Lives so in hope, as in an early spring
We see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit,
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair,
That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build,
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;

And when we see the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection:
Which if we find outweighs ability,
What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least, desist
To build at all? Much more, in this great work,
(Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up,) should we survey
The plot of situation, and the model;
Consent upon a sure foundation;
Question surveyors; know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his opposite; or else,
We fortify in paper, and in figures,

This passage is allowed on all hands to be corrupt, but a slight alteration will, I apprehend, restore the true reading:

Yes, if this present quality of war
Induc'd the instant action. Henley.

Mr. M. Mason has proposed the same reading. Steevens.

in this present quality of war;] This and the following nineYes, if this present &c.

teen lines appeared first in the folio. That copy reads:

I believe the old reading is the true one, and that a line is lost, but have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, because it makes sense. The punctuation now introduced appears to me preferable to that of the old edition, in which there is a colon after the word action.

Bardolph, I think, means to say, "Indeed the present action (our cause being now on foot, war being actually levied,) lives," &c. otherwise the speaker is made to say, in general, that all causes once on foot afford no hopes that may securely be relied on; which is certainly not true. Malone.

2 When we mean to build, Whoever compares the rest of this speech with St. Luke, xiv, 28, &c. will find the former to have been wrought out of the latter. Henley.

3 at least,) Perhaps we should read at last. Steevens." 4 Consent upon a sure foundation;] i. e. agree. So, in As you Like it, Act V, sc. i: "For all your writers do consent that ipse is he." Again, ibid. sc. ii: " - consent with both, that we may enjoy each other." Steevens.

Using the names of men, instead of men:
Like one, that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost
A naked subject to the weeping clouds,

And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.

1

Hast. Grant, that our hopes (yet likely of fair birth) Should be still-born, and that we now possess'd The utmost man of expectation;

I think, we are a body strong enough,

Even as we are, to equal with the king.

Bard. What! is the king but five and twenty thousand? Hast. To us, no more; nay, not so much, lord Bar

dolph.

For his diversions, as the times do brawl,

Are in three heads: one power against the French,5

And one against Glendower; perforce, a third

Must take up us: So is the unfirm king

In three divided; and his coffers sound

With hollow poverty and emptiness.

Arch. That he should draw his several strengths to

gether,

And come against us in full puissance,

Need not be dreaded.

Hast.

If he should do so,

6

He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh
Baying him at the heels: never fear that.

Bard. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hither?

5-one power against the French,] During this rebellion of Northumberland and the Archbishop, a French army of twelve thousand men landed at Milford Haven, in Wales, for the aid of Owen Glendower. See Holinshed, p. 531. Steevens.

6 If he should do so,] This passage is read, in the first edition, thus: If he should do so, French and Welsh he leaves his back unarmed, they baying him at the heels, never fear that. These lines, which were evidently printed from an interlined copy not understood, are properly regulated in the next edition, and are here only mentioned to show what errors may be suspected to remain.

Johnson.

I believe the editor of the folio did not correct the quarto rightly; in which the only error probably was the omission of the word to:

To French and Welsh he leaves his back unarm'd,
They baying him, at the heels: never fear that. Malone.

Hast. The duke of Lancaster, and Westmoreland: Against the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth: But who is substituted 'gainst the French,

I have no certain notice.

Arch.

Let us on;2

And publish the occasion of our arms.
The commonwealth is sick of their own choice,
Their over-greedy love hath surfeited:-

An habitation giddy and unsure

4

Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
O thou fond many!3 with what loud applause
Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou would'st have him be?
And being now trimm'd in thine own desires,
Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him,
That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up.
So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge
Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard;
And now thou would'st eat thy dead vomit up,

1 The duke of Lancaster, &c.] This is an anachronism. Prince John of Lancaster was not created a duke till the second year of the reign of his brother, King Henry V. Malone.

This mistake is pointed out by Mr. Steevens in another place. It is not, however, true, that "King Henry IV was himself the last person that ever bore the title of Duke of Lancaster," as Prince Henry actually enjoyed it at this very time, and had done so from the first year of his father's reign, when it was conferred upon him in full parliament. Rot. Parl. 111, 428, 532. Shakspeare was misled by Stowe, who, speaking of Henry's first parliament, says, " - then the King rose, and made his eldest son Prince of Wales, &c. his second sonne was there made Duke of Lancaster." Annales, 1631, p. 323. He should therefore seem to have consulted this author between the times of finishing the last play, and beginning the present. Ritson.

