Where stain'd nobility lies trodden on, P. John. We breathe too long:-Come, cousin Westmoreland, Our duty this way lies; for God's sake, come. I did not think thee lord of such a spirit; K. Hen. I saw him hold Lord Percy at the point, With lustier maintenance than I did look for Of such an ungrown warrior2. P. Hen. Lends mettle to us all! O, this boy [Exit. Alarums. Enter DOUGLAS. Doug. Another king! they grow like Hydra's heads; I am the Douglas, fatal to all those That wear those colours on them.-What art thou, That counterfeit❜st the person of a king? So K. Hen. The king himself; who, Douglas, grieves at heart, many of his shadows thou hast met, And not the very king. I have two boys, Doug. I fear, thou art another counterfeit ; 24 the earle of Richmond withstood his violence, and kept him at the sword's point, without advantage, longer than his companions either thought or judged.'—Holinshed, p. 759. But mine, I am sure, thou art, whoe'er thou be, [They fight; the King being in danger, enter P. Hen. Hold up thy head, vile Scot, or thou art like Never to hold it up again! the spirits Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms: [They fight; DOUGLAS flies. K. Hen. Stay, and breathe a while :— Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion3; And show'd, thou mak'st some tender of my life, In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me. P. Hen. O heaven! they did me too much injury, The insulting hand of Douglas over you; 3 Opinion for estimation, reputation, the opinion of the world. The word was then used in that sense. So in Thierry and Theodoret : 'What opinion will the managing Of this affair bring to my wisdom! my invention And in the Gamester, by Shirley: Patience: I mean you have the opinion of a valiant gentleman; one that dares fight and maintain your honour against odds.' A Enter HOTSpur. Hot. If I mistake not, thou art Harry Monmouth. P. Hen. Thou speak'st as if I would deny my very valiant rebel of the name. Why, then I see I am the prince of Wales; and think not, Percy, Hot. Nor shall it, Harry, for the hour is come Enter FALSTaff. [They fight. Fal. Well said, Hal! to it, Hal!-Nay, you shall find no boy's play here, I can tell you. Enter DOUGLAS; he fights with FALSTAFF, who falls down as if he were dead, and exit DOUGLAS. HOTSPUR is wounded, and falls*. Hot. O, Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth, I better brook the loss of brittle life, Than those proud titles thou hast won of me; * Shakspeare had no authority for making Hotspur fall by the hand of the prince. Holinshed says, The king slew that day with his own hand six and thirty persons of his enemies. The other of his party, encouraged by his doings, fought valiantly, and slew the Lord Percy, called Henry Hotspur.' Speed says that Percy was killed by an unknown hand. They wound my thoughts, worse than thy sword my flesh: But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool; Ill weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk! Is room enough:-This earth, that bears thee dead, If thou wert sensible of courtesy, I should not make so dear a show of zeal:- 5 Hotspur, in his last moments, endeavours to console himself. The glory of the prince wounds his thoughts; but thought, being dependent on life, must cease with it, and will soon be at an end. Life, on which thought depends, is itself of no great value, being the fool and sport of time; of time which, with all its dominion over sublunary things, must itself at last be stopped.—Johnson. So in Shakspeare's one hundred and sixth sonnet: 6 'Love's not Time's fool.' Carminibus confide bonis-jacet ecce Tibullus; 7 His scarf, with which he covers Percy's face. 8 Thus the folio. The quartos read ignominy. Shakspeare writes the word ignomy in Troilus and Cressida, Act v. Sc. 3:'Hence, broker lacquey! ignomy and shame.' And in Lord Cromwell, 1602: With scandalous ignomy and slanderous speeches.' But not remember'd in thy epitaph! [He sees FALSTAFF on the ground. What! old acquaintance! could not all this flesh Keep in a little life? Poor Jack, farewell! I could have better spar'd a better man. [Exit. Fal. [Rising slowly.] Embowelled! if thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder 10 me, and eat me too, to-morrow. 'Sblood, 'twas time to counterfeit, or that hot termagant Scot had paid me scot and lot too. Counterfeit? I lie, I am no counterfeit: To die, is to be a counterfeit; for he is but the counterfeit of a man who hath not the life of a man: but to counterfeit dying, when a man thereby liveth, is to be no counterfeit, but the true and perfect image of life indeed. The better part of valour is-discretion; in the which better part, I have saved my life. 'Zounds, I am afraid of this gunpowder Percy, though he be dead: How, if he should counterfeit too, and rise? I am afraid, he would prove the better counterfeit. Therefore I'll make him sure: yea, and I'll swear I killed him. Why may not he rise as well as I? Nothing confutes me but eyes, and nobody sees me. There 9 To imbowell was the old term for embalming the body, as was usually done by those of persons of rank. Thus in Aulicus Coquinariæ, 1650:—' The next day was solemnly appointed for imbowelling the corps, in the presence of some of the counsell, all the physicians, chirurgions, apothecaries, and the Palsgrave's physician.' 10 Salt. |