BARD. I cannot think, my lord, your son is

dead.

MOR. I am sorry, I should force you to believe
That, which I would to heaven I had not seen:
But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,
Rend'ring faint quittance', wearied and outbreath'd,
To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat

down

The never-daunted Percy to the earth,

From whence with life he never more sprung up.
In few, his death (whose spirit lent a fire
Even to the dullest peasant in his camp,)
Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
From the best temper'd courage in his troops:
For from his metal was his party steel'd;
Which once in him abated ", all the rest
Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead.
And as the thing that's heavy in itself,
Upon enforcement, flies with greatest speed;
So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss,

Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear,
That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim,
Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety,
Fly from the field: Then was that noble Worcester
Too soon ta'en prisoner: and that furious Scot,
The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword
Had three times slain the appearance of the king,
'Gan vail his stomach, and did grace the shame

"

7. faint QUITTANCE,] Quiltance is return. tance is meant a faint return of blows.' Henry V.:

"We shall forget the office of our hand,

By "faint quit

So, in King

Sooner than quittance of desert and merit." STEEVENS. 8 For from his metal was his party steel'd;

Which once in him ABATED,] Abated is not here put for the general idea of diminished, nor for the notion of blunted, as applied to a single edge. Abated means reduced to a lower temper, or, as the workmen call it, let down. JOHNSON.

9 'Gan vail his stomach,] spirits sink under his fortune.

Began to fall his courage, to let his
JOHNSON.

---

Of those that turn'd their backs; and, in his flight,
Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all
Is, that the king hath won; and hath sent out
A speedy power, to encounter you, my lord,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster,
And Westmoreland: this is the news at full.
NORTH. For this I shall have time enough to

mourn.

In poison there is physic; and these news,
Having been well that would have made me sick ',
Being sick, have in some measure made me well:
And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckle 2 under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire

2

Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs,
Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,
Are thrice themselves: hence therefore, thou nice*
crutch;

From avaller, Fr. to cast down, or to let fall down. MALOne. This phrase has already appeared in The Taming of the Shrew, vol. v. p. 521 :

66 Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot;

"And place your hands below your husbands' foot."

Reed.

Thus, to vail the bonnet is to pull it off. So, in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599:

"And make the king vail bonnet to us both."

To vail a staff, is to let it fall in token of respect. Thus, in the

same play :

"And for the ancient custom of vail-staff,

Keep it still; claim thou privilege from me :

66 If any ask a reason, why? or how?

"Say, English Edward vail'd his staff to you.

See vol. ix. p. 178, n. 4. STEEVENS.

'Having been well, that would have made me sick,] i. e. that would, had I been well, have made me sick.

even so my limbs,

MALONE.
JOHNSON.

Weaken'd with GRIEF, being now enrag'd with GRIEF,

Are thrice themselves:] As Northumberland is here comparing himself to a person, who, though his joints are weakened by a bodily disorder, derives strength from the distemper of the VOL. XVII.

с

1

A scaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel,

Must glove this hand: and hence, thou sickly quoif; Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,

Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit. Now bind my brows with iron; And approach

5

The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring,

mind, I formerly proposed to read-" Weakened with age," or "Weakened with pain."

When a word is repeated, without propriety, in the same or two succeeding lines, there is great reason to suspect some corruption. Thus, in this scene, in the first folio, we have "able heels," instead of "armed heels," in consequence of the word able having occurred in the preceding line. So, in Hamlet: "Thy news shall be the news," &c. instead of "Thy news shall be the fruit." Again, in Macbeth, instead of "Whom we, to gain our place," &c. we find

"Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace."

In this conjecture I had once some confidence; but it is much diminished by the subsequent note, and by my having lately observed that Shakspeare elsewhere uses grief for bodily pain. Falstaff, in King Henry IV. Part I. vol. xvi. p. 387, speaks of " the grief of a wound." Grief, in the latter part of this line, is used in its present sense, for sorrow; in the former part, for bodily pain.

row.

MALONE.

