And let us do it with no fhew of fear;

No, with no more, than if we heard that England
Were bufied with a Whitfun morris-dance:
For, my good liege, fhe is fo idly king'd,
Her fcepter fo fantastically borne,

By a vain, giddy, fhallow, humorous youth,
That fear attends her not.

Con. O peace, prince Dauphin!

2 You are too much mistaken in this king:
Queftion your grace the late ambassadors,
With what great state he heard their embassy;
How well fupply'd with noble counsellors,
3 How modeft in exception, and withal
How terrible in conftant refolution,
And you shall find, his vanities fore-fpent
4 Were but the out-side of the Roman Brutus,
Covering difcretion with a coat of folly;
As gardeners do with ordure hide thofe roots
That shall first spring and be moft delicate.
Dau. Well, 'tis not fo, my lord high constable,
But tho' we think it fo, it is no matter.

In cafes of defence 'tis beft to weigh

You are too much mistaken in this king:] This part is much enlarged fince the firft writing. POPE.

3 How modeft in exception,-] How diffident and decent in making objections. JOHNSON.

+ Were but the out-fide of the Roman Brutus,] Shakespeare not having given us, in the First or Second part of Henry IV. or in any other place but this, the remoteft hint of the circumstance here alluded to, the comparifon muft needs be a little obfcure to those who do not know or reflect that fome hiftorians have told us, that Henry IV. had entertained a deep jealousy of his fon's afpiring fuperior genius. Therefore to prevent all umbrage, the prince withdrew from public affairs, and amufed himself in conforting with a diffolute crew of robbers. It feems to me, that Shakespeare was ignorant of this circumstance when he wrote the two parts of Henry IV. for it might have been fo managed as to have given new beauties to the character of Hal, and great improvements to the plot. And with regard to thefe matters, Shakespeare generally tells us all he knew, and as foon as he knew it. WARBURTON.

The

The enemy more mighty than he seems;
So the proportions of defence are fill'd,
Which, of a weak and niggardly projection,
Doth, like a mifer, fpoil his coat with fcanting

A little cloth.

Fr. King. Think we king Harry ftrong;

And, princes, look you ftrongly arm to meet him.
The kindred of him hath been flefh'd upon us;
And he is bred out of that bloody ftrain,

5 That haunted us in our familiar paths.
Witnefs our too much memorable fhame,
When Creffy battle fatally was ftruck;
And all our princes captiv'd, by the hand

Of that black name, Edward black prince of Wales;
"While that his mountain fire, on mountain ftanding,
Up in the air, crown'd with the golden fun,
Saw his heroical feed, and finil'd to see him
Mangle the work of nature, and deface

The patterns, that by God and by French fathers
Had twenty years been made. This is a ftem
Of that victorious ftock; and let us fear
The native mightinefs and 7 fate of him.

s That HAUNTED us-] We should affuredly read HUNTED: the integrity of the metaphor requires it. So, foon after, the king again fays,

You fee this chafe is hotly followed. WARBURTON. The emendation weakens the paffage. To haunt is a word of the utmost horror, which fhews that they dreaded the English as goblins and fpirits. JOHNSON.

While that his MOUNTAIN fire, on mountain ftanding,] We fhould read, MOUNTING, ambitious, afpiring. WARB.

Dr. Warburton's emendation may be right, and yet I believe the poet meant to give an idea of more than human proportion in the figure of the king.

66

Quantus Athos, aut quantus Eryx, &c." Virg. "Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremov'd." Milton.

STEEVENS.

7-fate of bim.] His fate is what is allotted him by deftiny, or what he is fated to perform. JOHNSON.

So Virgil, fpeaking of the future deeds of the defcendants of Eneas: Attollens humeris famamque et FATA nepotum."

F1

Enter a Meffenger.

Meff. Ambaffadors from Harry, king of England, Do crave admittance to your majefty.

Fr. King. We'll give them prefent audience. Go, and bring them.

-You fee this chafe is hotly follow'd, friends.
Dau. Turn head, and ftop purfuit: for coward dogs
Most 9 spend their mouths, when, what they seem to
threaten,

Runs far before them. Good, my fovereign,
Take up the English fhort; and let them know
Of what a monarchy you are the head:
Self-love, my liege, is not fo vile a fin,
As felf-neglecting.

