The edge of war, like an ill-sheathed knife,
No more shall cut his master.

Therefore, friends,

As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,

Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross
We are impressed and engaged to fight,`
Forthwith a power of English shall we levy;
Whose arms were moulded in their mothers' womb
To chase these pagans in those holy fields
Over whose acres walk'd those blessed feet,
Which fourteen hundred years ago were nail'd
For our advantage on the bitter cross.
But this our purpose now is twelve month old,
And bootless 'tis to tell you we will go:
Therefore we meet not now.
Of you, my gentle cousin Westmoreland,
What yesternight our council did decree
In forwarding this dear expedience.

20

25

Then let me hear

30

levy] leauy Q 1.
23. mothers']
24. in those] from those Dering MS.
month Qq 3-6; is a tweluemonth Ff.

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: 66 woe to wretched land That wastes itself with civill sword in hand."

Edge = sword, as in Coriolanus, v. vi. 113.

66

19-22. As far as to levy] For this 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 my father's court."

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 repreold] "month" sents 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, Q7 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,
And many limits of the charge set down
But yesternight: when all athwart there came
A post from Wales loaden with heavy news;
Whose worst was, that the noble Mortimer,
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
A thousand of his people butchered;
Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse,
Such beastly shameless transformation,

By those Welshwomen done, as may not be
Without much shame retold or spoken of.
King. It seems then that the tidings of this broil
Brake off our business for the Holy Land.

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.).

34. was hot .] was being eagerly debated. Cf. Twelfth Night, I. ii. 32: "'twas fresh in murmur.' "

66

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.

Unto the leading of Alvares Peres,
etc."
Warburton explains "limits of
the charge as estimates of the ex-
pense," Hudson as "appointments for
the undertaking," Wright as "defini-
tions of the scope of the enterprise and
the duties of the commanders," and
Herford as "express and definite in-
structions."

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 " aboue a thousand").

43. corpse] corpses, as in 2 Henry IV. 1. i. 192. So Middleton, A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, II. 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;
For more uneven and unwelcome news
Came from the north and thus it did import:
On Holy-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy, and brave Archibald,
That ever-valiant and approved Scot,
At Holmedon met,

Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour;
As by discharge of their artillery,

And shape of likelihood, the news was told;
For he that brought them, in the very heat
And pride of their contention did take horse,
Uncertain of the issue any way.

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. 394.

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. 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. 453.

57, 58. As by discharge . . . told]

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

That gives them credit " (Folio). Elizabethan usage in respect to "news" and "tidings" was unsettled, 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. So in Rape of Lucrece, 705, and Macbeth, II. iv. 12.

King. Here is a dear, a true industrious friend,

Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse,
Stain'd with the variation of each soil

Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours;

And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news.
The Earl of Douglas is discomfited:

Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,

Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see

On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hotspur took 70
Mordake the Earl of Fife, and eldest son

62. a dear, a true] Qq 3, 4; deere, a true Qq 1, 2; a deare and true Qq 5-8, 64. Stain'd] Strain'd F, Dering MS. 69. blood did] bloud. Did Qq 70. Holmedon's plains] Holmedon plaine Qq 6-8.

To beaten Douglas; and the Earl of Athol,
Of Murray, Angus, and Menteith:
And is not this an honourable spoil?
A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it not?

West. In faith,

It is a conquest for a prince to boast of

King. Yea, there thou makest me sad and makest me sin
In envy that my Lord Northumberland
Should be the father to so blest a son,

A son who is the theme of honour's tongue;
Amongst a grove, the very straightest plant;
Who is sweet Fortune's minion and her pride:
Whilst I, by looking on the praise of him,
See riot and dishonour stain the brow
Of my young Harry. O that it could be proved
That some night-tripping fairy had exchanged
In cradle-clothes our children where they lay,
And call'd mine Percy, his Plantagenet !

72. Earl] Earle Qq, Ff 1-3. 73. A gallant of.] See note infra.

...

Murray] Murrey Qq ; Murry F.
80. to] of Qq 5-8, Ff.

72. the Earl of Athol] French, Shakespeareana Genealogica: "At the date of the battle of Holmedon there was virtually no 'Earl of Athol,' that dignity having been resigned to the crown in 1341, and it was not revived until 1408, in the person of Walter Stewart, second son of King Robert II. There is, however, in Rymer's Foedera, a safe-conduct dated June 8, 1404, granted to Walter Stewart, Earl of Athol and Caithness, to enable him to visit the shrine of Thomas à Becket."

73. Murray] Thomas Dunbar, second Earl of Moray.

73. Angus] George Douglas, only son of William, first Earl of Douglas. His mother, Margaret Stewart, was Countess of Angus in her own right (French, Shak. Gen.).

73. Menteith] This was one of the titles of Murdach Earl of Fife, whose mother, Margaret Graham, was Countess of Menteith in her own right. In making two persons of Fife and Menteith Shakespeare follows Holinshed, Chronicles (ed. 1808), iii. 21: "Mordacke earle of Fife, . . . Robert earle of Angus, and (as some writers haue) the earles of Atholl & Menteith."

75-77. A gallant . . . boast of.] The

:

75

80

85

75-77.

arrangement of the text is that of
Steevens (1793). Qq 1, 2 read :-
"A gallant prize? Ha coosen, is
In faith it is.

it not?
West. A conquest for a Prince to

boast of."

And so all subsequent Qq and Ff, but without the blank between not ? and In faith. Pope read :—

"A gallant prize? ha, cousin, is it
not?

West. In faith, a conquest for a
Prince to boast of."

83. minion] favourite, as in King
John, II. i. 392.
85, 86. riot
pp. xvi-xviii and xxvii.

Harry] See Introd.

87, 88. That some ... lay] An allusion to the popular belief that the fairies will steal a beautiful child at its birth, leaving in exchange an ugly elf or changeling. See Midsummer-Night's Dream, 11. i. 23; and Marlowe, The Massacre at Paris (Dyce, p. 243): “My son! thou art a changeling, not my son." Cf. also Norton and Sackville, Gorboduc, Iv. i; Spenser, Faerie Queene, 1. x. 35; Nashe, Foure Letters Confuted (Grosart, ii. 265); Romeo and Juliet, 1. iv. 54 (in this edition, Dowden's note); Gay, Fables, Pt. I. iii.