And we, for fear, compell'd to shut our shops.
Enter, skirmishing, the Retainers of GLOSTER, and
Winchester, with bloody pates.

K. Hen. We charge you, on allegiance to ourself, To hold your slaught'ring hands, and keep the peace. Pray, uncle Gloster, mitigate this strife.

1 Serv. Nay, if we be

Forbidden stones, we 'll fall to it with our teeth.

2 Serv. Do what ye dare, we are as resolute.

[Skirmish again. Glo. You of my household, leave this peevish broil, And set this unaccustom❜d fight✨ aside.

3 Serv. My lord, we know your grace to be a man
Just and upright; and, for your royal birth,
Inferior to none, but his majesty: 5

And, ere that we will suffer such a prince,
So kind a father of the commonweal,

6

To be disgraced by an inkhorn mate,
We, and our wives, and children, all will fight,
And have our bodies slaughter'd by thy foes.
1 Sery. Ay, and the very parings of our nails
Shall pitch a field, when we are dead. [Skirmish again.
Stay, stay, I say!7
And, if you love me, as you say you do,

Glo.

unaccustom'd fight —] Unaccustom'd is unseemly, indecent. Johnson.

The same epithet occurs again in Romeo and Juliet, where it seems to mean-such as is uncommon, not in familiar use:

“Shall give him such an unaccustom'd dram." Steevens. 5 •but his majesty:] Old copy, redundantly—

•but to his majesty.

Perhaps the line originally ran thus:

"To none inferior, but his majesty." Steevens.

6 — an inkhorn mate,] A bookman. Johnson.

It was a term of reproach at the time towards men of learning or men affecting to be learned. George Pettie in his Introduction to Guazzo's Civil Conversation, 1586, speaking of those he calls nice travellers, says: "if one chance to derive anie word from the Latine, which is insolent to their ears, (as perchance they will take that phrase to be) they forthwith make a jest at it, and tearme it an Inkhorne tearme."

Reed.

7 Stay, stay, I say!] Perhaps the words-I say, should be omitted, as they only serve to disorder the metre, and create a disagreeable repetition of the word-say, in the next line. Steevens.

Let me persuade you to forbear a while.

K. Hen. O, how this discord doth afflict my soul!— Can you, my lord of Winchester, behold

My sighs and tears, and will not once relent?
Who should be pitiful, if you be not?

Or who should study to prefer a peace,

If holy churchmen take delight in broils?

War. My lord protector, yield; 8-yield Winchester;Except you mean, with obstinate repulse,

To slay your sovereign, and destroy the realm.
You see what mischief, and what murder too,
Hath been enacted through your enmity;
Then be at peace, except ye thirst for blood.

Win. He shall submit, or I will never yield.
Glo. Compassion on the king commands me stoop;
Or, I would see his heart out, ere the priest
Should ever get that privilege of me.

War. Behold, my lord of Winchester, the duke Hath banish'd moody discontented fury,

As by his smoothed brows it doth appear:

Why look you still so stern, and tragical?

Glo. Here, Winchester, I offer thee my hand.

K. Hen. Fy, uncle Beaufort! I have heard you preach, That malice was a great and grievous sin:

And will not you maintain the thing you teach,

But prove a chief offender in the same?

War. Sweet king!-the bishop hath a kindly gird.o— For shame, my lord of Winchester! relent; What, shall a child instruct you what to do?

Win. Well, duke of Gloster, I will yield to thee; Love for thy love, and hand for hand I give.

Glo. Ay; but, I fear me, with a hollow heart.—

8 My lord protector, yield;] Old copy-Yield, my lord protector. This judicious transposition was made by Sir T. Hanmer. Steevens.

9 ·hath a kindly gird.] i. e. feels an emotion of kind remorse. Johnson.

A kindly gird is a gentle or friendly reproof. Falstaff observes, that "men of all sorts take a pride to gird at him:" and, in The Taming of the Shrew, Baptista says: "Tranio hits you now:" to which Lucentio answers:

“I thank thee for that gird, good Tranio." Steevens. The word gird does not here signify reproof, as Steevens sup. poses, but a twitch, a pang, a yearning of kindness. M. Mason.

See here, my friends, and loving countrymen;
This token serveth for a flag of truce,
Betwixt ourselves, and all our followers:
So help me God, as I dissemble not!

Win. So help me God, as I intend it not!
K. Hen. O loving uncle, kind duke of Gloster,
How joyful am I made by this contract!—
Away, my masters! trouble us no more;
But join in friendship, as your lords have done.
1 Serv. Content; I'll to the surgeon's.
2 Serv.

ford.

[Aside.

