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Of dainty and fuch picking grievances: 9
For he hath found,-to end one doubt by death,
Revives two greater in the heirs of life.
And therefore will he wipe his tables clean;'
And keep no tell-tale to his memory,

That may repeat and history his lofs

To new remembrance: For full well he knows,
He cannot fo precifely weed this land,
As his mifdoubts prefent occafion :
His foes are fo enrooted with his friends,
That, plucking to unfix an enemy,
He doth unfaften fo, and shake a friend.
So that this land, like an offensive wife,
That hath enrag'd him on to offer strokes;
As he is ftriking, holds his infant up,
And hangs refolv'd correction in the arm
That was uprear'd to execution.

HAST. Befides, the king hath wafted all his rods
On late offenders, that he now doth lack
The very inftruments of chaftisement :
So that his power, like to a fanglefs lion,
May offer, but not hold.

ARCH.

'Tis very true;-
And therefore be affur'd, my good lord marshal,
If we do now make our atonement well,
Our peace will, like a broken limb united,
Grow stronger for the breaking.

MoWB.

Be it fo.

Here is return'd my lord of Westmoreland.

Of dainty and fuch picking grievances:] I cannot but think that this line is corrupted, and that we fhould read: Of picking out fuch dainty grievances. JOHNSON. Picking means piddling, infignificant. STEEVENS.

I wipe his tables clean;] Alluding to a table-book of flate, ivory, &c. WARBURTON.

Re-enter WESTMORELAND.

WEST. The prince is here at hand: Pleaseth your lordship,

To meet his grace just distance 'tween our armies ? MoWB. Your grace of York, in God's name then fet forward.

ARCH. Before, and greet his grace :-my lord,

we come.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another Part of the Foreft.

Enter, from one fide, MOWBRAY, the Archbishop, HASTINGS, and Others: from the other fide, Prince JOHN of LANCASTER, WESTMORELAND, Officers, and Attendants.

P. JOHN. You are well encounter'd here, my coufin Mowbray :

Good day to you, gentle lord archbishop ;-
And fo to you, lord Haftings,-and to all.—
My lord of York, it better fhow'd with you,
When that your flock, affembled by the bell,
Encircled you, to hear with reverence
Your expofition on the holy text;
Than now to see you here an iron man,"
Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,

3- an iron man,] Holinfhed fays of the Archbishop, that "coming foorth amongst them clad in armour, he incouraged and pricked them foorth to take the enterprise in hand."

STEEVENS.

Turning the word to fword,3 and life to death.
That man, that fits within a monarch's heart,
And ripens in the funfhine of his favour,
Would he abuse the countenance of the king,
Alack, what mifchiefs might he fet abroach,
In fhadow of fuch greatnefs! With you, lord bishop,
It is even fo:-Who hath not heard it spoken,
How deep you were within the books of God?
To us, the fpeaker in his parliament;

To us, the imagin'd voice of God himself; 4
The very opener, and intelligencer,

Between the grace, the fanctities of heaven,5
And our dull workings: O, who shall believe,
But you misuse the reverence of your place;
Employ the countenance and grace of heaven,
As a falfe favourite doth his prince's name,

3 Turning the word to fword, &c.] A fimilar thought occurs in Gower's Confeffio Amantis, 1554:

"Into the fworde the churche kaye
"Is turned, and the holy bede," &c.

STEEVENS.

the imagin'd voice of God himself;] The old copies, by an apparent error of the prefs, have-the imagine voice. Mr. Pope introduced the reading of the text. Perhaps Shakspeare

wrote

To us, the image and voice &c.

So, in a fubfequent scene:

"And he, the noble image of my youth." MALONE. I cannot perfuade myself to reject a harmonious reading, that another eminently harfh may fupply its place. STEEVENS.

5the fanctities of heaven,] This expreffion Milton has copied :

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"Around him all the fanctities of heaven
"Stood thick as ftars." JOHNSON.

workings:] i. e. labours of thought. So, in King

Henry V:

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1

In deeds difhonourable? You have taken up,"
Under the counterfeited zeal of God,

The fubjects of his fubftitute, my father;

And, both against the peace of heaven and him,
Have here up-fwarm'd them.

ARCH.

Good my lord of Lancaster,

I am not here against your father's peace:
But, as I told my lord of Weftinoreland,
The time misorder'd doth, in common fenfe,
Croud us, and crush us, to this monftrous form,
To hold our fafety up. I fent your grace
The parcels and particulars of our grief;

The which hath been with fcorn fhov'd from the court,

Whereon this Hydra fon of war is born :

Whofe dangerous eyes may well be charm'd asleep,"
With grant of our most just and right defires;
And true obedience of this madness cur'd,
Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.

MoWB. If not, we ready are to try our fortunes To the laft man.

HAST.

And though we here fall down,

We have supplies to fecond our attempt;
If they miscarry, theirs fhall fecond them:

7 You have taken up,] To take up is to levy, to raise in arms. JOHNSON.

in common fenfe,] I believe Shakspeare wrote common fence, i. e. drove by self-defence. WARBURTON.

Common fenfe is the general sense of general danger.

JOHNSON. May not common sense here mean, according to the dictates of reafon? M. MASON.

• Whofe dangerous eyes may well be charm'd afleep,] Alluding to the dragon charmed to reft by the spells of Medea.

STEEVENS.

And fo, fuccefs of mischief' fhall be born;
And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up,
Whiles England fhall have generation.

P. JOHN. You are too fhallow, Haftings, much
too fhallow,

To found the bottom of the after-times.

WEST. Pleafeth your grace, to answer them directly,

How far-forth you do like their articles?

2

P. JOHN. I like them all, and do allow them

well:

And swear here by the honour of my blood,
My father's purposes have been mistook;
And fome about him have too lavishly
Wrefted his meaning, and authority.—

My lord, these griefs fhall be with speed redrefs'd;
Upon my foul, they fhall. If this may please you,
Discharge your powers 3 unto their feveral counties,
As we will ours and here, between the armies,
Let's drink together friendly, and embrace;
That all their eyes may bear those tokens home,
Of our restored love, and amity.

* And fo, fuccefs of mischief-] Success for fucceffion.

2

WARBURTON.

and do allow-] i. e. approve. So, in King Lear, Act II. fc. iv:

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if your sweet sway

"Allow obedience." MALONE.

3 Difcharge your powers-] It was Weftmoreland who made this deceitful propofal, as appears from Holinfhed: "The earl of Westmoreland ufing more policie than the reft, faid, whereas our people have been long in armour, let them depart home to their woonted trades: in the meane time let us drink togither in figne of agreement, that the people on both fides may fee it, and know that it is true, that we be light at a point."

STEEVENS.

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