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THE FIRST PART OF

KING HENRY THE FOURTH.

"THE History of Henrie the Fourth; With the battell at Shrewsburie, betweene the King and Lord Henry Percy, surnamed Henrie Hotspur of the North. With the humorous conceits of Sir John Falstalffe. At London, Printed by P. S. for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Churchyard, at the signe of the Angell. 1598." Such is the title of the first and best edition of this famous historic drama. A second edition was issued in 1599, which was followed by a third in 1604, a fourth in 1608, a fifth in 1613, and a sixth in 1622. That six distinct impressions of it should have been published before its incorporation in the folio of 1623, is proof of its enduring popularity.

The First Part of King Henry IV. was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company in 1597, to which year Malone ascribes its production. Chalmers and Drake assign it to 1596, but the evidence for either date is so extremely vague and unsubstantial that no dependance can be placed upon it. All we really know is, that the play was written before 1598, because Meres, in his list published that year, enumerates " Henry the IVth." as one of our poet's works. Shakespeare, it is thought, selected the stirring period of our history comprehended in the reigns of Henry IV. and V. for dramatic illustration, in consequence of the success achieved by an old and worthless piece which had long retained possession of the stage, called "The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth; " though Dr. Johnson conceived that he'd planned a regular connexion of these dramatic histories from Richard the Second to Henry the Fifth. From a similarity in some of the incidents and in the names of two or three of the characters, it is quite clear that he was acquainted with "The Famous Victories," and the circumstance of his having chosen the same events for representation, may have occasioned the revival of that old piece by Henslowe's company in 1595, and its re-publication in 1598. As Mr. Collier observes, "It is impossible to institute any parallel between The Famous Victories' and Shakespeare's dramas; for, besides that the former has reached us evidently in an imperfect shape, the immeasurable superiority of the latter is such, as to render any attempt to trace resemblance a matter of contrast rather than of comparison."

In the year 1844, a manuscript copy of the play of Henry the Fourth was found among the family papers of Sir Edward Dering, Bart., of Surrenden, Kent. Mr. Halliwell, who edited the MS. for the Shakespeare Society, observes, in his Introduction to the volume, that it "does not contain the whole of Shakespeare's Henry IV., but the two parts condensed into one, and, as we

may presume, for the purpose of representation." And he goes on to say that "the variations are so numerous, that we can hardly believe the MS. was transcribed from any printed edition. At all events, we cannot discover any which contains them. If the adapter was a If the adapter was a player, there seems to be no preponderating reason why the MS. should not originally have been the property of one of the metropolitan theatres, and have been prepared for the use of such an establishment."

The discovery of any of Shakespeare's plays in manuscript of a date even approaching his own time, is alone sufficiently interesting in a literary point of view; the editor's suggestion that the Dering MS. may have been derived from some independent source, cannot, however, be maintained. There is abundant internal evidence to show that it was copied, in the first instance, from the quarto edition of 1613; and as the transcript was apparently made during the reign. of James I, with a view to private performance, by the friends of Sir Edward Deryng, the first baronet, the language was, as usual, altered to suit the taste of the day; the various readings, therefore, whatever their merit, cannot be accepted as of any authority in elucidating the text.

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No more the thirsty entrance of this soil

Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood;
No more shall trenching war channel her fields,
Nor bruise her flowrets with the armed hoofs
Of hostile paces: those opposed eyes,
Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
All of one nature, of one substance bred,-
Did lately meet in the intestine shock
And furious close of civil butchery,
Shall now, in mutual, well-beseeming ranks,
March all one way; and be no more oppos'd
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies:
The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
No more shall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,"
(Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross
We are impressed and engaged to fight,)
Forthwith a power of English shall we levy;
Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' womb
To chase these pagans, in those holy fields,
Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet,
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd
For our advantage, on the bitter cross.
But this our purpose now is twelve-months old,
And bootless 'tis to tell you-we will go;
Therefore we meet not now.
Then let me hear
Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,
What vesternight our council did decree,
In forwarding this dear expedience.

