OBSERVATIONS ON THE FABLE AND COMPOSITION OF THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV. THE transactions contained in this historical drama are comprised within the period of about ten months; for the action commences with the news brought of Hotspur having defeated the Scots under Archibald earl of Douglas at Holmedon, (or Halidown-hill,) which battle was fought on Holy-rood-day, (the 14th of September,) 1402; and it closes with the defeat and death of Hotspur at Shrewsbury; which engagement happened on Saturday the 21st of July, (the eve of Saint Mary Magdalen,) in the year 1403. THEOBALD. Henry IV. Part I. was entered at Stationers' Hall, Feb. 25, 1597, by A. Wise, and again by M. Woolff, Jan. 9. 1598. Shakspeare has apparently designed a regular connection of these dramatic histories from Richard the Second to Henry the Fifth. King Henry, at the end of Richard the Second, declares bis purpose to visit the Holy Land, which he resumes in the first speech of this play. The complaint made by King Henry in the last act of Richard the Second, of the wildness of his son, prepares the reader for the frolics which are here to be recounted, and the characters which are now to be exhibited. JOHNSON. This comedy was written, I believe, in the year 1597. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakspeare's Plays, vol. ix. VOL. IV. b MALONE. FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV. ACT I. SCENE I. LONDON. A ROOM IN THE PALACE. Enter King Henry, Westmoreland, Sir Walter Blunt, and Others. K. Hen. So shaken as we are, so wan with care, Find we a time for frighted peace to pant, And breathe short-winded accents of new broils To be commenc'd in stronds afar remote. No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood; No more shall trenching war channel her fields, Nor bruise her flowrets with the armed hoofs Of hostile paces: those opposed eyes, Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, March all one way; and be no more oppos'd (Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross West. My liege, this haste was hot in question, K. Hen. It seems then, that the tidings of this broil Brake off our business for the Holy land. West. This, match'd with other, did, my gracious lord; For more uneven and unwelcome news Came from the north, and thus it did import. Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour; And shape of likelihood, the news was told; K. Hen. Here is a dear and true-industrious friend, Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse, Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours; Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, |