K. Hen.

The king himself; who, Douglas, grieves at heart,

So many of his shadows thou hast met,
And not the very king. I have two boys
Seek Percy and thyself about the field :
But, seeing thou fall'st on me so luckily,
I will assay thee: so, defend thyself.

Doug. I fear thou art another counterfeit;
And yet, in faith, thou bear'st thee like a king:
But mine I am sure thou art, whoe'er thou be,
And thus I win thee.

[They fight; the King being in danger, re-enter Prince HENRY.

Never to hold it up again! the spirits
Of valiant Shirley, Stafford, Blunt, are in my arms:
It is the Prince of Wales that threatens thee;
Who never promiseth but he means to pay.—
[They fight: DOUGLAS flies.
Cheerly, my lord: how fares your grace ?—
Sir Nicholas Gawsey hath for succour sent,
And so hath Clifton: I'll to Clifton straight.
K. Hen. Stay, and breathe awhile :—
Thou hast redeem'd thy lost opinion;39
And show'd thou mak'st some tender of my life,49
In this fair rescue thou hast brought to me.

P. Hen. O Heaven! they did me too much injury

That ever said I hearken'd 1 for your death.

I am the Prince of Wales; and think not, Percy,
To share with me in glory any more:
Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere;
Nor can one England brook a double reign,
Of Harry Percy, and the Prince of Wales.

Hot. Nor shall it, Harry; for the hour is come
To end the one of us; and would to Heaven
Thy name in arms were now as great as mine!
P. Hen. I'll make it greater ere I part from
thee;

And all the budding honours on thy crest
I'll crop, to make a garland for my head.
Hot. I can no longer brook thy vanities.

[They fight.

Enter FALSTAFF. Fal. Well said,4% Hal! to it, Hal!-Nay, you shall find no boy's play here, I can tell you.

Re-enter DOUGLAS; he fights with FALSTAFF, who falls down as if he were dead, and exit DOUGLAS. HOTSPUR is wounded, and falls. O Harry, thou hast robb'd me of my youth!

Hot.

I better brook the loss of brittle life,
Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;
They wound my thoughts worse than thy sword
my flesh :-

:

But thought's the slave of life, and life time's fool; 43

And time, that takes survey of all the world,

yet eventually became their prey. See Note 2, Act iii., "Measure for Measure." 'Is' must be elliptically understood after "life;" the "'s" belonging to "thought's," in the same line, being understood as repeated. The reading of the first Quarto, thoughts the slaves of life,' gives a different construction to the entire passage; and though affording a clear consecution, yet we think the one presented by the reading in our text (that of all the other Quartos and the Folio) is still more in Shakespeare's manner. Even the slight pause at "fool," as marked by the semicolon, is in his style of separate clauses in a sentence; while the effect of climax is given to "time" itself must have a stop" by thus making it a closing clause.

Must have a stop. Oh, I could prophesy,**
But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue :-no, Percy, thou art dust,
And food for-
P. Hen.

[Dies. For worms, brave Percy: fare thee well, great heart!—

Ill-weav'd ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound;
But now, two paces of the vilest earth

Is room enough:-this earth that bears thee dead,
Bears not alive so stout a gentleman.

If thou wert sensible of courtesy,

I should not make so dear a show of zeal :-
But let my favours 46 hide thy mangled face;
[Covers HOTSPUR with his scarf.
And, even in thy behalf, I'll thank myself
For doing these fair rites of tenderness. 47
Adieu, and take thy praise with thee to heaven!
Thy ignomy 48 sleep with thee in the grave,
But not remember'd in thy epitaph !49—

[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 :
Oh, I should have a heavy miss of thee,
If I were much in love with vanity!
Death hath not struck so fat a deer to-day,
Though many dearer, in this bloody fray.
Embowell'd 50 will I see thee by-and-by:
Till then in blood by noble Percy lie.

[Exit. Fal. [Rising.] Einbowelled! if thou embowel me to-day, I'll give you leave to powder 51 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

44. I could prophesy. Shakespeare here, and in the fine speech referred to in Note 6, Act ii., "Richard II.," has poetic allusion to the beautiful and very ancient fancy that dying persons are gifted with a power of prevision and prediction.

