Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war, That the blunt monster with uncounted heads, Among my household? Why is Rumour here? Hath beaten down young Hotspur, and his troops, Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I To noise abroad,—that Harry Monmouth fell wrongs. [Exit. 3 The stops are the holes in a flute or pipe. So in Hamlet:"Govern these ventages with your finger and thumb; look you, these are the stops." 4 The old copies have peasant towns. Mr. Collier's folio substitutes pleasant; in the next line but one the old copies misprint hole for hold. 5 Northumberland's castle. SCENE I. W HENRY IV. АСТ І. L. Bardolph. HO keeps the gate here, ho?-Where is the earl? Port. What shall I say you are? L. Bard. Tell thou the earl, That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here. Port. His lordship is walk'd forth into the orchard; Please it your honour, knock but at the gate, And he himself will answer. L. Bard. Enter NORTHUMBERLAND. Here comes the earl. North. What news, Lord Bardolph ? every minute now Should be the father of some stratagem; L. Bard. Noble earl, I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury. North. Good, an heaven will! L. Bard. As good as heart can wish: The king is almost wounded to the death; Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts North. How is this deriv'd? Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury? A gentleman well bred, and of good name, North. Here comes my servant, Travers, whom I sent On Tuesday last to listen after news. L. Bard. My lord, I over-rode him on the way; And he is furnish'd with no certainties, More than he haply may retail from me. Enter TRAVERS. North. Now, Travers, what good tidings comes with you? Tra. My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back With joyful tidings; and, being better hors'd, Outrode me. After him, came, spurring hard, a Tidings, like news, was used either as singular or plural by old writers, although they had the singular tiding, now obsolete. Thus Udal:-" Jesus perceyvyng that the father of the mayde was muche amazed with this tydinges, couforted hym."-Matth. ch. 9. A gentleman almost forspent with speed, North. Ha! Again. L. Bard. My lord, I'll tell you what ; 1 His armed heels. So the quarto. The folio misprints it "able heels;" the word able having been caught from a preceding line. 2 Malone was mistaken in saying that Shakespeare does not use the word jade as a term of contempt, for in the instance he cites from K. Richard II.— "That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand," Richard was angry with his favourite Roan Barbary. In every other instance it seems to be used in the sense of Baret's definition:-" a Jade, a naughtie horse." 3 So in the book of Job, ch. xxxix:-"He swalloweth the ground in fierceness and rage." The same expression occurs in Ben Jonson's Sejanus: "But with that speed and heat of appetite With which they greedily devour the way To some great sports." 66 In the Tempest, Ariel, to describe his alacrity in obeying Prospero's commands, says, “ I drink the air before me." Nemesian has the same thought: 4 "Latumque fuga consumere campum." Hotspur seems to have been a very common term for a man of vehemence and precipitation. Stanyhurst renders the following line of Virgil:: 66 Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile." "To couch not mounting of mayster vanquisher hoatspur." lord your son have not the day, If my young I'll give my barony: never talk of it. North. Why should the gentleman, that rode by Travers, Give then such instances of loss? L. Bard. Who, he? He was some hilding fellow, that had stol'n The horse he rode on; and, upon my life, Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news. Enter MORTON. North. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf, Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury? North. How doth my son, and brother? Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand. Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless, So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone, Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night, And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd: But Priam found the fire, ere he his tongue, And I my Percy's death, ere thou report'st it. This thou would'st say,-Your son did thus, and thus; Your brother, thus; so fought the noble Douglas ; Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds: But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed, Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise, 5 A silken point is a tagged lace. • Hilding, i. e. hilderling, base, low fellow. |