Hot. Now I perceive the devil understands Welsh; And 'tis no marvel, he's so humorous. By'r-lady, he's a good musician.

Lady P. Then should you be nothing but musical; for you are altogether governed by humours. Lie still, ye thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh.

Hot. I had rather hear Lady, my brach 26, howl

in Irish.

Lady P. Would'st thou have thy head broken? Hot. No.

Lady P. Then be still.

Hot. Neither; 'tis a woman's fault 27.

Lady P. Now God help thee!

Hot. To the Welsh lady's bed.
Lady P. What's that?

Hot. Peace! she sings.

[A Welsh SONG sung by LADY M.

Hot. Come, Kate, I'll have your song too.
Lady P. Not mine, in good sooth.

Hot. Not yours, in good sooth! 'Heart, you swear like a comfit-maker's wife! Not you, in good sooth: and, As true as I live; and, As God shall mend me; and, As sure as day:

And giv'st such sarcenet surety for thy oaths,
As if thou never walk'dst further than Finsbury 28.
Swear me, Kate, like a lady, as thou art,
A good mouth-filling oath; and leave in sooth,
And such protest of pepper-gingerbread,
To velvet-guards 29, and Sunday-citizens.
Come, sing.

26 Hound.

27 That this is spoken ironically is sufficiently obvious, as Mr. Pye has observed, but the strange attempts to misunderstand the passage made by some commentators, make the observation in some measure necessary.

28 Finsbury, being then open walks and fields, was the common resort of the citizens, as appears from many old plays.

29 Velvet-guards, or trimmings of velvet, being the city fashion

Lady P. I will not sing.

Hot. 'Tis the next way to turn tailor, or be redbreast teacher 30. An the indentures be drawn, I'll away within these two hours; and so come in when ye will. [Exit. Glend. Come, come, Lord Mortimer; you are as slow,

As hot Lord Percy is on fire to go.

By this our book's drawn; we'll but seal, and then To horse immediately.

Mort.

With all my heart. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter KING HENRY, Prince of Wales, and

Lords.

K. Hen. Lords, give us leave: the Prince of Wales and I

Must have some private conference: But be near at

hand,

For we shall presently have need of you.

[Exeunt Lords.

in Shakspeare's time, the term was used metaphorically to desigSo in Histriomastix, 1610:

nate such persons.

Nay, I myself will wear the courtly grace;

Out on these velvet-guards, and black-lac'd sleeves,
These simp'ring fashions simply followed!'

Again:

'I like this jewel; I'll have his fellow

How?-you?-what, fellow it?-gip, velvet guards!'

Thus also Fynes Morrison: At public meetings the aldermen of London weere skarlet gownes, and their wives a close gown of skarlet with gardes of black velvet.'—Itinerary, fol. 1617, p. 179.

30 Tailors, like weavers, have ever been remarkable for their vocal skill. Percy is jocular in his mode of persuading his wife to sing, and this is a humorous turn which he gives to his argument, Come, sing.'-'I will not sing.' 'Tis the next (i. e. readiest, nearest) way to turn tailor, or red-breast teacher.' The meaning is to sing is to put yourself upon a level with tailors and teachers of birds.'

I know not whether God will have it so,
For some displeasing service1 I have done,
That in his secret doom, out of my blood
He'll breed revengement and a scourge for me;
But thou dost, in thy passages of life,

Make me believe,—that thou art only mark'd
For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven,
To punish my mistreadings. Tell me else,
Could such inordinate, and low desires,
Such poor,such bare,such lewd,such mean attempts2,
Such barren pleasures, rude society,

As thou art match'd withal, and grafted to,
Accompany the greatness of thy blood,
And hold their level with thy princely heart?

P. Hen. So please your majesty, I would I could
Quit all offences with as clear excuse,
As well as, I am doubtless, I can purge
Myself of many I am charg'd withal:
Yet such extenuation let me beg3,

As, in reproof of many tales devis'd,

Which oft the ear of greatness needs must hear,—
By smiling pick-thanks and base newsmongers,
I may, for some things true, wherein my youth
Hath faulty wander'd and irregular,

Find pardon on my true submission.

