THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH ACT I SCENE I.-London. The Palace. Enter KING HENRY, LORD JOHN OF LANCASTER, the EARL OF WESTMORELAND, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and others. King. 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 No more the thirsty entrance of this soil 5 ACT I. SCENE 1.] Acts and Scenes not marked in Qq; marked throughout in Ff. London. .] Cambridge; London. A Room in the Palace. Capell; The court in London. Theobald. Lord John of Lancaster,] Qq, Ff; omitted Capell. Sir Walter Blunt] Dering MS., Capell; omitted Qq, Ff. 5. entrance] Entrails F 4; entrants Steevens conj.; Erinnys M. Mason conj., Steevens (1793); bosom Dering MS. 2-4. Find... remote] Let us now suffer peace, whom our feuds have affrighted, to take breath, and presently she will whisper in short-breathed accents rumours of new wars against infidels in distant lands. The general sense is that the declaration of a holy war against the infidels will bring about a cessation of hostilities at home. Peace will then slumber once more undisturbed in her native seat of England. The same thought, or its converse, occurs in Richard II. IV. i. 139-141 :-"Peace shall go sleep with Turks and infidels, And in this seat of peace tumultuous wars Shall kin with kin and kind with kind confound." 3 Cf. ibid. 1. iii. 132-137. To pant, to take breath, as in Coriolanus, 11. ii. 126. Breathe, to whisper, as in King John, Iv. ii. 36. For "short-winded " cf. Shelton, Don Quixote, Part II. xxiii: "deep sighs and short-breathed accents." Stronds, strands, coasts; "strond" is a phonetic variant of "strand." 5. thirsty entrance of this soil] "Entrance" is here used collectively for the pores in the soil, the cracks and crannies of the earth, the language being intentionally vague in order to veil the boldness of the figure. Malone refers to Genesis iv. II as the source of the imagery: "the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood," and compares 3 Henry Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood; 8. flowerets] flowers Qq 6-8. armed] armd Q3. 6. daub] Corrupted in Ff 2-4 into dambe or damb, which is altered by Theobald to damp and by Warburton to trempe. 6. her her] Both pronouns refer to "this soil." Q8 reads his . . . her, the first pronoun referring apparently to " entrance” and the second to “ this soil." So Malone and others construe, reading her her. For "her own children" cf. Stubbes, Anatomie of Abuses, Part 1. (ed. Furnivall, p. 29): "Dame Nature bryngeth vs all into the worlde... and receiueth all againe into the womb of our mother, I meane the bowells of the earth." 7. trenching] cutting trenches in the earth. 8, 9. bruise. paces] Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, The Loyal Subject, IV. ΙΟ 15 9. eyes] arms Hanmer; 16. allies] all eyes Q 4. opponents," eyes" standing by synecdoche for the combatants themselves. For eyes Hanmer substituted arms, Warburton files. The flashing eyes of the opposed warriors suggest fiery meteors; and these meteors resemble the warriors themselves, being, like them, of one and the same origin. See Florio, The New World of Words: Meteors, certain imperfectly mix't bodies, consisting of vapours drawn up into the Middle Region of the Air, and set out in different forms; as rain, hail, snow, wind, thunder and lightening, Blazing stars, etc." Aristotle (Meteor, 1. iv) writes concerning meteors, shooting stars, etc.: “ ταῦτα γὰρ πάντ ̓ ἐστὶ τὸ αὐτὸ καὶ διὰ τὴν αὐτὴν αἰτίαν, διαφέρει δὲ r4 μâλλov кal ĥTTOV." 10. the heaven] Cf. Heywood, The Iron Age (Pearson, ii. 323): "Contrary elements, the warring meteors Are not so oppos'd." Meteors, shooting stars, as in Richard II. II. iv. 9. 