King Henry IV — Part I.
Act I Sc. 1
“Forthwith a power of English shall we levy.”
We might incline to read lead; but the text is right. Gifford quotes “Scipio before he levied his forces to the walls of Carthage,” from Gosson’s School of Abuse, and other passages in its defence.
“Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights,
Balk’d in their own blood did sir Walter see.”
The explanations given of ‘Balk’d’ do not satisfy me. Steevens has given some good authority for Bak’d, the conjecture of Grey; but on the whole I incline to Heath’s Bath’d. Still I have made no alteration.
“Mordake, the earl of Fife, and eldest son
To beaten Douglas, and the earls of Athol,
Of Murray, and of Angus and Menteith.”
Sc. 2
“If thou darest not stand for ten shillings.”
Pope also read, as I do, ‘cry stand.’
Sc. 3
“And you have found me; for accordingly
You tread upon my patience.”
I read ‘have found me so. Accordingly.’ In Com. of Err. i. 1. and elsewhere we have so for for.
“I will from henceforth rather be myself,
Mighty and to be fear’d, than my condition.”
What is the difference between ‘myself’ and ‘my condition,’ i.e. natural disposition? I read ‘my condition past.’
“Out of my grief and my impatience
To be so pestered with a popinjay.”
So Edwards and Johnson properly transposed these lines.
“Art thou not ashamed? But, sirrah, from henceforth.”
“By Richard that dead is, the next of blood.”
It is so printed in both 4tos and folio; but we surely should read ‘is dead.’
“As to o’erwalk a current roaring loud.”
Perhaps the poet used the more forceable term, torrent.
“But not the form of what he should attend to.”
“Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own.”
Perhaps ‘Tying’ was not the poet’s word. It may have been Turning, or some other.
“Will easily be granted. You, my lord,” etc.
Such is the proper punctuation, also proposed by Thirlby.
“I’ll steal to Glendower and Lord Mortimer.”
There is evidently a line lost after this.