Enter Exton and a Servant.

Exton. Didft thou not mark the King, what words he spake?

Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear?
Was it not fo?

Serv. Thofe were his very words.

Exton. Have I no friend?-quoth he; he spake it twice,

And urg'd it twice together; did he not?
Serv. He did.

Exton. And fpeaking it, he wiftly look'd on me,
As who fhall fay,-I would, thou wert the man,
That would divorce this terror from my heart;
Meaning the King at Pomfret. Come, let's go :
I am the King's friend, and will rid his foe. [Exeunt.

I

SCENE

X.

Changes to the Prison at Pomfret-Castle.

Enter King Richard.

Have been studying, how to compare
This prifon, where I live, unto the world
And, for because the world is populous,
And here is not a creature but my self,
I cannot do it; yet I'll hammer on't.
My brain I'll prove the female to my foul,
My foul, the father; and these two beget
A generation of ftill-breeding thoughts;
And these fame thoughts people this little world;
In humour, like the people of this world,
For no thought is contented. The better fort,
As thoughts, of things divine, are intermixt

And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.
The Earl of Douglas is difcomfited;

Ten thousand bold Scots, three and twenty Knights,
Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter fee

On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hot-fpur took
Mordake the Earl of Fife, and eldest fon

To beaten Dowglas, and the Earls of Athol,
Of Murry, Angus, and Menteith.

And is not this an honourable spoil?

A gallant prize? ha, coufin, is it not?

Weft. In faith, a conqueft for a Prince to boast of. K. Henry. Yea, there thou mak'ft me fad, and mak'ft me fin

In Envy, that my lord Northumberland

Should be the father of fo bleft a fon,

A fon, who is the theam of Honour's tongue,
Amongst a grove, the very ftreighteft plant,
Who is fweet Fortune's Minion, and her Pride,
Whilft I, by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and dishonour stain the brow

Of my young Harry. O could it be prov'd,
That fome night-tripping Fairy had exchang'd,
In cradle-cloaths, our children where they lay,
And call mine Percy, his Plantagenet ;
Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
But let him from my thoughts.-

Coufin,

What think you,

Of this young Percy's pride? the prifoners,
Which he in this adventure hath furpriz'd,
To his own use he keeps, and fends me word,
I shall have none but Mordake Earl of Fife.

Weft. This is his uncle's teaching, this is Worcester, Malevolent to you in all aspects,

8

Which makes him plume himself, and briftle up

The

& Which makes him PRUNE this the Oxford Editor gives his bimfelf-Doubtless Shake- fiat.

Speare wrote PLUME. And to
VOL. IV.

I

WARBURTON.

I am not fo confident as thofe

two

The Creft of youth against your Dignity.

K. Henry. But I have fent for him to answer this;
And for this caufe a while we must neglect
Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.

Coufin, on Wednesday next our Council we
Will hold at Windfor, fo inform the lords:
But come yourself with speed to us again;
For more is to be faid, and to be done,
Than out of anger can be utter'd.
Weft. I will, my Liege.

SCENE II.

An Apartment of the Prince's.

[Exeunt.

Enter Henry Prince of Wales, and Sir John Falftaff.

Now

Fal. [OW, Hal, what time of day is it, lad? P. Henry. Thou art fo fat-witted with drinking old fack, and unbuttoning thee after fupper, and fleeping upon benches in the afternoon, that thou haft forgotten to demand that truly, which thou would't truly know. What a devil haft thou to do with the time of the day? Unless hours were cups of fack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the figns of leaping-houses, and the bleffed Sun himfelf a fair hot wench in flame-colour'd taffata. I fee no reafon why thou should'st be fo fuperfluous, to demand the time of the day.

two editors. The metaphor is taken from a cock who in his pride prunes him/elf; that is, picks off the loofe feathers to fmooth the reft. To prune and to plume, fpoken of a bird, is

the fame.

9 Than cut of anger can be uttered.] That is, More is

to be faid than anger will fuffer me to Jay: More than can iffue from a mind difturbed like mine.

To demand that truly, which thou wouldst truly know.] The Prince's objection to the question feems to be, that Falstaff had asked in the night what was the time of day.

