O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile,
In loathsome beds; and leav'st the kingly couch,
A watch-case, or a common 'larum-bell ?"
Wilt thou upon the high and giddy mast
Seal up the ship-boy's eyes, and rock his brains
In cradle of the rude imperious surge;

And in the visitation of the winds,

Who take the ruffian billows by the top,
Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them
With deaf'ning clamours in the slippery clouds,
That, with the hurly," death itself awakes?
Can'st thou, O partial sleep! give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude';
And in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down!
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.

Enter WARWICK and SURREY.

War. Many good morrows to your majesty!
K. Hen. Is it good morrow, lords?

War. 'Tis one o'clock, and past.

K. Hen. Why then, good morrow to you all, my Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you?

War. We have, my liege.

lords.

K. Hen. Then you perceive, the body of our kingdom How foul it is; what rank diseases grow,

And with what danger, near the heart of it.
War. It is but as a body, yet, distemper'd ;P
Which to his former strength may be restor❜d,
With good advice and little medicine:-
My lord Northumberland will soon be cool'd.

A watch-case or a common 'larum-bell?] This alludes to the watchman set in garrison towns upon some eminence, attending upon an alarum-bell, which was to ring in case of fire or any approaching danger. He had a case or box to shelter him from the weather, but at his utmost peril he was not to sleep whilst he was upon duty.-HANMER.

hurly,] i. e. Noise, derived from the French hurler, to howl, as hurlyburly from hurluberlu, Fr.

P

distemper'd;] According to the old physick, distemper was less than actual disease, being only that inequality of innate heat and radical moisture that foreruns disease.-JoHNSON.

K. Hen. O heaven! that one might read the book of And see the revolution of the times

Make mountains level, and the continent
(Weary of solid firmness,) melt itself

Into the sea! and, other times, to see
The beachy girdle of the ocean

Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock,
And changes fill the cup of alteration

With divers liquors! O, if this were seen,

The happiest youth,-viewing his progress through,
What perils past, what crosses to ensue,"

Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.

'Tis not ten years gone,

Since Richard, and Northumberland, great friends,
Did feast together, and, in two years after,
Were they at wars: It is but eight years, since
This Percy was the man nearest my soul;
Who like a brother toil'd in my affairs,
And laid his love and life under my foot;

[fate;

Yea, for my sake, even to the eyes of Richard,
Gave him defiance. But which of you was by,'
(You, cousin Nevil, as I may remember,) [to WARWICK.
When Richard,-with his eye brimfull of tears,
Then check'd and rated by Northumberland,-
Did speak these words, now prov'd a prophecy?
Northumberland, thou ladder, by the which
My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne;—
Though then, heaven knows, I had no such intent,

a What perils past, what crosses to ensue,- -] i. e. What crosses are to ensue after many perils past.-MALONE.

But which of you was by, &c.] He refers to King Richard II. act iv. sc. 2. But whether the king's or the author's memory fails him, so it was, that Warwick was not present at that conversation.-JOHNSON. Neither was the king himself present, so that he must have received information of what passed from Northumberland. His memory, indeed, is singularly treacherous, as, at the time of which he is now speaking, he had actually ascended the throne.-RITSON. Shakspeare has also mistaken the name of the present nobleman. The earldom of Warwick was at this time in the family of Beauchamp, and did not come into that of the Nevils till many years after, in the latter end of the reign of King Henry VI. when it descended to Anne Beauchamp, the daughter of the earl here introduced, who was married to Richard Nevil earl of Salisbury.-STEEVENS.

I had no such intent;] He means, " I should have had no such intent, but that necessity," &c. or Shakspeare has here also forgotten his former play, or has chosen to make Henry forget his situation at the time mentioned. He had then actually accepted the crown.--MALONE.

But that necessity so bow'd the state,

That I and greatness were compell'd to kiss :-
The time shall come, thus did he follow it,
The time will come, that foul sin, gathering head,
Shall break into corruption :-so went on,
Foretelling this same time's condition,
And the division of our amity.

War. There is a history in all men's lives,
Figuring the nature of the times deceas'd :
The which observ'd, a man may prophecy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life; which in their seeds,
And weak beginnings, lie intreasured.
Such things become the hatch and brood of time;
And, by the necessary form of this,*

King Richard might create a perfect guess,
That great Northumberland, then false to him,
Would, of that seed, grow to a greater falseness;
Which should not find a ground to root upon,
Unless on you.

K. Hen.

Are these things then necessities?

