CH. JUST, I would, his majesty had call'd me with him :

The service that I truly did his life,

Hath left me open to all injuries.

WAR. Indeed, I think, the young king loves you

not.

CH. JUST. I know, he doth not; and do arm

myself,

To welcome the condition of the time;
Which cannot look more hideously upon me
Than I have drawn it in my fantasy.

Enter Prince JOHN, Prince HUMPHREY, CLARENCE, Westmoreland, and Others.

WAR. Here come the heavy issue of dead Harry: O, that the living Harry had the temper

Of him, the worst of these three gentlemen!
How many nobles then should hold their places,
That must strike sail to spirits of vile sort!

CH. JUST. Alas, I fear, all will be overturn'd.
P. JOHN. Good morrow, cousin Warwick.
P. HUMPH. CLA. Good morrow, cousin.

P. JOHN. We meet like men that had forgot to speak.

WAR. We do remember; but our argument Is all too heavy to admit much talk.

P. JOHN. Well, peace be with him that hath made us heavy!

CH. JUST. Peace be with us, least we be heavier! P. HUMPH. O, good my lord, you have lost a friend, indeed:

And I dare swear, you borrow not that face

Of seeming sorrow; it is, sure, your own.

P. JOHN. Though no man be assur'd what grace to find,

You stand in coldest expectation:

I am the sorrier; 'would, 'twere otherwise.

CLA. Well, you must now speak sir John Falstaff

fair;

Which swims against your stream of quality.

CH. JUST. Sweet princes, what I did, I did in honour,

Led by the impartial conduct' of my soul;
And never shall you see, that I will beg
A ragged and forestall'd remission 2.

I

IMPARTIAL Conduct -] Thus the quartos. The folio reads-imperial. STEEVENS.

Impartial is confirmed by a subsequent speech addressed by the King to the Chief Justice:

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That you use the same

"With the like bold, just, and impartial spirit,

66 As you have done 'gainst me." MALOne.

2 A RAGGED and FORESTALL'D remission.] Ragged has no sense here. We should read:

"A rated and forestall'd remission."

i. e. remission that must be sought for, and bought with supplication. WARBURTON.

Different minds have different perplexities. I am more puzzled with forestall'd than with ragged; for ragged, in our author's licentious diction, may easily signify beggarly, mean, base, ignominious; but forestall'd I know not how to apply to remission in any sense primitive or figurative. I should be glad of another word, but cannot find it. Perhaps, by forestall'd remission, he may mean a pardon begged by a voluntary confession of offence, and anticipation of the charge. JOHNSON.

The same expression occurs in two different passages in Massinger. In The Duke of Milan, Sforza says to the Emperor : "Nor come I as a slave

"Falling before thy feet, kneeling and howling
"For a forestall'd remission."

And, in The Bondman, Pisander says:

"Ourselves to most advantage, than to trust
"To a forestall'd remission."

In all these passages a forestall'd remission seems to mean, a remission that it is predetermined shall not be granted, or will be rendered nugatory. Shakspeare uses, in more places than one, the word forestall in the sense of to prevent. Horatio says to Hamlet," If your mind dislike any thing, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither." In this very play, the Prince says to the King:

"But for my tears, &c.

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I had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke."

If truth and upright innocency fail me,
I'll to the king my master that is dead,
And tell him who hath sent me after him.
WAR. Here comes the prince.

Enter King HENRY V.

CH. JUST. Good morrow; and heaven save your majesty.

KING. This new and gorgeous garment, majesty, Sits not so easy on me as you think.

Brothers, you mix your sadness with some fear;
This is the English, not the Turkish court3;
Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,

But Harry Harry: Yet be sad, good brothers,

In Hamlet, the King says:

"And what's in prayer, but this twofold force,

"To be forestalled, ere we come to fall,

"Or pardon'd, being down?" M. MASON.

I believe, forestall'd only means asked before it is granted. If he will grant me pardon unasked, so; if not, I will not condescend to solicit it. In support of the interpretation of forestall'd remission, i. e. a remission obtained by a previous supplication, the following passage in Cymbeline may be urged:

66

may

"This night forestall him of the coming day!"