Fal.

Fal. Indeed, you come near me now, Hal. For we, that take purses, go by the moon and seven stars, and not by Phabus, he, that wandring knight so fair. And I pray thee, fweet wag, when thou art Kingas God fave thy Grace (Majefty, I fhould fay; for grace thou wilt have none.)

P. Henry. What! none?

Fal. No, by my troth, not fo much as will ferve to be prologue to an egg and butter. P. Henry. Well, how then?.

roundly.

come- -roundly,

Fal. Marry, then, fweet wag, when thou art King, let not us that are fquires of the night's body, be call'd thieves of the day's booty. Let us be Diana's forefters, gentlemen of the fhade, minions of the Moon; and let men fay, we be men of good government, being governed as the Sea is, by our noble and chafte miftrefs the Moon, under whofe countenance we- fteal. P. Henry. Thou fay'ft well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of us, that are the Moon's men, doth ebb and flow like the Sea; being govern'd as the Sea is, by the Moon. As for proof, now a purse of gold moft refolutely fnatch'd on Monday night, and moft diffolutely fpent on Tuesday morning; got with fwearing, lay by; and spent with crying, bring

In former editions,

Let nst Us, that are Squires of the Night's body, be call'd Thieves of the Day's Beauty.] This conveys no manner of Idea to me. How could they be called Thieves of the Day's Beauty? They robbed by Moonhine; they could not fteal the fair Day-light. 1 have ventured to fubftitute, Booty: and this I take to be the Meaning. Let us not be called Thieves, the Purliners of that Booty, which, to the Proprietors, was the Pur

3

I 2

But

in:

in: now in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder; and by and by in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows.

Fal. By the lord, thou fay'st true, lad: and is not mine Hoftefs of the tavern a moft fweet wench? P. Henry. As the honey of Hybla, my old lad of

4 As the Honey of Hybla, my
Old Lad of the Caftle.] Mr. Rozve
took notice of a Tradition, that
this Part of Falstaff was written
originally under the Name of
Oldcastle. An ingenious Cor-
refpondent hints to me, that the
Paffage above quoted from our
Author proves, what Mr. Rowe
tells us was a Tradition. Old
Lad of the Castle feems to have
a Reference to Oldcastle. Be-
fides, if this had not been the
Fact, why, in the Epilogue to
the Second Part of Henry IV.
where our Author promises to
continue his Story with Sir John
in it, fhould he fay, Where, for
any Thing I know, Falstaff hall
de of a Sweat, unless already be
be killed with your hard Opinions :
for Oldcastle dy'd a Martyr, and
this is not the Man. This looks
like declining a Point, that had
been made an Objection to him.
I'll give a farther Matter in Proof,
which feems almoft to fix the
Charge. I have read an old
Play, called, The famous Vico-
ries of Henry the Vth, contain-
ing the Honourable Battle of A-
gincourt. -The Action of this
Piece commences about the 14th
Year of K. Henry IVth's Reign,
and ends with Henry the Vth
marrying Princess Catharine of
France. The Scene opens with
Frince Henry's Robberies. Sir

the

John Oldcastle is one of his Gang, and called Jockie: and Ned and Gads-bill are two other Com-From this old imperrades.

fect Sketch, I have a Sufpicion, Shakespeare might form his two Parts of Henry the IVth, and his Hiftory of Henry V: and confequently, 'tis not improbable, that he might continue the mention of Sir John Oldcastle, till fome Defcendants of that Family moved Queen Elizabeth to command him to change the Name.

THEOBALD.

my old lad of the cafle;] This alludes to the name Shakespear first gave to this buffoon character, which was Sir John Oldcafle: And when he changed the name, he forgot to strike out this expreffion that alluded to it. The reafon of the change was this, one Sir John Oldcastle having fuffered in the time of Henry V. for the opinions of Wickliffe, it gave offence; and therefore the Poet altered it to Falftaff, and endeavours to remove the scandal, in the Epilogue to the fecond Fuller takes part of Henry IV. notice of this matter in his Stage-Poets Church History, have themselves been very bold with, and others very merry at, the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, whom they have fancied a boon companion, a jovial rozfier, and

coward