Second. These are the facts, and Shakspeare has painted Owen accordingly. If he was "a conjuror,” he learnt his art in the English court, rather than in the wilds of Merionethshire.

"In faith, he is a worthy gentleman;
Exceedingly well read, and profited

In strange concealments; valiant as a lion,
And wondrous affable; and as bountiful

As mines of India."

I know not whether he was imaginative, but he construed his daughter's Welsh into gentle and poetical English :

her lap,

And rest your gentle head upon
And she will sing the song that pleaseth you,
And on your eye-lids crown the god of sleep,
Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness;
Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep,
As is the difference 'twixt day and night,
The hour before the heavenly-harness'd team
Begins his golden progress in the east."

It is, again, for the purpose of a contrast with the impatient Percy, that Owen Glendower, without any warrant in history or probability, is made a bore.

O, he's as tedious

As is a tired horse, a railing wife; .

Worse than a smoky house :- I'd rather live
With cheese and garlick, in a windmill, far,
Than feed on cates, and have him talk to me,
In any summer-house in Christendom."

In Hotspur's description of the subjects of this tedious talk he alludes to

"the dreamer Merlin, and his prophecies."

The three conspirators fancied themselves typified by a wolf, a dragon, and a lion, by whom the kingdom was, according to the prophet, to be divided. In this prophecy the Chronicles* are followed, as well as in making the house of the Archdeacon of Bangor the scene of these discussions, and of the treaty between Mortimer, the Percies, and Glendower, for a tripartite division of the king's dominions.† I have no space for considering Mr. Tyler's doubts of the authenticity of this treaty of partition; supported or not by history, the whole scene is eminently good. And so is that which follows, in which the king takes the prince to task for his wild courses, and neglect of public affairs. There is no authority for such remonstrance, and it is certain that no such could have taken place on the eve of the battle of Shrewsbury. There, probably, never was a prince who, at his age, for he was now only sixteen, had

* See the notes in Bosw., 312, and Hol. 22. For Glendower's character and end, see Tyler, i. 244.

† P. 141.

Act iii. Sc. 2.

so honourably distinguished himself: the terms applied in the following passage to his supposed rival might with more reason have been applied to him:

Thrice has this Hotspur Mars in swathing clothes,

This infant warrior, in his enterprise,

Discomfited great Douglas; ta'en him once,
Enlarged him, and made a friend of him."

For Henry Plantagenet was but a boy, whereas
Percy himself, of whom Shakspeare says—

And being no more in debt to years than thou,"

was now six-and-thirty years old-the age of the father, not of the son. But this is not the only use which the poet has made of his licence in this passage-Percy, so far from being uniformly successful in his enterprises against the Douglas, having been himself taken at the battle of Otterbourne, when he would have been prisoner to Douglas, had not the gallant Earl James been slain in the action.* It does not appear that young Henry had as yet been admitted into the Privy Council, but he had a council of his own, as well as a governor :†-the whole scene is out of place. It has already been

* Collins, ii. 268.

† Or Maitre. See Tyler, p. 100, Nicolas, 176, 177. The Council recommended Lord Worcester, Lord Lovel, or Thomas Erpingham. It appears that Worcester was appointed. Wals. 367.

remarked by commentators, that the following
lines are improperly placed here:-

Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost,
Which by thy younger brother is supplied."

I shall revert to them hereafter; but I solicit the insertion of some parts of the king's remonstrance, which appear to me exceedingly touching and effective, and much to be praised for the beauty and appropriate stateliness of the rhythm.

"I know not whether God will have it so,
For some displeasing service I have done,
That in his secret doom, out of my blood
He'll breed revengement and a scourge for me;
But thou dost, in thy passages of life,

66

Make me believe,—that thou art only mark'd
For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven,
To punish my mis-treadings. Tell me else,
Could such inordinate and low desires,

Such poor, such base, such lewd, such mean attempts,
Such barren pleasures, rude society,

As thou art match'd withal and grafted to,

Accompany the greatness of thy blood,

And hold their level with thy princely heart?"

Again

Had I so lavish of my presence been,

So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,

So stale and cheap to vulgar company;

* Bosw., 325.

? attention 1

Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession,
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir,
But, like a comet, I was wonder'd at:

That men would tell their children, This is he;
Others would say,-Where? which is Bolingbroke?
And then I stole all courtesy from heaven,
And dress'd myself in such humility,

That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,

Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,

с

Even in the presence of the crowned king.

Thus did I keep my person fresh and new;
My presence, like a robe pontifical,

Ne'er seen, but wonder'd at: and so my state
Seldom, but sumptuous, showed like a feast,
And won, by rareness, such solemnity.
The skipping king, he ambled up and down
With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled and soon burn'd: 'carded his state;
Mingled his royalty with capering fools;

Had his great name profaned with their scorns;
And
gave his countenance, against his name,
To laugh at gibing boys, and stand the push
Of every beardless vain comparative :
Grew a companion to the common streets,
Enfeoff'd himself to popularity:

That, being daily swallow'd by men's eyes,
They surfeited with honey, and began