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And your great uncle Edward the black Prince,
Who on the French ground play'd a Tragedy,
Making defeat on the full pow'r of France,
While his most mighty Father, on a hill,
Stood fmiling, to behold his Lion's whelp
Forage in blood of French Nobility.
O noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pow'r of France,
And let another half ftand laughing by,
All out of work, and cold for action!

Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead,
And with your puiffant arm renew their feats.
You are their heir, you fit upon their throne;
The blood, and courage, that renowned them,
Runs in your veins; and my thrice puiffant Liege
Is in the very May-morn of his youth,

Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprises.

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Exe. Your brother Kings and Monarchs of the earth Do all expect that you should rouze yourself, As did the former Lions of your blood.

Weft. They know, your Grace hath caufe; and means and might

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So hath your Highness; never King of England Had Nobles richer, and more loyal Subjects; Whofe hearts have left their bodies here in England, And lie pavilion'd in the field of France.

Cant. O, let their bodies follow, my dear Liege, With blood and fword, and fire, to win your right. In aid whereof, we of the Spiritualty

5 Thefe four fpeeches were added after the first edition.

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They know your GRACE HATH
caufe, and means, and might,
So bath your Highnes
We should read,

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meaning Edward III, and the Black Prince. WARBURTON. I do not fee but the present reading may ftand as I have pointed it.

7 Thefe two lines Dr. Warburton gives to Weftmorland, but with fo little reafon that I have continued them to Canterbury. The credit of old copies, though not great, is yet more than nothing.

Will raise your Highness fuch a mighty fum,

As never did the Clergy at one time

Bring in to any of your ancestors.

K. Henry. We must not only arm t'invade the French, But lay down our proportions to defend

Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
With all advantages.

Cant. They of thofe Marches, gracious Sovereign, Shall be a wall fufficient to defend

Our Inland from the pilfering borderers.

K. Henry. We do not mean the courfing fnatchers only, But fear the main intendment of the Scot,

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Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;
For you shall read, that my great grandfather
Never went with his forces into France, 9
But that the Scot on his unfurnifht kingdom
Came pouring, like a tide into a breach,
With ample and brim fulness of his force,
Galling the gleaned land with hot afsays,
Girding with grievous fiege caftles and towns,
That England, being empty of defence,

Hath fhook, and trembled, at th' ill neighbourhood. Cant. She hath been then more fear'd than harm'd, my Liege;

For hear her but exampled by herself,

When all her chivalry hath been in France,
And the a mourning widow of her Nobles,
She hath herself not only well defended,
But taken and impounded as a ftray

The King of Scots, whom he did send to France,
To fill King Edward's fame with prifoner Kings;
And make your chronicle as rich with praife,

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giddy neighbour] The following expreffions of unThat is, inconftant, changeable. furnish: kingdom, glend land, 9 Never went with his focs and empty of defence, thew this. WARBURTON.

into France.] Shakespeare wrote the line thus,

Ne'er went with his FULL forces into France.

There is no nced of alteration.
And make his cbro:ide as rich
Bb 3
as th

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As is the ouzy bottom of the Sea

With funken wreck and fumlefs treafuries.
Exet. But there's a faying very old and true.
If that you will France win, then with Scotland first begin."
For once the Eagle England being in prey,
To her unguarded neft the Weazel, Scot,
Comes fneaking, and fo fucks her princely eggs;
Playing the Moufe in abfence of the Cat,
To taint, and havock, more than fhe can eat. 4
Ely. It follows then, the Cat must stay at home,
Yet that is but a crush'd neceffity;

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Since we have locks to fafeguard neceffaries,

with PRAISE,] He is fpeaking of King Edward's prifoners; fo that it appears Shakespeare

wrote,

—as rich with PRIZE,

1. c.
e. captures, booty. Without
this, there is neither beauty nor
likeness in the fimilitude. WAR B.
The change of praife to prize,
I believe no body will approve;
the fimilitude between the chro-

nicle and fea confifts only in this,
that they are both full, and filled
with fomething valuable. Be-
fides, Dr. Warburton prefuppofes
a reading which exifts in no an-
cient copy, for his chronicle as
the later editions give it, the
quarto has your, the folio their..

chronicle.

