BARD. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. MOR. I am forry, I should force you to believe That, which I would to heaven I had not seen : But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state, Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out

breath'd,

2

To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat

down

The never-daunted Percy to the earth,
From whence with life he never more sprung up.
In few, his death (whose spirit lent a fire
Even to the dullest peasant in his camp.)
Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
From the best temper'd courage in his troops:
For from his metal was his party steel'd;
Which once in him abated, all the reft

This fignificant epithet has been adopted by Milton:
"I hear the far-off curfew found,
"Over some wide water'd shore

Swinging flow with fullen roar."

Departing, I believe, is here used for departed. MALONE.

I cannot concur in this supposition. The bell, anciently, was rung before expiration, and thence was called the passing bell, i. e. the bell that folicited prayers for the foul passing into another world. STEEVENS.

I am inclined to think that this bell might have been originally used to drive away demons who where watching to take poffeffion of the foul of the deceafed. In the cuts to some of the old fervice books which contain the Vigilia mortuorum, several devils are waiting for this purpose in the chamber of the dying man, to whom the priest is administering extreme unction. DOUCE.

2

faint quittance, Quittance is return. By faint quittance

is meant a faint return of blows. So, in King Henry V:
"We shall forget the office of our hand,
" Sooner than quittance of defert and merit."

3 For from his metal was his party steel'd;

STEEVENS

Which once in him abated, Abated, is not here put for the general idea of diminished, nor for the notion of blunted, as applied

Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead.
And as the thing that's heavy in itself,
Upon enforcement, flies with greatest speed;
So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's lofs,
Lend to this weight fuch lightness with their fear,
That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim,
Than did our foldiers, aiming at their safety,
Fly from the field: Then was that noble Worcester
Too foon ta'en prifoner: and that furious Scot,
The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword
Had three times flain the appearance of the king,
'Gan vail his ftomach, and did grace the shame
Of those that turn'd their backs; and, in his flight,
Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all
Is, that the king hath won; and hath fent out
A speedy power, to encounter you, my lord,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster,
And Westmoreland: this is the news at full.

NORTH. For this I shall have time enough to mourn.

In poison there is physick; and these news,

to a fingle edge. Abated means reduced to a lower temper, or, as the workmen call it, let down. JOHNSON.

4 'Gain vail his ftomach, Began to fall his courage, to let his spirits fink under his fortune. JOHNSON.

From avaler, Fr. to cast down, or to let fall down.

MALONE.

This phrafe has already appeared in The Taming of the Shrew, Vol. IX. p. 376:

" Then vail your ftomachs, for it is no boot;

"And place your hands below your husband's foot." REED. Thus, to vail the bonnet is to pull it off. So, in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599:

" And make the king vail bonnet to us both."

To vail a staff, is to let it fall in token of respect. Thus, in the same play:

Keep it still; claim thou privilege from me:

"And for the ancient custom of vail-staff,

"If any ask a reason, why? or how?

Say, English Edward vail'd his staff to you."

Having been well, that would have made me fick,4
Being fick, have in some measure made me well :
And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckles under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire
Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs,
Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,
Are thrice themselves: hence therefore, thou nice'

crutch;

4 Having been well, that would have made me fick,] i. e. that would, had I been well, have made me fick. MALONE.

5

6

buckle-] Bend; yield to preffure. JOHNSON.
even so my limbs,

Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,

Are thrice themselves:] As Northumberland is here comparing himself to a perfon, who, though his joints are weakened by a bodily diforder, derives ftrength from the distemper of the mind, I formerly proposed to read "Weakened with age," or, "Weakened with pain."

