Enter Exton, with a coffin. Exton. Great King, within this Coffin I prefent Boling. Exton, I thank thee not; for thou haft wrought A deed of flander with thy fatal hand, Upon my head, and all this famous Land. Exton. From your own mouth, my Lord, did I this deed. Boling. They love not poifon, that do poifon need; Nor do I thee; though I did with him dead, I hate the murth'rer, love him murthered. The Guilt of Confcience take thou for thy labour, But neither my good word, nor princely favour; With Cain go wander through the fhade of night, And never thew thy head by day, or light. Lords, I proteft, my foul is full of woe, That blood fhould fprinkle me, to make me grow. Come, mourn with me for what I do lament, And put on fullen Black, incontinent : I'll make a voyage to the Holy-land, To wash this blood off from my guilty hand. March fadly after, grace my Mourning here, In weeping over this untimely Bier. [Exeunt omnes This play is extracted from the Chronicle of Holing bead, in which many paffages may be found which Shakespeare has, with very little alteration, tranfplanted into his fcenes, particularly a fpeech of the bishop of Carlisle in defence of King Richard's una lienable right, and immunity from human jurifdiction. Johnfon, who, in his Catiline and Sejanus, has inferted many fpeeches from the Roman hiftorians, was, perhaps, induced to that practice by the example of Shakespeare, who had condescended fometimes to copy more ignoble writers. But Shakespeare had more of his own than Johnson, and, if he fometimes was willing to fpare his labour, fhewed by what he performed at other times, that his extracts were made by choice or idleness rather than neceffity. This play is one of thofe which Shakespeare has apparently revifed; but as fuccefs in works of invention is not always proportionate to labour, it is not finifhed at last with the happy force of fome other of his tragedies, nor can be faid much to affect the paffions, or enlarge the understanding. THE KING Henry the Fourth. Henry, Prince of Wales, Sons to the King. Hot-fpur. Archbishop of York. Owen Glendower. Sir Walter Blunt. Sir John Falstaff. Poins. Gads-hill. Peto. Bardolph, Lady Percy, Wife to Hot-fpur. Lady Mortimer, Daughter to Glendower, and Wife to Mortimer. Hoftefs Quickly. Sheriff, Winter, Chamberlain, Drawers, 1 Carriers, Travellers, and Attendants. The perfons of the drama were firft collected by Rowe. SCENE, ENGLAND. Of this play the Editions are, I. 1599, S. S. for And. Wife. II. 1504. III. 1608, for Matthew Law. IV. 1613, W. W. for Matt. Law. V. 1622, 7. P. fold by Matthew Law. All in quarto, VII. 4to 1639, John Norton, fold by Hugh Perry. Of thefe Editions I have the I. V. VI. VII, VIII. HENRY IV. ACT I. SCENE I. The Court in London. Enter King Henry, Lord John of Lancafter, Earl of Weftmorland, and others. King HENRY. O fhaken as we are, fo wan with Care, To be commenc'd in ftronds a-far remote. Broils (1) The first Part of Henry IV.] The tranfactions, contained in this hiftorical Drama, are comprized within the Period of about 10 Months: For the action commences with the News brought of Hotspur shaving defeated the Scots under Archibald Earl Dow glar at Holmeden, (or Halidown-hill) which Battle was fought on Holyrood-day, (the 14th of September) 1402: and it clofes with the Defeat and Death of Hotspur at Shrewsbury, which Engagement happened on Saturday the 21 of July (the Eve of St. Mary Magdalen) in the Year 1403. THEOBALD. Shakespeare has apparently defigned a regular connection of thefe dramatic hiftories from Richard the fecond to Henry the fifth. King Henry, at the end of Ricbard the second, declares bis purpose to vifit the Holy Land, which he refumes in this speech. The complaint made by king Henry in the laft act of Richard the fecond, of the wildness of his fon, prepares the reader for the frolicks which are here to be recounted, and the characters which are now to be exhibited. 11(2): Find wer artime for frighted peace to pant,] And breathefort-winded accents-] That is, Let us foften peace. toneft a while without difturbance, that he may never breath torpropofe new wars. |