had well-liking in the same sense in a former play. MALONE.

P. 17, c. 1. l. 71 Thou art our admiral. &c.] Decker, in his Wonderful Yeare, 1603. has the same thought. He is describing the host of a country inn: An antiquary might have The pickt rare matter out of his nose. Hamburghers offered I know not how many dollars for his companie in an East-Indian voyage, to have stoode a nighte in the Poope of their Admirall, onely to save the charges of candles."

Id. c. 2. l. 12.

dame Partlet Dame Partlet is the name of the heu in the old story-book of Reynard the Fox and in Chaucer's tale of The Cock and the Fox, the favourite hen is called dame Pertelote.

Id. l. 48. the prince is a Jack,] This term of contempt occurs frequently in our author. In The Taming of the Shrew, Katharine calls her music-master, in derision, a twangling Jack. P. 18. c. 1. 1. 3. maid Marian may be, &e. Maid Marian is a man dressed like a woman, who attends the dancers of the morris. Id. l. 48. - impudent, embossed, Embossed is swoln, puffy. Id. l. 77. do it with unwashed hands too.) i. e. do it immediately, or the first thing in the morning, even without staying to wash your hands. Mr. Mason thinks it means, do it without retracting or repenting of it.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.

Id. c. 2. l. 32. I defy - To defy means here to disdain. Id. 1. 28. But I will beard him. To beard is to oppose face to face in a hostile or daring man

ner.

Id. 1. 66. On any soul remov'd.] On any less near to himself; on any whose interest is remote. Id. l. 70. no quailing: To quail is to languish, to sink into dejection.

P. 19, c. 1. l. 6. The very list. The list is the selvage; figuratively, the utmost line of circumference, the utmost extent.

Id. 1. 9. Where now remains- Where, is used here for whereas. It is often used with that signification by our author and his contempora

ries.

Id. 1. 12. A comfort of retirement-¦ A support to which we may have recourse.

Id. l. 17 The quality and hair-] The har seems to be the complexion, the character. The metaphor appears harsh to us, but, perhaps, was familiar in our author's time. We still say something is against the hair, as against the grain, i. e. against the natural tendency. Id. 1. 25. --we of the offering side- The offering side may mean simply the assailant, in opposition to the defendant: and it is likewise true of him that offers war, or makes an invasion, that his cause ought to be kept clear from all objections.

Id. l. 29. This absence of your father's draws a curtain. To draw a curtam had anciently the same meaning as to undraw one has at

Id.

Present

All plum'd like estridges, that wing

the wind:

Bated like eagles, &c. i, e, all dressed like the prince himself, the ostrich feather being the cognizance of the prince of Wales. To bate is, in the style of falconry, to beat the wing, from the French, battre, that is, to flutter in preparation for flight,

Malone

Id. L. 58. such great leading.] Such conduct, such experience in martial business. reads-such great leading as you are." Id. l. 65 -- half of himself." MALONE, Id. c. 2. l. 2. —— of our quality.] Quality, in our author's time, was frequently used in the sense of fellowship or occupation.

Id. l. 8. - of your griet's; That is, grievances. Id. 1 28. To sue his livery. This is a law phrase belonging to the feudal tenures; meaning to sue out the delivery or possession of his lands from those persons who, on the death of any of the tenants of the crown, seized their lauds, till the heir sued out his livery.

Id. l. 34. The more and less- i. e. the greater and the less.

Id. 1. 59. —— task'd the whole state :) Task'd is here used for taxed; it was once common to employ these words indiscriminately.

Id. 1. 70. This head of safety: This army, from which I hope for protection.

Id. 1. 60.

ACT V.

SCENE I.

busky hill! Busky is woody. (Bosquet, Fr) Milton writes the word perhaps more properly, bosky.

Id. 1. 63. to his purposes; That is, to the sun's, to that which the sun portends by his unsual appearance

Id, c. 2. 1. 14. Pease, chewet, peace ] A chewet, or chuet, is a noisy, chattering bird, a pie. Id. L. 35 the injuries of a wanton time;} i. e. the injuries done by king Richard in the wantouness of prosperity.

1 45. As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird.] The cuckoo's chucken who, being hatched and fed by the sparrow, in whose nest the cuckoo's egg was laid, grows in time able to devour

her nurse.

1.1.62.Suspicion all our lives shall be stuck full of eyes"-MALONE. Id. c. 2. 1. 6.

Deliver up

My lord of Westmoreland.] He was "impawned as a surety for the safe return" of Worcester.

Id.1.43. He made a blushing cital-] Mr. Pope

observes, that by cital is meant taxation; but perhaps rather recital.

14. 1. 53. Of any prince, so wild, at liberty:] Of any prince that played such pranks, and was not confined as a madman.

P. 23, c 1, l. 6. Now,- Espérance!]

This was the word of battle on Percy's side, and has always been the motto of the Percy family. ld. 1.9. For, heaven to earth,] i. e. one might wager heaven to earth.

SCENE III.

11.1 40. Semblably furnish'd, &c.] i. e. in resemblance, alike.

Id 1 66. lend me thy sword." MALONE. Id 1 69.-Turk Gregory never did such deeds in arms.] Meaning Gregory the Seventh, called Hildebrand. This furious friar surmounted almost invincible obstacles to deprive the em

-O, Harry, thou hast robb'd P. 24, c. 1, l. 37.me of my youth:] Shakspeare has chosen to make Hotspur fall by the hand of the prince of Wales; but there is, I believe, no authority for the fact. Holinshed says, "The king slew that day with his own hand six-and-thirty persons of his enemies. The other [i. e. troops] of his party, encouraged by his doings, fought valiantly, and slew the lord Percy, called Henry Hotspur." Speed says Percy was killed by an unknown hand. MALONE.

Id. 1. 44.. those proud titles thou hast won of me; &c.] Hotspur in his last moments endeavours to console himself. The glory of the prince wounds his thoughts; but thought, being dependent on life, must cease with it, and will soon be at an end. Life, on which thought depends, it itself of no great value, being the fool and sport of time; of time, which with all its dominion over sublunary things, must itself at last be stopped. JOHN

SON.

11

ld. l. 58. But let my favours hide thy mangled face;] He covers his face with a scarf, to hide the ghastliness of death.

Id. l. 70. so fat a deer-] There is in these lines a very natural mixture of the serious and ludicrous, produced by the view of Percy and Falstaff.

Id. c. 2. l. 25. "On the ground."-MALONE.
Id. 1 30. -- a double man:] That is, I am not
Falstaff and Percy together, though, having
Percy on my back, I seem double.

SCENE V.

The transactions comprised in this history take up about nine years. The action commences with the account of Hotspur's being defeated and killed (1403); and closes with the death of King Henry IV. and the coronation of King Henry V. (1412-13.) THEOBALD.

This play was entered at Stationers' Hall, August 23, 1600. STEEVENS.

The Second Part of King Henry IV. I suppose to have been written in 1598. MALONE.

Mr. Upton thinks these two plays improperly ralled The First and Second Parts of Henry the Fourth. The first play ends, he says, with the peaceful settlement of Henry in the king

dom by the defeat of the rebels. This is hardly true for the rebels are not yet finally suppressed. The second, he tells us, shows Henry the Fifth in the various lights of a goodnatured rake till, on his father's death, he asThis is true; sumes a more manly character.

but this representation gives us no idea of a dramatic action. These two plays will appear to every reader, who shall peruse them without ambition of critical discoveries, to be so connected, that the second is merely a sequel to the first; to be two only because they are too long to be one. JOHNSON.