Shakespeare's King Henry IV Part 2, 1.1 - Northumberland learns of Hotspur's death

King Henry IV, Part II

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	INDUCTION
	[Warkworth. Before the castle.]
	[Enter RUMOUR, painted full of tongues.]
RUMOUR	Open your ears; for which of you will stop
	The vent of hearing when loud Rumour speaks?
	I, from the orient to the drooping west,
	Making the wind my post-horse, still unfold
	The acts commenced on this ball of earth:
	Upon my tongues continual slanders ride,
	The which in every language I pronounce,
	Stuffing the ears of men with false reports.
	I speak of peace, while covert enmity
	Under the smile of safety wounds the world:	10
	And who but Rumour, who but only I,
	Make fearful musters and prepared defence,
	Whiles the big year, swoln with some other grief,
	Is thought with child by the stern tyrant war,
	And no such matter? Rumour is a pipe
	Blown by surmises, jealousies, conjectures
	And of so easy and so plain a stop
	That the blunt monster with uncounted heads,
	The still-discordant wavering multitude,
	Can play upon it. But what need I thus	20
	My well-known body to anatomize
	Among my household? Why is Rumour here?
	I run before King Harry's victory;
	Who in a bloody field by Shrewsbury
	Hath beaten down young Hotspur and his troops,
	Quenching the flame of bold rebellion
	Even with the rebels' blood. But what mean I
	To speak so true at first? my office is
	To noise abroad that Harry Monmouth fell
	Under the wrath of noble Hotspur's sword,	30
	And that the king before the Douglas' rage
	Stoop'd his anointed head as low as death.
	This have I rumour'd through the peasant towns
	Between that royal field of Shrewsbury
	And this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,
	Where Hotspur's father, old Northumberland,
	Lies crafty-sick: the posts come tiring on,
	And not a man of them brings other news
	Than they have learn'd of me: from Rumour's tongues
	They bring smooth comforts false, worse than
	true wrongs.	40
	Exit
ACT I SCENE I	The same.
[Enter LORD BARDOLPH]
LORD BARDOLPH	Who keeps the gate here, ho?
[The Porter opens the gate]
	Where is the earl?
Porter	What shall I say you are?
LORD BARDOLPH	Tell thou the earl
	That the Lord Bardolph doth attend him here.
Porter	His lordship is walk'd forth into the orchard;
	Please it your honour, knock but at the gate,
	And he himself wilt answer.
[Enter NORTHUMBERLAND]
LORD BARDOLPH	Here comes the earl.
[Exit Porter]
NORTHUMBERLAND	What news, Lord Bardolph? every minute now
	Should be the father of some stratagem:
	The times are wild: contention, like a horse
	Full of high feeding, madly hath broke loose	10
	And bears down all before him.
LORD BARDOLPH	Noble earl,
	I bring you certain news from Shrewsbury.
NORTHUMBERLAND	Good, an God will!
LORD BARDOLPH	As good as heart can wish:
	The king is almost wounded to the death;
	And, in the fortune of my lord your son,
	Prince Harry slain outright; and both the Blunts
	Kill'd by the hand of Douglas; young Prince John
	And Westmoreland and Stafford fled the field;
	And Harry Monmouth's brawn, the hulk Sir John,
	Is prisoner to your son: O, such a day,	20
	So fought, so follow'd and so fairly won,
	Came not till now to dignify the times,
	Since Caesar's fortunes!
NORTHUMBERLAND	How is this derived?
	Saw you the field? came you from Shrewsbury?
LORD BARDOLPH	I spake with one, my lord, that came from thence,
	A gentleman well bred and of good name,
	That freely render'd me these news for true.
NORTHUMBERLAND	Here comes my servant Travers, whom I sent
	On Tuesday last to listen after news.
[Enter TRAVERS]
LORD BARDOLPH	My lord, I over-rode him on the way;	30
	And he is furnish'd with no certainties
	More than he haply may retail from me.
NORTHUMBERLAND	Now, Travers, what good tidings comes with you?
TRAVERS	My lord, Sir John Umfrevile turn'd me back
	With joyful tidings; and, being better horsed,
	Out-rode me. After him came spurring hard
	A gentleman, almost forspent with speed,
	That stopp'd by me to breathe his bloodied horse.
	He ask'd the way to Chester; and of him
