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Upon the Maidenhead of our affairs.

Wor. But yet I would your father had been here;
"The quality and hair of our attempt
Brooks no divifion; it will be thought
By fome, that know not why he is away,
That wisdom, loyalty, and meer dislike
Of our proceedings, kept the Earl from hence;
And think, how fuch an apprehenfion
May turn the tide of fearful faction,

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And breed a kind of queftion in our cause;
For well you know, we of th' offending fide
Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement;
And ftop all fight-holes, every loop, from whence
The eye of reafon may pry in upon us.

This abfence of your father draws a curtain,
That fhews the ignorant a kind of fear
Before not dreamt upon.

Hot. You ftrain too far;

I rather of his abfence make this use,

7 The quality and hair of our attempt.] The bair feems to be the complexion, the character. The metaphor appears harsh to us, but, perhaps, was familiar in our authour's time.

We of th' offending fide.] All the later editions have this reading, but all the older copies which I have feen, from the first quarto to the edition of Rowe, read, we of the off'ring fide. Of this reading the fenfe is obfcure, and therefore the change has been made; but fince neither offering nor offending are words likely to be mistaken, I cannot but fufpect that offering is right, especially as it is read in the first copy of 1599,which is more correctly printed than any fingle edition, that I have yet feen, of a play

written by Shakespeare.

The offering fide may fignify that party, which, acting in oppofition to the law, ftrengthens itself only by offers; encreases its numbers only by promifes. The King can raife an army, and continue it by threats of punishment; but thofe, whom no man is under any obligation to obey, can gather forces only by offers of advantage: and it is truly remarked, that they, whofe influence arifes from offers, muft keep danger out of fight.

The offering fide may mean fimply the affailant, in oppofition to the defendant, and it is likewife true of him that offers war, or makes an invafion, that his caufe ought to be kept clear from all objections.

"

It lends a luftre, and more great opinion,
A larger Dare to our great enterprise,

Than if the Earl were here; for men must think,
If we without his help can make a head,
To push against the Kingdom; with his help,
We shall o'erturn it topfie turvy down.
-Yet all goes well, yet all our joints are whole.
Dowg. As heart can think; there is not fuch a word
Spoke of in Scotland, as this term of fear.

SCENE E II.

Enter Sir Richard Vernon.

Hot. My cousin Vernon, welcome, by my foul! Ver. Pray God, ny news be worth a welcome, lord. The Earl of Westmorland, fev'n thousand strong, Is marching hither, with Prince John of Lancaster. Hot. No harm; what more?

Ver. And further, I have learn'd,

The King himself in perfon hath fet forth,

Or hitherwards intended fpeedily,

With ftrong and mighty preparation.

Hot. He fhall be welcome too: where is his fon?

The nimble-footed mad-cap Prince of Wales,
And his comrades, that daft the world afide
And bid it pafs?

Ver. All furnifht, all in arms,

9 All furnifht, all in arms,
A plum'd like Efridges, that
wth the wind

Brited ke Eagles] To bait with the wind appears to me an improper expreffion. To bait is in the ftyle of falconry, to beat the swing, from the French battre, that is, to flutter in preparation for flight.

All

Befides, what is the meaning of Estrides, that baited with the wind like Engles; for the relative that, in the usual conftruction, muft relate to Efridges.

Sir Thomas Hanmer reads,
All plumd Ike Eftridges, and
with the wind
Baiting like Eagles.
By which he has efcaped part of

the

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bulls.

All plum'd like Eftridges, that with the wind
Baited like Eagles, having lately bath'd:
Glittering in golden coats like images,
As full of fpirit as the month of May,
And gorgeous as the Sun at Midfummer;
Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young
'I faw young Harry, with his beaver on,
* His cuiffes on his thighs, gallantly arm'd,
Rife from the ground like feather'd Mercury;
And vaulted with fuch ease into his feat,
As if an Angel dropt down from the clouds,
To turn and wind a fiery Pegasus,

And witch the world with noble horfemanship.

Hot. No more, no more; worfe than the Sun in March,

This praise doth nourish agues; let them come.

