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Three knights upon our party slain to-day,
A noble earl, and many a creature else,
Had been alive this hour,

If, like a christian, thou hadst truly borne
Betwixt our armies true intelligence.

Wor. What I have done, my safety urg'd me to;

And I embrace this fortune patiently,

Since not to be avoided it falls on me.

K. Hen. Bear Worcester to the death, and Vernon

too:

Other offenders we will pause upon.—

[Exeunt Worcester and Vernon, guarded.

How goes the field?

P. Hen. The noble Scot, lord Douglas, when he

saw

The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him,
The noble Percy slain, and all his men
Upon the foot of fear,-fled with the rest;
And falling from a hill, he was so bruis'd,
That the pursuers took him. At my tent
The Douglas is; and I beseech your grace,
I may dispose of him.

K. Hen.

With all my heart.

P. Hen. Then, brother John of Lancaster, to you

This honourable bounty shall belong:

Go to the Douglas, and deliver him

Up to his pleasure, ransomless, and free:

His valour, shown upon our crests to-day,

Hath taught us how to cherish such high deeds,
Even in the bosom of our adversaries.

K. Hen. Then this remains,-that we divide our

power.

You, son John, and my cousin Westmoreland, Towards York shall bend you, with your dearest

speed,

To meet Northumberland, and the prelate Scroop,
Who, as we hear, are busily in arms:

Myself, and you, son Harry,-will towards Wales,
To fight with Glendower, and the earl of March.
Rebellion in this land shall lose his sway,
Meeting the check of such another day:
And since this business so fair is done,
Let us not leave till all our own be won.

[Exeunt.

ANNOTATIONS

UPON

THE FIRST PART OF HENRY IV.

▪ Find we a time for frighted peace to pant, And breathe short-winded accents-] That is, Let us soften peace to rest a while without disturbance, that she may recover breath to propose new

wars.

JOHNSON.

2 No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil

Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood.] Mr. M. Mason supplied this reading, and Mr. Steevens adopted it in his last edition: not, however, without confessing that he looked upon it as very farfetch'd; in which, I believe, all his friends will agree with him. On a former occasion he suggested that we should read entrants, with, in my opinion, a far greater appearance of plausibility. Entrance is the word in all the old copies. It is true this mode of expression is very licentious, but is it any thing strange to find licentiousness of expression in Shakspeare? The passage, as it always has stood, may easily be construed into the simple meaning of "no longer shall the land smear her mouth with the blood

of her own children." At all events, let what reading may be right, it is not in my power to persuade myself that Erinnys (or the Fury of Discord) is not wrong.

3-expedience] for expedition.

4 By those Welshwomen done- -] Thus Holinshed: "The shameful villainy used by the Welsh66 women towards the dead carcasses, was such as "honest ears would be ashamed to hear."

STEEVENS.

5-to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know.-] The prince's objection to the question seems to be, that Falstaff had asked in the night what was the time of day.

JOHNSON.

6-let not us, that are squires of the night's body, be called thieves of the day's beauty.] This conveys no manner of idea to me. How could they be called thieves of the day's beauty? They robbed by moonshine; they could not steal the fair day-light. I have ventured to substitute booty; and this I take to be the meaning. Let us not be called thieves, the purloiners of that booty, which, to the proprietors, was the purchase of honest labour and industry by day.

7

THEOBALD.

-my old lad of the castle;] Mr. Rowe took notice of a tradition, that this part of Falstaff was written originally under the name of Oldcastle. An ingenious correspondent hints to me, that the passage above quoted from our author proves what Mr. Rowe tells us was a tradition. Old lad of the castle seems

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