That you and I should meet upon fuch terms
As now we meet: You have deceiv'd our trust;
And made us doff our eafy robes' of peace,
To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel: +
This is not well, my lord, this is not well.
What fay you to't? will you again unknit
This churlish knot of all-abhorred war?
And move in that obedient orb again,
Where you did give a fair and natural light;
And be no more an exhal'd meteor,

A prodigy of fear, and a portent

Of broached mischief to the unborn times?
WOR. Hear me, my liege:

For mine own part, I could be well content
To entertain the lag-end of my life
With quiet hours; for, I do proteft,

I have not fought the day of this dislike.

3

K. HEN. You have not fought it! how comes it
then?

FAL. Rebellion lay in his way, and he found it.
P. HEN. Peace, chewet, peace.'

doff our eafy robes-] i. e. do them off, put them off. So, in King John:

"Thou wear a lion's hide! doff it for shame."

STEEVENS.

4 To crush our old limbs in ungentle feel:] Shakspeare must have been aware that the King was not at this time more than four years older than he was at the depofition of King Richard. And indeed in the next play, he makes him exprefsly tell us, that it was then

but eight years fince

"Northumberland, even to the eyes of Richard
"Gave him defiance."

But it is altogether fruitless to attempt the reconciliation of our author's chronology. RITSON.

5 Peace, chewet, peace.] A chewet, or chuet, is a noify chattering bird, a pie. This carries a proper reproach to Falstaff for his ill-timed and impertinent jeft. THEOBALD.

WOR. It pleas'd your majefty, to turn your looks
Of favour, from myself, and all our house;
And yet I must remember you, my lord,
We were the first and dearest of your friends.
For you, my staff of office did I break
In Richard's time; and pofted day and night
To meet you on the way, and kifs your hand,
When yet you were in place and in account
Nothing fo ftrong and fortunate as I.

It was myself, my brother, and his son,
That brought you home, and boldly did outdare
The dangers of the time: You fwore to us,-
And you did fwear that oath at Doncafter,
That you did nothing purpose 'gainst the state;
Nor claim no further than your new-fall'n right,
The feat of Gaunt, dukedom of Lancaster:
To this we swore our aid. But, in fhort space,
It rain'd down fortune fhowering on your head;
And fuch a flood of greatnefs fell on you,-

In an old book of cookery, printed in 1596, I find a receipt to make cherwets, which, from their ingredients, feem to have been fat greafy puddings; and to these it is highly probable that the Prince alludes. Both the quartos and folio fpell the word as it now ftands in the text, and as I found it in the book already mentioned. So, in Bacon's Natural Hiftory: "As for chuets, which are likewife minced meat, inftead of butter and fat, it were good to moiften them partly with cream, or almond and pistachio milk," &c. It appears from a receipt in The Forme of Cury, a Roll of ancient English Cookery, compiled about A. D. 1390, by the Mafter Cook of King Richard II. and published by Mr. Pegge, 8vo. 1780, that these chewets were fried in oil. See p. 83, of that work. Cotgrave's Dictionary explains the French word goubelet, to be a kind of round pie resembling our chuet. STEEVENS.

See alfo Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: "Frilingotti. A kinde of daintie che-wet or minced pie.' MALONE.

my staff of office-] See Richard the Second.

JOHNSON.

What with our help; what with the absent king;
What with the injuries of a wanton time;"
The feeming fufferances that you had borne;
And the contrarious winds, that held the king
So long in his unlucky Irish wars,

That all in England did repute him dead,-
And, from this fwarm of fair advantages,
You took occafion to be quickly woo'd
To gripe the general fway into your hand:
Forgot your oath to us at Doncaster;
And, being fed by us, you us'd us fo
As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird,
Ufeth the fparrow: did opprefs our neft;
Grew by our feeding to fo great a bulk,
That even our love durft not come near your fight,
For fear of fwallowing; but with nimble wing
We were enforc'd, for fafety fake, to fly
Out of your fight, and raise this present head:
Whereby we ftand oppofed by fuch means
As you yourself have forg'd against yourself;
By unkind ufage, dangerous countenance,
And violation of all faith and troth
Sworn to us in your younger enterprize.

