For treason is but trufted like the fox;
Who, ne'er so tame, fo cherish'd, and lock'd up,
Will have a wild trick of his ancestors.
Look how we can, or fad, or merrily,
Interpretation will mifquote our looks;
And we shall feed like oxen at a stall,
The better cherish'd, still the nearer death.
My nephew's trefpafs may be well forgot,
It hath the excuse of youth, and heat of blood;
And an adopted name of privilege,—

A hare-brain'd Hotspur 3, govern'd by a spleen:
All his offences live upon my head,

And on his father's ; we did train him on ;
And, his corruption being ta'en from us,
We, as the spring of all, shall pay for all.
Therefore, good coufin, let not Harry know,
In any cafe, the offer of the king.

Ver. Deliver what you will, I'll fay, 'tis fo.
Here comes your cousin.

Enter HOTSPUR, and DOUGLAS; and Officers and Soldiers, behind.

Hot. My uncle is return'd;-Deliver up My lord of Westmoreland+.-Uncle, what news? Wor. The king will bid you battle presently. Doug. Defy him by the lord of Westmorelands. Hot. Lord Douglas, go you and tell him fo. Doug. Marry, and fhall, and very willingly. [Exit. Wor. There is no feeming mercy in the king, Hot. Did you beg any? God forbid!

3- an adopted name of privilege,

6

A bare-brain'd Hotfpur,] The name of Hotfpur will privilege him from cenfure. JOHNSON.

4- Deliver up

My lord of Westmoreland.] He was "impawned as a furety for the fafe return" of Worcester. See Act IV. fc. laft. MALONE.

5 Doug. Defy bim by the lord of Westmoreland.] This line, as well as the next, (as has been obferved by one of the modern editors,) probably belongs to Hotfpur, whofe impatience would scarcely fuffer any one to anticipate him on fuch an occafion. MALONE.

ple,

Lord Douglas, go you &c.]
MALONE.

Douglas is here ufed as a trifylla

Wor. I told him gently of our grievances,
Of his oath-breaking; which he mended thus,
By now forfwearing that he is forfworn.

He calls us, rebels, traitors; and will fcourge
With haughty arms this hateful name in us.
Re-enter DOUGLAS.

Doug. Arm, gentlemen; to arms! for I have thrown A brave defiance in king Henry's teeth,

And Westmoreland, that was engag'd', did bear it; Which cannot choose but bring him quickly on.

Wor. The prince of Wales ftept forth before the king, And, nephew, challeng'd you to fingle fight.

Hot. O, would the quarrel lay upon our heads;
And that no man might draw fhort breath to-day,
But I, and Harry Monmouth! Tell me, tell me,
How fhew'd his tasking? feem'd it in contempt ?
Ver. No, by my foul; I never in my life
Did hear a challenge urg'd more modeftly,
Unless a brother should a brother dare
To gentle exercife and proof of arms.
He gave you all the duties of a man ;

Trimm'd up your praises with a princely tongue;
Spoke your defervings like a chronicle;
Making you ever better than his praise,
By ftill difpraifing praife, valued with you":

And,

7 And Weftmoreland, that was engag'd,] Engag'd is delivered as an hoftage. A few lines before, upon the return of Worcester, he orders Westmoreland to be difmiffed. JOHNSON.

How fhew'd his tasking?] Thus the quarto, 1598. The others, with the folio read-talking. STEEVENS.

I know not whether taking is not here ufed for taxing ; i. e, his fatirical reprefentation. So, in As you like it :

my taxing, like a wild goofe, flies."

See p. 239, n. 5. Tafking, however, is fufficiently intelligible in its more ufual acceptation. We yet fay," he took him to tak." MALONE 9 By fill difpraifing praife, valued with you.] Why this line fhould be centured by Dr. Warburton as nonfenfe, I know not. To vilify praife, compared or valued with merit fuperior to praife, is no har expreffion. There is another objection to be made. Prince Henry, in his challenge of Percy, had indeed commended him, but with no hyperboles as might reprefent him above praife; and there feems to be

fuch

до

And, which became him like a prince indeed,
He made a blufhing cital' of himself;
And chid his truant youth with fuch a grace,
As if he master'd there a double fpirit,
Of teaching, and of learning, inftantly.
There did he paufe: But let me tell the world,-
If he out-live the envy of this day,
England did never owe so sweet a hope,
So much mifconftrued in his wantonnefs.
Hot. Coufin, I think, thou art enamoured
On his follies; never did I hear *
Of any prince, fo wild, at liberty 3 :-
But, be he as he will, yet once ere night
I will embrace him with a foldier's arm,
That he shall shrink under my courtesy.-
Arm, arm, with fpeed:-And, fellows, foldiers, friends,
no reason why Vernon should magnify the prince's candour beyond the
truth. Did then Shakspeare forget the foregoing fcene? or are fome
lines loft from the prince's fpeech? JOHNSON.

