My judgement is, we fhould not ftep too far
Till we had his affiftance by the hand:
For, in a theme fo bloody-fac'd as this,
Conjecture, expectation, and furmife
Of aids uncertain, fhould not be admitted.

ARCH. 'Tis very true, lord Bardolph; for, indeed, It was young Hotfpur's cafe at Shrewsbury.

BARD. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with hope,

Eating the air on promife of fupply,

Flattering himself with project of a power
Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts:
And fo, with great imagination,

Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,
And, winking, leap'd into deftruction.

HAST. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt, To lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope. BARD. Yes, in this prefent quality of war;Indeed the inftant action, (a cause on foot,)

4

ftep too far-] The four following lines were added in the fecond edition. JOHNSON.

3 Much smaller-] i. e. which turned out to be much smaller. MUSGRAVE.

4 Yes, in this prefent quality of war; &c.] Thefe first twenty lines were first inferted in the folio of 1623.

The first clause of this paffage is evidently corrupted. All the folio editions and Mr. Rowe's concur in the fame reading, which Mr. Pope altered thus:

Yes, if this prefent quality of war

Impede the inftant act.

This has been filently followed by Mr. Theobald, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton; but the corruption is certainly deeper, for in the prefent reading Bardolph makes the incon venience of hope to be that it may caufe delay, when indeed the whole tenor of his argument is to recommend delay to the reft that are too forward. I know not what to propofe, and am afraid

Lives fo in hope, as in an early spring

We fee the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit, Hope gives not fo much warrant, as despair,

that fomething is omitted, and that the injury is irremediable. Yet, perhaps, the alteration requifite is no more than this:

Yes, in this prefent quality of war,

Indeed of inftant action.

It never, fays Haftings, did harm to lay down likelihoods of hope. Yes, fays Bardolph, it has done harm in this prefent quality of war, in a ftate of things fuch as is now before us, of war, indeed of inftant action. This is obfcure, but Mr. Pope's reading is ftill less reafonable. JOHNSON.

I have adopted Dr. Johnfon's emendation, though I think we might read:

if this prefent quality of war Impel the inftant action,

Haftings fays, it never yet did hurt to lay down likelihoods and forms of hope. Yes, fays Bardolph, it has in every cafe like ours, where an army inferior in number, and waiting for fupplies, has, without that reinforcement, impell'd, or haftily brought on, an immediate action. STEEVENS.

If we may be allowed to read-inftanc'd, the text may meanYes, it has done harm in every cafe like ours; indeed it did harm in young Hotfpur's cafe at Shrewsbury, which the Archbishop of York has juft inftanced or given as an example. TOLLET.

This paffage is allowed on all hands to be corrupt, but a flight alteration will, I apprehend, restore the true reading.

Yes, if this prefent quality of war,

Induc'd the inftant action. HENLEY.

Mr. M. Mafon has propofed the fame reading. STEEVENS. in this prefent quality of war;] nineteen lines appeared first in the folio. if this prefent &c.

This and the following
That copy reads—Yes,

I believe the old reading is the true one, and that a line is loft; but have adopted Dr.-Johnfon's emendation, because it makes. fenfe. The punctuation now introduced appears to me preferable to that of the old edition, in which there is a colon after the word action.

Bardolph, I think, means to fay, " Indeed the prefent action (our caufe being now on foot, war being actually levied,) lives," &c. otherwife the fpeaker is made to fay, in general, that all caufes once on foot afford no hopes that may fecurely be relied on; which is certainly not true, MALONE.

That frofts will bite them. When we mean to build,'
We first survey the plot, then draw the model;
And when we fee the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the coft of the erection:
Which if we find outweighs ability,

What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at leaft, defift

6

To build at all? Much more, in this great work, (Which is, almoft, to pluck a kingdom down, And fet another up,) fhould we furvey

The plot of fituation, and the model;
Confent upon a fure foundation;"
Question furveyors; know our own eftate,
How able fuch a work to undergo,
To weigh against his oppofite; or else,
We fortify in paper, and in figures,
Ufing the names of men inftead of men:
Like one, that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created coft
A naked fubject to the weeping clouds,

And wafte for churlifh winter's tyranny.

