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tlemen do not agree with the gentlewomen, which was never seen before in such an assembly.

One word more, I beseech you. If you be not too much cloy'd with fat meat, our humble author will continue the story, with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair Katharine of France: where, for any thing I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already he be kill'd with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man. My tongue is weary; when my legs are too, I will bid you good night: and so kneel down before you;-but, indeed, to pray for the queen.

ANNOTATIONS

UPON

THE SECOND PART OF HENRY IV.

INDUCTION.

1 Enter Rumour-] This speech of Rumour is not inelegant or unpoetical, but is wholly useless, since we are told nothing which the first scene does not clearly and naturally discover. The only end of such prologues is to inform the audience of some facts previous to the action, of which they can have no knowledge from the persons of the drama.

JOHNSON.

Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues.] This the author probably drew from Holinshed's Description of a Pageant, exhibited in the court of Henry VIII. with uncommon cost and magnificence.

"Then entered a person called Report, apparelled "In crimson sattin, full of toongs, or chronicles." Vol. 3. p. 805. This however might be the common way of representing this personage in masques, which were frequent in his own times.

WARTON.

Stephen Hawes, in his Pastime of Pleasure, had

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long ago exhibited her (Rumour) in the same man

ner:

"A goodly lady, envyroned about

"With tongues of fyre."

And so had Sir Thomas Moore, in one of his Pageants,

"Fame I am called, mervayle you nothing

"Thoughe with tonges I am compassed all arounde."

Not to mention her elaborate portrait by Chaucer, in The Booke of Fame; and by John Higgins, one of the assistants in The Mirror for Magistrates, in his Legend of King Albanacte.

FARMER.

2 —painted full of tongues.] This direction, which is only to be found in the first edition in quarto of 1600, explains a passage in what follows, otherwise obscure.

РОРЕ.

3 Rumour is a pipe-] Here the poet imagines himself describing Rumour, and forgets that Rumour is the speaker.

JOHNSON.

* And this worm-eaten hole of ragged stone,] Northumberland had retired and fortified himself in his castle, a place of strength in those times, though the building might be impaired by its antiquity; and, therefore, I believe our poet wrote,

And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone.

THEOBALD.

s-rowel head-] I think that I have observed in old prints the rowel of those times to have been

only a single spike.

JOHNSON.

6-some hilding fellow-] For hilderling, i. e. base, degenerate.

РОРЕ.

7—like to a title-leaf,] It may not be amiss to observe, that in the time of our poet, the title-page to an elegy, as well as every intermediate leaf, was totally black. I have several in my possession, written by Chapman, the translator of Homer, and ornamented in this manner.

8

STEEVENS.

-so woe-be-gone,] The word was common enough amongst the old Scotish and English poets, as G. Douglas, Chaucer, lord Buckhurst, Fairfax; and signifies, far gone in woe.

WARBURTON.

9 Your spirit-] The impression upon your mind, by which you conceive the death of your son.

JOHNSON.

10 Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead.] The contradiction in the first part of this speech might be imputed to the distraction of Northumberland's mind; but the calmness of the reflection, contained in the last lines, seems not much to countenance such a supposition, I will venture to distribute this passage in a manner which will, I hope, seem more commodious; but do not wish the reader to forget, that the most commodious is not always the true reading.

Bard. Yet for all this, say not that Percy's dead.
North. I see a strange confession in thine eye;
Thou shak'st thy head, and hold'st it fear, or sin,
To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so.
The tongue offends not, that reports his death;

And he doth sin, that doth belie the dead,
Not he that saith the dead is not alive.

Morton. Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office, and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,

Remember'd, tolling a departing friend.

Here is a natural interposition of Bardolph at the beginning, who is not pleased to hear his news confuted, and a proper preparation of Morton for the tale which he is unwilling to tell. JOHNSON.

11 'Gan vail his stomach,] To vail is to lower, to let down.

12 —buckle under life.] Buckle is to bend or yield to pressure.

13 The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring To frown, &c.] There is no consonance of metaphors betwixt ragged and frown; nor, indeed, any dignity in the image. On both accounts, therefore, I suspect our author wrote, as I have reformed the text,

The rugged'st hour, &c.

THEOBALD.

14 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.

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