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Which by thy younger brother is supplied,
And art almost an alien to the hearts
Of all the court and princes of my blood:
The hope and expectation of thy time
Is ruin'd, and the soul of every man
Prophetically doth forethink thy fall.
Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company,
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession,
And left me in reputeless banishment,
A fellow of no mark nor likelihood.
By being seldom seen, I could not stir
But like a comet I was wonder'd at;

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That men would tell their children 'This is he;'
Others would say 'Where, which is Boling-
broke?'

And then I stole all courtesy from heaven, 50
And dress'd myself in such humility

That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,
Loud shouts and salutations from their mouths,
Even in the presence of the crowned king.
Thus did I keep my person fresh and new;
My presence, like a robe pontifical,

Ne'er seen but wonder'd at: and so my state,
Seldom but sumptuous, showed like a feast,
And wan by rareness such solemnity.

removed from the council for striking the Chief-Justice in 1403, some years after the battle of Shrewsbury.-I. G.

38. "doth"; Qq. and Ff., "do," which may be explained as due to the plural implied in "every man"; Rowe, "does"; Collier MS., "doth."-I. G.

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The skipping king, he ambled up and down, 60
With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled and soon burnt; carded his state,
Mingled his royalty with capering fools,
Had his great name profaned with their scorns,
And gave his countenance, against his name,
To laugh at gibing boys, and stand the push
Of
every beardless vain comparative,
Grew a companion to the common streets,
Enfeoff'd himself to popularity;

That, being daily swallow'd by men's eyes, 70
They surfeited with honey and began

To loathe the taste of sweetness, whereof a
little

More than a little is by much too much.

62. "carded his state"; "to card" is often used in Elizabethan English in the sense of "to mix, or debase by mixing" (e. g. "You card your beer if you see your guests begin to get drunk, half small, half strong," Green's Quip for an Upstart Courtier); Warburton suggested "carded"" 'scarded," i. e. "discarded"; but the former explanation is undoubtedly correct. "To stir and mix with cards, to stir together, to mix," the meaning is brought out by 1607 quotation from Topsell, Four-foot Beasts, "As for his diet, let it be warm mashes, sodden wheat and hay, thoroughly carded with woolcards."-I. G.

Ritson took it to mean, that Richard played away his royalty at cards. Knight suggests yet another sense, that he fretted away his dignity, as a carder does locks of wool. Our own notion then, is, that "carded his state" means the same as the following clause, the latter being explanatory of the former.-H. N. H.

63. "capering"; the first quarto reads capring; the other old copies read carping, which agrees well with the context. "A carping momus" and "a carping fool" were common phrases in the Poet's time. But, though carping agrees thus with the context, it must be owned that "capering" bears a sense equally appropriate, as referring to the dancing sprigs that Richard II drew about him.-H. N. H.

67. That is, every beardless, vain young fellow who affected wit, or was a dealer in comparisons.-H. N. H.

69. "popularity"; plebeian intercourse.-C. H. H.

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So when he had occasion to be seen,

He was but as the cuckoo is in June,

Heard, not regarded; seen, but with such eyes
As, sick and blunted with community,

Afford no extraordinary gaze,

Such as is bent on sun-like majesty

When it shines seldom in admiring eyes;

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But rather drowzed and hung their eyelids
down,

Slept in his face and render'd such aspect
As cloudy men use to their adversaries,
Being with his presence glutted, gorged and
full.

And in that very line, Harry, standest thou;
For thou hast lost thy princely privilege

With vile participation: not an eye
But is a-weary of thy common sight,

Which now doth that I would not have it do, 90
Make blind itself with foolish tenderness.

•yet you Save mine, which hath desired to see thee more;

Prince. I shall hereafter, my thrice gracious lord,
Be more myself.

King.

For all the world

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As thou art to this hour was Richard then
When I from France set foot at Ravenspurgh,
And even as I was then is Percy now.

Now, by my scepter and my soul to boot,
He hath more worthy interest to the state
Than thou the shadow of succession;

For of no right, nor color like to right,

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98. "to the state"; we should now write in the state, but this was the phraseology of the Poet's time.-H. N. H.

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He doth fill fields with harness in the realm,
Turns head against the lion's armed jaws,
And, being no more in debt to years than thou,
Leads ancient lords and reverend bishops on
To bloody battles and to bruising arms.
What never-dying honor hath he got

Against renowned Douglas! whose high deeds,
Whose hot incursions and great name in arms
Holds from all soldiers chief majority
And military title capital

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Through all the kingdoms that acknowledge
Christ:

Thrice hath this Hotspur, Mars in swathling
clothes,

This infant warrior, in his enterprizes

Discomfited great Douglas, ta'en him once,
Enlarged him and made a friend of him,
To fill the mouth of deep defiance up,

And shake the peace and safety of our throne.
And what say you to this? Percy, Northumber-
land,

The Archbishop's grace of York, Douglas,
Mortimer,

Capitulate against us and are up.

But wherefore do I tell these news to thee?
Why, Harry, do I tell thee of my foes,

Which art my near'st and dearest enemy?

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120

103. The Poet with great dramatic propriety approximates the ages of the prince and Hotspur, for the better kindling of a noble emulation between them. So that we need not suppose him ignorant that Hotspur was about twenty years the older.-H. N. H.

123. "dearest"; so in Hamlet, Act i. sc. 2: "Would I had met my

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130

Thou that art like enough, through vassal fear,
Base inclination and the start of spleen,
To fight against me under Percy's pay,
To dog his heels and curtsy at his frowns,
To show how much thou art degenerate.
Prince. Do not think so; you shall not find it so:
And God forgive them that so much have
sway'd
Your majesty's good thoughts away from me!
I will redeem all this on Percy's head,
And in the closing of some glorious day
Be bold to tell you that I am your son;
When I will wear a garment all of blood,
And stain my favors in a bloody mask,
Which, wash'd away, shall scour my shame with
it:

And that shall be the day, whene'er it lights,
That this same child of honor and renown, 139
This gallant Hotspur, this all-praised knight,
And your unthought-of Harry chance to meet.
For every honor sitting on his helm,

Would they were multitudes, and on my head
My shames redoubled! for the time will come,
That I shall make this northern youth exchange
His glorious deeds for my indignities.
Percy is but my factor, good my lord,
To engross up glorious deeds on my behalf;
And I will call him to so strict account,

'dearest foe in heaven ere ever I had seen that day, Horatio."H. N. H.

136. "favors, features"; the plural is rare in this sense, but the association with a "mask" shows that the face is intended, not the scarf, gloves, or other "favors" worn by knights.-C. H. H.

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