Grief, in ancient language, signifies bodily pain, as well as sorSo, in A Treatise of Sundrie Diseases, &c. by T. T. 1591: " he being at that time griped sore, and having grief in his lower bellie." Dolor ventris is, by our old writers, frequently translated "grief of the guts." I perceive no need of alteration. STEEVENS.

4

- nice] i. e. trifling. So, in Julius Cæsar:

66

it is not meet

That every nice offence should bear his comments."
STEEVENS.

5 The RAGGED'ST hour ] Mr. Theobald and the subsequent editors read-The rugged'st. But change is unnecessary, the expression in the text being used more than once by our author. In As You Like It, Amiens says, his voice is ragged; and rag is employed as a term of reproach in The Merry Wives of Windsor, and in Timon of Athens. See also the Epistle prefixed to Spenser's Shepherd's Calender, 1579: "as thinking them fittest for the rustical rudeness of shepheards, either for that their rough sound would make his rimes more ragged, and rustical," &c. The modern editors of Spenser might here substitute the word rugged with just as much propriety as it has been substituted in

To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!
Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die !
And let this world no longer be a stage,
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead!

TRA. This strained passion' doth you wrong, my lord.

BARD. Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour.

the present passage, or in that in As You Like It: "My voice is rugged." See vol. vi. p. 396, n. 7.

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece :

66

Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame,

Thy smoothing titles to a ragged name.”

Again, in our poet's eighth Sonnet:

"Then let not Winter's ragged hand deface
"In thee thy summer."

Again, in the play before us:

A ragged and fore-stall'd remission." MALONE.

6 And DARKNESS be the burier of the dead!] The conclusion of this noble speech is extremely striking. There is no need to suppose it exactly philosophical; darkness, in poetry, may be absence of eyes, as well as privation of light. Yet we may remark, that by an ancient opinion it has been held, that if the human race, for whom the world was made, were extirpated, the whole system of sublunary nature would cease. JOHNSON.

A passage resembling this speech, but feeble in comparison, is found in The Double Marriage of Beaumont and Fletcher :

66

Nay the whole world, and make a second chaos."
BOSWELL.

7 This strained passion] This line, in the quarto, where alone it is found, is given to Umfrevile, who, as Mr. Steevens has observed, is spoken of in this very scene as absent. It was on this ground probably rejected by the player-editors. It is now, on the suggestion of Mr. Steevens, attributed to Travers, who is present, and yet (as that gentleman has remarked)" is made to say nothing on this interesting occasion." Malone.

MOR. The lives of all your loving complices Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er To stormy passion, must perforce decay. You cast the event of war, my noble lord,

And summ'd the account of chance, before you said,

Let us make head. It was your presurmise,
That, in the dole of blows your son might drop:
You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge,
More likely to fall in, than to get o'er1:
You were advis'd, his flesh was capable

2

8 You cast the event of war, &c.] The fourteen lines, from hence to Bardolph's next speech, are not to be found in the first editions, till that in the folio of 1623. A very great number of other lines in this play were inserted after the first edition in like manner, but of such spirit and mastery generally, that the insertions are plainly by Shakspeare himself. POPE.

To this note I have nothing to add, but that the editor speaks of more editions than I believe him to have seen, there having been but one edition yet discovered by me that precedes the first folio. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson was perhaps not altogether correct. See the Preliminary Remarks.

9

BOSWELL

in the DOLE of blows-] The dole of blows is the distribution of blows. Dole originally signified the portion of alms (consisting either of meat or money) that was given away at the door of a nobleman. STEEVENS.

See vol. xvi. p. 248, n. 1. MALONE.

You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge,

More likely to fall in, than to get o'er :] So, in King Henry IV. Part I.:

"As full of peril and adventurous spirit,
"As to o'erwalk a current roaring loud,
"On the unsteadfast footing of a spear."

MALONE.

2 You were ADVIS'D, his flesh was capable-] i. e. you knew. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

"How shall I doat on her with more advice.”

i. e. on further knowledge. MALONE.

Thus also, Thomas Twyne, the continuator of Phaer's translation of Virgil, 1584, for haud inscius, has advis'd:

"He spake and straight the sword advisde into his throat

receives." STEEVENS.

It is still used in mercantile correspondence. TALBOT.