Henry

V. Act II.S cene II.

PIST. Let us condole the knight; for, lambkins,

we will live.2

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Southampton. A Council-Chamber.

Enter EXETER, BEDFORD, and WESTMORELAND.

BED. 'Fore God, his grace is bold, to trust these traitors.

EXE. They fhall be apprehended by and by.

WEST. HOW smooth and even they do bear them-
felves!

As if allegiance in their bofoms fat,
Crowned with faith, and conftant loyalty.

BED. The king hath note of all that they intend,
By interception which they dream not of.

2

EXE. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow,"

-for, lambkins, we will live.] That is, we will live as quietly and peaceably together as lambkins. The meaning has, I think, been obfcured by a different punctuation: "for, lambkins,

we will live." MALONE.

Lambkins feems to me a fantastick title by which Pistol addreffes his newly-reconciled friends, Nym and Bardolph. The wordswe will live, may refer to what seems uppermoft in his head, his expected profits from the camp, of which he has just given them reafon to expect a fhare. I have not therefore departed from the old punctuation. STEEVENS.

3 -that was his bedfellow,] So, Holinfhed: "The faid Lord Scroop was in fuch favour with the king, that he admitted him fometime to be his bedfellow." The familiar appellation of bedfellow, which appears itrange to us, was common among the ancient nobility. There is a letter from the fixth Earl of Northumberland (ftill preferved in the collection of the prefent duke) addreffed "To his beloved coufyn Thomas Arundel," &c. which

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Whom he hath cloy'd and grac'd with princely favours,

That he should, for a foreign purfe, fo fell
His fovereign's life to death and treachery!"

Trumpet founds. Enter King HENRY, SCROOP, CAMBRIDGE, GREY, Lords, and Attendants.

K. HEN. Now fits the wind fair, and we will aboard.

My lord of Cambridge, and my kind lord of

Mafham,

And you, my gentle knight,-give me your thoughts:

Think you not, that the powers we bear with us, Will cut their paffage through the force of France;

begins,

Bedfellow, after my most harté recommendacion:" So, in a comedy called, " A Knack to know a Knave, 1594: Yet, for thou waft once bedfellow to a king,

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"And that I lov'd thee as my fecond felf," &c.

Again, in Look about You, 1600:

-if I not err

"Thou art the prince's ward.

"I am his ward, chamberlain, and bedfellow."

Again, in Cynthia's Revenge, 1613:

"Her I'll bestow, and without prejudice,

"On thee alone, my noble bedfellow." STEEVENS. This unfeemly custom continued common till the middle of the laft century, if not later. Cromwell obtained much of his intelligence during the civil wars from mean men with whom he flept. -Henry Lord Scroop was the third husband of Joan Duchefs of York, ftepmother of Richard Earl of Cambridge. MALONE.

cloy'd and grac'd-] Thus the quarto; the folio readsdull'd and cloy'd. Perhaps dull'd is a mistake for dol'd. STEEVENS.

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to death and treachery!] Here the quartos infert a line emitted in all the following editions:

Exe. O! the lord of Mafham! JOHNSON.

Doing the execution, and the act,

For which we have in head affembled them?"

SCROOP. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his beft.

K. HEN. I doubt not that: fince we are well
perfuaded,

We carry not a heart with us from hence,
That grows not in a fair confent with ours;"
Nor leave not one behind, that doth not with
Succefs and conqueft to attend on us.

CAM. Never was monarch better fear'd, and
lov'd,

Than is your majefty; there's not, I think, a sub

ject,

That fits in heart-grief and uneafiness

Under the sweet fhade of your government.

GREY. Even thofe, that were your father's enemies,

Have steep'd their galls in honey; and do ferve you With hearts create of duty and of zeal.

6 For which we have in head assembled them?] This is not an English phrafeology. I am perfuaded Shakspeare wrote:

For which we have in aid assembled them?

alluding to the tenures of those times. WARBURTON. It is ftrange that the commentator fhould forget a word fo eminently obfervable in this writer, as head for an army formed. JOHNSON.

In head feems fynonymous to the modern military term in force. MALONE.

↑ That grows not in a fair confent with ours ;] So, in Macbeth: If you fhall cleave to my confent," &c.

Confent is union, party, &c. STEEVENS.

-in a fair concent-] In friendly concord; in unison with ours. See Vol. VII. p. 403, n. 3. MALONE.

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hearts create-] Hearts compounded or made up of duty and zeal. JOHNSON.

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K. HEN. We therefore have great cause of thank-
fulness;

And fhall forget the office of our hand,'
Sooner than quittance of defert and merit,
According to the weight and worthiness.

SCROOP. So fervice fhall with steeled finews toil;
And labour shall refresh itself with hope,
To do your grace inceffant fervices.

K. HEN. We judge no lefs.-Uncle of Exeter,
Enlarge the man committed yesterday,
That rail'd against our perfon: we confider,
It was excefs of wine that fet him on;
And, on his more advice, we pardon him.

SCROOP. That's mercy, but too much fecurity:
Let him be punish'd, fovereign; left example
Breed, by his fufferance, more of fuch a kind.
K. HEN. O, let us yet be merciful.

CAM. So may your highness, and yet punish too.
GREY. Sir, you fhow great mercy, if you give
him life,

After the taste of much correction.

K. HEN. Alas, your too much love and care of

me

Are heavy orifons 'gainft this poor wretch.
If little faults, proceeding on distemper,'

9 And fhall forget the office of our hand,] Perhaps, our author, when he wrote this line, had the fifth verfe of the 137th Pfalm in his thoughts: "If I forget thee, O Jerufalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." STEEVENS.

2

more advice,] On his return to more coolness of mind.

See Vol. III. p. 215, and Vol. IV. p. 382, n. 3.

3 proceeding on diftemper,] i. e. sudden paffions.

JOHNSON,

MALONE.

WARBURTON.