Enter Exeter.

Fr. King. From our brother England ?

Exe. From him; and thus he greets your majefty. He wills you, in the name of God Almighty, That you diveft yourself, and lay apart The borrow'd glories, that by gift of heaven, By law of nature and of nations, 'long To him, and to his heirs; namely, the crown, And all the wide-ftretch'd honours that pertain By cuftom, and the ordinance of times,

Unto the crown of France. That you may know, 'Tis no finifter nor no aukward claim,

Pick'd from the worm-holes of long-vanish'd days,
Nor from the duft of old oblivion rak'd,
He fends you this moft memorable line,
In every branch truly demonftrative;

[Gives the French king a paper.
Willing you, overlook this pedigree;
And, when you find him evenly deriv'd
From his moft fam'd of famous ancestors,

9

-Spend their mouths,-] That is, bark; the sportsman's term. JOHNSON.

1-memorable line,] This genealogy; this deduction of his lineage. JOHNSON.

Edward

Edward the Third, he bids you then refign
Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held
From him the native and true challenger.
Fr. King. Or else what follows?

Exe. Bloody conftraint; for if you hide the crown Even in your hearts, there will he rake for it: And therefore in fierce tempeft is he coming, In thunder, and in earthquake, like a Jove, That, if requiring fail, he will compel. He bids you, in the bowels of the Lord, Deliver up the crown; and to take mercy On the poor fouls for whom this hungry war Opens his vafty jaws upon your head Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries, 2 The dead mens' blood, the pining maidens' groans, For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers, That fhall be swallow'd in this controverfy. This is his claim, his threatning, and my meffage; Unless the Dauphin be in prefence here,

To whom exprefly I bring greeting too.

Fr. King. For us, we will confider of this further. To-morrow fhall you bear our full intent Back to our brother England.

Dau. For the Dauphin,

I ftand here for him; what to him from England? Exe. Scorn and defiance; flight regard, contempt, And any thing that may not mif-become

The mighty fender, doth he prize you at,

Thus fays my king: and if

your father's highnefs

2 The dead mens' blood,-] The difpofition of the images were more regular if we were to read thus:

upon your head

Turning the dead mens' blood, the widows' tears,

The orphans' cries, the pining maidens' groans, &c.

The quarto 1608 exhibits the paffage thus,

And on your heads turns he the widows' tears,
The orphans' cries, the dead mens' bones,
The pining maidens' groans,

For bufbands, fathers, and diftreed lovers,
Which, &c. STEEVENS.

JOHNSON.

Do not,

in

grant of all demands at large, Sweeten the bitter mock you fent his majefty, He'll call you to fo hot an anfwer for it,

That caves and womby vaultages of France
3 Shall chide your trefpafs, and return your mock

In fecond accent of his ordinance.

Dau. Say, if my father render fair reply
It is against my will: for I defire

Nothing but odds with England; to that end,
As matching to his youth and vanity,

I did prefent him with thofe Paris balls.

Exe. He'll make your Paris Louvre shake for it,
Were it the mistrefs court of mighty Europe.
And, be affur'd, you'll find a difference,
(As we his fubjects have in wonder found)
Between the promife of his greener days,

And these he masters now; now he weighs time
Even to the utmost grain; which you shall read
In your own loffes, if he ftay in France.

Fr. King. To-morrow you fhall know our mind at full.

[Flourish. Exe. Difpatch us with all speed, left that our king Come here himself to question our delay;

For he is footed in this land already.

Fr. King. You fhall be foon difpatch'd with fair

conditions:

A night is but fmall breath, and little paufe,
To answer matters of this confequence.

[Exeunt.

3 Shall HIDE your trefpofs,-] Mr. POPE rightly corrected it,

Shall CHIDE

WARBURTON.

I doubt whether it be rightly corrected. The meaning is, that the authors of this infult fall fly to caves for refuge. JOHNS. Mr. POPE reftored CHIDE from the quarto. I have therefore inferted it in the text. To chide is to refound, to echo. So in The Midfummer Night's Dream:

never did I hear "Such gallant chiding."

So in Henry VIÏI.

As doth a rock against the chiding flood." STEEVENS,

ACT