SCENE III.

Warkworth. Before the Castle.

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND, Lady NORTHUMBERLAND, and Lady PERCY.

North. I pray thee, loving wife, and gentle daughter, Give even way unto my rough affairs:

Put not on you the visage of the times,

And be, like them, to Percy troublesome.

Lady N. I have given over, I will speak no more : Do what you will; your wisdom be your guide. North. Alas, sweet wife, my honour is at pawn; And, but by going, nothing can redeem it.

Lady P. O, yet, for God's sake, go not to these wars!
The time was, father, that you broke your word,
When you were more endear'd to it than now;
When your own Percy, when my heart's dear Harry
Threw many a northward look, to see his father
Bring up his powers; but he did long in vain.
Who then persuaded you to stay at home?
There were two honours lost; yours, and your son's.
For yours, may heavenly glory brighten it!
For his, it stuck upon him, as the sun

In the grey vault of heaven: and, by his light,
Did all the chivalry of England move
To do brave acts; he was, indeed, the glass
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
He had no legs, that practis'd not his gait :
And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant;

For those that could speak low, and tardily,

Would turn their own perfection to abuse,

To seem like him: So that, in speech, in gait,

In diet, in affections of delight,

In military rules, humours of blood,

He was the mark and glass, copy and book,

That fashion'd others. And him,-O wondrous him!
O miracle of men!-him did you leave,

(Second to none, unseconded by you,)

To look upon the hideous god of war

In disadvantage; to abide a field,

Where nothing but the sound of Hotspur's name
Did seem defensible :-so you left him :
Never, O never, do his ghost the wrong,
To hold your honour more precise and nice
With others, than with him; let them alone;
The marshal, and the archbishop, are strong:
Had my sweet Harry had but half their numbers,
To-day might I, hanging on Hotspur's neck,
Have talk'd of Monmouth's grave.

North.

Beshrew your heart, Fair daughter! you do draw my spirits from me, With new lamenting ancient oversights.

But I must go, and meet with danger there;

Or it will seek me in another place,

And find me worse provided.

Lady N.

O, fly to Scotland,

Till that the nobles, and the armed commons,

Have of their puissance made a little taste.

Lady P. If they get ground and vantage of the king, Then join you with them, like a rib of steel,

To make strength stronger; but, for all our loves,
First let them try themselves: So did your son;
He was so suffer'd; so came I a widow;
And never shall have length of life enough,
To rain upon remembrance" with mine eyes,
That it may grow and sprout as high as heaven,
For recordation to my noble husband.

North. Come, come, go in with me: 'tis with
As with the tide swell'd up unto its height,
That makes a still-stand, running neither way.
Fain would I go to meet the archbishop,
But

many

thousand reasons hold me back :

my

mind,

I Did seem defensible:-] Defensible does not in this place mean capable of defence, but bearing strength, furnishing the means of defence;-the passive for the active participle.--MALONE.

remembrance-] The allusion is to the plant rosemary, the symbol of remembrance, and used at funerals and weddings.

I will resolve for Scotland; there am I,

Till time and vantage crave my company.

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

London. A Room in the Boar's Head Tavern, in
Eastcheap.

Enter Two Drawers.

1 Draw. What the devil hast thou brought there? apple-Johns? thou know'st, sir John cannot endure an apple-John.

2 Draw. Mass, thou sayest true: The prince once set a dish of apple-Johns before him, and told him, there were five more sir Johns: and, putting off his hat, said, I will now take my leave of these six dry, round, old, withered knights." It angered him to the heart: but he hath forgot that.

1 Draw. Why then, cover, and set them down: And see if thou canst find out Sneak's noise; mistress Tearsheet would fain hear some musick. Despatch :-The room where they supped, is too hot; they'll come in straight.

2 Draw. Sirrah, here will be the prince, and master Poins anon and they will put on two of our jerkins, and aprons; and sir John must not know of it: Bardolph hath brought word.

1 Draw. By the mass, here will be old utis: It will be an excellent stratagem.

2 Draw. I'll see, if I can find out Sneak.

Enter Hostess and DOLL TEAR-SHEET.

[Exit.

