But by the chance of war ; 6 to prove That true,
Needs no more but one tongue; for all those wounds,
Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took,
When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,
In single opposition, 'hand to hand,
He did confound the best part of an hour :
In changing hardiment with

great

Glendower ; Three times they breath'd, and three times did they

drink, Upon agreement, of swift Severn's flood; ? Who then affrighted with their bloody looks, Ran fearfully among the trembling reeds, And hid his crifpe head in the hollow bank, Blood-stained with these valiant Combatants. s Never did bare and rotten Policy

makes this correction his own, at for the wounds a tongue was need the small expence of changing ful, and only one tongue. This 'bides to bore. WAR BURTON. is harsh. I rather think it is a

The plain meaning is, he came broken sentence. To prove the not into the enemy's power but by loyalty of Mortimer, says Hota the chance of war. To'bide the spur, one speaking witness is fuffichance of war may well enough cient, for his wounds proclaim fignify to fänd the hazard of a his loyalty, those mouthed rounds, battle, but can scarcely mean to &c. endure the severities of a prison. 1 Who then affrighted, &c.] The King charged Mortimer that This passage has been censured he wilfully betrayed his army, and, as founding nonsense, which reas he was then with the enemy, presents a Itream of water as cacalls him revolted Mortimer. Hot- pable of fear. It is misunderpur replies, that he never fell off, stood. Severn is here not the that is, fell into * Glendower's flood, but the tutelary power of hands, but by the chance of war. the food, who was frighted, and I should not have explained thus hid his head in the hollow bank. tediously' a passage so hard to be 8 Never did bare and rotten mistaken, but that two Editors policy.) All the quarto's have already mistaken it.

which I have seen read bare in to prove that true, this place. The first folio, and all ** Needs no more but one tongue, the subsequent editions, have

For all those wounds, &c.; base. I believe bare is right: This paffage is of obscure con never did policy lying open to deitruction. The later editors tection so colour its workings. point it, as they underltood that Vol. IV.

K

Colour

Colour her working with such deadly wounds;
Nor never could the noble Mortimer
Receive so many, and all willingly;
Then let him not be slander'd with Revolt.
K. Henry. Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou beliest

him;
He never did encounter with Glendower;
He durft as well have met the Devil alone,
As Owen Glendower for an enemy.
Art not asham'd ? ' but, firrah, from this hour
Let me not hear you speak of Mortimer.
Send me your prisoners with the speedieft means,
Or you shall hear in such a kind from me
As will displease you.--My Lord Northumberland,
We licence your departure with your son.
Send us your prisoners, or you'll hear of it.

[Exit K. Henry.
Hot. And if the devil come and roar for them,
I will not send them. I'll after strait,
And tell him so; for I will ease my heart,
Although it be with hazard of

my

head. North. What, drunk with choler ? stay, and paufe

a while; Ilere comes your uncle. .

Enter Worcester.

Hot. Speak of Mortimer?
Yes, I will speak of him; and let my son
Want mercy, if I do not join with him.
In his behalf, I'll empty all these veins,

1

but, sirrah, from this hour.) for all just to have taken notice The Oxford Editor is a deal more of.

WARBURTON. courtly than his old plain Eliza Although it be with hazard, beth author. He changes firrah &c.] So the first folio, and all therefore to Sir : And panctilios the following editions. The of this kind he very carefully quarto's read, discharges throughout his edition:

Alikough I make a hazard of which it may be enough once

And

my head.

And shed my dear blood drop by drop in dust, 2 But I will lift the down-trod Mortimer As high i'th' Air as this unthankful King, As this ingrate and cankred Boling broke: North. Brother, the King hath made your Nephew mad.

[To Worcester Wor. Who strook this heat up, after I was gone?

Hot. He will, forsooth, have all my prisoners;
And when I urgʻd the ransom once again
Of my wife's brother, then his cheek look'd pale,
And on my face he turn’d an 3 eye of death,
Trembling ev'n at the name of Mortimer:

Wor. I cannot blame him; was he not proclaim'd, By Richard that dead is, the next of blood ?

North. He was ; I heard the Proclamation; And then it was, when the unhappy King (Whose wrongs in us, God pardon.) did set forth Upon his Irish expedition, From whence he, intercepted, did return To be depos’d; and shortly murthered. Wor. And for whose death, we in the world's wide

mouth Live scandaliz’d, and foully spoken of.

Hot. But soft, I pray you. Did King Richard then
Proclaim my brother Mortimer
Heir to the Crown?

