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 REMARKS 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 PLAYS OF SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 - 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 REMARKS, 
 
 CRITICAL, CONJECTURAL, AND 
 EXPLANATORY, 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 PLAYS OF SHAKSPEARE; 
 
 RESULTING FROM 
 
 A COLLATION OF THE EARLY COPIES, 
 
 WITH THAT OF 
 
 JOHNSON AND STEEVENS, 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 ISAAC REED, Esq. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 SOME VALUABLE EXTRACTS FROM THE MSS. 
 
 OF THE LATE RIGHT HONOURABLE 
 
 JOHN, LORD CHEDWORTH. 
 
 DEDICATED TO 
 
 RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, Esq. 
 
 By E. H. SEYMOUR, 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 LO.YDOA': 
 
 P niedby J. Wright, Si. John's Square, Clerkenxvell ; 
 FOR LACK1NGTON, ALLEN & CO. ; LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND 
 
 orme; f. and c. rivington ; \v. j. and j. Richardson ; 
 
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 nor and hood; j. carpenter j r. h. evans; s. bagstkr; 
 and j. asperne. 
 
 180 5.
 
 c29n 
 Sex 
 
 TO "' I 
 
 RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN, ESQ. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 When I desired permission to dedicate 
 these Remarks to you, I was not sufficiently 
 aware how dangerous an honour I was seek- 
 ing : the Work is merely critical, with lit- 
 tle room for genius, were I possessed of any, 
 to display itself; and I am evoking the dis- 
 cernment of one who, placed by the grate- 
 ful and according suffrage of this nation in 
 the supreme chair of Wit, Taste, and Elo- 
 quence, is peculiarly endowed with a talent 
 for detecting and exposing fallacy of every 
 kind. This thought, indeed, would instantly 
 have checked my presumption, if I did not, 
 at the same time, reflect, that pre-eminent 
 abilities are, naturally, associated with ex- 
 emplary candour ; and that he whom I ad- 
 dress is not more distinguished for brilliancy 
 of intellect, than for ardour of benevolence, 
 
 I am, Sir, with great respect, 
 Your obliged and faithful 
 Humble servant, 
 
 E, H. SEYMOUR.
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 UF these Remarks the greater part were writ- 
 ten during the progress of a collation between 
 the early copies, and that produced by Mr. 
 Steevens, in 1793. The revisal of the manu- 
 script, necessary, in order to adapt the refer- 
 ences to the recent edition, by Mr. Reed, and 
 with a view to the probable variations therein, 
 occasioned, in many places, material alterations. 
 The reviser often found himself anticipated, 
 and, of course, obliged to withdraw what had 
 now become superfluous. The new matter intro- 
 duced in the last commentary, together with 
 reiterated meditations on the text, induced, 
 sometimes, fresh opinions, and, sometimes, chas- 
 tened those before advanced. But what is prin- 
 cipally to be noticed here is, that, so often as 
 the remarker reperused the pages on which he 
 had presumed to comment, the mutilations and 
 corruptions which disfigure them, appeared the
 
 Vlli ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 more flagrant ; and increased his confidence in 
 the proffered amendments : accordingly, it will 
 be found that he has, sometimds, perhaps too 
 rashly, overstepped the timid bounds which, in 
 the Introduction, he had prescribed to himself, 
 on the ground of conjectural restoration and 
 rejection : this will appear most conspicuously, 
 or, perhaps, most culpably, in Othello, King 
 Lear, and Timon of Athens : the attempt was 
 experimental, and the Author, like other ad- 
 venturers, too sanguine in their pursuits, must 
 abide the consequence of his temerity. The re- 
 ferences apply, immediately, to the last copy of 
 Johnson and Steevens's Shakspeare, edited by 
 Mr. Reed ; but they will, it is presumed, suffi- 
 ciently accord with any other regular edition ; 
 as, to every remark, a note of the respective 
 Act and Scene is annexed.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 AFTER the labours of so many acute and 
 judicious men as, during almost a century 
 past, have successively applied their talents 
 to rectify and explain the works of Shaks- 
 peare, it might reasonably be supposed, 
 that little room was left for further obser- 
 vation : that an authentic, or, at least, an 
 approved text was firmly established ; that 
 all inaccuracies were repaired or noted ; 
 that the viciousness of interpolation, and 
 the ignorance or idleness of transcribers 
 and reciters were no longer to be con- 
 founded with the effusions of the poet, and 
 that every passage which had languished 
 in the trammels of obscurity, was at length 
 either redeemed to illustration, or aban- 
 doned finally to impervious darkness ; but 
 a review of the plays, as they have been 
 presented to the public by the last editor, 
 will shew that such expectations remain, 
 even yet, unfulfilled. It is true, indeed , 
 
 VOL. I, b
 
 2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the circumstances attending our great dra- 
 matist and his productions must ever leave 
 questionable the authority even of the best 
 copies, for, excepting A Midsummer Night's 
 Dream, we shall not, perhaps, find a single 
 play that is not evidently corrupted ; and 
 there exists no other rule whereby we can 
 distinguish the genuine from the spurious 
 parts, but that internal evidence which 
 critical discernment may be able to extract 
 from a patient and minute examination of 
 the earliest copies, the consciousness of a 
 peculiar and predominating style, and the 
 sagacious perception of an original design, 
 howsoever adulterated or deranged by inno- 
 vation or unskilfulness. 
 
 On this ground, possibly, a rational 
 hypothesis of purity may be erected, when- 
 ever there shall come forth a combination 
 of talents and industry sufficient for the 
 task : this, however, is a latitude of criti- 
 cism, to which no editor, as yet, has ex- 
 tended his enquiry ; they have all been 
 satisfied with delivering the text of each 
 drama as they found it, with preference 
 occasionally to the readings of different im- 
 pressions ; and if the choice they made be
 
 INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 deemed judicious, so much of their under- 
 taking has been performed : but with regard 
 to those anomalies in which the measure, 
 construction, and sense, are often vitiated, 
 they appear to have been strangely negli- 
 gent ; and, sometimes, more strangely mis- 
 taken : the want of meaning can never be 
 excused ; the disregard of syntax is no less 
 reprehensible, and every poetic ear must 
 be offended by metrical dissonance. 
 
 Yet all these faults abound without even 
 a comment in the last edition of Shaks- 
 peare's plays. Upon examining the com- 
 positions before us, we must presently dis- 
 cern two different kinds of imperfections, 
 one of them the result of haste or idleness ; 
 the other of habitual inaccuracy : those 
 which were produced by mere inadver- 
 tency, whether of the poet himself or his 
 transcriber; and where concord, prosody, 
 and reason, unite in suggesting the true 
 expression, should at once, perhaps, with- 
 out scruple or remark, be set right in the 
 text>) 
 
 The other, more compendious as well as 
 mischievous class of errors, are those indi- 
 gests of grammar, both in words and 
 
 b 2
 
 4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 phrases, which are not, indeed, confined 
 to this author, but equally disfigure the 
 works of others ; and are, unhappily, to be 
 found in the volumes of writers the most 
 applauded for correctness and elegance of 
 diction : the frequency of these impurities, 
 and the eminence of the names from which 
 they seem to derive countenance, so far 
 from furnishing any argument in their de- 
 fence, present the strongest reason for their 
 condemnation, since vicious modes and 
 practices should, always, be resisted with 
 a zeal proportioned to the danger arising 
 from the prevalence of custom, and the 
 seduction of example : and though much of 
 what is here complained of cannot now be 
 reformed, it should, at least, be stigmatised, 
 to prevent what is indisputably wrong from 
 being sanctioned by authority, or multi- 
 plied by adoption ; but the most perni- 
 cious, as well as copious source of disorder 
 in these works, is what has poured into 
 almost every page of them, a torrent of 
 interpolation ; which, bearing on its sur- 
 face the foam of antiquity, has been so 
 mixed and blended with the rest, as to be 
 at this day, not to the careless reader only,
 
 INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 but to the most discerning critics, not very 
 clearly distinguishable; and he who with 
 the efficacy of just discrimination, and, in 
 the confidence allied to great ability, should 
 declare, " Thus far our poet wrote, the 
 rest is all imposture," would claim and 
 deserve a place " Velut inter ignes luna 
 ininores," supereminent, indeed, above 
 all his competitors, in the honour of illus- 
 trating Shakspeare : this, however, were 
 a project to the execution of which the 
 present remarker professes himself incom- 
 petent : he will, therefore, confine his 
 endeavours to that field of scrutiny which 
 has bounded the ambition of men, much 
 better qualified than he is, to extend its 
 limits, assuming only as a datum, what no 
 one will deny, that interpolation does exist, 
 and is frequent ; and resting thereon, con- 
 jointly with the excellence of the poetry, 
 which, indisputably is our author's, an 
 argument that very few of the ungramma- 
 tical, unmetrical, or unmeaning sentences, 
 exhibited in these works, have issued from 
 his pen. As to prosody, or the unskil- 
 fulness in that art, so commonly imputed 
 to our author, no charge was ever more 
 
 b3
 
 6 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 unsubstantial j for, to say nothing of Venus 
 and Adonis, the Rape of Lucrece, and the 
 Sonnets, all which are finished with a kind 
 of fastidious exactness : there are number- 
 less verses and scenes in the plays, which 
 prove he had an ear as correctly tuned as 
 that of Pope, but far surpassing him in 
 true and various melody : and equal, if not 
 superior, even to Milton himself. When- 
 ever, therefore, we find a passage of general 
 excellence and beauty, disfigured by an un- 
 couth line, or a line itself decrepid or un- 
 weildy, w r e may reasonably conclude it is 
 the effect of either unfaithful recitation, or 
 hasty transcription ; thus, when the king 
 accosts young Hamlet : 
 
 " 'Tis sweet and commendable in your na- 
 ture, Hamlet, 
 
 " To give these mourning duties to your 
 father. 
 
 " But you must know, your father lost a 
 father, 
 
 " That father lost, lost his, and the survivor 
 bound," &c. 
 
 It is plain that the hypermeter in the
 
 INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 first and fourth lines has been imperti- 
 nently or carelessly obtruded, and that the 
 verse ran thus :( 6 ) 
 
 " Tis sweet and commendable in you, 
 
 Hamlet, 
 " To give these mourning duties to your 
 
 father. 
 " But you must know, your father lost a 
 
 father, 
 " That father his, and the survivor bound," 
 
 &c. 
 
 The last of these lines, indeed, Pope very 
 properly corrected. But let us proceed, 
 and see if we can rationally associate such 
 crudities with the mellow harmony of what 
 follows : 
 
 " And the survivor bound 
 
 " In filial obligation, for some term, 
 
 " To do obsequious sorrow, but to per- 
 
 sevgr 
 " In obstinate condolement, is a^ course 
 <c Of impious stubbftrnness ; 'tis unmanly 
 
 grief, 
 
 " It shows a will most incorrect to heaven -, 
 
 b 4
 
 8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " A heart unfortified, or mind impatient ; 
 
 " An understanding simple and unschool'd: 
 
 " For, what we know must be, and is as 
 -common 
 
 " As any, the most vulgar, thing to sense 
 
 " Why should we, in our peevish opposi- 
 tion, 
 
 * Take it to heart ? Fie ! 'tis a fault to 
 heaven : 
 
 " A fault against the dead ; a fault to na- 
 ture: 
 
 " To reason most absurd ; whose common 
 theme 
 
 " Is death of fathers ; and who still has 
 cried 
 
 " From the first corse, till he that 
 
 died, to-day 
 
 " This must be so ." 
 
 It may be observed, in these verses, that 
 the dissyllabic termination occurs pretty 
 often ; and once the trisyllabic. This oc- 
 casional redundance is, certainly, as Den- 
 nis remarked, an improvement in our dra- 
 matic metre ; though that critic is mistaken 
 in ascribing to Shakspeare, either the in- 
 vention of it, or the frequent introduction
 
 INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 of the trisyllabic ending. The latter, in 
 truth, is rarely resorted to by our poet ; 
 and very few instances of it can be collect- 
 ed throughout his works ; neither is the 
 dissyllabic an improvement, absolutely ; it 
 is no further so than as it varies and ex- 
 tends the general harmony ; and, therefore, 
 it should not be called forth too often, but 
 if we find it here, in three successive lines, 
 we shall not want evidence of similar or 
 greater freedom in writers whose numbers 
 are supposed to be more correct ; as in 
 Otway, with whom it abounds ; and in 
 Rowe, whose distinguishing praise seems to 
 be the smoothness of his verse : but let us 
 turn to instances more apposite, and com- 
 pare these casual superfluities with such as 
 are exhibited by contemporaries ; by Jon- 
 son, Massinger, and Fletcher, who are not 
 satisfied with an incidental or moderate 
 use of the redundant ending ; but seem, 
 especially the two latter, to affect and 
 prefer it, giving it place, sometimes, with- 
 out intermission, for many lines, and, cer- 
 tainly, throughout their works, with more 
 continuity than the regular heroic.^) But 
 there is, further, a conspicuous blemish in
 
 10 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the prosody of these writers, from which 
 Shakspeare is entirely free. The dissyl- 
 labic ending is only admissible where the 
 accent reposes on the penultima ; and is 
 followed by a weak syllable of a consti- 
 tuent word, as 
 
 " His mother was a votress of my 6rdr," 
 
 or, at least, by a monosyllable, that is 
 nearly mute, as 
 
 " To fall-in-love with what she fear'd to 
 16ok on," 
 
 and in this manner, only, does our poet 
 employ it ; and rather, as it appears, 
 through expediency than choice ; whereas, 
 his corrivals of the day are so enamoured of 
 the excess, that they will often prodi- 
 gally burthen the ear to obtain it at the 
 expence of a new, distinct, and emphatic 
 word.^ 
 
 This uncouth exuberance, so prevalent 
 with Beaumont and Fletcher, as well as 
 Massinger, that it disfigures the greater 
 part of their poetry, is so uncongenial to
 
 INTRODUCTION. u 
 
 the style of Shakspeare, that none of his 
 interpolators has ventured to impose it on 
 us, and the poorest lines that bear his name 
 are with the noblest alike exempt from it. 
 Thus it is evident, that, instead of regarding 
 our poet as chargeable with ruggedness of 
 composition, we should esteem him rather 
 an exemplar of metrical harmony, and 
 freely join in the praise which Jonson has 
 bestowed on 
 
 " His well-toned and true-filed lines.*' 
 
 The passage from Hamlet, as, probably, 
 may have appeared, was selected, not so 
 much for its excellence, howsoever admi- 
 rable it is, as on account of the corrup- 
 tions that were attached to it ; for it would 
 be easy to adduce from Shakspeare's 
 stock, examples of the highest and most 
 finished poetry which happily have escaped 
 the infectious and degrading hand of the 
 interpolator ; but such a display would be 
 rather ostentatious than edifying, and is 
 not included in the scope of the present 
 design, the object of which is, first, to point 
 out some instances of readings, in the early
 
 Ifi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 quartos, which seem preferable to those 
 adopted by the last editor; secondly, to 
 substitute order for derangement, by dis- 
 missing from the text all such words as 
 have intruded to disturb the metre, with- 
 out any benefit to the sense, as well as to 
 restore others that have been omitted, to 
 the detriment of both &) in the third place, 
 to expose the grammatical anomalies of 
 what kind soever they are : and lastly, to 
 attempt an exposition of many passages, 
 occult or dubious, which appear to have 
 been, by the commentators, either over- 
 looked or misinterpreted. The readings 
 adopted from the early quartos, and pro- 
 posed for preference, shall appear in their 
 places, as will the notes which are offered 
 in elucidation. It might seem proper, here, 
 to make some remarks upon the violations 
 of syntax that occur in these works ; but, 
 after a close examination, I believe it will 
 be f6und that very few of those irregula- 
 rities are justly ascribable to Shakspeare, 
 and hardly any of them peculiar to him, so 
 that the strictures which they would call 
 forth must necessarily wander into an 
 abstract treatise of philology; they shall,
 
 INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 therefore, be referred to the several pas- 
 sages ; with care, (in instances similar) to 
 avoid the tediousness of repetition, by a 
 significant mark, or by reference to what 
 had preceded. Nothing now remains, by 
 way of preface, but to say a few words 
 upon the notes which are presented in illus- 
 tration ; of these, a few will be advanced 
 with confidence, as the suggestions of some 
 valued friends, eminently qualified for any 
 work of criticism, and intimately conver- 
 sant with the genuine style and spirit of 
 our poet. The friends here alluded to, are 
 Mr. Capel Lofft, Mr. Ben. Strutt, of Col- 
 chester, and the late noble person whose 
 name is inserted in the title page. The 
 notes derived from these sources shall be 
 marked with the appropriate signatures. 
 Concerning the others, the author of tliem 
 will neither affect modesty nor display ar- 
 rogance ; they will, doubtless, in many in- 
 stances, be found weak, superfluous, and 
 erroneous ; but so, likewise, have been not 
 a few of those to which are annexed 
 names with whom it may be honourable to 
 be associated, even in miscarriage : thus 
 far, only, will he presume to emulate his
 
 14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 critical predecessors, in a desire to make 
 the brightness of Shakspeare's genius still 
 more conspicuous ; and, should it be found 
 that he has effected this purpose, in any 
 material degree, his ambition will be gra- 
 tified, and his industry rewarded.
 
 NOTES 
 
 ON THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 () When lines like those which follow present themselves, 
 We must rather deplore than commend his veneration for an- 
 tique deformity, who would scruple to adopt the obvious re- 
 storations that are subjoined. 
 
 " You do look, my son, in a mov'd sort." Tempest. 
 " You do, my son, look in a moved sort." 
 
 " You have seen Cassio and she together." Othello. 
 " Cassio and for," &c. 
 
 i: My soul hates nothing more than he." 
 
 As you lake it. 
 " than A/m." 
 
 " Norway himself with terrible numbers." Macbeth. 
 u Numbers terrible." 
 
 " That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan." Ibid. 
 
 " Enterance" (the old orthography, as well as prosody.) 
 
 " Whether ever I 
 
 * Have to you spake." K. Hen. VIII. 
 
 u Spoke,"" the current corruption of spoken. 
 
 " Let no man abide this deed but we the doers." 
 
 Jul. Ccesar. 
 
 " But US." 
 
 u Having no more but thought of what thou wert." 
 
 $. Rich. III.
 
 16 NOTES ON THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 -" Of what thou vast. 
 
 u All the conspirators save only he." K. Rich. HI. 
 li Save only him.'* 
 
 " The earth hath swallow'd all my hopes but she." 
 
 Rom. and Jul, 
 ! " But her." 
 
 u When neither are alive. " Cymbcline. 
 
 " When neither is alive." 
 
 " This is strange, your father's in some passion." 
 
 Tempest. 
 " 'Tis strange, your father's in some passion." 
 
 It is, perhaps, unnecessary to tell the reader of Shaks- 
 pcare, that " Passion," like all other words, wherein a junc- 
 tion of vowels will admit of either a lengthened or contracted 
 utterance, the poet applies variously to suit the quantity and 
 tenor of his verse ; thus, in Hamlot, we find passion a dissyl- 
 lable. 
 
 '* That laps'd in time and passion lets go-by." 
 But in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, again a trisyllable. 
 " Poor forlorn Protheus, passionate Protheus !" 
 
 " Limps after in base imitation." 
 
 Anth. and Cleop. 
 
 <J And feeds on objects, arts, and imitations." 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 w My liege, ,this haste was hot in question." 
 
 K. lien. IF. 
 
 u Use no more question, try no further means.'' 
 
 Mcrch. of Fen. 
 
 " Thy nephew and right royal sovereign." 
 
 K. John.
 
 NOTES ON THE INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 " Might, by the sovereign power yon have of us." 
 
 Hamlet. 
 
 " How all occasions do inform against me." 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 11 For courage mounteth with occasion." 
 
 K. John. 
 
 w By heaven, Hubert, I'm almost asham'd." 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 lt The sun is in the heaven ; and the proud day." 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 " Figur'd quite o'er with burning meteors." 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 u And call them meteors, progidies, and signs." 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 u And come against us in full puissance." 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 ii Upon the pow8r and puissance of the king." 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 " I mean, my lord, those powers that the queen," &c. &c. 
 
 Nor is this effect of associated vowels confined to themselves, 
 even iron consonants, intervening, will often be amalgamated 
 in the coalition. 
 
 " Within their alabaster innocent arms.'' 
 
 k. Rich. in. 
 
 " Christian and heathen must be beleed and calm'd." 
 
 Othello. 
 
 <f Of impious stubbornness ; 'tis unmanly grief." 
 
 Hamlet. 
 
 u Some of those branches by the destinies cut." 
 
 K. Rich. II. 
 VOL. I. C
 
 18 NOTES ON THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " One flourishing branch of his most royal root." 
 
 K. Rich. II. 
 
 Of this licence Milton also makes abundant and happy 
 
 use. 
 
 u And chiefly thou, o spirit, that dost prefer." 
 
 " If once they hear that voice, their liveliest pledge. "- 
 
 " In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge." 
 
 " Innumerable 1 as when the potent rod." 
 
 " Arraying with reflected purple* and gold." 
 
 Paradise Lost. 
 
 11 On all deservers, from hence to Inverness." 
 
 Macbeth. 
 (i On all deservers, hence to Inverness." 
 
 " So all men do, from hence to the palace gate." 
 
 Ibid. 
 c ' So all men do, hence to the palace gate." 
 
 u I wou'd breed from hence, occasion, and I will." 
 
 K. Jjear. 
 u I wou'd breed hence, occasion, and I will." 
 
 Let us here, once for all, condemn that practice which pre- 
 vails among our most correct writers, of placing the preposition, 
 w from," before the words hence, thence, whence, with 
 their compounds, henceforth, thenceforth, xchcnccforth, hence- 
 forward, &c. &c. These arc all adverbs, unconnected with 
 prepositions, and, clearly, of themselves expressing : from 
 this time, place, or cause ; from that time, place, or cause ; 
 from which time, place, or cause, &c. and the introduction of 
 the ablative preposition is no less impertinent than would be 
 that of the dative before the adverbs hither, thither, whither, 
 were they to be set down to hither, to thither, to whither.
 
 NOTES ON THE INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 (*) It is not improbable that the poet himself might have 
 introduced the word which is here rejected ; and that the line, 
 at first, stood thus : 
 
 " 'Tis sweet and commendable in your nature." 
 
 But when, upon revisal, he judged it fitting to insert 
 " Hamlet," it was, doubtless, to follow, that the word 
 " Nature," with the possessive termination of the pronoun, was 
 to be expunged. C. Lofft. 
 
 00 Massinger. Duke of Millaine. Ed. 1638. 
 
 Marcella. " Unheard-of impudence ! 
 
 Francisca. " You'll say I'm modes*, 
 
 " When I have told the story; can you tax me 
 
 (i (That have receiv'd some worldly presents from him) 
 
 u For being ungrateful ? When he that first tasted, 
 
 IC And hath so long enjoy'd your sweet embraces, 
 
 " (In which all blessings that our frail condifaore 
 
 *' Is capable of, is wholly comprehended) 
 
 " As clogg'd with happinesse, condemns the giver 
 
 " Of his felicitic ; and, as he reached not 
 
 u The master-piece of mischief, which he aims at, 
 
 " Unless he pay those favours he stands bound to, 
 
 " With unexampled favour ; nay, doats on you 
 
 " As there were something in you more than woman, 
 
 " When, on my knowledge, he long* hath wish'd 
 
 '* You were among the dead ; and I, you scorn so, 
 
 u Perhaps, am your preserver ." 
 
 Marc " Bless me, good Angels! 
 
 " Or am I blasted ? Lies so false and wicked 
 " And falsehood to so damnable a purpose," &c. 
 
 Of eighteen lines here, in succession, we find only one 
 (admitting the offered correction) of the regular heroic struc- 
 ture . 
 
 * Time, probably omitted. 
 
 C 2
 
 20 NOTES ON THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " And age from that which bred it, good example, 
 
 li Nay (wou'd ourselves were not the worst) even xvxxenls 
 
 " That did destroy the hopes in their own children ; 
 
 u The first words vie form their tongue unthare licenliousjests. 
 
 " Can it call whore ? Cry bastard ? O then kiss it, 
 
 61 A witty child ! Can't swear ? The father's darling. 
 
 il Give it two plums ; but this is in the infancy : 
 
 il When it puts on the breeches, St will put-off all this ; 
 
 " Ay, it is like, when it is gone into the bone already." 
 
 Ben Jonson Every Man in his Humour. 
 
 M In all our royal master's names we tell you, 
 
 il You have done injustice; broke the bond of concord, 
 
 " And from their equal share, from Alexander 
 
 " Parted ; and so possessed not, like a brother, 
 
 " But as an open enemy you have hedged in 
 
 u Whole provinces ; mann'd and maintain'd these injuries, 
 
 " And daily with their sword, though they still honour you, 
 
 u Make bloody inroads, lake towns, and ruin provinces." 
 
 Beam, and Fletcher Mad Lover. 
 
 Among these diffused terminations (besides some that are en- 
 tirely out of all reckoning) we find in Jonson one, and in 
 Beaumont and Fletcher two trisyllables ; which, by the way, 
 is very frequent with these writers. 
 
 W As, besides some instances in the preceding note, 
 
 Where h 
 
 M Resolves to revel, how the lords of her, like 
 " The tradesmen," &c. 
 
 Massinger. Picture. 
 
 u To die, which is inevitable, you may urge." 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 " The Spartans are in arms, and like to win all. 
 
 Beam, and Fletch. Mad Lover.
 
 NOTES OX THE INTRODUCTION. 21 
 
 " You are so tender now, think where you are street." 
 
 Beam, and Fletch. Hums. Lieut. 
 
 " As you love heaven, love him ; she's only yours, sir." 
 
 " My lord the king, he will undo himself, car. 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 ** Time and the wars together, make me stoop, gentlemen" 
 
 Ibid. Loyal Subject. 
 
 " This is the noblest difference ; take your choice, sister." 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 " I hope you travel, sir, with licence ; how long, sir.'' 
 
 *' My lord, will you not take your dispatch hence, yet?" 
 
 Ben Jons. Volpone. 
 
 " We shou'd have a new amalgama made ; this ferret !" 
 
 Ibid. Alchemist. 
 
 " For a cloake zcith thrice-died velvet, and a cast suite." 
 
 Massinger. Maids of Honor. 
 
 li Yourselves both in and upright with a iprovant sicord." 
 
 Ibid. Ed. 1632. 
 
 W In the twilight obscurity of this vast region, where 
 vagrant opinion will often be allured by vanity, that ignis 
 fatuus, to tread the perilous wilds of conjecture, lt I pull in 
 resolution," it will, doubtless, be objected by some, that I 
 am here transgressing the boundaries assigned to the critic ; 
 who, though licensed, by prescription, to commend or cen- 
 sure, can claim no privilege to alter. Unquestionably, where 
 the text of an author has come attested to the world, as 
 his own unadulterated performance, any attempts at emen- 
 dation are unwarrantable ; and, I have always viewed with 
 indignant astonishment, the desperate* temerity of Bentley, 
 as exercised on Milton ; but if we, for a moment, contem- 
 plate the different circumstances attending that great poet 
 and our dramatist, we must perceive that no comparison, 
 
 C 3
 
 22 NOTES ON THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 on this ground, can be made between them. During the life- 
 time of Milton, two genuine editions of the Paradise Lost 
 were published ; and, besides the change in the number and 
 disposition of the books, in the second copy me tee, by a 
 new title page, and a table of errata annexed, but two years 
 afterwards, to the first, that the illustrious author had be- 
 stowed upon it the greatest attention, even to the most mi- 
 nute peculiarities of orthography. How foreign from this is 
 the case of Shakspeare ! Unmindful of every thing but his 
 ease and profit, and wholly indifferent to the applause of 
 posterity, he abandoned his works to the disposition of chance, 
 and they came forth, accordingly, altered, augmented, and 
 depraved ; as suited, alternately, the caprice, the avarice, 
 and the ignorance of players, managers, and publishers : 
 upon a revisal, therefore, of compositions so abused, cor- 
 rection cannot fairly be deemed arrogance, nor alteration 
 sacrilege ; and if casual improvement be not imperiously dic- 
 tated, but modestly suggested; not imposed as authentic, but 
 submitted as convenient ; not rashly usurping a station in the 
 text, but humbly waiting for judgment in the margin, and 
 implicitly abiding the sentence of the reader, whether for 
 acceptance or rejection, the attempt will, at least, be par- 
 donable.
 
 REMARKS 
 
 UPON THE 
 
 PLAYS OF SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 TEMPEST. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 6. " Blow, till thou burst thy wind." 
 
 Till thy lungs be rent till thou art broken- 
 winded. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 11. " If by your art, my dearest father, you 
 have 
 " Put the wild waters in this roar, allay 
 them" 
 
 I am inclined to think the poet would have ar- 
 ranged these words thus: 
 
 "If, by your art, my dearest father, you 
 " Have put the wild waters in this roar, allay 
 them." 
 
