And either 5 end in peace, which heaven so frame !
Or to the place of difference call the swords
Which must decide it.
Arch.

My lord, we will do so.

[Exit West. Mows. There is a thing within my boson, tells me, That no conditions of our peace can stand. Hast. Fear you not that : if we can make our

peace
Upon such large terms, and so absolute,
As our conditions shall consist upono,
Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains.

Mows. Ay, but our valuation shall be such,
That every slight and false-derived cause,
Yea, every idle, nice?, and wanton reason,
Shall, to the king, taste of this action :
That, were our royal faiths martyrs in love ,

6

3 And either-] The old copies read—“At either," &c. That easy, but certain, change in the text, I owe to Dr. Thirlby.

THEOBALD. CONSIST upon.] Thus the old copies. Modern editorsinsist. STEEVENS.

Perhaps the meaning is, as our conditions shall stand upon, shall make the foundation of the treaty. A Latin sense. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609 : “ Then welcome

peace, if he on peace consist." See also

P.

153: “ Of what conditions we shall stand upon.” MALONE. 7 - nice,] i. e. trivial. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

“ The letter was not nice, but full of charge." STEEVENS. 8 That, were our ROYAL faiths martyrs in love,] If royal

faith can mean faith to a king, it yet cannot mean it without much violence done to the language. I therefore read, with Sir T. Hanmer, loyal faiths, which is proper, natural, and suitable to the intention or the speaker. Johnson.

Royal faith, the original reading, is undoubtedly right. Royal faith (as Mr. Capell observes) means, the faith due to a king. So, in King Henry VIII. :

" The citizens have shown at full their royal minds; i. e. their minds well affected to the king. Wolsey, in the same

We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind,
That even our corn shall seem as light as chaff,
And good from bad find no partition.
ARCH. No, no, my lord ; Note this,--the king is

weary
Of dainty and such picking grievances':
For he hath found,—to end one doubt by death,
Revives two greater in the heirs of life.
And therefore will he wipe his tables clean';
And keep no tell-tale to his memory,
That may repeat and history his loss
To new remembrance : For full well he knows,
He cannot so precisely weed this land,
As his misdoubts present occasion :
His foes are so enrooted with his friends,
That, plucking to unfix an enemy,
He doth unfasten so, and shake a friend.
So that this land, like an offensive wife,
That hath enrag'd him on to offer strokes;
As he is striking, holds his infant up,
And hangs resolv'd correction in the arm
That was uprear'd to execution.

Hast. Besides, the king hath wasted all his rods
On late offenders, that he now doth lack
The very instruments of chastisement :
So that his power, like to a fangless lion,

play, when he discovers the king in masquerade, says, here I'll make my royal choice,” i. e. not such a choice as a king would make, but such a choice as has a king for its object. So royal faith, the faith which is due to a king; which has the sovereign for its object. Malone.

This reading is judiciously restored, and well supported by Mr. Malone.' Steevens.

9 Of dainty and such PICKING grievances :) I cannot but think that this line is corrupted, and that we should read :

“Of picking out such dainty grievances." Johnson. Picking means piddling, insignificant. Strevens.

- wipe his tables clean:] Alluding to a table-book of slate, ivory, &c. WARBURTON.

1

May offer, but not hold.
ARCH.

'Tis very true ;
And therefore be assur'd, my good lord marshal,
If we do now make our atonement well,
Our peace will, like a broken limb united,
Grow stronger for the breaking,
MowB.

Be it so.
Here is return'd my lord of Westmoreland.

Re-enter WESTMORELAND. West. The prince is here at hand: Pleaseth

your lordship, To meet his grace just distance 'tween our armies ? Mows. Your grace of York, in God's name then

set forward. Arch. Before, and greet his grace :-my lord, we come.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another Part of the Forest.

Enter, from one side, MOWBRAY, the Archbishop,

Hastings, and Others : from the other side,
Prince John of LANCASTER, WESTMORELAND,
Officers and Attendants.
P. John. You are well encounter'd here, my cou-

sin Mowbray :-
Good day to you, gentle lord archbishopar
And so to you, lord Hastings,-and to all.--
My lord of York, it better show'd with you,
When that your flock, assembled by the bell,
Encircled you, to hear with reverence
Your exposition on the holy text;
Than now to see you here an iron man?,

2

an iron män]" Holinshed says of the Archbishop, that

Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,
Turning the word to sword", and life to death.
That man, that sits within a monarch's heart,
And ripens in the sunshine of his favour,
Would he abuse the countenance of the king,
Alack, what mischiefs might he set abroach,
In shadow of such greatness! With you, lord bishop,
It is even so :-Who hath not heard it spoken,
How deep you were within the books of God?
To us, the speaker in his parliament;
To us, the imagin'd voice of God himself" ;
The very opener and intelligencer,
Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven,
And our dull workings 6: 0, who shall believe,
But you misuse the reverence of your place;
Employ the countenance and grace of heaven,
As a false favourite doth his prince's name,

4

coming foorth amongst them clad in armour, he incouraged and pricked them foorth to take the enterprise in hand.” Steevens.

3 Turning the word to sword, &c.] A similar thought occurs in Gower's Confessio Amantis, 1554 :

“ Into the sworde the churche kaye
“ Is turned, and the holy bede," &c. STEEVENS.

the imagin’d voice of God himself ;] The old copies, by an apparent error of the press, have—“ the imagine voice.” Mr. Pope introduced the reading of the text. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote

“To us, the image and voice," &e. So, in a subsequent scene:

“And he, the noble image of my youth." Malone, I cannot persuade myself to reject a harmonious reading, that. another eminently harsh may supply its place. Steevens.

S the sanctities of heaven,] This expression Milton has copied :

“ Around him all the sanctities of heaven

“ Stood thick as stars." Johnson. 6 - workings :] i. e. labours of thought. So, in King Henry V.: the forge and working-house of thought."

STEEVENS.

In deeds dishonourable? You have taken up?,
Under the counterfeited zeal of God,
The subjects of his substitute, my father ;
And, both against the peace of heaven and him,
Have here up-swarm'd them.
Arch.

Good my lord of Lancaster,
I am not here against your father's peace :
But, as I told my lord of Westmoreland,
The time misorder'd doth, in common sense,
Croud us and crush us, to this monstrous form,
To hold our safety up. I sent your grace
The parcels and particulars of our grief;
The which hath been with scorn shov'd from the

court, Whereon this Hydra son of war is born : Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd asleep', With grant of our most just and right desires ; And true obedience of this madness cur'd, Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.

Mows. If not we ready are to try our fortunes To the last man. Hast.

And though we here fall down, We have supplies to second our attempt ; If they miscarry, theirs shall second them: And so success of mischief shall be born;

8

7 You have taken UP,] To take up is tu levy, to raise in arms.

JOHNSON - in common sense,] I believe Shakspeare wrote common fence, i. e. drove by self-defence. WARBURTON. Common sense is the general sense of general danger.

JOHNSON. May not common sense here mean, according to the dictates of reason? M. Mason.

9 Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd asleep,] Alluding to the dragon charmed to rest by the spells of Medea.

Steevens. "And so success of mischief-] Success for succession.

WARBURTON.