HAST. Grant, that our hopes (yet likely of fair birth,)

Should be stillborn, and that we now poffefs'd
The utmost man of expectation;

I think, we are a body strong enough,

Even as we are, to equal with the king.

When we mean to build,] Whoever compares the rest of this fpeech with St. Luke, xiv. 28, &c. will find the former to have been wrought out of the latter. HENLEY.

6

at leaft,] Perhaps we should read—at laft.

STEEVENS.

7 Confent upon a fure foundation;] i. e. agree. So, in As you like it, A&t V. fc. i: "For all your writers do confent that ipfe is he." Again, ibidem, fc. ii:" confent with both, that we may enjoy each other." STEEVENS.

BARD. What! is the king but five and twenty thoufand?

HAST. To us, no more; nay, not so much, lord Bardolph.

For his divifions, as the times do brawl,

Are in three heads: one power against the French,*
And one against Glendower; perforce, a third
Muft take up us: So is the unfirm king

In three divided; and his coffers found
With hollow poverty and emptiness.

ARCH. That he should draw his several strengths together,

And come against us in full puiffance,

Need not be dreaded.

HAST.

If he should do fo,'

He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh Baying him at the heels: never fear that.

BARD. Who, is it like, fhould lead his forces hither?

one power against the French,] During this rebellion of Northumberland and the Archbishop, a French army of twelve thousand men landed at Milford Haven in Wales, for the aid of Owen Glendower. See Holinfhed, p. 531. STEEVENS.

9 If he should do fo,] This paffage is read in the first edition thus: If he should do fo, French and Welsh he leaves his back unarm'd, they baying him at the heels, never fear that. Thefe lines, which were evidently printed from an interlined copy not underftood, are properly regulated in the next edition, and are here only mentioned to show what errors may be suspected to remain.

JOHNSON.

I believe the editor of the folio did not correct the quarto rightly; in which the only error probably was the omiffion of the word to:

To French and Welsh he leaves his back unarm'd,
They baying him at the heels: never fear that.

HAST. The duke of Lancaster, and Weftmoreland: 2

Against the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth: But who is fubftituted 'gainst the French,

I have no certain notice.

ARCH.

Let us on; 3

And publish the occafion of our arms.

The commonwealth is fick of their own choice,
Their over-greedy love hath furfeited:-
An habitation giddy and unfure

Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
O thou fond many! with what loud applause
Didft thou beat heaven with bleffing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou would'ft have him be?
And being now trimm'd in thine own defires,

The duke of Lantafter, &c.] This is an anachronism, Prince John of Lancaster was not created a duke till the fecond year of the reign of his brother, King Henry V. MALONE.

This miftake is pointed out by Mr. Steevens in another place. It is not, however, true, that " K. Henry IV. was himself the last perfon that ever bore the title of Duke of Lancaster," as Prince Henry actually enjoyed it at this very time, and had done fo from the first year of his father's reign, when it was conferred upon him in full parliament. Rot. Parl. 111, 428, 532. Shakspeare was misled by Stowe, who fpeaking of Henry's first parliament, fays, "then the King rose, and made his eldest fon Prince of Wales, &c. his fecond fanne was there made Duke of Lancaster." Annales, 1631, p. 323. He should therefore feem to have confulted this author between the times of finishing the last play, and beginning the prefent. RITSON.

3 Let us on; &c.] This excellent fpeech of York was one of the paffages added by Shakspeare after his first edition. POPE.

This fpeech first appeared in the folio. MALONE.

40 thou fond many!] Many or meyny, from the French mefnie, a multitude. DOUCE.

5

in thine own defires,] The latter word is employed here as a trifyllable. MALONE.