13. furious close] fierce encounter of combatants fighting hand to hand. New Eng. Dict. quotes Feltham, Resolves, I. ii: "Lest . . . they should get a wound in the cloze." For "close" as a technical term in fencing see G. Silver, Bref Instructions (1599), ed. Matthey, p. 101 et seq. 14. mutual ranks] ranks in which all are commingled or united. Titus Andronicus, v. iii. 71:"to knit again This scatter'd corn into one mutual sheaf." Well-beseeming, becoming, seemly, as in Titus Andronicus, II. iii. 56. The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife, Therefore, friends, As far as to the sepulchre of Christ, Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross 20 Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' womb 25 But this our purpose now is twelve month old, 30 levy] leauy Q 1. 22. Forthwith a] Forth with a Q 3. mother's F 4. womb] wombs Qq 6-8. 28. now is twelve month] Qq 1, 2; is twelue 17, 18. The edge .. master] Cf. Norton and Sackville, Gorboduc, II. ii: "woe to wretched land That wastes itself with civill sword in hand." = Edge vi. 113. this sword, as in Coriolanus, v. 66 19-22. As far as to... levy] For construction, which Steevens thought quite unexampled, if not corrupt," Gifford quotes a parallel from Gosson's Schoole of Abuse, 1579 (ed. Arber, p. 50): "Scipio leuied his force to the walls of Carthage.' The pregnant construction occurs occasionally in the dramatists; cf. Mucedorus, 1598 (Hazlitt's Dodsley, vii. 255): "[I] Disguis'd myself from out father's court." my 20. Whose soldier now] sc. we are. The anacoluthon presents no difficulty, the general sense being quite clear. 21. impressed] enlisted by our oath. Cf. Holland, Plutarch, The Romane Questions (ed. Jevons, p. 62): "prest soldiers by oth and enrolled." 21. engaged] pledged, bound by the obligation of an oath; as in Richard II. 1. iii. 17. The king refers here and in line 28 to his vow in Richard II. v. vi. 49, 50. ... 28. now old] "month" represents an old genitive plural, as in Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, B. 1674: "a child of twelf monthe oold," where "monthe" is a genitive plural after the numeral "twelf." To supply the loss of now, which dropped out of the text in Qq 3-6, Q 7 read is but twelve months old, and F is a tweluemonth old. See Introd. p. xiii. 30. Therefore . . . now] we do not meet for this purpose, viz. that I may tell you we will go. Cf. 2 Henry VI. Iv. viii. 24. 31. cousin] "Cousin" is used by Shakespeare of any degree of kinship after the first; but it was also a title of courtesy given by kings to great nobles. Wright: "Westmoreland was Henry's brother-in-law, his second wife Joan being the daughter of John of Gaunt by Catharine Swynford." 33. dear] dear in its import, important, as in Romeo and Juliet, v. iii. 32. West. My liege, this haste was hot in question, By those Welshwomen done, as may not be 39. Herefordshire] Herdforshire Qq 1, 2; Herdfordshire Qq 3-5. And a Ff. 43. corpse] corpes Q 1, Ff 1, 2; corps the rest. shameless] hyphened Elton (S. Walker conj.). The primary meaning of "expedience' is speed (cf. Henry V. IV. iii. 70) or that which requires speed; and in this sense the word is echoed in Westmoreland's reply, “this haste was hot in question.' 66 34. was hot .] was being eagerly debated. Cf. Twelfth Night, I. ii. 32: "'twas fresh in murmur.". 35. And... down] The general sense of this line must depend upon the meaning to be attached to "limits" and charge." "To limit" occurs in the sense of to assign or to appoint (e.g. in Richard III. v. iii. 25: "Limit each leader to his several charge," and in Macbeth, II. iii. 56), and here "limits of the charge" may mean appropriations of the estimated expenditure or assignment of commands in the expeditionary force. Cf. The Play of Stucley (Simpson's School of Shakspere, i. pp. 246, 247): "Ant. How shall it please your sacred Majesty To appoint the several charges of this war. Seb. Now Antonie unto our several charges.. we do commit of Tanieers, 35 40 45 42. A] 44. beastly 46. retold] Qq; re-told Ff. 36. all athwart] perversely, thwarting our purposes. Measure for Measure, 1. iii. 30; “quite athwart Goes all decorum." 