	I did demand what news from Shrewsbury:	40
	He told me that rebellion had bad luck
	And that young Harry Percy's spur was cold.
	With that, he gave his able horse the head,
	And bending forward struck his armed heels
	Against the panting sides of his poor jade
	Up to the rowel-head, and starting so
	He seem'd in running to devour the way,
	Staying no longer question.
NORTHUMBERLAND	Ha! Again:
	Said he young Harry Percy's spur was cold?
	Of Hotspur Coldspur? that rebellion	50
	Had met ill luck?
LORD BARDOLPH	My lord, I'll tell you what;
	If my young lord your son have not the day,
	Upon mine honour, for a silken point
	I'll give my barony: never talk of it.
NORTHUMBERLAND	Why should that gentleman that rode by Travers
	Give then such instances of loss?
LORD BARDOLPH	Who, he?
	He was some hilding fellow that had stolen
	The horse he rode on, and, upon my life,
	Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.
[Enter MORTON]
NORTHUMBERLAND	Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf,	60
	Foretells the nature of a tragic volume:
	So looks the strand whereon the imperious flood
	Hath left a witness'd usurpation.
	Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury?
MORTON	I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord;
	Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask
	To fright our party.
NORTHUMBERLAND	How doth my son and brother?
	Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek
	Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand.
	Even such a man, so faint, so spiritless,	70
	So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,
	Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,
	And would have told him half his Troy was burnt;
	But Priam found the fire ere he his tongue,
	And I my Percy's death ere thou report'st it.
	This thou wouldst say, 'Your son did thus and thus;
	Your brother thus: so fought the noble Douglas:'
	Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds:
	But in the end, to stop my ear indeed,
	Thou hast a sigh to blow away this praise,	80
	Ending with 'Brother, son, and all are dead.'
MORTON	Douglas is living, and your brother, yet;
	But, for my lord your son--
NORTHUMBERLAND	Why, he is dead.
	See what a ready tongue suspicion hath!
	He that but fears the thing he would not know
	Hath by instinct knowledge from others' eyes
	That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton;
	Tell thou an earl his divination lies,
	And I will take it as a sweet disgrace
	And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.	90
MORTON	You are too great to be by me gainsaid:
	Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain.
NORTHUMBERLAND	Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead.
	I see a strange confession in thine eye:
	Thou shakest thy head and hold'st it fear or sin
	To speak a truth. If he be slain, say so;
	The tongue offends not that reports his death:
	And he doth sin that doth belie the dead,
	Not he which says the dead is not alive.
	Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news	100
	Hath but a losing office, and his tongue
	Sounds ever after as a sullen bell,
	Remember'd knolling a departing friend.
LORD BARDOLPH	I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead.
MORTON	I am sorry I should force you to believe
	That which I would to God I had not seen;
	But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state,
	Rendering faint quittance, wearied and out-breathed,
	To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat down
	The never-daunted Percy to the earth,	110
	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 rest
	Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead:
	And as the thing that's heavy in itself,
	Upon enforcement flies with greatest speed,	120
	So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's loss,
	Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear
	That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim
	Than did our soldiers, aiming at their safety,
	Fly from the field. Then was the noble Worcester