Your and their written by contraction y are juft alike, and her in the old hands is not much unlike y. I believe we should read her chronicle.

2 Ely. But there's a faving, &c.] This fpeech, which is diffuafive of the war with France, is abfurdly given to one of the churchmen in confederacy to push the King upon it, as appears by the

And

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To tear and havock more than

fhe can eat.] 'Tis not much the Quality of the Moufe to tear the Food it comes at, but to run over and defile it. The old

Quarto reads, Spile; and the two first folio's, tame: from which laft corrupted Word, I think, I have retriev'd the Poet's genuine Reading, taint. THEOB. 5 Yet that is but a curs'd Ne

ceffity;] So the old Quarto. The folio's read crush'd: Neither of the Words convey any tolerable Idea; but give us a counter-reafoning, and not at all pertinent. We should read, 'fcus'd necefity. Tis Ely's bufinefs to

thew

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And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves.
While that the armed hand doth fight abroad,
Th' advised head defends itself at home;

For Government, though high, and low, and lower,
Put into parts, doth deep in one confent,
Congreeing in a full and natural close,
Like mufick.

Cant. Therefore heaven doth divide
The ftate of man in divers functions,
Setting endeavour in continual motion,
To which is fixed, as an aim or butt,
Obedience. For fo work the honey Bees;
Creatures, that by a rule in nature teach
The art of order to a peopled kingdom.
They have a King, and officers of fort;
Where fome, like magiftrates, correct at home,
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad, 7

fhew, there is no real Neceffity for ftaying at home: he must therefore mean, that tho' there be a feeming Neceffity, yet it is one that may be well excus'd and got over.

WARBURTON.

Neither the old readings nor the emendation feem very fatisfactory. A curfed neceffity has no fenfe, a 'fcus'd necefity is fo harfh that one would not admit it, if any thing else can be found. A crush'd neceffity may mean, a necefity which is fubdu' d and overpowered by contrary reafons. We might read a crude neceffity, a neceffity not complete, or not well confidered and digefted, but it is too harsh.

Sir T. Hanmer reads, Yet that is not o'courfe a neceffity. For Government, though high, and low, and lower,] The Foundation and Expreffion of this Thought feems to be borVOL. IV.

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To which is fixed, as an aim er butt,

Obedience.] Neither the fenfe nor the conftruction of this paffage is very obvious. The conftruction is, endeavour — as an aim or butt to which endeavour, obedience is fixed. The fenfe is, that all endeavour is to terminate in obedience, to be fubordinate to the publick good and general defign of government. 7 Others, like merchants, VENTURE trade abroad;} What

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is

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Others, like foldiers, armed in their stings,
Make boot upon the 'ummer's velvet buds,
Which pillage they with merry march bring home
To the tent-royal of their Emperor,
Who, bufy'd in his majefty, furveys
The finging mafon building roofs of gold;
The civil citizens kneading up the honey;
The poor mechanick porters crowding in
Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate,
The fad-ey'd Juftice with his furly hum,
Delivering o'er to executors pale
The lazy yawning drone. I thus infer,
That many things, having full reference
To one confent, may work contrariously.
As many arrows, loofed feveral ways,

Come to one mark; as many ways meet in one town;
As many fresh streams meet in one falt fea;
As many lines clofe in the dial's center;
So may a thousand actions, once a-foot,

is the venturing trade? I am perfuaded we should read and point it thus,

Other, like merchant venturers, trade abroad,

WARBURTON. If the whole difficulty of this paflage confit in the obicurity of the phrafe to enture trade, it may be cafily cleared. To ventare trade is a phrafe of the fame import and fructure as to hazard battle. Nothing could have raifed an objection but the defire of being bufy.

8 The civil citizens KNEADING ip the honey;] This mav poffibly be right; but I rather think that Shuk peare wr. te READING E the honey; alluding to the putting up merchand te in cafks. And this is in fact the

End

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To head the Loney can hardly be right, for though we head the cafk, no man talks of beading the commodities. To knead gives an eafy fenfe, though not phyfi cally true. The bees do in fact knead the wax more than the honey, but that Shakifjtare per. haps did not know.

9 So may a thufand affions,

ONCE a-foot,] The speaker is endeavouring to fhew, that the ftate is able to execute many projected actions at once, and conduct them all to their com pletion,

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