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tempt. He is a thief and a glutton, a coward and a boaster, always ready to cheat the weak, and prey upon the poor; to terrify the timorous, and insult the defenceless. At once obsequious and malignant, he satirizes in their absence those whom he lives by flattering. He is familiar with the prince only as an agent of vice, but of this familiarity he is so proud as not only to be supercilious and haughty with common men, but to think his interest of importance to the duke of Lancaster. Yet the man thus corrupt, thus despicable, makes himself necessary to the prince that despises him, by the most pleasing of all qualities, perpetual gaiety, by an unfailing power of exciting laughter, which is the more freely indulged, as his wit is not of the splendid or ambitious kind, but consists in easy escapes and sallies of levity, which make sport, but raise no envy. It must be observed, that he is stained with no enormous or sanguinary crimes, so that his licentiousness is not so offensive but that it may be borne for his mirth.

The moral to be drawn from this representation is, that no man is more dangerous than he that, with a will to corrupt, hath the power to please; and that neither wit nor honesty ought to think themselves safe with such a companion when they see Henry seduced by Falstaff.

JOHNSON.

KING HENRY THE FOURTH.

HENRY, Prince of Wales, afterwards King'
HENRY V.

THOMAS, Duke of Clarence.

PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster, afterwards his Sons. (2 HENRY V.) Duke of Bedford. PRINCE HUMPHREY of Glocester, afterwards

(2 HENRY V.) Duke of Glocester. J

EARL OF WARWICK.

for

EARL OF WESTMORELAND, of the King's Party.

GOWER.

HARCOURT,

Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench.

A Gentleman attending on the Chief Justice.
EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND;

SCROOP, Archbishop of York;

LORD MOWBRAY; LORD HASTINGS;

LORD BARDOLPH; SIR JOHN COLEVILE;.

Enemies to

the King.

TRAVERS and MORTON; Domesticks of Northumberland.

FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, PISTOL, and PAGE.
POINS and PETO; Attendants on Prince Henry.
SHALLOW and SILENCE; Country Justices.

DAVY, Servart to Shallow.

MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, and BULLCALF; Recruits.

FANG and SNARE; Sheriff's Officers.

Rumour. A Porter.

A Dancer; Speaker of the Epilogue.

LADY NORTHUMBERLAND.

LADY PERCY,

HOSTESS QUICKLY. DOLL TEAR-SHEET.

Lords and other Attendants: Officers, Soldiers, Messengers, Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, &c.

SCENE, England.

INDUCTION.

Warkworth. Before Northumberland's Castle.

Enter Rumour', painted full of Tongues2.

Rum. Open your ears; For which of you will stop
The vent of hearing, when loud Rumour speaks?
I, from the orient to the drooping west,
Making the wind my posthorse, still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
Upon my tongues continual slanders ride:
The which in every language I pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
I speak of peace, while covert enmity,
Under the smile of safety, wounds the world:
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters, and prepar'd defence;
Whilst the big year, swol'n with some other grief,
Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
And so much matter3? Rumour is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures;
And of so easy and so plain a stop,

That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
The still discordant wavering multitude,
Can play upon it. But what need I thus
My well-known body to anatomize

Among my household? Why is Rumour here!

I run before king Harry's victory;
Who, in a bloody field by Shrewsbury,

Hath beaten down young Hotspur, and his troops,
Quenching the flame of bold rebellion

Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I
To speak so true at first? my office is
To noise abroad,—that Harry Monmouth fell
Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword;
And that the king before the Douglas' rage
Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone *,
Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
Lies crafty sick: the posts come tiring on,
And not a man of them brings other news

Than they have learn'd of me; From Rumour's

tongues

They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true

wrongs.

[Exit.

Bard. WHO keeps the gate here, ho?-Where is

the earl?

Port. What shall I say you are?

Bard.

Tell thou the earl,

That the lord Bardolph doth attend him here.

Port. His lordship is walk'd forth into the orchard;

Please it your honour, knock but at the gate,

And he himself will answer.

Bard.

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND.

Here comes the earl.

North. What news, lord Bardolph? every minute

now

Should be the father of some stratagem:

The times are wild; contention, like a horse