	Too soon ta'en prisoner; and that furious Scot,
	The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring sword
	Had three times slain the appearance of the king,
	'Gan vail his stomach and did grace the shame
	Of those that turn'd their backs, and in his flight,	130
	Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all
	Is that the king hath won, and hath sent out
	A speedy power to encounter you, my lord,
	Under the conduct of young Lancaster
	And Westmoreland. This is the news at full.
NORTHUMBERLAND	For this I shall have time enough to mourn.
	In poison there is physic; and these news,
	Having been well, that would have made me sick,
	Being sick, have in some measure made me well:
	And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints,	140
	Like strengthless hinges, buckle 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 enraged with grief,
	Are thrice themselves. Hence, therefore, thou nice crutch!
	A scaly gauntlet now with joints of steel
	Must glove this hand: and hence, thou sickly 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	150
	The ragged'st hour that time and spite dare bring
	To frown upon the enraged Northumberland!
	Let heaven kiss 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 spirit of the first-born Cain
	Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
	On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
	And darkness be the burier of the dead!	160
TRAVERS	This strained passion doth you wrong, my lord.
LORD BARDOLPH	Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from your honour.
MORTON	The lives of all your loving complices
	Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er
	To stormy passion, must perforce decay.
	You cast the event of war, my noble lord,
	And summ'd the account of chance, before you said
	'Let us make head.' It was your presurmise,
	That, in the dole of blows, your son might drop:
	You knew he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge,	170
	More likely to fall in than to get o'er;
	You were advised his flesh was capable
	Of wounds and scars and that his forward spirit
	Would lift him where most trade of danger ranged:
	Yet did you say 'Go forth;' and none of this,
	Though strongly apprehended, could restrain
	The stiff-borne action: what hath then befallen,
	Or what hath this bold enterprise brought forth,
	More than that being which was like to be?
LORD BARDOLPH	We all that are engaged to this loss	180
	Knew that we ventured on such dangerous seas
	That if we wrought our life 'twas ten to one;
	And yet we ventured, for the gain proposed
	Choked the respect of likely peril fear'd;
	And since we are o'erset, venture again.
	Come, we will all put forth, body and goods.
MORTON	'Tis more than time: and, my most noble lord,
	I hear for certain, and do speak the truth,
	The gentle Archbishop of York is up
	With well-appointed powers: he is a man	190
	Who with a double surety binds his followers.
	My lord your son had only but the corpse,
	But shadows and the shows of men, to fight;
	For that same word, rebellion, did divide
	The action of their bodies from their souls;
	And they did fight with queasiness, constrain'd,
	As men drink potions, that their weapons only
	Seem'd on our side; but, for their spirits and souls,
	This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
	As fish are in a pond. But now the bishop	200
	Turns insurrection to religion:
	Supposed sincere and holy in his thoughts,
	He's followed both with body and with mind;
	And doth enlarge his rising with the blood
	Of fair King Richard, scraped from Pomfret stones;
	Derives from heaven his quarrel and his cause;
	Tells them he doth bestride a bleeding land,
	Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke;
	And more and less do flock to follow him.
NORTHUMBERLAND	I knew of this before; but, to speak truth,	210
	This present grief had wiped it from my mind.
	Go in with me; and counsel every man
	The aptest way for safety and revenge:
	Get posts and letters, and make friends with speed:
	Never so few, and never yet more need.
[Exeunt]

