1

i

That, with the hurly, death itself awakes ?
Can'st thou, O partial fleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so 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 observ'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 humorous as winter, and as fudden,
(6) As flaws congealed in the spring of day.
His temper therefore must be well observ'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, that his passions, like a whale on ground,
Confound themselves with working..

SCENE IX. On FORTUNE.

(7) Will fortune never come with both hands full, But write her fair words still in foulest letters ?

She

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

(7) Will, &c.] This obfervation is no less common than true. Ovid says,

Nulli fincera Voluptas,
Sollicitique aliquid lætis intervenit.

Met. 1. 7.

And

No mortal blessings ever come fincere,
Pleasure may lead, but grief brings up the rear.

She either gives a stomach and no food,
Such are the poor, in health; or else a feast,
And takes away the stomach: such the rich
That have abundance and enjoy it not.

SCENE X. Reflections on a Crow.

O polish'd pertubation! golden care! That keep'ft the ports of slumber open wide To many a watchful night: fleep with it now! Yet not so sound, and half so deeply sweet, (8) As he, whose brow, with homely biggen bound, Snores out the watch of night. O majesty! When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit

And in Plautus his Amphytrion there is a like remark,

'Satin parva, &c.'

How short, how trifling are the joys of life
If with the evils that it brings compar'd?
This is the state of man, decreed by heav'n,
That all his pleasure shall be mix'd with pain,
And lafting woe succeed each short delight.

Anony,

(8) As &c.] The word biggen signifies properly a cap or coif of linnen, worn by children, and here any meaner kind of nightcap. The poets abound with complaints of the miseries of greatness: In one of the chorufes of Seneca's Hercules Oetæus, they fing

O fi pateant, &c.

Oh were the minds of great ones feen,
What cares tempestuous rage within,
And scourge their fouls; the Brutian fea
Toss'd by wild storms, more calm than they :

And again

Let others infolent and great,
Enjoy the treach rous smiles of fate:
To courts, oh, never let me roam;
Bleft with content and peace at home.
May my small bark in safety fail,
Ne'er tempted by a prosp'rous gale,
Roving to leave the fight of shore :
And dang'rous distant deeps explore!

Ward,

Like a rich armour, worn in heat of day,
That scalds with fafety.

(9) How quickly nature

Falls to revolt, when gold becomes her object?
For this, the foolish over-careful fathers

Have broke their fleep with thought, their brains

with care,

Their bones with industry: for this engrossed
The canker'd heaps of strange-atchieved gold :
For this they have been thoughtful to inveft
Their fons with arts and martial exercises :
When, like the bee, culling from ev'ry flow'r,
Our thighs are packt with wax, our mouths with

honey,

We bring it to the hive; and, like the bees,
Are murther'd for our pains,

ACT V. SCENE III.

The chief justice to king Henry V. whom he had

imprisoned.

- If the deed were ill,

Be you contented, wearing now the garland,
To have a son, set your decrees at naught,
To pluck down justice from your awful bench :
To trip the course of law, and blunt the fword

(9) How &c.] If the miseries of greatness be so universal a topic, we have one before us that is still more fo: Shakespear perhaps has excelled any writer on the subject in this place and other parts of his works, but more particularly in Timon of Athens. (which fee A. 4. S.3, &c.) It would he easy to quote numberless similar paffages, but the univerfality of the topic, and every reader's observation must render it tedious and unneceffary.

That

That guards the peace and safety of your person.
Nay more to spurn at your most royal image,
And mock your working in a second body.
Question your royal thoughts, make the case yours,
Be now the father, and propose a fon;
Hear your own dignity so much profan'd:
See your most dreadful laws so loosely flighted,
Behold yourself so by a fon disdain'd,
And then imagine me taking your part,
And in your power so filencing your fon.

The

(23)

(1)

The Life of HENRY V.

PROLOGUE.

For a muse of fire, that would ascend
The brightest heaven of invention!
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act,

And monarchs to behold the swelling scene !
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself,
Afssume the part of Mars; and at his heels,
(Leafht in, like hounds) should famine, sword, and

fire,

Crouch for employment.

ACTI.

SCENEI.

CONSIDERATION.

Confideration, like an angel, came, (2) And whipt th' offending Adam out of him;

Leafing

(1) O for, &c.] Milton, who was a zealous admirer and studious imitator of our author, seems to have had the fine opening of this prologue in his eye, when he began the 4th book of his Paradife Loft.

O for that warning voice! which he, who faw
Th' Apocalyps, heard cry in heav'n aloud,
Then, when the dragon put to second rout,
Came furious down to be reveng'd on men,
Woe to th' inhabitants of earth.

THEOBALD.

(2) (2) And whipt, &c.] Shakespear enriched himself, and greatly improved his incomparable genius from the scriptures, that end