Nor can the indecency of a prelate's appearing in arms, and the abufe of an authority derived from the facred function, be more strongly arraigned, than in the speeches of Westmorland, and John of Lancaster,

WESTMORLAND.

Then, my lord,

Unto your grace do I in chief address

The substance of my speech. If that rebellion
Came like itself, in base and abject routs,
Led on by bloody youth, goaded with rage,
And countenanc'd by boys and beggary;
I fay, if damn'd commotion fo appear'd
In his true, native, and most proper shape,
You, reverend father, and thefe noble lords,
Had not been here to drefs the ugly form
Of bafe and bloody infurrection,

With your fair honours. You, my lord archbishop,

Whofe fee is by a civil peace maintain'd,

Whose beard the filver hand of peace hath touch'd,

Whofe learning and good letters peace hath tutor❜d, Whose white investments figure innocence,

The dove and very bleffed fpirit of peace;

Wherefore do you fo ill tranflate yourself,

Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace, Into the harsh and boift'rous tongue of war?

LANCASTER.

My lord of York, it better fhew'd with you,
When that your flock, affembled by the bell,
Encircled you to hear with reverence,
Your expofition on the holy text;

Than now to see you here an iron man,
Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum,
Turning the word to fword, and life to death.
That man that fits within a monarch's heart,
And ripens in the fun-fhine of his favour,
Would he abuse the count'nance of the king,
Alack, what mifchiefs might be fet abroach,

In fhadow of fuch greatnefs! With you, lord bishop,
It is ev'n fo. Who hath not heard it spoken,
How deep you were within the books of heav'n?

To us, the speaker in his parliament,

To us th'imagin'd voice of heav'n itself,

The very opener and intelligencer

Between the grace, the fanctities of heav'n,

And our dull workings: O, who shall believe
But you mifufe the rev'rence of your place,

Employ the countenance and grace of heav'n,
As a falfe favourite doth his prince's name,
In deeds difhonourable? You've taken up,
Under the counterfeited zeal of God,

The fubjects of his fubftitute, my father;
And both against the peace of heav'n and him,
Have here up-fwarm'd them,

The archbishop of York, even when he appears an iron man, keeps up the gravity and feeming fanctity of his character, and wears the mitre over his helmet. He is not, like Hotspur, a valiant rebel, full of noble anger and fierce defiance, he speaks like a cool politician to his friends, and like a deep defigning hypocrite to his enemies, and pretends he is only acting as physician to the state.

I have before obferved, that Shakespear had the talents of an Orator, as much as of a Poet; and I believe it will be allowed, that the fpeeches of Weftmorland and Lancaster are as proper on this occafion, and the particular circumstances as happily touch'd, as they

could

could have been, by the most judicious orator. I know not that any poet, ancient or` modern, has fhewn fo perfect a judgment in rhetoric as our countryman. I wish he had employed his eloquence likewise, in arraigning the baseness and treachery of John of Lancaster's conduct, in breaking his covenant with the rebels.

Pistol is an odd kind of perfonage, intended probably to ridicule some fashionable affectation of bombaft language. When fuch characters exift no longer but in the writings, where they have been ridiculed, they seem to have been monfters of the poet's brain. The originals loft and the mode forgotten, one can neither praise the imitation, nor laugh at the ridicule. Comic writers should therefore always exhibit some characteristic diftinctions, as well as temporary modes, Juftice Shallow will for ever rank with a certain fpecies of men; he is like a well painted portrait in the dress of Pistol appears a mere antiquated

his

age.

habit, fo uncouthly fashioned, we can hardly

believe,

believe, it was made for any thing but a masquerade frolic. Poets who mean to please posterity, fhould therefore work as Painters, not as Taylors, and give us peculiar features, rather than fantastic habits: but where there is fuch a prodigious variety of well-drawn portraits as in this play, we may excufe one piece of mere drapery, especially when exhibited to expose an ab¬ furd and troublesome fashion.

Mine hoftefs Quickly is of a fpecies not extinct. It may be faid, the author there finks from comedy to farce, but she helps to compleat the character of Falstaffe, and fome of the dialogues in which she is engaged are diverting. Every scene in which Doll Tearfheet appears is indecent, and therefore not only indefenfible but inexcufable. There are delicacies of decorum in one age unknown to another age, but whatever is immoral is equally blamable in all ages, and every approach to obscenity is an offence for which wit cannot atone, nor

the