And as the thing that's heavy in itself,
Upon enforcement, flies with greatest speed;
So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's lofs,

Lend to this weight fuch lightnefs with their fear,
That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim,
Than did our foldiers, aiming at their fafety,
Fly from the field. Then was that noble Worcester
Too foon ta'en prifoner: and that furious Scot,
The bloody Douglas, whofe well-labouring fword
Had three times flain the appearance of the king,
9 'Gan vail his ftomach, and did grace the fhame
Of thofe that turn'd their backs; and in his flight,
Stumbling in fear, was took. The fum of all
Is, that the king hath won; and hath sent out
A speedy power, to encounter you, my lord,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster
And Weftmorland. This is the news at full.

North. For this I fhall have time enough to mourn. In poifon there is phyfic; and these news

That would, had I been well, have made me fick,
Being fick, have in fome measure made me well.
And as the wretch, whofe fever-weaken'd joints,

See what is faid on this fubject in Love's Labour loft, ac v.
But when the writer fhews, as here, both before and after,

his party feel'd

Turn'd on themselves like dull and heavy lead,

that his intention was not to drop the idea from whence he took his metaphor, then he cannot fay with propriety and elegance, his metal was abated; because what he predicates of metal, must be then conveyed in a term conformable to the metaphor. Hence I conclude that Shakespeare wrote,

Which once in him rebated-] i. e. blunted.

WARBURTON.

Here is a great effort to produce little effect. The commentator does not feem fully to understand the word abated, which is not here put for the general idea of diminished, nor for the notion of blunted, as applied to a fingle edge. Abated means reduced to a lower temper, or, as the workmen call it, let down. JOHNSON.

9 'Gan vail his ftomach,- -] Began to fall his courage, to let his fpirits fink under his fortune. JOHNSON.

A a 4

Like

Like ftrengthlefs hinges, buckle under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire

Out of his keeper's arms; even fo my limbs,

Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,
Are thrice themselves. Hence, therefore, thou nice
crutch;

A fcaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel,
Muft glove this hand: and hence, thou fickly quoif;
Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,
Which princes, flefh'd with conqueft, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron; and approach
The rugged'ft hour that time and fpight dare bring
To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!
Let heaven kifs earth! Now let not nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die!
And let this world no longer be a stage
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bofoms, that, each heart being fet
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
3 And darkness be the burier of the dead!

Bard. 4 This ftrained paffion doth you wrong, my

lord!

Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from

1

your honour.

Mort.

buckle-] Bend; yield to preffure. JOHNSON.

2 The rugged'ft hour, &c.] The old edition,

The ragged'ft hour that time and pight dare bring

To frown, &c.] There is no confonance of metaphors betwixt ragged and frown; nor, indeed, any dignity in the image. On both accounts, therefore, I fufpect our author wrote, as I have reformed the text,

The rugged' bour, &c. THEOBALD.

3 And darkness, &c.] The conclufion of this noble speech is extremely striking. There is no need to fuppofe it exactly philofophical; darkness, in poetry, may be abfence 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 fyftem of fublunary nature would ceafe. JOHNSON.

4 This frained paffion, &c.] This line is only in the first edition,

Mort. The lives of all your loving complices Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er To ftormy paffion, muft perforce decay.

faid,

5 You caft the event of war, my noble lord,
And fumm'd the account of chance, before you
Let us make head. It was your prefurmife,
That, in the dole of blows, your fon might drop:
You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge
More likely to fall in, than to get o'er:
You were advis'd, his flesh was capable
Of wounds and fears; and that his forward fpirit
Would lift him where most trade of danger rang'd;
Yet did you fay, Go forth: and none of this,
Though ftrongly apprehended, could restrain
The ftiff-borne action. What hath then befall'n,
Or what hath this bold enterprize brought forth,
More than that being which was like to be?

Bard. We all, that are engaged to this lofs,
Knew, that we ventur'd on fuch dangerous feas,
That, if we wrought out life, 'twas ten to one:
And yet we ventur'd for the gain propos'd,
Choak'd the refpect of likely peril fear'd;
And, fince we are o'erfet, venture again.
Come, we will all put forth, body and goods.

edition, where it is fpoken by Umfrevile, who fpeaks no where elfe. It feems neceffary to the connection.. POPE.