Continue to 2 Henry IV, Act 1, Scene 2

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Explanatory Notes for Act 1, Scene 1
From King Henry the Fourth, second part. Ed. K. Deighton. London: Macmillan.

Induction.

An Induction, or prologue, was not infrequently prefixed to a play to inform the audience of such facts as they would not gather from the play itself, as, for instance, in The Taming of the Shrew. Here it serves merely to link together the two parts of the play.

Stage Direction. Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues. Such a presentation of Rumour was not uncommon. Among others, Farmer refers to Hawes's Pastime of Pleasure, where she is spoken of as "A goodly lady, envyroned about With tongues of fire"; to one of Sir Thomas More's Pageants, "Fame, I am called, mervayle you nothing Thoughe with tonges I am compassed all round"; and to Chaucer's elaborate portrait of her in The Books of Fame.

1. for which ... stop, I say open your ears, for I know that none of you will wish to stop them.

2. vent, "an opening for air or smoke, an air-hole, flue ... - F. fente, 'a cleft, rift, chinke, slit, cranny'; Cotgrave, A participial substantive from the verb fendre, to cleave. - Lat. Findere, to cleave" ... (Skeat, Ety. Dict.). To be distinguished from vent, sale, to vent, to sell, from F. venie, a sale, from Lat. vendere, to sell; and from vent, to snuff up air, breathe, puff out, from F. vent, wind, from Lat. ventum, accusative of ventus, wind. In regard to this last, Skeat says, "If we had a large collection of quotations illustrative of the use of vent as a verb, I suspect it would appear that the connection with the F. vent, wind, was due solely to a misunderstanding and misuse of the word, and that it is etymologically due to Vent (1) [ = flue] or Vent (2) [ = sale], or to confusion of both"...

3. the drooping west, the idea is that of flowers hanging down their heads as the sun sets. Malone illustrates by Macbeth. iii. 2. 52. 3, "Good things of day begin to droop and drowse, Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse."

4. post-horse, "post originally signified a fixed place, as a military post; then, a fixed place on a line of road where horses are kept for travelling, a stage, or station; thence it was transferred to the person who travelled in this way, using relays of horses, and finally to any quick traveller" (Eastwood and Wright, Bible Wordbook, quoted by Skeat, Ety. Dict.): still, continually, ever.

7. The which, see note on i. 1, 164.

10. Under ... safety, appearing all the while in such harmless and pleasant guise.

12. Make ... defence, exhibit the alarmed mustering of troops in preparation against attack; the converse of the "covert enmity" which is preparing to "wound the world"; musters, from O. F. mostre, for monstre, a pattern, view, sight, display, from Lat. monstrare, to show.

13. Whiles, the old genitive of while, time, used adverbially: swoln ... grief, in reality pregnant with some other grievance, cause of anxiety.

15. And no such matter, though in reality nothing of the kind, nothing to do with war, ails the time.

17. And of ... stop, and so easy of management: the stop is the hole in the pipe on which the finger is placed to stop or to let out the air blown into it. Cp. Haml. iii. 2, 76, "Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled. That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger To sound what stop she please"; iii. 2. 373, "govern these ventages with your finger and thumb, give it breath with your mouth, and it will discourse most eloquent music. Look you, these are the stops."

18. the blunt ... heads, the dull-witted monster with innumerable heads; "the many-headed multitude," as they are called in Cor. ii. 3. 18.

20. what need I. It is doubtful whether this is equivalent to 'why need I,' or 'what need is there that I,' i.e. whether what is an adverb and need a verb, or what an adjective and need a noun; cp. M. A. i. 1. 318, "What need the bridge much broader than the flood?", and see Abb. § 297.

22. my household, those who belong to the same family as myself, the audience of the theatre who like him disseminate reports.

27, 8. But what ... first? But if I acted up to my character, I should not tell the truth at first, but should scatter abroad a number of false reports.

33. the peasant towns, is generally taken to mean the rural towns. Dyce, with Collier's MS. Corrector, reads "pleasant towns," and remarks "one may wonder why Rumour should mention only 'the peasant towns' (a most strange expression), as if so busy a personage, in the long journey from Shrewsbury to Warkworth, had failed to 'call in' at the more important places."

35. this worm-eaten hold ... stone, this time-decayed fortress: in its literal sense worm-eaten is now applied to wood only; ragged perhaps indicates not merely the rough, rugged stones of which the castle was built, but the worn appearance given them by time.

37. crafty-sick, pretending illness, in order to move the pity of the King: come tiring on, come on exhausted by their wearisome journeys.

40. They bring ... wrongs, they bring reassuring news which is false, and so more dangerous than news of evil that was true.

Act I. Scene I.

Stage Direction. Lord Bardolph. "This person was Thomas Bardolph, fifth Baron ... [who] joining in the archbishop's insurrection against Henry IV, was defeated at Bramham Moor, where 'he was taken but sore wounded, so that he shortly after died of his hurts.' Holinshed" ...

2. What, more indefinite than who, as including the rank, profession, etc. , as well as the personality.

3. attend, waits for, wishes to speak with.

4. is walk'd. Here is expresses the present state, whereas has would express the activity necessary to cause the present state.