45. Dear. Used here in the sense of 'kindly,' 'affectionate.' This is the reading of the first Quarto; while the other Quartos and Folio read 'great' instead of "dear." The several words and passages for which we are indebted to the first Quarto copy of this play, serve to increase our ardent desire that a first Quarto copy of all our poet's plays could be discovered.

46. Favours. The silken scarf worn over armour; so called because these adornments were often the gift of some favourite lady to her favoured knight. They were also sometimes a badge of distinction.

47. These fair rites of tenderness. The old chivalrous times afforded many instances of these acts of gentle observance between mutually adverse knights when one was overthrown; and Shakespeare has here commemorated a specially beautiful one, by causing his hero to screen a foe's mangled face in the moment of death, amid the turmoil and distortion of a battlefield.

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? by my faith, 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. Therefore, sirrah [stabbing him], with a new wound in your thigh, come you along with me. [Takes HOTSPUR on his back.

Re-enter Prince HENRY and Prince JOHN. P. Hen. Come, brother John; full bravely hast thou flesh'd Thy maiden sword. 52

We will not trust our eyes without our ears:-
Thou art not what thou seem'st.

Fal. No, that's certain; I am not a double man:53 but if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a Jack. There is Percy [throwing the body down]: if your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. I look to be either earl or duke, I can assure you.

P. Hen. Why, Percy I killed myself, and saw thee dead.

Fal. Didst thou ?-Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!-I grant you I was down and out of breath; and so was he: but we rose both at an instant, and fought a long hour by Shrewsbury clock. If I may be believed, so; if not, let them

48. Ignomy. A not unfrequent contraction of 'ignominy' in Shakespeare's time. See Note 74, Act ii., "Measure for Measure."

49. But not remember'd, &c. Here 'be' is elliptically understood before "remembered." Where a verb occurs in the first clause of a sentence, Shakespeare sometimes permits another to be understood in the second clause; the effect of a verb being thus given.

50. Embowell'd. An old word for embalmed. 51. To powder. To salt.

Powdered beef' is still locally used

in some English provinces for corned beef' or 'salted beef.' 52. Flesh'd thy maiden sword. 'Initiated,' or 'commenced the use of thy hitherto unpractis'd sword.' See Note 6, Act v., King John."

53. I am not a double man. Falstaff jests on the word double" in its sense of 'deceitful,' 'delusive,' and on his seeming to be doubled by having Percy on his back.

54. By Shrewsbury clock. This is just one of Shakespeare's dramatic touches. By the mention of this church clock by its name, he not only gives the humorous effect of pretended exactness to Falstaff's account of his exploit, but he reminds the

that should reward valour bear the sin upon their own heads. I'll take it upon my death,55 I gave him this wound in the thigh: if the man were alive, and would deny it, 'zounds, I would make him eat a piece of my sword.

P. John. This is the strangest tale that e'er I heard.

P. Hen.

This is the strangest fellow, brother John.Come, bring your luggage nobly on your back: For my part, if a lie may do thee grace, I'll gild it with the happiest terms I have.

[A retreat is sounded. The trumpet sounds retreat; the day is ours. Come, brother, let us to the highest of the field, To see what friends are living, who are dead.

[Exeunt Prince HENRY and Prince JOHN. Fal. I'll follow, as they say, for reward. He that rewards me, Heaven reward him! If I do grow great, I'll grow less; for I'll purge, and leave sack, and live cleanly as a nobleman should do. [Exit, bearing off the body.

And I embrace this fortune patiently, Since not to be avoided it falls on me.

K. Hen. Bear Worcester to the death, and Vernon too:

Other offenders we will pause upon.—

[Exeunt WORCESTER and VERNON, guarded. How goes the field?

P. Hen. The noble Scot, Lord Douglas, when he saw

The fortune of the day quite turn'd from him,
The noble Percy slain, and all his men
Upon the foot of fear,-fled with the rest;
And falling from a hill,56 he was so bruis'd,
That the pursuers took him. At my tent
The Douglas is; and I beseech your grace
may dispose of him.
K. Hen.

With all my heart.