Do pelt so fast at one another's pate,

That many have their giddy brains knock'd out: Our windows are broke down in every street, And we, for fear, compell'd to fhut our fhops.

Enter, Skirmishing, the retainers of GLOSTER and Winchester, with bloody pates.

K. HEN. We charge you, on allegiance to ourfelf,

To hold your flaught'ring hands, and keep the

peace.

Pray, uncle Glofter, mitigate this ftrife.

1. SERV. Nay, if we be

Forbidden ftones, we'll fall to it with our teeth.

2. SERV. Do what ye dare, we are as refolute.

[Skirmish again. GLO. You of my household, leave this peevish broil,

2

And fet this unaccustom'd fight aside.

3.

SERV. My lord, we know your grace to be a

man

Juft and upright; and, for your royal birth,
Inferior to none, but his majefty: 3

And, ere that we will fuffer fuch a prince,
So kind a father of the commonweal,

2

unaccustom'd fight-] Unaccuftom'd is unfeemly, indecent. JOHNSON.

The fame epithet occurs again in Romeo and Juliet, where it feems to mean-fuch as is uncommon, not in familiar ufe: "Shall give him fuch an unaccustom'd dram.'

3 but his majefty:] Old copy, redundantly— but to his majefty.

Perhaps, the line originally ran thus:

STEEVENS.

"To none inferior, but his majefty." STEEVENS.

To be difgraced by an inkhorn mate,4

We, and our wives, and children, all will fight, And have our bodies flaughter'd by thy foes.

I. SERV. Ay, and the very parings of our nails Shall pitch a field, when we are dead.

GLO.

[Skirmish again.

Stay, ftay, I fay!' And, if you love me, as you fay you do,

Let me perfuade you to forbear a while.

K. HEN. O, how this difcord doth afflict my foul!

Can you, my lord of Winchester, behold
My fighs and tears, and will not once relent?
Who fhould be pitiful, if you be not?
Or who should ftudy to prefer a peace,
If holy churchmen take delight in broils?

WAR. My lord protector, yield; "—yield Winchefter;

Except you mean, with obftinate repulfe,
To flay your fovereign, and deftroy the realm.
You fee what mifchief, and what murder too,

-an inkhorn mate,] A bookman. JOHNSON.

It was a term of reproach at the time towards men of learning or men affecting to be learned. George Pettie in his Introduction to Guazzo's Civil Converfation, 1586, fpeaking of those he calls nice travellers, fays, " if one chance to derive anie word from the Latine, which is infolent to their ears, (as perchance they will take that phrafe to be) they forthwith make a jest at it, and tearme it ap Inkhorne tearme." REED.

5 Stay, fay, I fay!] Perhaps the words-1 fay, fhould be omitted, as they only ferve to disorder the metre, and create a difagreeable repetition of the word-fay, in the next line.

STEEVENS.

6 My lord protector, yield;] Old copy-Yield, my lord protector. This judicious tranfpofition was made by Sir T. Hanmer. STEEVENS.

Hath been enacted through your enmity;
Then be at peace, except ye thirst for blood.
WIN. He fhall fubmit, or I will never yield.
GLO. Compaffion on the king commands me
stoop;

Or, I would fee his heart out, ere the priest
Should ever get that privilege of me.

WAR. Behold, my lord of Winchester, the duke
Hath banish'd moody difcontented fury,
As by his smoothed brows it doth appear:
Why look you still fo ftern, and tragical?

GLO. Here, Winchester, I offer thee my hand. K. HEN. Fie, uncle Beaufort! I have heard

preach,

That malice was a great and grievous fin:
And will not you maintain the thing you teach,
But prove a chief offender in the fame?

you

WAR. Sweet king!-the bishop hath a kindly gird. —

For fhame, my lord of Winchester! relent;
What, fhall a child inftruct you what to do?

WIN. Well, duke of Glofter, I will yield to thee; Love for thy love, and hand for hand I give.

GLO. Ay; but, I fear me, with a hollow heart.-

7 hath a kindly gird.] i. e. feels an emotion of kind remorfe. JOHNSON.

A kindly gird is a gentle or friendly reproof. Falstaff obferves, that men of all forts take a pride to gird at him :" and, in The Taming of a Shrew, Baptifta fays: "Tranio bits you now:" to which Lucentio anfwers:

"I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio." STEEVENS. The word gird does not here fignify reproof, as Steevens fuppofes, but a twitch, a pang, a yearning of kindness. M. MASON.

I wish Mr. M. Mafon had produced any example of gird used in the fenfe for which he contends. I cannot fupply one for him, or I most readily would. STEEVENS.

See here, my friends, and loving countrymen;
This token ferveth for a flag of truce,
Betwixt ourselves, and all our followers:
So help me God, as I diffemble not!

WIN. So help me God, as I intend it not!

[Afide. K. HEN. O loving uncle, kind duke of Glofter,* How joyful am I made by this contract !— Away, my masters! trouble us no more; But join in friendship, as your lords have done. 1. SERV. Content; I'll to the furgeon's.

2. SERV.
And fo will I.
3. SERV. And I will fee what phyfick the tavern
affords. [Exeunt Servants, Mayor, &c.
WAR. Accept this fcroll, moft gracious fove-
reign;

Which in the right of Richard Plantagenet
We do exhibit to your majesty.

GLO. Well urg'd, my lord of Warwick;-for, fweet prince,

An if your grace mark every circumstance,
You have great reafon to do Richard right:
Efpecially, for those occafions

At Eltham-place I told your majesty.

K. HEN. And thofe occafions, uncle, were of force:

Therefore, my loving lords, our pleasure is,
That Richard be rettored to his blood.

WAR. Let Richard be reftored to his blood;
So fhall his father's wrongs be recompens❜d.
WIN. As will the reft, fo willeth Winchester.

8

-kind duke of Glofter,] For the fake of metre, I could wish to readmoft kind duke &c. STEEVENS.

K. HEN. If Richard will be true, not that alone, But all the whole inheritance I give, That doth belong unto the house of York, From whence you spring by lineal descent.

PLAN. Thy humble fervant vows obedience,
And humble fervice, till the point of death.
K. HEN. Stoop then, and fet your knee against
my foot;

And, in reguerdon of that duty done,
I girt thee with the valiant fword of York:
Rife, Richard, like a true Plantagenet;
And rife created princely duke of York.

PLAN. And fo thrive Richard, as thy foes may fall!
And as my duty fprings, fo perish they
That grudge one thought against your majefty!
ALL. Welcome, high prince, the mighty duke of
York!

SOM. Perish, base prince, ignoble duke of York! [Afide.

GLO. Now will it beft avail your majefty,
To cross the feas, and to be crown'd in France:
The prefence of a king engenders love
Amongst his fubjects, and his loyal friends;
As it difanimates his enemies.

K.HEN. When Glofter fays the word, king Henry goes;

For friendly counfel cuts off many foes.

GLO. Your fhips already are in readiness.

[Exeunt all but EXETER.

that alove,] By a mistake probably of the tranferiber,

the old copy reads-that all alone. The correction was made by the editor of the fecond folio. MALONE.

9 — reguerdon-] Recompence, return. JOHNSON.

It is perhaps a corruption of-regardum, middle Latin. See Vol. V. p. 235, n. 8.

STEEVENS.