Umfrevile is fpoken of in this very scene as abfent; the line was therefore properly given to Bardolph, or perhaps might yet more properly be given to Travers, who is prefent, and yet is made to fay nothing on this very interefting occafion.

STEEVENS.

You caft the event of war, &c.] The fourteen lines from hence to Bardolph's next fpeech, are not to be found in the first editions till that in folio of 1623. A very great number of other lines in this play are inferted after the first edition in like manner, but of fuch spirit and maftery generally, that the infertions are plainly by Shakespeare himself. POPE.

To this note I have nothing to add, but that the editor fpeaks of more editions than I believe him to have seen, there having been but one edition yet difcovered by me that precedes the first folio.

JOHNSON.

Mort.

Mort. 'Tis more than time: and my most noble lord,

I hear for certain, and do fpeak the truth:
The gentle archbishop of York is up,
With well-appointed powers. He is a man,
Who with a double furety binds his followers.
My lord, your fon, had only but the corps,
But fhadows, and the fhews of men, to fight:
For that fame word, rebellion, did divide
The action of their bodies from their fouls;
And they did fight with queafinefs, constrain'd,
As men drink potions; that their weapons only
Seem'd on our fide; but, for their spirits and fouls,
This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
As fish are in a pond. But now, the bishop
Turns infurrection to religion :

Suppos'd fincere and holy in his thoughts,
He's follow'd both with body and with mind;
And doth enlarge his rifing with the blood
Of fair king Richard, fcrap'd from Pomfret stones:
Derives from heaven his quarrel, and his caufe;
7 Tells them, he doth beftride a bleeding land,
Gafping for life under great Bolingbroke;

And more, and lefs, do flock to follow him.
North. I knew of this before; but, to speak truth,
This prefent grief had wip'd it from my mind.
Go in with me; and counfel every man
The apteft way for fafety, and revenge:

Get pofts, and letters, and make friends with speed; Never fo few, and never yet more need.

The gentle, &c.]

fince the first edition.
7 Tells them, he doth

[Exeunt.

Thefe one-and-twenty lines were added
JOHNSON.

beftride a bleeding land,] That is, ftands over his country to defend her as the lies bleeding on the ground. So Falftaff before fays to the prince, If thou fee me down, Hal, and beftride me, fo; it is an office of friendship.

8 And more, and lefs, lefs. STEEVENS.

ད

JOHNSON.

-] More and less mean greater aud

SCENE

Enter Sir John Falstaff, with his page bearing his fword

and buckler.

Fal. Sirrah, you, giant! 9 what fays the doctor to my water?

Page. He faid, Sir, the water itself was a good healthy water. But, for the party that owed it, he might have more difeafes than he knew for.

Fal. Men of all forts take a pride to gird at me. The brain of this foolish-compounded-clay, man, is not able to invent any thing that tends to laughter, more than I invent, or is invented on me. I am not only witty in myself, but the caufe that wit is in other men. I do here walk before thee, like a fow that hath overwhelmed all her litter but one. If the prince put thee into my fervice for any other reafon than to fet me off, why then I have no judgment.

Thou whor

what fays the doctor to my water?] The method of inveftigating difeafes by the infpection of urine only, was once fo much the fashion, that Caius, the founder of the college in Warwick-lane, formed a statute to retrain apothecaries from carrying the water of their patients to a phyfician, and afterwards giving medicines in confequence of the opinions they received concerning it. This ftatute was, foon after, followed by another, which forbade the doctors themselves to pronounce on any disorder from fuch an uncertain diagnostic.

John Day, the author of a comedy called Law Tricks, or Who would have thought it? 1608, defcribes an apothecary

thus:

his houfe is fet round with patients twice or thrice "a day, and because they'll be fure not to want drink, every one brings his own water in an urinal with him."

་

Again, in B. and Fletcher's Scornful Lady:

"I'll make her cry fo much, that the phyfician,
"If the fall fick upon it, fhall want urine

To find the cause by." STEEVENS.

fon