-

I do not fufpect any omiffion. Our author in repeating letters and fpeeches of former fcenes in his plays, feldom attends minutely to what he had written. I believe, in these cafes he always trufted to memory. See Vol. IV. p. 35, n. 6. MALONE.

He made a blushing cital-] Cital for taxation. POPE.

Mr. Pope obferves that by cital is meant taxation; but I rather think it means recital. The verb is used in that fenfe in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act IV, sc. i:

66

for we cite our faults,

"That they may hold excus'd our lawless lives."

Again, in K. Henry V. A&t V. fc. ii:

"Whofe want gives growth to the imperfections
"Which you have cited," &c. COLLINS.

-be mafter'd-] i. e. was mafter of. STEEVENS.

- did I hear] The latter word is ufed as a difiyllable. Mr. Pope, not perceiving this, reads-Upon his follies, &c. which was unneceffarily adopted by the fubfequent editors. MALONE.

3 Of any prince, fo wild, at liberty:] Of any prince that played fuch pranks, and was not confined as a madman. JOHNSON.

The quartos 1598, 1599, and 1608, read-fo wild a libertie. Perhaps the author wrote-fo zuild a libertine. Thus, in Antony and Cleopatra :

"Tye up the libertine in the field of feafts." STEEVENS. Our author ufes the expreffion in the text again, in K. Richard III: "My hair doth ftand on end to hear her cnríes.

"And fo doth mine. I mufe, why he's at liberty." MALONE.

Better

250

Better confider what you have to do,

Than I, that have not well the gift of tongue,
Can lift your blood up with perfuafion.
Enter a Meffenger.

Me. My lord, here are letters for you.
Hot. I cannot read them now.—
O gentlemen, the time of life is fhort;
To spend that fhortnefs bafely, were too long,
If life did ride upon a dial's point,

Still ending at the arrival of an hour.
An if we live, we live to tread on kings;

If die, brave death, when princes die with us!
Now for our confcience,-the arms are fair,
When the intent of bearing them is juft.

Enter another Messenger.

Me. My lord, prepare; the king comes on apace. Hot. I thank him, that he cuts me from my tale, For I profefs not talking; Only this

Let each man do his best: and here draw I
A fword, whofe temper I intend to stain
With the beft blood that I can meet withal
In the adventure of this perilous day.
Now,-E/perance+!-Percy !-and fet on.-
Sound all the lofty inftruments of war,
And by that mufick let us all embrace :
For, heaven to earth, fome of us never fhall
A fecond time do fuch a courtesy.

[The trumpets found. They embrace, and exeunt, 4 Now-Esperance !] This was the word of battle on Percy's fide. See Hall's Chronicle, folio 22. POPE.

Efperance, or Esperanza, has always been the motto of the Percy family. Ejperance en Dieu is the prefent motto of the duke of Nor thumberland, and has been long ufed by his predeceffors. Sometimes it was exprefled Efperance ma Comforte, which is ftill legible at Alnwick caftle over the great gate. PERCY.

Our author found this word of battle in Holinfhed.

He feems to

have ufed Esperance as a word of four fyllables. So, in the Merry Wives of Windfir:

"And Honi foit qui mal y penfé, write." MALONE. 5 For, beaven to earth,] i. e. One might wager heaven to earth.

WARBURTON.
SCENE

SCENE III.

Plain near Shrewsbury.

Excurfions, and Parties fighting. Alarum to the battle.
Then enter DOUGLAS and BLUNT, meeting.
Blunt. What is thy name, that in the battle* thus
Thou croffeft me? what honour doft thou seek
Upon my head?

Doug. Know then, my name is Douglas;
And I do haunt thee in the battle thus,
Because fome tell me that thou art a king.
Blunt. They tell thee true.

Doug. The lord of Stafford dear to-day hath bought Thy likeness; for, instead of thee, king Harry, This fword hath ended him: fo fhall it thee,

Unless thou yield thee as my prifoner.

Blunt. I was not born a yielder, thou proud Scot; And thou shalt find a king that will revenge

Lord Stafford's death. [They fight, and BLUNT is flain. Enter HOTSPUR.

Hot. O Douglas, hadft thou fought at Holmedon thus, I never had triumph'd upon a Scot.

Doug. All's done, all's won; here breathless lies the king.

Hot. Where?

Doug. Here.

Hot. This, Douglas? no, I know, this face full well: A gallant knight he was, his name was Blunt;

6

Semblably furnish'd like the king himself.

Doug. A fool go with thy foul, whither it goes?!

A borrow'd

-in the battle-] The, which is not in the old copies, was added, for the fake of the meafure, by Sir T. Hanmer. MALONE.

Semblably-] i. e. in refemblance, alike. STEEVENS.

7 A fool go with thy foul, whither it goes!] The old copies read: Ah, fool, go with thy foul, &c. but this appears to be nonfenfe. I have ventured to omit a fingle letter, as well as to change the pun&tuation, on the authority of the following paffage in the Merchant of Venice: