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(Whofe foldier now, under whofe bleffed cross
We are impreffed and engag'd to fight)
Forthwith a power of English fhall we levy';
Whofe arms were moulded in their mothers' womb
To chafe thefe pagans, in thofe holy fields,
Over whofe acres walk'd thofe bleffed feet,
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd
For our advantage, on the bitter cross.
But this our purpose is a twelve-month old,
And bootlefs 'tis to tell you-we will go;
Therefore we meet not now 6 :-Then let me hear
Of you, my gentle coufin Weftmoreland,
What yefternight our council did decree,
In forwarding this dear expedience 7.

Weft. My liege, this hafte was hot in question,
And many limits of the charge fet down

8

But yefternight when, all athwart, there came
A poft from Wales, loaden with heavy news;
Whose worst was,-that the noble Mortimer,

and for Chriftians among others, to make war upon Mahometans, fimply as Mahometans, as men obliged by their own principles to make war upon Chriftians, and only lying in wait till opportunity fhall promife them fuccefs. JOHNSON.

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- fhall we levy;] The firft quarto in 1598 has leavy, which was changed, in the fecond, to the word now in the text.

Though "to levy a power, as far as to the fepulcher of Chrift," be, as Mr. Steevens obferves, a fingular expreffion, I have no doubt the text is right. Our author is not always fufficiently careful to make the end of his fentences agree in conftruction with the beginning. MALONE.

6 Therefore we meet not now:] i. e. not on that account do we now meet; we are not now afiembled, to acquaint you with our intended expedition. MALONE.

7

-expedience.] for expedition. WARBURTON.

See p. 25, n. 7. MALONE.

8 And many limits] Limits, as the author of the Revifal abferves, may mean, out-lines, rough sketches or calculations. STEEVENS.

Limits may mean the regulated and appointed times for the conduct of the bufinefs in hand. So, in Measure for Measure:-" between the time of the contract and limit of the folemnity, her brother Frederick was wreck'd at fea." Again, in Macbeth:

I'll make fo bold to call,

"For 'tis my limited fervice." MALONE.

Leading

Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
Againft the irregular and wild Glendower,
Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
And a thoufand of his people butcher'd:
Upon whofe dead corps there was such misuse,
Such beaftly, fhameless transformation,
By thofe Welshwomen done as may not be,
Without much shame, retold or spoken of.

K. Hen. It feems then, that the tidings of this broil
Brake off our business for the Holy land.

Weft. This, match'd with other, did, my gracious lord; For more uneven and unwelcome news

Came from the north, and thus it did import.
On Holy-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald,
That ever-valiant and approved Scot,

At Holmedon met,

Where they did fpend a fad and bloody hour ;
As by difcharge of their artillery,

And shape of likelihood, the news was told;
For he that brought them, in the very heat
And pride of their contention did take horse,
Uncertain of the iffue any way.

K. Hen. Here is a dear and true-induftrious friend,
Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse,
Stain'd with the variation of each foil3.

Betwixt that Holmedon and this feat of ours;

9 By thofe Welbwomen done] Thus Holinfhed, p. 528: "-such fhameful villanie executed upon the carcaffes of the dead men by the Welsh women; as the like (I doo believe) hath never or seldom been practifed." STEEVENS.

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the gallant Hotfpur there,

Young Harry Percy,] Holinfhed's Hift. of Scotland, p. 249, fays, "This Harry Percy was furnamed, for his often pricking, Henry HotSpur, as one that feldom times refted, if there were anie fervice to be done abroad." TOLLET.

2 - Archibald,] Archibald Douglas, earl Douglas. STEEVENS. 3 Stain'd with the variation of each foil] No circumstance could have been better chofen to mark the expedition of Sir Walter. It is used by Falftaff in a fimilar manner: "As it were to ride day and night, and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to shift me, but to fland ftained with travel." HENLEY, VOL. V.

I

And

And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.
The earl of Douglas is difcomfited;

Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
Balk'd in their own blood, did fir Walter fee
On Holmedon's plains: Of prisoners, Hotfpur took
Mordake earl of Fife, and eldest son

To beaten Douglas; and the earl of Athol,

4 Balk'd in their own blood,—] I should fuppofe, that the author might have written either batb'd, or bak'd, i. e. encrufted over with blood dried upon them. A paffage in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632, may countenance the latter of thefe conjectures :

"Troilus-lieth embak'd

"In his cold blood"-.

Again, in Hamlet :

horridly trick'd

"With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, fons,
"Bak'd and impafted &c."

Again, in Heywood's Iron Age:

bak'd in blood and duft." STEEVENS."

Balk is a ridge; and particularly, a ridge of land: here is therefore a metaphor; and perhaps the poet means, in his bold and careless manner of expreffion: "Ten thousand bloody carcaffes piled up together in a long heap."-" A ridge of dead bodies piled up in blood." T. WARTON.

