Mingled his royalty with carping fools; That being daily fwallow'd by mens eyes, To loath the taste of fweetnefs; whereof a little Afford no extraordinary gaze; Such as is bent on fun-like majefty, When it fhines feldom in admiring eyes: But rather drowz'd, and hung their eye-lids down, As cloudy men ufe to their adverfaries, ACT IV. SCENE II. A gallant Warrior. I faw young Harry, with his beaver on,*. And witch the world with noble horsemanship. * On] Others read up; and there feems great probability in it. ACT (12) Well, 'tis no matter, honour pricks me on: But how, if honour prick me off, when I come on? How then? Can honour set to a leg? No; or an arm? no: or take away the grief of a wound? No: Honour hath no skill in furgery then? No: what is honour? a word. What is the word honour? air a trim reckoning. Who hath it? he that dy'd a Wednesday. Doth he feel it? No: doth he hear it? No? is it infenfible then? yea, to the dead: but will it not live with the living? No: why? detraction will not fuffer it. Therefore, I'll none of it; honour is a meer fcutcheon; and fo ends my catechism.. (12) Well, &c.] In the king and no king of Beaumont and Fletcher, we have a character, plainly drawn from Shakespear's Falstaff; how fhort it is, and must neceffarily be of the original, I need not obferve. 66 I think, fays Mr. Theobald, in his first note on that play, the character of Beffus must be allowed in general a fine copy from Shakespear's inimitable Falfaff. He is a coward, yet wou'd fain fet up for a hero: oftentatious without any grain of merit to fupport his vain-glory: a lyar throughout, to exalt his affumed qualifications; and lewd, without any countenance from the ladies to give him an umbrage for it. As to his wit and humour, the precedence muft certainly be adjudg'd to Falstaff, the great original." The authors, in the third act, have introduced him talking on the fame fubject with Falstaff here ; though not in the fame excellent manner, (an account of which fee in Mr. Upton's obfervations on Shakespear, p. 113.) Beffus. They talk of fame, I have gotten it in the wars, and will afford any man a reasonable penny-worth; fome will fay, they could be content to have it, but that it is to be atchiev d with danger; but my opinion is otherwife for if I might stand ftill in cannon-proof, and have fame fall upon me, I would refuse it; my reputation came principally by thinking to run away, which no body knows but Mardonius, and, I think, he conceals it to anger me, &c." The falfe and foolish notions of fame and honour are no where, that I know of, fo well and juftly cenfured, as in Mr. Wollaton's religion of Nature delineated,, fect 5. p. 116. printed in 1726.. SCENE SCEHE V. Life demands Ation. (13) O gentlemen, the time of life is short: (13) O gentlemen, &c.] See All's well that ends well. A& 5. Scene 4, and the note. Virgil beautifully obferves Stat fuauique digs, breve & irreparabile tempus Æn. 10. To all that Breathe is fixt th' appointed date, PITT. The I The fecond Part of HENRY IV. Prologue to the Second Part of Henry IV. From the orient to the drooping west, The (1) Upon my, &c.] In the ftage-direction, rumour is faid to enter painted full of tongues. Shakespear, in his description of rumour, had doubtlefs a view either to Virgil's celebrated description of fame, or Ovid's defcription of her cave in the 12th book of his metamorphofes : I fhall give the reader part of both and in as close a tranflation as poffible, that he may judge the better. Monftrum, borrendum, &c. A monfter, hideous, vast; as many plumes Towards waking (wondrous to relate) There grew beneath; as many babbling tongues, Noify thro' fhades obfcure, 'twixt earth and heav'n: Atria turba tenent, &c. See Trap. Virg. Æn. 4 * Hither in crowds the vulgar come and goj New The which, in every language I pronounce ;. * Whilft the big year, fwol'n with some other griefs,, That the blunt monfter, with uncounted heads,. Can play upon it. ACT I. SCENE I.. CONTENTION Contention, like a horse. Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose, ACTI SCENE II.. Poft-Meflenger. After him came fpurring hard A gentleman, almoft fore-fpent with speed,. New-rais'd fedition, fecret whispers blown Year, &c.] Others read ear. |