Bare-headed, sweating, knocking at the taverns, P. Hen. By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame, So idly to profane the precious time; When tempest of commotion, like the south Give me my sword, and cloak:-Falstaff, good night. [Exeunt Prince Henry, Poins, Peto, and BARDOLph. Fal. Now comes in the sweetest morsel of the night, and we must hence, and leave it unpicked. [Knocking heard.] More knocking at the door? Re-enter BARdolph. How now? what's the matter? Bard. You must away to court, sir, presently; a dozen captains stay at door for you. Fal. Pay the musicians, sirrah. [To the Page.]Farewell, hostess;-farewell, Doll.-You see, my good wenches, how men of merit are sought after: the undeserver may sleep, when the man of action is called on. Farewell, good wenches: If I be not sent away post, I will see you again ere I go. Dol. I cannot speak;-If my heart be not ready to burst:-Well, sweet Jack, have a care of thyself. Fal. Farewell, farewell. [Exeunt FALSTAFF and BARDOlph. Host. Well, fare thee well: I have known thee these twenty-nine years, come peascod time; but an honester and truer-hearted man,-Well, fare thee well. Bard. [Within.] Mistress Tear-sheet, Host. What's the matter? Bard. [Within.] Bid mistress Tear-sheet come to my master. Host. O run, Doll, run; run, good Doll. [Exeunt. ACT III. SCENE I. A Room in the Palace. Enter King HENRY in his Nightgown, with a Page. K. Hen. Go, call the earls of Surrey and of Warwick; But, ere they come, bid them o'er-read these letters, And well consider of them: Make good speed. [Exit Page. Why rather, sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, And hush'd with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber; Than in the perfum'd chambers of the great, Under the canopies of costly state, And lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody? O thou dull god, why liest thou with the vile, Curling their monstrous heads, and hanging them Enter WARWICK and SURrey. War. Many good morrows to your majesty ! War. 'Tis one o'clock, and past. K. Hen. Why then, good morrow to you lords. all, my Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you? K. Hen. Then you perceive, the body of our kingdom How foul it is; what rank diseases grow, War. It is but as a body, yet, distemper'd; And see the revolution of the times Make mountains level, and the continent Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock, 7 That, with the hurly,] Hurly is noise, derived from the French hurler to howl, as hurly-burly from Hurluberlu, Fr. And changes fill the cup of alteration The happiest youth,-viewing his progress through, What perils past, what crosses to ensue, Would shut the book, and sit him down and die. 'Tis not ten years gone, Since Richard, and Northumberland, great friends, [To WARWICK. When Richard, with his eye brimfull of tears, Then check'd and rated by Northumberland,Did speak these words, now prov'd a prophecy? Northumberland, thou ladder, by the which My cousin Bolingbroke ascends my throne;Though then, heaven knows, I had no such intent;" But that necessity so bow'd the state, 8 But which of you was by, &c.] He refers to King Richard II. Act. IV. sc. ii. But whether the king's or the author's memory fails him, so it was, that Warwick was not present at that conversation. Neither was the King himself present, so that he must have received information of what passed from Northumberland. His memory, indeed, is singularly treacherous, as, at the time of which he is now speaking, he had actually ascended the throne. Besides, Shakspeare has mistaken the name of the present nobleman. The earldom of Warwick was at this time in the family of Beauchamp, and did not come into that of the Nevils till many years after. I should have had 9 I had no such intent;] He means, no such intent, but that necessity" &c. or Shakspeare has here also forgotten his former play, or has chosen to make Henry forget his situation at the time mentioned. He had then actually accepted the crown. That I and greatness were compell'd to kiss:- War. There is a history in all men's lives, Such things become the hatch and brood of time; King Richard might create a perfect guess, K. Hen. Are these things then necessities? Then let us meet them like necessities: And that same word even now cries out on us; They say, the bishop and Northumberland War. It cannot be, my lord; Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo, that Glendower is dead.] Glendower did not die till after King Henry IV. Shakspeare was led into this error by Holinshed, who places Owen Glendower's death in the tenth year of Henry's reign. |