7

K. HEN. These things, indeed, you have articulated,2

the injuries of a wanton time;] i. e. the injuries done by King Richard in the wantonnefs of profperity. MuSGRAVE.

8 As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird,] The cuckoo's chicken, who, being hatched and fed by the fparrow, in whose neft the cuckoo's egg was laid, grows in time able to devour her nurse. JOHNSON. 9 we fland oppofed &c.] We ftand in oppofition to you.

2

JOHNSON. articulated,] i. e. exhibited in articles. So, in Daniel's

Civil Wars, &c. Book V:

"How to articulate with yielding wights."

Proclaim'd at market-croffes, read in churches; To face the garment of rebellion

With fome fine colour,' that may please the eye
Of fickle changelings, and poor discontents,+
Which gape, and rub the elbow, at the news
Of hurlyburly innovation:

And never yet did infurrection want
Such water-colours, to impaint his cause;
Nor moody beggars, ftarving for a time'
Of pellmell havock and confufion.

P. HEN. In both our armies, there is many a foul
Shall pay full dearly for this encounter,
If once they join in trial. Tell your nephew,
The prince of Wales doth join with all the world
In praise of Henry Percy: By my hopes,-
This prefent enterprize fet off his head,'-

Again, in The Spanish Tragedy:

"To end thofe things articulated here."

Again, in The Valiant Welchman, 1615:

"Drums, beat aloud!-I'll not articulate."

3 To face the garment of rebellion

STEEVENS.

With fome fine colour,] This is an allufion to our ancient fantaftick habits, which were ufually faced or turned up with a colour different from that of which they were made. So, in the old Interlude of Nature, bl. 1, no date:

"His hofen fhall be freshly garded

Wyth colours two or thre." STEEVENS.

-poor difcontents,] Poor difcontents are poor discontented people, as we now fay-malcontents. So, in Marfton's Malcontent,

1604:

What, play I well the free-breath'd discontent?”

MALONE.

ftarving for a time-] i. e. impatiently expecting a time, &c. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

"And now again clean ftarved for a look." MALONE. -fet off his head,] i. e. taken from his account.

MUSGRAVE,

I do not think, a braver gentleman,
More active-valiant, or more valiant-young,"
More daring, or more bold, is now alive,
To grace this latter age with noble deeds.
For my part, I may speak it to my fhame,
I have a truant been to chivalry;

And fo, I hear, he doth account me too:
Yet this before my father's majesty,-
I am content, that he fhall take the odds
Of his great name and estimation;

And will, to fave the blood on either fide,
Try fortune with him in a single fight.

K. HEN. And, prince of Wales, fo dare we ven. ture thee,

Albeit, confiderations infinite

8

Do make against it :-No, good Worcester, no,
We love our people well; even those we love,
That are misled upon your coufin's part:
And, will they take the offer of our grace,
Both he, and they, and you, yea, every man
Shall be my friend again, and I'll be his:
So tell your coufin, and bring me word
What he will do:-But if he will not yield,

More alive-valiant, or more valiant-young, Sir Thomas Hanmer reads more valued young. I think the present gingle has more of Shakspeare. JOHNSON.

The fame kind of gingle is in Sidney's Aftrophel and Stella: young-wife, wife-valiant." STEEVENS.

No, good Worcester, no,

We love our people well;] As there appears to be no reason for introducing the negative into this fentence, I should fuppofe it an error of the prefs, and that we ought to read,

Know, good Worcester, know, &c.

There is fufficient reafon to believe that many parts of these plays were dictated to the tranfcribers, and the words, know and no, are precifely the fame in found. M. MASON.

I