The German artists have been almost as happy in the illustration of Shakespeare as the German critics have been profound in the analysis of his works. This scene by Edward Grützner is an excellent example of the penetration of a foreign enterprise into the spirit of the great dramatist. THE FIRST PART OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH. ACT I. SCENE I. London. The palace. Enter KING HENRY, LORD JOHN OF LANCASTER, the EARL OF WESTMORELAND, SIR WALTER BLUNT, and others. King. So shaken as we are, so wan with care, Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, IO Shall now, in mutual well-beseeming ranks, Whose soldier now, under whose blessed cross 20 Forthwith a power* of English shall we levy; But this our purpose now is twelve month old, Therefore we meet not now. Then let me hear 30 Expedition. Upon whose dead corpse there was such misuse, 40 King. It seems then that the tidings of this broil Brake off our business for the Holy Land. West. This match'd with other did, my gracious lord; For more uneven and unwelcome news Where they did spend a sad and bloody hour; 50 60 King. Here is a dear, a true industrious friend, Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse, Stain'd with the variation of each soil Betwixt that Holmedon and this seat of ours; And he hath brought us smooth and welcome news. The Earl of Douglas is discomfited: Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, Balk'd in their own blood did Sir Walter see On Holmedon's plains. Of prisoners, Hotspur took *Heaped Mordake the Earl of Fife, and eldest son It is a conquest for a prince to boast of. 70 King. Yea, there thou makest me sad and makest me sin In envy that my Lord Northumberland A son who is the theme of honour's tongue; 80 Of my young Harry. O that it could be proved coz, 90 Of this young Percy's pride? the prisoners, Malevolent to you in all aspects; Which makes him prune himself, and bristle up The crest of youth against your dignity. ΙΟΙ King. But I have sent for him to answer this; Cousin, on Wednesday next our council we [Exeunt. SCENE II. London. An apartment of the Enter the PRINCE OF WALES and FALSTAFF. Fal. Now, Hal, what time of day is it, lad? Prince. Thou art so fat*-witted, with drinking of old sack and unbuttoning thee after supper and sleeping upon benches after noon, that thou hast forgotten to demand that truly which thou wouldst truly know. What a devil hast thou to do with the time of the day? Unless hours were cups of sack and minutes capons and clocks the tongues of bawds and dials the signs of leapinghouses and the blessed sun himself a fair hot wench in flame-coloured taffeta, I see no reason why thou shouldst be so superfluous to demand the time of the day. *Dull. Fal. Indeed, you come near me now, Hal; for we that take purses go by the moon and the seven stars, and not by Phœbus, he, 'that wandering knight so fair.' And, I prithee, sweet wag, when thou art king, as, God save thy grace,-majesty I should say, for grace thou wilt have none, Prince. What, none? 20 Fal. No, by my troth, not so much as will serve to be prologue to an egg and butter. Prince. Well, how then? come, roundly, roundly. Fal. Marry, then, sweet wag, when thou art king, let not us that are squires of the night's body be called thieves of the day's beauty: let us be Diana's foresters, gentlemen of the shade, minions of the moon; and let men say we be men of good government, being governed, as the sea is, by our noble and chaste mistress the moon, under whose countenance we steal. Prince. Thou sayest well, and it holds well too; for the fortune of us that are the moon's men doth ebb and flow like the sea, being governed, as the sea is, by the moon. As, for proof, now: a purse of gold most resolutely snatched on Monday night and most dissolutely spent on |