Host. I'faith, sweet heart, methinks now you are in an excellent good temperality: your pulsidge beats as ex

old, withered knights.] The apple-John will keep two years, but becomes very wrinkled and shrivelled.-STEEVENS.

Sneak's noise ;] Sneak was a street minstrel, and therefore the drawer goes out to listen if he can hear him in the neighbourhood.-JOHNSON.

P

utis;]-used for festivity. Utis or utas from the Fr. huit, is in its original sense the eighth day after any festival.

traordinarily as heart would desire; and your colour, I warrant you, is as red as any rose: But, i'faith, you have drunk too much canaries; and that's a marvellous searching wine, and it perfumes the blood ere one can say,What's this? How do you now?

Host. Why, that's well said; a good heart's worth gold. Look, here comes sir John.

Enter FALSTAFF, singing.

Fal. When Arthur first in court-Empty the jordan.— And was a worthy king: [Exit Drawer.] How, now, mistress Doll?

Host. Sick of a calm: yea, good sooth.

Fal. So is all her sect; an they be once in a calm, they are sick.

Dol. You muddy rascal, is that all the comfort you give me?

Fal. You make fat rascals, mistress Doll.

Dol. I make them! gluttony and diseases make them; I make them not.

Fal. If the cook help to make the gluttony, you help to make the diseases, Doll; we catch of you, Doll, we catch of you; grant that, my poor virtue, grant that.

Dol. Ay, marry; our chains, and our jewels.

Fal. Your brooches, pearls, and owches;-for to serve bravely, is to come halting off, you know: To come off the breach with his pike bent bravely, and to surgery bravely; to venture upon the charged chambers' bravely:

Dol. Hang yourself, you muddy conger, hang yourself! Host. By my troth, this is the old fashion; you two never meet, but you fall to some discord: you are both,

When Arthur first in court-] The entire ballad is published in the first volume of Dr. Percy's Reliques of ancient English Poetry.-STEEVENS.

Sick of a calm:] I suppose she means to say of a qualm.-STEEVENS.

-fat rascals,] Falstaff alludes to a phrase of the forest. Lean deer are called rascal deer. He tells her she calls him wrong, being fat he cannot be a rascal.-JOHNSON.

charged chambers-] To understand this quibble, it is necessary to say, that a chamber signifies not only an apartment, but a piece of ordnance.-STEEVENS.

in good troth, as rheumatick" as two dry toasts; you cannot one bear with another's confirmities. What the good-year! one must bear, and that must be you; [to DOLL:] you are the weaker vessel, as they say, the emptier vessel.

Dol. Can a weak empty vessel bear such a huge full hogshead? there's a whole merchant's venture of Bourdeaux stuff in him; you have not seen a hulk better stuffed in the hold.-Come, I'll be friends with thee, Jack: thou art going to the wars; and whether I shall ever see thee again, or no, there is nobody cares.

Re-enter Drawer.

Draw. Sir, ancient Pistol's below, and would speak with you.

Dol. Hang him, swaggering rascal! let him not come hither: it is the foul mouth'dst rogue in England.

Host. If he swagger, let him not come here: no, by my faith; I must live amongst my neighbours; I'll no swagI am in good name and fame with the gerers: best: very -Shut the door;-there comes no swaggerers here; I have not lived all this while, to have swaggering now:-shut the door, I pray you.

Fal. Dost thou hear, hostess?

Host. Pray you, pacify yourself, sir John; there comes no swaggerers here."

Fal. Dost thou hear? it is mine ancient.

Host. Tilly-fally, sir John, never tell me; your ancient swaggerer comes not in my doors. I was before master Tisick, the deputy, the other day; and, as he said to me, —it was no longer ago than Wednesday last,-Neighbour Quickly, says he;-master Dumb, our minister, was by

rheumatick-] Rheumatick, in the cant language of the times, signified capricious, humoursome. In this sense it appears to be used in many other old plays. STEEVENS. X as two dry toasts;] Which cannot meet but they grate one another.JOHNSON.

y

What the good year!] This was a very common form of exclamation. ancient Pistol]-is the same as ensign Pistol. Falstaff was captain; Peto, lieutenant; and Pistol, ensign, or ancient.-JOHNSON.

a

there comes no swaggerers here.] A swaggerer was a roaring, bullying, blustering, fighting fellow.-RITSON.