North. He did: myself did hear it.
Hot. Nay, then I cannot blame his cousin King,
That wish'd him on the barren mountains starý’d.
But shall it be, that you, that set the Crown
Upon the head of this forgetful man,
And for his fake wear the detested blot

3

2 But I will lift the downfallin folios fead downfall.

Mortimer] The quarto of An eye of death.] That is, 1599 reads down-trod Mortimer : an eye menacing death. Hot-/pur which is better. WARB. seems to describe the King as

All the quartos that I have trembling with rage rather than feen read down-trod, the three fear.

Of murd'rous Subornation? fhall it be,
That you a world of curses undergo,
Being the agents or base second means,
The cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?
(0 pardon me, that I descend so low,
To shew the line and the predicament
Wherein you range under this subtle King)
Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,
Or fill up Chronicles in time to come,
That men of your Nobility and Power
Did

gage them Both in an unjust behalf,
As Both of you, God pardon it! have done,
To put down Richard, that sweet lovely Rose,
And plant this Thorn, this Canker Bolingbroke ?
And shall it in more shame be further spoken,
That

you are fool'd, discarded, and shook off
By him, for whom these shames ye underwent ?
No; yet times ferves, wherein you may redeem
Your banish'd honours, and restore yourselves
Into the good thoughts of the world again.
Revenge the jeering, and * disdain’d contempt
Of this proud King, who studies day and night
To answer all the debt he owes unto you,
Ev'n with the bloody payments of your deaths :
Therefore, I say

Wor. Peace, Cousin, say no more.
And now I will unclasp a secret book,
And to your quick-conceiving discontents
I'll read you matter deep and dangerous ;
As full of peril and advent'rous fpirit,
As to o'er-walk a current, roaring loud,
+ On the unsteadfast footing of a spear.

Hot. If he fall in, good night, or link or swim-
Send Danger from the east unto the west,
So Honour cross it from the north to fouth,

* Disdain'd for disdainful. of a spear.] 1. e. of a spear laid across.

4 On the unsteadfast footing

WARBURTON.

And

And let them grapple.

O! the blood more stirs To rouze a Lion, than to start a Hare.

North. Imagination of some great exploit Drives him beyond the bounds of patience. Hot. By heav'n, methinks, it were an easy leap,

To

s By heav'n, methinks, &c ] Or dive into the bottom of the Gildon, a critic of the size of deep, Dennis, &c. calls this speech, And pluck up drowned honour by without any ceremony, a ridica

the locks : louis rant and absolute madness. i.e. or what is still more diffiMr. Theobald talks in the fame cult, tho' there were in the world strain. The French critics had no great examples to incite and taught these people just enough fire my emulation, but that ho. to understand where Shakespeare nour was quite sunk and buried had transgressed the rules of the in oblivion, yet would I bring it Greek tragic writers; and, on back into vogue, and render it those occasions, they are full of more illuftrious than ever. So the poor frigid cant, of fable, that we see, tho' the expression fentiment, diction, unities, &c. be sublime and daring, yet the But it is another thing to get to thought is the natural movement Shakespeare's sense: to do this re of an heroic mind. Euripides at quired a little of their own. For least thought so, when he pot want of which, they could not the

very

fame sentiment, in the see that the poet here uses an al- fame words, into the mouth of legorical covering to express a Eteocles – I will not, madam, dif noble and very natural thought. guise my thoughts; I could scale -Hot-spur, all on fire, exclaims heaven, I could defcend to the very againit huckfiering and bartering entrails of the earth, if so be that for honour, and dividing it into by that price I could obtain a kingshares. O! says he, could I be dom.

WARBURTON. fure that when I had purchased Though I am very far from honour I should wear her digni- condemning this speech with Gilties without a Rival-what then dun and Theobald as absolute madwhy then,

ness, yet I cannot find in it that By heav'n, methinks, it were an profundity of reflection and beauealy leap,

ty of allegory which the learned To pull bright honour from the commentator has endeavoured to pale fac'd Moon :

display. This fally of Hot-Spur i. e. tho’ some great and shin- may be, I think, soberly and ra. ing character in the most elevated tionally vindicated as the violent orb was already in possession of eruption of a mind inflated with ber, yet it would, methinks, be ambition and fired with refenteasy, by greater acts, to eclipse ment; as the boastful clamour his glory, and pluck all his ho of a man able to do much, and nours from him;

eager to do more; as the hafty

motion

K 3