WEST. My liege, this haste was hot in question,
And many limits of the charge set down
But yesternight: when, all athwart, there came
A post from Wales, loaden with heavy news;
Whose worst was, that the noble Mortimer,
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
Was by the rude hands of that Welchman taken,
And a thousand of his people butchered :
Upon whose dead corps there was such misuse,

a No more the thirsty entrance of this soil-] Long and fruitless has been the controversy upon the word entrance, here. For a time, indeed, the ingenious and classical Erinnys of Monck Mason was permitted to supersede it in some editions; and a few critics advocated the substitution of entrants recommended by Steevens, or the less elegant entrails proposed by Douce; but these readings have had their day, and the general feeling is now in favour of retaining the old expression. Thirsty entrance is certainly obscure, but it might be used metaphorically for the parched crevices of the earth after long drought, without any serious impropriety. There is something similar in a passage of the Troublesome Raigne of King John," with which Shakespeare was perfectly familiar :

"Is all the blood yspilt on either part,

Closing the cranies of the thirstie earth
Growne to a love-game and a bridall feast?"

As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,

Forthwith a power of English shall we levy.] To levy a power as far as to the sepulchre of Christ, Steevens objected was an expression quite unexampled. Gifford has shown, however, [Ben Jonson, Vol. V. p. 138,] that the construction was not peculiar, by quoting an instance of it from Gosson's School of Abuse, 1587, "Scipio, before he levied his force to the walles of Carthage, gave his soldiers the print of the citie on a cake to be devoured."

Such beastly, shameless transformation,
By those Welchwomen done, as may not be,
Without much shame, retold or spoken of.

K. HEN. It seems then, that the tidings of this broil

Brake off our business for the Holy Land.

WEST. This, match'd with other, dide, my

gracious lord;

For more uneven and unwelcome news
Came from the north, and thus it did import.+
On Holy-rood day; the gallant Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald,
That ever-valiant and approved Scot,
At Holmedon met,

Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour;
As by discharge of their artillery,

And shape of likelihood, the news was told;
For he that brought them, in the very heat
And pride of their contention, did take horse,
Uncertain of the issue any way.

[friend,
K. HEN. Here is a dear and‡ true-industrious
Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse,
Stain'd§ with the variation of each soil
Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours:
And he hath brought us smooth and welcome '|

news.

The earl of Douglas is discomfited;

Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
Balk'd in their own blood, did sir Walter see
On Holmedon's plains: of prisoners, Hotspur took
Mordake the ¶ earl of Fife, and eldest son
To beaten Douglas; and the earl of Athol,
Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith.
And is not this an honourable spoil?
A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not?
WEST. In faith, it is;

A conquest for a prince to boast of.

K. HEN. Yea, there thou mak'st me sad, and mak'st me sin

(*) First folio, Far.
(1) First quarto, a.

() First folio, welcomes.

e Now is twelve months old,-] reads, is a twelvemonth old.

(+) First folio, report. (§) First folio, strain'd. (¶) Old copies omit, the.

So the first quarto; the folio

d Upon whose dead corps-] The folio has corpes. We should, perhaps, read corses.

eThis, match'd with other, did, my gracious lord:] The folio, following the quarto of 1613, from which it appears to have been printed, reads. This match'd with other like, &c.

f Balk'd in their own blood.-] For Balk'd, that is ridged, or heaped up, there is classic authority: "Ingentes Rutulæ spectabit cædis Acervos." Æn. X. 245, and ingentes Rutulorum linquis Acervos:" X. 509; but many will prefer the conjectural reading bak'd, of Steevens: which he well supports by the following passages from Heywood's "Iron Age," 1632:

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In envy that my lord Northumberland
Should be the father to* so blest a son :
A son, who is the theme of honour's tongue;
Amongst a grove, the very straightest plant;
Who is sweet fortune's minion, and her pride:
Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and dishonour stain the brow
Of my young Harry. O, that it could be prov'd,
That some night-tripping fairy had exchang'd
In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,
And call'd mine, Percy, his, Plantagenet!
Then would I have his Harry, and he mine.
But let him from my thoughts. What think you,
coz',

Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners,
Which he in this adventure hath surpris'd,
To his own use he keeps; and sends me word,
I shall have none but Mordake earl of Fife."
WEST. This is his uncle's teaching, this is
Worcester,

Malevolent to you in all aspects,
Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up
The crest of youth against your dignity.

