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Wou'd fhut the book, and fit him down and die. 'Tis not ten Years gone,

Since Richard and Northumberland, great Friends, Did feaft together; and in two years after Were they at wars. It is but eight years fince, This Percy was the man nearest my foul; Who, like a brother, toil'd in my affairs, And laid his love and life under my foot; Yea, for my fake, ev'n to the eyes of Richard Gave him defiance. But which of you was by? (You, coufin Nevil, as I may remember) [To War. When Richard, with his eye brim-full of tears, Then check'd and rated by Northumberland, Did fpeak these words, now prov'd a prophecy. 'Northumberland, thou ladder by the which My coufin Bolingbroke afcends my Throne:' Though then, Heav'n knows, I had no fuch intent But that Neceffity fo bow'd the State, That I and Greatnefs were compell'd to kiss: "The time will come, thus did he follow it, The time will come, that foul fin, gathering head, • Shall break into corruption: fo went on, Foretelling this fame time's condition,

And the divifion of our amity.

War. There is a history in all

Figuring the Nature of the times deceas'd;
The which obferv'd, a man may prophefy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life, which in their feeds
And weak beginnings lie intreasured.

Such things become the hatch and brood of time;
And by the neceffary form of this,
King Richard might create a perfect guess,

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s He refers to King Richard, 5. fcene 2. But whether the King's or the authour's memory fails him, so it was, that Warwick was not prefent at that converfation.

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The neceffary form of things. The word this has no very evident antecedent.

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That great Northumberland, then falfe to him,
Would of that feed grow to a greater falfenefs,
Which fhould not find a ground to root upon,
Unless on You.

K. Henry. Are thefe things then neceffities *?
Then let us meet them like neceffities;

And that same word even now cries out on us.

They fay, the Bishop and Northumberland
Are fifty thousand strong.

War. It cannot be:

Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo,
The numbers of the fear'd. Pleafe it your Grace
To go to bed. Upon my life, my lord,

The Pow'rs, that you already have fent forth,
Shall bring this prize in very easily.

To comfort you the more, I have receiv'd
A certain inftance that Glendower is dead.
Your Majefty hath been this fortnight ill,
And thefe unfeafon'd hours perforce must add
Unto
your fickness.

K. Henry. I will take your counsel;

And were these inward wars once out of hand,
We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land'. [Exeunt.

Are these things then neceffities? Then let us meet them like necef fities;] I am inclined to

read,

through the firft edition, and there is therefore no evidence that the divifion of the acts was made by the authour. Since then every editor has the fame right

Then let us meet them like necef- to mark the intervals of action fity.

That is, with the refiftlefs violence of neceffity; then comes more aptly the following line:

And that fame word even now

cries out on us.

That is, the word neceffity.

7

- unto the Holy Land.] This play, like the former, proceeds in one unbroken tenour

as the players, who made the prefent diftribution, I should propofe that this scene may be added to the foregoing act, and the remove from London to Gloucesterfhire be made in the intermediate time, but that it would fhorten the next aft too much, which has not even now its due proportion to the rest.

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SCENE III.

Changes to Justice Shallow's Seat in Gloucestershire.

Enter Shallow and Silence, Juftices; with Mouldy, Shadow, Wart, Feeble, and Bull-calf.

COM

Shal. OME on, come on, come on; give me your hand, Sir; an early ftirrer,

rood.

And how doth my good coufin Silence?

Sil. Good morrow, good coufin Shallow.

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by the

Shal. And how doth my coufin, your bed-fellow ? and your faireft daughter, and mine, my god-daughter

Ellen?

Sil. Alas, a black ouzel, coufin Shallow.

Shal. By yea, and nay, Sir, I dare fay, my coufin William is become a good fcholar. He is at Oxford ftill,

is he not?

Sil. Indeed, Sir, to my coft.

Shal. He must then to the Inns of Court fhortly. I was once of Clement's Inn; where, I think, they will talk of mad Shallow yet.

Sil. You were call'd lufty Shallow then, cousin.

Shal. I was call'd any thing, and I would have done any thing, indeed, too, and roundly too. There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire, and black George Bare, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele a Cotswold man, you had not four fuch fwinge-bucklers in all. the Inns of Court again; and I may fay to you, we knew where the Bona-Roba's were, and had the beft of them all at commandment. Then was Jack Falstaff, now Sir John, a boy, and page to Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk.

by the road.] i. e. the cross.

POPE.

Siz.

Sil. This Sir John, coufin, that comes hither anon about Soldiers?

Shal. The fame Sir John, the very fame. I faw him break Schoggan's head at the Court-gate, when he was a crack, not thus high; and the very fame day I did fight with one Sampfon Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's-Inn. O the mad days that I have fpent! and to fee how many of mine old acquaintance are dead? Sil. We fhall all follow, coufin.

Shal. Certain, 'tis certain, very fure, very fure. Death (as the Pfalmift faith) is certain to all, all fhall die. How a good yoke of Bullocks at Stamford Fair? Sil. Truly, coufin, I was not there.

Shal. Death is certain. Is old Double of your town living yet?

Sil. Dead, Sir.

Shal. Dead!-fee, fee-he drew a good bow. And dead?—he fhot a fine fhoot. John of Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on his head. Dead!-he would have clapt in the clowt at twelve fcore, and carried you a fore hand fhaft a ' fourteen and fourteen and a half, that it would have done a man's heart good to fee. How a fcore of ewes now?

Sil. Thereafter as they be. A fcore of good ewes may be worth ten pounds.

Shal. And is old Double dead?

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Enter Bardolph, and Page.

Sil. Here come two of Sir John Falstaff's men, as I think.

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Shal. Good-morrow, honeft gentlemen.

Bard. I befeech you, which is Juftice Shallow?

clapt in the clout] i. e. a half] That is, fourteen score hit the white mark. WARBURT. -fourteen and fourteen and

of yards.

U 3

Shal.

Shal. I am Robert Shallow, Sir, a poor Efquire of this Country, one of the King's Juftices of the peace. What is your good pleafure with me?

Bard. My captain, Sir, commends him to you, my captain Sir John Falstaff; a tall gentleman, by heav'n! and a moft gallant leader.

Shal. He greets me well, Sir, I knew him a good back-fword man. How doth the good Knight? may I afk, how my lady his wife doth?

Bard. Sir, pardon, a foldier is better accommodated than with a wife.

Shal. It is well faid, Sir; and it is well faid indeed too, better accommodated-it is good, yea, indeed, is it; good phrafes, furely, are, and ever were, very commendable. Accommodated-it comes of accommodo; very good, a good phrafe.

Bard. Pardon me, Sir, I have heard the word. Phrafe, call you it? By this day, I know not the phrafe, but I will maintain the word with my fword, to be a foldier-like word, and a word of exceeding good command. Accommodated, that is, when a man is, as they fay, accommodated; or, when a man is, being whereby he may be thought to be accommodated, which is an excellent thing.

2

very good, a good phrafe] Accommodate was a modifh term of that time, as Ben Johnson informs us: You are not to caft or wring for the perfuming terms of the time, as accommodation, complement, fpirit, &c. but use them properly in their places as others. Discoveries. Hence Bardolph calls it a word of exceeding good

command. His definition of it is admirable, and highly fatirical: nothing being more common than for inaccurate fpeakers or writers, when they should define, to put their hearers off with a fynonymous term; or, for want of that, even with the fame term differently accommodated; as in the inftance before us. WARBURT.

SCENE

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