 Arithmetic, indeed, might pause, dubious 
 which line to burthen with the redundant syl- 
 lable, but a good ear, in harmony with the sense, 
 would at once suggest this disposition. 
 
 c4
 
 24 TEMPEST. 
 
 12. " More better." 
 
 Mr. Stevens calls this mode of speech ungram- 
 matical, but, I believe, he is mistaken. There 
 appears to have been formerly five degrees of 
 comparison Good. Better, more better. Best, 
 most best. B. Strutt. 
 
 1.5. " Thy mother was a piece of virtue." 
 
 Piece is pattern, as in Anthony and Cleopatra, 
 Act 3. 
 
 " Let not the piece of virtue which is set 
 " Betwixt us, as the cement of our love " 
 
 And again, ibid. Act 5. 
 
 To imagine 
 
 " An Anthony were nature's piece, 'gainst fancy." 
 
 19- " Like one 
 
 " Who having, unto truth, by telling of it, 
 " Made such a sinner of his memory, 
 " To credit his own lie." 
 
 Lie is certainly the correlative to which it re- 
 fers. The use of the pronoun before the noun to 
 which it relates, though a sort of vjipn ipolym, and 
 improper, is not very uncommon in conversation: 
 the following is an instance of it in Locke's Essay 
 on the Human Understanding. B. 264. " The 
 bodies which we daily handle make us perceive 
 that whilst they remain between them, they do, 
 by an insurmountable force, hinder the approach 
 of the parts of our hands that press them." The 
 thought is something like the Jingebant simul 
 credebantque of Tacitus. An. 5. 10. 
 
 Loud Chedworth.
 
 TEMPEST. 25 
 
 20. " So dry he was for sxvay." 
 
 Surely there was no need of a note to tell us 
 that dry meant thirsty, in which sense it is very 
 commonly used: so Gay, in his Shepherd's Week, 
 
 " Your herds for want of water stand a-dry." 
 
 Lord Chedwort. 
 
 21. " I, not remembering how I cried out then, 
 - " Will cry it o"er again." 
 
 How I cried out, i. e. how I expressed my 
 trouble. 
 
 " It is a hint 
 
 " That wrings mine eyes to V." 
 
 To what? exclaims Mr. Steevens; who then, 
 with the authority of Dr. Farmer, expunges 
 " to 't;" but the answer to his question is obvi- 
 ous enough. The act of crying. Your tale, says 
 Miranda, is a suggestion that forces me to weep. 
 
 23. " When I have dectfd the sea with drops full 
 
 salt." 
 
 To deck, I believe, is merely to cover or place 
 uppermost : thus in Venice Preserved 
 
 " Downy pillows, deck'd on leaves of roses." 
 
 24. " Some food me had, and some fresh water, 
 
 that 
 " A noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo, 
 " Out of his charity (who being then ap- 
 pointed 
 " Master of this design) did give us ," &c.
 
 26 TEMPEST. 
 
 Mr. Stecvens need not have scrupled to insert 
 in the text his clear and obvious emendation of 
 this corrupt passage ; He being then appointed, 
 &c. 
 
 25. " Now I arise" 
 
 It is very difficult to assign a meaning, or a 
 commodious one, to these words ; and I cannot 
 but suspect them to be corrupt. May we suppose 
 arrest, instead of arise ? Now I seize upon and 
 fix your attention. This I am far from recom- 
 mending; but I know not what to do with the 
 passage. Mr. Strutt supposes it to be only a 
 marginal note of the player's. 
 
 " Now I arise" 
 
 I confess I cannot acquiesce in either of the 
 explanations given of these words, though I do 
 not know that I am able to give any very satis- 
 factory account of them. With the regulation pro- 
 f)osed by Sir William Blackstone (to which I can 
 lardly believe that many readers will yield assent,) 
 Mr. Steevens seems dissatisfied, from his not 
 adopting it, and proposing an explanation of the 
 words as they now stand ; but I cannot think 
 that Mr. S. has given the true meaning; for I do 
 not perceive that Prospero now rises in his narra- 
 tion, which had from the beginning been ex- 
 tremely interesting, as Miranda confesses, (your 
 story would cure deafness.) I am strongly in- 
 clined to think the words mean no more than that 
 Prospero rises from his seat ; which he does be- 
 cause he was just now concluding his narration; 
 all that remains for him to relate, being, that 
 they arrived in the island in which he had been 
 tutor to his daughter; which account he dis-
 
 TEMPEST. 27 
 
 patches in four lines : what farther he says to 
 Miranda, is in answer to a question put by her, 
 and is no part of his narrative. I do not contend 
 that the words understood in this sense are abso- 
 lutely necessary ; but neither are they so in the 
 sense attributed to them by Mr. Steevens, or by 
 Sir William Blackstone. I confess I think those 
 gentlemen have gone too deep for the meaning. 
 
 Lord Chedwohth. 
 
 j 
 
 29. " Yea, his dread trident shake. 
 " My brave spirit /" 
 
 This is defective ; we might read, 
 
 " That's my brave spirit." 
 
 But shake, says Dr. Farmer, is in Warwick- 
 shire, &c. a dissyllable ; and so, indeed, it is, as 
 Avell as brave, and many other such words, in 
 London, and every where else, according to the 
 barbarous tone of methodistical elocution ; but I 
 believe by no other authority written or oral ; the 
 word often occurs in these works with its natural 
 sound and quantity. 
 
 30. " Cooling of the air with sighs, 
 
 " In an odd angle of the isle, and sitting, 
 " His arms in this sad knot" 
 
 Thus in Romeo and Juliet ; 
 
 " His arms folded in sorrow's knot 
 
 " The still-vex'd Bermoothes." 
 
 Milton uses the same word in a similar sense. 
 
 " When, with fierce winds, Orion, arm'd, 
 " Hath ve.vd the red sea coast," &c. 
 
 Parad. Lost.
 
 28 TEMPEST. 
 
 35. " Go make thyself like to a nymph o'the sea ; 
 11 Be subject to no sight but mine ; invisible 
 11 To every eye- ball else." 
 
 I do not perceive the inconsistency that Mr. 
 Steevens complains of here : Ariel is commanded 
 to assume the form of a sea nymph, and not to 
 be known by any other eye than Prospero's, as his 
 ministering agent. 
 
 38. " Urchins:' 
 
 I believe urchin is used as synomymous with 
 elf. I remember having heard children, small of 
 their age, called urchins : so Prior 
 
 " Pleas'd Cupid heard, and check'd his mother's 
 
 pride ; 
 " And who's blind now, Mamma? the urchin 
 
 cried." Lord Chedworth. 
 
 40. " Cursed be I that did so ! All the charms" 
 
 I would read, with the second folio, 
 
 " Curs'd be I that I did so," &c. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 40. " Here you sty me" 
 
 This passage seems a confirmation of the read- 
 ing in As You Like It. " Sty's me here at 
 home ;" not stays. 
 
 44. " Where shou'd this music be ? ithe air, or 
 the earth ? 
 " It sounds no more ; and sure it waits upon 
 " Some God of the island"
 
 TEMPEST. 29 
 
 Milton seems to have been thinking of this 
 passage in Comus. 
 
 " Can any mortal mixture of earth's mould 
 " Breathe such divine enchanting ravishment ? 
 " Sure something holy lodges in that breast," &c. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 57. " You have taken it wiselier than I meant " 
 
 An adverb declined into the comparative ad- 
 jective; as, again, in A Midsummer Night's 
 Dream : 
 
 " And earthlier happy is the rose distiil'd," &c. 
 
 57. " You've paid" 
 
 Mr. Malone's note appears to me ingeniously 
 absurd. If you're paid be the true reading, the 
 words must (as Mr. Mason has remarked,) be 
 given to Sebastian ; and this I think not impro- 
 bable. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 75. " Twenty consciences, 
 
 " That stand 'twivt me and Milan, candied 
 
 be they, 
 " And melt, ere they molest."'' 
 
 Away with all such objections as conscience 
 can oppose ; let them be made of such perishable 
 or dissoluble stuff as candy, and melt sooner than 
 molest or hinder me.
 
 30 TEMPEST. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 84. " Misery acquaints a man with strange 
 bedfellozvs." 
 
 A similar reflection occurs in King Lear : 
 
 " The art of our necessities is strange 
 " That can make vile things precious." 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 96. " Created 
 
 " Of every creatures best." 
 
 I perceive no reason to dissent from Dr. John- 
 son's conjecture that this is an allusion to the pic- 
 ture of Venus by Apelles. Creature is still used 
 in Ireland, absolutely without an epithet, as a term 
 of endearment for a woman. 
 
 99. " Here's my hand." 
 
 I thought it had been a common custom to 
 join hands on making a bargain : by notes like 
 this of Mr. Henley's, a book may be swelled to 
 any size that will suit the editor's purpose. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 104. " What a pied ninny s this." 
 
 Mr. Steevens is right ; Mr. Malones remark is 
 true, but there is no occasion to have recourse to 
 it in the present instance ; it is going out of the 
 way to fix an impropriety on the poet who lias
 
 TEMPEST. 31 
 
 improprieties enough of his own to answer for, 
 without being loaded with those which are made 
 by the ingenuity of his commentators. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 107. " I ne'er saw woman, 
 
 " But only Sycorax, my dam, and she.''' 
 
 As it does not appear that the poet intended to 
 make. Caliban violate grammar, she ought, at 
 once, in the text, to be altered to her, 
 
 " Calls her a nonpareil ; I neer a woman.''' 1 
 
 It is of little consequence whether the article 
 a, in this line, be rejected or retained ; the redun- 
 dancy in the last syllable (admitted in dramatic 
 verse) is, in either case, the same. 
 
 " Calls her a nonpareil ; I ne'er saw a wom-an." 
 
 117- " The elements, 
 
 " Of whom your swords are tempered, may 
 
 as well 
 " /Found the loud wind, or with hemoeWd- 
 
 at stabs 
 " Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish 
 " One doxvle that's in my plume." 
 
 This thought occurs in Macbeth. 
 
 " As easy may'st thou the entrenchant air, 
 " With thy keen sword, impress, as make me 
 bleed." 
 
 And Milton uses it, in Paradise Lost, Book 6. 
 
 Spirits that live thro'out, 
 
 " Vital in every part, not as frail man.
 
 52 TEMPEST. 
 
 " Cannot, but by annihilation, die : 
 
 " Nor, in their liquid texture, mortal wound 
 
 " Receive, no more than can the fluid air." 
 
 The personal pronoun " whom," instead of the 
 natural neuter which, is not accordant with En- 
 glish idiom. 
 
 1 \9- " So, with good life, 
 
 " And observation strange, my meaner 
 
 ministers 
 " Their several' kinds have done." 
 
 There seems to be a great deal of superfluous 
 comment here : the sense, I believe, is plainly 
 this. Those meaner ministers have performed 
 their duty with spirit, and an admirable attention 
 to their distinct offices. 
 
 120. " I leave them, whilst I visit 
 
 " Young Ferdinand, (whom they suppose 
 is drowrid.)" 
 
 Strange, that any editor should overlook so 
 barbarous a breach of grammar as this ; and yet 
 it has polluted the text in all the successive edi- 
 tions of Mr. Steevens, and the rest Whom, a 
 nominative case ! whom is ! for while the verb 
 is remains, this must be the construction. Whom 
 they suppose to be drown'd, would, indeed, be 
 concord ; but the expression is elliptical : who 
 (as) they suppose is drown'd ; i. e. who is 
 drown'd (as they suppose.) 
 
 121. " And xvith him there lie mudded. 
 " But onejiend at a lime" 
 
 I am ready to agree with Mr. Steevens that 
 where, as in this instance and many others, the
 
 TEMPEST. 33 
 
 metre is redundant or incomplete, there is corrup- 
 tion ; but I should rather repair the prosody here, 
 by dismissing the words " but" and " fiend." 
 
 " And with him there lie mudded." 
 
 Seb. " one at a time, 
 
 " I'll fight their legions o'er." 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 335. " This is strange : your father's in some 
 passion." 
 
 Mr. Steevens remarks that this line is defec- 
 tive, and introduces the word most, to make it 
 complete ; but it is less defective than redundant. 
 
 " 'Tis strange ; your father's in some passion." 
 
 Passion is here, as in various other places, a 
 trisyllable. 
 
 " You do look, my son, in a mov'd sort." 
 
 A slight transposition, and the enlargement of 
 a vowel, would restore this line to measure. 
 
 " You do, my son, look in a moved sort." 
 
 140. " Advanc'd their eyelids. 1 * 
 
 Thus in Act 1, p. 46*. 
 
 " The fringed curtains of thine eye advance. " 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 TEMPEST. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 152. " I* 11 drown my book" [Solemn music. 
 
 The direction for the music was not, I suppose, 
 intended for this place, but after the words, 
 
 Boil' d within thy skull." 
 
 (Solemn music.) 
 
 The direction for " solemn music" is certainly 
 misplaced, the three lines, beginning " A solemn 
 air, and the best," &c. seem addressed only to 
 Alonzo, as the first who approaches Prospero. 
 
 " Now useless hoiVd within thy skull ! there 
 
 stand, 
 " For you are spell-stopp*d" 
 
 At the first pause after the word " skull," 
 Alonzo, having approached the station designed 
 by Prospero, is directed to stand : between the 
 time of this sentence to Alonzo, and the subse- 
 quent one to Gonzalo, the solemn air commences, 
 and the rest of the company take their stations 
 in the circle formed by Prospero. Were the air 
 first to commence at the pause after " fellow- 
 drops," it would be too far distant, and the ar- 
 rangement of the enchanted persons would im- 
 properly be unaccompanied by any of Prosperous 
 magic. I would have the address to Gonzalo 
 spoken during the diminuendo, or dying-away of 
 the air, and the pause which follows that address 
 be filled up by the air swelling upon the sense. 
 This management of the music would give effect 
 to Prospero's words, and the judicious introduc-
 
 TEMPEST. 35 
 
 tion of it, at the various intervals of Prospero's 
 speech, which follow, would connect the whole. 
 At the end of the 92nd line, the music should be 
 as an accompaniment to Ariel's song, (if here 
 rightly inserted) and, having accomplished its 
 purpose upon Alonzo and the others, might with 
 propriety lay aside its solemnity, and fit itself to 
 a lighter measure. When Ariel has finished his 
 song, the symphony which ensues should be so- 
 lemn, and but faintly heard, till finally dismissed 
 by Prospero with So, so, so. B. Strutt. 
 
 168. " Control the moon, make flows 
 
 and ebbs, 
 " And deal in her command without her 
 power." 
 
 i. e. I apprehend Sycorax could exercise her art 
 in the regions of the moon's sway, independently 
 of that power. 
 
 171. " TU be wise hereafter.*' 
 
 Dr. Warton, in his elegant critique on this 
 play, (Adventurer, No. <)3, 97) thinks Shakspeare 
 injudicious in putting into the mouth of Caliban 
 this speech, which implies repentance and under- 
 standing ; whereas he thinks the poet ought to 
 have preserved the fierce and implacable spirit of 
 Caliban to the end. I doubt whether this censure 
 is just, and suspect it would not have been passed, 
 had not Dr. Warton thought it necessary to point 
 out some defect in the piece, on which he was 
 commenting, in order to escape the charge of an 
 indiscriminating admiration of his author, too 
 frequently imputable to commentators : Caliban 
 was struck with the splendid appearance of Pros- 
 pero and the other princes, whose magnificent 
 
 d 2
 
 36 TEMPEST. 
 
 habits far exceeded any thing he had ever seen 
 before; for their " garments being, as they were, 
 drenched in the sea, held, notwithstanding, their 
 freshness and glosses, being rather new-dyed than 
 stained with salt water;" and he considered them 
 as beings of a superior order to the drunkards 
 with whom he had lately conversed. 
 
 " O, Setabos ! these be brave spirits indeed. 
 " How fine my master is !" . 
 
 It is natural for a savage to be immoderately 
 delighted with novelty, and to overrate that with 
 which he is captivated ; and accordingly Caliban, 
 in his first encounter with Stephano and Trin- 
 culo, is represented, with great propriety, (I 
 think) as treating his new friends with a super- 
 stitious respect. 
 
 " That's a brave god, and bears celestial liquor. 
 " 1*11 kneel to him." 
 
 He had recently, besides, had painful experi- 
 ence of Prospero's power ; the further effects of 
 which he still dreaded, " I fear he will chastise 
 me," and " I shall be pinch'd to death j" and his 
 extravagant admiration co-operating with his 
 fears, it seems natural for him to promise amend- 
 ment, and to engage obedience to those whom 
 his astonished imagination conceived to be pos- 
 sessed of transcendant dignity and power. 
 
 Lord Chkdwouth.
 
 TWO GENTLEMEN OF 
 VERONA. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE. I. 
 
 180. " Give me not the boots.'" 
 
 Boot or boots signifies, in language very com- 
 monly understood, something in barter, super- 
 added to the principal article this is called boot 
 or boots. Proteus says nay, give me not the 
 boots no, replies Valentine, for it boots thee 
 not, i. e. it is of no advantage to thee. 
 
 195. " Poor forlorn Proteus, passionate Pro- 
 teus." 
 
 Passionate a quadrisyllable. 
 
 200. " Sweet love! sweet lines ! sweet life /" 
 
 Something is M-anting here : perhaps the verse 
 might have run thus : 
 
 " Sweet lines ! and now, sweet life ! and sweeter 
 love." 
 
 . 
 
 d3 ACT
 
 38 TWO GENTLEMEN 
 
 ACT. II. 
 
 214. "lam the dog : no, the dog is himself, 
 and I am the dog : O the dog is me, and 
 I am myself.''' 
 
 Perhaps the meaning of Lance's dramatic ar- 
 rangement is this : " I am the dog ;" this suggest- 
 ing the idea of an unlucky fellow, winch he con- 
 ceives himself to he, he says, directly no : the 
 dog is as he should be, and I am the dog, i. e. 
 the unlucky fellow O ! to me belongs the name 
 of dog, and I am nothing else. 
 
 221. u Til die on him that says so, but your- 
 self." 
 
 I'll die on him seems to mean I'll execute 
 death on him ; or, perhaps, I will contend M'ith 
 him to death : I will enter the fatal lists with 
 him. 
 
 ACT. III. SCENE II. 
 
 258. " Ay, and perversely she persevers so." 
 
 This unusual accentuation of persevere or per- 
 sever, might be avoided thus: 
 
 " Ay, and perversely does she p^rseVer so." 
 
 In other places we find the accent resting on 
 the first syllable.
 
 OF VERONA. 39 
 
 Pe>sever not, but hear me mighty king." 
 
 K. John. 
 And in Hamlet 
 
 " To do obsequious sorrow, but to persSver." 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 268. " In my mood." 
 
 Mood, says Mr. Malone, is anger or resent- 
 ment; but this is not a just definition of the word ; 
 mood is any arbitrary or capricious disposition of 
 the mind, and may as well be generosity, sullen- 
 ness, &c. 
 
 " Fortune is merry, 
 " And in this mood will give us any thing." 
 
 Jul. Ccesar. 
 
 " Her mood must needs be pitied." 
 
 Hamlet. 
 
 " , . Unused to the melting mood." 
 
 Othello. 
 
 If mood were implicitly anger, Dryden's " ireful 
 mood" would be tautology. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 277. " Valiant, wise, remorseful, well accom- 
 plish' d" 
 
 Valiant a trisyllable. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 282. " A slave, that, still an end, turns me to 
 shame.''' 
 
 d 4
 
 40 TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA. 
 
 Still an end is, without deviation perpetually 
 onward. 
 
 288. " My mistress' love" 
 
 Sir Th. Hanmer's proposed emendation, his 
 Mistress' Love, is needless ; Julia evidently alludes 
 to the part she has been acting ; upon which the 
 following line is a direct comment. 
 
 " Alas ! how love can trifle with itself."
 
 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 317. " She lingers my desires."" 
 
 Lingers, a verb active. 
 
 " Long xvithering out a young man's revenue." 
 
 Revenue has not always this accentuation : in 
 Hamlet we find it 
 
 " That no revenue hast, but thy good spirits." 
 
 322. " But earthlier happy is the rose," &c. 
 
 This anomalous comparison of an adverb is not 
 singular. See the Tempest, Act 2, Scene 1. 
 
 " You have taken it wiselier than I meant." 
 
 And Milton, more than once, uses the same 
 licence. 
 
 " Now amplier known thy Saviour arid thy Lord." 
 
 Paradise Lost. B. 12. 
 
 u For aye to be in shady cloister mew*d." 
 
 The poet was very good to make a christian of 
 Theseus.
 
 42 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 
 
 324. " I must employ you in some business."" 
 
 Business a trisyllable. 
 
 326. And ere a man hath power to say, Be- 
 hold ! 
 " The jaws of darkness do devour it up" 
 
 This thought, a little varied, occurs in Romeo 
 and Juliet. 
 
 Too sudden, 
 
 " Too like the lightning, that doth cease to be 
 " Ere one can say it lightens !" 
 
 327. " Then let us teach our trial patience." 
 
 Patience a trisyllable. 
 
 " To make all split:' 
 
 Thus in Hamlet, "To split the ears of. the 
 groundlings.*' 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 335. " And so grow to a point" 
 
 
 
 To support Mr. Warner's conjecture, we must 
 not only read to appoint for to a point, but 
 alter grow to go, and so go to appoint ; but, I 
 believe, no change is necessary, and that the 
 sense is only, and so proceed to a point or con- 
 clusion. 
 
 338. " Ercles vetti? 
 
 A corruption, I suppose, of Hercules.
 
 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 43 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 351. "A roasted crab:' 
 
 It is really too much for patience to observe 
 Mr. Steevens, explaining and bringing instances 
 to confirm his remark, that a crab is a wild apple. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 352. " The wisest aunt,''' Sec. 
 
 Mr. Steeven's note on this passage, infomving 
 us that " wisest aunt" means the most sentimen- 
 tal bawd, is truly Warburtonian, as the expres- 
 sion taken in its direct sense is much more hu- 
 morous ; such notes make me sick : we shall by 
 and by be informed when Hamlet says mother, 
 he means capital bawd, because mother Need- 
 ham's character is well known. 
 
 Heron's Letters of Literature. 
 
 Mr. Steevens's note seems to merit the severity 
 of this reprehension. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 353. " But room, Faery, here comes Oberon." 
 
 Fairie or Faerie is, certainly, as Dr. Johnson 
 observes, sometimes a trisyllable with our old 
 writers ; but never, I believe, with the accent 
 as here placed on the second syllable Faery : 
 perhaps we should read 
 
 " But Fairy, room, for here comes Oberon." 
 
 355. " Knowing I know thy love to Theseus.''' 
 
 Theseus a trisyllable.
 
 44 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 
 
 360. " The human mortals" 
 
 I cannot think that any distinction is meant 
 between men and fairies, but between mankind 
 and the rest of perishable nature : a general and 
 destructive disease is described ; the corn is 
 rotted, the cattle are drowned, or die of sick- 
 ness ; the human beings feel the want of the ac- 
 customed season. 
 
 363. " The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts 
 " Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose; 
 " And on old Hyems' chin, and icy crown, 
 " An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds 
 (( Is, as in mockery, set : The spring, the 
 
 summer, 
 " The childing autumn, angry winter, 
 
 change 
 "Their wonted liveries; and the 'mazed 
 
 world, 
 iC By their increase, now knows not which 
 
 is which." 1 
 
 Lee seems to have made use of this description 
 in his (Edipus. 
 
 " The seasons 
 
 " Lie all confus'd; and, by the heavens neglected, 
 " Forget themselves ; blind Winter meets the 
 
 Summer 
 " In his mid-way; and, knowing not his livery, 
 " Has driven him headlong back." 
 
 " The childing autumn," i. e. the teeming, pro- 
 ductive, abundant autumn. 
 
 369- " Not for thy kingdom. Faeries, away" 
 
 Faeries again a trisyllable, but with the accent 
 more commodiously placed.
 
 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 45 
 
 373. " Love in idleness" 
 
 I cannot discover why Mr. Steevens should ob- 
 ject to the praise bestowed by Dr. Warburtou 
 upon this passage, except on account of the epi- 
 thet irregular, which certainly is misapplied ; 
 the moral being that love, in general, has power 
 only when the mind is unemployed, of which the 
 lines produced by Mr. Steevens, from The 
 Taming of a Shrew, are an illustration. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 378. " Til follow thee, and make a heaven of 
 hell, 
 " To die upon the hand I love so well." 
 
 To die upon the hand, says Mr. Steevens, is 
 to die by the hand; and he brings, in confirma- 
 tion of this sense, a passage from The Two Gen- 
 tlemen of Verona, " I'll die on him that says so 
 but yourself:" but surely Proteus, when he says 
 this, does not mean he'll die by him ; but either 
 that he will kill him, or contend with him to 
 death, and in this latter sense I am inclined to 
 interpret the present passage. 
 
 386. " Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.'" 
 
 To correct the redundancy of this line, Mr. 
 Steevens omits the repetition of " this," but the 
 verse will still be faulty, unless we make courtesy 
 a dissyllable only, and place the accent on the 
 latter part of it. 
 
 " Pretty soul ! she durst not lie 
 " Near this lack-love, kill ctirt'sy." 
 
 Theobald proposed 
 
 " Near to this kill-court6sy."
 
 46 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 
 
 And I perceive no better expedient. 
 389. " Not Ilermia, but Helena I love." 
 The quarto reads 
 
 "But Helena, now, I love." 
 Perhaps it were better 
 
 " Not Hermia, but Helen, now, I love." 
 
 ACT III. SCENE II. 
 
 412. " So should a murderer look ; so dead, so 
 
 grim." 
 
 Thus in Macbeth 
 
 " So should he look that seems to speak things 
 strange." 
 
 413. " Doubter tongue." 
 
 More forked, I suppose, and so more veno- 
 mous. 
 
 420. " Thou shall aby it" 
 
 To aby, seems to be the same as to abide to 
 be liable to the consequence. This interpretation 
 I find supported by Mr. Harris's note, Act 3, 
 p. 430. 
 
 426. " Hate me ! wherefore?"
 
 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 47 
 
 Wherefore, is thus accentuated in other places, 
 
 as- 
 
 " I'll tell you when, and you'll tell me wherefore." 
 
 Comedy of Errors. 
 
 427. " Now I perceive that she hath made com~ 
 pare 
 " Betzveen our statures.'* 
 
 Will it be advancing too far upon the conjec- 
 tural ground of Dr. Warburton, to suppose that 
 this is a reference to the jealous coquettry of 
 Queen Elizabeth, displayed in her recorded con- 
 versation with Sir John Melville, about Mary 
 of Scotland ? It would doubtless have been a 
 very dangerous allusion. 
 
 431. " I should know the man 
 
 " By the Athenian garments he had on." 
 
 By this rhyme, which is a repetition of what 
 occurred before in the second Act, page 380, it 
 would seem that man, in the time of our poet, 
 was uttered with the broad sound, which at this 
 day it retains in Scotland, mon, 
 
 439- "When thou wak'st 
 "Thou tak'st." 
 
 The second of these lines is lame; but Mr. 
 Tyrwhit's emendation cannot be admitted : the 
 speech of Puck, in this place, is only declarative ; 
 the imperative, therefore, see thou tak'st, will not 
 agree with the context : the second line in the 
 preceding stanza seems to have the same defect. 
 
 " On the ground, 
 " Sleep sound."
 
 48 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 
 Perhaps we should read, 
 
 "On the ground, 
 " Sleep you sound." 
 
 And, afterwards, 
 
 ic When thou wak'st, 
 " Then thou tak'st," &c. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE L 
 
 441. " Overflown." 
 
 Mr. Malone observes that this should be over" 
 flow*d, and, surely, he is right, notwithstanding 
 
 the authority which Mr. Steevens would bring 
 
 from Johnson's Dictionary to support the text: 
 flown is the participle passive of to fly ; flow'd, of 
 
 to flow; and so of the compounds, overfly t 
 
 overflow. . 
 
 451. " I never heard so musical a discord." 
 
 Such a pleasing unity of things discordant: the 
 lady means to express, in musical terms, that the 
 harsh voices of the dogs and hunters, joined with 
 the confused echo, was music. 
 
 B. Strutt. 
 
 464. " And as imagination bodies forth 
 
 " The forms of things unknoxvn, the poet's 
 
 pen 
 ** Turns them to shapes," &c. 
 
 1. e. As imagination brings forth from her
 
 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 49 
 
 womb, strange and unnatural forms of things, 
 the poet, in his inspiration, turns them to shapes 
 well known, and thus gives to airy nothing a name 
 and a certain acknowledged residence : there is 
 an evident distinction made between the unknown 
 infinite forms of things, bodied forth by the ima- 
 gination, and the forms of things known : " turns" 
 has the force of alters ; and I think, after the 
 word " shapes," familiar or known is implied. 
 See Hamlet, Act 4, " may fit us to our shape:" 
 shape here is character. B. Strutt. 
 