K. HEN. But I have sent for him to answer
this;

And, for this cause, awhile we must neglect
Our holy purpose to Jerusalem.

Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we
Will hold at Windsor,+ so inform the lords:
But come yourself with speed to us again;
For more is to be said, and to be done,
Than out of anger can be uttered.
WEST. I will, my liege.

SCENE II.-The same.

[Exeunt.

An apartment in a Tavern.(1)

Enter HENRY, Prince of Wales, and Falstaff.

FAL. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad? P. HEN. Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack, and unbuttoning thee after supper, and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast

(*) First folio, of.
(+) First folio inserts, and.
(1) First folio inserts, in the.

a I shall have none but Mordake earl of Fife.] In this refusal Hotspur was justified by the law of arms; every prisoner whose reden ption did not exceed ten thousand crowns being at the disposal of his captor, either for ransom or acquittal. Mordake, however, being prince of the royal blood, could be rightfully claimed by the king.

b To demand that truly which thou would'st truly know.] The prince appears to object that Falstaff asks the time of day, when all his pursuits have reference to night.

Thieves of the day's beauty;] For beauty, Theobald reads booty: but Malone conjectures that a pun was intended on the word beauty, which was to be pronounced as it still is in some counties, booty.

d Got with swearing-lay by; and spent with crying-bring in ;] Lay by, is a nautical phrase meaning slacken sail, and may have

b

forgotten to demand that truly which thou would'st truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day? unless hours were cups of sack, and minutes capons, and clocks the tongues of bawds, and dials the signs of leaping-houses, and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flamecoloured taffata, I see no reason why thou should'st be so superfluous to demand the time of the day. FAL. Indeed, you come near me now, Hal: for we, that take purses, go by the moon and the* seven stars; and not by Phoebus, - he, that wandering knight so fair. And, I pr'ythee, sweet wag, when thou art king,-as, God save thy grace, (majesty, I should say; for grace thou wilt have none,)

P. HEN. What! none?

FAL. No, by my troth;† not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter.

P. HEN. Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly.

FAL. Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us, that are squires of the night's body, be called thieves of the day's beauty; let us be-Diana's foresters, Gentlemen of the shade, Minions of the moon; and let men say, we be men of good government; being governed as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we-steal.

P. HEN. Thou say'st well; and it holds well too for the fortune of us, that are the moon's men, doth ebb and flow like the sea; being governed as the sea is, by the moon. As, for proof, now: a purse of gold most resolutely snatched on Monday night, and most dissolutely spent on Tuesday morning; got with swearinglay by; and spent with crying-bring in now, in as low an ebb as the foot of the ladder; and, by and by, in as high a flow as the ridge of the gallows.

FAL. By the Lord,‡ thou say'st true, lad. And is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench?

P. HEN. As the honey of Hybla,f my old lad of the castle. And is not a buff jerking a most sweet robe of durance?

(*) First folio omits, the.

(+) First folio omits, by my troth. (1) First folio omits, By the Lord.

been a slang term for the highwayman's "stand." The bring in, was the tavern call for more wine.

e And is not my hostess of the tavern a most sweet wench ?] The humour of asking a question or making an observation quite irrelevant to the conversation going on, is very ancient. It must have been common in Shakespeare's time, for it is frequently found in the old dramas, and he himself indulges in this vein again in the present play, where the prince mystifies poor Francis,-"Why then, your brown bastard is your only drink." It occurs also in Hamlet more than once. Ben Jonson calls it a game of vapours.

f As the honey of Hybla,-] The folio reads, As is the honey, omitting the words, of Hybla.

g And is not a buff jerkin a most sweet robe of durance?] See note (1), p. 150.

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