When a word is repeated, without propriety, in the fame or two fucceeding lines, there is great reason to suspect some corruption. Thus, in this scene, in the firft folio, we have " able heels," instead of " armed heels," in confequence of the word able having occurred in the preceding line. So, in Hamlet : “ Thy news shall be the news," &c. instead of- "Thy news shall be the fruit." Again, in Macbeth, instead of " Whom we, to gain our place," &c. we find

" Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace." In this conjecture I had once some confidence; but it is much diminished by the subsequent note, and by my having lately observed, that Shakspeare elsewhere uses grief for bodily pain. Falstaff, in K. Henry IV. Part I. p. 383, speaks of " the grief of a wound." Grief in the latter part of this line is used in its present sense, for forrow; in the former part for bodily pain. MALONE.

he

Grief, in ancient language, signifies, bodily pain, as well as forrow. So, in A Treatise of fundrie Diseases, &c. by T. T. 1591: “ being at that time griped fore, and having grief in his lower bellie." Dolor ventris is, by our old writers, frequently translated “ grief of the guts." I perceive no need of alteration. STEEVENS.

"That every nice offence should bear his comments."

STEEVENS.

A scaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel,
Muft glove this hand: and hence, thou fickly

quoif;

Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,
Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron; And approach
The ragged'st hours that time and spite dare bring,
To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!
Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die!
And let this world no longer be a stage,
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being fet
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead!9

8

The ragged'it hour-] Mr. Theobald and the fubfequent editors read-The rugged ft. But change is unnecessary, the expreffion in the text being used more than once by our author. In As you like it, Amiens says, his voice is ragged; and rag is employed as a term of reproach in The Merry Wives of Windfor, and in Timon of Athens. See also the Epiftle prefixed to Spenfer Shepherd's Calender, 1579: “ as, thinking them fittest for the ruftical rudeness of shepheards, either for that their rough found would make his rimes more ragged, and ruftical," &c. The modern editors of Spenser might here substitute the word rugged with just as much propriety as it has been fubftituted in the present passage, or in that in As you like it. See Vol. VIII. p. 222, n. 5.

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"Thy fecret pleasure turns to open shame,-
"Thy smoothing titles to a 'ragged name."

Again in our poet's eighth Sonnet:

" Then let not Winter's ragged hand deface
" In thee thy fummer."

Again, in the play before us:

"A ragged and fore-stall'd remiffion." MALONE.

9 And darkness be the burier of the dead!] The conclusion of this noble speech is extremely striking. There is no need to suppose it exactly philofophical; darkness, in poetry, may be absence of

1

2

TRA. This ftrained paffion doth you wrong, my

lord.

BARD. Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from

your honour.

MOR. The lives of all your loving complices Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er To ftormy paffion, must perforce decay. You caft the event of war, my noble lord.

3

And fumm'd the account of chance, before you

faid,

Let us make head. It was your presurmise,

That, in the dole of blows your fon might drop:

eyes, as well as privation of light. Yet we may remark, that by an ancient opinion it has been held, that if the human race, for whom the world was made, were extirpated, the whole fyftem of fublunary nature would cease. JOHNSON.

2

This ftrained paffion - ) This line in the quarto, where alone it is found, is given to Umfrevile, who, as Mr. Steevens has observed, is spoken of in this very scene as abfent. It was on this ground probably rejected by the player-editors. It is now, on the fuggeftion of Mr. Steevens, attributed to Travers, who is present, and yet (as that gentleman has remarked) is made to fay nothing on this interesting occafion." MALONE.

3

You caft the event of war, &c,) The fourteen lines from hence to Bardolph's next speech, are not to be found in the first editions till that in the folio of 1623. A very great number of other lines in this play were inserted after the first edition in like manner, but of fuch spirit and mastery generally, that the infertions are plainly by Shakspeare himself. POPE.

To this note I have nothing to add, but that the editor speaks of more editions than I believe him to have seen, there having been but one edition yet discovered by me that precedes the first folio.

4

JOHNSON.

in the dole of blows- The dole of blows is the diftribution of blows. Dole originally fignified the portion of alms (confifting either of meat or money) that was given away at the door of a nobleman. See Vol. XII. p. 213, n. 5. STEEVENS.