a flight oath, and a jeft with a fad brow, will do with a fellow that never had the ache in his shoulders! O, you fhall fee him laugh, till his face be like a wet cloak ill laid up.

SHAL. [Within.] Sir John!

FAL. I come, mafter Shallow; I come, master Shallow.

[Exit FALSTAFF.

SCENE II.

Westminster. A Room in the Palace.

Enter WARWICK, and the Lord Chief Justice.

WAR. How now, my lord chief justice? whither away?

CH. JUST. How doth the king?

WAR. Exceeding well; his cares are now all ended.

CH. JUST. I hope, not dead.

WAR.

He's walk'd the way of nature;

And, to our purposes, he lives no more.

CH. JUST. I would, his majefty had call'd me with him:

The service that I truly did his life,

Hath left me open to all injuries.

6

WAR. Indeed, I think, the young king loves you

not.

CH. JUST. I know, he doth not; and do arm myself,

a fad brow,] i. e. a ferious face. So, in The Winter's Tale: "My father and the gentlemen are in fad talk." STEEVENS. -fellow that never had the ache-] That is, a young fellow, one whofe difpofition to merriment, time and pain have not yet impaired. JOHNSON.

To welcome the condition of the time
Which cannot look more hideously upon me
Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.

Enter Prince JOHN, Prince HUMPHREY, CLARENCE, WESTMORELAND, and Others.

WAR. Here come the heavy iffue of dead Harry:
O, that the living Harry had the temper
Of him, the worst of these three gentlemen!
How many nobles then fhould hold their places,
That must strike fail to spirits of vile fort!

CH. JUST. Alas! I fear, all will be overturn'd.
P. JOHN. Good morrow, coufin Warwick.
P. HUMPH. CLA. Good morrow, coufin.

P. JOHN. We meet like men that had forgot to

fpeak.

WAR. We do remember; but our argument Is all too heavy to admit much talk.

P. JOHN. Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy!

CH. JUST. Peace be with us, left we be heavier! P. HUMPH. O, good my lord, you have loft a friend, indeed:

And I dare fwear, you borrow not that face
Of feeming forrow; it is, fure, your own.

P. JOHN. Though no man be affur'd what grace to find,

You ftand in coldeft expectation:

I am the forrier; 'would, 'twere otherwise.

CLA. Well, you must now fpeak fir John Falstaff fair;

Which fwims against your ftream of quality.

CH. JUST. Sweet princes, what I did, I did in honour,

foul;

Led by the impartial conduct of my
And never fhall you fee, that I will beg
A ragged and foreftall'd remiffion."-

5-impartial conduct-] Thus the quartos. The folio reads-imperial. STEEVENS.

Impartial is confirmed by a fubfequent fpeech addressed by the King to the Chief Juftice:

That you use the fame

"With the like bold, juft, and impartial spirit,

"As you have done 'gainst me." MALONE.

A ragged and foreftall'd remiffion.] Ragged has no fenfe here. We fhould read:

A rated and forestall'd remiffion.

i. e. a remiffion that must be fought for, and bought with fupplication. WARBURTON.

Different minds have different perplexities. I am more puzzled with foreftall'd than with ragged; for ragged, in our author's licentious diction, may eafily fignify beggarly, mean, bafe, ignominious; but foreftall'd I know not how to apply to remiffion in any fenfe primitive or figurative. I fhould be glad of another word, but cannot find it. Perhaps by foreftall'd remiffion, he may mean a pardon begged by a voluntary confeffion of offence, and anticipation of the charge. JOHNSON.

The fame expreffion occurs in two different paffages in Maffinger. In The Duke of Milan, Sforza fays to the Emperor"Nor come I as a flave

"Falling before thy feet, kneeling and howling
"For a forestall'd remiffion."

And in The Bondman, Pifander fays

" And fell

"Ourselves to moft advantage, than to trust
"To a foreftall'd remiffion."

In all these paffages a foreftalled remiffion, feems to mean, a remiffion that it is predetermined fhall not be granted, or will be rendered nugatory. Shak fpeare ufes, in more places than one, the word foreftall in the fenfe of to prevent. Horatio fays to Hamlet, "If your mind diflike any thing, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither." In this very play, the Prince fays to the King: "But for my tears, &c.

"I had foreftall'd this dear and deep rebuke."
In Hamlet, the King fays-

"And what's in prayer, but this twofold force,-
"To be foreftalled, ere we come to fall,

"Or pardon'd, being down?" M. MASON.

If truth and upright innocency fail me,
I'll to the king my mafter that is dead,
And tell him who hath fent me after him.
WAR. Here comes the prince.

Enter King HENRY V.

CH. JUST. Good morrow; and heaven save your majefty!

KING. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, Sits not fo eafy on me as you think.

Brothers, you mix your fadness with some fear; This is the English, not the Turkish court;" Not Amurath an Amurath fucceeds,

But Harry Harry: Yet be fad, good brothers,

I believe, foreftall'd only means afked before it is granted. If he will grant me pardon unafked, fo; if not, I will not condefcend to folicit it. In fupport of the interpretation of foreftall'd remission, i. e. a remiffion obtain'd by a previous fupplication, the following paffage in Cymbeline may be urged:

7

"This night forestall him of the coming day!"

MALONE.

not the Turkish court;] Not the court where the prince that mounts the throne puts his brothers to death. JOHNSON. 8 Not Amurath an Amurath fucceeds,

But Harry Harry:] Amurath the Third (the fixth Emperor of the Turks) died on January the 18th, 1595-6. The people being generally difaffected to Mahomet, his eldeft fon, and inclined to Amurath, one of his younger children, the Emperor's death was concealed for ten days by the Janizaries, till Mahomet came from Amafia to Conftantinople. On his arrival he was faluted Emperor, by the great Baffas, and others his favourers; "which done (fays Knolles) he prefently after caufed all his brethren to be invited to a folemn feaft in the court; whereunto they, yet ignorant of their father's death, came chearfully, as men fearing no harm: but, being come, were there all moft miferably ftrangled.”

For, to speak truth, it very well becomes you;
Sorrow fo royally in you appears,

That I will deeply put the fashion on,

And wear it in my heart. Why then, be fad:
But entertain no more of it, good brothers,
Than a joint burden laid upon us all.
For me, by heaven, I bid you be affur'd,
I'll be your father and your brother too;
Let me but bear your love, I'll bear your cares.
Yet weep, that Harry's dead; and fo will I:
But Harry lives, that fhall convert those tears,
By number, into hours of happiness.

P. JOHN, &c. We hope no other from your ma

jefty.

KING. You all look ftrangely on me:-and you [To the Ch. Juft.

moft;

You are, I think, affur'd I love you not.

CH. JUST. I am affur'd, if I be measur'd rightly, Your majefty hath no just cause to hate me.

KING. NO!

How might a prince of my great hopes forget
So great indignities you laid upon me?

What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prifon
The immediate heir of England! Was this eafy? *
May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten?

CH. JUST. I then did use the person of your father;

It is highly probable that Shakspeare here alludes to this tranfaction; which was pointed out to me by Dr. Farmer.

This circumftance, therefore may fix the date of this play fubfequently to the beginning of the year 1596;-and perhaps it was written while this fact was yet recent. MALONE.

2

Was this cafy? That is, was this not grievous? Shakfpeare has easy in this fenfe elfewhere. JOHNSON.

Thus, perhaps, in King Henry VI. Part II. Act III. fc. i. thefe faults are easy, quickly anfwer'd."

Was this easy?-may mean,-was this a flight offence? STEEVENS.