37. post] messenger, as in Marlowe, Edward II. v. i; "Another post! what news brings he?" 38-46. See Introd. p. xxxv. 40. irregular] wild, lawless, as in III. ii. 27. "Irregulous" has the same sense in Cymbeline, IV. ii. 315. 42. A thousand] F has And a thousand. Vaughan conjectured And 'bove a thousand (suggested by Holinshed's "abcue a thousand "). 43. corpse] corpses, as in 2 Henry IV. 1. i. 192. So Middleton, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, 11. ii; "The dead corps of poor calves and sheep." So we find the plurals "circumstance" (1. iii. 70), "balance" (Merchant of Venice, iv. i. 255) and “ sense (Sonnets, cxii. 10). 43. misuse] abuse. Cf. Merry Wives of Windsor, Iv. ii. 105. West. This match'd with other did, my gracious lord; Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour; And shape of likelihood, the news was told; 50 55 60 49. other did] Qq 1, 2; other like the rest. 50. For more] Qq 1-4; Far more Qq 5-8, Ff 3, 4; Farre more Ff 1, 2. 51. import] report Qq 5-8, Ff. 54. ever-valiant] hyphened Ff; every valiant Q7; very valiant Q 8. 56. At... hour ;] divided as by Capell; lines ending spend houre: in Qq, Ff. 49. match'd with] joined with, as in Love's Labour's Lost, II. i. 49. 50. uneven] untoward. Richard II. II. ii. 121;— "all is uneven, And everything is left at six and seven. 51. thus . . . import] thus it purported, this was its purport. Cf. Hamlet, I. ii. 23, and Othello, II. ii. 3. 52. Holy-rood day] "the Rood daie in haruest" (Holinshed) i.e. September 14th. See Introd. pp. xv and xxxvi. 54. approved] tried, proved by experience. Kyd, Soliman and Perseda, I. iv : "Tis wondrous that so yong a toward warriour Should bide the shock of such approoued knights"; also Much Ado About Nothing, II. i. 55, 56. At hour;] The text follows Capell's division of the lines; in Qq and Ff line 55 ends at spend. Pope read At Holmedon spent a sad and bloody hour, and Vaughan conjectured At Holmedon met did spend a bloody hour. 55, as was reported by the messenger who had heard the discharge of artillery, from which he inferred the probability of a hotly contested fight. At Holmedon only the archers were engaged, but Shakespeare may have misunderstood Holinshed's statement that "with violence of the English shot they [the Scotch] were quite vanquished and put to flight." In the corresponding passage in Holinshed's Historie of Scotland we read: "with such incessant shot of arrows. 'Artillery" formerly included bows as well as guns, but that Shakespeare had the latter in mind is clear from the context and from the explicit mention of "vile guns” (1. iii. 63 post) and "salt-petre" (ibid. 1. 60). 59. them] As " news is treated as a singular in line 58, Pope altered them to it. Cf. however, Othello, I.iii. 1, 2: "There is no composition in these news was un That gives them credit " (Folio). Elizabethan usage in respect to "news and 66 tidings" settled, but the tendency was to treat them as singulars. FI frequently alters "these news to "this news," and Wright notes that in Richard II. III. iv. "this news "in lines 74 and 82 is followed by "these news in line 100. 60. pride] height, highest pitch. in Rape of Lucrece, 705, and Macbeth, told] II. iv. 12. 55. Holmedon] Now Humbleton, in Northumberland. Hall and Grafton, Chronicle, 1575: "A mountane neare to the Towne of Wollar called Halydoe Hill" (p. 551). A dissyllable, as in Drayton, Polyolbion, xxii. 45357, 58. As by discharge. So |