Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
All of one nature, of one substance bred,
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery,
Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks,
March all one way; and be no more oppos'd
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies :
The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,
(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 't is to tell you—we will go ;
Therefore we meet not now b: -Then let me hear
Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,
What yesternight our council did decree,

In forwarding this dear expedience.
West. My liege, this haste was hot in question,

And many limits of the charge set down
But yesternight: when, all ath wart, there came
A post from Wales, loaden with heavy news;
Whose worst was,-that the noble Mortimer,

brother's blood from thy hand.” The terms entrance and mouth are convertible even now-as the mouth of a river, for the entrance of a river.

But Malone gives a passage in the old · King John' of 1591, which, he says, may throw some light on that before us :

“ Is all the blood y-spilt on either part,

Closing the crannies of the thirsty earth,

Grown to a love-game and a bridal feast?" A correspondent, who lighted upon this passage, would read

“No more the thirsty crannies of this soil

Shall daub their lips with her own children's blood.” • Levy. Gifford (Ben Jonson, v. 138) has properly rebuked the rash disposition of Steevens to meddle with the text, in a remark upon the passage before us. Steevens says, to levy a power as far as to the sepulchre of Christ is an expression quite unexampled, if not corrupt; and he proposes to read kad. “ The expression is neither unexampled nor corrupt," says Gifford, “but good authorised English. One instance of it is before me: 'Scipio, before he levied his force to the walles of Carthage, gave his soldiers the print of the citie in & cake to be devoured.'-Gosson's School of Abuse,' 1587."

Therefore we meet not now. We do not meet now on that account. • Limits. To limit is to define; and therefore the limits of the charge may be the calculations, the estimates.

Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
And a thousand of his people butchered :
Upon whose dead corpses: 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 like, my gracious lord.

For more uneven and unwelcome news
Came from the north, and thus it did reporte:
On Holy-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald,
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'da in their own blood, did sir Walter see
On Holmedon's plains : Of prisoners, Hotspur took

· Corpses. So the folio; the quartos, corpse.

o Welshwomen, &c. The story is told in Walsingham, and may be found in Andrews's · History of Great Britain,' vol. i., part ii., p. 4. • The first quarto, which has been followed in modern editions, reads thus:-

“ This, match'd with other, did, my gracious lord,

For more uneven and unwelcome news

Came from the north, and thus it did import." The quarto of 1604 has like, for, and import. We retain the reading of the folio, substituting for in the place of far.

Balk'd. To balk is to raise into ridges, as in Minshew_"to balke, or make a balk in earing of land." Thus, the ten thousand bold Scots, balk'd in their own blood, are the slain heaped up the "hills of dead" of Pope's translation of the Iliad.' Some conjecture the passage ought to be “bak'd in their own blood,"—as in Heywood's 'Iron Age,'

“Troilus lies embak'd In his cold blood."

Mordake earl of Fife, and eldest son
To beaten Douglas ; and the earl of Athol,
Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith.
And is not this an honourable spoil ?

A gallant prize ? ha, cousin, is it nota ?
WEST. In faith,

It is a conquest for a prince to boast of.
K. HEN. Yes, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me sin

In envy that my lord Northumberland
Should be the father of so bless'd 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 !
Then would I have bis 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 surprisid,
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 ; and 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.

• All the quarto editions, and the folio, make the King answer himself" In faith, it is." was probably not an error.

This

SCENE II.-The same. Another Room in the Palace.

Enter HENRY PRINCE OF WALES, and FALSTAFF. FAL. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad ? 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 wouldst 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 flamecoloured taffata; I see no reason why thou shouldst 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 wandering knight so fair? And, I prithee, 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 knight's body be called thieves of the day's beauty a; 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 b. Now, a purse of gold most resolutely snatched on Monday night, and most dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearing-lay byc; and spent with crying-bring ind: 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. 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.

• Day's beauty. Perhaps beauty is meant to be pronounced booty, as it is sometimes provincially.

As for proof. We point this according to the punctuation of the old copies. Modern editions read, As for proof, now.

• Lay by—stop. To lay by, in navigation, is to slacken sail. & Bring in the call to the drawers for more wine.

P. HEN. Whague have I to do wag? what, in the

P.

Well, thou hast a poz have Ith a buf jerkin thy quips and

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 prithee, 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 antic the law? Do not thou, when thou art king,

hang a thief. P. HEN. No; thou shalt. FAL. Shall I? O rare! I 'll be a brave judge. P. Hen. Thou judgest false already; I mean, thou shalt have the hanging of

· the thieves, and so become a rare hangman. Fal. Well, Hal, well; and in some sort it jumps with my humour, as well as

waiting in the court, I can tell you. P. Hen. For obtaining of suits ? Fal. Yea, for obtaining of suits : whereof the hangman hath no lean wardrobe.

I am as melancholy as a gib cata, or a lugged bear. P. HEN. Or an old lion; or a lover's lute. Tal. Yea, or the drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe. P. HEN. What say'st thou to a hare, or the melancholy of Moor-ditch”? Fal. Thou hast the most unsavoury similes; and art, indeed, the most com.

parative, rascallest, sweet young prince. But Hal, I prithee trouble me no more with vanity. I would thou and I knew where a commodity of good names were to be bought! An old lord of the council rated me the other day in the street about you, sir; but I marked him not: and yet he talked very

wisely; but I regarded him not: and yet he talked wisely, and in the street too. P. HEN. Thou didst well; for wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man

regards it. FAL. O, thou hast damnable iteration b: and art, indeed, able to corrupt a saint.

Thou hast done much harm unto me, Hal,-God forgive thee for it! Before