FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV. ACT I. SCENE I.-London. A Room in the Palace. Enter King HENRY, WESTMORELAND, Sir WALTER BLUNT, and others. King Henry. So shaken as we are, so wan with care, No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood; As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,3 [1] That is, let us soften peace, to rest awhile without disturbance, that she may recover breath to propose new wars. JOHNSON. [2] By Erinnys is meant the fury of discord. M. MASON. [3] The lawfulness and justice of the holy wars have been much disputed; but perhaps there is a principle on which the question may be easily determined. If it be part of the religion of the Mahometans to extirpate by the sword all other religions, it is, by the laws of self-defence, lawful for men of every other religion, and for Christians among others, to make war upon Mahometans, simply as Mahometans, as men obliged by their own principles to make war upon Christians, and only lying in wait till opportunity shall promise them success. JOHNSON. Upon this note Mr. Gibbon makes the following observation: "If the reader will turn to the first scene of the First part of king Henry IV. he will see in the (Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross West. My liege, this haste was hot in question, : But yesternight when, all athwart, there came K. Hen. It seems then, that the tidings of this broil West. This, match'd with other, did, my gracious lord ; For more uneven and unwelcome news Came from the north, and thus it did import. At Holmedon met, text of Shakespeare, the natural feelings of enthusiasm; and in the notes of Dr. Johnson, the workings of a bigotted, though vigorous mind, greedy of every pretence to hate and persecute those who dissent from his creed."-Gibbon's Hist. Vol. VI. 9, 4to. edit. [3] For expedition. REED. [4] Limits for estimates. WARBURTON. [5] Thus Holinshed, "-such shameful villanie executed upon the carcasses of the dead men by the Welshwomen; as the like (I doo beleeve) hath never or sildome beene practised." See T. Walsingham, p 557. STEEVENS. [6] Holinshed's History of Scotland, says "This Harry Percy was surnamed, for his often pricking, Henry Hotspur, as one that seldom times rested, if there were anie service to be done abroad." TOLLET Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour; And shape of likelihood, the news was told; K. Hen. Here is a dear and true-industrious friend, Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours; Ten thousand bold Scots, two-and-twenty knights, To beaten Douglas; and the earls of Athol, And is not this an honourable spoil? It is a conquest for a prince to boast of. K. Hen. Yea, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me sin In envy that my lord Northumberland Should be the father of so blest a son: A son, who is the theme of honour's tongue; Of my young Harry. O, that it could be prov'd, To his own use he keeps; and sends me word, I shall have none but Mordake earl of Fife. [7] I should suppose, that the author might have written either bath'd or bak'd, that is, encrusted over with blood dried upon them. STEEVENS. Balk is a ridge; and particularly a ridge of land, and is a common expression in Warwickshire and the northern counties. WARTON. |