 I once wished to read, instead of "the forms," 
 a mass " of things," but I am much better 
 pleased with the preceding explanation. The 
 form of things unknown is the idea of " the un- 
 licked bear-cub that carries no impression like the 
 dam." 
 
 464. " And grows to something of great con- 
 stancy ; 
 " But, howsoever, strange and admirable.**' 
 
 i. e. Grows to something consistent and real, 
 but (yet, nevertheless) strange and wonderful. 
 
 B. Strutt. 
 
 If the above explanation be right, "*howso 
 ever" is only expletive. 
 
 466. " How many sports are ripe.** 
 
 " Ripe" is ready, prepared, as in the Coined} 
 of Errors, a boat is " sinking-ripe;" and in King 
 Henry VIII. where Griffith says of Wolsey, " He 
 was a scholar, and a ripe and good one. 
 
 vol. 1. E
 
 50 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 
 
 468. " Hot ice, and wonderous strange snow." 
 
 Dr. Warburton calls this nonsense, and dic- 
 tates, 
 
 " Hot ice, a wonderous strange shew !" 
 
 An expression that with much less outrage, I 
 believe, may be styled nonsensical ; such a thing, 
 if it could exist, being an object not of sight, or 
 "shew," but of feeling. Mr. Upton would read, 
 (and Dr. Johnson adds, not improbably,) " and 
 wonderous black snow," but so, the wonder itself 
 being only in the blackness, such wonderous 
 tautology can hardly be admitted. Sir T. Han- 
 mer, with similiar pleonasm, proposes, 
 
 " Wonderous scorching snow." 
 
 And though Mr. Steevens had, at length, given 
 the plain sense, which, indeed, one would think, 
 could not readily be overlooked, Mr. Monk 
 Mason steps forth to purify and invigorate the 
 text, with " wonderous st rong snow," and this, 
 as he tells us, because there is no antithesis be- 
 tween strange and snow : but what antithesis, or 
 what sense can be expressed by strong or weak 
 snow ? If the reference be to the chilling power 
 of snow, all antithesis is annihilated, whereas the 
 epithet " strange," does evidently refer to some* 
 thing, at least different. However, it is possible 
 that Mr. M. Mason, by strong, may mean hard, 
 in allusion to the effect of frost upon a body of 
 snow ; but that being a natural, and no uncom- 
 mon instance, it cannot well be associated with 
 the prodigy of hot ice; and from Mr. Malone, in 
 this case, I should have expected some better re- 
 commendation of Mr. Mason's amendment that
 
 MIDSUMMER-NIGHTS DREAM. 51 
 
 that strong and strange have sometimes by print- 
 ers been confounded. The truth is, miraculous 
 ice and miraculous snow were to be expressed, 
 the ice was said to be "hot," and an epithet ap- 
 propriate and sufficiently forcible not beeing at 
 hand, the quality of the snow was given under a 
 more general character, it was wondrous strange 
 snow. 
 
 " A play there is," &c. 
 
 The four first lines of this speech end, alter- 
 nately, with the words, "long," and "play." 
 They could not, surely, be meant as rhymes. 
 
 469. " Hard- handed men, that work in Athens 
 here, 
 " Whiich never labour' d" &c. 
 
 The neuter relative, " which," to men, was 
 common anciently, we find it frequently in the 
 translation of the Scriptures. In Julius Caesar 
 we meet with the hard hands of peasants, and in 
 Cymbeline, 
 
 " Hands made hard with hourly falsehood " 
 " Unless you can find sport in their intents." 
 
 This, Dr. Johnson remarks, is obscure; and 
 he supposes that a line has been lost. Mr. Stee- 
 vens x to clear up the difficulty, observes, that as to 
 attend, and to intend were formerly synonymous, 
 intents here may have been put for the objects 
 of attention : but as the objects of attention in 
 the present instance can be no other than the 
 Duke and court, we are still unfurnished with 
 the sense ; which yet I suppose to lurk in the 
 word intents* Unless you can be amused by the 
 e %
 
 52 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM. 
 
 preposterousness of their designs, and the absurd 
 pains they take to shew their duty. 
 
 470. " The kinder we, to give them thanks for 
 nothing." 
 
 This sentiment occurs, on a similar occasion, 
 in Hamlet, " the less they deserve, the more 
 merit is in your bounty." 
 
 " And what poor duty cannot do, 
 " Noble respect takes it in might, not 
 merit.** 
 
 " Might," perhaps, implies labour, effort, at- 
 tempt, and the meaning may be, Generosity ac- 
 cepts the endeavour for the worth of the perform- 
 ance : but the defective measure in the first line, 
 and in the other the want of perspicuity, which 
 none of the commentators has been able to sup- 
 ply, is an unquestionable evidence of corruption. 
 I am inclined to think a rhyme has been lost, and 
 that the couplet ran thus, at least this affords a 
 meaning, 
 
 " And what poor duty cannot do aright, 
 " Respect takes it in merit, not in might." 
 
 483. " Well moused, lion." 
 
 This, I apprehend, has no reference to mam- 
 mocking, as Mr. Malone supposes, nor to mouth- 
 ing, as Mr. M. Mason would have it, but sim- 
 ply to the action of the lion, in pouncing on the 
 garment, as a cat would on a mouse in Mac- 
 beth 
 
 " An eagle, towering in his pride of place, 
 
 " Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at, and kill'd."
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. ' 
 
 27. " My book of songs and sonnets." 
 
 Mr. Malone's gratuitous supposition that Lord 
 Surrey's poems are here meant, reminds me of an 
 old story in a jest book : A student of Oxford 
 shewing the Museum to some company, one of 
 them enquired the history of an old rusty sword 
 which was there. This, says the student, is the 
 sword with which Balaam was just going to kill 
 his ass. I never knew, said the stranger, that 
 Balaam had any sword, but that he wished for 
 one. You are right, replied the Oxonian, and 
 this is the very sword he wished for. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 37- " Let me see thee froth, and lime." 
 
 This may be an allusion to the combustion in 
 Bardolph's face, which the host calls froth and 
 lime. The tricks, though practised, of frothing 
 and liming the liquors, would not^ probably, be 
 thus openly acknowledged and uselessly pro- 
 claimed by the host. 
 
 e 3
 
 54 MERRY WIVES 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 70. " A drawling, affecting rogue.'* 
 
 We now say affected ; perhaps less properly. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 97 " Mechanical salt-butter rogue." 
 
 I cannot discover the signification of this latter 
 epithet, unles it mean one who, pursuing a sordid 
 economy, used salt butter instead of fresh. 
 
 " / will aggravate his style." 
 
 i. e. I will load his addition, extend his titles. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 104. " Monsieur Muck-water." 
 
 Mock-water, the old reading, appears suffi- 
 ciently intelligible; and preferable to Dr. Far- 
 mer's emendation, muck-water : the host seems 
 to be sneering at the affected mystery or mockery 
 in use with medical men, of inspecting the urine 
 of their patients. 
 
 " Monsieur Mock-water." 
 
 I have sometimes thought, that, by mock-water, 
 the host, availing himself, as Mr. Malone says, of 
 the doctor's ignorance of English, means to call 
 Doctor Caius a counterfeit, that is to insinuate
 
 OF WINDSOR. 55 
 
 that he is an empiric, and not a regular physi- 
 cian : the colour or complexion of a diamond is 
 called its water, and a counterfeit stone may 
 very well be said to have a mock-water, i. e. a 
 false lustre ; or the host may mean that, notwith- 
 standing all Doctor Caius's vapouring, his cou- 
 rage is counterfeited : in the scene where Prince 
 Henry acquaints Falstaff with the detection of 
 his cowardice, Falstaff says, " Dost thou hear, 
 Hal, never call a true piece of gold a counter- 
 feit." The host's reply to the doctor's enquiring 
 after the meaning of mock-water seems to coun- 
 tenance the latter explanation : I am not pleased 
 with the emendation proposed by Dr. Farmer 
 muck-water; still less do I like Mr. Malone's 
 make water. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE HI. 
 
 128. " I see hozv thine eye would emulate the 
 diamond." 
 
 Mr. Mason has used this expression in his 
 Elfrida. 
 
 Whose brightest eye 
 
 " But emulates the diamond's blaze." 
 
 127. " Why now let me die, for I have liv'd 
 long enough" 
 
 I see no profaneness nor indecency in this 
 passage, and do not believe that Shakspeare in- 
 
 e 4
 
 56 MERRY WIVES 
 
 tended the allusion Mr. Steevens supposes : it 
 seems a natural and common expression of extra- 
 vagant joy : A similar sentiment occurs in Te- 
 rence; Eunuch, Act 3, Scene 5. 
 
 Proh Jupiter 
 
 " Nunc tempus profecto est cum perpeti me 
 
 possum interfici 
 " Ne hoc gaudium contaminet vita aegritudine 
 
 aliqua." Lord Chedwohth. 
 
 Lord Ched worth might have added, from our 
 immediate poet, other instances in favour of his 
 argument ; as in Othello 
 
 '" If it were now to die, 
 
 " 'Twere now to be most happy ; for I fear 
 " My soul hath her content so absolute, 
 " That not another comfort like to this 
 " Succeeds in unknown fate." 
 
 And in Macbeth 
 
 " Had I but died an hour before this chance, 
 " I had liv'd a blessed time." 
 
 And again 
 
 " I have liv'd long enough." 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 152. " Ford's wife's distraction." 
 
 Mr. M. Mason would read direction, but 
 surely without advantage: the device was Mrs. 
 Page's, while Mrs. Ford's apparent confusion 
 could suggest no better means of escape.
 
 OF WINDSOR. 57 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 159. " He is a good sprag memory." 
 
 I have often heard in Wiltshire, " He has a 
 good sprack wit." Sprag is Sir Hugh's corrupt 
 Welch pronunciation of this word. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 1 65. " We cannot misuse him enough" 
 
 Misuse has here an unusual signification ; it is 
 not to treat improperly, but with severity. 
 
 41 Pray Heaven, it be not full of the knight 
 
 I am inclined to adopt the reading of the first 
 folio " full of knight:" there seems to me to 
 be a degree of humour in the suppression of the 
 article, which perhaps can be more easily con- 
 ceived than explained ; had the basket been made 
 heavy with an inanimate substance, as lead, the 
 article would of course have been omitted in this 
 wish ; and by the omission of the article, the 
 knight appears to be considered merely as a pon- 
 derous body. There is an instance of the con- 
 temptuous suppression of the article in Otway, 
 where Pierre, who was displeased at Aqualina's 
 admission of Antonio's visits, says to her, 
 
 " There's fool, 
 
 M There's fool about thee."- 
 
 Lord Chedworth.
 
 58 MERRY WIVES 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 173. " They must come off." 
 
 This phrase, which seems to be well explained 
 by Mr. Steevens, is exactly equivalent to the mo* 
 dern one they must come down ; i. e. must lay 
 down their money. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 176. " Idle-headed eld." 
 
 Weak-minded old people. 
 
 178. " Then let them all encircle him about, 
 " And, fairy-like, to-pinch the unclean 
 kni<rht." 
 
 - 
 
 Mr. Tyrwhit and Mr. Steevens consider " to 
 pinch" as one word ; a compound verb, to-pinch: 
 but I believe, in all their curious and laborious 
 researches, they will be unable to find any verb 
 so constructed : in the instances produced, all to 
 tore is myn araie ; (i. e. altogether tor'n ;) 
 mouth and nose all to broke ; (i. e. altogether 
 broke ; ) all to rent and scratched ; (i. e. alto- 
 gether rent and scratched ; ) all to xvorne and 
 ragged; (i. e. altogether worn and ragged:) 
 besides the other words following alto, (the 
 abridgment still of altogether) are participles, and 
 not in point. The difficulty, I believe, lies 
 merely in an ellipsis not strictly warranted, and 
 may thus be removed. 
 
 " We two in great amazedness will fly ; 
 " Then let them all encircle him about."
 
 OF WINDSOR. 59 
 
 (i. e. let it be their parts to encircle him,) and 
 fairy-like to pinch him, &c. 
 
 " And fairy-like to pinch." 
 
 Let them all encircle him, &c. and for the 
 purpose of fairy-like pinching him, &c. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 184. " I may not conceal them, Sir" 
 
 Falst. " Conceal them, or thou diest." 
 
 Mr. Steevens tells us, that, in both these in- 
 stances, it is Doctor Farmer's opinion that we 
 should read reveal: but is there not more hu- 
 mour in FalstafFs accepting the mistaken word, 
 and repeating it in its perverted sense ? 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 193. Enter Falstaff and Mrs. Quickly. 
 
 I would conclude the fourth act with the scene 
 between Falstaff and Ford, as Theobald does, and 
 begin the fifth act with Page, Shallow, and Slen- 
 der, in the park. In representation, it is, indeed, 
 convenient to begin the fifth act with Falstaflf 
 and Mrs. Quickly, because, as the scene between 
 Fenton and the host is omitted, no time would
 
 60 MERRY WIVES 
 
 otherwise be allowed for the conversation which 
 is supposed to pass between FalstafF and Mrs. 
 Quickly, in Falstaff 's chamber. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 194. " Since I pluck 1 d geese.** 
 
 To pluck living geese, says Mr. Steevens, was, 
 formerly, an act of puerile barbarity. The hu- 
 mane critic might have added a more reproachful 
 extant instance, of mature cruelty, deliberately 
 and periodically practiced by the breeders of 
 geese in some counties, of wrenching, twice a 
 year, the feathers from the lacerated and bleed- 
 ing bodies of those poor animals. 
 
 " Pluck'd geese" 
 
 I have been informed, that, in the moors of 
 Somersetshire, and in the fens of Lincolnshire, it 
 is customary to pluck geese five times a year. 
 Three times for down, and twice for quills. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 212. " Do not these fair yokes 
 
 " Become the forest better than the town?" 
 
 It is not easy to assign any satisfactory mean- 
 ing to this passage. The second folio gives oaks 
 instead of yokes ; and possibly Mrs. Page is only 
 alluding to the rural beauty of the scene, and ask- 
 ing if this forest, with its oaks, does not look 
 better, exhibit a more goodly prospect than the 
 town. 
 
 " These fair yokes" 
 
 I do not well understand why horns should be 
 called yokes : if they are called yokes in the sense
 
 OF WINSOR. 61 
 
 of marks of servitude, the expression appears to 
 me very harsh; neither do I see why yokes 
 should become the forest better than the town, 
 though I can conceive why oaks should : for 
 these reasons I am inclined to retain oaks. 
 
 Lord Chedworth.
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, 
 
 OR 
 
 WHAT YOU WILL. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE II. 
 
 245. " ' Conceal me what I am.*' 
 
 Disclose me not ; shew me not to be what I am. 
 It is a strange expression. 
 
 246. " That will allow me very worth his ser- 
 
 vice" 
 
 To allow, says Mr. Steevens, is to approve, 
 but it is rather to rate, to estimate, whether fa- 
 vourably or otherwise. To mark the character 
 or quality, as in Othejlo 
 
 "His bark is stoutly timbered, and his pilot 
 " Of very expert and approv'd allowance." 
 
 And in Hamlet 
 
 " The censure of which one must, in your allow- 
 " ance o'erweigh a whole theatre of others." 
 
 If Mr. Stevens's explanation of allowance were 
 admitted, the passage from Othello might be read, 
 " Of very expert and approved approvance" and 
 that from Hamlet, " The censure of which one,, 
 must, in your approbation" &c. the absurdity of 
 which would be evident. 
 
 " Very worth" is an inaccurate expression : it 
 should be very worthy. " Worth" is not, nor
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT. 63 
 
 cannot be, as Dr. Johnson calls it, an adjective. 
 We cannot say a worth man, or a worth house : 
 it has rather the power of a passive participle. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 250. " Board her." 
 
 I know not how the meaning of this passage 
 should be dubious enter at once upon the busi- 
 ness with her. Thus Polonius, resolving to accost 
 Hamlet without ceremony, says, " 77/ board 
 him presently. 11 
 
 252. " It is dry." 
 
 We may discover what Maria's idea of a dry 
 hand is, by Othello's remark upon a moist one. 
 
 " This argues fruitfulness and liberal heart, 
 
 " There's a young and sweating devil here, 
 
 " That commonly rebels." 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 257. " / have unclasp'd 
 
 " To thee the book, even of my secret soul." 
 
 Thus in King Heniy IV. Part 1 ; 
 
 " And now I will unclasp a secret book.'* 
 
 258. " Than in a nuncio of more grave aspect." 
 
 Aspect has invariably this accentuation through- 
 out these works, 
 
 268. " I am very comptible." 
 
 I believe Dr. Warburton is right, and that 
 comptible means, not submissive, as Mr. Stee-
 
 64, TWELFTH NIGHT: OR, 
 
 vens supposes, but vindictive, ready to pay in 
 exact measure, any insult or indignity that may 
 be offered. 
 
 26y. " If you be not mad, begone." 
 
 Mr. M. Mason says, the sense evidently requires 
 that we should read, "if you he mad;" but 
 Olivia must be, evidently, in want of her senses 
 to speak so, to a person whom she thought mad. 
 The second sentence is only a slight correction of 
 the first : " if you be not mad, begone if you 
 are, indeed, rational, be brief.*' 
 
 272. " Look you, sir, suck a one was I this pre- 
 sent,'* 
 
 The meaning is not very clear ; but I take it 
 to be this. Olivia, in disclosing her face, says, she 
 exhibits a picture, which, if preserved to future 
 time, would shew what she was at this present 
 moment Mr. Malone supposes that Olivia had 
 again covered her face, before she spoke these 
 words; but how will this agree with what follows,. 
 " is't not well done?" 
 
 274. " Sent hither to praise me" 
 
 There can be little doubt, I think, of the just- 
 ness of Mr. Malone's conjecture that appraise 
 not praise (extol) was the poet's idea; and though 
 the words which immediately introduce it, sche- 
 dules, inventoried, &c. did not proceed from 
 Viola, they were yet suggested to the speaker by 
 the equivocal term copy, that Viola had uttered. 
 
 " With adorations, with fertile tears." 
 
 Mr. Malone's expedient to prosodise this line.
 
 WHAT YOU WILL. 65 
 
 rejecting the second " with" (Pope's amendment) 
 by making " tears" a dissyllable would require 
 that we should not only read te-ars, but fertile, 
 
 276. " Love makes his heart of flint, that you 
 shall love.'* 
 
 i. e. Love hardens to flint the heart of him 
 whom you shall love. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 279. " My determinate voyage is mere extrava- 
 gancy: 1 
 
 The course I have resolved upon, is merely to 
 go a rambling. 
 
 2&2. " Fortune forbid, my outside have not 
 charm* d her. " 
 
 This expression seems faulty ; the sense is, For- 
 tune grant that my outside, &c. or Fortune for- 
 bid that my outside have charmed her; butybr- 
 bid and command were formerly used indiscrimi- 
 nately : thus, in the Comedy of Errors, 
 
 " When I to fast expressly am forbid," 
 
 where, for forbid, we must understand command- 
 ed : and again, in the Merchant of Venice ; 
 
 " You may as well forbid the mountain pines, 
 " To wag their high tops and to make no noise, 
 " When they are fretted with the gusts of heaven." 
 vol. 1. F
 
 66 TWELFTH NIGHT: OR, 
 
 We also find, in Chaucer, forbid in these oppo- 
 site senses : 
 
 " Moses' law forbode it tho 
 " That priests should no lordships welde; 
 
 " Christ's Gospel biddeth also, 
 " That they should no lordships held." 
 
 Plowman. Stanz. 29. 
 
 83. cc That, sure, methought, her eyes had lost 
 her tongue." 
 
 Sure, as Mr. Malone observes, which is not in 
 the old copy, (but was added afterwards to fill up 
 the measure,) is unlike any word that Shakspeare 
 would have used here. Conjecture, indeed, 
 must be vague, yet I cannot suppress a wish that 
 there were authority for a difFerent reading, and 
 that even this might with any confidence be 
 offered. 
 
 " She made good view of me; indeed, so much, 
 " Methought her eager eyes had lost her tongue." 
 
 * " Pregnant enemy.'* 
 
 Pregnant is prompt, ready, teeming with de- 
 vices. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 285. u And I poor monster T 
 
 Alluding, I suppose, to her equivocal charac- 
 ter, man and woman. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 J 14. " Like patience on a monument, 
 
 " Smiling at grief. "
 
 WHAT YOU WILL. 67 
 
 Grief here is affliction, suffering. It is strange 
 that Mr. Malone should so misapprehend (as 
 I think he has done) the poet's meaning in this 
 fine passage. Mr. Steevens has very clearly dis- 
 played the true image, on which Mr. Mason's lines, 
 
 " Patience 
 
 " Her meek hands folded on her modest breast 
 " In mute submission lifts th* adoring eye 
 " Even to the storm that wrecks her," 
 
 are a direct commentary. 
 
 318. " My love can give no place." 
 
 i. e. Can yield to nothing else. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 324. " Courfsies to me." 
 
 Courfsie here is, surely, to be understood only 
 as a general term for respectful salutation, whe- 
 ther by a man or a woman. 
 
 3%7> " You waste the treasure of your time" 
 
 Massinger says this in the Roman actor : 
 
 " Wasting the treasure of his time and fortune." 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 337. " The king lies by a beggar." 
 
 This lies should, I think, be lives t as it is 
 printed in Johnson and Steevens's edition of 1773. 
 
 f 2
 
 68 TWELFTH NIGHT: OR, 
 
 It is the counterpart of the preceding speech, in 
 which the verba employed are lives and stands. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 345. " Hides my heart, so let me hear you 
 speak.* 
 
 When Mr. Malone contends, as he frequently 
 does, for the correctness of the metre, in lines 
 like this, allotting two syllables to hear, he seems 
 to pay no regard whatever to sound, or the 
 established modes of pronunciation: it is impos- 
 sible to endure a line like this, 
 
 " Hides my heart, so let me he-ar you speak." 
 
 Again, this gentleman would have " turif a 
 dissyllable, and that, too, at the end of a line. 
 
 " And thanks, and ever thanks ; oft good 
 tm-uns, or ens." 
 
 Neither Theobald's correction, 
 
 " And thanks, and ever thanks, and oft good 
 turns," 
 
 Nor Mr. Steevens's, 
 
 "And thanks, and ever thanks; often good 
 turns," 
 
 appears satisfactory. May I venture a word, 
 that, in my opinion, accords better with the har- 
 mony of the verse, as well as with the sense of 
 the context : 
 
 " I can no other answer make but thanks ; 
 "And thanks, and ever thanks; too oft good 
 
 turns 
 " Are shuffled off with such uncurrent pay : 
 " But, were my worth," &c.
 
 WHAT YOU WILL. 69 
 
 With respect to the former line, f! Hides my 
 heart," &c. Mr. Steevens's expedient to supply 
 the defect seems acceptable. 
 
 " Hides my poor heart, so let me hearyou speak." 
 
 " Hides my heart" &c. 
 
 The censure above passed on Mr. Malone is 
 just. Mr. Malone has no title to say " Digitis 
 callemus & aure." Lord Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 356. " If I be laps' d in this place." 
 
 If I be found nodding off my guard, or vigi- 
 lance. The word, in the same sense, occurs in 
 Hamlet. 
 
 " Do you not come your tardy son to chide, 
 " That, lap'st in time and passion, lets go by 
 " Th' important acting of your dread command ?" 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 358. " Why dost thou smile so, and kiss thy 
 hand so oft ?" 
 
 This fantastical mode of courtesy, as Mr. Reed 
 calls it, was, it seems, very current in our author's 
 time. Iago, watching the looks and gestures of 
 Cassio, addressed to Desdemona, says, " Ay, smile 
 upon her, do if these tricks strip you out of 
 your lieutenantry, you were better not have 
 kiss'd your three fingers so oft ; again, your fin- 
 gers to your lips !" 
 
 f 3
 
 70 TWELFTH NIGHT; OR, 
 
 360. "Fellow." 
 
 This term, as Dr. Johnson has remarked, sig- 
 nified, formerly, without degradation, companion; 
 and, by a remarkable revolution in the meaning 
 of words, companion, which then signified fel- 
 low, in a contemptuous sense, has risen to its 
 present dignity. . 
 
 371. " Such a Virago" 
 
 By Virago, I imagine the poet meant nothing 
 else but wnat Dr. Johnson has explained j a 
 delicate and feminine form, with boisterous and 
 swaggering manners. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE II. 
 
 390. " Are you not mad indeed f* Sec. 
 
 It is strange to see how the commentators 
 have here mistaken the clown's character, who 
 says to Malvolio, Are you not mad indeed, or do 
 you but counterfeit? They would fain make 
 him talk sense : Shakspeare made him talk non- 
 sense in character. The question means Are 
 you really in your senses, or do you but act as 
 though you were ? As though a mad man could 
 counterfeit a wise man ! Absurd ! but highly 
 in character ! Praises equally applicable to the 
 annotators. This is from Heron's Letters of Li- 
 terature. Lord Chedworth,
 
 WHAT YOU WILL. 71 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 393. " I found this credit." 
 
 Perhaps credited, the simple verb for the pas- 
 sive participle, as it is sometimes used. Milton 
 describes Satan " with head uplift above the 
 waves." But it may signify, by a harsh ellipsis, 
 a matter of credit or belief. 
 
 395. " Whiles you are willing." 
 
 I have frequently heard while used corruptedly 
 for till, particularly at Harrow, in Middlesex : I 
 find it used in this sense in the trial of Spencer, 
 Cowper, and others, at Hertford, 5 State Trials, 
 195. Mr. Jones: " My Lord, then we should 
 keep you here while to-morrow morning." 
 While is also used in this sense by Sir John 
 Eriend, at his trial. On his applying to the 
 court, to have a witness sent for, who was a pri- 
 soner in the Gate-House, the Lord Chief Justice 
 Holt asks, " Sir John, why did you not send, 
 and desire this before ?" To which Friend an- 
 swers, " My Lord, I did not hear of him while 
 last night." So, too, Ben Jonson. 
 
 I am born a gentleman, 
 
 _ _ , ^ 
 
 A younger brother ; but in some disgrace 
 Now with my friends, and want some little 
 
 means 
 
 To keep me upright while things be reconeil'd." 
 The Devil is an Ass, Act 1, Scene 3. 
 Lord Chedwohth. 
 f 4
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 6. " He hath, indeed, better bettered expectation, 
 
 than you must expect me to tell you how." 
 
 He has exceeded expectation in a greater mea- 
 sure than you must expect, &c. Plain sense, in 
 many of these scenes, must yield to the charm of 
 a jingle. 
 
 7. " How much better is it to weep at joy, than 
 
 to joy at weeping ?" 
 
 This is a very lame antithesis ; for we must 
 change the person, to comprehend the meaning. 
 A man's own joy will sometimes extract tears 
 from him ; but nobody's sorrow can, in himself, 
 excite gladness. 
 
 17. " A bird of my tongue, is better than a 
 
 beast of yours''' 
 
 From the words of Benedick's sarcasm You 
 are a rare parrot -teacher I think we should 
 expect, in Beatrice's retort, A bird of my teach- 
 ing, &c. 
 
 18. " Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan 
 
 a rare carpenter ?" 
 
 Mr. Collins seems to have had the true scent
 
 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. 73 
 
 of this covert joke ; it is pity he did not run- 
 down his game. All I can do to come up with 
 it, is this : Do you mean, says Benedick, to 
 amuse us with pleasant paradoxes ? to say that a 
 lover is a good sportsman ? and a blacksmith an 
 excellent cabinet-maker ? 
 
 2o\ " The savage bull may ; but if ever the sen- 
 sible Benedick bear it," &c. 
 
 Sensible for rational. 
 
 29. " The fairest grant is the necessity.'" 
 
 I believe the meaning is, the fairest acknow- 
 ledgment you can make is the necessity which 
 rules you ; you are in love, and you cannot help 
 it: or, perhaps, grant implies Premiss, Datum; 
 if so, the sense is clear enough. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 44. " I am sure he is in the fleet" 
 
 In the fleet seems to mean, of the company. 
 It is an odd expression. 
 
 47. " Re-enter Don Pedro, Hero, and Leonato." 
 
 I do not think Hero and Leonato should en- 
 ter here ; I think they should enter afterwards, 
 with Claudioand Beatrice. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 49- " With such impossible conveyance," 
 
 Means, I believe, (howsoever licentiously ex- 
 pressed) in such a manner as it is impossible to 
 describe or convey to your understanding,
 
 74 MUCH ADO 
 
 53. " Thus goes evert/ one to the world but I." 
 &c. 
 
 By going to the world, Beatrice, I suppose, 
 means quitting the seclusion or restraint imposed 
 upon unmarried women. 
 
 55. " She hath often dreamed of unhappiness" 
 &c. 
 
