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May hold up head without Northumberland.
HAST. With him, we may.

BARD.

Ay, marry, there's the point; But if without him we be thought too feeble, My judgment is, we should not step too far2 Till we had his assistance by the hand: For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this, Conjecture, expectation, and surmise Of aids uncertain, should not be admitted. ARCH. 'Tis very true, lord Bardolph; for, indeed, It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury. BARD. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with hope,

Eating the air on promise of supply,

Flattering himself with project of a power

3

Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts:
And so, with great imagination,

Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,
And, winking, leap'd into destruction.

HAST. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt,
To lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope.
BARD. Yes, in this present quality of war ;-
Indeed the instant action *, (a cause on foot,)

2

step too far-] The four following lines were added in the second edition. JOHNSON.

3 Much smaller - i. e which turned out to be much smaller.

MUSGRAVE. These first twenty

corrupted. All the

4 Yes, in this present quality of war; &c. lines were first inserted in the folio of 1623. The first clause of this passage is evidently folio editions and Mr. Rowe's concur in the same reading, which Mr. Pope altered thus:

"Yes, if this present quality of war

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Impede the instant act."

This has been silently followed by Mr. Theobald, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton; but the corruption is certainly deeper, for, in the present reading, Bardolph makes the inconvenience of hope to be that it may cause delay, when, indeed, the whole tenor of his argument is to recommend delay to the rest

Lives so in hope, as in an early spring

We see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit, Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair,

that are too forward. I know not what to propose, and am afraid that something is omitted, and that the injury is irremediable. Yet, perhaps, the alteration requisite is no more than this:

"Yes, in this present quality of war,
"Indeed of instant action."

"It never, (says Hastings,) did harm to lay down likelihoods of hope." "Yes, (says Bardolph,) it has done harm in this present quality of war, in a state of things such as is now before us, of war, indeed of instant action." This is obscure, but Mr. Pope's reading is still less reasonable. JOHNSON.

I have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, though I think we might read:

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- if this present quality of war Impel the instant action."

Hastings says, it never yet did hurt to lay down likelihoods and forms of hope. Yes, says Bardolph, it has in every case like ours, where an army inferior in number, and waiting for supplies, has, without that reinforcement, impelled, or hastily brought on, an immediate action. STEEVENS.

If we may be allowed to read-instanc'd, the text may meanYes, it has done harm in every case like ours; indeed, it did harm in young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury, which the Archbishop of York has just instanced or given as an example. TOLLET.

This passage is allowed on all hands to be corrupt, but a slight alteration will, I apprehend, restore the true reading:

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""

Yes, if this present quality of war,
"Induc'd the instant action." HENLEY.

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Mr. M. Mason has proposed the same in this present quality of war; nineteen lines appeared first in the folio. "Yes, if this present," &c.

reading. STEEVENS. This and the following That copy reads:

I believe the old reading is the true one, and that a line is lost; but have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, because it makes sense. The punctuation now introduced appears to me preferable to that of the old edition, in which there is a colon after the word action.

Bardolph, I think, means to say, "Indeed the present action (our cause being now on foot, war being actually levied,) lives so in hope," &c. otherwise the speaker is made to say, in general, that all causes once on foot afford no hopes that may securely be relied on; which is certainly not true. MALONE.

That frosts will bite them. When we mean to

build,

We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And, when we see the figure of the house,

Then must we rate the cost of the erection :
Which if we find outweighs ability,

What do we then, but draw anew the model

In fewer offices; or, at least 5, desist

To build at all? Much more, in this great work,
(Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up,) should we survey
The plot of situation, and the model;
Consent upon a sure foundation";

Question surveyors; know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his opposite; or else,
We fortify in paper, and in figures,

Using the names of men, instead of men :
Like one that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost
A naked subject to the weeping clouds,

And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.

HAST. Grant, that our hopes (yet likely of fair birth,)

Should be still born, and that we now possess'd
The utmost man of expectation;

I think, we are a body strong enough,
Even as we are, to equal with the king,

BARD. What! is the king but five and twenty
thousand?

HAST. To us, no more; nay, not so much, lord
Bardolph.

5

at least,] Perhaps we should read-at last. STEEVENS. 6 CONSENT upon a sure foundation;] i. e. agree. So, in As You Like It, vol. vi. p. 437: "For all your writers do consent that ipse is he." Again, ibid. 489: p. consent with both, that we may enjoy each other." STEEVENS.

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For his divisions, as the times do brawl,

Are in three heads: one power against the FrenchR, And one against Glendower; perforce, a third Must take up us: So is the unfirm king

In three divided; and his coffers sound

With hollow poverty and emptiness.

ARCH. That he should draw his several strengths together,

And come against us in full puissance,

Need not be dreaded.

HAST.

If he should do so9,

He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh Baying him at the heels: never fear that.

8

BARD. Who, is it like, should lead his forces

hither?

HAST. The duke of Lancaster, and Westmoreland':

one power against the French,] During this rebellion of Northumberland and the Archbishop, a French army of twelve thousand men landed at Milford Haven, in Wales, for the aid of Owen Glendower. See Holinshed, p. 531. STEEVENS.

9 If he should do so,] This passage is read, in the first edition, thus: "If he should do so, French and Welsh he leaves his back unarmed, they baying him at the heels, never fear that." These lines, which were evidently printed from an interlined copy not understood, are properly regulated in the next edition, and are here only mentioned to show what errors may be suspected to remain. JOHNSON.

I believe the editor of the folio did not correct the quarto rightly; in which the only error probably was [as Mr. Capell has observed] the omission of the word to:

"To French and Welsh he leaves his back unarm'd,
They baying him at the heels; never fear that."

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MALONE.

of

I The duke of Lancaster, &c.] This is an anachronism. Prince John of Lancaster was not created a duke till the second year the reign of his brother, King Henry V. MALONE.

This mistake is pointed out by Mr. Steevens in another place. It is not, however, true, that "King Henry IV. was himself the last person that ever bore the title of Duke of Lancaster," as Prince Henry actually enjoyed it at this very time, and had done so from the first year of his father's reign, when it was conferred upon him

Against the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth: But who is substituted 'gainst the French,

I have no certain notice.

ARCH.

Let us on2;

And publish the occasion of our arms.

The commonwealth is sick of their own choice,
Their over-greedy love hath surfeited :—

An habitation giddy and unsure

3

Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
O thou fond many3! with what loud applause
Didst thou beat heaven with blessing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou would'st have him be?
And being now trimm'd in thine own desires,
Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of him,
That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up.
So, so, thou common dog, didst thou disgorge
Thy glutton bosom of the royal Richard;

And now thou would'st eat thy dead vomit up,
And howl'st to find it. What trust is in these

times ?

They that, when Richard liv'd, would have him die,
Are now become enamour'd on his grave:
Thou, that threw'st dust upon his goodly head,
When through proud London he came sighing on
After the admired heels of Bolingbroke,
Cry'st now, O earth, yield us that king again,

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in full parliament. Rot. Parl. 111, 428, 532. Shakspeare was misled by Stowe, who, speaking of Henry's first parliament, says, then the King rose, and made his eldest son Prince of Wales, &c. his second sonne was there made Duke of Lancaster." Annales, 1631, p. 323. He should therefore seem to have consulted this author between the times of finishing the last play, and beginning the present. RITSON.

2 Let us on ; &c.] This excellent speech of York was one of the passages added by Shakspeare after his first edition. POPE. This speech first appeared in the folio. MALONE.

3 O thou fond MANY!] Many or meyny, from the French mesnie, a multitude. DOUCE.

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