5. Please it, if it please.

8. Should be, may be expected to be, is likely to be: stratagem, appalling or disastrous circumstance; cp. R. J. iii. 5. 211, "Alack, alack, that heaven should practise stratagems Upon so soft a subject as myself!"

15. in the fortune ... son, by the good fortune which attended upon your son.

19. Harry Monmouth's brawn, that mass of flesh that waited on the Prince: hulk, properly a clumsy, heavy, ship.

22. to dignify the times, to give lustre to the age.

23. How is this derived? Whence did you obtain your information?

27. That freely ... true, who in all honesty assured me of this news being trustworthy; for freely, cp. Oth. ii. 3. 335, "Iago. I protest, in the sincerity of love and honest kindness. Cas. I think it freely."

29. to listen after, to inquire for with all diligence; cp. to "hearken after," R. III. i. 1. 54, "He hearkens after prophecies and dreams."

30. over-rode, caught up and passed on the way.

32. More than ... me, except perhaps such as he received from me and may hand on to you.

34. turn'd me back, met me and sent me back to you.

37. forspent, utterly exhausted; for - is intensive as in forgo, forlorn, forswear, etc.

38. to breathe, to give breath to, to rest; so intransitively i. H. IV. i. 3. 102, ii. 4. 275, v. 3. 46.

42. And that young ... cold, cp. below, 1. 51. The meaning of course is that Hotspur was cold in death.

43. With that ... head, with those words he gave the rein to his powerful horse. Though two lines lower the horse is called a "poor jade" there is no contradiction, the meaning being that the horse was a powerful one, but that having been ridden so far and so fast it had become jaded, and was now panting with exhaustion.

44. bending forward, as a rider does when vigorously applying the spur.

46. Up to the rowel-head, so as to force the rowel right into the sides of the animal; the 'rowel' is a little wheel armed with sharp points at the end of the spur; through F. rouelle, from Low Lat. rotella, a little wheel: starting so, with a sudden start, his horse answering his application of the spur.

47. to devour the way. So Catullus, xxxv. 7, "viam vorabit." Steevens compares Job, xxxix. 24, "He [the horse] swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage." Jonson, Sejanus, v. 10, has, "But with that speed ... With which they greedily devour the way."

48. Staying ... question, not waiting to be questioned by me any further on the matter: Again, repeat to me what he said.

50. Of Hotspur Coldspur? did he say that from being Hotspur my son had become Coldspur?

52. have not the day, has not been victorious in the battle; day, for day of battle, combat, and, as here, for victory, is frequent in Shakespeare.

53. a silken point, a tag or lace for tying parts of the dress, especially the breeches, and so for something of little value.

54. my barony, the property which goes with my title: never talk of it, do not for a moment believe that it is otherwise.

56. instances, particulars, as of Hotspur's death.

57. hilding, according to Skeat, short for hilderling, M. E. hinderling, base, degenerate, from A.S. hinder, behind, with suffix -ling.

59. Spoke at a venture, merely made a guess, spoke at random.

60. like to a title leaf. Steevens points out that title-pages to elegies, as well as the intermediate leaves, were formerly totally black, and most commentators see here an allusion to this practice. But it seems hardly necessary to suppose anything more than a title-page announcing the nature of the volume's contents.

62. strond, an older spelling of 'strand.'

63. a witness'd usurpation, evidence of its inroads; "witness'd is here not a participle but an adjective formed from the noun witness, and the phrase is equivalent to 'an usurpation of which there is a witness.'

65. I ran, not merely 'I came,' but 'I was obliged to come at full speed, to take to flight in consequence of our defeat.'

67. doth, probably here not a case of the third person plural in -th, but of the inflection of the third person singular of a verb preceding the subject in the plural, more common with the inflection in -s.

69. Is apter, shows greater readiness.

71. dead in look, looking more dead than alive: woe-begone, the past participle of 'bego' in the sense of 'beset as by an environment, affected by an influence, good or evil,' is now used only in the phrase 'woe-begone,' though Murray, Engl. Dict., quotes 'need-begone' from Barbour, St. Alexis, also 'well,' 'evil,' 'sore,' begone, and points out that the phrase originally was 'him was wo begone,' i.e. to him woe had closed round.