 Dr. Warburton says, unhappiness here means a 
 wild, wanton, unlucky trick ; but surely this is a 
 wild, wanton, and unlucky explanation. Un- 
 happiness is no other than the reverse of happi- 
 ness. Leonato observes that his niece has little 
 of the melancholy element in her; that she is 
 never sad, but when she sleeps ; and not ever (i. e. 
 always) sad even then ; for she hath often dreamt 
 of unhappiness, which yet was so short-liv'd, that 
 presently she was merry again, and waked her- 
 self with laughing. This interpretation appears 
 to have support in a passage of Rousseau's Eloisa, 
 Letter the seventh. 
 
 " You know I never in my life could weep 
 without laughing ; and yet I have not less sensi- 
 bility than other people." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 62. " / have known when he would hare walk'd 
 ten miles a- foot to see a good armour" 
 
 This passage, as it stands, is gross pleonasm : 
 the author probably wrote at first " wou'd have 
 walk'd ten miles to see," &c. and, afterwards, to 
 make the expression stronger, inserted a- foot, 
 neglecting to strike out walk'd, or to alter it to 
 gone. People who walk must necessarily go 
 a-foot.
 
 ABOUT NOTHING. 75 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 64. " ' How still the evening is, 
 
 " As huslid on purpose to grace harmony.'" 
 
 A similar reflection occurs in the Merchant of 
 Venice. 
 
 " Soft stillness and the night 
 
 " Become the touches of sweet harmony.'" 
 
 ACT III. SCENE III. 
 
 103. " / tell this tale vilely ; I should first tell 
 
 thee." 
 
 These words occur, exactly as they are here, in 
 Dr. Hoadly's comedy of The Suspicious Hus- 
 band, where Ranger says I tell this tale vilely ; 
 I should first tell you, &c. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 109- " Light of lover 
 
 Mr. Gray, in The Progress of Poetry, has 
 " purple light of love." 
 
 110, " For an H," &c. 
 
 It would appear, from this passage, and Hay- 
 wood's epigram on the letter H, quoted by Mr. 
 Steevens, that ache, which we now pronounce 
 ake, had formerly the sound which is still retain- 
 ed in the plural of that word aches. 
 
 112. " And now he eats his meat without 
 grudging." 
 
 The meaning of proverbial phrases is, certainly,
 
 76 MUCH ADO 
 
 as Dr. Johnson has remarked, not always to be 
 clearly ascertained ; perhaps Margaret would in- 
 timate that Benedick, being now in love, finds, 
 like other lovers, his appetite declined, and so 
 eats, without grudging an expcncc thus mode- 
 rated." 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 116. " An two men ride of a horse, one must 
 
 ride behind." 
 
 The note on this passage, (Steevens's edition, 
 1793) informing us that Shakspeare may have 
 caught this idea from the common seal of the 
 Knights' Templars, the device of which was two 
 riding upon one horse, is truly in the spirit of 
 a man who has lost his own ideas in the pursuit 
 of those of antiquity ; for the sense in the text, 
 which seems proverbial, must have arisen to the 
 meanest peasant, from an object almost every day 
 before his eyes. This note is from Heron's Let- 
 ters of Literature, and the justice of this animad- 
 version I think no sane man can deny. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 117. " Auspicious persons." 
 
 The same mispronunciation is used by Middle- 
 ton, in A Mad World my Masters, and from a 
 constable too; " May it please your Worship, 
 here are a couple of auspicious persons." 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 119. " The heat of a luxurious bed." 
 1 Iamlet calls the roval bed of Denmark a couch
 
 ABOUT NOTHING. 77 
 
 for luxury, &c and Lee has adopted the word in 
 this sense in Theodosius. 
 
 " Thou'lt find enough companions, too, for riot; 
 " Luxurious all, and royal as thyself." 
 
 120. " You seem to me," &c. 
 
 Mr. Malone supposes that the poet wrote 
 seem'd ; but I think the reading before us is far 
 preferable. There is more passion and nature in 
 Claudio's being still charmed with the exterior of 
 his mistress, especially as we know that she is 
 really innocent. 
 
 " Out on thy seeming !*' 
 
 The quarto has " Out on thee, seeming;" and 
 this I believe is right : Hero appeals, 
 
 " And seem'd I ever otherwise to you ?" 
 
 At which Claudio impetuously exclaims : 
 
 " Out on thee ! seeming ! I will write against it." 
 
 123. " For thee I lock up all the gates of love, 
 " And oft my eyelids shall conjecture hang, 
 " To turn all beauty into thoughts of 
 
 harm, 
 " And never shall it more be gracious.** 
 
 This sentiment occurs in Cymbeline, Act 3, 
 where Imogen complains, 
 
 " All good seeming 
 
 " By thy revolt, O husband, shall be thought 
 " Put on for villany ; not born where It grows, 
 " But worn, a bait for ladies." 
 
 " Thy much mis government.** 
 
 The adjective pronoun before " much** makes
 
 78 MUCH ADO 
 
 the adverb partake of the quality of an adjective ; 
 it is very uncouth. 
 
 124. " Dost thou look up ?" 
 
 Mr. Steevens's care of the measure here is of 
 little use ; for if he were to patch up the first line, 
 the next would remain imperfect ; as the words 
 run, Leonato might as well begin the verse, which 
 is finished by Francisco. 
 
 " Dost thou look up r" 
 
 Franc. " Yea, wherefore should she not ?'* 
 
 " The story that is printed in her blood. 1 * 
 
 t. e. Says Dr. Johnson, the story which her 
 blushes discover to be true : but this explanation 
 is more elegant than correct ; for Hero had just 
 then fainted, and consequently could not be 
 blushing : the story that is printed in her blood, 
 is the pollution with which she is supposed to be 
 stained ; pollution so indelible, that it permeates 
 the vital principle of her being. 
 
 130. " She died upon his words." 
 
 i. e. Says Mr. Steevens, she died by them. 
 This explanation, though not accurate, might pass 
 here, if the assiduous commentator had not ex- 
 tended it to other instances where it is still more 
 defective, as, I think I have shewn, in the Two 
 Gentlemen of Verona, and in A Midsummer 
 Night's Dream ; " upon his words," here, is upon 
 the occasjon-of, in the event-of, his words, by a 
 mode of expression common and familiar at this 
 day. Upon this he was arrested ; upon this dis- 
 covery the council broke up; upon this I left 
 the room ; upon this she fainted ; in none of these
 
 m 
 
 ABOUT NOTHING. 79 
 
 instances, which agree with the passage in ques- 
 tion, can by take the place of upon. 
 
 11 What we have we prize not to the worth, 
 " Whiles we enjoy it" &c. 
 
 " Virtutem incolumem odimus 
 " Sublatam ex oculis quEerimus invidi." Horace. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 133. " I am gone, though I am here." 
 
 Is not the meaning rather, my thoughts are 
 absent though my person is present ? 
 
 Loud Chedworth. 
 
 134. " Bear her in hand.'* 
 
 To bear in hand, is to keep deceitfully in ex- 
 pectation ; as in Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 1 ; " how- 
 ye were borne in hand," and other places. The 
 phrase seems to have been common in our author's 
 time. Thus in Greenwey's Translation of Tacitus, 
 1622, " Agrippina, therefore, beareth the emperor 
 in hand, that the guard was divided into factions," 
 &c. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 146*. " My griefs cry louder than advertisement." 
 
 Advertisement, Dr. Johnson says, signifies here, 
 admonition, moral instruction ; but this appears 
 to be a strained interpretation : I rather think the 
 meaning is, my griefs are too violent to be expres-
 
 80 MUCH ADO 
 
 sed or declared in words. We find advertise used 
 somewhat in this sense by the Duke, in Measure 
 for Measure 
 
 But I do bend my speech 
 
 " To one that can my part in him advertise." 
 
 i. e. to one who knows and can declare as well 
 as I the duties of my office, which he is going 
 to assume. 
 
 150. " We will not wake your patience** 
 
 This expression, which does not, perhaps, in- 
 volve a meaning adequate to the pains that have 
 been taken to come at it, has unaccountably led 
 all the commentators into the same mistake: they 
 have each, successively, confounded patience 
 with its opposite, irascibility or impatience. The 
 old men were extremely enraged ; and in this tem- 
 per their patience might be said " to sleep;" but 
 the prince, already tired of the conference, and 
 offended at the intemperance expressed, declines 
 going into any explanation to satisfy the brothers; 
 or, as he calls it, to wake (j. e. restore) their pa- 
 tience ; but contents himself with declaring, ge- 
 nerally, on his honour, that the charge urged 
 against Hero was true : and when Leonato, whose 
 patience seems now, for the first time, to appear, 
 or be waking, would expostulate, Pedro cries 
 out, " I will not hear you." 
 
 161. " Pack* din all this wrong.'* 
 
 Selected for the purpose, as an accomplice : 
 we still hear of pack'd juries, pack'd commit- 
 tees.
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 Enter Duke, Lords, &c. 
 
 1S7- Duke. " Escalus 
 Esc. " My lord." 
 
 It is improbable that any poet should begin a 
 dialogue in verse with this awkward fragment- 
 something has been lost, perhaps, like this 
 
 Duke. " Now hear our purpose, Escalus" 
 
 Esc. " My lord!" 
 
 Duke. " Of government," &c. 
 
 188. " No more remains 
 
 "But that to your sufficiency, as your 
 
 worth is able, 
 " And let them work." 
 
 One more attempt, perhaps as unsatisfactory as 
 those already produced, to restore this confused 
 passage, to any thing like sense and harmony. 
 
 No more remains, 
 
 " But to your sufficiency your worth be added) 
 " And let them work." 
 
 I need not, says the Duke, suggest the rules 
 of good government to one who is better ac- 
 
 VOL. I. g
 
 82 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 quainted with them than myself: no more then 
 remains, to qualify you fully and effectually to 
 take my place, but that your worth, i.e. integrity, 
 moral excellence be added, in the public estima- 
 tion, to your acknowledged abilities. 
 
 189. " The terms 
 
 " For common justice, you are as pregnant 
 
 in, 
 " As art and practice hath enriched any, 
 " That we remember.'* 
 
 This is such verbal concord as an ostler uses, 
 when, boasting of his experience, he says, I wish 
 I had as many guineas as I have curried a horse. 
 Some arrangement like this is necessary 
 
 The terms 
 
 " For common justice, you are as pregnant in 
 " As any, most enrich'd by art and practice 
 " That we remember," &c. 
 
 192. There is a kind of character in thy life, 
 " That, to the observer, doth thy history 
 " Fully unfold." 
 
 The progress of thy life has marked upon thy 
 countenance and exterior, a character, which 
 clearly denotes what thou art. 
 
 193. " As if we had them not. Spirits are not 
 
 Jinely touch' d." 
 
 The hypermeter might be obviated in this man- 
 ner 
 
 'Twere all alike, 
 
 " We had them not ; spirits are not finely touch'd, 
 " But to line issues; nor nature never lends."
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 83 
 
 This is not a double negative, as Mr. Steevens 
 calls it; " nor" is the appropriate negative con- 
 junction, as it is also in the passage quoted tor 
 similar censure from Julius Caesar 
 
 " There is no harm intended to your person, 
 " Nor to no Roman else." 
 
 194. u Both thanks and use." 
 
 "Use/' here, is equivocal; exercise or appli- 
 cation, and usance or interest. 
 
 " To one that can my part in him advertise." 
 
 To one that can already declare or make known 
 all those precepts which I would impart to him : 
 in this sense advertisement seems to be used in 
 Much ado about Nothing : 
 
 " My griefs cry louder than advertisement." 
 
 197. " I thank you ; fare you well." 
 
 This hemistic appears to be interpolation : the 
 Duke had already taken his leave; and the words 
 of Escalus seem only intended to follow him. 
 
 " And it concerns me." 
 I believe we should read, as it concerns me. 
 
 " I am not yet instructed." 
 To this hemistic perhaps was added 
 
 " And would learn."
 
 84 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 203. " Is there a maid with child by him ?" 
 
 CI. " No, but there* s a woman with maid by 
 him,*' 
 
 How can a woman with child be said to be 
 with maid ? Perhaps the child unborn is called 
 maiden, as a flower, before its leaves are unfolded, 
 is so termed. 
 
 " As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown.'* 
 
 But I suspect that a quibble is intended ; a 
 woman with-made by him, i. e. made by him 
 according to the sense in which to make or to do 
 has already been used. 
 
 204. " All houses in the suburbs." 
 
 Mr. Tyrwhitt proposes that we should read 
 bawdy-houses ; but in this colloquy between 
 the bawd and her tapster, the distinction seems 
 superfluous j and there is, perhaps, more humour 
 and character in its omission : no other kind of 
 houses was in the clown's thoughts. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 208. " Propagation of a dower." 
 
 Entailment, I suppose, fixed possession : we 
 suspended the ceremony of marriage only for the 
 purpose of making secure the possession of Juli- 
 etta's fortune.
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 83 
 
 209. " Whether it be the fault and glimpse of 
 newness.*' 
 
 The meaning seems to be, whether it be an 
 error, the result of inexperience and a hasty view 
 or glimpse of the duties of his new office, &c. 
 
 211. " In her youth, 
 
 " There is a prone and speechless dialect.*' 
 
 Prone, I believe, here, means spontaneous, apt, 
 intuitive, congenial, natural, as in King Henry 
 VIII. Act 1, "prone to mischief," i. e. naturally 
 or habitually addicted to it. 
 
 " Speechless dialect." 
 
 Thus in Troilus and Cressida, 
 
 " There lurks a still and dumb-discussive devil." 
 
 212. Who Izvou'd be sorry should be thus fool- 
 
 ishly lost." 
 
 It should be which I would be, instead of who t 
 or else shou'dst, instead of shoiCd. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 213. "Can pierce a complete bosom .'* 
 
 Complete has the same accentuation in Hamlet. 
 
 " That thou, dead corse, again in complete steel." 
 
 216*. " We bid this be done, 
 
 " When evil deeds have their permissive 
 
 pass, 
 " And not the punishment. 
 o 3
 
 86 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 Qui non prohibet cum prohibere potest, jubet. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 2 IS. " " Our more leisure." 
 
 " More" here is adverbial, and the placing it 
 between the adjective pronoun and the substan- 
 tive is very uncouth. See Much ado about No- 
 thing, " Thy much misgovemment." 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 219* " Not to be weary with you." 
 " Weary,'* for tedious, prolix. 
 
 " Make me not your story." 
 
 I am inclined to think that Mr. Steevens's first 
 interpretation of this passage is the true one, 
 " Make me not a person in your ludicrous drama." 
 
 224. " To give fear to use." 
 
 To annex terror to the commission of that act, 
 for which Claudio was condemned. Use has the 
 same meaning in other places, as in Othello, " He 
 hath used thee." 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 227. " Rather cut a little, 
 
 " Than fall y and bruise to death" 
 
 Mr. Steevens is right in annexing the active
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 87 
 
 sense to '* fall;" Rowe employs the word in the 
 same manner, in Jane Shore : 
 
 " Our new-fangled gentry 
 
 " Have fall'n their haughty crests." 
 
 229- " Guiltier than him they try ; what's open 
 made to justice." 
 
 This line is, at once, exuberant and ungram- 
 matical. We might read : 
 
 11 Guilter than he they try; what's ope to justice." 
 
 The bad grammar, which Mr. Steevens seems 
 not to have been aware of, proceeds from an in- 
 attention to an implied ellipsis in the construc- 
 tion. The jury may have among them a thief or 
 two, gultier than (he is) whom they try. 
 
 " 'Tis very pregnant.'" 
 
 Pregnant is replete with conviction, full of 
 clear argument, as in the first scene of this play : 
 
 The terms 
 
 " For common justice you are as pregnant in " 
 
 i. e. As complete and expert in the knowledge 
 of, &c. 
 
 230. " Some run from brakes of vice, and an- 
 swer none" 
 
 By brakes of vice, I believe, are meant obstruc- 
 tions in the way of virtue : some people, says 
 Escalus, run from, or avoid those, and so have no 
 vices to answer for. 
 
 g4
 
 88 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 " Some run from brakes of vice, and answer 
 none.** 
 
 Brakes of vice certainly means thickets of vice : 
 all the learning about the Duke of Exeter's 
 daughter might have been spared: for from I 
 would read through, which seems to be counte- 
 nanced by the passage cited from Henry VIII. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 249. " Look, what I will not, that I cannot do" 
 
 This declaration of proud austerity implies, " I 
 have made my will subservient to my duty; and 
 my wisdom infallibly prescribing what my duty 
 is, I can only will to do what is equitable and 
 right." 
 
 350. " No ceremony that to great ones 'longs, 
 " Not the king's crown, nor the deputed 
 
 sword, 
 " The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's 
 
 robe, 
 " Become them with one half so good a 
 
 grace 
 " As mercy does." 
 
 The partitive conjunction, leaving the nomina- 
 tive noun, in this sentence, singular, we should 
 read becomes, instead of become. 
 
 Mercy has a similar pre-eminence in the Mer- 
 chant of Venice : 
 
 " It becomes 
 
 " The throned monarch better than his crown.'*
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 89 
 
 951. " Your brother is a forfeit of the law." 
 
 Perhaps we should read to the law ; yet the text 
 may stand, a legal forfeit. 
 
 11 He that might the 'vantage best have took" 
 
 Took for taken or ta'en. 
 
 This confusion of the tenses, which is not more 
 remarkable in the works of Shakspeare, than in 
 those of other writers, who are supposed to be 
 more tenacious of accuracy, cannot be too often 
 pointed at with reprehension : every person at- 
 tached to grammatical propriety, must be offend- 
 ed at such expressions as these : / have drank, 
 I have spoke, I have wrote, for I have drunk, I 
 have spoken, I have written : and again I 
 writ, I drunk ; for I wrote, I drank, &c. Dr. 
 Lowth, indeed, in his elegant little essay of Eng- 
 lish grammar, has taken notice of this abuse ; but 
 if the editors of Shakspeare, and of our other 
 eminent authors, had descended to expose the in- 
 stances as they occur, their remarks would have 
 been more effectual in correcting and purifying 
 our language, than the most diffuse and systema- 
 tic treatise of philology. 
 
 " How would you be, 
 
 " If He zvho is the top of judgment, should 
 " But judge you as you are ? 
 
 This sentiment also occurs in The Merchant of 
 Venice : 
 
 Consider this, 
 
 " That in the course of justice none of us 
 " Should see Salvation." 
 
 And again in Hamlet :
 
 90 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 " Use every one according to his desert, and who 
 " Shall 'scape whipping ?" 
 
 254. " Pelting petty officer," &c. 
 
 Pelting is mean, obscure, inconsiderable ; as in 
 K. Richard II. 
 
 " This scepter'd isle is now leas'd out, 
 " Like to a tenement or pelting farm." 
 
 55. " We cannot weigh our brother with our- 
 self." 
 
 I believe this is put generally " we," for 
 mankind : we, of human nature, cannot justly 
 estimate the motives and principles of our bre- 
 thren, by what we perceive in ourselves ; for there 
 will always be a difference between men, especi- 
 ally between those great ones, in whom, " to jest 
 with saints is wit," and " the less," in whom it is 
 " foul profanation." 
 
 258. " As fancy values them: but with true 
 prayers. 1 ' 
 
 " Prayers" is one of those words which the 
 poet lengthens or contracts, to accommodate the 
 measure of his verse : thus it is, in the same sen- 
 tence, a dissyllable : 
 
 " Ere sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls." 
 
 " . Amen ! for I 
 
 " Am that way going to temptatidn 
 M JVhere prayers cross." 
 
 Where my honour and my cupidity are at va- 
 riance, where my solicitations or prayers to ob- 
 tain possession of Isabella's beauties, must be 
 crossed or thwarted by this prayer of her's, for 
 the safety of my honour.
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 91 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 262. " The nature of their crimes,** &c. 
 
 It would be in vain to attempt a supplement to 
 the numerous hemistics that disfigure the versifi- 
 cation in this play : in the present instance, how- 
 ever, the measure might be formed by the admis- 
 sion of an apposite word. 
 
 " The nature of their several crimes, that I 
 " May minister to them accordingly." 
 
 2,65. " Grace go with you ! Benedicite.** 
 
 A word appears to have been omitted : perhaps 
 
 " All grace go with you ! Benedicite." 
 
 Thus in Much Ado About Nothing : 
 
 " His grace hath made the match, and all grace 
 say Amen to it. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 266. " When I would pray and think, I think 
 
 and pray 
 "To several subjects; heaven hath my 
 
 empty zvords, 
 " Whilst my invention, hearing not my 
 
 tongue, 
 " Anchors on Isabel." 
 
 The word " empty" should be ejected from 
 the second of these lines : the King, in Hamlet, 
 is in a similar predicament with Angelo :
 
 
 92 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 " My words fly up, my thoughts remain below ; 
 " Words without thoughts never to Heaven go." 
 
 267. " The strong and swelling evil." 
 
 As " evils," in the former scene, is well ex- 
 plained by Mr. Steevens and Mr. Henley, to sig- 
 nify Forica?, will it appear ludicrous to suppose it 
 may have the same sense here ? if this be admit- 
 ted, we should read, instead of " swelling," 
 smelling ; the M and the W, by inversion, are 
 often confounded at the press. 
 
 " My gravity, wherein I take pride.** 
 
 Angelo is reflecting on his former vanity, 
 which, in'his present state of mind, he despises ; 
 he cannot now take pride in " what he could, 
 with boot, change for an idle plume." We 
 should, I am persuaded, read, " I took pride." 
 
 269. " Blood thou art but blood. 
 
 " Let's write good angel on the devil'i 
 
 horn ; 
 " 'Tis not the devil's crest." 
 
 Dr. Warburton's interpretation of this passage 
 appears to be entirely foreign from the sense 
 implied in Angelo's reflection, which I take te 
 be this : Titles and distinctions, though oftei 
 falsely applied, are not thereby appropriated : anc 
 howsoever they may " wrench awe from fools,' 
 and obtain respect even from " the wiser souls,' 
 they cannot alter the true qualities of things 
 Blood is still but blood ; depravity, although co 
 vered with the garb of virtue, is still depravity 
 it is the difference expressed between associatioi 
 and connexion. Their sentiment a little varied
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 93 
 
 and the conclusion resting on the fair side, is h> 
 troduced in Macbeth : 
 
 " Though all things foul should wear the brows 
 of grace, 
 " Yet grace would still seem so." 
 
 " Wrench awe from fools, and tie the 
 wiser souls." 
 
 Better, perhaps, " Yea, tie the wiser souls." 
 
 276\ " Which had you rather that the most just 
 law 
 " Now took your brother's life " 
 
 It would, perhaps, be better : 
 
 "' Which would you rather that the most just law 
 * Now take your brother's life," &c. 
 
 277- " Were equal poize of sin and charity." 
 
 We should, I think, read 
 
 " 'Twere equal poise," &c. 
 
 279- " Admit no other way to save his life, 
 
 " (As I subscribe not that, nor any other, 
 11 But in the loss of question,) that you t 
 his sister," &c. 
 
 This is confused : we should extend the com- 
 pass of the parenthesis, and instead of the pro- 
 noun " that," read " this." 
 
 " Admit (no other -way to save his life, 
 " As I subscribe not this, nor any other, 
 " But in the loss of questidn,) that you, his sis- 
 ter," &c. 
 
 i. e. By ellipsis, there being no other way, &c.
 
 94 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 5281. " Ignomy in ransom and free pardon." 
 
 To justify such a departure from established 
 orthography, as to give ignomy for ignominy, 
 some better authority should be produced, than 
 that, by Mr. Reed, from Troilus and Cressida : it 
 seems to have been, in both cases, merely an er- 
 ror of the press. But why should any one con- 
 tend for an irregularity, which, when granted, 
 will yield no advantage ? Ignomy (admitting 
 such a word) is as lame a member of the line, as 
 that whose place it here usurps ; unless, indeed, 
 we merely count syllables, without any regard to 
 customary accentuation : 
 
 " Ignomy in ransom and free pardon." 
 
 But the prosody is evidently deranged. I 
 know not whether this would be any desirable 
 amendment : 
 
 " That you have slander'd ?" 
 
 Isab. " Ignominy in ransom." 
 
 The disorder that has taken place in the metre 
 of this play, appears, indeed, incurable. 
 
 284. " We are made to be no stronger, 
 
 " Than faults may shake our frames." 
 
 i. e. Than (that) faults may shake, &c. 
 
 It is a very harsh ellipsis. 
 
 287. " Who would believe me ? O perilous 
 mouths y 
 
 We might obtain metre by reading 
 
 " Who would believe me ? O these perilous 
 mouths."
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 95 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. . 
 
 288. " I do lose a thing, 
 
 " Which none but fools woud keep" 
 
 " Keep," I believe, has here an emphatic sense; 
 not a wish to possess, as Dr. Johnson says, nor, 
 as Mr. Steevens, care for, but guard, embrace, 
 holdfast. Dr. Young, in The Brothers, calls 
 life " a dream which ideots hug;" and this I take 
 to be the sense implied here. 
 
 289. " Death's fool," 
 
 Hotspur calls life " Time's fool." 
 
 291. " Sleep thou provok'st ; yet grossly fear' st 
 " Thy death, which is no more." 
 
 Dr. Johnson's indignation is unjustly excited 
 here, and Mr. Steevens's remark (that this was an 
 oversight of Shakspeare) misplaced : the poet's 
 meaning was no other than that obvious and in- 
 nocent one recognised by Mr. Malone, and again 
 occurring: in the meditation of Hamlet : 
 
 To die ! to sleep 
 
 " No more; and, by a sleep, to say, we end 
 " The heart-ach," &c. 
 
 -99. " The poor beetle, that we tread upon, 
 " In corporal sufferance finds a pang as 
 
 great 
 11 As when a giant dies." 
 
 The sense intended here cannot readily be mis- 
 taken : a pang as great as that which a giant 
 feels in death : but the construction is embar- 
 rassed. Perhaps we might read, 
 
 " As doth a giant dying"
 
 96 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 304. " Cold obstruction.** 
 
 i. e. I suppose, the state of the body when the 
 circulation of the vital fluids is stopped. 
 
 305. " The weariest and most loathed worldly 
 
 lift, 
 " That ache, age, penury, imprisonment \ 
 " Can lay on nature, were a paradise 
 " To what we fear of death." 
 
 This sentiment, perhaps too natural, and which 
 the force of Dr. Johnson's virtue was not hardy 
 enough to resist, has, by the robuster mind of 
 Milton, been properly ascribed, in Paradise Lost, 
 to the fallen and depraved archangel : 
 
 " Who would lose, 
 
 " Tho' full of pain, this intellectual being, 
 " Those thoughts that wander thro' eternity, 
 " To perish rather, swallow'd-up and lost 
 " In the wide womb of uncreated night, 
 <c Devoid of sense or motion. 
 
 311. " Refer yourself to this advantage." 
 i. e. Direct your attention to it. 
 
 312. " The corrupt deputy scaled." 
 
 Dr. Johnson's explanation of " scaled," by to 
 scale, i. e. (as he says) to reach him, notwith- 
 standing the elevation of his place, will hardly, I 
 fear, be thought satisfactory : if the author had 
 used the metaphor of the scalade, he would at the 
 same time, I think, have applied to the deputy an 
 epithet different from corrupt, and suitable to his 
 image : it would have been the towering deputy, 
 the high-plac'd deputy. By the connexion of
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 97 
 
 ideas, natural in discourse, there is, perhaps, a re- 
 ference here to physical or animal corruption. 
 The success of the stratagem, says the Duke, will 
 be a medicine, by which the inward and conceal- 
 ed baseness of this deputy will be brought forth, 
 and diffused about him in disgraceful scales and 
 scrophula. An image similar to this presents it- 
 self in King Richard III. 
 
 4< Diffus'd infection of a man." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 317. " That we were all, as some would seem to 
 be, 
 " Free from our faults, as faults from 
 seeming, free. ,'' 
 
 The transposition made by Sir Thomas Han- 
 mer, and approved by Mr. Steevens, would at 
 least be blameless, if sense were wanting in the 
 original text : but, perhaps, there is no such de- 
 fect ; and, if I am not mistaking, the thought is 
 not only altered, but impaired by the change. 
 O ! exclaims the Duke, that we were, as some 
 men would seem to be, as free from faults, as 
 faults themselves (which every man perceives, and 
 knows the sin of committing) are, from seemmg 
 allowable, innocent, or free. The twisting and 
 jingling the word free, occasions the obscurity, 
 but the sentiment is admirable, and finely in cha- 
 racter with the speaker. 
 
 " Free," for innocent, blameless, occurs in 
 The Winter's Tate, Act 2 : 
 
 A gracious, innocent soul, 
 
 " More free than he is jealous." 
 vol. 1. h
 
 98 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 323. " To extirp it." 
 
 This unusual verb is not, I believe, to be found 
 any where else in these works. 
 
 324. " Much detected for xvomen? 
 
