England will suffer and go ill, when his own strong hand is removed by coming death.

All this sorrow, this fear, this love for his country, find expression in his noble, passionate, reproving appeal to his son. We can realise the sorrow gnawing at his heart when wo understand that, knowing how wrongly he snacht the crown, he sees, as a sort of consequence, only strife and dissoluteness in the future days of England. Hal's repentance, however, is complete, and the promise of better days is given.

In connexion with the season of the play, Ellacombe says: There is one flower-note in Act II., sc. iv., where the Hostess says to Falstaff, “Fare thee well! I have known thee these twenty-five years come peascod time,” of which it can only be said that it must have been spoken at some other time than

It is impossible to determine the season of the play from its references to plants and flowers '” (New Shaks. Soc. Trans., 1880-6, p. 73).

KING HENRY THE

THE FOURTH

DRAMATIS PERSONA

KING HENRY THE FOURTH. TRAVERS and MORTON, ReHENRY, Prince of)

tainers of Northumberland. Wales, afterwards

SIR JOHN FALSTAFF. King Henry V.,

His Page. Thomas, Duke of

BARDOLPH.

His Clarence,

PISTOL.

Sons. PRINCE JOHN OF

POINS. LANCASTER,

PETO. PRINCE HUMPHREY

SHALLOW and Country OF GLOSTER,

SILENCE,

Justices. EARL OF WARWICK,

Davy, Servant to Shallow. EARL OF WESTMORE

MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, LAND,

Of the

FEEBLE, and BULL-CALF, EARL OF SURREY, King's Recruits. GOWER,

Party. FANG and SNARE, Sheriff's HARCOURT,

Officers.
BLUNT,

A Porter.
Lord Chief Justice of the
King's Bench.

LADY NORTHUMBERLAND.
A Gentleman attending on the

LADY PERCY. Chief Justice.

Hostess QUICKLY.
EARL OF NORTH-)

DOLL TEAR-SHEET.
UMBERLAND,
SCROOP, Arch-

Opposites bishop of York,

Lords, and Attendants ; Offi

to the LORD MOWBRAY,

King. LORD HASTINGS,

cers, Soldiers, Messenger,

Drawers, Beadles, Grooms, LORD BARDOLPH,

&c., RUMOUR, the Presenter, SIR JOHN COLE

A Dancer, Speaker of the VILLE,

Epilogue.
SCENE-ENGLAND

INDUCTION Warkworth. Before NORTHUMBERLAND's Castle

Enter Rumour, painted full of tongues Rum. 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 :
And who but Rumour, who but only I,
Make fearful musters and prepared defence,
Whilst 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
My well-known body to anatomise
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,
And that the king before the Douglas' rage
Stooped his anointed head as low as death.
This have I rumoured 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 learned of me: from Rumour's

tongues They bring smooth comforts false, worse than true wrongs.

[Exit.

ACT FIRST

SCENE I.-The Same

Enter Lord BARDOLPH

L. Bard. Who keeps the gate here I ho !
The Porter opens the gate

Where is the earl ? Port. What shall I say you are?