virtues are obfcured by his errors, be inftructed how to reform; let the fovereign, who would preferve his dignity, be hence taught how to maintain it; and the king, whofe foibles have rendered him the object of contempt, be herein warned of the dangerous confequences of his becoming despised.

The King, and the Prince of Wales.

King. I know not whether God will have it fo,
For fome difpleafing fervice I have done,
That in his fecret doom, out of my blood
He'll breed revengement, and a fcourge for me;
But thou doft, in thy paffages of life,
Make me believe that thou art only marked
For the hot vengeance, and the rod of heaven,
To punish my mif-treadings. Tell me, else,
Could fuch inordinate and low defires,

Such poor, fuch bafe, fuch lewd, fuch mean attaints,
Such barren pleafures, rude fociety,

As thou art matched withal, and grafted to,
Accompany the greatnefs of thy blood,

And hold their level with thy princely heart?
Prince. So please your majefty, I would I could
Quit all offences with as clear excuse,
As well as I am doubtless I can purge
Myfelf of many I am charged withal.
Yet fuch extenuation let me beg,
As on reproof of many tales devifed,
Which oft the ear of greatnefs needs must hear,
By fmiling pick-thanks, and bafe news-mongers,
I may for fome things true, wherein my youth
Hath faulty wandered and irregular,

Find pardon on my true fubmiffion.

King. Heaven pardon thee. Yet let me wonder, Harry,
At thy affections, which do hold a wing
Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
Thy place in council thou haft rudely lost,
Which by thy younger brother is fupplied;
And art almoft an alien to the hearts
Of all the court and princes of my blood.
The hope and expectation of thy time
Is mined, and the foul of every man
Prophetically does fore-think thy fall.
Had I fo lavish of my prefence been,
So common hackneyed in the eyes of men,
So ftale and cheap to vulgar company,

Opinion,

Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had ftill kept loyal to poffeffion*,
And left me in reputelefs banishment;
A fellow of no mark or likelihood.
But being feldom seen, I could not stir,
But, like a comet, I was wondered at,

That men would tell their children, This is he;
Others would fay, Where? Which is Bolinbroke?
And then I ftcle all courtesy from heaven †,
And dreffed myself in fuch humility,

That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
Loud fhouts and falutations from their mouths,
Even in the prefence of the crowned king.
Thus I did keep my perfon fresh and new,
My prefence, like a robe pontifical,
Ne'er feen but wondered at; and fo my state,
Seldom, but fumptuous, fhewed like a feaft,
And won by rareness fuch folemnity.
The skipping king he ambled up and down,
With fhallow jesters and rash bavin † wits,
Soon kindled and foon burnt; 'fcarded his ftate,
Mingled his royalty with carping fools,
Had his great name profaned with their fcorns,
And gave his countenance againft his name ],
To laugh at gibing boys, and ftand the push
Of every beardlefs vain comparative §;
Grew a companion to the common streets,
Enfeoff'd himself to popularity ¶;
That being daily fwallowed by men's eyes,
They furfeited with honey, and began
To loath a taste of fweetnefs; whereof a little

More than a little, is by much too much **.

So when he had occafion to be seen,

He was but as the cuckoo is in June,

Heard, not regarded; feen, but with fuch eyes,
As, fick and blunted with community,

Afforded no extraordinary gaze,

True to the late king, Richard the Second,

t Alluding to the theft of Prometheus.

Bavin, a fort of flight fuel, that catches fire quickly, but wants substance to preferve it long.

him.

Sunk his dignity in mean familiarity.

Comparative Any idle companion that would fet himself on a level with

Gave the livery and seizin of his person away, by expofing it too frequently to the public view.

**They deny Shakespeare to have been a claffic fcholar, but one would fancy that he was both a mafter and admirer of Ovid, by the manly and puerile ftile he frequently mixes together in the fame paffage; as in this inftance, for one, among

many.

Such

Such as is bent on fun-like majefty,

When it shines feldom in admiring eyes;

But rather drowzed and hung their eye-lids down,
Slept in his face, and rendered fuch afpect,
As cloudy men ufe to their adverfaries;
Being with his prefence glutted, gorged, and full.
And in that very line, Harry, ftand'st thou;
For thou haft loft thy princely privilege
With vile participation; not an eye,
But is a-weary of thy common fight,

Save mine, which hath defired to fee thee more;
Which now doth, what I would not have it do,
Make blind itfelf with foolish tenderness.

Prince. I fhall, hereafter, my moft gracious lord,
Be more myself.

