Mingled his royalty with carping fools;
Had his great name profaned with their fcorns;
And gave his countenance, against his name,
To laugh with gybing boys, and stand the push
Of every beardlefs, vain comparative :
Grew a companion to the common streets,
Enfeoff'd himself to popularity:

That being daily fwallow'd by mens eyes,
They furfeited with honey, and began

To loath the 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 cuckow is in June,
Heard, not regarded: feen, but with such eyes,
As, fick and blunted with community,

Afford no extraordinary gaze;

Such as is bent on fun-like majefty,

When it fhines feldom in admiring eyes:

But rather drowz'd, and hung their eye-lids down,
Slept in his face, and rendred fuch aspect

As cloudy men ufe to their adverfaries,
Being with his prefence glutted, gorg'd, and full.

ACT IV. SCENE II.

A gallant Warrior.

I faw young Harry, with his beaver on,*.
His cuiffes on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,.
Rife from the ground like feather'd Mercury;
And vaulted with fuch eafe into his feat,
As if an angel dropt down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery pegaffus,

And witch the world with noble horsemanship.

* On] Others read up; and there feems great probability in it.

ACT

(12) Well, 'tis no matter, honour pricks me on: But how, if honour prick me off, when I come on? How then? Can honour set to a leg? No; or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? No: Honour hath no skill in furgery then? No: what is honour? a word. What is the word honour? air a trim reckoning. Who hath it? he that dy'd a Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No: doth he hear it? No? is it infenfible then? yea, to the dead: but will it not live with the living? No: why? detraction will not fuffer it. Therefore, I'll none of it; honour is a meer fcutcheon; and fo ends my catechism..

(12) Well, &c.] In the king and no king of Beaumont and Fletcher, we have a character, plainly drawn from Shakespear's Falstaff; how fhort it is, and must neceffarily be of the original, I need not obferve. 66 I think, fays Mr. Theobald, in his first note on that play, the character of Beffus must be allowed in general a fine copy from Shakespear's inimitable Falfaff. He is a coward, yet wou'd fain fet up for a hero: oftentatious without any grain of merit to fupport his vain-glory: a lyar throughout, to exalt his affumed qualifications; and lewd, without any countenance from the ladies to give him an umbrage for it. As to his wit and humour, the precedence muft certainly be adjudg'd to Falstaff, the great original." The authors, in the third act, have introduced him talking on the fame fubject with Falstaff here ; though not in the fame excellent manner, (an account of which fee in Mr. Upton's obfervations on Shakespear, p. 113.) Beffus. They talk of fame, I have gotten it in the wars, and will afford any man a reasonable penny-worth; fome will fay, they could be content to have it, but that it is to be atchiev d with danger; but my opinion is otherwife for if I might stand ftill in cannon-proof, and have fame fall upon me, I would refuse it; my reputation came principally by thinking to run away, which no body knows but Mardonius, and, I think, he conceals it to anger me, &c." The falfe and foolish notions of fame and honour are no where, that I know of, fo well and juftly cenfured, as in Mr. Wollaton's religion of Nature delineated,, fect 5. p. 116. printed in 1726..

SCENE

SCEHE V. Life demands Ation.

(13) O gentlemen, the time of life is short:
To spend that shortnefs bafely were too long,
Tho' life did ride upon a diai's point,
Still ending at th' arrival of an hour.

(13) O gentlemen, &c.] See All's well that ends well. A& 5. Scene 4, and the note. Virgil beautifully obferves

Stat fuauique digs, breve & irreparabile tempus
Omnibus eft vita; fed famam extendere factis
Hoc virtutis opus.

Æn. 10.

To all that Breathe is fixt th' appointed date,
Life is but fhort, and circumfcrib'd by fate:
'Tis virtue's work by fame to ftretch the fpan,
Whofe fcanty limit bounds the days of man.

PITT.

The

I

The fecond Part of HENRY IV.

Prologue to the Second Part of Henry IV.
RUMOU R.

From the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
(1) Upon my tongues continual flanders ride,

The

(1) Upon my, &c.] In the ftage-direction, rumour is faid to enter painted full of tongues. Shakespear, in his description of rumour, had doubtlefs a view either to Virgil's celebrated description of fame, or Ovid's defcription of her cave in the 12th book of his metamorphofes : I fhall give the reader part of both and in as close a tranflation as poffible, that he may judge the better. Monftrum, borrendum, &c.

A monfter, hideous, vast; as many plumes
As in her body ftick, fo many eyes

Towards waking (wondrous to relate)

There grew beneath; as many babbling tongues,
And lift'ning ears as many: By night the flies

Noify thro' fhades obfcure, 'twixt earth and heav'n:
Nor are her eyes by pleafing flumber clos'd;
Watchful and prying round, by day, fhe fits
On fome high palace top, or lofty tow'r,
And mighty towns alarms: nor lefs intent
On fpreading falfhood, than reporting truth. &c:

Atria turba tenent, &c.

See Trap. Virg. Æn. 4

* Hither in crowds the vulgar come and goj
Millions of rumours here fly to and fro:
Lies mixt with truth, reports that vary still,
The itching ears of folks unguarded fill :
They tell the tale; the tale in telling grows,
And each relater adds to what he knows;
Rash error, light credulity are here,
And causeless transport and ill-grounded fear;
*To the cave of fame

New

The which, in every language I pronounce ;.
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I fpeak of peace while covert enmity,
Under the smile of fafety, wounds the world;
And who but rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful mufters, and prepar'd defence,

* Whilft the big year, fwol'n with some other griefs,,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And no fuch matter? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by furmises, jealoufies, conjectures ;
And, of fo eafy and so plain a stop,

That the blunt monfter, with uncounted heads,.
The ftill difcordant wavering multitude,

Can play upon it.

ACT I. SCENE I..

CONTENTION

Contention, like a horse.

Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose,
And bears down all before him..

ACTI SCENE II..

Poft-Meflenger.

After him came fpurring hard

A gentleman, almoft fore-fpent with speed,.
That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horfe:
He afk'd the way to Chefter; and of him
I did demand the news from Shrewsbury.
He told me that rebellion had ill luck;
And that young Harry Piercy's fpur was cold.

New-rais'd fedition, fecret whispers blown
By nameless authors and of things unknown,
Fame all that's done in heav'n, earth, ocean views,
And o'er the world ftill hunts around for news.
See Garth's Ovid. b. 12..

Year, &c.] Others read ear.