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SCENE II.

Another Part of the Forest.

Enter, from one fide, MOWBRAY, the Archbishop, HASTINGS, and Others: from the other fide, Prince JOHN of LANCASTER, WESTMORELAND, Officers, and Attendants.

P. John. You are well encounter'd here, my cousin Mowbray :

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Good day to you, gentle lord archbishop ;-
And fo to you, lord Hastings, and to all.
My lord of York, it better show'd with you,
When that your flock, assembled by the bell,
Encircled you, to hear with reverence
Your exposition on the holy text;
Than now to fee you here an iron man,
Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,
Turning the word to sword, and life to death.
That man, that fits within a monarch's heart,
And ripens in the funshine of his favour,
Would he abuse the countenance of the king,
Alack, what mischiefs might he fet abroach,
In shadow of such greatness! With you, lord bishop,
It is even fo: Who hath not heard it spoken,
How deep you were within the books of God?

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an iron man, Holinshed says of the Archbishop, that coming foorth amongst them clad in armour, he incouraged and pricked them foorth to take the enterprise in hand."

STEEVENS.

• Turning the word to fword, &c.] A fimilar thought occurs in the prologue to Gower's Confeffio Amantis, 1554: "Into the sworde the churche kaye

"Is turned, and the holy bede," &c. STEEVENS.

To us, the speaker in his parliament;
To us, the imagin'd voice of God himself;
The very opener, and intelligencer,
Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven,"
And our dull workings : 8 O, who shall believe,
But you misuse the reverence of your place;
Employ the countenance and grace of heaven,
As a false favourite doth his prince's name,
In deeds dishonourable ? You have taken up,
Under the counterfeited zeal of God,
The fubjects of his substitute, my father;
And, both against the peace of heaven and him,

Have here up-fwarm'd them.

ARCH.

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Good my lord of Lancaster,

I am not here against your father's peace:
But, as I told my lord of Weltmoreland,

The time miforder'd doth, in common sense,

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the imagin'd voice of God himself; ) The old copies, by an apparent errour of the prefs, have-the imagine voice. Mr. Pope introduced the reading of the text. Perhaps Shakspeare

wrote

To us, the image and voice, &c.

So, in a fubfequent scene :

" And he, the noble image of my youth." MALONE. I cannot perfuade myself to reject a harmonious reading, that another eminently harth may supply its place. STEEVENS.

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copied :

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the fanctities of heaven,] This expreffion Milton has

" Around him all the fanclities of heaven
" Stood thick as ftars." JOHNSON.

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workings: i.e. labours of thought. So, in K. Henry V: the forge and working-house of thought."

STEEVENS.

• You have taken up, ) To take up is to levy, to raife in arms. JOHNSON.

in common sense, ) I believe Shakspeare wrote common fence, i. e drove by self-defence. WARBURTON.

Common fenfe is the general sense of general danger. JOHNSON.

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Crowd us, and crush us, to this monstrous form,
To hold our fafety up. I sent your grace
The parcels and particulars of our grief;

The which hath been with scorn shov'd from the

court,

Whereon this Hydra son of war is born:
Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd afleep,
With grant of our most just and right defires;
And true obedience, of this madness cur'd,
Stoop tamely to the foot of majesty.

MowB. If not, we ready are to try our fortunes
To the last man.

HAST.

And though we here fall down,

We have fupplies to fecond our attempt;
If they miscarry, theirs shall second them;
And fo, fuccess of mischief shall be born;
And heir from heir shall hold this quarrel up,
Whiles England shall have generation.

P. JOHN. You are too fhallow, Hastings, much
too fhallow,

To found the bottom of the after-times.
WEST. Pleaseth your grace, to answer them di-

rectly,

How far-forth you do like their articles?
P. JOHN. I like them all, and do allow them
well:

And fwear here by the honour of my blood,
My father's purposes have been mistook;

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Alluding to

Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd afleep, the dragon charmed to reft by the spells of Medea. STEEVENS.

4 And So, fuccess of mischief - Success for fucceffion.

WARBURTON.

and do allow - ) i. e. approve. So, in K. Lear, A& II.

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"Allow obedience."

if your sweet sway

MALONE.

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And fome about him have too lavishly
Wrested his meaning, and authority.-

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My lord, these griefs shall be with speed redress'd;
Upon my foul, they shall. If this may please you,
Difcharge your powers unto their several counties,
As we will ours: and here, between the armies,
Let's drink together friendly, and embrace;
That all their eyes may bear those tokens home,
Of our reftored love, and amity.

ARCH. I take your princely word for these re

dreffes.

P. JOHN. I give it you, and will maintain my

word:

And thereupon I drink unto your grace.

HAST. Go, captain, [To an Officer.] and deliver

to the army

This news of peace; let them have pay, and part: I know, it will well please them; Hie thee, captain. [Exit Officer. ARCH. To you, my noble lord of Westmoreland. WEST. I pledge your grace: And, if you knew what pains

I have bestow'd, to breed this present peace,
You would drink freely: but my love to you
Shall show itself more openly hereafter.

ARCH. I do not doubt you.

WEST.

I am glad of it.

Health to my lord, and gentle cousin, Mowbray.

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Discharge your powers - ) It was Westmoreland who made this deceitful proposal, as appears from Holinshed: " The earl of Westmoreland using more policie than the rest, said, whereas our people have been long in armour, let them depart home to their woonted trades: in the meane time let us drink togither in signe of agreement, that the people on both fides may fee it, and know that it is true, that we be light at a point." STEEVENS.

MoWB. You wish me health in very happy feason; For I'am, on the fudden, something ill. ARCH. Against ill chances, men are ever merry; But heaviness foreruns the good event.

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WEST. Therefore be merry, coz; fince sudden forrow

Serves to say thus, -Some good thing comes to

morrow.

ARCH. Believe me, I am paffing light in spirit. MOWB. So much the worse, if your own rule be [Shouts within. P. JOHN. The word of peace is render'd; Hark, how they shout!

true.

MOWB. This had been cheerful, after victory. ARCH. A peace is of the nature of a conqueft;

For then both parties nobly are fubdued,

And neither party lofer.

P. JOHN.

Go, my lord,

And let our army be discharged too.

[Exit WESTMORELAND.

And, good my lord, so please you, let our trains

6 Against ill chances, men are ever merry; Thus the poet defcribes Romeo, as feeling an unaccustom'd degree of cheerfulness just before he hears the news of the death of Juliet. STEEVENS.

7 Therefore bemerry, coz;) That is- Therefore, notwithstanding this fudden impulse to heaviness, be merry; for fuch fudden dejetions forebodę good. JOHNSON.

8-let our trains &c. That is, our army on each part, that we may both fee those that were to have oppofed us. JOHNSON. We ought, perhaps, to read your trains. The Prince knew his own ftrength sufficiently, and only wanted to be acquainted with that of the enemy. The plural, trains, however, seems in favour of the old reading. MALONE.

The Prince was defirous to see their train, and therefore, under pretext of affording them a fimilar gratification, proposed that both trains should pass in review. STEEVENS.

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