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With the Life and Death of HENRY, firnamed HOT-SPUR.

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Enter King Henry, Lord John of Lancaster, Earl of

K. Henry.

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68

Weftmorland, and others.

O fhaken as we are, fo wan with care, Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,

"And breathe short-winded accents of new broils "To be commence'd in itronds afar remote.

"No more the thirsty entrance of this foil

"Shall trempe* her lips with her own chilurens' blood: "No more fhall trenching war channel her fields, "Nor bruife her flow'rets with the armed hoofs

* i. e. moiften; from the French tremper.

" Of

66.

Of hoftile paces. Thofe oppofed files,

Which, like the meteors of a troubled heav'n, All of one nature, of one substance bred, "Did lately meet in the intestine shock" "And furious clofe of civil butchery, "Shall now in mutual, well-befeeming ranks, March all one way; and be no more oppos'd Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies: "The edge of war, like an ill-fheathed knife, "No more fhall cut his master." Therefore, friends, As far as to the fepulchre of Christ,

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(Whofe foldier now, under whose bleffed cross
We are impreffed, and engage'd to fight),
Forthwith a power of English fhall we levy;
Whofe arms were moulded in their mothers' womb
To chafe thefe Pagans, in those holy fields
Over whofe acres walk'd those blessed feet,
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd
For our advantage on the bitter crofs.

But this our purpose is a twelvemonth old,
And bootlefs 'tis to tell you we will go :
Therefore we meet not now. Then let me hear,
Of you, my gentle coufin, Weftmorland,
What yefternight our council did decree,
In forwarding this dear expedience *.

Weft. My Liege, this hafte was hot in queftion,
And many limits + of the charge fet down'
But yefternight; when, all athwart, there came
A poft from Wales, loaden with heavy news;
Whofe 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
A thoufand of his people butchered;

Upon whofe dead corps there was such mifufe,
Such beaftly, fhameless transformation,
By thofe Welchwomen done, as may not be,
Without much fhame, re-told or spoken of.

K. Henry. It feems, then, that the tidings of this broil, Brake off our bufinefs for the holy land.

Expedience, for expedition.
Limits, for estimates.

Weft.

1

Weft. This, match'd with other, did, my gracious For more uneven and unwelcome news

Came from the north, and thus it did import.
On holy-rood day, the gallant Hot-fpur there,
Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald,
That ever-valiant and approved Scot,
At Holmedon spent a fad and bloody hour:
As by discharge of their artillery,

And shape of likelihood, the news was told;
For he that brought it, in the very heat

And pride of their contention, did take horse,
Uncertain of the iffue any way.

[Lord;

K. Henry. Here is a dear and true industrious friend, Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horfe, Stain'd with the variation of each foil

Betwixt that Holmedon, and this feat of ours: And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news. The Earl of Douglas is difcomfited;

Ten thoufand bold Scots, three and twenty Knights,

Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter fee

On Holmedon's plains. Of prifoners, Hot-fpur took
Mordac the Earl of Fife, and eldest fon

To beaten Douglas, and the Earls of Athol,
Of Moray, Angus, and Menteith.

And is not this an honourable spoil?

A gallant prize? ha, coufin, is it not?

Weft. In faith a conqueft for a prince to boast of.
K. Henry. Yea, there thou mak’st me fad, and mak'st

In envy, that my Lord Northumberland
Should be the father of so bless'd a fon:

[me fin

A fon, who is the theme of Honour's tongue :
Amongst a grove, the very straightest plant;
Who is fweet Fortune's minion, and her pride :
Whilft I, by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and dishonour stain the brow

Of my young Harry. O could it be prov'd,
That fome night-tripping fairy had exchange'd,
In cradle-cloaths, our children where they lay,
And call mine Percy, his Plantagenet;
Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
But let him from my thoughts.-- What think you, cou-
Of this young Percy's pride? the prifoners,
L

VOL. IV.

[fin,

Which

Which he in this adventure hath furpris'd,

To his own ufe he keeps, and fends me word,
I fhall have none but Mordac Earl of Fife.

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

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

K. Henry. But I have fent for him to answer this; And for this caufe a while we must neglect

Our holy purpose to Jerufalem.

Coufin, on Wednesday next our council we
Will hold at Windsor, fo inform the Lords:
But come yourself with fpeed to us again;
For more is to be faid, and to be done,
Than out of danger can be uttered.
Weft. I will, my Liege.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. An apartment of the Prince's. Enter Henry Prince of Wales, and Sir John Falstaff.

Fal. Now, Hal, what time of the day is it, lad? P. Henry. Thou art fo fat-witted with drinking old fack, and unbottoning thee after fupper, and fleeping upon benches in the afternoon, that thou haft forgotten to demand that truly, which thou would'st truly know. What a devil haft thou to do with the time of the day? Unless hours were cups of fack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the figns of leaping-houfes, and the bleffed fun himself a fair hot wench in flame-colour'd taffata; I fee no reafon why thou should'st be so fuperfluous, to demand the time of the day.

Fal. Indeed you come near me now, Hal; for we that take purfes, go by the moon and seven stars, and not by Phoebus, he, that wand'ring knight fo fair *. And I pray thee, fweet wag, when thou art Kingas God fave thy Grace, (Majefty I fhould fay; for grace thou wilt have none)

P. Henry. What! none?

Fal No, by my troth, not fo much as will ferve to be prologue to an egg and butter.

A line of an old ballad.

P. Henry

P. Henry. Well, how then, come, roundly, roundly-Fal. Marry, then sweet wag, when thou art King, let not us that are fquires of the night's body, be call'd thieves of the day's booty. Let us be Diana's foresters. gentlemen of the fhade, minions of the moon; and let men fay, we be men of good government, being governed as the sea is, by our noble and chafte mistress the moon, under whofe countenance we -steal.

P. Henry. Thou fay'ft well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of us that are the moon's men, doth ebb and flow like the fea, being govern'd as the fea is by the moon. As for proof, now: A purfe of gold most refolutely fnatch'd on Monday night, and most diffolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with fwearing, 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 mine hoftefs of the tavern a moft sweet wench? P. Henry. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of the caftle * ; and is not a buff-jerkin a most sweet rob

of durance?

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. Henry. Why, what a pox have I to do with my hoftefs of the tavern?

Fal. Well, thou hast call'd her to a reckoning many a time and oft.

P. Henry. Did I ever call thee to pay thy part? Fal. No; I'll give thee thy due, thou haft paid all there.

P. Henry. Yea, and elsewhere, fo far as my coin would ftretch; and where it would not, I have us'd my credit, Fal. Yea, and fo us'd it, that were it not here appa

This alludes to the name Shakespear first gave to this buffoon character, which was Sir John Oldcastle: and when he changed the name, he forgot to ftrike out this expretion that alluded to it. The reafon of the change was this; one Sir John Oldcastle having fuffered in the time of H.nry V. for the opinion of Wickliffe, it gave offence; and therefore the poet altered it to Falstaff, and endeavours to remove the fcandal in the epilogue to the fecond part of Henry IV. Mr. Warburton.

L 2

rent,

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