74. But Priam ... tongue, but Priam became aware of the fire before the messenger could bring himself to deliver his message; 'to find one's tongue' is a common phrase for bringing oneself to speak after continuing silent, as though the person suddenly became aware that he had a tongue and some cause to use that organ.

78. greedy ear, ear eager to drink in your news.

79. to stop ... indeed, as though to prevent my ever listening to words again.

80. a sigh ... praise, a sigh which is sufficient to dissipate, undo, all your commendations of their valour.

84. See what ... hath! See how quickly suspicion finds its tongue; said in reference to his own prompt exclamation "Why, he is dead."

85. but fears, has no other prompting than his fears.

88. Tell thou ... lies, though I am an earl, and to give the lie to one of my rank would under other circumstances be a gross insult, do not hesitate to say that the suspicion I have put into words is a lying utterance.

91. gainsaid, contradicted; the prefix is the A.S. gegn, against.

92. Your spirit is too true, not a lying spirit, such as was allowed to enter into the mouths of false prophets. Cp. i. Kings, xxii. 21, 22, "And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him. Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets." That there is this allusion, and that spirit here does not mean merely 'mind,' 'soul,' is I think shown by Northumberland's use of the word divination, which Morton takes up.

93. for all this, in spite of all this that you say about my spirit and my fears. Johnson would give this line to Lord Bardolph on the ground of its being contradictory to the remainder of Northumberland's speech, but Northumberland evidently pauses after his words, and looks earnestly at Morton, in whose face, as Rolfe says, he meets with no encouraging response. His worst fears are now confirmed, and he prepares himself to listen to the details of his loss.

94. a strange confession, the admission of Hotspur's death betrayed by his look, but which yet his lips refused to make.

95. fear, a dangerous thing; cp. below, iv. 5. 196, "all these bold fears Thou see'st with peril I have answered."

98. And he doth sin, Daniel would read "Only he sins," but the negative in the previous line, "offends not," here linked by the copula And, is equivalent to a positive 'is guiltless.'

101. a losing office, a thankless task.

102. sullen bell. The dismal monotony of the single bell tolled when the spirit of a man is taking flight, as opposed to a peal of bells, is here indicated. The "passing-bell," as it is called, is still rung in some parts of England, but the origin of the custom is disputed. Douce is inclined to think that it may have been introduced with a view to scaring away demons watching to take possession of the dying man's soul; by others the bell is supposed to have been tolled to solicit prayers for the passing soul, or to admonish those living to meditate upon their own death; cp. V. A. 702, "And now his grief may be compared well To one sore sick that hears the passing-bell." [See Macbeth for more on the bellman.]

103. knolling, the reading of the folios; the quarto gives 'tolling.' Both words were originally used in the transitive sense of striking a bell so as to make it ring, and later of the bell itself sounding; the Welsh word cnill means a passing-bell.

108. Rendering faint quittance, feebly endeavouring to give back blow for blow with a like strength: out-breathed, out of breath, spent, exhausted.

112. In few, in a few words; to cut my story short: a fire, a glow of animation.

114. bruited, noised abroad, generally made known; F. bruit, a great noise, clamour.

115. best-temper'd, the metaphor is from the tempering of metal, the bringing of it to a proper degree of hardness.

116. For from ... steel'd, for those on his side derived all their hardihood from his example; metal is here used both literally and figuratively, both for metal and mettle, two spellings of the same word.

117. abated, blunted; cp. R. III. v. 5. 35, "Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord." Johnson denies that this is the meaning here, and gives "reduced to a lower temper, or as workmen call it, let down"; but he does not support his explanation by any instance of the word in this technical sense, and steel'd seems to indicate that Hotspur's metal, so keen itself, had given them their edge.

