to me: if the young dace be a bait for the old pike, I see no reason in the law of nature but I may snap at him. Let time shape, and there an end.

[Exit.

In

321-323 if the young dace snap at him] Fishermen employed "dace," a very small fish, as bait for catching overgrown pike. Falstaff, rather confusing the metaphor, means that he will play the part of the decoy, and get Justice Shallow into difficulties. designating the foolish justice an old pike, Shakespeare probably alluded to the armorial bearings of Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecote, near Stratford-on-Avon, of whom Shallow was an ironic portrait. "Luces," a familiar word for pikes, filled a large place on the heraldic shield of the Lucy family. Cf. M. Wives, I, i, 14-20.

Enter the ARCHBISHOP of YORK, MOWBRAY, HASTINGS, and others

ARCHBISHOP

HAT IS THIS FOREST call'd?

HAST. 'Tis Gaultree Forest, an 't shall please your grace. ARCH. Here stand, my lords; and send discoverers forth To know the numbers of our enemies.

HAST. We have sent forth already.

great affairs,

I must acquaint you that I have received

New-dated letters from Northumberland;

2 Gaultree Forest] the great forest of Galtres, which once covered 100,000 acres to the north of the city of York.

Their cold intent, tenour and substance, thus:
Here doth he wish his person, with such powers
As might hold sortance with his quality,
The which he could not levy; whereupon
He is retired, to ripe his growing fortunes,
To Scotland: and concludes in hearty prayers
That your attempts may overlive the hazard
And fearful meeting of their opposite.

MoWB. Thus do the hopes we have in him touch ground

And dash themselves to pieces.

HAST.

Enter a Messenger

Now, what news?

10

MESS. West of this forest, scarcely 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 sway on and face them in the field.

ARCH. What well-appointed leader fronts us here?
Enter WESTMORELAND

MoWB. I think it is my Lord of Westmoreland.
WEST. Health and fair greeting from our general,
The prince, Lord John and Duke of Lancaster.

11 hold sortance with] sort with, suit.

13 ripe] ripen, mature.

16 their opposite] the foe.

23 The just proportion.

out] The very number that we announced.

24 Let us sway on] Let us sweep on or advance.

20

ARCH. Say on, my Lord of Westmoreland, in peace: What doth concern your coming?

WEST.

Then, my lord,
Unto your grace do I in chief address

The substance of my speech. If that rebellion
Came like itself, in base and abject routs,
Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rags,
And countenanced by boys and beggary;

I

say, if damn'd commotion so appear'd,

In his true, native and most proper shape,
You, reverend father, and these noble lords
Had not been here, to dress the ugly form
Of base and bloody insurrection

With your fair honours. You, lord Archbishop,
Whose see is by a civil peace maintain'd,

Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd,
Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor❜d,
Whose white investments figure innocence,
The dove and very blessed spirit of peace,
Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself
Out of the speech of peace that bears such grace,
Into the harsh and boisterous tongue of war;
Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,

33 abject routs] beggarly mobs.

34 bloody] full blooded.

rags] The original reading is rage: "guarded" means "trimmed," hence "dressed."

36 commotion] insurrection; cf. line 93, infra.

42 civil] well-ordered.

45 white investments] white vestures; the ordinary episcopal dress.

50 Turning your books to graves] Thus the original reading, which makes

30

40

50

Your pens to lances, and your tongue divine
To a loud trumpet and a point of war?

ARCH. Wherefore do I this? so the question stands.
Briefly to this end: we are all diseased,
And with our surfeiting 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, died.
But, my most noble Lord of Westmoreland,
I take not on me here as a physician,
Nor do I as an enemy to peace
Troop in the throngs of military men;
But rather show a while like fearful war,
To diet rank minds sick of happiness,

And purge the obstructions which begin to stop
Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly.
I have in equal balance justly weigh'd

What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we suffer,
And find our griefs heavier than our offences.
We see which way the stream of time doth run,

harsh sense.
Modern editors change the word graves to greaves,
i. e., leg armour, which was often of leather, like the binding of
books. If graves be retained, the phrase may be explained as
meaning that books are converted into the paraphernalia of
death.

64 To diet rank minds] So as to put on a medicinal regimen, or prescribe for minds that are overgorged with happiness.

69 griefs] grievances.

60

70