 
 
 I can by no means admit, with Mr. Malone, 
 that detected stands for suspected; and the in- 
 stances produced from the Old Tales, will not, I 
 fear, support him : whose daughter xvas detect- 
 ed of dishofiesty, and generally so reported. 
 Detected is, indeed, used here, in. the same sense 
 as that to which the Duke applies it ; for he who 
 is " generally reported to be dishonest," is al- 
 ready more than suspected : but the meaning, in 
 both cases, is, I believe, not suspected, but ac- 
 cused, charged, appeached. Thus in a transla- 
 tion of The Annales of Tacitus, by Greenwey, 
 1622 : " A notable example, that a free'd woman 
 should defend, in such great crueltie of torture, 
 strangers, and almost unknown to her, whenas 
 men, and free-born, and gentlemen of Rome, 
 and senators, not touched with tortures, detected 
 the dearest of their kindred." 
 
 328. " Sparrows must not build in his house- 
 eaves, because they are lecherous. 1 * 
 
 Bickerstaff has made a whimsical use of this 
 conceit in the Hypocrite ; where it is said of Dr. 
 Cantwell, that " he used to make the maids loci 
 up the turkey cocks every Saturday night, foi 
 fear they should gallant with the hens ot a Sun- 
 day." 
 
 331. " There is scarce truth enough alive U 
 make societies secure; but security 
 enough to make fellowships accursed.'
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 99 
 
 The obscurity in this passage arises from the 
 jingle and double meaning of " security ;" in the 
 first instance it implies " safety, protection; in 
 the second, confidence, implicit trust. 
 
 334. " How may likeness made in crimes, 
 " Making practice on the times" &c. 
 
 How may a specious appearance, framed in 
 villany, making practice, i. e. working deceitfully 
 on the times, &c. Instances are not wanting of 
 this use of the word practice, as in King Lear : 
 
 This act persuades me, 
 
 " That this remotion of the duke and her, 
 " Is practice only." 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 341. My most stay." 
 
 The adverb, thus taking the station of an ad- 
 jective, has already been remarked as uncouth 
 phraseology. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 553. " Happily, 
 
 " You something know ; " 
 
 " Happily" for " haply" occurs in other places, 
 as in The Taming of the Shrew, Act 4, Scene 4 : 
 
 " And happily we might be interrupted." 
 
 356. " Insensible of mortality, and desperately 
 mortal" 
 
 h 2
 
 100 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 I believe the meaning is free from the com- 
 mon and natural abhorrence of death, and pre- 
 pared for a state of annihilation. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 367. " What if we do omit." 
 
 The disorder of the metre in many parts of this 
 play appears to be incorrigible ; but sometimes, as 
 here, it is easily repaired by dismissing a useless 
 word: 
 
 " Just of his colour, what if we omit 
 
 " This reprobate till he were well inclin'd." 
 
 They must omit him, (or the hanging him) a 
 great while before the prisoner would be well in- 
 clined to submit: but "inclined" here 1 means 
 " disposed" or " prepared" for death, by religious 
 exercises. 
 
 36S. " / am your free dependant.'" 
 
 i. e. Your willing servant." 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 375. " Makes me unpregnant, 
 " And dull to all proceedings." 
 
 " Makes me unpregnant," means, I believe, 
 dispossesses me of my clear judgment. Hamk 
 uses the word in a similar sense : 
 
 ~ But I, 
 
 M A dull and muddy-metled rascal, peak 
 
 *' Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my caus 
 
 " And can say nothing."
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 101 
 
 " Yet reason dares her ? no.*' 
 
 I am not satisfied with any of the attempts 
 that have been made to explain this passage. I 
 believe the meaning is : How might this in- 
 jured lady reproach me, if shame and delicacy did 
 not restrain her tongue ; yet reason, i. e. a just 
 reflection on the cruel wrong she has suffered, as 
 well as on the enormous guilt of the offender, 
 must give her boldness sufficient for the accusa- 
 tion ; yet no that same reason and reflection, 
 perceiving how I am fortified by my place and 
 character against her charge, will teach her 
 how ineffectual it would be : our poet would not 
 scruple to write " dares" for makes daring. 
 
 377- " With dangerous sense" 
 
 With a feeling of his wrongs that might suggest 
 a dangerous revenge : dangerous sense is formid- 
 able indignation. 
 
 " By so receiving." 
 
 I think we should read : 
 
 " For so receiving," 
 
 SCENE VI. 
 
 279- " To speak so indirectly, I am loth" 
 
 Without the warrant or direction of truth, or it 
 may be, deviating from the direct course of 
 truth. 
 
 ji 3
 
 102 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 383. u Upon a wrong' d, I'd fain have said, a 
 maid. " 
 
 Perhaps we should read : 
 " Upon a wronged I would fain say maid.'* 
 
 Or else, 
 " Upon a wrong'd I fain would have said maid." 
 
 " Vail your regard." 
 
 Let it stoop : thus in Coriolanus : 
 
 If he have power, 
 
 " Then vail your ignorance." 
 
 385. " If she be mad, (as I believe no other,) 
 
 " Her madness hath the oddest frame of 
 
 sense, 
 " Such a dependency of thing on thing, 
 " As e'er I heard in madness," 
 
 Mr. Malone supposes that the author wrote 
 " ne'er" instead of " e'er :" but this, though it 
 may be sense, is very harsh : if the pronoun 
 " that" be substituted for the conjunction " as," 
 which, indeed, concord requires, (the third line 
 being redundant, and merely parenthetical) the 
 sentence would be correct. 
 
 386. " Do not banish reason for inequality." 
 
 Dr. Johnson's interpretation of this passage is, 
 I believe, the right one ; if in the comment the 
 Duke had made on Isabella's language and de- 
 portment, he had charged her with incoherence 
 or inequality, then, indeed, Mr. Malone's conjee-
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 103 
 
 ture might be just ; but as, on the contrary, the 
 speech of the lady is remarked for its consis- 
 tency, I cannot help thinking that she conjures 
 the Duke not to let rank and high place suppress 
 or supersede the pleadings of humble innocence. 
 
 Let your reason serve 
 
 " To make the truth appear, where it seems hid ; 
 " Not hide the false, seems true." 
 
 Perspicuity must always give place to the charm 
 of a jingle ; the plain sense is, employ your rea- 
 son to take off the veil that now obscures the 
 truth, and not to continue the deception by which 
 falshood assumes the character of truth. 
 
 388. " His purpose surfeiting." 
 
 Mr. Steevens proposes to read " forfeiting" 
 but the text is right: the purpose implied is not 
 the release of Claudio, but the enjoyment of 
 Isabella. 
 
 Duke. " This is most likely." 
 
 Isab. " O, that it were as like as it is true." 
 
 I believe Isabella means, O that my story were, 
 indeed, what you seem to think it, an invention 
 only of mine ! that it were as much a false re- 
 semblance as it is a reality. 
 
 393. " In this I'll be impartial ; he you judge 
 " Of your own cause." 
 
 Notwithstanding the passages produced by 
 Dr. Farmer, to shew that " impartial" was some- 
 times used to express " partial," I cannot think 
 that it is the case in the present instance. " I'll 
 be impartial," means, I believe, " I'll be indiffer- 
 
 h 4 ./
 
 104 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 ent, I'll take no part in the cause, but leave it en- 
 tirely to you of whose wisdom and integrity I am 
 fully persuaded." As " impartial 7 is here used for 
 " indifferent," so is " indifferent," in another 
 plactf, put for " impartial."' 
 
 " Look on my wrongs with an indifferent eye." 
 King Richard II. Act % Scene 3. 
 
 395. " Who thinks, he knows, that he ne'er knezo 
 my body, 
 " But knows, he thinks, that he knows 
 Isabel's." 
 A similar jingle we find in As You Like It, 
 Act 5: 
 
 " I sometimes do believe, and sometimes do not, 
 " As those that fear ; they hope arid know they 
 fear." 
 
 403. " And a coward." 
 
 But, remarks Dr. Johnson, Lucio had not, in 
 the former conversation, mentioned coward. I 
 believe it is not necessary, either to the consis- 
 tency of the character or the humour of the scene, 
 that Lucio should here repeat, with fidelity, the 
 exact terms of the abuse which his invention had 
 produced before ; and his mentioning coward now 
 is enough for the Duke to lay hold of it after- 
 wards. 
 
 410. " Till he did look on me" 
 
 I believe there are very few who, in contem- 
 plating the scene before us, will not agree in the 
 justness of Dr. Johnson's comment upon it : it is 
 true that Isabella is not prompt to comply with 
 the request of Mariana, but when she yields at 
 length female vanity is very conspicuously a mo- 
 tive with her.
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 105 
 
 413. " As like almost to Claudio as himself.'* 
 
 The same comparison is attempted in Hamlet : 
 
 " Like 
 
 " As thou art to thyself." 
 
 " Her worth, worth yours.*' 
 
 Dr. Johnson's question upon Hanmer's read- 
 ing, (her worth, works yours, which Dr. Warbur- 
 ton adopted) " how does her worth work An- 
 gelo's worth ?" need not go unanswered : her 
 virtues are sufficient to atone for your offences ; 
 and, for her sake, I deem you again eligible to 
 my favour." 
 
 Dr. Johnson's judgment of the serious parts of 
 this play appears rather a harsh one : Mr. Harris, 
 the author of Hermes, once spoke of it to me as 
 a great favourite of his. Lord Chedworth.
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 5. " Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives, 
 " Be register' d upon our brazen tombs." 
 
 All, here, is evidently to be understood in an 
 abstracted, and not an absolute sense. Milton 
 gives occasion for a similar remark, in these 
 words of Paradise Lost : 
 
 " Doleful shades, where peace 
 
 " And rest can never dwell ; hope never comes 
 
 " That comes to all." 
 
 6. " Dainty bits 
 
 " Make rich the ribs, but bankerout quite 
 the wits." 
 
 Dr. Johnson derives the noun bankrupt from 
 the French banqueroute. 
 
 Bankeroute, as appears from Minshew, was 
 the ancient way of spelling bankrupt: respecting 
 the etymology of the word, see Blackstone, 26th 
 commentary, p. 472, note. 
 
 Lord Chedworth, 
 
 " With all these living in philosophy." 
 
 Dumain means to say, that he shall find in 
 philosophy an equivalent to all the pleasures 
 which, as themselves, he renounces, and is weary 
 of
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. 107 
 To sttidy where I well may dine % 
 
 " When I to feast expressly am forbid. 
 
 The quarto has fast, which is right : " forbid" 
 is commanded, as in other places. See The Mer- 
 chant of Venice : 
 
 " You may as well forbid the mountain pines 
 u To wag their high tops, and to make no noise 
 " When they are fretted," &c. 
 
 And Chaucer: 
 
 u Moses law forbode it, tho*, 
 
 " That priests should no lordships welde, 
 u Christ's gospel willeth also 
 
 " That they should no lordships helde." 
 
 Theobald's not perceiving this sense of forbid, 
 is less remarkable than that Mr. Steevens should 
 have overlooked it. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 31. " The rational hind Costard." 
 
 I incline to think we should read irrational, 
 with Mr. Tyrwhit and Dr. Farmer; I do not 
 think the passages produced by Mr. Steevens 
 prove that for which they are cited. I do not see 
 why hind, in the passage quoted from Henry IV. 
 does not mean peasant, used as a term of con- 
 tempt ; as when Petruchio calls Grumio peasant 
 swain ! Lord Chedworth. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 46. M God's blessing on your beard."
 
 108 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. 
 
 Longueville, I believe, was not so profound- 
 ly moral in this place as Dr. Johnson would 
 make him : he seems merely to utter a sarcasm, 
 God's blessing on your extraordinary wisdom. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 73. " When for fame's sake, for praise, an out- 
 ward part, 
 " We bend to that the working of the 
 heart/* 
 
 Upon this couplet is this wonderful note, 
 which I need not tell you is by Warburton : 
 The harmony of the measure, the easiness of 
 the expression, and the good sense in the thought, 
 all concur to recommend these two lines to the 
 reader's notice. The lines will, I doubt not, 
 strike you, and every man of common sense, not 
 to say common taste, as utterly destitute of every 
 quality this apostolic alchymist recommends, 
 who, in his dream, tries to convert the very dirt 
 of Shakspeare intp gold. The preservation of 
 such nonsensical comments much arraigns the 
 taste of his various editors. 
 
 From Heron's Letters of Literature. 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE HI. 
 
 102. " The night of dew." 
 
 Mr. Steevens calls this the dew that nightly 
 falls down his cheeks ; but then it were better 
 called the nightly dew : besides, we cannot sup- 
 pose that the King's sorrows were coniined to
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. 109 
 
 the night. I rather think the meaning is, Dews 
 equal to what night discharges, the whole night. 
 The hyperbole is not more extravagant than 
 ocean of tears, a sea of blood, &c. 
 
 " The night of dew.'* 
 
 I incline to think the meaning is, Tears that 
 have thrown a night or obscurity on my face. 
 This agrees with the context, especially this 
 line : 
 
 " As doth thy face, thro' tears of mine, give 
 light." B. Strutt. 
 
 103. " A perjure." 
 
 Perjure, a noun, for perjurer, occurs again in 
 Kins Lear : 
 
 << 
 
 Hide thee thou bloody hand, 
 
 " Thou perjure and thou simular of virtue," &c. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 134. " Det for dtbt;* &c. 
 
 It is not very easy to determine whether Ar- 
 mado or Holofernes is here the object of ridicule. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 144. " Cupid a boy ', 
 
 " Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too."* 
 
 I had not supposed that gallows, in this sense 
 of it, was of such antiquity.
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
 
 DRAMATIS PERSONS. 
 
 Salerio. 
 
 I see no occasion for the insertion of this name. 
 Gratiand calls the bringer of his letter his old 
 Venetian friend, which exactly suits Salanio, who 
 had appeared before to be the friend both of 
 Gratiano and Lorenzo. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE. I. 
 
 233. " Argosies.** 
 
 I rather incline to believe, with Pope, that 
 Argosy is from Jason's ship Argo, which, being 
 employed to fetch the Golden Fleece, merchants' 
 ships, which brought home rich freights, were 
 called Argosies. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 236. " Some that will evermore peep thro' their 
 eyes." 
 
 Thomson seems to have had this image in 
 view : 
 
 " O'er his eyes the drowsy liquor ran, 
 
 " Thro* which his half-wak'd soul would fondly 
 peep." Castle of Indolence.
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE. ill 
 
 240. " Til grow a talker for this gear* 
 
 " Gear," in this place, is garniture of discourse, 
 the trappings of language. V I will," for " I 
 shall," is not unusual in these writings, and is an 
 inaccuracy very common at this day in Ireland 
 and in Scotland. 
 
 For this sear." 
 
 a 
 
 As anciently, when less precision was observed 
 in orthography, G and J were often used indis- 
 criminately, as having, in many instances, the 
 same power, 1 would read " I'll grow a talker 
 for this jeer," (supposing it to have been origi- 
 nally written geer) that is, for this bantering ex- 
 postulation. I cannot think that gear is the 
 right reading : of this conjecture, however, I am 
 not confident. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 041 " , A more swelling port 
 
 " Than my faint means would grant con- 
 tinuance.*' 
 
 The preposition is wanting here : continu- 
 ance of 
 
 242. u Shot his fellow of the selfsame 
 
 fight," 
 
 i. e. According to the exact direction of the 
 first j or, perhaps, in the language of archer}', the 
 self-same flight may mean of the same feather, 
 size, and structure. 
 
 " To find the other forth." 
 
 This is a very uncouth, if not unwarrantable, 
 expression ; and as the metre is at the same time 
 disfigured by it, there is reason to suspect cor- 
 ruption. The sense and the measure might agree 
 thus :
 
 112 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
 
 * To find the Jirst, and, by adventuring both," 
 &c. 
 
 243. " Sometimes from her eyes 
 
 " I did receive fair speechless messages." 
 
 Dr. Farmer seems to think that " sometimes" 
 stands here, as in other places, for " sometime;" 
 i.. e. formerly : but I believe Bassanio means only 
 to say, She has sometimes given me looks of en- 
 couragement. The obscurity proceeds from the 
 imperfect tense being used instead of the perfect ; 
 I did receive, for I have received. 
 
 244. " I have a mind presages me such thrift, 
 
 " That I should questionless be fortunate.** 
 
 As it was not either the quality or the quantity 
 of the thrift that afforded this confidence, but the 
 force of the suggestion in his mind, the sense re- 
 quires a different construction. We might read 
 
 " I have a mind which so presages thrift, 
 " That I should questionless be fortunate." 
 
 " Nor have I money nor commodity 
 " To raise a present sum." 
 
 This passage is often unskilfully uttered, and, 
 perhaps, is not generally, at once, clearly under- 
 stood : the sense is, " I have not money at 
 hand, nor any goods that will immediately raise 
 the sum you may require." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 245. " Therefore the lottery that he hath de- 
 
 vis' d."
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 113 
 
 " Lottery" here means prize, the object of 
 lottery. 
 
 24o\ " According to my description, level at my 
 affection.** 
 
 Take conjectural aim j a phrase taken from the 
 exercise of the gun. 
 
 247. " A better bad habit." 
 
 Milton says 
 
 By merit rais'd 
 
 " To that bad eminence." 
 SCENE III. 
 
 251. " A third at Mexico." 
 
 This seems to be an oversight. The Spaniards, 
 I believe, never permitted foreigners to trarfick 
 with that rich country. 
 
 254. " And when the work of generation was 
 " Between these woolly breeders in the act, 
 " The skilful shepherd,'* &c. 
 
 This passage appears to be so free from obscu- 
 rity, as to require no comment ; but some actors 
 of late have tried to vitiate it by an affected and 
 constrained recitation ; thus 
 
 " And when the work of generation was 
 11 Between these woolly breeders ; in the act 
 " The skilful shepherd," &c. 
 
 Surely the plain meaning is this : When the 
 work of generation was going forward, &c. To 
 be in act is to be in the progress of performance. 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
 
 256. " Signior Antonio, many a time and oft, 
 " In the llialto have you rated me. 
 
 Here again an affectation of ingenuity lias, of 
 late, on the stage, sophisticated the plain sense 
 of this passage: ".Many a time and oft" is a 
 phrase, of such general as well as ancientauthoritv, 
 that instances of its use would be superfluous: but, 
 to serve the purpose of those refiners, the phrase 
 is split, and the passage rendered thus, 
 
 Many a time and oft, 
 
 " In the llialto," &c. 
 
 But it was only in the Rialto that Antonio vai 
 likely to encounter Shylock, and there where, of 
 course, he would "rate" him. 
 
 " My monies and my usances" 
 
 The instances produced by Mr. Reed to shew 
 that usance formerly signified usury, will, I be- 
 lieve, be found to prove directly the contrary; 
 and will support Mr. Ritson's remark, that Air. 
 Steevens was mistaken in that interpretation of 
 the word. The writer quoted by Mr. Reed states, 
 that " a borrower had received a thousand pounds, 
 and that this sum had been enormously augment- 
 ed by usury," which the lender " termed by a more 
 cleanly name, usance,"&c. Thegentleman, indeed, 
 here, who was imposed upon, might stigmatise 
 usance as fraud, usury, or robbery, but certainly 
 the lender was better acquainted with the value of 
 the cleanly distinction he had made; and Shy- 
 lock, speaking of his own practices, would not 
 be very read)- to declare that usury was among 
 them.
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 115 
 
 058. " You spit upon me." 
 
 The correct form of the piste rim perfect tense 
 of this verb, spat, was beginning in our author's 
 time to grow obsolete: the quarto here has spet, 
 upon which occasion I must beg leave to correct 
 a mistake made by Mr. Steevens, who, following 
 the printed editions of Lysidas, observes that 
 Milton has, in that poem, adopted this mode of 
 spelling the word. 
 
 The dragon womb 
 
 " Of Stygian darkness, spets her thickest gloom." 
 
 But Milton, in the Cambridge MS. has written 
 not spets, but spits. 
 
 " I am as like to spit on thee again," Sec. 
 
 This was a grossness of insult which it ill became 
 Antonio to have offered much more so to exult in. 
 
 " Lend it rather to thine enemy, 
 
 " Who, if he break, thou may st with better face 
 
 " Exact the penalty."' 
 
 Here is a nominative case without object or 
 agency : the conjunction that might stand in the- 
 place of " who." 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 $62. " By this scimitar, 
 
 " That slew the Sophy, and a Persian prince, 
 tc That icon three fields of Sultan Solyman." 
 1 2
 
 11(5 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
 
 Mr. Tyrwhitt, in extricating the poet from a 
 supposed difficulty, appears to have entangled 
 himself: Morochus is still boasting of his own 
 prowess and of his scimitar, that won three fields 
 of Sultan Solyman, besides having slain the So- 
 phy, &c. so that he was not in the army of the 
 Sultan, but opposed to him. This oversight of 
 Mr. Tyrwhitt's is, I find, avoided in the last 
 edition by Mr. Reed. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 26*5. " Away, says the fiend, for the heavens.'* 
 
 " For the heavens" may be an adjuration for 
 heaven's sake ! or perhaps the fiend would sug- 
 gest that while Launcelot remained with the Jaw, 
 he was out of the pale of Grace, and that by run- 
 ning away only he could hope for heaven ; if so, 
 it is a very friendly fiend. 
 
 270. " // should seem, then, that Dobbin's tail 
 " grows backward" 
 
 Launcelot quibbles upon " grows backward," 
 as growing behind, and, decreasing a conceit 
 that Hamlet also indulges in, " Yourself shall be 
 as old as I am, if, like a crab, you could go back- 
 ward." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 277. " If a Christian do not play the knave, 
 and get thee, I am much deceived." 
 
 The reading of the second folio, " did not get 
 thee," though so severely reprobated by Mr. Ma- 
 lone, appears more congenial to Launcelot's hu- 
 mour : he would compliment Jessica with a Chris- 
 
 1
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 117 
 
 tian father, at the expence of her mother's chas- 
 tity. If the old reading must stand, Mr. Steevens 
 has suggested the true meaning. Mr. Malone's I 
 cannot but consider as a feeble interpretation it 
 required no extraordinary sagacity in Launcelot, at 
 this time, to predict that Lorenzo would carry 
 Jessica away from her father' s house. 
 
 11 If a Christian do not play the knave and get 
 thee." 
 
 I am very strongly of opinion with the ignorant 
 editor of the second folio, that we ought to read 
 did ; and in this I am confirmed by the passage 
 in the 3d Act, to which Mr. Malone himself re- 
 fers. I shall patiently submit to whatever impu- 
 tation of folly and absurdity the avowal of this 
 opinion may bring on me. Lord Chedwortji, 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 279. " Break-up this." 
 
 I do not perceive here any allusion to carving, 
 as Mr. Steevens supposes. Every one knows 
 what it is to break-up a letter, as in the Winter's 
 Tale, " Break up the seal and read." 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 " Whiter than the paper it writ on, 
 " Is the fair hand that writ." 
 
 " Writ " for " wrote " is a corruption that some 
 of our most careful writers are chargeable with, 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 282. " The wry-neck 7/ fife." 
 
 1 3
 
 US MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
 
 I could not have thought it possible for any 
 one so to mistake the sense of this expression as 
 Mr. Monk Mason has done, in ascribing the 
 wry-neckedness, not to the performer, but the 
 instrument, which he supposes was crooked 
 formerly. Lord Chedworth offers to read actively, 
 wry-neck fife, i. e. the fife which wries the neck 
 of him who plays on it. 
 
 SCENE VI. 
 
 286. " lam glad 'tis night, you do not look on mc, 
 " For lam muck asham'd of my exchange." 
 
 Juliet consoles herself with the same circum- 
 stance 
 
 " I am glad the mask of night is on my face, 
 " Else would a maiden blush bepaint my cheek." 
 
 287. * Too light " 
 
 This was an opportunity for a quibble top 
 tempting to be omitted. 
 
 SCENE VII. 
 
 292. " Let all of his complexion chuse me so." 
 
 Dr. Johnson's suggested regulation should be 
 adopted, and the 2nd Act end here. 
 
 ACT. III. SCENE I. 
 
 SOS. " Turquoise." 
 
 ee Mr. Steevens's note. From this imputed
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE. U.o 
 
 property of the store, I suppose it was that Mas- 
 senerer formed his device of the Maffick Picture. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 309. " But lest you should not understand me 
 
 Well." 
 " (And yet a maiden hath no tongue but 
 thought.)" 
 
 Does this mean that she utters nothing but 
 what her heart suggests, and that, therefore, she 
 ought not to be misunderstood? or that, being a 
 maiden, she cannot speak freely, and must only 
 think ? I believe the first is the sense. 
 
 310. " Let Fortune go to hell for it, not I" 
 
 It is the duty of an editor at once to correct in 
 the text a grammatical inaccuracy so gross as this 
 / for me ; which Mr. Heath himself has com- 
 mitted in his explanation. 
 
 315. " The beauteous scarf, 
 
 " Veiling an Indian beauty." 
 
 This Indian beauty seems to be veiled in im- 
 penetrable obscurity.^ Sir T. Hanmer would dis- 
 close her, but exhibits only " a dowdy," and all 
 the other annotators have left her to " dwell in 
 her necessity:'" Iwish it were in my power to 
 extricate her. 
 
 The beauteous scarf, 
 
 " Veiling an Indian beauty." 
 
 'O 
 
 Ornament, says Bassanio, is but a gilded shore 
 that tempts to a most dangerous sea : it is a bcaute- 
 14
 
 120 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
 
 ous alluring scarf, coveringthe graceful form of an 
 Indian woman, whose love is destruction. The 
 women of India are reported to be vindictive and 
 treacherous, but Shakspeare might only mean to 
 refer to the certain destruction which attends upon 
 an amorous conduct to women in Eastern coun- 
 tries. B. Strutt. 
 
 " Thou common drudge 'tween man and man." 
 
 Thus Iago says of his purse: 
 
 " 'Twasmine, *tis his, and has been slave to thou- 
 sands." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 328. " / wonder, 
 
 " Thou naughty gaoler that thou art so 
 
 fond 
 " To come abroad with him, at his request" 
 
 " Fond," undoubtedly, sometimes means fool- 
 ish or weak-minded ; a sense in which it is at this 
 day, in Yorkshire, commonly used : but here, I 
 believe, it means willing to comply. So fond of 
 coming with him is an expression that would be 
 clearly understood. I find that Lord Chedworth 
 is of my opinion, and adds, " if it be objected 
 that this sense requires a different construction 
 from what is in the text, I may answer, that a 
 much later, and more correct writer than Shak- 
 speare, has used this mode of construction, though 
 (as his lordship admits) improperly." 
 
 " Should such a one, too fond to rule alone.** 
 For too fond of ruling.
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 121 
 
 329. " The Duke cannot deny the course of law ; 
 " For the commodity that strangers have 
 " With us in Venice, if it he denied, 
 " ffitt** &c. 
 
 This is foul construction ; the relative does not 
 clearly refer to its antecedent If what be denied? 
 the commodity ? no, nor yet the course of law, 
 but the forfeiture, the fulfilment of the bond : 
 the sense of the passage, perhaps, might be ob- 
 tained by reading emphatically " if that be de- 
 nied." The word "commodity" will, by no means, 
 support such a ponderous definition as Mr. Ma- 
 lone would impose upon it, " the denial of those 
 rights to strangers, which render their abode 
 at Venice, so commodious and agreeable to them." 
 " The commodity that strangers have with us " 
 is merely the confidential deposits of foreigners. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 330. " I never did repent for doing good, 
 " Nor shall not now." 
 
 Expressions like this are often censured on 
 account of what is called a double negative, but 
 it is not so ; " nor " is only the appropriate nega- 
 tive conjunction. 
 
 In companions 
 
 " That do converse," &c. 
 
 " There must needs be a like proportion 
 
 " Of lineaments," &c. 
 
 Mr. Steevens seems not to have done justice to 
 the sense of this passage : the speaker's meaning 
 is, what many an observer of life will acknow-
 
 122 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
 
 ledge the truth of, that, between companion? 
 whose pursuits and inclinations agree, who love 
 each other, and are continually engaged in reci- 
 procal attentions ; a sympathy of affections will 
 beget a resemblance of manners, of countenance, 
 gesture, and deportment. 
 
 333. " Imagined speed" 
 
 Means, I think, speed that may be more easily 
 imagined than expressed; with all imaginable 
 speed : the expression, so understood, is, I 
 grant, licentious: I cannot admit that Mr. Stee- 
 vens's is the true explanation. 
 
 Loud Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 335. " There is but one hope in it, and that is 
 " but a bastard hope neither. ." 
 
 This is very capricious phraseology, though 
 not unusual. Ranger, in The Suspicious Hus- 
 band, says, " he was but a queer-looking son-of- 
 a-bitch of a surgeon, neither." 
 
 339. " / do know 
 
 " A many fools. 
 
 This mode of speech has been justly censured 
 by Dr. Lowth. 
 
 For a tricksy word 
 
 " Defy the matter." 
 
 Talk nonsense, or from the point, for the sake 
 of introducing fanciful and affected words.
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 123 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 134 i. " Void and empty, 
 
 " From any dram of mercy. 
 
 "Empty from" is a phrase, perhaps not so 
 improper as it is unusual. 
 
 Since no lawful means can carry me 
 
 " Out of his envy's reach." 
 
