Dol. I cannot speak ;-if my heart be not ready to burst.-Well, sweet Jack, have a care of thyself.

Fal. Farewell, farewell.

[Exeunt FALSTAFF and BARDOlph. Host. Well, fare thee well: I have known thee these twenty-nine years, come peascod-time; but an honester, and truer-hearted man,-Well, fare thee well.

Bard. [Within.] Mistress Tear-sheet,—

Host. What's the matter?

Bard. [Within.] Bid mistress Tear-sheet come to my master.

Come.

Host. O! run, Doll, run; run, good Doll.
She comes blubbered.-Yea-will you come, Dolls?

[Exeunt.

ACT III. SCENE Io.

A Room in the Palace.

Enter King HENRY in his Nightgown, with a Page.

K. Hen. Go, call the earls of Surrey and of War

wick;

But, ere they come, bid them o'er-read these letters,
And well consider of them. Make good speed.

[Exit Page.

8 Come. She comes blubbered.-Yea-will you come, Doll ?] These words, partly addressed to Doll, and partly to Bardolph within, are only found in the quarto. There can be no sufficient reason for omitting them, as has been done by modern editors.

9 Act iii. scene i.] The early quartos of this play here differ materially. The printer omitted the whole of this scene, and only two known copies contain it— one in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire, and the other among Malone's books at Oxford. How the mistake happened must be matter of mere conjecture; but it was discovered before the quarto impressions were all struck off, and to remedy the defect a sheet was reprinted, making sign. E to consist of six, instead of four, leaves. The folio, 1623, was reprinted from one of the complete copies, and contains the whole of the text.

How many thousand of my poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep!-O sleep! O gentle sleep!
Nature's soft nurse, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eyelids down,

And steep my senses in forgetfulness?

Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs,
Upon uneasy pallets stretching thee,

And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber,
Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of costly state,

And lull'd with sound of sweetest melody?
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.

1

Enter WARWICK and SURREY2.

War. Many good morrows to your majesty!

give THY repose

To the wet SEA-BOY-] So the folio: the quarto has them for "thy," and season for "sea-boy."

2 Enter Warwick and Surrey.] The quarto adds, "and sir John Blunt ;" but if he came on the stage he said nothing, and there is no reason for his appearance. Besides, the King had sent the Page to Warwick and Surrey, and did not mention Blunt.

K. Hen. Is it good morrow, lords?

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

K. Hen. Why then, good morrow to you all, my lords.

Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you?

War. We have, my liege.

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,
Which to his former strength may be restor'd,
With good advice, and little medicine.

My lord Northumberland will soon be cool'd.

K. Hen. O God! that one might read the book of fate,

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 die3.]

"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;

3 Would shut the book, and sit him down and die.] This and the preceding lines, within brackets, were not reprinted in the folio, 1623. Possibly the general import of the passage seemed objectionable to the Master of the Revels.

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 throne1;"
Though then, God knows, I had no such intent,
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 prophesy,

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;

4 ascends my throne ;] Shakespeare did not mean to quote his own lines exactly. They occur in "Richard II." Act ii. sc. 1, p. 196 :—

"Northumberland, thou ladder, wherewithal

The mounting Bolingbroke ascends my throne," &c.

The earl of Warwick was not present on the occasion; neither, as Ritson showed, was the family name of Warwick Nevil, but Beauchamp, at that date.

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 bed; upon my soul, my lord3,
The powers that you already have sent forth,
Shall bring this prize in very easily.

To

go

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.

K. Hen.

I will take your counsel: And were these inward wars once out of hand, We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

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, sir; 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.

upon my soul, my lord,] The folio has life for "soul."