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All furnish'd, all in arms, All plum'd like Eftridges that wing the wind Baited like Eagles. This gives a ftrong image. They were not only plum'd like Eftridges, but their plumes fluttered like thofe of an Eftridge on the wing mounting against the wind. A more lively reprefentation of young men ardent for enterprize perhaps no writer has ever given.

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Ifa young Harry, with his beaver ON.] We should read, beaver UP. It is an impropriety to fay on: For the beaver is only the vifiere of the Helmet, which, let down, covers the face. When the foldier was not upon action he wore it up, fo that his face might be feen, (hence

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They come like Sacrifices in their trim,
And to the fire-ey'd maid of fmoaky war,
All hot, and bleeding, will we offer them.
The mailed Mars fhall on his altar fit
Up to the ears in blood. I am on fire,
To hear this rich reprifal is fo nigh,

And yet not ours. Come, let me take my horse,
Who is to bear me, like a thunder bolt,
Against the bofom of the Prince of Wales.

4 Harry to Harry fhall, hot horfe to horse-
Meet, and ne'er part, 'till One drop down a coarse.
Oh, that Glendower were come!

Ver. There is more news:

I learn'd in Worcester, as I rode along,

He cannot draw his Pow'r this fourteen days.
Dowg. That's the worst tidings that I hear of yet.
Wor. Ay, by my faith, that bears a frofty found.
Hot. What may the King's whole Battle reach unto?
Ver. To thirty thousand.

Hot. Forty let it be;

HECA

My father and Glendower being both away,
The Pow'r of us may ferve fo great a day.
Come, let us take a muster speedily;
Dooms-day is near; die all, die merrily.
Dowg. Talk not of dying, I am out of fear
Of death, or death's hand, for this one half year.

4 Harry to Harry hall, hot berje to borse,

Meet, and ne'er part.] This reading I have restored from the first edition. The fecond edition in 1622, reads,

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[Exeunt

mer, who, july remarking the
impertinence of the negative,
reads,

Harry to Harry hall, and herfe
to horse,
Meet, and ne'er part.

Harry to Harry hall, not horfe But the unexampled expreffion

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of meeting to, for meeting with or fimply meeting, is yet left. The ancient reading is furely right.

SCENE

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Fal.

Changes to a publick Road, near Coventry.

Enter Falstaff and Bardolph.

thee before to Coventry; fill me

a bottle of fack. Our foldiers fhall march

through; we'll to Sutton-cold-field to night. Bard. Will you give me mony, captain ? Fal. Lay out, lay out.

Bard. This bottle makes an angel.

Fel. And if it do, take it for thy labour; and if it make twenty, take them all, I'll answer the coynage. Bid my lieutenant * Peto meet me at the town's end. Bard. I will, captain; farewel. [Exit. Fal. If I be not afham'd of my foldiers, I am a fowc'd gurnet. I have mif-us'd the King's Prefs damnably; I have got, in exchange of an hundred and fifty foldiers, three hundred and odd pounds. I I prefs me none but good houfholders, yeomens fons; enquire me out contracted batchelors, fuch as had been afk'd twice on the banns; fuch a commodity of warm flaves, as had as lieve hear the devil, as a drum; fuch as fear the report of a culverin, worse than a ftruck fowl, or a hurt wild duck. I prefs me none but such

* Lieutenant Peto.] This paffage proves that Pero did not go with the prince.

5 Sore'd gurnet.] I believe a forced gurnet is a pickled anchovy. Much of Falstaff's humour confifts in comparing himself to fomewhat little.

Werfe than a truck-fowl, or a hurt wild duck.] The repetition of the fame image difpofed Sir Tho. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, to read, in op

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pofition to all the copies, a ftruck Deer, which is indeed a proper expreffion, but not likely to have been corrupted. Shakespeare, perhaps, wrote a ftruck forel, which, being negligently read by a man not killed in hunter's language, was eafily changed to truck fowl. Sorel is ufed in Love's labour loft for a young deer, and the terms of the chase were, in our authour's time, familiar to the ears of every gentleman. toafts

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