 Envy, as Mr. Steevens remarks, is here, hatred, 
 malice; and in this sense, as well as that of odium, 
 reprobation, was often used by other writers in 
 our author's time. 
 
 " He thought likewise to make use of the 
 " enuie that the French king met with; by occa- 
 " sion of this wane of Britaine," &c. 
 
 Bacon's Historie of the Raigne of King 
 Henry the Seventh, Ed. 1629. 
 
 " This tax (called beneuolence) was deuised 
 " by Edward the Fourth, for which he sustained 
 " much enuie. Ibidem. 
 
 J44. " Others, when the hag-pipe sings i'th' nose, 
 " Cannot contain their urine ; for affection, 
 " Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood 
 "Of what it likes, or loath s." 
 
 Rowe's emendation of this difficult passage ap- 
 pears to be the most satisfactory of any yet pro- 
 posed. " Masterless passion," &c. and the sense, 
 I believe, is this, And others, at the singing of 
 the bag-pipe, are so affected by it, that they 
 cannot contain their urine; masterless passion,
 
 124 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
 
 that irrisistible instinctive principle by which 
 men's nerves are actuated, holds dominion over 
 us, (i. e. lords-it, or sways-it) and imperiously 
 advances towards what it likes, and withdraws 
 from what it loathes. 
 
 349- il You may as well forbid the mountain 
 
 pines 
 " To wag their high-tops, and to make no 
 
 noise 
 " When they are fretted [Qu- fretteii] 
 
 with the gusts of heaven.''' 
 
 To forbid to make no noise, should be, to 
 command some noise to be made ; yet bid and 
 forbid seem to have been formerly used indiscri- 
 minately, as in Chaucer's Plowman, Stanz. 29. 
 
 " Moses' law forbode it tho, 
 " That priests should no lordships welde, 
 
 " Christ's Gospel biddeth also 
 " That they should no lordships held." 
 
 35Q. " Not on thy sole, but on thy soul," &c. 
 
 These words, it appears, were, in Shakspeare's 
 time, pronounced differently, as at this day they 
 are by the vulgar in Ireland : or perhaps the dif- 
 ference was marked by Gratiano's action. 
 
 353. " Souls of anihtals infuse themselves 
 " Into the trunks of men." 
 
 The making " animals " stand absolutely in 
 contradistinction to human animals, or mankind, is 
 almost as common as it is wrong; and Shakspeare 
 may well be excused when so circumspect and 
 philosophic a writer as David Hume is chargeable 
 with the same fault.
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 125 
 
 Thy currish spirit 
 
 " Govern'd a wolf] who, hang'd for human 
 
 slaughter, 
 " Even from the gallows did his fell soul 
 
 fleet," &c. 
 
 This is perplexed ; there is a nominative case 
 without effect : in this short sentence there is 
 absolutely wanting a verb, a conjunction, and an 
 adverb. 
 
 Thy spirit 
 
 11 Governed a wolf who (was) hang'd (and then) 
 " Even from," &c. 
 
 356*. " It is twice bless' d; 
 " It blesseth him," Sec. 
 
 Would not the sense be better expressed if we 
 should read, "it is twice blessing?" yet I cannot 
 approve of this : "twice-blessed" certainly does not 
 mean blessed in repetition, as our actresses most 
 vilely utter it, but blessed augmentedly, blessed 
 supremely, or in a great degree, as we say, thrice 
 happy, without any idea of repetition. " Blessed " 
 here is "holy." 
 
 " In the course of justice none of us 
 " Should see salvation." 
 
 Sir William Blackstone thinks it is out of cha- 
 racter that Portia should refer the Jew to the 
 Christian doctrine of salvation and the Lord's 
 Prayer; but, besides that it is supposed the 
 Lord's Prayer consists of expressions in use among 
 the Jews ; their Scriptures abound with passages 
 recommending mercy, particularly Eccles. xxviii 
 ver. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 
 
 This note is from a correspondent of Lord
 
 126 MERCHANT OF VENICE. 
 
 Chccl worth's, and is signed R. T. His lordship 
 adds, my friend's assertion respecting the Lord's 
 Prayer and the Jewish Scriptures is certainly true, 
 but yet I cannot help thinking, that so direct a 
 reference to the Lord's Prayer was more likely to 
 irritate than conciliate the Jew. 
 
 364. " I am content, so he will let me have 
 " The other half in use, to render it, 
 " Upon his death, unto the gentleman 
 u That lately stole his daughter." 
 
 This requisition in favour of theft and filial dis- 
 obedience is not very decent before an august 
 senate ; and is, at the same time, derogatory to 
 the character of Antonio. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 377- " The man that hath no music in himself 
 " Is Jit," &c. 
 
 Mr. Stecvcns has favoured us here with some 
 very profound reflections upon the danger that 
 may arise from too carelessly yielding to the effect 
 of this speech in praise of music; and though he 
 ventures to assert, that it is at once destitute of 
 poetic beauty, and unprcgntint with either moral 
 vr philosophic truth, he yet seems fearful that it 
 might have a powerful influence on the minds of 
 posterity, if he did not produce some effectual and 
 imperishable antidote to the poison ; and this he has 
 copiously extracted and triumphantly administered 
 from that pure source of philosophic and moral
 
 xMERCHANT OF VENICE. 127 
 
 orthodoxy, the late Lord Chesterfield, in one of 
 the letters of that nobleman to his son, abusing 
 fiddlers : but indeed Mr. Steevens might have 
 been released from his anxiety if he had considered 
 that the sentiments delivered by a dramatic cha- 
 racter, whether good or bad, are by no means to 
 be regarded as the sentiments of the poet; or had 
 reflected that the encomiums here pronounced on 
 music is only a general praise of according mea- 
 sures of that nobler and sublimer harmony, that 
 fascinating " concord of sweet sounds," embrac- 
 ing eloquence and poetry, which a Plato himself 
 approved, which Apollo professed, and which 
 as far transcends the criticism of Lord Chester- 
 field, as the circuit and music of the spheres ex- 
 ceed the compass and the rattling of a dice box. 
 
 387. " I am the tinhappy subject of these quar- 
 rels '." 
 
 " Subject," licentiously for author, causer.
 
 AS YOU LIKE IT. 
 
 This Play, I think, frequently exhibits very 
 evident marks of sophistication in the style of the 
 dialogue; as in the first scene, which has nothing 
 of the manner of Shakspeare, but resembles rather 
 that of Ben Jonson. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 5. " It was on this fashion bequeathed me : 
 by will, but a poor thousand crowns, 
 and, as thou say'st, charged my brother 
 on his blessing, to breed me well.'* 
 
 Notwithstanding the confidence with which 
 Dr. Johnson asks, what is there in this difficult or 
 obscure ? and the additional credit that the pas- 
 sage may seem to acquire from Mr. Steevens's 
 satisfaction, it is such construction as can, by no 
 means, be admitted. If Sir William Blackstone's 
 easy emendation is not to be received, I should 
 propose, with only a slight transposition " It 
 was on this fashion bequeathed me; by will, 
 but a poor thousand crowns, and, as thou say'st, 
 my brother charged, on his blessing, to breed me
 
 AS YOU LIKE IT. 129 
 
 well," u . My father thus provided for me ; by 
 his will, I was to receive a thousand crowns ; and 
 my brother was charged to breed me well. 
 
 6. " Stays me here at home" &c. 
 
 " Stys me," as Dr. Warburton has suggested, 
 appears to be the true expression here. 
 
 7- " What make you here ? 
 
 Or I. " Nothing. 
 
 OH. '* JVhat mar you, then ? 
 
 Orl. " I am helping you to mar that which God 
 
 made, a poor unworthy brother of 
 
 yours, with idleness. 
 OH. " Be better employed, and be nought 
 
 awhile.'* 
 
 " Be nought awhile," i. e. begone from this 
 place, make a vacancy by removing yourself; or, 
 as it is sometimes expressed, " avoid " (impera- 
 tively). It is a play upon words; Orlando had 
 said that he was helping Oliver to mar what God 
 made ; and he is bidden to be better employed, in 
 making himself a cypher. But the whole seems 
 to be a reference to a trite joke, apparently of 
 some antiquity, where a master, coming suddenly 
 upon two idle servants, asks one of them, what 
 he is doing ? to which the man replies, nothing, 
 sir ; and what are you doing, says the master to 
 the other servant ? To which the fellow confused- 
 ly answers, I am helping him, sir. 
 
 9. " What prodigal portion have I spent." 
 
 This certainly should be " What prodigal's 
 portion. 
 
 10. " Nearer to his reverence." 
 
 VOL. I. k
 
 130 AS YOU LIKE IT. 
 
 Reverence, I suppose, with a sneer; and hence 
 the resentment expressed by Oliver. 
 
 15. " My soul hates nothing more than he" 
 
 He should at once have been corrected in the 
 text to him. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 " I see thou lovest me not xvith the same weight 
 that I love thee." 
 
 " That," being here a pronoun (which), the 
 preposition " with " is necessary to the construc- 
 tion. 
 
 lo\ *' My father hath no child but I. 
 
 It was the editor's duty to correct this error, 
 and insert " me" for I. 
 
 9.6. " Punish me not with your hard thoughts, 
 wherein I confess," &c. 
 
 I would, with Dr. Johnson, read "therein;" 
 but perhaps the text may stand as it is. " In 
 your thoughts of me I confess I must appear 
 guilty," &c. 
 
 31. "Which of the two was daughter to the 
 Duke, 
 " That here was at the wrestling" 
 
 As this passage stands, " the Duke " is the 
 antecedent to the relative " that ;" but it would 
 be a foolish circumstance to annex to the
 
 AS YOU LIKE IT. 131 
 
 Duke, who was at the wrestling: " that,'* con- 
 sequently, must belong to " the two," and, of 
 course, requires the plural verb " were." 
 
 32. Hereafter, in a better world than this." 
 
 i. e. In better times. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 37. " The love, 
 
 " IVhich teacheth thee that thou and I am 
 one." 
 
 " Am " should have been corrected to " are" 
 in the text. The sense is well explained by Dr. 
 Johnson. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 40. " The winter's wind, 
 
 " IVhich, when it bites and blows upon my 
 
 body, 
 ** Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and 
 say," &c. 
 
 Here is a nominative noun without operation, 
 " which" well ! I smile and say, &c. I fear 
 it is an incorrigible defect: the impetuosity of 
 passion will sometimes justify a change in the 
 structure of a sentence, as in Hotspur's speech 
 
 <- 
 
 For all those wounds, 
 
 XV.1 t*ll UIUOV "UUllUJ, 
 
 ' Those mouthed wounds which gallantly he 
 bore," &c. 
 
 k 2
 
 132 AS YOU LIKE IT. 
 
 Where the impatience of the speaker makes hin 
 break off from the argument he bes:an with ; but 
 such abruption cannot be defended in a calm, un- 
 impassioned speech like this. 
 
 42. " I would not change it* 
 
 I wonder that Mr. Upton's regulation, in giv- 
 ing these words to the Duke has not been adopt- 
 ed : they are clearly a part of the preceding 
 speech. 
 
 45. Kill them up" 
 
 This is a strange phrase, which, however, w< 
 have a match for in modern language, kill then 
 
 off- 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 55. " Tzvo cods." 
 
 All the notes here about cods and pease-cod; 
 might well be spared : the meaning is not wort! 
 the search. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 60. " A verse that I made yesterday in despite 
 of my invention.'"' 
 
 Jaques forced himself to rhyme, and troublec 
 his imagination to gratify his spleen. 
 
 SCENE VII. 
 
 63. " Here was he merry, hearing of a song.' 
 
 The obtrusion of the genitive particle betweei 
 the participle and the accusative noun is ungram 
 
 1
 
 AS YOU LIKE IT. 133 
 
 matical, and often dangerous to the sense, as here, 
 Jaques was hearing of a song, i. e. or should be, 
 was listening to some story about a song. We 
 might read, preserving the measure 
 
 " Here was he merry, listening to a song ;" 
 
 or, with less departure from the text, hearkening 
 to a song. 
 
 65. " He hath strange places cramni'd with 
 observation" &c. 
 
 This is whimsically, but not carelessly expres- 
 sed : his wit is of so strange a kind, that it seems 
 to be extracted from the most obscure recesses of 
 the intellect. 
 
 67. " A libertine, 
 
 " As sensual as the brutish sting itself." 
 
 I believe nothing more is meant by brutish 
 sting, than the impulse or irritation of lust. 
 
 68. " Why who cries out on pride" &c. 
 
 This speech has been made use of by Massin- 
 ger, in The Roman Actor. 
 
 " Till that the very very means do ebb.'' 
 
 The reading of the old copv, " weary very 
 means," seems preferable to the dull, ineffectual 
 repetition of very ; but we might transpose, very, 
 weary means. 
 
 76. " Because thou art not seen. ,} 
 
 Because thou displayest no visible form where- 
 by we can recognize the pernicious object which 
 repays benefits with unkindness. 
 
 k 3
 
 134 AS YOU LIKE IT. 
 
 " As friend remembered not." 
 
 i. e. As the condition of a friend remembered 
 not. Mr. Malone says it ought to be as friend- 
 ship not remembering, which, indeed, would be 
 no friendship at all. The passage quoted from 
 the third act is not, I think, in point : " now 
 I am remembered," is, clearly, now I am put-in- 
 mind or remembrance. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 81. " Argument of my revenge." 
 
 Thus in K. Henry V. 
 " Sheath'd their swords for lack of argument." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 83. " The unexpressive she.** 
 
 This use of the active instead of the passive 
 adjective, has been adopted by Milton, in more 
 than one instance : 
 
 " And hears the unexpressive nuptial song." 
 
 Lycidas. 
 
 99- Speak sad brow and true maid. ** 
 
 I suppose there was something proverbial in 
 this. Benedick says to Claudio 
 
 " Speak you this with a sad brow ?" 
 
 102. " I had as lief have been myself alone.'''
 
 AS YOU LIKE IT. 135 
 
 Have been occupied and engrossed by my own 
 thoughts. 
 
 111. " Clean as a sound sheep's heart ; so- that 
 there shall not be one spot of love 
 in it." 
 
 Why is a sheep, or a sound sheep, peculiarly 
 exempt from love ? Is it that the mutilation 
 which destroys the sexual appetite, prepares the 
 sheep at the same time to become better mutton, 
 or what may be here emphatically sound mutton? 
 Mr. Steevens says, it is an allusion to the prac- 
 tice of washing sheep's hearts ; but do not calves' 
 hearts, bullocks' hearts, &c. undergo similar ab- 
 lution ? 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 115. " No, truli/, unless thou rvert hard-fa- 
 voured; for honesty coupled to beau- 
 ty, is to have honey a sauce to su- 
 gar." 
 
 As honey and sugar would mutually con- 
 found the quality of each other, so would your 
 beauty betray your honesty, and your honesty 
 your beauty. This sentiment, a little varied, oc- 
 curs in Hamlet : 
 
 " You should admit your honesty to no dis- 
 course with your beauty." 
 
 Ophelia. " Why, my Lord, can beauty have 
 better commerce than with honesty ?" 
 
 Hamlet. " Ay marry ; for the power of beauty 
 will sooner transform honesty, from what it is, to 
 a bawd, than the force of beauty," &c. 
 
 k 4
 
 136 AS YOU LIKE IT. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 129. " Capable impressure.*' 
 
 Capable, here, I believe, is sensible, susceptible, 
 and lias exactly the same meaning (and not in- 
 telligent or perceptible) in the instance brought 
 by Mr. Malone, from Hamlet : 
 
 His form and cause conjoin'd, 
 
 " Preaching to stones, would make them capable. * 
 
 131. " Beauty, 
 
 " As, by my faith, I see no more in you, 
 " Than, without candle, may go dark to 
 bed." 
 
 i. e. (I suppose) your beauty admits not of 
 hyperbolical praise, I cannot say it illumines 
 darkness. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 137. " In which my often rumination wraps 
 me, in a most humorous sadness/' 
 
 This certainly requires correction ; but though 
 Mr. Steevens's change of in to is affords a mean- 
 ing and concord, it is not, I believe, exactly that 
 which was intended. Perhaps this may come 
 nearer the mark : It is a melancholy of my own, 
 &c. and, indeed, the sundry contemplation of my 
 travels, on which my often rumination wraps me, 
 &c. 1. e. my often rumination on which (my 
 travels) wraps or entrances me, &c. " Often," 
 thus adjectively used, is not without example ; 
 in Warner's Albion's England, chap. 9. 
 
 " With often kisses plying him, no sport wj 
 overpass 'd."
 
 AS YOU LIKE IT. 137 
 
 And it is not, perhaps, more anomalous than 
 Semper lenit as. 
 
 138. " I had rather have a fool to make memer- 
 ry, than experience to make me sad.*' 
 
 Gray says, in the Ode on a distant Prospect of 
 Eaton College, 
 
 Where ignorance is bliss, 
 
 " 'Tis folly to be wise." 
 
 Had rather is corrupt idiom, proceeding, as 
 Dr. Lowth has well explained, from confounding 
 the contraction of I would, I'd, with that of / 
 had. 
 
 141. " The foolish chronicles of that age found 
 
 it was Hero of Cestos." 
 
 Sir T- Hanmer's reading, coroners for " chro- 
 niclers," is adopted by Mr. Edwards, who thinks 
 it has support in Hamlet : " The coroner hath 
 sat on her, and finds it Christian burial." Mr. 
 Malone, too, though he prefers the old text, says 
 that " found" is certainly used in a forensic 
 sense, and Mr. M. Mason asserts, that the allusion is 
 evidently to a coroner's inquest on the body of 
 Leander, and that their verdict was, Hero of 
 Cestos was the cause of Leander's death : but, 
 unfortunately for this fair argument, we know 
 that a coroner's inquest upon the body either of 
 Ophelia or Leander, could only declare that the 
 person was drowned ; though they might find it 
 accidental, or the effect of lunacy, 
 
 142. " Then love me, Rosalind.' 1 
 
 Jlos. " Yes, faith will I, Fridays and Saturdays, 
 and all." 
 
 After the reformation and the abolition of the 
 Romish fasts, political fasts Avere ordered upon
 
 138 AS YOU LIKE IT. 
 
 Fridays and Saturdays, for the purpose of pro- 
 moting the fisheries upon the coasts of England. 
 Anderson's History of Commerce. 
 
 This note is from Lord Chedworth's corres- 
 pondent, and is signed R. T. 
 
 148. " Sing it ; no matter how it be in tunc, 
 " So it make noise enough" &c. 
 
 Jaques appears to have been, slily, no disrelisher 
 of music : this is the second time he has called 
 for a song. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 162. u Grapes were made to eat.'* 
 
 " Made to eat," for made to be eaten, is a cor- 
 ruption of phraseology still in use : the implied 
 ellipsis is too violent ; " made (for men) to eat." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 164. " Is't possible that, on so little acquaint- 
 ance, you should like her ? that, but 
 seeing, you should love her ? and, 
 loving, woo ? and wooing, she should 
 grant ?" 
 
 I cannot help repeating here, what occurs iu 
 Warner's Albion's England : 
 
 " Jove chaunced her to see, 
 
 " And seeing liked, liking, lov'd, and loving 
 made it known." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 172. " Though, there was no greater matter in 
 the ditty, yet the note was very un~ 
 tuneable.'*
 
 AS YOU LIKE IT. 139 
 
 Touchstone would not be so exorbitant as to 
 require music and sense at the same time ; but, 
 compounding for the absence of matter, he com- 
 plains that the grace of harmony was wanting 
 also. This mode of expression occurs elsewhere, 
 as in Act 3 of this play, Scene 4 : 
 
 " What though you have no beauty ; 
 
 " As, by my faith, I see no more in you, 
 
 " Than, without candle, may go dark to bed." 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 174. " I sometimes do believe, and sometimes do 
 not, 
 " As those that fear they hope, and kiioxo 
 they fear."" 
 Mr. Henley's punctnation appears necessary to 
 obtain sense : 
 
 " As those that fear ; they hope, and know they 
 fear." 
 
 i. e. They entertain a dubious hope, but a cer- 
 tain perception of danger. 
 
 181. " The countercheck quarrelsome ; and so to 
 the lie circumstantial and the lie direct." 
 
 I never could understand how the lie circum- 
 stantial and the lie direct are to be distinguished 
 Tom the countercheck quarrelsome. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 the epilogue. 
 Much depravation, I think, is discernible 
 imidst the indisputable excellencies of this play ; 
 md the epilogue, at last, resembles iather the 
 goodly work of Messieurs Hemings and Condell, 
 he eloquent addressers to The great Variety of 
 Readers, and the first editors of As You Like It, 
 han the writing of our great poet.
 
 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 204. " He that so generally is at all times 
 
 good.''' 
 
 i. e. He that so diffuses his unremitting good- 
 ness. 
 
 " He hath persecuted time with hope, and finds 
 no other advantage in the process, but 
 only the losing of hope by ti?ne." 
 
 Time was long persecuted by hope, and hope 
 itself is now destroyed by time. The passage is 
 analogous to the epitaph on a fiddler, named Ste- 
 phen: 
 
 " Stephen and Time are now both even : 
 
 " Stephen beat Time; now Time beats Stephen/' 
 
 205. " Had it stretched so far, would have made 
 
 Nature immortal." 
 
 It seems wanting after far ; this was supplied 
 in the edition of 1785. Lord Ched worth. 
 
 206*. " For where an unclean mind carries vir- 
 tuous qualities, there commendations 
 go with pity." 
 
 Where a disposition, not inherently good, is 
 adorned with adventitious graces, there the praise
 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. 141 
 
 due to excellence is repressed by regret, that such 
 excellence is unsubstantial." 
 
 " They are virtues and traitors tao/'J 
 
 The construction here is incorrect, a new noun 
 interposing between " they" and the antecedent 
 " virtuous qualities ;" but the sense of the passage 
 is more material, and this, I think, Dr. Warbur- 
 ton has come nearer to than his eloquent succes- 
 sor, who appears, howsoever ingeniously, to have 
 wandered beyond the mark. " They (the ad- 
 vantages of education or refinement) are virtues 
 and traitors too." The first part of the declara- 
 tion is indisputable ; but how are those virtuous 
 qualities traitors ? not so much, I apprehend, as 
 they may affect other people, as that they betray the 
 object to whom they adhere j because, instead of 
 reclaiming or correcting, as might be expected, 
 the original depravity, they foment and strengthen 
 it. Dr. Johnson here has not brought his illus- 
 tration to the text, but carried the text to his il- 
 lustration. 
 
 " In her they are better for their simpleness ; 
 she derives her honesty and achieves her 
 goodness." 
 
 Education in her is better for its conformity to 
 nature, whereby it more readily effects its object ; 
 amiable benevolence, the integrity of her mind, 
 she inherits with her blood ; her active virtue is 
 achieved by herself. 
 
 208. " Lest it be rather thought you affect a 
 sorrow, than to have " 
 
 This, certainly, is not correct English idiom ; 
 but the inaccuracy of phrase is, perhaps, less re- 
 markable than the apparent oversight of the in-
 
 142 ALL'S WELL 
 
 genious commentators, respecting the word " af- 
 fect," which, though frequently occurring in our 
 author's works, is, I believe, no where to be 
 found, in that modern sense which they proceed 
 upon, to assume, put on, but always implies lik- 
 ing, the being attached or addicted to ; and just 
 in this sense does Helena apply it, when she an- 
 swers " I do affect a sorrow, (i. e. I do indeed 
 like it,) but I have it too." 
 
 209. " If the living be enemy to the grief, the 
 excess makes it soon mortal." 
 
 The sense of this passage appears to be not very 
 obscure : Lafeau had observed, generally, that 
 moderate lamentation is the right of the dead, 
 and excessive grief the enemy of the living. To 
 this the Countess replies " If the living be ene- 
 my to the grief, the excess makes it soon mortal." 
 i. e. If they who are supposed the mourners, be 
 not really and cordially so, but only put on for 
 the nonce, the suits and trappings of woe, the 
 extravagance of their affectation will soon have 
 an end. Dr. Johnson, contrary to his general 
 habits, has involved himself in a perplexity, from 
 which neither Mr. Steevens nor Mr. Malone has 
 attempted to extricate him. The Doctor argues 
 thus upon the lady's words, " if the living," &c. 
 i. e. (says the Doctor) If the living do not in- 
 dulge grief, grief destroys itself by its own ex- 
 cess ; but if the grief be not indulged, there wil 
 be no excess of it ; and how is grief to destroj 
 itself by its excess, or, indeed, subsist in exces 
 at all, unless it be indulged ? 
 
 217. " Not my virginity, yet.'* 
 
 This, as I take it, Is a direct answer from
 
 THAT ENDS WELL. US 
 
 Helen to Parolles's question at the end of his 
 speech about virginity, " Will you have any 
 thing- with it?" " Not with my virginity, yet" 
 that is not, at present, the subject of my 
 thoughts. I am not going to be married just 
 now: and then she snatches up the idea of the 
 Court and Bertram. Mr. Steevens has recourse 
 to a very comfortable and compendious mode of 
 criticism, whereby he may dismiss with praise to 
 the author, or rather, to the contaminators of our 
 author, every difficult or obscure passage : he 
 says, its obscurity may be its merit. 
 
 224. " Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie, 
 " JVhich we ascribe to heaven." 
 
 Cassius, in Julius Caesar, makes the same re- 
 flection : 
 
 " The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, 
 " But in ourselves," &c. 
 
 "The fated sky." 
 
 The sky, by which the fates of men are deter- 
 mined, the horoscope. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 227. " Ere they can hide their levity in honour. 
 " So like a courtier, contempt nor bitterness 
 " IV ere in his pride or sharpness." 
 
 Sir William Blackstone's punctuation, which 
 Mr. Steevens recommends 
 
 " Ere they can hide their levity in honour, 
 V So like a courtier: contempt," &c.
 
 144 ALL'S WELL 
 
 appears to be false : the peculiar praise which the 
 King bestows on Bertram's father is, not that he 
 was pre-eminent in courtly arts, but that the polish 
 of his manners was exceeded by his substantial 
 excellence ; his accomplishments, though of the 
 most splendid kind, bore no proportion to his in- 
 trinsic virtues ; yet so much was he of the cour- 
 tier (in an honourable sense), that his deportment, 
 though dignified, was not imperious, and his wit, 
 though pointed, was not envenomed. 
 
 230. " So in approf lives not his epitaph, 
 " As in your royal speech. 1 * 
 
 Mr. Heath's explanation is plausible ; but ap- 
 proof may mean, in a sculptural sense, the eulo- 
 gial blazonry upon his monument. Your praise 
 exceeds whatever has been selected from the his- 
 tory of his life, to grace his tomb and extol his 
 character ; it seems to be only an amplification 
 of what was said before 
 
 " His g-ood remembrance 
 
 " Lies richer in your thoughts than on his tomb." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 241. Though honesty be no puritan, yet it wii 
 do no hurt.'* 
 
 I cannot perceive the advantage of Mr. Tyr- 
 whitt's alteration, though Mr. Malone commends 
 it, though honesty he a puritan. The clown's 
 argument seems to be this: though honesty is 
 contented to pass without the boast of undeviating 
 rectitude, yet it will do no harm; and, rather
 
 THAT ENDS WELL. 145 
 
 than quarrel with obedience, it will conform to 
 ceremonies that it dislikes, and wear the surplice 
 of humility over a big heart. A big heart is an 
 honest heart, as in Julius Caesar, Brutus says 
 
 " There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats, 
 " For I am arm'd so strong in honesty, 
 " That they pass by me," &c. 
 
 24o\ " JVere you both our mothers, 
 
 " I care no more for, than I do for heaven? 
 
 There is, as Dr. Farmer remarks, a designed 
 ambiguity here ; and the construction, I believe, 
 is, I care no more for, &c. I have no more objec- 
 tion to your being the mother of us both that 
 were no more an obstacle than heaven is, in my 
 way to happiness. " Both our mothers," for the 
 mother of us both, is a very licentious expression. 
 
 249. " This captious and intenible sieve." 
 
 Perhaps " captious " is used here for inveigling, 
 seducing, alluring ; and the sense may be, this 
 deceitful hope is continually calling forth, and 
 continually wasting my enamoured sorrows, of 
 which, still, my stock is unexhausted. But I ra- 
 ther think Mr. Malone is right; the same allusion 
 to the employment of the Danaides happily, I 
 think, suggested by that gentleman, occurs in 
 Cymbeline, " That tub both rilled and running." 
 And again in Much Ado About Nothing, 
 
 Cease thy council, 
 
 " Which falls into mine ears as profitless, 
 " As water in a sieve." 
 
 VOL. I. J.
 
 146 ALL'S WELL 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 267. " Some blessed spirit doth speak 
 
 " His powerful sound, within an organ 
 weak." 
 
 His powerful sound (being contained) within, &c. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 285. " 'Tis only title thou disdain' st in her" 
 
 i. e. Says Mr. Malone, want of title, but I 
 believe this is an oversight in that ingenious 
 commentator; title seems to stand here for de- 
 signation, peculiar distinction, whether high or 
 low. 
 
