North. First to thy facred ftate wifh I all happiness. The next news is,-I have to London fent

The heads of Salisbury, Spencer, Blunt, and Kent: The manner of their taking may appear

At large difcourfed in this paper here.

[Prefenting a paper.

Boling. We thank thee, gentle Percy, for thy pains; And to thy worth will add right worthy gains.

Enter Fitzwater.

Fitz. My lord, I have from Oxford fent to London The heads of Brocas, and fir Bennet Seely; Two of the dangerous conforted traitors, That fought at Oxford thy dire overthrow. Boling. Thy pains, Fitzwater, fhall not be forgot; Right noble is thy merit, well I wot.

Enter Percy, with the bishop of Carlife.

Percy. The grand confpirator, abbot of Weftminfter,

With clog of confcience, and four melancholy,
Hath yielded up his body to the grave:

But here is Carlisle living, to abide

Thy kingly doom, and fentence of his pride.
Boling, Garlifle, this is your doom:
Chufe out fome fecret place, fome reverend room,
More than thou haft, and with it joy thy life;
So, as thou liv'ft in peace, die free from ftrife;
For though mine enemy thou haft ever been,
High sparks of honour in thee have I feen.

Enter Exton, with a coffin.

Exton. Great king, within this coffin I prefent
Thy bury'd fear: herein all breathless lies
The mightiest of thy greatest enemies,
Richard of Bourdeaux, by me hither brought,

read:

of Salisbury, Spenfer, Blunt, and Kent:] The quartos of Oxford, Salisbury, and Kent. STEEVENS.

R 4

Boling.

Boling. Exton, I thank thee not; for thou haft wrought

A deed of flander, with thy fatal hand,
Upon my head, and all this famous land.

Exton. From your own mouth, my lord, did I this deed.

Boling. They love not poifon, that do poifon need,
Nor do I thee; though I did with him dead,
I hate the murderer, love him murdered.
The guilt of confcience take thou for thy labour,
But neither my good word, nor princely favour:
With Cain go wander through the fhade of night,
And never fhew thy head by day nor light.-
Lords, I proteft, my foul is full of woe,

That blood fhould fprinkle me, to make me grow :
Come, mourn with me for what I do lament,
And put on fullen black incontinent;
I'll make a voyage to the Holy land,

To wash this blood off from my guilty hand-
March fadly after; grace my mournings here,
In weeping after this untimely bier. [Exeunt omnes*.

This play is extracted from the Chronicle of Holinfbed, in which many paffages may be found which Shakespeare has, with very little alteration, tranfplanted into his fcenes; particularly a fpeech of the bishop of Carlisle in defence of king Richard's unalienable right, and immunity from human jurisdiction.

Jonfon who, in his Catiline and Sejanus, has inferted many fpeeches from the Roman hiftorians, was perhaps induced to that practice by the example of Shakespeare, who had condefcended fometimes to copy more ignoble writers. But Shakespeare had more of his own than Jonfon, and, if he fometimes was willing to fpare his labour, fhewed by what he performed at other times, that his extracts were made by choice or idleness rather than neceffity.

This play is one of thofe which Shakespeare has apparently revifed; but as fuccefs in works of invention is not always proportionate to labour, it is not finished at last with the happy force of fome other of his tragedies, nor can be said much to affect the pasfions, or enlarge the understanding. JOHNSON.

HENRY IV.

PART I

Perfons

King Henry the Fourth.
Henry, prince of Wales,

*John, duke of Lancaster, fons to the king,

Earl of Worcester.

Earl of Northumberland.

Henry Percy, furnamed Hotspur.
Edmund Mortimer, earl of March.
Scroop, archbishop of York.
Archibald, earl of Douglas.

Owen Glendower.

Sir Richard Vernon.
Earl of Westmoreland.
Sir Walter Blunt.

Sir John Falstaff,

Poins.

Gadshill,

Peto.

Bardolph.

Lady Percy, wife to Hotfpur, fifier to Mortimer.
Lady Mortimer, daughter to Glendower, and wife to
Mortimer.

Quickly, hoftefs of a tavern in Eaftcheap.

Sheriff, vintner, chamberlain, drawers, two carriers, travellers, and attendants, &c.

1

SCENE, England.

John, duke of Lancafter,] It fhould be Prince John of Lancafter. STEEVENS.

The perfons of the drama were originally collected by Mr. Rowe, who has given the title of Duke of Lancafter to Prince fobn, a mistake which Shakespeare has been no where guilty of in the first part of this play, though in the fecond he has fallen into the fame error. K. Henry IV. was himself the last perfon that ever bore the title of Duke of Lancaster. But all his fons ('till they had peerages, as Clarence, Bedford, Gloucefter) were diftinguifhed by the name of

royal houfe, as John of Lancafter, Humphrey of Lancafler &c. and in that proper ftyle, the prefent John (who became afterwards fo illuftrious by the title of Duke of Bedford) is always mentioned in the play before us. STEEVENS.

KING HENRY IV.

A C T I. SCENE I.

The court in London,

Enter king Henry, earl of Westmoreland, Sir Walter Blunt, and others.

K. Henry. So fhaken as we are, fo wan with care, Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,

And

The First Part of Henry IV.] The transactions contained in this historical drama are comprised within the period of about ten months; for the action commences with the news brought of Hotfpur having defeated the Scots under Archibald earl Douglas at Holmedon (or Halidown-hill) which battle was fought on Holyrood-day (the 14th of September) 1402; and it clofes with the defeat and death of Hotfpur at Shrewsbury; which engagement happened on Saturday the 21st of July (the eve of Saint Mary Magdalen) in the year 1403. THEOBALD,

This play was first entered at Stationers' Hall, Feb. 25. 1597, by Andrew Wife. Again by M. Woolff, Jan. 9. 1598. For the piece fuppofed to have been its original, fee Six old Plays on which Shakespeare founded &c. published for S. Leacroft, CharingCrofs. STEEVENS.

Shakespeare has apparently defigned a regular connection of thefe dramatic hiftories from Richard the Second to Henry the Fifth. King Henry, at the end of Richard the Second, declares his purpose to vifit the Holy land, which he refumes in this fpeech. The complaint made by king Henry in the last act of Richard the Second, of the wildnefs of his fon, prepares the reader for the frolicks which are here to be recounted, and the characters which are now to be exhibited. JOHNSON,