SCENE II. Poft-Messenger.

After him came fpurring hard

A gentleman almost forefpent with speed,
That ftopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horfe
He afk'd the way to Chefter; and of him
I did demand the news from Shrewsbury.
He told me that rebellion had ill luck:
And that young Harry Percy's fpur was cold.
With that he gave his able horse the head,
And, bending forward, ftruck his agile heels
Against the panting fides of his poor jade
Up to the rowel head; and starting fo,
He feem'd in running to devour the way,
Staying no longer queftion.

SCENE III. Messenger with ill news.

Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf,
Foretels the nature of a tragic volume;

So looks the ftrond, whereon th' imperious flood
Hath left a witness'd ufurpation.

Is

Thou trembleft, and the whiteness in thy cheek apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.

Even fuch a man, fo faint, fo fpiritless,

So dull, fo dead in look, fo woe be-gone,
Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,

And would have told him half his Troy was burn'd..
I fee a strange confeffion in thine eye;
Thou fhak'ft thy head, and hold'st it fear or fin
To speak a truth: if he be flain, fay fo;
The tongue offends not that reports his death:
And he doth fin, that doth belie the dead,
Not he, which fays, the dead is not alive.
(3) Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news

Hath

(3) Yet, &c.] Mr. Theobald remarks "this obfervation is certainly true in nature, and has the fanction of no lefs authori

Hath but a lofing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a fullen bell,
Remember'd tolling a departed friend.

Greater Griefs defroy the less.

As the wretch, whofe fever-weaken'd joints, Like ftrengthlefs hinges, buckle under life, Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire

Out of his keeper's arms; ev'n fo my limbs,
Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,
Are thrice themfelves. 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'it hour that time and fpight dare bring
To frown upon th' enrag'd Northumberland!
(4) Let heav'n kifs earth! now let not nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confin'd! Let order die,

And

ties than thofe of Efchylus and Sophocles, who fay almoft the fame thing with our author here.

Ωμοι, &c.

Alas! the bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but an evil and unwelcome office.

Æferylus.

The ingrateful task of bringing evil news
Is ever odious-

Sophocles.

(4) Let.] Longinus in his 15th fection, speaking of noble and terrible images, commends fchylus for his fuccefs in them: Afchylus, fays he, has made bold attempts in noble and truly heroic images: as, in one of his tragedies, the feven commanders against Thebes, without betraying the leaft fign of pity or regret, bind themselves by oath not to furvive Eteocles:

The seven, a warlike leader, each in chief,

Stood round, and o'er the black bronze fhield they flew

A fullen

And let this world no longer be a ftage
To feed contention in a lingʼring act:
But let one fpirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bofoms, that each heart being fet
On bloody courfes, the rude fcene may end,
(5) And darkness be the burier of the dead!

SCENE VI. The Fickleness of the Vulgar.
(6) An habitation giddy and unfure
Hath he that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
O thou fond many! with what loud applaufe
Did'st thou beat heav'n with bleffing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou wouldst have him be?
And now, being trim'd up in thine own defires,
Thou, beaftly feeder, art fo full of him,
That thou provok'st thyself to cast him up.

A fullen bull: then plunging deep their hands
Into the foaming gore, with oath, invok'd
Mars and Enyo, and blood-thirsty terror."

ACT

Upon which the tranflator, judiciously quoting a fine image of this fort from Milton, afterwards obferves," how vehemently does the fury of Northumberland exert itself in Shakespear, when he hears of the death of his fon Hotfpur. The rage and diftraction of the furviving father fhews how important the fon was in his opinion. Nothing muft be, now he is not: nature itself must fall with Percy. His grief renders him frantic: his anger defperate." And I think we may justly add, that no writer excels fo much in these great and terrible images, as ShakeSpear, the Efchylus of the British stage. See Timon of Athens, A. 4. S. 1.

(5) And, &c.] Εμε θανοντος γαια μιχθήτω πυρί.

With me, departing hence, all earth confum'd

Perish in general conflagration.

And Medea tells us, the fhall then only reft

When with herself all nature is involv'd

In univerfal ruin.

(6) See Coriolanus, A. 1. S. 3.

Sen. Med. A.

On Sleep.

(7) O gentle fleep,

Nature's foft nurfe, how have I frighted thee,
That thou no more wilt weigh my eye-lids down,
And steep my fenfes in forgetfulness?

Why rather, fleep, ly'st thou in fmoaky cribs,
Upon uneafy pallets ftretching thee,

And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy flumber;

Than

(7) O gentle, &c.] Horace, in his 3d book and firft ode tells us, Sleep difdains not to dwell with the poor: take it in Mr. Cowley's paraphrase:

Skep is a god too proud to wait in palaces:
And yet fo humble too as not to fcorn

The meanest country cottages:

His poppey grows amongst the corn,
The halcyon fleep will never build his neft,
In any stormy breast;

'Tis not enough that he does find
Clouds and darkness in their mind,
Darkness but half his work will do ;

'Tis not enough, he must find quiet too.

But whatever paffages we may find like the former part of this fpeech, there is nothing I ever met with equal to the bold and fublime flight in the latter part of it: Lee, indeed, has taken a hint from it, the thought is fo great and uncommon, it must be only Shakespear that could have foar'd so high.

So-fleeps the fea-boy on the cloudy mast,
Safe as a drowsy Tryton, rock'd with ftorms,
While toffing princes wake on beds of down.

Mithridates.

Sir Thomas Hanmer thus explains the line watch-cafe, & "This alludes to the watchman fet in garrifon-towns, upon fome eminence attending upon an alarum-bell, which he was to ring out in cafe of fire or any approaching danger. He had a cafe or box to shelter him from the weather, but at his utmost peril he was not to fleep whilst he was upon duty. Thefe alarum-bells are mentioned in feveral other places of Shakespear." The word Pallet at the beginning fignifies a little low bed.

Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great,
Under the canopies of coftly state,

And lull'd with founds of fweetest melody?
O thou dull god, why ly'st thou with the vile
In loathfome beds, and leav'ft the kingly couch
A watch-cafe to a common larum-bell?
Wilt thou, upon the high and giddy mast,
Seal up the fhip-boy's eyes, and rock his brains,
In cradle of the rude, imperious furge;
And in the vifitation of the winds,

Who take the ruffian billows by the top,

Curling their monftrous heads, and hanging them
"With deaf'ning clamours in the flipp'ry throuds,
That, with the hurly, death itself awakes?
Canft thou, O partial fleep! give thy repose
To the wet fea-boy in an hour fo rude?
And, in the calmest, and the stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king?

ACT IV. SCENE VIII.

The Character of King Henry V. by his Father.

He is gracious if he be obferv'd;

He hath a tear for pity, and a hand
Open as day, for melting charity:

Yet notwithstanding, being incens'd, he's flint:
As humourous as winter, and as fudden
(8) As flaws congealed in the fpring of day.
His temper, therefore, muft be well obferv'd;
Chide him for faults, and do it reverently,
When you perceive his blood inclin'd to mirth;
But being moody, give him line and scope,

"Till

(8) As flaws.] The meaning of the word in this place feems to be, the small blades of ice, which are stuck on the edges of the water in winter mornings, and which I have heard called by that name. Edwards. See canons of criticifm, p. 71.