PAGE. A proper gentlewoman, fir, and a kinswoman of my mafter's.

P. HEN. Even fuch kin, as the parish heifers are to the town bull.-Shall we steal upon them, Ned, at fupper?

POINS. I am your fhadow, my lord; I'll follow you.

P. HEN. Sirrah, you boy,-and Bardolph ;-no word to your mafter, that I am yet come to town: There's for your filence.

BARD. I have no tongue, fir.

PAGE. And for mine, fir,-I will govern it.

P. HEN. Fare ye well; go. [Exeunt BARDOLPH and Page.]-This Doll Tear-fheet fhould be fome

road.

POINS. I warrant you, as common as the way between Saint Alban's and London.

P. HEN. How might we fee Falstaff bestow himfelf to-night in his true colours, and not ourselves

be seen ?

POINS. Put on two leather jerkins,+ and aprons, and wait upon him at his table as drawers.

So, in The Captain, a comedy, by Beaumont and Fletcher : "Three little children, one of them was mine;

"Upon my confcience the other two were pagans." In The City Madam of Malfinger it is ufed (as here) for a prostitute:

-in all thefe places

"I've had my feveral Pagans billeted." STEEVENS.

4 Put on two leather jerkins,] This was a plot very unlikely to fucceed where the Prince and the drawers were all known; but it produces merriment, which our author found more useful than probability. JOHNSON.

Johnfon forgets that all the family were in the fecret, except Falstaff; and that the Prince and Poins were disguised.

M. MASON.

P. HEN. From a god to a bull? a heavy defcenfion! 5 it was Jove's cafe. From a prince to a prentice? a low transformation! that shall be mine: for, in every thing, the purpose must weigh with the folly. Follow me, Ned. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Warkworth. Before the Caftle.

Enter NORTHUMBERLAND, Lady NORTHUMBERLAND, and Lady PERCY.

NORTH. I pray thee, loving wife, and gentle daughter,

Give even way unto my rough affairs :
Put not you on the vifage of the times,
And be, like them, to Percy troublesome.

But how does this circumftance meet with Dr. Johnfon's objection? The improbability arifes from Falftaff's being perfectly well acquainted with all the waiters in the house; and however disguised the Prince and Poins might be, or whatever aid they might derive from the landlord and his fervants, they could not in fact pafs for the old attendants, with whofe perfon, voice, and manner, Falstaff was well acquainted. Accordingly he dif covers the Prince as foon as ever he speaks. However, Shakfpeare's chief object was to gain an opportunity for Falstaff to abuse the Prince and Poins, while they remain at the back part of the ftage in their disguises: a jeu de theatre which he practifed in other plays, and which always gains applaufe.

MALONE.

a heavy defcenfion!] Defcenfion is the reading of the

first edition.

Mr. Upton proposes that we should read thus by tranfpofition: From a god to a bull? a low transformation!from a prince to a prentice? a heavy declenfion! This reading is elegant, and perhaps right. JOHNSON.

The folio reads-declenfion. MALONE.

LADY N. I have given over, I will speak no more; Do what you will; your wisdom be your guide. NORTH. Alas, fweet wife, my honour is at pawn; And, but my going, nothing can redeem it.

LADY P. O, yet, for God's fake, go not to these

wars!

The time was, father, that you broke your word,
When you were more endear'd to it than now;
When your own Percy, when my heart's dear Harry,
Threw many a northward look, to fee his father
Bring up his powers; but he did long in vain."
Who then perfuaded you to stay at home?
There were two honours loft; yours, and your fon's.
For yours, may heavenly glory brighten it!
For his,―it ftuck upon him, as the fun

In the grey vault of heaven:? and, by his light,
Did all the chivalry of England move

To do brave acts; he was, indeed, the glafs
Wherein the noble youth did dress themselves.
He had no legs, that practis'd not his gait :

• Threw many a northward look, to fee his father Bring up his powers; but he did long in vain.] Mr. Theobald very elegantly conjectures that the poet wrote,

but he did look in vain.

Statius, in the tenth Book of his Thebaid, has the fame thought:

fruftra de colle Lycæi

"Anxia profpectas, fi quis per nubila longe

"Aut fonus, aut noftro fublatus ab agmine pulvis."

STEEVENS. 7 In the grey vault of heaven:] So, in one of our author's poems to his mistress:

"And truly, not the morning fun of heaven
"Better becomes the grey cheeks of the eaft," &c.

STEEVENS. He had no legs, &c.] The twenty-two following lines are of thofe added by Shakspeare after his first edition. POPE. They were first printed in the folio, 1623. MALONE.

And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish,
Became the accents of the valiant ;9

For those that could fpeak low, and tardily,
Would turn their own perfection to abuse,
To feem like him: So that, in fpeech, in gait,
In diet, in affections of delight,

In military rules, humours of blood,

He was the mark and glass, copy and book,
That fashion'd others. And him,-O wondrous

him!

O miracle of men !-him did
you leave,
(Second to none, unfeconded by you,)
To look upon the hideous god of war
In difadvantage; to abide a field,

Where nothing but the found of Hotfpur's name
Did feem defenfible: 2-fo you left him:

9 And speaking thick, which nature made his blemish, Became the accents of the valiant ;] Speaking thick is, Speaking fast, crouding one word on another. So, in Cymbeline:

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fay, and Speak thick,

"Love's counfellor fhould fill the bores of hearing-." "Became the accents of the valiant" is, came to be affected by them," a sense which (as Mr. M. Mason obferves) is confirmed by the lines immediately fucceeding:

"For those that could fpeak low, and tardily,
"Would turn their own perfection to abuse,

"To feem like him :-."

The oppofition defigned by the adverb tardily, alfo ferves to support my explanation of the epithet thick. STEEVENS.

'He was the mark and glass, copy and book,

That fashion'd others.] So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece, 1594:

"For princes are the glass, the school, the book,
"Where subjects' eyes do learn, do read, do look."
MALONE.

2 Did feem defenfible:] Defenfible does not in this place mean capable of defence, but bearing ftrength, furnishing the means of defence;-the paffive for the active participle.

MALONE.

Never, O never, do his ghoft the wrong,
To hold your honour more precife and nice
With others, than with him; let them alone;
The marfhal, and the archbishop, are strong:
Had my sweet Harry had but half their numbers,
To-day might I, hanging on Hotfpur's neck,
Have talk'd of Monmouth's grave.

NORTH.

Befhrew your heart,

Fair daughter! you do draw my fpirits from me,
With new lamenting ancient overfights.

But I must go, and meet with danger there;
Or it will feek me in another place,

And find me worfe provided.

LADY N.

O, fly to Scotland, Till that the nobles, and the armed commons, Have of their puissance made a little taste.

LADY P. If they get ground and vantage of the king,

Then join you with them, like a rib of fteel,
To make ftrength stronger; but, for all our loves,
Firft let them try themfelves: So did
your fon;
He was fo fuffer'd; fo came I a widow;
And never shall have length of life enough,
To rain upon remembrance3 with mine eyes,
That it may grow and fprout as high as heaven,
For recordation to my noble husband.

3 To rain upon remembrance-] Alluding to the plant rofemary, fo called, and used in funerals.

Thus, in The Winter's Tale:

"For you there's rofemary and rue, these keep
Seeming and favour all the winter long:

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"Grace and remembrance be to you both," &c.

For as rue was called herb of grace, from its being used in exorcitms; fo rofemary was called remembrance, from its being a cephalick. WARBURTON.