PERSONS REPRESENTED. King HENRY the Fourth. HENRY, Prince of Wales, sons to the king. friends to the king. THOMAS PERCY, earl of Worcester. HENRY PERCY, earl of Northumberland. SCROOP, archbishop of York. ARCHIBALD, earl of Douglas. OWEN GLENdower. Sir RICHARD Vernon. Sir JOHN FALSTAFF. POINS. GADSHILL. PETO. BARDOLPH. Lady PERCY, wife to Hotspur, and sister to Mortimer. timer. Mrs. QUICKLY, hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap. Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, Two Carriers, Travellers, and Attendants. SCENE, England. [1] The persons of the drama were originally collected by Mr. Rowe, who has given the title of Duke of Lancaster to Prince John, a mistake which Shakespeare has no where been guilty of in the first part of this play, though in the second he has fallen into the same error. King Henry IV. was himself the last person that ever bore the title of Duke of Lancaster. But all his sons (till they had peerages, as Clarence, Bedford, Gloucester,) were distinguished by the name of the royal house, as John of Lancaster, Humphrey of Lancaster, &c. and in that proper style the present John (who became afterwards so illustrious by the title of Duke of Bedford,) is always mentioned in the play before us. STEEVENS. FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV. ACT I. SCENE I.-London. A Room in the Palace. Enter King HENRY, WESTMORELAND, Sir WALTER BLUNT, and others. King Henry. So shaken as we are, so wan with care, No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood; As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,' [1] That is, let us soften peace, to rest awhile without disturbance, that she may recover breath to propose new wars. JOHNSON. [2] By Erinnys is meant the fury of discord. M. MASON. [3] The lawfulness and justice of the holy wars have been much disputed; but perhaps there is a principle on which the question may be easily determined. If it be part of the religion of the Mahometans to extirpate by the sword all other religions, it is, by the laws of self-defence, lawful for men of every other religion, and for Christians among others, to make war upon Mahometans, simply as Mahometans, as men obliged by their own principles to make war upon Christians, and only lying in wait till opportunity shall promise them success. JOHNSON. Upon this note Mr. Gibbon makes the following observation: "If the reader will turn to the first scene of the First part of king Henry IV. he will see in the (Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross Therefore we meet not now :-Then let me hear West. My liege, this haste was hot in question, : But yesternight when, all athwart, there came By those Welshwomen done, as may not be, K. Hen. It seems then, that the tidings of this broil Break 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. At Holmedon met, text of Shakespeare, the natural feelings of enthusiasm; and in the notes of Dr. Johnson, the workings of a bigotted, though vigorous mind, greedy of every pretence to hate and perserute those who dissent from his creed"-Gibbon's Hist. Vol. VI. 9. 4to. edit. [3] For expedition. REED. [4] Limits for estimates. WARBURTON. [5] Thus Holinshed, "-such shameful villanie executed upon the carcasses of the dead men by the Welshwomen; as the like (I doo beleeve) hath never or sildome beene practised " See T Walsingham, p 557. STEEVENS. [6] Holinshed's History of Scotland, saye This Harry Percy was surnamed, for his often pricking, Henry Hotspur, as one that seldom times rested, if there were anie service to be done abroad." TOLLET. |