2

it with a knife. He was fo forlorn, that his dimen fions to any thick fight were invincible. He was the very Genius of famine, yet leacherous as a Monkey, and the whores call'd him Mandrake. He came ever in the rere-ward of the fashion; and fung thofe tunes to the over scutcht huswives that he heard the carmen whistle, and sware they were his Fancies, or his Goodnights. And now is this Vice's dagger become a Squire, and talks as familiarly of John of Gaunt as if he had been fworn brother to him, and I'll be fworn, he never faw him but once in the Tilt-yard, and then he broke his head for crouding among the Marfhal's men. I faw it, and told John of Gaunt he 3 beat his own name; for you might have trufs'd him and all his apparel into an Eel-fkin; the cafe of a treble hoboy was a Manfion for him-a Court-and now hath he land and beeves. Well, I will be ac quainted with him, if I return; and it shall go hard but I will make him a philofopher's two ftones to me. If the young Dace be a bait for the old Pike, I

I

4

fee

1 Over-fcutcht] i. e. whipt, and Management of a Buffon. carted.

РОРЕ.

I rather think that the word means dirty, or grimed, the word bufwives agrees better with this fenfe. Shallow crept into mean houfes, and boafted his accomplishments to the dirty women.

And now is this Vice's Dagger.] By Vice here the Poet means that droll Character in the old Plays, (which I have feveral times mentioned in the courfe of thefe Notes.) equipped with Affes Ears and a Wooden Dagger. It is very fatirical in Falstaff to compare Shallow's Activity and Impertinence to fuch a Machine as a wooden Dagger in the Hands

༢

THEOBALD. beat his cavn name;]

That is, beat gaunt, a fellow fo flender that his name might have been gaunt.

4 philofopher's two fone One of which was an univerfal medicine, and the other a tranf muter of bafer metals into gold.

WARBURTON. I believe the commentator has refined this paffage too much. A philofopher's two fiones, is only more than the phil-fopher's flone. The univerfal medicine was never, fo far as I know, conceived to be a ftone, before the time of Butler's ftone.

5 If the young Dace] That is,

If

fee no reason in the law of nature but I may fnap at him. Let time shape, and there's an end.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Changes to a Foreft in Yorkshire.

Enter the Archbishop of York, Mowbray, Haftings, and Colevile.

YORK.

HAT is this foreft call'd?

WHaft. 'Tis Gaultree foreft.

York. Here ftand, my lords, and fend discoverers forth,

To know the numbers of our enemies.

Haft. We have fent forth already.

York. 'Tis well done.

My friends and brethren in these great affairs,
I must acquaint you, that I have receiv'd
New-dated letters from Northumberland,

Their cold intent, tenour and fubftance thus.-
Here doth he wish his perfon, with fuch Powers
As might hold fortance with his quality,
The which he could not levy; whereupon
He is retir'd, to ripe his growing fortunes,
To Scotland; and concludes in hearty prayers
That your attempts may over-live the hazard
And fearful meeting of their oppofite.

Mowb. Thus do the hopes we have in him touch

ground,

And dafh themselves to pieces.

If the pike may prey upon the dace, if it be the law of nature that the ftronger may feize upon the

weaker, Falstaff may with propriety devour Shallow.

great

Enter

Enter a Meffenger.

Haft. Now, what news?

Mell. Weft of this foreft, fcarcely off a mile, In goodly form comes on the enemy,

And by the ground they hide, I judge their number Upon, or near, the rate of thirty thousand.

Mowb. The just proportion that we gave them out. Let us fway on, and face them in the field.

York. What well-appointed leader fronts us here? Mowb. I think, it is my lord of Weftmorland. Weft. Health and fair Greeting from our General, The Prince, Lord John, and Duke of Lancaster. York. Say on, my lord of Westmorland, in peace: What doth concern your coming?

Weft. Then, my lord,

Unto your Grace do I in chief address

The fubftance of my fpeech. If that Rebellion
Came like it felf, in bafe and abject routs,
7 Led on by bloody youth, goaded with rage,
And countenanc'd by boys and beggary;
I fay, if damn'd Commotion fo appear'd
In his true, native, and most proper fhape,
You, reverend Father, and thefe noble lords,
Had not been here to drefs the ugly form

6 Let us fway on, -] We 7 Led on by bloody youth,—] fhould read way on, i, e. march I believe Shakespeare wrote, beady WARBURTON. youth. WARBURTON.

on.

