OBSERVATIONS.

THE tranfactions contained in this hiftorical 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 of 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. Woolf, Jan. 9, 1598. For the piece fuppofed to have been its original, fee Six old Plays on which Shakspeare founded, &c. published for S. Leacroft, Charing-Crofs. STEEVENS.

Shakspeare has apparently defigned a regular connexion of these 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 the firft fpeech of this play. The complaint made by King Henry in the laft act of Richard the Second, of the wildness of his son, prepares the reader for the frolicks which are here to be recounted, and the characters which are now to be exhibited. JOHNSON.

This comedy was written, I believe, in the year 1597.

MALONE.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

King HENRY the Fourth.
HENRY, Prince of Wales,
Prince JOHN of Lancafter,
Earl of WESTMORELAND, friends to the King-
Sir

fons to the King.

THOMAS PERCY, Earl of Worcester.

HENRY PERCY, Earl of Northumberland :
HENRY PERCY, furnamed HOTSPUR, his fon.
EDMUND MORTIMER, Earl of March.
SCROOP, Archbishop of York.
ARCHIBALD, Earl of Douglas.

OWEN GLENDOWER.

Sir RICHARD VERNON.

Sir JOHN FALSTAFF.

POINS.

GADSHILL.

PETO.

BARDOLPH.

Lady PERCY, wife to Hotspur, and fifter to Mortimer.
Lady MORTIMER, daughter to Glendower, and wife to
Mortimer.

Mrs. QUICKLY, hoftefs of a tavern in Eastcheap.

Lords, Officers, Sheriff, Vintner, Chamberlain, Drawers, two Carriers, Travellers, and Attendants.

SCENE, England.

KING HENRY IV.

FIRST PART.

ACT I. SCENE 1.

London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter King HENRY, WESTMORELAND, Sir WALTER BLUNT, and Others.

King Henry.

S

O fhaken as we are, fo wan with care,

Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,

And breathe short-winded accents of new broils
To be commenc'd in ftronds afar remote.

No more the thirsty Erinnys of this foil

Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood;
No more fhall trenching war channel her fields,
Nor bruise her flowrets with the armed hoofs

Of hostile paces: thofe oppofed eyes,

Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,
All of one nature, of one substance bred,-

Did lately meet in the intestine fhock

And furious close of civil butchery,

Shall now, in mutual, well-beseeming ranks,
March all one way; and be no more oppos'd
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies :
The edge of war, like an ill-fheathed knife,
No more fhall cut his master. Therefore, friends,
As far as to the fepulcher of Christ,

(Whose foldier now, under whofe bleffed cross
We are impressed and engag'd to fight,)
Forthwith a power of English fhall we levy;

Whofe arms were moulded in their mothers' womb
To chase these pagans, in thofe holy fields,
Over whofe acres walk'd thofe bleffed feet,
Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd
For our advantage, on the bitter cross.
But this our purpose is a twelve-month old,
And bootless 'tis to tell you-we will go;

Therefore we meet not now:-Then let me hear
Of you, my gentle coufin Westmoreland,
What yefternight our council did decree,
In forwarding this dear expedience.

Weft. My liege, this hafte was hot in queftion,
And many limits of the charge fet down
But yefternight when, all athwart, there came
A poft from Wales, loaden with heavy news;
Whose worst was,-that the noble Mortimer,
Leading the men of Herefordshire to fight
Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
And a thousand of his people butchered:
Upon whose dead corps there was fuch misuse,
Such beaftly, fhameless transformation,
By thofe Welshwomen done, as may not be,
Without much shame, retold or spoken of.

K. Hen