Are at this hour asleep!-O Sleep, O gentle Sleep, Why rather, Sleep, liest thou in smoky cribs, And hushed with buzzing night-flies to thy slumber, And lulled with sounds of sweetest melody? Enter WARWICK and SURREY. War. Many good morrows to your majesty! War. 'Tis one o'clock, and past. 1 A watch case here may mean the case of a watch-light; but the following article, cited by Strutt in his Manners and Customs, vol. iii. p. 70, from an old inventory, may throw some light upon it:-"Item, a laume (larum) or watche of iron, in an iron case, with two leaden plumets." 2 Some commentators propose to read shrouds instead of clouds. 3 Warburton conjectures, that this is a corrupt reading for happy lowly clown. K. Hen. Why then, good morrow to you all,' my lords. Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you? War. We have, my liege. K. Hen. Then you perceive, the body of our kingdom How foul it is; what rank diseases grow, And with what danger, near the heart of it. War. It is but as a body, yet, distempered; Which to his former strength may be restored, With good advice, and little medicine. My lord Northumberland will soon be cooled. K. Hen. O Heaven! that one might read the book of fate, And see the revolution of the times Make mountains level, and the continent Weary of solid firmness) melt itself Into the sea! and, other times, to see The beachy girdle of the ocean Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock, And changes fill the cup of alteration With divers liquors! O, if this were seen, 2 The happiest youth-viewing his progress through, Since Richard, and Northumberland, great friends, [TO WARWICK. 1 This mode of phraseology, where only two persons are addressed, is used again in King Henry VI. Part 2. 2 This and the three following lines are from the quarto copy. 3 The reference is to King Richard II. Act iv. Sc. 2: but neither Warwick nor the king were present at that conversation. Henry had then ascended the throne. 4 The earldom of Warwick was at this time in the family of Beauchamp, When Richard with his eyes brimfull of tears, That I and greatness were compelled to kiss :-— War. There is a history in all men's lives, Such things become the hatch and brood of time; King Richard might create a perfect guess, K. Hen. Are these things then necessities? Then let us meet them like necessities: And that same word even now cries out on us; They say, the bishop and Northumberland Are fifty thousand strong. War. It cannot be, my lord; Rumor doth double, like the voice and echo, The powers that you already have sent forth, and did not come into that of the Nevils till many years after; when Anne, the daughter of this earl, married Richard Nevil, son of the earl of Salisbury, who makes a conspicuous figure in the Third Part of King Henry VI. under the title of earl of Warwick. Shall bring this prize in very easily. K. Hen. I will take your counsel; And, were these inward wars once out of hand, SCENE II. Court before Justice Shallow's House in Gloucestershire. Enter SHALLOW and SILENCE, meeting; MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, BULL-CALF, and Servants, behind. Shal. Come on, come on, come on; give me your hand, sir, give me your hand, sir: an early stirrer, by the rood. And how doth my good cousin Silence? Sil. Good morrow, good cousin Shallow. Shal. And how doth my cousin, your bedfellow? and your fairest daughter, and mine, my god-daughter Ellen? Sil. Alas, a black ouzel, cousin Shallow. Shal. By yea and nay, sir, I dare say, my cousin William is become a good scholar. He is at Oxford, still, is he not? Sil. Indeed, sir; to my cost. Shal. He must then to the inns of court shortly. I was once of Clement's inn, where, I think, they will talk of mad Shallow yet. Sil. You were called-lusty Shallow, then, cousin. Shal. By the mass, I was called any thing; and I would have done any thing, indeed, and roundly too. There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire, and 1 Glendower did not die till after king Henry IV. Shakspeare was led into this error by Holinshed. 2 The rood is the cross or crucifix (rode, Sax.). 2 black George Bare, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele, a Cotswold man,'-you had not four such swinge-bucklers in all the inns of court again: and, I may say to you, we knew where the bona-robas 3 were; and had the best of them all at commandment. Then was Jack Falstaff, now sir John, a boy, and page to Thomas Mowbray, duke of Norfolk. Sil. This sir John, cousin, that comes hither anon about soldiers? 4 Shal. The same sir John, the very same. I saw him break Skogan's head at the court gate, when he was a crack, not thus high; and the very same day did I fight with one Sampson Stockfish, a fruiterer, behind Gray's Inn. O, the mad days that I have spent! and to see how many of mine old acquaintance are dead! Sil. We shall all follow, cousin. Shal. Certain, 'tis certain; very sure, very sure: death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all: all shall die. How a good yoke of bullocks at Stamford fair? Sil. Truly, cousin, I was not there. Shal. Death is certain.-Is old Double of your town living yet? Sil. Dead, sir. Shal. Dead-See, see!-he drew a good bow:And dead!-he shot a fine shoot:-John of Gaunt loved him well, and betted much money on his head. Dead! he would have clapped i' the clout at twelve score; and carried you a forehand shaft a fourteen and fourteen and a half, that it would have done a 1 The Cotswold hills in Gloucestershire were famous for rural sports of all kinds. 2 Swinge-bucklers and swash-bucklers were terms implying rakes and rioters. 3"Buona-roba as we say, good stuff; a good, wholesome, plump-cheeked wench." Florio. 4 Shakspeare probably got his idea of Scogan from his jests, which were published by Andrew Borde in the reign of king Henry VIII. 5 A crack is a boy. 6 Hit the white mark at twelve score yards. By the statute 33 Hen. VIII. c. 9, every person turned of seventeen years of age, who shoots at a less distance than twelve score, is to forfeit six shillings and eight pence. |