That ragged has been rightly explained, has been already shown, see p. 18.

3

MALONE.

not the Turkish court;] Not the court where the prince that mounts the throne puts his brothers to death. JOHNSON. 4 Not AMURATH an AMURATH succeeds,

But Harry Harry:] Amurath the Third (the sixth Emperor of the Turks) died on January the 18th, 1596-6. The people being generally disaffected to Mahomet, his eldest son, and inclined to Amurath, one of his younger children, the Emperor's death was concealed for ten days by the Janizaries, till Mahomet came from Amasia to Constantinople. On his arrival he was saluted Emperor, by the great Bassas, and others his favourers; "which done, (says Knolles,) he presently after caused all his brethren to be invited to a solemn feast in the court; whereunto they, yet ignorant of their father's death, came chearfully, as men fearing no harm: but, being come, were there all most miserably strangled." It is highly probable that Shakspeare here

For to speak truth, it very well becomes you;
Sorrow so royally in you appears,

That I will deeply put the fashion on,

And wear it in my heart. Why then, be sad:
But entertain no more of it, good brothers,
Than a joint burden laid upon us all.
For me, by heaven, I bid you be assur'd,
I'll be your father and your brother too;
Let me but bear your love, I'll bear your cares,
Yet weep, that Harry's dead; and so will I :
But Harry lives, that shall convert those tears,
By number, into hours of happiness.

P. JOHN, &c. We hope no other from your majesty.

KING. You all look strangely on me :-and you [To the Chief Justice.

most;

You are, I think, assur'd I love you not.

CH. JUST. I am assur'd, if I be measur'd rightly, Your majesty hath no just cause to hate me. KING. NO!

How might a prince of my great hopes forget
So great indignities you laid upon me?

What! rate, rebuke, and roughly send to prison
The immediate heir of England! Was this easy?
May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten?

CH. JUST. I then did use the person of your fa

ther;

alludes to this transaction; which was pointed out to me by Dr. Farmer.

1

This circumstance, therefore, may fix the date of this play subsequently to the beginning of the year 1596; and perhaps it was written while this fact was yet recent. MALONE.

5 Was this EASY ?] That is, was this not grievous ? Shakspeare has easy in this sense elsewhere. JOHNSON. Thus, perhaps, in King Henry VI. Part II. Act III. Sc. I.: these faults are easy, quickly answer'd." may mean,—was this a slight offence?

66

"Was this easy?"

Thus, Lord Surrey:

"And easy sighes, such as folkes draw in love." STEEvens. VOL. XVII.

Р

The image of his power lay then in me:
And, in the administration of his law,
Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth,
Your highness pleased to forget my place,
The majesty and power of law and justice,
The image of the king whom I presented,
And struck me in my very seat of judgment;
Whereon, as an offender to your father,
I gave bold way to my authority,

And did commit you. If the deed were ill,
Be you contented, wearing now the garland,
To have a son set your decrees at nought;
To pluck down justice from your awful bench;
To trip the course of law", and blunt the sword
That guards the peace and safety of your person:
Nay, more; to spurn at your most royal image,
And mock your workings in a second body.
Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours;
Be now the father, and propose a son":
Hear your own dignity so much profan'd,
See your most dreadful laws so loosely slighted,
Behold yourself so by a son disdain'd;
And then imagine me taking your part,
And, in your power, soft silencing your son :
After this cold considerance, sentence me;

6 And struck me in my very seat of judgment;] See the note at the end of this play. Boswell.

7 To trip the course of law,] To defeat the process of justice; a metaphor taken from the act of tripping a runner.

So, in Hamlet:

JOHNSON.

"Then trip him, that his heels may kick at heaven."

STEEVENS. • And mock your workings in a second body.] To treat with contempt your acts executed by a representative. JOHNSON. and PROPOSE a son:] i. e. image to contrive for a moment to think you have one. dronicus:

9

-

66

yourself a son, So, in Titus An

a thousand deaths I could propose." STEEVENS.