Balk'd in their own blood, I believe, means, lay'd in heaps or billocks, in their own blood. Blithe's England's Improvement, p. 118. obferves: "The mole raiseth balks in meads and paftures." In Leland's Itinerary, vol. V. p. 16. and 118. vol. VII. p. 10. a balk fignifies a bank or bill. Mr. Pope, in the Iliad, has the fame thought:

"On heaps the Greeks, on heaps the Trojans bled,

"And thick'ning round them rife the bills of dead." TOLLET. 5 Mordake earl of Fife, and eldeft fon

To beaten Douglas;] Mordake earl of Fife, who was fon to the duke of Albany, regent of Scotland, is here called the fon of Earl Douglas, through a mistake into which the poet was led by the omiffion of a comma in the paffage of Holinfhed from whence he took this account of the Scottish prifoners. It ftands thus in the hiftorian: "and of prifoners, Mordacke earl of Fife, fon to the gouvernour Archembald earle Dowglas, &c." The want of a comma after gouvernour, makes thefe words appear to be the defcription of one and the fame perfon, and fo the poet understood them; but by putting the ftop in the proper place, it will then be manifeft that in this lift Mordake, who was fon to the governour of Scotland, was the first prifoner, and that Archibald earl of Douglas was the fecond, and so on. STEEVENS.

The word earl is here used as a diffyllable. Mr. Pope, not perceiving this, reads the earl," in which he has been followed by all the fubfequent editors. MALONE.

Of

Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith".
And is not this an honourable spoil?
A gallant prize? ha, coufin, is it not?

Weft. In faith, it is a conqueft for a prince
To boast of.

In

K. Hen. Yea, there thou mak'ft me fad, and mak’st

me fin,

envy that my lord Northumberland

Should be the father of fo bleft a fon:

A fon, who is the theme of honour's tongue;
Amongst a grove, the very ftraiteft plant;
Who is sweet fortune's minion, and her pride:
Whilft I, by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and difhonour ftain the brow

Of my young Harry. O, that it could be prov'd,
That fome night-tripping fairy had exchang'd
In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,
And call'd mine-Percy, his-Plantagenet!
Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
But let him from my thoughts:-What think you, coz,
Of this young Percy's pride? the prifoners &
Which he in this adventure hath furpriz'd,

To his own use he keeps; and fends me word,

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and Menteitb.] This is a mistake of Holinshed in his English Hiftory, for in that of Scotland, p. 259, 262, and 419, he speaks of the earl of Fife and Menteith as one and the fame perfon. STEEVENS. 7 In faith, it is Thefe words are in the first 4to. 1598, by the inaccuracy of the tranfcriber, placed at the end of the preceding speech, but at a confiderable distance from the last word of it. Mr. Pope and the fubfequent editors read-'Faith 'tis &c. MALONE.

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the prifoners,] Percy had an exclufive right to these prisoners, except the earl of Fife. By the law of arms, every man who had taken any captive, whofe redemption did not exceed ten thousand crowns, had him clearly for himself, either to acquit or ranfom, at his pleasure. It feems from Camden's Brit. that Pounouny-caftie in Scotland was built out of the ransom of this very Henry Percy, when taken prifoner at the battle of Otterburne by an ancestor of the prefent earl of Eglington. TOLLET.

Percy could not refufe the earl of Fife to the king; for being a prince of the blood royal, (fon to the duke of Albany, brother to king Robert III.) Henry might justly claim him by his acknowledged military prerogative. STEEVENS.

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I shall have none but Mordake earl of Fife.

Weft. This is his uncle's teaching, this is Worcester, Malevolent to you in all afpécts;

Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up
The creft of youth against your dignity.

K. Hen. But I have fent for him to answer this
And, for this caufe, awhile we must neglect
Our holy purpose to Jerufalem.

Coufin, on Wednesday next our council we
Will hold at Windsor, so inform the lords :
But come yourself with fpeed to us again;
For more is to be said, and to be done,
Than out of anger can be uttered 2.
Weft. I will, my liege.

SCENE II.

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[Exeunt.

The fame. Another Room in the Palace. Enter Henry, Prince of Wales, and FALSTAFF. Fal. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad?

P. Hen. Thou art fo fat-witted, with drinking of old fack, and unbuttoning thee after fupper, and fleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to de

9 Malevolent to you in all aspects;] An aftrological allufion. Worcefter is reprefented as a malignant ftar that influenced the conduct of Hotfpur. HENLEY.

Which makes bim prune himself,] The metaphor is taken from a cock, who in his pride prunes bimfelf; that is, picks off the loofe feathers to smooth the reft. To prune and to plume, fpoken of a bird, is the fame. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon is certainly right in his choice of the reading. So in Green's Metamorphofis, 1613:

"Pride makes the fowl to prune his feathers fo.

But I am not certain that the verb to prune is justly interpreted. In the Booke of Haukynge &c. (commonly called the Booke of St. Albans) is the following account of it: "The hauke proineth when the fetcheth oyle with her beake over the taile, and anointeth her feet and her fethers. She plumeth when the pulleth fethers of anie foule and cafteth them from her." STEEVENS.

2 Than out of anger can be uttered.] That is, "More is to be faid than anger will fuffer me to fay: more than can iflue from a mind difturbed like mine." JOHNSON.

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