Then let us meet them like necessities :

And that same word even now cries out on us;
They say, the bishop and Northumberland

Are fifty thousand strong.

War.

It cannot be, my lord;

Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo,
The numbers of the fear'd :--Please it your grace,
To go to bed; upon my life, my lord,

The powers that you already have sent forth,
Shall bring this prize in very easily.

To comfort you the more, I have receiv'd
A certain instance, that Glendower is dead."
Your majesty hath been this fortnight ill;
And these unseason'd hours, perforce, must add
Unto your sickness.

life.

t by the necessary form of this,] i. e. Of the history of King Richard's

that Glendower is dead.] Glendower did not die till after King Henry IV. Shakspeare' was led into this error by Holinshed, who places Owen Glendower's death in the tenth year of Henry's reign.-MALONE.

K. Hen.

I will take your counsel:

And, were these inward wars once out of hand,
We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land.

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Court before Justice Shallow's House in Gloucestershire. Enter SHALLOW and SILENCE, meeting; MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, BULL-CALF, and Servants behind.

Shal. Come on, come on, come on; give me your hand, sir, give me your hand, sir: an early stirrer, by the rood.* And how doth my good cousin Silence?

Sil. Good morrow, good cousin Shallow.

Shal. And how doth my cousin, your bedfellow; and your fairest daughter, and mine, my god-daughter Ellen? Sil. Alas, a black ouzel, cousin Shallow.

Shal. By yea and nay, sir, I dare say, my cousin William is become a good scholar: He is at Oxford, still, is he not?

Sil. Indeed, sir; to my cost.

Shal. He must then to the inns of court shortly: I was once of Clement's-inn; where, I think, they will talk of mad Shallow yet.

Sil. You were called-lusty Shallow, then, cousin.

Shal. By the mass, I was called any thing; and I would have done any thing, indeed, and roundly too. There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire, and black George Bare, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele a Cotswold man,'-you had not four such swingebucklers" in all the inns of court again; and I may say to you, we know where the bona-robas were; and had

by the rood.] i. e. The cross. Y ouzel,] i. e. A blackbird. a Cotswold man, -] The games at Cotswold were, in the time of our author, very famous. Of these I have seen accounts in several old pamphlets, and Shallow, by distinguishing Will Squele, as a Cotswold man, meant to have him understood as one who was well versed in manly exercises.-STEEVENS. See note to Merry Wives of Windsor, act i. sc. 1.

swinge-bucklers-] Swinge-bucklers and swash-bucklers were words implying rakes or rioters in the time of Shakspeare.

b

bona-robas-] i. e. Ladies of pleasure. Bona Roba, Ital.

the best of them all at commandment.

Then was Jack Falstaff, now sir John, a boy; and page to Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk."

Sil. This sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about soldiers?

Shal. The same sir John, the very same. I saw him break Skogan's head" at the court gate, when he was a crack, and not thus high: and the very same day did I fight with one Sampson Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's inn. O, the mad days that I have spent! and to see how many of mine old acquaintance are dead!

Sil. We shall all follow, cousin.

Shal. Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very sure: death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all; all shall die. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair?

Sil. Truly, cousin, I was not there.

Shal. Death is certain.-Is old Double of your town living yet?

Sil. Dead, sir.

Shal. Dead!-See, see!-he drew a good bow; And dead!-he shot a fine shoot:-John of Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on his head. Dead !—he would have clapped i'the clout at twelve score;' and carried you a forehand shaft a fourteen and fourteen and a half, that it would have done a man's heart good to see. -How a score of ewes now?

Sil. Thereafter as they be: a score of good ewes may be worth ten pounds.

Shal. And is old Double dead!

page to Thomas Mowbray duke of Norfolk.] Among other proofs of Shakspeare's having changed the name of this character from Oldcastle to Falstaff, in Weever's poem, called The Mirror of Martyrs, 18mo. 1601, Oldcastle says,

d

"Within the spring time of my flowering youth
He [his father] stept into the winter of his age;
Made means (Mercurius thus begins the truth,)
That I was made Sir Thomas Mowbray's page."-REED.

Skogan's head-] This was John Skogan, jester to King Edward IV. and not Henry, the poet, who lived long before, but is frequently confounded with him. Our author, no doubt, was well read in John's Jests, "gathered by Andrew Boarde, doctor of physick," and printed in 4to. and black letter, but without date.-RITSON.

a crack,] This is an old Islandic word, signifying a boy or child. clapped the clout-] i. e. Hit the white mark: at twelve score; i. e. of yards.