And so will I. 3 Serv. And I will see what physick the taverns af[Exeunt Servants, May. &c. War. Accept this scroll, most gracious sovereign; Which in the right of Richard Plantagenet

We do exhibit to your majesty.

Glo. Well urg'd, my lord of Warwick;-for, sweet prince,

An if your grace mark every circumstance,

You have great reason to do Richard right:
Especially, for those occasions

At Eltham-place I told your majesty.

K. Hen. And those occasions, uncle, were of force:
Therefore, my loving lords, our pleasure is,
That Richard be restored to his blood.

War. Let Richard be restored to his blood;
So shall his father's wrongs be recompens❜d.
Win. As will the rest, so willeth Winchester.
K. Hen. If Richard will be true, not that alone,1
But all the whole inheritance I give,

That doth belong unto the house of York,
From whence you spring by lineal descent.
Plan. Thy humble servant vows obedience,

And humble service, till the point of death.

K. Hen. Stoop then, and set your knee against my foot; And, in reguerdon of that duty done,

I girt thee with the valiant sword of York:

Rise, Richard, like a true Plantagenet;

1

that alone,] By a mistake probably of the transcriber, the old copy reads that all alone. The correction was made by the editor of the second folio.

Malone.

2 reguerdon-] Recompence, return. Johnson.

And rise created princely duke of York.

Plan. And so thrive Richard, as thy foes may fall! And as my duty springs, so perish they

That grudge one thought against your majesty!

All. Welcome, high prince, the mighty duke of York! Som. Perish, base prince, ignoble duke of York!

Glo. Now will it best avail your majesty,

To cross the seas, and to be crown'd in France:
The presence of a king engenders love
Amongst his subjects, and his loyal friends;
As it disanimates his enemies.

[Aside.

K. Hen. When Gloster says the word, king Henry

goes;

For friendly counsel cuts off many foes.

Glo. Your ships already are in readiness.

[Exeunt all but ExE. Exe. Ay, we may march in England, or in France, Not seeing what is likely to ensue: This late dissention, grown betwixt the peers, Burns under feigned ashes of forg'd love,3 And will at last break out into a flame: As fester'd members rot but by degrees, Till bones, and flesh, and sinews, fall away, So will this base and envious discord breed.4 And now I fear that fatal prophecy, Which, in the time of Henry, nam'd the fifth, Was in the mouth of every sucking babe,— That Henry, born at Monmouth, should win all; And Henry, born at Windsor, should lose all: Which is so plain, that Exeter doth wish His days may finish ere that hapless time.5

3 Burns under feigned ashes of forg'd love,]

"Ignes suppositos cineri doloso." Hor. Malone.

[Exit.

4 So will this base and envious discord breed.] That is, so will the malignity of this discord propagate itself, and advance. Johnson. 5 His days may finish &c.] The Duke of Exeter died shortly after the meeting of this parliament, and the Earl of Warwick was appointed governor or tutor to the King in his room. Malone.

SCENE II.

France. Before Rouen.

Enter LA PUCELLE disguised, and Soldiers dressed like Countrymen, with Sacks upon their Backs.

Puc. These are the city gates, the gates of Rouen, Through which our policy must make a breach: Take heed, be wary how you place your words; Talk like the vulgar sort of market-men, That come to gather money for their corn. If we have entrance, (as, I hope, we shall,) And that we find the slothful watch but weak, I'll by a sign give notice to our friends,

That Charle's the Dauphin may encounter them.

1 Sold. Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city," And we be lords and rulers over Roüen;

Therefore we 'll knock.

Guard. [within] Qui est là ?7

Puc. Paisans, pauvres gens de France:

Poor market-folks, that come to sell their corn.
Guard. Enter, go in; the market-bell is rung.

[Knocks.

[Opens the Gates.

Puc. Now, Roüen, I'll shake thy bulwarks to the [Puc. &c. enter the City.

ground.

Enter CHARLES, Bastard of Orleans, ALENÇON,

and Forces.

Char. Saint Dennis bless this happy stratagem!
And once again we 'll sleep secure in Rouen.
Bast. Here enter'd Pucelle, and her practisants: 8
Now she is there, how will she specify

6 Our sacks shall be a mean to sack the city,] Falstaff has the same quibble, showing his bottle of sack: "Here's that will sack a city." Steevens.

7 Qui est là?] Old copy-Che la. For the emendation I am answerable. Malone.

& Here enter'd Pucelle, and her practisants:] Practice, in the language of that time, was treachery, and perhaps in the softer sense stratagem. Practisants are therefore confederates in stratagems. Johnson.

So, in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew:

66

Sirs, I will practice on this drunken man." Steevens.