Being ne'er so little urged, another way

To pluck him headlong from the usurped throne";

and is not sorry that the struggle should come in which he may rid himself of the burden of gratitude, and give a lesson of his power to such as may be disposed to question it. However this may be, the die is cast and the king committed to war with his former supporters. Fortune goes with him, the rebels are completely routed, Hotspur slain, and his father driven to take refuge in Scotland. Rebellion, however, again makes head; this time under the lead of the Archbishop of York, Mowbray, and Hastings, and though after a protracted struggle the king's cause triumphs, he is by this time well nigh broken in health and spirits. As Clarence says, Pt. II. iv. 4. 118-120,

"The incessant care and labour of his mind

Hath wrought the mure that should confine it in,

So thin that life looks through and will break out"

;

he becomes morbidly anxious, broods over the troubles of his country, reviews his past life with a yearning sense of failure in his best hopes, trembles for his sons when he shall be gone, is conscious of the little love he has enjoyed, would pry into the secrets of futurity, and tries to comfort himself once more with the dream of peace of mind to be found in a war waged for religion not for any personal aggrandisement. This solace is denied him, but death unloads him of his burden, and before he passes away his restless soul is calmed by the knowledge that his son, for whose affection in spite of his lonely reserve he had so craved, is indeed what he could wish him to be, and that he may lay aside all his

anxieties alike as to his children and as to the realm for
the possession of which he has sacrificed so much of
truer happiness. If his character
If his character is not one that
inspires enthusiasm, his indomitable fixity of purpose
may fairly compel admiration; if subtlety of intellect
dwarfed the more amiable traits of affection and sym-
pathy, such hardness of disposition was at all events
something better than the emotional feebleness of him
whom he displaced; if policy was his leading trait,
there was in it, as Hudson remarks, "much of the
breadth and largeness which distinguish the statesman
from the politician."

As in the case of the king, we must refer back to Prince Henry. Richard the Second for the first mention of the Prince who is, in v. 3. 1-22, already a source of anxiety to his father on account of the "dissolute crew" with whom he consorts, though even then the king discerns “some sparks of better hope, which elder years May happily bring forth." Our next reference to him is in i. H. IV. i 1. 78-91, where the king compares him unfavourably with Hotspur. The first time he is actually presented to us is in i. 2 of the same Part. His light-hearted disposition, fond of excitement and adventure, finding no qutlet in more serious enterprise, had led him into an unwise intimacy with the witty but debauched old knight, Sir John Falstaff. With Sir John are his low associates, Poins, Peto, Gadshill and Bardolph, who on the first scene in which the Prince comes before us, have arranged a robbery of some travellers during the night. Poins persuades the Prince to pretend that he will join in the exploit, disclosing to him at the same time an under plot of his own by which he and the Prince

are to separate themselves from Falstaff and his com panions, and in disguise to rush upon them after the robbery and make them disgorge their booty. This adventure is followed by two scenes at the Boar's Head Tavern in Eastcheap, where the Prince joins in all the revelry of his boon-companions, makes friends with the drawers, and altogether behaves himself as a roistering madcap. In these low haunts of dissipation he is roused by the news of the insurrection of the rebels. At once leaving his associates, he joins the King, excuses himself for his former irregularities (iii. 2. 18-28) and in answer to his father's reproof promises amendment (iii. 2. 92, 93, and 130-159). Again, just before the battle of Shrewsbury (v. 1. 83-100), he confesses that he has hitherto been a 'truant to chivalry'; and to show the reality of his repentance, proposes a single combat with Hotspur to decide the question at issue, and so avoid the blood shed of a general battle between the two forces. Tho noble modesty with which the challenge is made is eloquently set forth by Sir R. Vernon, who worthily appreciates the Prince's character (v. 2. 51-68). It is, however, declined. The armies engage at Shrewsbury, the Prince fights with splendid courage, and encountering Hotspur, kills him. The rebels being overcome and the necessity for showing himself in his nobler and truer colours being past, the hero of Shrewsbury sinks again into the rake of Eastcheap. There we find him at the Boar's Head Tavern with his former wild companions But the circumstances around him have changed, and he has changed with them. What in his earlier days seemed to him, conscious of the depths of his own character, to be pardonable frivolity, now takes a different colouring

om the gloomy aspect of the events in which he has ayed a part and those which are clearly not far distant. Here for the first time," says Gervinus, "he is ashamed this low taste, and reproaches himself for associating th Poins and his friends, and for becoming initiated to all their meanest secrets. The thought of his ther's sickness and possible death has softened him; is sad even to weeping. His heart bleeds inwardly, t intercourse with his frivolous companions has uncustomed him to the demeanour of sorrow and sadness. pins construes this change into hypocrisy, and looks oon his former hilarity at the prospect of the crown as is natural mood. The princely blood in Henry is used. Thou think'st me,' he says to Poins, 'as far the devil's book as thou and Falstaff for obduracy and ersistency: let the end try the man.' He receives letters om Falstaff in the old familiar tone, but in the manner I which he receives them, in the manner in which he onverses with Poins, a separation of feeling is pereptible. The seriousness of circumstances, the sickness. f his father, the approach of the period of his high ocation, have roused him, and the resolutions of that rst soliloquy which we heard from him begin to ripen to action. He can no longer with that irresistible umour resign himself as before to the frivolities of his d friends; he remembers his dignity at every moment. etween the promptings of his old vein. 'We play the pols with the time,' he says, ' and the spirits of the wise in the clouds and mock us. Nor is his return to Hearing that fresh

his kind of life long continued.

bels are in arms against his father, he exclaims (Pt.

By heaven, Poins, I feel me much to blame,
So idly to profane the precious time,
When tempest of commotion, like the south
Borne with black vapour, doth begin to melt
And drop upon our bare unarmed heads.
Give me my sword and cloak.”

With these words he at once quits his companion and repairs to Westminster, where, shortly before h coming, the King had again expressed to Warwick h fears of what would happen on his coming to the thron and had been assured by Warwick that he had mistake his character (Pt. ii., iv. 4. 20-80). Here the Prince find the King lying asleep on his death-bed with the crow upon his pillow. Taking the crown up, he puts it or declaring to himself that he will wear it worthily (iv. 43-7). The King, awaking, finds the crown gone, assume that the Prince, who he learns has been in the room, ha taken it away, and on the Prince's return reproache him with longing for his death, and grieves for th future of England when his son shall have succeede him (iv. 5. 93-138). The Prince indignantly repudiate the charge, and endeavours to quiet his father's fear for the welfare of the country (iv. 5. 139-155). Th King dies almost immediately after this interview, and the time has come for the Prince, now Henry the Fifth to show that his assurances to his father were not mer boasting, but that he is really worthy of the fortune which have fallen upon him. In the first scene in which he appears in his new position, we find him trying comfort his brothers with the assurance of his sympath and protection (v. 2. 57-61). He then turns to the Chie Justice, who had committed him for contempt of Cour