I know not that I have ever feen way in this fenfe, but I believe it is the true word, and was intended to exprefs the uniform and forcible motion of a compact body. There is a fenfe of the noun in Milton kindred to this, where speaking of a weighty fword, he fays, It defcends with huge two-handed sway.

I think bloody can hardly be right, perhaps it was moody, that is, furious. So in Scene 8 of this Act.

Being moody give him line and
fcope
Till that his paffions, like a wha'e
on ground,
Confound themfeives with work

Of bafe and bloody infurrection

With your fair honours. You, my lord Arch-bishop,
Whofe See is by a civil peace maintain'd,

Whose beard the filver hand of peace hath touch'd,
Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor❜d,
Whole white inveftments figure innocence,
The Dove and very bleffed Spirit of l'eace;
Wherefore do you fo ill tranflate your felf,
Out of the speech of peace, that bears fuch grace,
Into the harsh and boitt'rous tongue of war?
Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,
Your pens to launces, and your tongue divine
To a loud trumpet and a point of war?

*

York. Wherefore do I this? fo the question ftands.
Briefly, to this end. We are all difeas'd,
And with our furfeiting and wanton hours,
Have brought ourselves into a burning fever,
And we must bleed for it; of which disease
Our late King Richard being infected, dy'd.
But, my moft noble Lord of Westmorland,
I take not on me here as a phyfician;
Nor do I, as an enemy to peace,
Troop in the throngs of military men ;
But rather fhew a while like fearful war,
To diet rank minds, fick of happiness,

And purge th' obftructions, which begin to stop
Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly.
I have in equal balance juftly weigh'd

What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we fuffer;
And find our griefs heavier than our offences.
We fee, which way the ftream of time doth run,

For graves Dr. Warburton very plaufibly reads glaves, and is followed by Sir Thomas Han

mer

In this fpeech after the first two lines, the next twenty-five are either omitted in the first edition, or added in the fecond. VOL. IV.

The anfwer in which both the editions agree. apparently refers to fome of thefe lines, which therefore may be probably fupposed rather to have been dropped by a player defirous to shorten his fpeech, than added by the fecond labour of the authour X

And

And are inforc'd from our moft Quiet fphere,
By the rough torrent of occafion;

And have the fummary of all our griefs,
When time fhall ferve, to fhew in articles;
Which long ere this we offer'd to the King,
And might by no fuit gan our audience.
When we are wrong'd and would unfold our griefs,
We are deny'd accefs unto his person,

Ev'n by thofe men that most have done us wrong.
The danger of the days but newly gone,
Whofe memory is written on the earth
With yet appearing blood, and the Examples
Of every minute's inftance, prefent now,
Have put us in thefe ill-befeeming arms,
Not to break peace, or any branch of it,
But to establish here a peace, indeed,
Concurring both in name and quality.

Weft. When ever yet was your appeal deny'd?
Wherein have you been galled by the King?
What Peer hath been fuborn'd to grate on you,
That you fhould feal this lawless bloody book
Of forg'd Rebellion with a Seal divine,
* And confecrate Commotion's Civil edge?

9 In former Editions: And are inforc'd from our mat quiet THERE,] This is faid in anfwer to Westmorland's upbraiding the Archbishop for engaging in a courfe which fo ill became his profeffion,

You my lord Archbishop Whofe See is by a civil peace maintain'd, &c. So that the reply must be this, And are inforc'd from our most quiet SPHERE. WARB. And co ficrate, &c.] In one of my o'd 2 arto's of 1600 (for I have Two of the felf-fame Edition; one of which, 'tis evident, was corrected in fome Paffages during the working off the whole

York.

Impreffion;) I found this Verfe. I have ventur'd to substitute Page for Edge, with regard to the Uniformity of Metaphor. Tho' the Sword of Rebellion, drawn by a Bishop, may in fome fort be faid to be confecrated by his Reverence, THEOBALD.

And confecrate Commotion's Civil Edge] So the old books read. But Mr. Theobald changes edge to page, out of regard to the uniformity (as he calls it) of the metaphor. But he did not understand what was meant by edge. It was an old custom, continued from the time of the firft croisades, for the pope to

con