118. Turn'd ... lead. Here the metaphor seems to be continued by likening the behaviour of the soldiers to the edge of a weapon turned back in use, as that of a leaden weapon would be turned, though of course the meaning is that Hotspur's soldiers again became the same dull-spirited louts that they were before his spirit animated them. The word heavy then suggests to the speaker the simile he goes on to use.

120. Upon enforcement, when an impetus is given to it.

123. fled. Dyce adopts Walker's conjecture fly. Vaughan suggests flew.

127. well-labouring, labouring to good purpose, effective in its use.

128. the appearance of the king, several of the king's adherents being dressed to counterfeit the king's person; see Pt. I. v. 4.

129. vail his stomach, lower his haughty courage; cp. Cor. iii. 1. 98, "If he have power. Then vail your ignorance."

129, 30. did grace ... backs, by imitating their example lent to it a grace which it would not otherwise have had.

133. A speedy power, a force marching with all speed.

138. Having been ... sick, which, if I had been well, would have made me sick; Abb. § 330, notices the "disposition to place participles, as though used absolutely, before the words which they qualify."

139. Being sick, now that I am sick.

141. buckle under life, are unable to support the limbs of the living man, falter under the weight they have to bear. Cp. Jonson, The Staple of News, ii. 1. 7, "teach this body To bend, and these my aged knees to buckle In adoration"; and Marston, Antonio and Mellida, Pt. I. iv 1. 76-8, "O rotten props of the crazed multitude, How still you double, falter under the lightest chance That strains your veins." Knight points out that the word is used precisely in the same sense nowadays when applied to a horse.

142. his fit, the paroxysm of ague: like a fire, with a furious bound; as incapable of being restrained as a flame of fire.

144. Weaken'd ... grief. In the former instance grief is used of bodily agony, in the latter of mental agony; for the former, cp. Pt. I. V. 1. 134, "Can honour ... take away the grief of a wound?"

145. nice, dainty; suitable only to those who have the leisure to be careful about their ailments, not to one who has such reason for active work.

147. sickly quoif, cap which is a badge of sickness; quolf, another form of 'coif,' and a doublet of 'cup,' a close-fitting, cupshaped, cap, what we now call a 'skull-cap.'

148. wanton, delicate, effeminate; almost the same as "nice," 1. 145.

149. flesh'd with conquest, by conquest made eager for further combat; a metaphor from the practice of encouraging young dogs to the chase by feeding them on raw flesh; cp. H. V. ii. 4. 50, "The kindred of him hath heen flesh'd upon us"; iii. 3. 11, "And the flesh'd soldier, rough and hard of heart."

150. iron, sc. of his helmet: approach, let there approach.

151. ragged'st, roughest; Shakespeare uses "ragged" where we should have used "rugged," both literally and figuratively; of the former sense we have already had an example in the Induction, 1. 35; for the latter, cp. Sonn. vi. 1, "winter's ragged hand."

152. the enraged Northumberland, sc. who will retort the frown with equal anger.

153. Let ... earth, let heaven and earth be mingled in hideous confusion.

154. flood, ocean; as frequently in Shakespeare; wild is apparently proleptic, the ocean which will have become wild from not being confined within its usual limits; cp. Oth. ii. 1. 17, "the enchafed flood"; order, the regular working of the laws of nature.

156. To feed ... act, to supply the spirit of enmity with food during a long-drawn-out struggle; stage and act are of course used in their technical senses; cp. Macb. ii. 2. 5, 6, "Thou seest, the heavens, as troubled with man's act, Threaten his bloody stage": and so scene, 1. 159.

157. one spirit ... Cain, no other spirit than that of Cain, the first-born child of Adam and Eve, and the murderer of his brother, Abel.

159. rude, horrid, dreadful, violent.

160. And darkness ... dead, and the whole creation be extinct and buried in universal darkness. Vaughan thinks that the metaphors from the stage is here continued by an allusion to the extinguishing of the lights in the theatre at the close of the performance.

161. This strained ... wrong, in using such violent language you are giving way to a passion that is unworthy of your natural firmness of character.

162. divorce ... honour, do not allow wisdom and a sense of your dignity, which ought to be joined together, to be put asunder; equally consult both.