 291. " Are you companion to the Count Rousil- 
 lon." 
 
 Companion often occurs it these works, but 
 generally in a contemptuous sense, as we now use 
 fellow : the modern implication, in this instance, 
 I believe, is singular. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE II. 
 
 313. " J Ve serve you, madam," kc. 
 
 Countess. " Not so, but as we change our 
 courtesies." 
 
 Thus in Hamlet
 
 THAT ENDS WELL. 147 
 
 Your poor servant ever. 
 
 Ham. " Sir, my good friend, I'll change that 
 name with you. 
 
 313. " The still-piecing air" 
 
 Still-piecing is, I think, right; there is the 
 same idea in the 5th Chapter of the Wisdom of 
 Solomon, ver. 12, " Or like as when an arrow is 
 shot at a mark it parteth the air, which immedi- 
 ately cometh together again, so that a man can- 
 not know where it went through." 
 
 Lord ChedwoRth. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 316. " The extreme edge of hazard.** 
 
 Milton has, 
 
 " The perilous edge of battle." 
 
 Paradise Lost. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE III. 
 
 350. " Our virtues would be proud if our faults 
 whipped them not ; and our crimes 
 would despair if they were not cherish" d 
 by our virtues." 
 
 We should exult too much on the merit of our 
 virtues, if we were not humbled by reflecting on 
 the frailties that belong to us ; and the contem- 
 plation of our crimes would drive us to despair if 
 we were not animated and encouraged by confi- 
 dence in our virtues. 
 
 l 2
 
 US ALL'S WELL 
 
 354. "Theorick." 
 Thus in Othello 
 
 " The bookish Theorick. 
 
 355. " If I were to live this present hour.*' 
 
 Perhaps "live" emphatically for commence 
 the life eternal, mors janua vitce. In this conjec- 
 ture I have little confidence. Parolles may only 
 mean, if I were this hour assured that my life 
 would be spared by the general, in whose hands it 
 was. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE III. 
 
 386. " We lost a jewel of her ; and our esteem 
 " // as made much poorer by it." 
 
 " Esteem," perhaps, for what is the object of 
 esteem : the stock of what was estimable was re- 
 duced by her death : or it may be, when her 
 worth departed the rate of my esteem for any 
 thing remaining was much lessened. 
 
 390. " Oft our displeasures to ourselves unjust, 
 " Destroy our friends, and after weep their 
 
 dust : 
 " Our oxen loxe waking, cries to see what's 
 
 done, 
 " While shameful hate sleeps out the after- 
 noon." 
 
 Our anger, that destroys our friends, does an 
 injury to ourselves, and we lament our rashness;
 
 THAT ENDS WELL. 149 
 
 our self-love is continually awake to affliction at 
 the loss we endure, while the enmity, of which 
 we are now ashamed, is extinct, or sleeps through- 
 out the remainder of our life. 
 
 3$6\ " I will buy me a son-in-law in a fair, and 
 toll him.'* 
 
 By to " toll " him, I suppose Lafeau- meant, I 
 will find him out by proclamation of the bell-man. 
 
 " I will buy me a son-in-law," &c. 
 
 I take the meaning to be, / will buy, &c. and 
 pay toll for him. Lord Coke, in his reading on 
 Stat. Westm. (3 Edw. I.) says, "Toll to the fair 
 or market is a reasonable sum of money, due to 
 the owner of the fair or market, upon sale of 
 things tollable within the fair or market \ or for 
 stallage, piccage, or the like ; and this was first 
 invented that contracts mio*ht have ood testi- 
 mony, and be made openly, for, of old time, 
 privy or secret contracts were forbidden." 
 
 2 Inst. 9,20. 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 39S. " If you shall marry, 
 
 " You give away this hand, and that is 
 mine."'' 
 
 This is an inaccurate expression : though this 
 and that, except for the lines that ^follow, are, 
 not without a meaning, distinguished : Diana 
 takes hold of Bertram's hand, and what she now 
 calls " this " hand, when alienated and bestowed 
 upon another, she might naturally enough term 
 " that" hand,; but as Bertram's perfidy is yet only 
 
 l 3
 
 150 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. 
 
 suspected, or hypothetical, syntax requires the 
 subjunctive form of the verb "to be." 
 
 " If you shall marry, 
 
 " You giveaway this hand, and that were mine." 
 
 But a more obvious correction will better agree 
 with what succeeds : 
 
 " You give away this hand, and this is mine, 
 11 You give away heaven's vows, and those are 
 mine," &c. 
 
 399. " Than for to think that I would sink it 
 here.'* 
 
 I wish this miserable expletive " for " could be 
 ejected; " e'er" might readily supersede it.
 
 THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. 
 
 INDUCTION. 
 
 20. "And when he says he is say, that he 
 dreams." 
 
 Sir T. Hanmer's emendation, which Mr. Stee- 
 vens approves, 
 
 " And when he says he's poor, say that he 
 dreams," 
 
 as well as Dr. Johnson's, 
 
 " And when he says he's sly, say that he 
 dreams/' 
 
 appears not only unnecessary, hut injurious to 
 the design of the poet, who very naturally makes 
 the lord pass-by what he could not be supposed 
 to have known, either the name or the peculiar 
 circumstances of the sot. " And when he says 
 he is (howsoever he shall describe himself) say 
 that he dreams. This is Shakspeare. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 39. " I am arrived for fruitful Lombardy." 
 
 The scene being in Padua, and Padua being 
 l 4
 
 152 TAMING OF THE SHREW. 
 
 a city of Lombardy, it is in vain to look for 
 meaning in this passage. 
 
 41. " Or so devote to Aristotle's checks, 
 " As Ovid be an outcast quite abjured* 
 
 This is a violent elision, " As (that) Ovid 
 (shall) be an outcast. 
 
 43. " A pretty peat." 
 
 Peat or pet is at this day, in Ireland, a term 
 of endearment generally used. 
 
 46. " Upon advice," 
 
 i. e. Says Mr. Steevens, on consideration or 
 reflection, but this, I believe, is an inaccurate de- 
 finition : "advice," here, as in the quoted passage 
 from The Two Gentlemen of Verona, signifies 
 information, instruction, acquaintance, know- 
 ledge, as, indeed, the word commonly implies at 
 this day, as I am at present advised, i. e. accord- 
 ing to my presentknowledge. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 56. " As wealth is burthen of my wooing dance." 
 
 As wealth is the measure or tune in which my 
 ^wooing speculations are to terminate, and on 
 which they repose. 
 
 6o. " Rope tricks." 
 
 Rope tricks seems exactly to tally with the 
 modern vulgar expression, gallows tricks.
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW. 153 
 
 " She shall have no more eyes to see withal than 
 a cat." 
 
 I suspect that this is an allusion to some bar- 
 barous sport with a cat, wherein the animal was 
 maimed or blinded. See Mr. Steevens's note up- 
 on a passage in Much Ado About Nothing : 
 " If I do, hang me in a bottle, like a cat, and 
 shoot at me." 
 
 65. " Trumpet's clang" 
 
 " Clang," Mr. Warton says, he supposes is an 
 adjective, and not a verb. How he could ever 
 have supposed it to be a verb, associated as it is 
 here, I cannot imagine ; neither is it an adjective, 
 as Mr. Steevens has sufficiently shewn : but, in 
 the very instance produced from Paradise Lost 
 
 " An island salt and bare, 
 
 " The haunt of seals and ores, and sea mews' 
 clang " 
 
 Clang is evidently a substantive : An island, 
 the resort of seals and ores, and the clang (poeti- 
 cally personified) of sea mews. 
 
 u Trumpet's clang." 
 
 To the instance produced from the Paradise 
 Lost, to shew that " clang" is a substantive, may 
 be added another from the same poem, Book 7, 
 
 Verse 420 : 
 
 Feather'd soon, and fledge, 
 
 " They summ'd their pens, and, soaring th' air 
 
 sublime, 
 " With clang despis'd the ground." 
 
 One cannot help thinking of Virgil :
 
 154 TAMING OF THE SHREW. 
 
 " Exoritur clamorque virum clangorque tuba- 
 rum." JEn. % V. 313. 
 
 Whence probably Dry den : 
 
 " The trumpet's loud clangor 
 " Excites us to arms." 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE II. 
 
 107- " Ne'er legg'd before." 
 
 I believe the old reading, near-legg'd, is right : 
 the near leg of a horse is the left ; and to set off 
 with that leg first is an imperfection. This horse 
 had (as Dryden describes old Jacob Tonson) two 
 left legs ; 1. e. he was awkward in the use of 
 them ; he used his right leg like the left. Mr. 
 Malone's reading and interpretation appear to me 
 very harsh. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 129. " Where be these knaves ? What, no man 
 at door /" 
 
 Mr. Malone says, door is here, and in other 
 places, a dissyllable : admitting this for the pre- 
 sent, how will the verse run ? 
 
 " Where be these knaves ? what no man at 
 d6 6r!" 
 
 The article the ought certainly to be inserted 
 in the text before door.
 
 TAMING OF THE SHREW. 155 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 149. "Things." 
 
 A thing, says Mr. Steevens, is a trifle too in- 
 considerable to deserve particular discrimination ; 
 and so it is in this place, where it seems little 
 more than an expletive, or to supply the rhyme ; 
 but it sometimes is applied to objects of superla- 
 tive dignity and importance, as in Coriolanus : 
 " Thou noble thing !" The truth is, the word is 
 used either with honour or contempt, when no 
 Other word can be found suitable. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 I69. " What stars do spangle heaven with 
 such beauty, 
 " As those two eyes become that heavenly 
 face r 
 
 I cannot help repeating here the ostler's phrase : 
 
 " I wish I had as many guineas as I have cur- 
 ried a horse." 
 
 Perhaps we might read, with some approach to 
 concord, 
 
 " What stars so spangle heaven with their 
 
 beauty, 
 " As do those eyes become that heavenly face ?" 
 
 I am entirely of Dr. Farmer's opinion concern- 
 ing this play, and the part that Shakspeare had 
 in the composition of it.
 
 WINTER'S TALE. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE. I. 
 
 214 " Such an affection, which cannot." 
 
 The pronoun instead of the conjunction as. 
 
 " Shook ha?ids, as over a vast." 
 
 A vast, I believe, is simply a waste or void 
 space; it seems to have been Milton's idea in 
 
 " The void profound 
 " Of unessential night." 
 
 215. " It is a gentleman of the greatest pro- 
 mise." 
 
 As the personal pronoun is often used instead 
 of the neuter, so is the neuter, sometimes, instead 
 of the personal, as, again, in this scene, " It is a 
 gallant child," it seems to be employed where 
 signal pre-eminence is meant, as in Macbeth, " It 
 is a peerless kinsman," and as we sometimes find 
 " thing" applied " Thou noble thing." Corio- 
 lanus. 
 
 " Physics the subject."' 
 
 Has power, says Dr. Johnson, of assuaging 
 the sense of misery. But how is misery at all 
 implied here r By physics the subject, I con- 
 ceive is meant, conciliates, keeps in wholesome 
 political temperament, the people. 
 
 1
 
 WINTER'S TALE. 157 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 216. " Since we have left our throne 
 
 " Without a burden? 
 
 This may mean, either, since we left our throne, 
 and, thereby, disburthen'd ourself of regal care ; 
 or, since we left the throne empty ; without our 
 weight upon it : the latter, I am inclined to 
 think, is the meaning intended; but " Since we 
 have left," is an incorrect expression, since being 
 here a preposition referring to the time when he 
 left the throne ; it should be, " Since we did 
 leave," &c. 
 
 Time as long again 
 
 " Would be fill y d up, my brother, with our 
 
 thanks, 
 " And yet zve should, for perpetuity, 
 " Go hence in debt.''' 
 
 The same thought occurs in Cymbeline : 
 
 " I have been debtor to you for courtesies 
 which I will be ever to pay, and yet pay still." 
 
 And Milton introduces it in Paradise Lost : 
 
 " O burthensome ! still paying; still to owe 
 " The debt immense of endless gratitude." 
 
 218. " When at Bohemia, 
 
 " You take my lord.*' 
 
 When you find him there, when you have pos- 
 session of him there.
 
 153 WINTER'S TALE. 
 
 " Will you take eggs for money ?" 
 
 To take eggs for money, seems to mean make 
 a base or unworthy compromise. 
 
 232. " Shall" s attend you there V 
 
 This ungrammatical expression, which we find 
 again in Cymbeline " Shall's have a play of 
 this ?" is common now in Gloucestershire. 
 
 233. " Her allowing husband." 
 
 " Allowing," says Mr. Malone, is, in old lan- 
 guage, approving ; but as Leontes cannot possi- 
 bly be approving of what gives him vexation and 
 pain, we must resort to some other explanation, 
 and that will be found in enduring, suffering, 
 restraining his just indignation ; as in Venice 
 Preserved when Jaffier, acquainting Belvidera 
 with the treatment he had received from Pierre, 
 says " O ! he has us'd me yet by Heaven / 
 bear it." Just in the same manner, too, did 
 Zanga allow the blow from Alonzo, which he af- 
 terwards broods upon : " While I tell it, do I 
 live." The haughty Moor as little approved of 
 this blow, as Leontes does of the deportment or 
 conduct of Hermione. 
 
 238. " Hoxes honesty" 
 
 To hough or hamstring men, as well as cattle, 
 is still in Ireland a practice as common as it is 
 horrible. 
 
 If ever fearful 
 
 " To do a thing, where I the issue doubted, 
 " Whereof the execution did cry out 
 " Against the non-performance."
 
 WINTERS TALE. 159 
 
 Mr. Heath proposes to read lc the now perform- 
 ance," which Mr. Malone considers a good in- 
 terpretation of the original text ; adding, that it 
 is clear the poet should have written either against 
 the performance, or for the non-performance ; 
 but Camillo's meaning seems to be directly the 
 contrary of this : the necessity for execution re- 
 proached or cried out against the non-perform- 
 ance. The expression is, certainly, not a good 
 one ; but I cannot admit that the author has en- 
 tangled himself, either here, or in the instance 
 produced by Mr. Malone, from The Merchant of 
 Venice. Let his years be no impediment to let 
 him lack a reverend estimation,'* means, Let not 
 this consideration be an impediment sufficient to 
 let him lack a reverend estimation. As to the 
 passage from The Twelfth Night 
 
 " Fortune forbid my outside have not charmed 
 him." 
 
 It is to be considered that forbid formerly sig- 
 nified command, as well as interdict as in 
 Chaucer : 
 
 " Moses' law forbode it, tho', 
 " That priests should no lordship's welde ; 
 
 " Christ's Gospel biddeth also, 
 " That they should no lordships helde." 
 
 Plowman, Stanz. 29. 
 
 240. " Any flax wench" 
 
 What the meaning of flax wench is, I cannot 
 discover, unless flax be a corruption of flaccid, 
 and imply, in a moral sense, yielding, pliant, 
 loose.
 
 160 WINTER'S TALE. 
 
 " Flax wench" I take to mean a wench em- 
 ployed in dressing flax. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 242. Bohemia: who if I 
 
 " Had servants," &c. 
 
 The construction seems embarrassed here : but 
 it is a broken speech, and the drift or order of it 
 is changed at the suggestion " If I had ser- 
 vants." 
 
 252. w As she's rare, 
 
 u Must it be great ; and, as his persons 
 
 mighty, 
 " Must it be violent." 
 
 The construction would be better if we were to 
 read 
 
 " It must be great it must be violent." 
 
 253. " Let us avoid.'* 
 
 Avoid, a verb neuter, occurs elsewhere, as in 
 Cymbeline : 
 
 " Thou basest thing, avoid" 
 
 And in K. Henry VI. Second Part : 
 
 " False fiend, avoid." 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 257. " I have drank." 
 Drank for drunk.
 
 WINTER'S TALE. 161 
 
 259. " -* O thou thing /" 
 
 Thing is used to express, sometimes, what is 
 pre-eminently good, and sometimes what is ex- 
 tremely the reverse, as here : but Coriolanus is 
 accosted 
 
 " Thou noble thing!" 
 
 26l. " With an aspect more favourable. Good 
 my lords." 
 
 Good should be omitted, as unnecessary to the 
 sense, and burthensome to the metre. 
 
 " I am not prone to weeping, as our sex 
 " Commonly are." 
 
 This will serve to illustrate a passage that has 
 been disputed in Measure for Measure : 
 
 In her youth 
 
 " There is a prone and speechless dialect." 
 
 262. " Good fools." 
 
 Fool, as a term of endearment, occurs else- 
 where, as in K. Lear : 
 
 " My poor fool is hang'd." 
 
 And in As You Like It : 
 The hairy fool 
 
 V Stood on the extremest verge of the swift 
 
 brook, 
 " Augmenting it with tears." 
 
 263. " Til keep my stables where . 
 
 " / lodge my zvife." 
 
 I believe Antigonus means, that if Hermione 
 be false, he will renounce all belief in his wife's 
 chastity, and have his bedchamber degraded into 
 a stable for the soiled horse. 
 
 vol. 1. 31
 
 162 WINTER'S TALE. 
 
 264. " Than when I feel, and see her, no further 
 trust her."'' 
 
 Mr. Malone supposes that we should read, or 
 understand, Then when, &c. but I believe the 
 comparative particle than, not the adverb of time, 
 was meant ; and this sense seems to be supported 
 by a passage in K. Henry IV. where Hotspur 
 says to Lady Percy 
 
 " I well believe 
 
 " Thou wilt not utter what thou dost not know; 
 
 " And so far will I trust thee, gentle Kate." 
 
 Lady. " How ! no further !" 
 Hotsp. " Not an inch further. 
 
 Every dram of xoomaris flesh is 
 
 false." 
 
 lachimo conceives the same minute dissection, 
 and ascribes the same depravity : 
 
 " If you buy ladies' flesh at a million a dram, 
 you cannot keep it from tainting." 
 
 269. " He, 
 
 " Whose ignorant credulity will not 
 " Come up to the truth." 
 
 Whose ignorant confidence in the Queen's pu- 
 rity will not suffer him to perceive her true cha- 
 racter. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 271. " , It is but weakness 
 
 " To bear the matter thus ; mere zveakness,
 
 WINTER'S TALE. 16S 
 
 The same thought passes in Othello's mind, 
 when he is meditating the death of Desdemona : 
 
 " It is the cause it is the cause, my soul.** 
 
 $73. " More free, than he is jealous.'" 
 
 Free for blameless ; as in Measure for Mea- 
 sure : 
 
 " That we were all, as some would seem to be, 
 " Free from all faults as faults from seeming free." 
 
 %79- " ' Lest she suspect 
 
 " Her children not her husband's.'" 
 
 As I cannot perceive the peculiar beauty which 
 Mr. Steevens has discovered in this passage, I 
 fully agree with Mr. Malone, in considering the 
 mother's supposed suspicion of her own inconti- 
 nence to be a slip of the poet's. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE II. 
 
 290. " More 
 
 " Than history can pattern, tho* devis'd, 
 " And play* d, to take spectators." 
 
 Historical dramas, 
 
 291. " With what encounter so uncurrent I 
 " Have strain'd, to appear thus." 
 
 Encounter, here, from the lips of Hermione, 
 and in application to herself, cannot surely be 
 used in the gross sense that Mr. Steevens and Mr. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 WINTER'S TALE. 
 
 Malone suppose : it is, as I conceive, more general, 
 and implies only adventurous undertaking; and the 
 meaning of the passage 1 take to be this: 1 offer 
 it to your conscience to determine with what un- 
 warrantable action I have exceeded the rules of 
 f)ropriety and decorum, so as to deserve this dis- 
 lonour. 
 
 293. " / ne'er heard yet, 
 
 " That any of these bolder vices wanted 
 " Less impudence to gainsay what they 
 
 did, 
 "Than to perform it first." 
 
 Dr. Johnson says, this is incorrect, and that, 
 according to the present use of words, less should 
 be more, or wanted should be had ; and both 
 Mr. Steevens and Mr. Malone acquiesce in the 
 censure, only observing that the anomaly is not 
 without example. But where, after all, is this 
 anomaly ? or tnat incorrectness, according to the 
 present use of words ? 
 
 Leontes, upon the confidence with which the 
 Lady asserts her innocence, remarks that such 
 demeanour naturally belongs to such a crime as 
 her's. He never had heard that any of those 
 bold vices (persons committing the vices) re- 
 quired a less degree of impudence to deny their 
 act than they had already displayed in the com- 
 mitting it. 
 
 " I ne'er heard yet," &c. 
 
 I dissent from Dr. Johnson and Mr. Malone 
 here, and take Mr. Seymour's explanation to be 
 the true one. Lord Chedworth.
 
 WINTER'S TALE, } 65 
 
 11 - More than Mistress of, 
 
 41 Which comes to me in name of fault, I must 
 
 not 
 ,( At all acknowledge." 
 
 Which, here, without any antecedent, is very 
 harsh ; it should be what, or, emphatically, that 
 (which) comes to me, &c, 
 
 297* " The fatness of my misery." 
 
 i. e. Says Dr. Johnson, how low, how flat am 
 I laid by my calamity : and flat is used in a simi- 
 lar sense by Milton, though not, as I apprehend, in 
 theinstancequotedbyMr. Malone; where by ''flat 
 despair," I understand despair palpable, positive, 
 without change or qualification, and thus Hot- 
 spur applies it : I will that's flat, And the ex- 
 pressions, flat perjury, flat blasphemy, are com- 
 mon : but an instance more apposite to the pas- 
 sage before us occurs in Comus. 
 
 l o v 
 
 " Though sun and moon were in the flat sea 
 sunk." 
 
 302. " ' Though a devil 
 
 " Would have shed water out of fire, ere 
 don't." 
 
 i. e. Says Mr. Steevens, a devil would have 
 shed tears of pity over the damned ere he would 
 have committed such an action. This is certainly 
 a very spirited interpretation; but, in order to 
 establish it, I wish the ingenious commentator 
 had informed us by what rule or licence of con- 
 struction, shedding water, or tears out of fire 
 can imply shedding tears over the damned ? or 
 with what propriety the innocent babe who, in 
 
 m 3 

 
 166 WINTER'S TALE. 
 
 Paulina's speech is the object of compassion, can 
 he associated in a comparison with the damned ? 
 The plain meaning, I believe, is no more than 
 this, a devil out of hell, i. e. emerged from his 
 penal element, would have wept in compunction 
 rather than have committed this deed. 
 
 303. " What's gone, and what's past help, 
 
 " Should be past grief'." 
 
 Thus in Macbeth : 
 
 " Things without remedy 
 
 " Should be without regard ; what's done is done.'" 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 305. " Dreams are toys: 
 
 " Yet for this once, yea, superstitiously, 
 c I zvill be squafd by this.*' 
 
 This is nature : a superstitious man, who would 
 yet persuade himself that he is a reasonable man, 
 will affect to despise a propensity which, at the 
 same time, he is unable to resist. 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 TIME AS CHORUS. 
 
 313. " Imagine me," &c. 
 
 There is no need of the correction proposed by 
 Dr. Johnson, we may suppose Shakspeare not to 
 be so philosophically accurate as Dr. J. would 
 have him ; the poet wished to inform his audi- 
 ence that the scene was now to be laid in Bohe- 
 mia ; and made use of Time as chorus for this 
 and other purposes, without constantly attending
 
 WINTER'S TALE. 16'7 
 
 to the strict preservation of the character of Time 
 personified. He thought nothing about Time's 
 being every where alike. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE I. 
 
 316. " I have, missing ly, noted, he is of late 
 much retired from court." 
 
 Missingly, says Mr. Steevens, is at intervals; 
 but I rather think it refers to the blank or vacuity 
 in the court assemblies occasioned by the princes 
 absence. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 319. " My aunts." 
 
 My aunt, or one of my aunts, is, at this day, 
 in Ireland, a common expression for a prostitute. 
 
 327. " Prig," 
 
 Which, as Mr. Whalley remarks, signified, in 
 our author's time, a thief or pickpocket, implies, 
 in modern cant, a formal awkward coxcomb. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 338. " Daffodils 
 
 " That come before the swallow dares, and 
 
 take 
 " The winds of March with beauty."' 
 
 The rudeness of March being subdued or soft- 
 ened by the beauty of the daffodil is a thought 
 highly poetical and elegant, as are also the lines 
 succeeding it. B. Strutt. 
 
 342. " 1 think, you have 
 
 " As little skill to fear," &c. 
 m 4
 
 163 WINTER'S TALE. 
 
 Dr. Warburton need not have been without 
 examples to justify his exposition of this passage, 
 and to satisfy Mr. M. Mason that "skill" here- 
 means cause, reason, efficient motive; as in The 
 Taming of the Shrew, Act 3. 
 
 " Whate'er he be, it skills not." 
 
 And in K. Henry VI. Part 2nd. 
 
 " It skills not greatly who empugns our doom." 
 
 344. " - But I have it 
 
 " Upon his own report, and I believe it.'* 
 
 Perhaps this should be*, 
 
 " I but have it 
 
 Upon his own report," &c. 
 
 361. " Handed love." 
 
 i. e. Kept fair terms with it, bore it in hand., 
 
 " i If your lass 
 
 " Interpretation should abuse" 
 
 i. e. Should misconceive your conduct. 
 
 363. " By the pattern of mine own thoughts I 
 out 
 " The purity of his." 
 
 A similar thought and expression occurs in 
 Hamlet : 
 
 " By the image of my cause, I see 
 " The portraiture of his." 
 
 367. " This dream of mine, 
 
 " Being noxv awake, I'll queen it no inch 
 
 farther^ 
 " But milk my eyes t and ueep."
 
 WINTER'S TALE, 169 
 
 This is a broken sentence : this dream of mine 
 }iad created (perhaps she would have said) am- 
 bitious and inordinate expectations ; but, break- 
 ing off passionately, she takes up the succeeding 
 thought. 
 
 368. " To die upon the bed my father died.** 
 
 This is not an admissible mode of speech : the 
 necessary particle on should be annexed to the 
 word M died." 
 
 " If I might die within this hour, I have Uv'd 
 *' To die when I desire." 
 
 The same reflection exultingly delivered oc-r 
 curs in Othello :* 
 
 If it were now to die 
 
 " 'Twere now to be most happy ; for I fear 
 ' My soul hath her content so absolute, 
 " That not another comfort like to this, 
 " Succeeds in unknown fate. 
 
 $73. " Sent by the king," &c. 
 
 It is not very suitable to the character of either 
 the good Camillo, or the princely Florizel to 
 propose or adopt an imposition like this. 
 
 374. " She is as forward of her breeding, as 
 " I* the rear of birth.'* 
 
 i. e. Her accomplishments arc as conspicuous 
 as her birth is obscure. 
 
 380. " If I thought it were not a piece of ho- 
 nesty I would do't.** 
 
 This language, as a soliloquy, is humorous and 
 in character : a modern dramatist of wonderful 
 skill, taste, and ingenuity, has introduced a simi-
 
 170 WINTER'S TALE. 
 
 Jar incident, but applied it without a due regard 
 to nature or probability : an unprincipled lawyer, 
 who, through the whole play, had been practising 
 fraud, and at length is induced to betray his per- 
 fidious patrons, entreats his new employers not to 
 disclose this last action, because, being an equi- 
 table one, it would be injurious to his fame, as a 
 consistent villain. This, indeed, is admirable 
 satire, but, I fear, not truly dramatic ; for no 
 villain, I believe, ever openly spoke thus of him- 
 self. Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation of the 
 text, as it stands adopted by Mr. Steevens, must, 
 I think, be acknowledged to be right. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 395. " Make proselytes 
 
 " Of who she did but follow." 
 
 Who for whom ; but them would be more cor- 
 rect. 
 
 397. " A king, at friend." 
 
 As there appears to be no kind of authority for 
 this phrase, I am inclined to read 
 
 " A king at friends." 
 
 To be friends or at friends with one another 
 is an expression still in use. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 404. " Clipping her:' 
 
 To clip is to clasp, to cling about, as,
 
 WINTER'S TALE. 171 
 
 " Here I clip the anvil of my sword." 
 
 Coriolanus. 
 
 " No grave upon the earth shall clip in it 
 " A pair so famous." 
 
 Anthony and Chop. 
 
 And again in Coriolanus 
 
 " O let me clip thee 
 
 " In arms as sound as when I woo'd," &c. 
 
 406. " One of the prettiest touches of all, and 
 that xvhich angled for mine eyes 
 (caught the water, though not the 
 fish.) 
 
 i. e. What most claimed my observation ; but 
 which bedimming with tears my sight, prevented 
 my beholding it, " caught the water, not the fish." 
 This seems to be an ancient jeer upon unsuccess- 
 ful anglers. B. Strutt. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 413. " Hermione was not so much wrinkled; 
 nothing," &c. 
 
 The word much, here, is a burthen on the 
 metre ; but still more injurious to the sense. The 
 lady, at the time of her supposed death, was not 
 wrinkled at all : it should doubtless be, 
 
 " Hermione was not so wrinkled ; nothing 
 
 So aged, as this seems." 
 