King. For all the world

As thou art, at this hour, was Richard then,
When I from France fet foot at Ravenspurg
And even as I was then, is Percy now.
Now by my fceptre, and my foul to boot,
He hath more worthy interest in the state,
Than thou, the fhadow of fucceffion *!
For, of no right, nor colour like to right,
He doth fill fields with harness t; in the realm
Turns head against the lion's armed jaws,
And being no more in debt to years, than thou,
Leads antient lords and reverend bishops on
To bloody battles and to bruifing arms.
What never-dying honour hath he got,
Against renowned Dowglas, whofe high deeds,
Whofe hot incurfions, and great name in arms,
Hold from all foldiers chief majority,

And military title capital,

Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge Chrift?
Thrice hath this Hotfpur, Mars in fwathing cloaths,

This infant warrior, in his enterprizes,

Difcomfited great Dowglas; ta'en him once,

Enlarged him, and made a friend of him,

To fill the mouth of deep defiance up,

And shake the peace and fafety of our throne.

And what fay you to this? Percy, Northumberland,

Th' Archbishop's Grace of York, Dowglas, and Mortimer,

Confederate against us, and are up.

But wherefore do I tell this news to thee?

Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes,

That is, worth, and the affections of the people, are Aronger pretenfions to empire, than hereditary title alone, unfupported by virtue.

Harness-Armour, or coats of mail.

Which art my nearest * and dearest enemy?
Thou that art like enough, thro' vaffal fear,
Bafe inclination, or the start of Spleen †,
To fight against me under Percy's pay,
To dog his heels, and curtfie at his frown,
To fhew how much thou art degenerate.

Prince. Do not think fo-You fhall not find it fo-
And heaven forgive them that fo much have swayed
Your majefty's good thoughts away from me!
I will redeem all this on Percy's head;
And in the clofing of fome glorious day,
Be bold to tell you, that I am your fon;
When I will wear a garment all of blood,
And ftain my favours in a bloody mask,

Which washed away, fhall fcower my shame with it→→
And that shall be the day, when e'er it lights,
That this fame child of honour and renown,
This gallant Hotspur, this all praised knight,
And your unthought of Harry, chance to meet-
For every honour fitting on his helm,

'Would they were multitudes, and on my head
My fhames redoubled! for the time will come,
That I fhall make this northern youth exchange
His glorious deeds for my indignities.
Percy is but my factor, good my lord,
To engrofs up glorious acts on my behalf;
And I will call him to fo ftrict account,
That he shall render every glory up,
Yea, even the flighteft worship of his time,
Or I will tear the reckoning from his heart.
This, in the name of heaven, I promise here;
The which if I perform, and do furvive,
I do befeech your majesty may falve
The long-grown wounds of my intemperance:
If not, the end of life cancels all bonds;
And I will die an hundred thousand deaths,
Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow.
King. An hundred thousand rebels die in this!

Thou shalt have charge, and fovereign trust herein.
Our hands are full of bufinefs-Let's away;

Advantage feeds him fat, while men delay.

There is hardly a line in the above fpeech of the King, that is not worth the whole of what Sophocles

Deareft, for most fatal.

+ Spleen. Shakespeare uses this word in a sense peculiar to himself, for fudden, hafty, and rafb-In the Midfummer Night's Dream, he applies it to lightning.

Brief as the lightning in the collied night,

That in a spleen unfolds both heaven and earth,

makes

makes Oedipus fay to his fon in the fame circumftances. But I don't expect that the learned will ever give up this point to me, while one paffage remains in Greek, and the other only in English.

་ SCENE I.

The nobleness of Hotfpur's character is admirably sustained throughout this Play. The following speech fhews a fine part of it: Hotspur to Dowglas.

Well faid, my noble Scot. If speaking truth,
In this fine age, were not thought flattery,
Such attribution should the Dowglas have,
As not a foldier of this season's stamp,
Should go fo general current through the world.
By heaven, I cannot flatter, I defy

The tongues of foothers; but a braver place,
In my heart's love, hath no man than yourself-
Nay, tak me to my word; approve me, lord.

The precarious and critical fituation of unwarrantable and hazardous undertakings, is well reflected upon in the following paffage of the fame Scene, when the confpirators are informed that Northumberland is prevented by sickness from attending the rendez-vous :

Worcester to Hotspur.

But yet I would your father had been here;
The quality, and hair of our attempt
Brooks no divifion*; it will be thought,
By fome that know not why he is away,
That wisdom, loyalty, and meer dislike
Of our proceedings, kept the Earl from hence-
And think how fuch an apprehenfion

May turn the tide of fearful faction,

And breed a kind of queftion in our cause.

The quality, and bair of our attempt,

Books no divifion

The Commentator, by the word bair, in this place, understands complexion of character, and finds fault with the harshness of the metaphor. But I think, from the laft part of the fentence, that the Poet meant the expreffion literally. Wor efter compares the flightness of their caufe to a fingle bair, which is a thing of too fubtile a nature to bear being divided,

For