163. complices, confederates, allies; generally used by Shakespeare in a bad sense.

164. the which "is generally used either where the antecedent, or some word like the antecedent, is repeated, or else where such a repetition could be made if desired. In almost all cases there are two or more possible antecedents from which selection must be made" (Abb. § 270), as here lives, complices, health.

164, 5. if you ... passion, if you give way to, abandon yourself to, such passionate outbursts.

166. cast, the past tense, calculated.

167. the account of chance, what was the utmost possibility of success or failure.

168. make head, raise an armed force in rebellion against the king; cp. Pt. I. iii. 1. 64, J. C. iv. 1. 42.

169. the dole of blows, the dealing of blows, the interchange of blows with the enemy; dole, that which is dealt out, a portion, more frequently a portion dealt out in charitable gifts.

170, 1. You knew ... o'er, cp. Pt. I. i. .S. 193, 4, "to o'erwalk a current roaring loud On the unsteady footing of a spear."

172. were advised, knew full well; cp. H. V. i. 2. 251, "bids you he advised there's nought in France That can be with a nimble galliard won": capable, susceptible; cp, K. J. iii. 1. 12, "I am sick and capable of tears."

174. where most ... ranged, where there was the greatest commerce, intercourse, with danger; where danger stalked about in most various shape.

175. none of this, no risks and perils.

177. The stiff-borne action, the course so obstinately pursued; for the same idea in a literal sense, cp. Haml. i. 5. 95, "And you, my sinews, grow not instant old, But bear me stiffly up."

179. More than ... be? beyond the actual occurrence of that which it was so probable would occur?

180. engaged ... loss, shareholders in their unfortunate enterprise; the figure is that of a mercantile engagement. For the construction, Malone compares Pt. 1. iii. 2. 98, "He hath more worthy interest to the state Than thou the shadow of succession."

182. That if ... one, that the chances of success were ten to one against us.

184. Choked ... fear'd, completely did away with all consideration of the danger that was to be feared as likely to be encountered; for this figurative sense of Choked, cp. M. M. v. 1. 427, "else imputation ... might reproach your life And choke your good to come"; so T. N. v. 1. 150, "it is the baseness of thy fear That makes thee strangle thy propriety."

185. o'erset, overthrown, turned upside down: venture again, let us make one more attempt to regain our position.

186. Come ... goods, come, we will set out once more, risking our all, life and worldly wealth.

189. up, sc. in revolt.

191. double surety, i.e. of his spiritual and personal authority.

192. the corpse, the body without the soul, only the gross material body unanimated by that which alone is worth anything, the spirit: only but is a redundancy.

196. queasiness, sickly feeling of aversion to the task.

197. potions, sc. medicinal.

199. froze, the inflection in -en being commonly dropped in Elizabethan English.

201. Turns ... religion, gives to that which as revolt against constituted authority would seem sinful, the sanction of religion.

202. Supposed, he being looked upon.

204, 5. And doth ... stones, and gives to his insurrection a wider scope by hallowing it with the sacred pretext of retribution for a foul murder; Pomfret, the castle in which Richard was put to death.

206. Derives ... cause, makes heaven the source and origin of the cause in which he fights; puts forth the will of heaven as prompting and authorizing his revolt.

207. doth bestride ... land, stands over and protects a land struck down by tyranny, as in battle a brave man will stand over and protect the body of a comrade lying at the mercy of the foe; cp. Pt. I. V. 1. 122, "Hal, if thou see me down in the battle and bestride me, so; 'tis a point of friendship"; Macb. iv. 3. 4, "Let us rather ... like good men Bestride our down-fall'n birthdom."

209. more and less, high and low; cp. Macb. v. 4. 12, "Both more and less, have given him the revolt."

214. posts, messengers; see note on Induction, 4.

215. Never so few, never were our friends so few in number.

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How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. King Henry IV, second part. Ed. K. Deighton. London: Macmillan, 1911. Shakespeare Online. 20 Feb. 2010. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/2kh4_1_1.html >.

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