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tions he indulges himself in. The Prince has more of eafe and nature in his; delivering himself over to mirth and diffipation, without referve. Hotfpur's feftivity feems to refemble that of Hamlet; as affumed merely to relieve anxiety of mind, and cover fanguinary purposes; the Prince's gaiety, like that of Faulconbridge, appears to be more genuine, arifing from natural temper, and an healthful flow of fpirits. The Prince is Alcibiades-Percy is-himfelf.

There is likewife another character in this rich Play, of a moft peculiar diftinction; as being not only original, but inimitable, alfo-No copy of it has ever fince appeared, either in life or defcription. Any one of the Dramatis Perfonæ in Congreve's Comedies, or, indeed, in most of the modern ones, might repeat the wit or humour of the feparate parts, with equal effect on the audience, as the perfon to whofe rôle they are appropriated; but there is a certain characteristic peculiarity in all the humour of Falstaff, that would found flatly in the mouths of Bardolph, Poins, or Peto. In fine, the portrait of this extraordinary perfonage is delineated by fo mafterly a hand, that we may venture to pronounce it to be the only one that ever afforded fo high a degree of pleasure, without the leaft pretence to merit or virtue to fupport it.

I was obliged to pass by many of his strokes of humour, character, and defcription, because they did not fall within the rule I had prefcribed to my. felf in these notes; but I honeftly confefs that it was with regret, whenever I did fo; for, were there as much moral, as there certainly is phyfical, good in Jaughing, I might have tranfcribed every Scene of his, throughout this, the following Play, and the Merry Wives of Windfor, for the advantage of the health, as well as the entertainment, of my readers.

In King John.

HENRY the FOURTH.

SECOND PAR T.

Dramatis Perfonæ.

THE KING.

PRINCE OF WALES.

ME N.

PRINCE JOHN of Lancaster.

HUMPHREY OF GLOUCESTER.

THOMAS OF CLARENCE.

EARL OF NORTHUMBERLAND.'

ARCHBISHOP OF YORK.

LORD BARDOLPH.

MORTON.

EARL OF WARWICK.

Against the King,

LORD CHIEF JUSTICE.}. For the King.

SIR JOHN FALSTAFF.

BARDOLPH.
POINS.

PISTOL.

WOMEN:

LADY PERCY, Widow of Hotspur.

DOLL TEAR-SHEET.

HENRY the FOURTH.

SECOND PART.

A C T I. SCENE III.

THE

HE quick eye of fufpicion, with the prophetic nature of anxious apprehenfions, are well marked here. The latter is a fpecies of that kind of foreboding, often unaccountably arifing in the mind, which I have taken notice of in former places *.

Northumberland, Lord Bardolph, and Morton.

Morton, giving an account of the action at Shrewsbury, fays to Northumberland,

Dowglas is living, and your brother, yet;
But for my lord, your fon-

Here Northumberland haftily interrupts him:
Why, he is dead-

See what a ready tongue fufpicion hath.

He that but fears the thing he would not know,
Hath, by inftin&t, knowledge from other's eyes,
That what he feared is chanced.

Bardolph. Yet for all this, fay not that Percy's dead.

Northumberland to Morton.

I fee a strange confeffion in thine eye;

Thou fhak'it thy head, and hold'ft it fear or fin,
To speak a truth. If he be flain, say so.
The tongue offends not, that reports his death;
And he doth fin that doth belie the dead,
Not he that faith the dead is not alive.

Morton. Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a lofing office, and his tongue

* Richard II, A& II. Scene V, and Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene I.

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Sounds, ever after, as a fullen bell,

Remembered tolling a departed + friend.

I was just going to obferve upon the latter part of this dialogue, when I happened to recollect that I had already taken notice of a parallel paffage, in my fecond remark on the Firft Scene of the Third Act of King John, and to which I beg leave to refer my Reader.

The human mind, when roufed by danger, or inflamed with paffion, is capable of infpiring the brave heart with additional courage, and of fupplying new vigour to exhausted strength. This admirable economy in the human frame is contrived by nature, as being neceffary to felf-defence, as well as in order to render injury the more difficult and hazardous to the offender.

Northumberland. For this I fhall have time enough to mourn;
In poifon there is phyfic; and this news,

That would, had I been well, have made me fick,
Being fick, hath, in fome measure, made me well.
And as the wretch, whofe fever-weakened joints,
Like ftrengthlefs hinges, buckle under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks, like a fire,

Out of his keeper's arms; even fo my limbs,

Weakened with grief, being now enraged with grief,

Are thrice themselves. Hence, therefore, thou nice crutch !

A fcaly 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 flufhed with conqueft, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron, and approach
The rugged'it hour that time and spite dare bring,
To frown upon the enraged Northumberland!
Let heaven kifs earth! now let not Nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confined; let order die,
And let this world no longer be a stage,
To feed contention in a lingering act,
But let one fpirit of the firft-born Cain
Reign in all bofoms; that each heart being set
On bloody courfes, the rude fcene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead!

+ The word in the Text is departing.

Slight or effeminate,

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