ARCH. I take your princely word for these redreffes. P.JOHN. I give it you, and will maintain my word: And thereupon I drink unto your grace.

HAST. Go, captain, [To an Officer.] and deliver to the army

This news of peace; let them have pay, and part: I know, it will well please them; Hie thee, captain. [Exit Officer. ARCH. To you, my noble lord of Westmoreland. WEST. I pledge your grace: And, if you knew what pains

I have beftow'd, to breed this present peace,
You would drink freely: but my love to you
Shall show itself more openly hereafter.

WEST. 1 am glad of it.— Health to my lord, and gentle coufin, Mowbray. MoWB. You with me health in very happy season; For I am, on the fudden, fomething ill.

ARCH. Againft ill chances, men are ever merry ;4 But heaviness foreruns the good event.

WEST. Therefore be merry, coz; 5 fince fudden forrow

Serves to fay thus,-Some good thing comes to

morrow.

ARCH. Believe me, I am paffing light in spirit. MoWB. So much the worse, if your own rule be [Shouts within.

true.

Against ill chances, men are ever merry ;] Thus the poet defcribes Romeo, as feeling an unaccustomed degree of cheerfulnefs juft before he hears the news of the death of Juliet.

Therefore be merry, coz ;] ftanding this fudden impulfe to fudden dejections forbode good.

STEEVENS. That is-Therefore, notwithheaviness, be merry, for fuch JOHNSON.

P. JOHN. The word of peace is render'd; Hark, how they shout!

MoWB. This had been cheerful, after victory.

ARCH. A peace is of the nature of a conqueft; For then both parties nobly are fubdued,

And neither party lofer.

P. JOHN.

Go, my lord,

[Exit WESTMORELAND.

And let our army be discharged too.

And, good my lord, so please you, let our trains March by us; that we may peruse the men

We should have cop'd withal.

ARCH.

Go, good lord Haftings,

[Exit HASTINGS.

And, ere they be difmifs'd, let them march by.

P. JOHN. I truft, my lords, we shall lie to-night

together.

Re-enter WESTMORELAND.

Now, coufin, wherefore stands our army still? WEST. The leaders, having charge from you to ftand,

Will not go off until they hear

you speak.

P. JOHN. They know their duties.

6 -let our trains &c] That is, our army on each part, that we may both fee those that were to have opposed us.

JOHNSON.

We ought, perhaps, to read-your trains. The Prince knew his own ftrength fufficiently, and only wanted to be acquainted with that of the enemy. The plural, trains, however, seems in favour of the old reading. MALONE.

The Prince was defirous to fee their train, and therefore, under pretext of affording them a fimilar gratification, propofed that both trains should pass in review. STEEVENS.

Re-enter HASTINGS.

HAST. My lord, our army is difpers'd already : Like youthful steers unyok'd, they take their courfes Eaft, weft, north, fouth; or, like a fchool broke up, Each hurries toward his home, and sporting-place.

WEST. Good tidings, my lord Hastings; for the which

I do arreft thee, traitor, of high treason :And you, lord archbishop,-and you, lord Mowbray,

Of capital treafon I attach you both.

MowB. Is this proceeding juft and honourable? WEST. Is your assembly so?

ARCH. Will you thus break your faith?

P. JOHN.

I pawn'd thee none : I promis'd you redress of these fame grievances," Whereof you did complain; which, by mine honour, I will perform with a moft chriftian care. But, for you, rebels,-look to taste the due Meet for rebellion, and fuch acts as yours. Moft fhallowly did you thefe arms commence, Fondly brought here, and foolishly fent hence.Strike up our drums, purfue the scatter'd ftray; Heaven, and not we, hath fafely fought to-day.—

I promis'd you redrefs of these fame grievances,] Surely the two redundant words-thefe fame, fhould be omitted, for the fake of metre. They are undoubted interpolations. STEEVENS.

8

* Fondly brought here, &c.] Fondly is foolishly. So, in Lord Surrey's tranflation of the fecond Book of Virgil's Eneid: "What wight fo fond fuch offer to refuse?"

STEEVENS,

Some guard these traitors to the block of death; Treafon's true bed, and yielder up of breath.

[Exeunt.9

SCENE III.

Another Part of the Foreft.

Alarums: Excurfions. Enter FALSTAFF and COLEVILE, meeting.

FAL. What's your name, fir? of what condition. are you; and of what place, I pray?

COLE. I am a knight, fir; and my name is— Colevile of the dale.1

FAL. Well then, Colevile is your name; a knight is your degree; and your place, the dale: Colevile fhall still be your name; a traitor your de

Exeunt.] It cannot but raise fome indignation to find this horrid violation of faith paffed over thus flightly by the poet, without any note of cenfure or deteftation. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare, here, as in many other places, has merely followed the hiftorians who related this perfidious act without animadverfion, and who seem to have adopted the ungenerous fentiment of Chorœbus :

-dolus an virtus, quis in hofte requirat?" But this is certainly no excufe; for it is the duty of a poet always to take the fide of virtue. MALONE.

I

Colevile of the dale.] "At the king's coming to Durham, the Lord Haftings, fir John Colevile of the dale, &c. being convicted of the confpiracy, were there beheaded." Holinthed, p. 530. STEEVENS.

But it is not clear that Haftings or Colevile was taken prifoner in this battle. See Rot. Parl. 7 and 8 Henry IV. p. 604.

RITSON.

gree; and the dungeon your place,-a place deep enough; fo fhall you ftill be Colevile of the dale.2

COLE. Are not you fir John Falstaff?

FAL. As good a man as he, fir, whoe'er I am. Do ye yield, fir? or fhall I sweat for you? If I do fweat, they are drops of thy lovers, and they weep for thy death: therefore roufe up fear and trembling, and do obfervance to my mercy.

COLE. I think, you are fir John Falstaff; and, in that thought, yield me.

FAL. I have a whole fchool of tongues in this belly of mine; and not a tongue of them all speaks any other word but my name. An I had but a belly of any indifferency, I were fimply the most active fellow in Europe: My womb, my womb, my womb undoes me.-Here comes our general.

Enter Prince JOHN of LANCASTER, WESTMORELAND, and Others.

P. JOHN. The heat is paft,3 follow no further

now ;

2 and the dungeon your place,-a place deep enough; fo fhall you still be Colevile of the dale.] But where is the wit, or the logick of this conclufion? I am almost persuaded that we ought to read thus:

Colevile fhall fill be your name, a traitor your degree, and the dungeon your place, a dale deep enough. He may then justly infer,

-fo fhall you fiill be Colevile of the dale.

TYRWHITT.

The fenfe of dale is included in deep; a dale is a deep place; a dungeon is a deep place; he that is in a dungeon may be therefore faid to be in a dale. JOHNSON.

3 The heat is paft,] eagerness of revenge.

That is, the violence of refentment, the
JOHNSON.