1

THE

BEAUTIES

O F

SHAKESPEAR.

The First Part of HENRY IV.

S

ACT I. SCENE I.

Peace after Civil War.

O fhaken as we are, fo wan with care,
Find we a time for frighted peace to

pant,

And breathe fhort-winded accents of

new broils

To be commenc'd in ftronds a-far remote.

No more, the thirfty entrance of this foil

(1) Shall damp her lips with her own children's

blood:

VOL. II,

B

No

(1) Shall damp. i. e. wet, moiften: the old editions, and with them the Oxford, read dawb; there feems to me fomething greatly like Shakespear in that word, but I have kept damp, it is generally approv'd. The word file, in the fourth li following,

as

No more fhall trenching war channel her fields,
Nor bruise her flowrets with the armed hoofs
Of hoftile paces. Thofe oppofed files,
Which like the meteors of a troubled heav'n,
All of one nature, of one substance bred,
Did lately meet in the inteftine shock
And furious close of civil butchery,

Shall now, in mutual, well-befeeming, ranks,
March all one way; and be no more oppos'd
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies:
'The edge of war, like an ill-fheathed knife,
No more fhall cut his master.

SCENE. IV. Hotfpur's Defcription of a finical Courtier

But I remember, when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage, and extreme toil,
Breathlefs, and faint, leaning upon my fword;
Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly drefs'd:
Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin, new-reap'd,
Shew'd like a ftubble-land at harveft-home.
He was perfumed like a milliner;

And 'twixt his finger and his thumb, he held
(2) A pouncet-box, which ever and anon
He
gave
his nofe (and took't away again;
Who, therewith angry, when it next came there,

following, is in the old editions eyes; and thus alter'd by Mr. Warburton: others read arms. I don't know whether eyes might not be juftified, but I think files preferable See UPT. P. 334.

(2) Pouncet-box.] A fmall box for mufk, or other perfumes, then in fashion, the lid of which being cut with open work, gave it its name : from poinfoner, to prick, pierce, or engrave. So fays Mr. Warburton, and then condemns the next lines as a ftupid interpolation of the players: they are certainly not very eafy to be defended, but we find many fuch conceits as thefe in Shakespear.

Took

Took it in fnuff). And ftill he fmil'd and talk'd:
And as the foldiers bare dead bodies by,
He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a flovenly, unhandfome coarse
Betwixt the wind, and his nobility.

With many holiday and lady terms

He question'd me: amongst the rest, demanded
My prisoners, in your majefty's behalf.

(3) I then, all fmarting with my wounds, being cold, Out of my grief, and my impatience

To be fo pefter'd with a popinjay,

Answer'd, neglectingly, I know not what ;

He should, or should not; for he made me mad,
To fee him shine so brisk, and smell fo fweet,
And talk fo like a waiting gentlewoman,

Of guns, and drums, and wounds; (God fave the mark!)

And telling me the fovereign'ft thing on earth
Was parmacety, for an inward bruise;

And that it was great pity, fo it was,
This villainous falt-petre fhould be digg'd

(3) I then, &c.] When I first read this paffage, I mark'd the lines, as I have printed them, and turning to the ingenious Mr. Edwards's canons of Criticism (p. 13.) I found he was of opinion, the lines fhould be so transposed: by this means the fenfe of the pasfage is quite clear, and we have no occafion for any alteration. "Mr. Warburton in order to make a contradiction in the common reading, and fo make way for his emendation, mifreprefents Hotspur as at this time [when he gave this answer] not cold, but It is true, that at the beginning of the fpeech he describes himself as

bot.

Dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathlefs, and faint, &c

Then comes in this gay gentleman, and holds him in an idle difcourse, the heads of which Hotspur gives us ; and it is plain by the context, it must have lafted a confiderable while. Now the more he had heated himfelf in the action, the more when he came to ftand still any time, wou'd the cold air affect his wounds, &c."

EDWARDS.

Out of the bowels of the harmless earth,
Which many a good tall fellow had destroy'd
So cowardly and but for these vile guns,
He would himself have been a foldier.

DANGER.

I'll read your matter, deep and dangerous;
As full of peril and advent'rous fpirit,
As to o'er-walk a current, roaring loud,
On the unfteadfast footing of a fpear.

HONOUR,

(4) By heav'ns! methinks, it were an easy leap, To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon : Or dive into the bottom of the deep,

Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drowned honour by the locks:
So he, that doth redeem her thience, might wear
Without corrival all her dignities.

But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!

(4) By beav'ns! &c.] I will not take upon me to defend this paffage from the charge laid against it of bombaft and fustian, but will only obferve, if we read it in that light it is perhaps one of the finest rants to be found in any author. Mr. Warburton attempts to clear it from the charge, and obferves," tho' the expreffion be fublime and daring, yet the thought is the natural movement of an heroic mind. Euripides, at leaft, (as he adds) thought fo, when he put the very fame fentiment, in the fame words, into the mouth of Eteocles."

Εγω γαρ, &c.

I will not cloak my foul: methinks with ease
I cou'd fcale heaven, and reach the fartheft ftar;
Or to the deepest entrails of the earth
Defcending, pierce, fo be I cou'd obtain

A kingdom, at the price, and god-like rule.

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