2 Let us on; &c.] This excellent speech of York was one of the passages added by Shakspeare after his first edition. Pope. This speech first appeared in the folio. Malone.

30 thou fond many!] Many or meyny, from the French mesnie, a multitude. Douce.

4- in thine own desires,] The latter word is employed here as a trisyllable. Malone.

I do not perceive that a trisyllable is wanted on this occasion, as any dissyllable will complete the verse: for instance: And being now trimm'd in thine own surtout.

Desires, like surtout, is a word of two syllables. Steevens.

And howl'st to find it. What trust is in these times?
They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die,
Are now become enamour'd on his grave:
Thou, that threw'st dust upon his goodly head,
When through proud London he came sighing on
After the admired heels of Bolingbroke,
Cry'st now, O earth, give us that king again,
And take thou this! O thoughts of men accurst!
Past, and to come, seem best; things present, worst.
Mowb. Shall we go draw our numbers, and set on?
Hast. We are time's subjects, and time bids be gone.
[Exeunt.

ACT II.....SCENE I.

London. A Street.

Enter Hostess; FANG, and his Boy, with her; and SNARE following.

Host. Master Fang, have you entered the action?

Fang. It is entered.

Host. Where is your yeoman? Is it a lusty yeoman?

will a' stand to 't?

Fang. Sirrah, where 's Snare?

Host. O lord, ay; good master Snare.

Snare. Here, here.

Fang. Snare, we must arrest sir John Falstaff.

Host. Yea, good master Snare; I have entered him

and all.

Snare. It may chance cost some of us our lives, for he will stab.

Host. Alas the day! take heed of him; he stabbed me in mine own house, and that most beastly: in good faith, a' cares not what mischief he doth, if his weapon be out: he will foin like any devil; he will spare neither woman, man, nor child.

Fang. If I can close with him, I care not for his thrust. Host. No, nor I neither; I 'll be at your elbow.

5 Where is your yeoman?] A bailiff's follower was, in our au thor's time, called a serjeant's yeoman. Malone.

Fang. An I but fist him once; an a' come but within my vice;

Host. I am undone by his going; I warrant you, he 's an infinitive thing upon my score:-Good master Fang, hold him sure;-good master Snare, let him not 'scape. He comes continuantly to Pye-corner, (saving your manhoods) to buy a saddle; and he 's indited to dinner to the lubbar's head in Lumbert-street, to master Smooth's the silkman: I pray ye, since my exion is entered, and my case so openly known to the world, let him be brought in to his answer. A hundred mark is a long loans for a poor lone woman to bear: and I have borne, and borne, and borne; and have been fubbed off, and fubbed off, and fubbed off, from this day to that day, that it is a shame to be thought on. There is no honesty in such dealing; unless a woman should be made an ass, and a beast, to bear every knave's wrong.

Enter Sir JOHN FALSTAFF, Page, and BARDOLPH. Yonder he comes; and that arrant malmsey-nose1 knave,

6

an a' come but within my vice;] Vice or grasp; a metaphor taken from a smith's vice: there is another reading in the old edition, view, which I think not so good. Pope.

Vice is the reading of the folio, view of the quarto. Steevens. The fist is vulgarly called the vice in the West of England.

7

Henley.

- lubbar's head -) This is, I suppose, a colloquial corruption of the Libbard's head. Johnson.

8 A hundred mark is a long loan] Old copy-long one. Steevens. A long one? a long what? It is almost needless to observe, how familiar it is with our poet to play the chimes upon words similar in sound, and differing in signification; and therefore I make no question but he wrote-A hundred mark is a long loan for a poor lone woman to bear: i. e. a hundred mark is a good round sum for a poor widow to venture on trust. Theobald.

9

- a poor lone woman - A lone woman is an unmarried woman. So, in the title-page to A Collection of Records, &c. 1642: "That Queen Elizabeth being a lone woman, and having few friends, refusing to marry" &c. Again, in Maurice Kyffin's translation of Terence's Andria, 1588: "Moreover this Glycerie is a lone woman;" "tum hæc sola est mulier." In The First Part of King Henry IV, Mrs. Quickly had a husband alive. She is now a widow. Steevens.

1

malmsey-nose-) That is, red nose, from the effect of

malmsey wine. Johnson.