Page:William Hazlitt - Characters of Shakespear's Plays (1817).djvu/237

Rh Assume the port of Mars, and at his heels Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire Crouch for employment."

Rubens, if he had painted it, would not have improved upon this simile.

The conversation between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Ely relating to the sudden change in the manners of Henry V. is among the well-known Beauties of Shakespear. It is indeed admirable both for strength and grace. It has sometimes occurred to us that Shakespear, in describing "the reformation" of the Prince, might have had an eye to himself–

This at least is as probable an account of the progress of the poet's mind as we have met with