S

The First Part of HENRY IV.

ACT I. SCENE. I.

Peace after Civil War.

to pant,

O fhaken as we are, so wan with care,
Find we a time for frighted peace
And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
To be commenc'd in stronds a far remote.

No more the thirsty entrance of this foil

(1) Shall damp her lips with her own childrens' blood:

No

(1) Shall damp.] i. e. Wet, moiften: the old editions, and

with them the Oxford, read dawb; there seems to be fomething

VOL. III.

B

No more shall trenching war channel her fields,
Nor bruise her flowrets with the armed hoofs
Of hostile paces. Those opposed files,
Which like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
All of one nature, of one substance bred,
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery,
Shall now, in mutual, well-beseeming ranks,
March all one way; and be no more oppos'd
Against acquaintance, kindred and allies :
The edge of war like an ill-sheathed knife,
No more shall cut his master.

King Henry's Character of Percy, and of his Son
Prince Henry.

Yea there thou mak'st me fad and mak'st me fin
In envy, that my lord Northumberland
Should be the father of fo blest a fon:
A fon who is the theme of honour's tongue,
Amongst a grove the very straiteft plant,
Who is sweet fortune's mirror and her pride:
Whilst I by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and dishonour stain the brow
Of my young Harry.

SCENE III. Prince Henry's Soliloquy.

I know you all, and will a while uphold
The unyok'd humour of your idleness :
Yet herein will I imitate the fun,
Who doth permit the base contagious clouds

To

greatly like Shakespear in that word, but I have kept damp, as it is generally approv'd. The word files, in the fourth line following, is in the old editions eyes, and thus altered by Mr. Warburton: others read arms. I don't know whether eyes might not be juftified, but I think fiks proferable. See UPT. p. 343.

To smother up his beauty from the world,
That when he please again to be himself,
Being wanted, he may more be wonder'd at,
By breaking through the foul and ugly mists
Of vapours that did feem to strangle him.
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work;
But when they feldom come, they wish'd-for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.
So when this loose behaviour I throw off,
And pay the debt I never promised;
By how much better than my word I am,
By fo much shall I falfify mens' hopes;
And, like bright mettle on a fullen ground,
My reformation glitt'ring o'er my fault,
Shall shew more goodly and attract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to set it off.
I'll so offend, to make offence a skill;
Redeeming time, when men think least I will.

SCENE IV. Hotspur's Description of a finical

Courtier.

But I remember when the fight was done,
When I was dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, leaning upon my fword;
Came there a certain lord, neat, trimly dress'd:
Fresh as a bridegroom, and his chin, new-reap'd,
Shew'd like a stubble-land at harvest home.
He was perfumed like a millener;
And 'twixt his finger and his thumb, he held
(2) A pouncet-box, which ever and anon

He

(2) Pouncet-box.] A small box for musk, or other perfumes then in fashion, the lid of which being cut with open work, gave it its name: from poinfoner, to prick, pierce, or engrave. So says Mr. Warburton, and then condemns the next lines as a

B2

He gave his nose: (and took't away again;
Who, therewith angry, when it next came there,
Took it in fnuff). And still he smil'd and talk'd:
And as the foldiers bare dead bodies by,
He call'd them untaught knaves, unmannerly,
To bring a flovenly unhandsome coarse
Betwixt the wind and his nobility.
With many holiday and lady terms
He question'd me; amongst the rest, demanded
My prifoners, in your majesty's behalf.

(3) I then, all fmarting with my wounds, being cold,

Out of my grief, and my impatience

To be so pester'd with a popinjay,

Answer'd neglectingly, I know not what;
He should, or should not; for he made me mad,

To fee him shine so brifk, and smell so sweet,

And talk so like a waiting gentlewoman,

Of guns and drums and wounds; (God fave the mark!)

And telling me the fovereign'st thing on earth

Was

tupid interlopation of the players: they are certainly not very eafy to be defended, but we find many fuch conceits as these in Shakespear.

(3) I then, &c.] When I first read this paffage, I mark'd the lines, as I have printed them, and turning to the ingenious Mr. Edwards's Canons of Criticism (p. 13.) I found he was of opinion, the lines should be so transposed by this means the fenfe of the paffage is quite clear, and we have no occafion for any alteration. "Mr. Warburton in order to make a contradiction in the common reading, and fo make way for his emendation, mifrepresents Hotspur as at this time [when he gave this anfwer] not cold, but hot. It is true, that at the beginning of the speech he describes himself as

Dry with rage and extreme toil,
Breathless and faint, &c.

Then comes in this gay gentleman, and holds him in an idle difcourse, the heads of which Hotspur gives us; and it is plain by the context, it must have lasted a confiderable while. Now the more he had heated himself in the action, the more when he came to stand still any time would the cold air affect his wounds, Gr."