a warrant was issued for the apprehending this lady, on what ground I know not; see Tyler, i. 248.

In military rules, humours of blood,

He was the mark and glass, copy and book,

That fashion'd others. And him-O wondrous him! O miracle of men!-him did you leave (Second to none, unseconded by you),

To look upon the hideous god of war

In disadvantage; to abide a field

Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur's name

Did seem defensible ;

;—so you left him :

Never, O never, do his ghost the wrong,

To hold your honour more precise and nice
With others than with him."

Of the celebrated address to sleep, * Shakspeare has the whole merit.

"How many thousand of my poorest subjects

Are at this hour asleep! Sleep, gentle sleep,
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more will weigh my eyelids down,
And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,

Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,

And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, Than in the perfumed chambers of the great,

Under the canopies of costly state,

And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody?

O, thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile
In loathsome beds, and leav'st the kingly couch,

*Act iii. Sc. 1.

A watch-case, or a common 'larum bell?
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge;

And in the visitation of the winds,

Who take the ruffian billows by the top,

Curling their monstrous heads and hanging them
With deaf'ning clamours in the slippery clouds,
That with the hurly death itself awakes?
Can'st thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude;
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down,
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown."

Surry* and Warwick+ are historical persons, likely to be with the king. The mention of Glendower's death is a mistake taken from Holinshed; he lived till 1415.‡

A passage in this scene exhibits Shakspeare's carelessness as to facts and circumstances, even those which he had recorded or invented. In referring to Richard's prediction of Northumberland's defec

* Fitzalan, Earl of Arundel and Surry. Banks, ii. 693. ↑ Richard de Beauchamp; Shakspeare invariably styles him Neville. (Bosw. iii.) The title afterwards, as we shall see, came to that family by marriage. Banks, iii. 722. See Bosw., xvi. 310; and xvii. 113.

tion from Henry, who ascended the throne with his help, the king now says

Though then, Heaven knows, I had no such intent." Malone observes, correctly, that Richard's speech was made after Henry had already accepted the

crown.*

The scene in Gualtree forest,† where the archbishop pitched his rebellious camp, unaccompanied by Northumberland, and Westmoreland, "subtilely devised how to quail his purpose,” is taken from Holinshed, who yet is not exactly followed as to the proceedings of the northern earl. Shakspeare's archbishop imputes to him irresolution, if not perfidy— "I have received

New-dated letters from Northumberland;

Their cold intent, tenour, and purpose, thus :—
Here doth he wish his person with such powers,

As might hold sortance with his quality;
The which he could not levy, whereupon

He is retired, to ripe his growing fortunes

To Scotland.”

The Chronicles rather impute "too much haste" to the archbishops, whose separate force was over

* See Bosw., iii. Johnson notices another piece of carelessness. Warwick was not present on the occasion; see Richard 11. Act v. Sc. 2.

† Act iv. Sc. 1.

‡ P.37 See Hall, 34; Stow, 332 ; Otterb. 254.

come before that of Northumberland had been brought into the field. The earl retired into Scotland, when, after the affair of Gualtree, the king marched against him with a superior force.

Westmoreland's demand of the reason of the archbishop's armament is put by the poet into appropriate language; for the answer of the prelate, Shakspeare had not only to draw upon his imagination:

The archbishop answered that he took nothing in hand against the king's peace, but that whatsoever he did tended rather to advance the peace and quiet of the commonwealth than otherwise; and where he and his company were in arms, it was for fear of the king, to whom he could have no free access, by reason of such a multitude of flatterers as were about him; and, therefore, he maintained that his purpose to be good and profitable, as well for the king himself as for the realm, if men were willing to understand a truth; and, herewith, he showed forth a scroll in which the articles were written, of which you have heard."

Thus paraphrased and enlarged :

"Nor do I, as an enemy to peace,

:

Troop in the throngs of military men ;
But rather show awhile like fearful war,
To diet rank minds, sick of happiness,
And purge the obstructions which begin to stop
Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly.