I hop'd, there was no need to trouble himself with any fuch thoughts yet. So a' bade me lay more cloathes on his feet. I put my hand into the bed and felt them, and they were as cold as a stone; then I felt to his knees, and fo upward, and upward, and all was as cold as any stone.

Nim. They fay, he cried out of Sack.
Quick. Ay, and that a’did.
Bard. And of women.

Quick. Nay, that a' did not.

Boy. Yes, that he did; and faid, they were devils incarnate.

Quick. A' could never abide carnation, 'twas a colour he never lik'd.

Boy. He said once, the deule would have him about

women.

Cold as any flone.] Such is the end of Falfaff, from whom Shakespeare had promifed us in his epilogue to Henry IV. that we should receive more enter tainment. It happened to Shakefpeare as to other writers, to have his imagination crowded with a tumultuary confufion of images, which, while they were yet unforted and unexamined, feemed fufficient to furnish a long train of incidents, and a new variety of merriment, but which, when he was to produce them to view, fhrunk fuddenly from him, or could not be accommodated to his general defign. That he once defigned to have brought Falstaff on the scene again, we know from himself; but whether he could contrive no train of adventures suitable to his character, or could match him with no companions likely to quicken his humour, or could open no new vein of pleasantry, and was afraid to continue the fame ftrain left it

fhould not find the fame reception, he has here for ever difcarded him, and made haste to difpatch him, perhaps for the fame reafon for which Addifon killed Sir Roger, that no other hand might attempt to exhibit him.

Let meaner authours learn from this example, that it is dangerous to fell the bear which is yet not hunted, to promise to the publick what they have not written.

This disappointment probably inclined Queen Elizabeth to command the poet to produce him once again, and to fhew him in love or courtship. This was indeed a new fource of humour, and produced a new play from the former characters.

I forgot to note in the proper place, and therefore note here, that Falstaff's courtship, or The Merry Wives of Windfor, fhould be read between Henry IV. and Henry V.

Quick.

Quick. He did in some fort, indeed, handle women; but then he was rheumatick, and talk'd of the whore of Babylon.

Boy. Do you not remember, he faw a Flea ftick upon Bardoli b's nofe, and faid, it was a black foul burning in hell?

Bard. Well, the fuel is gone, that maintain'd that fire. That's all the riches I got in his fervice.

Nim. Shall we fhog? the King will be gone from Southampton.

Pft. Come, let's away. My love, give me thy lips. Look to my chattels, and my moveables.—

2 Let fenfes rule -The word is, pitch and pay; Truft none, for oaths are straws; men's faiths are wa fer-cakes,

And hold-faft is the only dog, my Duck;
Therefore Caveto be thy counfellor.

Go, clear thy

cryftals.-Yoke-fellows in arms, Let us to France, like Horfe-leeches, my boys, To fuck, to fuck, the very blood to fuck.

Boy. And that is but unwholfome food, they say.
Pift. Touch her foft mouth and march.

Bard. Farewel, hoftefs.

Nim. I cannot kifs, that is the humour of it; but adieu.

Pift. Let housewifery appear; keep close, I thee command.

Quick. Farewel; adieu.

2 Let fenfes rule] I think this is wrong, but how to reform it I do not well fee. Perhaps we may read,

Let fenfe us rule. Piftol is taking leave of his wife, and giving her advice as he kif fes her; he fees her rather weeping than attending, and fuppofing that in her heart the is ftill longing to go with him part of the way, he cries, Let fenfe us rule, that is, let us not give way to

SCENE V.

Changes to the French King's Palace.

Enter French King, the Dauphin, the Duke of Burgundy, and the Conftable.

Fr. King.

HUS come the English with full power upon us,

THU

3 And more than carefully it us concerns

To answer royally in our defences.

Therefore the Dukes of Berry, and of Britain,
Of Brabant, and of Orleans, fhall make forth,
And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift difpatch,
To line, and new repair our towns of war,
With men of courage, and with means defendant;
For England his Approaches makes as fierce,
As waters to the fucking of a gulph.

It fits us then to be as provident,

As fear may teach us out of late examples,
Left by the fatal and neglected English
Upon our fields.

Dau. My moft redoubted father,

It is moft meet we arm us 'gainft the foe:
For itself fhould not fo dull a Kingdom,

peace

Though war nor no known quarrel were in question,
But that defences, mufters, preparations,

Should be maintain'd, affembled, and collected,
As were a war in expectation.

Therefore, I say, 'tis meet we all go forth,
To view the fick and feeble parts of France;
And let us do it with no fhew of fear,

No, with no more, than if we heard that England
Were bufied with a Whitfon morris-dance,
For, my good Liege, fhe is fo idly king'd,
Her scepter fo fantastically borne,

By a vain, giddy, fhallow, humorous youth,
That fear attends her not.

Con. O peace, Prince Dauphin!

You are too much mistaken in this King.
Question your Grace the late ambassadors,
With what great ftate he heard their embassy;
How well fupply'd with noble counsellors,
* How modest in exception, and withal
How terrible in conftant resolution,
And you shall find, his vanities fore-spent
5 Were but the out-fide of the Roman Brutus,
Covering difcretion with a coat of folly;
As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots,
That shall first spring and be most delicate.

Dau. Well, 'tis not fo, my Lord high Constable, But tho' we think it fo, it is no matter.

4 You are too much miflaken in this King: &c.] This part is much enlarged fince the firft writing. POPE.

How modeft in exception-] How diffident and decent in making objections.

5 Were but the out-fide of the Roman Brutus.] Shakespear not having given us, in the firft or fecond part of Henry IV. or in any other place but this, the remoteft hint of the circumftance here alluded to, the comparifon must needs be a little obfcure to those who don't know or reflect that fome hiftorians have told us, that Henry IV. had entertain'd a

deep jealoufy of his fon's afpiring fuperior genius. Therefore to prevent all umbrage, the prince withdrew from publick affairs, and amufed himself in conforting with a diffolute crew of robbers. It seems to me, that ShakeSpear was ignorant of this circumftance when he wrote the two parts of Henry IV. for it might have been fo managed as to have given new beauties to the character of Hal, and great improvements to the plot. And with regard to thefe matters, Shakespear generally tells us all he knew, and as foon as he knew it. WARBURTON.

In caufes of defence, 'tis best to weigh
The enemy more mighty than he seems;
So the proportions of defence are fill'd,
Which of a weak and niggardly projection
Doth like a mifer fpoil his coat with fcanting
A little cloth.

Fr. King. Think we King Harry ftrong;

And, Princes, look you ftrongly arm to meet him.
The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us,
And he is bred out of that bloody strain,
• That haunted us in our familiar paths.
Witness our too much memorable shame,
When Crefy-battle fatally was ftruck;
And all our Princes captiv'd by the hand

Of that black name, Edward black Prince of Wales;
7 While that his mounting fire, on mountain ftanding,
Up in the air, crown'd with the golden fun,
Saw his heroick feed, and fmil'd to fee him
Mangle the work of nature, and deface
The patterns, that by God and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made. This is a stem
Of that victorious stock; and let us fear
The native mightiness and fate of him.

Enter a Meffenger.

Me. Ambaffadors from Harry, King of England, Do crave admittance to your Majefty.

6 That HAUNTED us] We fhould affuredly read HUNTED: The integrity of the metaphor requires it. So, foon after, the king fays again,

You Jee this Chafe is hotly followed. WARBURTON. The emendation weakens the paffage. To haunt is a word of the utmost horrour, which fhews that they dreaded the English as goblins and fpirits.

7 While that his MOUNTAIN VOL. IV.

fire, on mountain ftanding,] We fhould read, MOUNTING, ambi tious, afpiring. WARBURTON.

Up in the air, crown'd with the golden fun,] A nonfenfical line of fome player.

WARBURTON. And why of a player? There is yet no proof that the players have interpolated a line.

9 The fate of him.] His fate is what is allotted him by destiny, or what he is fated to perform. Dd

Fr.