K. Hen. God pardon thee !-yet let me wonder, Harry,

At thy affections, which do hold a wing

1 Service, for action.

2 Mean attempts are mean, unworthy undertakings. Lewd, in this place, has its original signification of idle, ungracious, naughty.

3 The construction of this passage is somewhat obscure, Johnson thus explains it: Let me beg so much extenuation that upon confutation of many false charges, I may be pardoned some that are true.' Reproof means disproof.

4 A sycophant, a flatterer, one who is studious to gain favour, or to pick occasions for obtaining thanks.

Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
Thy place in council thou hast rudely lost5,
Which by thy younger brother is supplied;
And art almost an alien to the hearts
Of all the court and princes of my blood:
The hope and expectation of thy time
Is ruin'd; and the soul of every man
Prophetically does forethink thy fall.
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company;
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession;
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark, nor likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir,
But, like a comet, I was wonder'd at:
That men would tell their children, This is he;
Others would say,-Where? which is Bolingbroke?
And then I stole all courtesy from heaven",

5 This appears to be an anachronism. The prince's removal from council, in consequence of his striking the Lord Chief Justice Gascoigne, was some years after the battle of Shrewsbury (1403). His brother the duke of Clarence was appointed president in his room, and he was not created a duke till 1411.

6 True to him that had then possession of the crown.

7 Massinger, in The Great Duke of Florence, has adopted this expression:

Giovanni,

A prince in expectation, when he lived here
Stole courtesy from heaven; and would not to
The meanest servant in my father's house
Have kept such distance.'

Mr. Gifford, in the following note on this passage, gives the best explanation of the phrase, which the commentators have altogether mistaken :- the plain meaning of the phrase is that the affability and sweetness of Giovanni were of a heavenly kind, i. e. more perfect than was usually found among men, resembling that divine condescension which excludes none from its regard, and, therefore, immediately derived or stolen from heaven, from whence all good proceeds. The word stolen here means little else than to win by imperceptible progression, by gentle violence.'

And dress'd myself in such humility,
That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,
Even in the presence of the crowned king.
Thus did I keep my person fresh, and new;
My presence, like a robe pontifical,
Ne'er seen, but wonder'd at: and so my state,
Seldom, but sumptuous, showed like a feast;
And won, by rareness, such solemnity.
The skipping king, he ambled up and down
With shallow jesters, and rash bavin3 wits,
Soon kindled, and soon burn'd: carded his state;
Mingled his royalty with carping 10 fools;
Had his great name profaned with their scorns;
And gave his countenance, against his name,
To laugh at gibing boys, and stand the push
Of every beardless vain comparative11:
Grew a companion to the common streets,

8 Bavins are brush-wood, or small faggots used for lighting fires. Thus in Lyly's Mother Bombie, 1594 :- Bavins will have their flashes, and youth their fancies, the one as soon quenched as the other burnt,'

9 To card is to mix, or debase by mixing. The metaphor is probably taken from mingling coarse wool with fine, and carding them together, thereby diminishing the value of the latter. The phrase is used by other writers for to mingle or mix. Thus in Beaumont and Fletcher's Tamer Tamed:

'But mine is such a drench.of balderdash,
Such a strange carded cunningness.'

And in Greene's Quip for an Upstart Courtier :-'You card your beer (if you see your guests begin to get drunk), half small, half strong, &c.'Carded ale' is also mentioned by Nashe, in Have with you to Saffron Walden,' 1596. Shakspeare has a similar thought in All's Well that Ends Well:- The web of our life is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together.'

10 The quarto, 1598, reads capring. The quarto, 1599, and subsequent old copies, read carping, which I am inclined to think from the context is the word which Shakspeare wrote. 'A carping momus,' and 'a carping fool,' were very common expressions in that age.

11i. e. every beardless, vain, young fellow who affected wit, or was a dealer in comparisons. Vide Act i. Sc. 2, p. 109.