 419- " And from your sacred vials." 
 
 This expression seems to be taken from the cus- 
 tom of pouring a vial of oil on the head of a per- 
 son anointed king." Lord Chedworth,
 
 MACBETH. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 Enter three witches. 
 
 The witches here seem to be introduced for no 
 other purpose than to tell us they are to meet 
 again ; and as I cannot discover any advantage 
 resulting from such anticipation, but, on the con- 
 trary, think it injurious, I conclude the scene is 
 not genuine. 
 
 12. " There to meet with Macbeth." 
 
 There is evidently a word wanting here ; and 
 if we instead of / were inserted, and go put before 
 we, Mr. Pope's supplement appears to be satisfac- 
 tory : 
 
 " There go we (i. e. let us go) to meet Macbeth." 
 
 14. " Fair is foul and foul is fair." 
 
 The meaning, I believe, is, now shall confu- 
 sion work ; let the order of things be inverted 
 what is fair shall become foul, and what is foul 
 become fair. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 16\ " Doubtfully it stood" 
 
 The deficiency of this hemistic, Mr. Pope sup- 
 plied, by inserting " long" after "doubtfully,"
 
 MACBETH. 173 
 
 which appears far preferable to Mr. Steevens's 
 expedient of extending " doubtful" adverbially ; 
 and censure has been passed perhaps too hastily 
 on the poetic editor, for the application of long 
 in this instance ; long and short are terms mere- 
 ly relative, and depend, for their propriety, or 
 unfitness, upon the cases to which they are re- 
 ferred. A lover, in the absence of his mistress, 
 or a patient under the surgeon's knife, will call 
 a moment long ; and the contest for victory be- 
 tween two armies may properly enough be so 
 termed, if it is protracted beyond the probable 
 or expected period of decision. 
 
 17. " And Fortune, on his damned quarry smil- 
 ing." 
 
 Quarry, in this place, signifies that harvest of 
 spoil which Macdonald with his own hand was 
 reaping in the field of battle. 
 
 those ancient arms bestow, 
 
 " Which as a quarry on the soil'd earth lay, 
 " Seiz'd only conquest as a glorious pray." 
 
 Drayton's Bar. Wars, second Canto. 
 
 B. Strutt. 
 
 22. " / must report they were 
 
 11 As cannons overcharged with double cracks'" 
 
 The disorder in the metre is always, I think, 
 just reason for suspecting corruption. What- 
 ever is overdone, cannot be said to be well done: 
 if the cannons performed their orifice so as to 
 j)our an extraordinary measure of destruction on 
 :he foe, they were not " overcharged," although 
 hey might have double charges ; and these ge- 
 lerals, whose resistless valour the cannon is ta 
 illustrate, were not less prudent than brave. The
 
 174 MACBETH. 
 
 want of a copy of some better authority than 
 that of Messrs. Hemings and Condell, unhappily 
 leaves open a wider door for conjectural emenda- 
 tion in this play than in many others. I should 
 propose to read, 
 
 they were 
 
 11 As cannons charg'd with double cracks ; so they 
 " Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.'* 
 
 26\ " Norivay himself ] with terrible numbers. 
 
 The obvious restoration of the prosody, by 
 Pope, in this line, should be adopted, 
 
 " Norway himself, with numbers terrible." 
 
 " Bellona's bridegroom."" 
 
 Another instance, says Mr. Henley, of our 
 author's ignorance of the ancient mythology ; 
 but where is this ignorance at present ? Mac- 
 beth is represented as a warrior so complete, that 
 the poet would confer on him a kind of semi- 
 apotheosis, and marry him to Bellona; for it is 
 not Mars, as Mr. Henley and Mr. Steevens sup- 
 pose, that is implied by the bridegroom of Bello- 
 na, but Macbeth himself. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 32. " r I myself have all the other, 
 
 " And the very points they blow." 
 
 The second folio has ports; but admitting 
 with Mr. Steevens, that blow may stand for bloi 
 upon, it is still very difficult to make sense 
 the passage. 
 
 " I have all the other (winds) 
 
 " And the very ports they blow upon." 
 
 1
 
 MACBETH. \75 
 
 By having the ports, perhaps we are to under- 
 stand having a fatal influence over them. 
 
 36. " The xveird sister*, hand in hand" &c. 
 
 It has been suggested to me, by my ingenious 
 friend Mr. Strutt, that the play should properly 
 begin here ; and, indeed, all that has preceded 
 might well be omitted. Rosse and Angus ex- 
 press every thing material that is contained in 
 the third scene; and as Macbeth is the great 
 object of the witches, all that we hear of the sai- 
 lor and his wife is rather ludicrous and imperti- 
 nent than solemn and material ; I strongly sus- 
 pect it is spurious. 
 
 " The weird sisters," 
 
 The play would certainly begin much more 
 dramatically at " the weird sisters," or prefera- 
 bly, I think, a line higher ; 
 
 " Macbeth doth come ! " 
 
 This uttered with solemn horror, by one of the 
 prophetic sisters, would immediately fix and ap- 
 propriate the incantation ; and give it an awful 
 dignity, by determining its reference to the great 
 object of the play, the fate and fortune of Mac- 
 beth ; and martial music in the antique style, 
 founded upon some of the oldest Scotch me- 
 lodies, heard at a distance, as Macbeth is ap- 
 proaching, would give to the opening of the 
 play a very characteristic grandeur, when com- 
 bined with due sceneiy, and the weird sisters 
 properly represented. C. Lofft. 
 
 38. " All hail, Macbeth ! hail to thee, Thane 
 of Glamis."
 
 176 MACBETH. 
 
 This title, by which Macbeth is saluted* is, in 
 Scotland, always pronounced as a monosyllable, 
 with the open sound of the first vowel, as in alms. 
 We find the word eight times, in the course of 
 the play, possessing a station in the metre. In 
 four of these instances it seems to be a monosyl- 
 lable, as besides the line just quoted 
 
 "By Sinel's death, I know I'm Thane of 
 dames." 
 
 " Treasons capital 
 
 tC Have overthrown him." 
 
 " . Glames ! and Thane of Cawdor !* 
 
 " And yet wou'd'st wrongly win ; thou'dst have, 
 great Glames." 
 
 The other four lines, indeed, appear to exhibit 
 the word as a dissyllable : Glames or Glamis, a 
 mistake somewhat similar to that by which, in 
 Ireland, James and Charles are so extended- 
 James, Charles ; and, possibly, Shakspeare would 
 so have delivered it : but I cannot consider the 
 poet's accidental ignorance of the sound or quan- 
 tity of a foreign proper name, a sufficient reason 
 for perpetuating an error so easily corrected ; as 
 thus, after the Lady has read the letter : 
 
 " Glam's thou art (now,) and Cawdor, and 
 
 shalt be 
 " IV hat thou art promised," &c. 
 
 " To cry Hold, hold, great Glam's ! (my) wor- 
 thy Cawdor." 
 
 " Still it cried Sleep no more, to all the house i 
 " (For) Glams hath murder'd sleep, and there- 
 fore Cawdor 
 " Shall sleep no more," &c.
 
 MACBETH. 177 
 
 " Thou hast it now ; King Gliims and Cawdor -, 
 all." 
 
 41. " That he seems rapt withal" 
 
 The meaning may be, which he seems rapt 
 with ; but I rather think it is, insomuch that he 
 seems rapt with what you have told him. 
 This ellipsis occurs in other places ; as, again, in 
 this play, Act 2 : 
 
 " There's one did laugh in his sleep, and one 
 
 cried murder, 
 " That they did wake each other." 
 
 And in K. Lear, Act 4 : 
 
 " But I am bound upon a wheel of fire, 
 
 " That my own tears do scald like molten lead." 
 
 And we also meet with it in Milton : 
 
 " The fields revive, 
 
 " The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds 
 " Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings." 
 
 Paradise Lost. 
 
 43. " His wonders and his praises do contend, 
 " JFhich should be thine, or his" 
 
 In his mind there is a contest between praise 
 and admiration ; each is abundantly extended, 
 and with such emulous equality, that judgment 
 pauses, unable to pronounce where lies the advan- 
 tage j with you, on the score of applause, or 
 with him in the sense of your merits. 
 
 45. " In which addition, hail." 
 
 Addition is title, style of address, appropriate 
 distinction ; as in many other instances : thus in 
 Hamlet " Soil our addition," i. e. stain our cha- 
 
 VOL. I. n
 
 178 MACBETH. 
 
 racter or national distinction, Dane : it is proba- 
 bly, as a learned friend suggests, one of our poet's- 
 many law terms ; the addition being a part of the 
 name itself in indictments. 
 
 4o\ " The greatest is behind." 
 
 This is equivocal : the succession of Macbeth 
 to the crown was the last prediction of the weird 
 women, and Macbeth would indulge the hope 
 that it is to be fulfilled, as the others have been. 
 I would point it thus : 
 
 " Glamis ! and Thane of Cawdor !" 
 
 " The greatest is behind." 
 
 " Do you not hope your children shall be 
 kings ?" 
 
 This is introduced with consumate art and an 
 intimate knowledge of the human mind : the pre- 
 dictions, now verified in two instances, have 
 taken entire possession of Macbeth's thoughts ; 
 and his ambition is at once elevated and depress- 
 ed, by the jarring ideas of the fruitless crown 
 the barren sceptre, that awaits him : he would 
 communicate with Banquo y but he perceives that 
 Banquo, in this case, is not fit to be trusted ; yet 
 he cannot forego some attempt to sound, as at 
 a distance, his rival's disposition : if he durst 
 speak out, he would argue in this manner : " Is 
 it not probable, that they who so truly foretold 
 my succession to the dignities of Glamis and 
 Cawdor, will also fulfd the remainder of their 
 promise, and place me on the throne ?" But, just 
 at this moment, he is startled at the consequence; 
 the elevation of Banquo's posterity, and his ques- 
 tion begins where his meditation ended : the cau- 
 tion, too, with which he speaks at last is admira-
 
 MACBETH. 179 
 
 ble : he forbears to touch on " the imperial 
 theme/' as relating to himself, and only asks 
 
 " Do you not hope your children shall be 
 
 kings, 
 " When those that gave the Thane of Cawd6r 
 
 to me, 
 " Promis'd no less to them ?" 
 
 Thus are we, with exquisite delicacy, by one 
 sentence in the opening of the play, possessed of 
 the perfect spirit of Macbeth's character. 
 
 " That , trusted home." 
 
 That prediction, obtaining full credence, be- 
 lieved to the utmost extent of it. 
 
 48. " JVIiy do I yield to that suggestion f 
 
 Suggestion, here, does not mean temptation, as 
 Mr. Steevens would have it, but merely the men- 
 tal image of the murder ; for the crown is the 
 temptation, and the idea or image of that was 
 far from being horrid. 
 
 49. " Present fears 
 
 " Are less than horrible imaginings." 
 
 Dangers distinctly and immediately before u?, 
 are less alarming than those remote, which pre- 
 sent themselves through the mist of a terrified 
 imagination : fears for dangers, or cause of fears. 
 A similar reflection is uttered by Satan, in Para- 
 dise Regained : 
 
 " The expectation more 
 
 " Of fear torments me, than the feeling can." 
 
 " My single state of man." 
 
 This may only imply my mere manhood, or 
 
 n 2
 
 180 MACBETH. 
 
 the frail, unsupported condition of human na- 
 ture; but I rather think it signifies, my " entire 
 frame," or constitution, my whole corporeal and 
 mental establishment ; as in K. John : 
 
 " This kingdom, this confine of flesh and blood." 
 
 And in Julius Caesar : 
 
 The state of man, 
 
 '* Like to a little kingdom, suffers, then, 
 " The nature of an insurrection." 
 
 Milton says, in the eleventh book of Paradise 
 Lost 
 
 Compassion quell'd 
 
 " His best of man."- 
 
 51. " Time and the hour runs thro* /he roughest 
 day. 1 ' 
 
 The word " hour," as I apprehend, is not in- 
 troduced to express a new or different idea from 
 that which belongs to " time," but is rather an 
 amplification or enlargement of the previous 
 sense, and might be so associated by the particle 
 "or," as well as " and;" the verb, therefore, 
 " runs" is properly singular ; and I fully agree 
 with Mrs. Montague in the interpretation 
 " Time and occasion ;" i. e. time, and the fit 
 time. It is not strictly pleonasm, as Mr. Stee- 
 vens calls it, no more than is, in my opinion, the 
 instance produced by him, for similar censure, 
 from Othello : 
 
 " The head and front of my offending" 
 
 Which I take to mean the capital accusation 
 and full exhibition of the charge against me, or 
 the substance and full display of my offence :
 
 MACBETH. 118 
 
 or, perhaps, Othello, full of military ideas, by 
 " head" means " force" the collected strength 
 and arranged view. Neither do I think Mr. 
 Malone successful in the instance which he has 
 produced to sustain his colleague : 
 
 " Death, whose hour and time were certain." 
 
 This surely is, whose hour and season, period 
 of life ; and then in the verses, " Time's young 
 Hours," are merely the poetic personified Hours 
 attendant upon Time. 
 
 52. " ' My dull brain was wrought 
 
 " With things forgotten." 
 
 I was perplexed in an endeavour to recal what 
 my dull brain had suffered to slip into oblivion. 
 This is connected with what follows : 
 
 Kind gentlemen, your, pains 
 
 "Are registered where every day I turn 
 " The leaf to read them." 
 
 But your kindness is set down in the book of 
 my remembrance ; and that the record may not, 
 like lighter impressions, be effaced, I shall every 
 day turn the leaf to read it. 
 
 " The interim having weigh* d it" 
 
 The interim is here used adverbially, as Mr. 
 Malone justly remarks ; " the while" is a common 
 phrase of the same meaning. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 55. " Safe toward your love and honour. 1 * 
 
 Safe toward, I believe, means with sure ten- 
 N 3
 
 182 MACBETH. 
 
 dency, with certain direction ; and if so, it ought 
 to be marked as a compound " safe- toward." 
 
 57. " Noble Banquo, 
 
 " Thou hast no less deserved, nor must be 
 
 known 
 " No less to have done so.* 1 
 
 The position here being affirmative, the nega- 
 tive conjunction is wrong; it ought to be " and 
 must," &c. 
 
 " On all deservers. From hence to Inverness.'' 1 
 
 The preposition here, alike impertinent to gram- 
 mar, and burthensome to the metre, was properly 
 omitted by Pope. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 61. " The illness should attend it." . . 
 " Illness," for criminal disposition. 
 
 62. " Thou'dst have, great Glamis, 
 
 " That which cries, Thus thou must do, if 
 
 thou have it ; 
 " And that which rather thou dost fear to 
 
 do, 
 " Than wishest should be undone" 
 
 The obscurity of this passage arises from the 
 accumulative conjunction, which leads us to ex- 
 pect new matter ; whereas what follows is only 
 amplification : 
 
 " And that which rather thou dost fear to do," 
 &c. 
 
 Mr. Malone, I think, is mistaken, in supposing 
 this to be a continuance of what was uttered by
 
 MACBETH. 183 
 
 the object of ambition : " Thou would'st have 
 (says the Lady) the crown j which cries, thou 
 must kill Duncan, if thou have it." This is an 
 act which thou must do, if thou have the crown. 
 " And (adds she) what thou art not disinclined- 
 to, but art rather fearful to perform, than unwil 
 ling to have executed." Lady Macbeth avoids 
 to name the murder in express terms ; and most 
 artfully tries to blend and confound the repulsive 
 means with the alluring object, 
 
 " ' The golden round, 
 
 " Which fate and metaphisical aid doth seem 
 
 " To have thee crown d withal." 
 
 The poet's meaning is, I believe, what Mr. 
 Malone has stated (little differing, indeed, from 
 what Doctor Warburton had before suggested) 
 
 " Which fate and supernatural agency seem 
 
 to intend to have thee crowned with. But it 
 is impossible for this sense to be supported by 
 any construction of the words before us. Some- 
 thing has been omitted ; and, to make the pas- 
 sage intelligible, something must certainly be 
 supplied. Doctor Johnson's expedient seems easy 
 and satisfactory : 
 
 Doth seek 
 
 " To have thee crown'd withal." 
 
 64. " Give him tending, 
 
 " He brings great news. The raven him* 
 
 self is hoarse, 
 " That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan 
 " Under my battlements." 
 
 Doctor Johnson and Mr. Fuseli appear to have 
 been refining this passage into perplexity. That the 
 messenger was out of breath, was surely from no 
 
 N 4
 
 184 MACBETH. 
 
 other cause than the speed he had made ; and 
 the words " give him tending, he brings great 
 news," mean simply, let him be waited on; the 
 business he has come upon is important. The 
 messenger withdrawn, the lady reflects on his 
 message, and on the circumstance of his hoarse- 
 ness while he uttered it, and deeming this pro- 
 phetic of what she had been ruminating on, she 
 poetically makes this messenger the fatal raven. 
 
 " The raven himself is hoarse?' 
 
 The present reading is right ; but it is obser- 
 vable that Sir William Davenant appears to have 
 supposed that the true reading was that which 
 was proposed by Warburton, for his alteration 
 of the passage stands thus : 
 
 " There would be music in the raven's voice 
 
 " Which would but croak the entrance of the 
 
 king 
 " Under my battlements." 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 65. " That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan.* 
 
 Entrance is here a trisyllable and should be so 
 set down, agreeably to the ancient orthography 
 nt6rance. 
 
 69- " This ignorant present." 
 
 The word " time" which was inserted by Mr. 
 Pope after " present," Mr. Steevens says is not 
 required for the sense, and is too much for the 
 metre ; the sense, indeed, is not dependant on it, 
 as "present" might stand for "present time," 
 but it is indispensible to the metre, unless we load 
 the latter syllable of the noun " present," con- 
 trary to all usage, with the weight of the accent.
 
 MACBETH. 185 
 
 " This ignorant present, and I feel now," 
 
 Whereas " ignorant," as it stands in the line, 
 may be uttered in the time of a dissyllable, by 
 means of the vowels o and a, which sufficient- 
 ly coalesce, notwithstanding the intervention of 
 a consonant. 
 
 " This ignorant present time, and I feel now." 
 
 Vide Introduction, page 16, Note 5. 
 
 71. " To alter favour ever is to fear." 
 
 To change countenance is always a dangerous 
 indication of what is passing in the mind ; to fear 
 for, to give cause for fear. 
 
 " To alter favour," &c. 
 
 I take the meaning to be " change of counte- 
 nance is an indication of fear, always well un- 
 derstood ; if you change your countenance thus, 
 your fears will not fail to be known ; since all men 
 understand this symptom by which fear betrays 
 itself." C. Lofft. 
 
 SCENE VI. 
 
 73. " ' Does approve." 
 Proves, gives evidence. 
 
 74. " The love that follows us, sometime is our 
 
 trouble, 
 " Which still we thank as love. Herein I 
 
 teach you 
 " How ye shall bid God yield us for your 
 
 pains, 
 " And thank us for your trouble." 
 
 The first part of this sentence is indeed, as Mr.
 
 186 MACBETH. 
 
 Malone has remarked, clear enough, though I sus- 
 pect that gentleman's endeavour to explain what 
 follows will not be found satisfactory. With as little 
 success, I think, has Mr. Henley tried to paraphrase 
 the passage. Perhaps the failure of both those cri- 
 tics as well as of their predecessors and corrivals 
 has been owing to their mistaking the application 
 of the words "god yield us," which I am persuad- 
 ed do not refer to the king, but to the hostess, 
 whom Duncan addresses to this effect. The ex- 
 pressions of affection and loyalty that attend a 
 king are sometimes troublesome, yet in regard to 
 the motive, we overlook the trouble, and acknow- 
 ledge the love; and let this argument teach you 
 to implore the heavenly grace ; saying, in your 
 orisons, " God yield us for your pains," (/. e. 
 the pains you take) and to thank us (the king) 
 for having given you so profitable an occasion 
 for the exercise of your devotion. Mr. Henley 
 conceives, I think erroneously, that " the love 
 which follows us, sometimes is our trouble," im- 
 plies the king's love, (not that of the hostess,) 
 and the trouble of the hostess, (not that of the 
 king.) 
 
 SCENE VII. 
 
 77. " If it were done," &c. 
 
 This speech has often been censured for per- 
 plexity of thought and expression ; the seeming 
 embarrassment in the language I believe was 
 carefully studied, and will be found admirably 
 suited to the character of the speaker, and the 
 nature of his reflections. Macbeth is distin- 
 guished by an active and ardent imagination, 
 operating on the most exquisite sensibility; and,
 
 MACBETH. 187 
 
 with this glowing temper, brooding on the per* 
 petration of an act that, 
 
 " Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream," 
 
 shakes his " whole state of man," every word 
 almost that he utters, suggests an image to him ; 
 the train of thinking, however, though frequent- 
 ly obstructed, is never broken ; and it may not 
 be uninteresting to trace it, step by step, through 
 the whole of this complex soliloquy. He begins 
 his meditation generally ; " if it were done," 
 f. e. if the act of the murder were performed, 
 the reflection was proceeding thus : if it were 
 done when he is asleep; but the word " done" 
 suggesting instantly a new idea, the final issue of 
 the business, he pauses on it for a moment, and 
 then recurs to that with which he began, the 
 simple act of the assassination, 4 ' when 'tis done," 
 and proceeds, " then 'twere well it were done 
 quickly;" here again he pauses, and returns to the 
 second reflection, the ultimate event. 
 
 %i . . ' If the assassination 
 
 ' Could trammel up the consequence, and catch 
 
 " With his surcease, success:" 
 
 t. e. The full attainment of my desire. 
 
 " That but this blow 
 
 " Might be the be-all and the end-all here:" 
 
 i. e. On this spot where it is struck ; but, no 
 sooner has the word " here" been uttered, but a 
 new idea starts forth, which he pursues, the 
 idea of our frail existence in this world, in oppo- 
 sition to the world hereafter. 
 
 The be-all and the end-all here 
 
 But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, 
 " We'd jump the life to come."
 
 188 MACBETH. 
 
 We would run a bold risk as to futurity, " but 
 in these cases we still have judgment here," i. e. 
 on earth, and that judgment is 
 
 That we but teach 
 
 " Bloody instructions, which, being taught, re- 
 turn 
 " To plague th' inventor." 
 
 i. e. When we commit a murder we only instruct 
 others how to murder ourselves ; inclining now 
 to the better side of the argument, he calls in the 
 sentiments of honour and hospitality to invigo- 
 rate his virtue. 
 
 He's here in double trust, 
 
 " First as I am his kinsman and his subject, 
 
 " Strong both against the deed; then as his host, 
 
 " That should, against his murderer, shut the 
 
 door, 
 " Not bear the knife myself." 
 
 To these general suggestions he now adds one 
 of prudence : 
 
 Besides, this Duncan 
 
 " Hath borne his faculties so meek ; hath been 
 
 u So clear in his great office, that bis virtues 
 
 " Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against 
 
 " The deep damnation of his taking off; 
 
 " And Pity, like a naked new-born babe, 
 
 " Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubim, hors'd 
 
 " Upon the sightless couriers of the air, 
 
 " Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, 
 
 " That tears shall drown the wind." 
 
 Pity in its most amiable and affecting form, 
 like a naked new-born infant, or a cherubim
 
 MACBETH. 189 
 
 mounted on the invisible couriers of the divine 
 will, (not the winds, as Dr. Johnson would have 
 it,) shall blow, i. e. taint and tumify with hor- 
 ror, in the eyes of all the world, this execrable 
 deed ; insomuch that the ambient wind shall be 
 allayed and overcome by a universal shower of 
 tears. He is now almost a convert to compunc- 
 tion, having " no spur to prick" him on but 
 " vaulting ambition;" and finding, on the lady's 
 entrance, that the king had asked for him, his 
 honourable resolution is wound up, and gratitude 
 comes forth to put her seal upon it. Nothing 
 can exceed the delicacy or the energy of these 
 words : 
 
 " We will proceed no further in this business, 
 " He hath honour'd me of late," &c. 
 
 79- " Catch, with his surcease, success.** 
 
 Dr. Johnson's proposed emendation of " its" 
 for " his," would wipe out a capital beauty in 
 tliis speech. Macbeth enters, ruminating upon 
 an action he is about to commit, and now for 
 the first time discloses it ; imperfectly, however, 
 by the use of " his," instead of the substantive 
 to which, in his mind, it has reference; and of 
 " surcease," instead of a word of more open 
 meaning. B. Strutt. 
 
 80. " We'd jump the life to come.** 
 
 Mr. Steevens thinks the meaning of "jump" 
 here is overleap, make no account of the life to 
 come ; but it is rather, make a bold or desperate 
 trial, as in Cariolanus: 
 
 Who would fear 
 
 ' To jump a body with a dangerous physic, 
 1 That's sure of death without it.
 
 190 MACBETH. 
 
 80. " We but teach bloody instructions.'" 
 
 A similar reflection to this I find in Sir Walter 
 Raleigh's preface to his history of the world ; 
 " and he (king Edward IV.) which instructed 
 Gloucester to kill Henry the VI. his predecessor, 
 taught him also, by the same act, to kill his own 
 sons and successors, Edward and Richard; for 
 those kings which have sold the blood of others 
 at a low Tate, have made the market for their 
 own enemies to buy of theirs at the same price. 
 
 82. " Like angels, trumpet-tongued." 
 
 Not trumpet-tongued like angels generally, 
 but like those angels who, to plead most pow- 
 erfully, are trumpet-tongued. " The sightless 
 couriers of the air" are not winds, as Dr. Johnson 
 supposes, but invisible posters of the divine will; 
 that fly unperceived by sense, and unconnected 
 with matter. If winds were meant as the sup- 
 porters of the babe, the infant would be left in 
 a very perilous predicament, for he must soon be 
 unhorsed by the drowning of the wind. 
 
 " That tears shall drown the wind." 
 
 I suspect the death of Sir Thomas Overbury, 
 and the consequent events, were here much in 
 the poet's thoughts. C. Lofft. 
 
 86. u I have given suck," 8tc. 
 
 This passage has, perhaps, too hastily been 
 censured for unnatural horror and ferocity. The 
 lady's object is to stimulate Macbeth to the 
 murder by any means : she strengthens every in- 
 citement, and invalidates every objection. On 
 such an occasion the speaker is not uttering so 
 much his own real sentiments as those which are 
 
 4
 
 MACBETH. 191 
 
 most likely to operate on the hearer ; that tender 
 sentiment was not quite extinguished in the breast 
 even of this sanguinary woman, there is a beau- 
 tiful instance, in the proper place, where, after 
 leaving the daggers by the king's pillow, she says, 
 
 " Had he not resembled 
 
 " My father as he slept, 1 had don't." 
 
 In an old Collection of Anthems, London, 
 printed by W. G. 1663, I find one, on Psalm 137, 
 set by Henry Lawes, of so much poetic excellence 
 that a judicious friend of mine ascribes it to Mil- 
 ton. There is in it a sentiment not unlike this 
 in ferocity. 
 
 " Men shall blesse the hand that tears 
 " From the mother's soft embraces 
 
 " Sucking infants, and besmears 
 
 " With their brains the rugged faces 
 " Of the rocks and stony places." 
 
 87. " Had I so sworn" &c. 
 
 This is most judiciously put; the savageness of 
 the sentiment is not only mitigated by the idea of 
 the speaker's acting under the obligation of an 
 oath, but the force of that obligation is artfully 
 impressed on Macbeth to incite him to the mur- 
 der. 
 
 " So sworn." 
 
 '.' Sworn," says Mr. Malone, is used as a dis- 
 syllable, but what ear will recognise it as such ? 
 The measure, however, is complete without the 
 word " but " from the second folio ; and we 
 might read, 
 
 " And dash'd the brains out, had I sworn as you 
 " Have done to this."
 
 192 MACBETH. 
 
 " If we should fail." 
 
 " We fail." 
 
 88. " Screw your courage to the sticking place , 
 " And we' 11 not fail." 
 
 Apply, with energy, your courage to that place 
 where it will stick, cleave, or be effectual. Mac- 
 beth says, in another place : 
 
 " If you shall cleave to my consent." 
 
 90. " A limbeck." 
 
 Alembic, or alambic, from "al" (Arabic) 
 " the " and ambix (Gr.) a cup or cover of a pot; 
 it properly meant only a part of a distilling appa- 
 ratus (the head), it now means the whole. 
 
 Watson's Chem. Essays. 
 
 9\. " I am settled and bend up" Sec. 
 
 Those who regard the waverings of Macbeth 
 as unnatural and contradictory are not worthy 
 the name of critics ; in my opinion, they consti- 
 tute one of the greatest excellencies of this play ; 
 such tasteless objectors deserve not the answer 
 which Mr. Steevens has condescended to give 
 them. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 Enter Banquo and Fleance, with a Torch 
 before h'nn. 
 
 It has been suggested to me by my friend Mr. 
 Strutt, that the appearance of Fleance was either 
 a mistake, or some slovenly expedient of the play-
 
 MACBETH. 193 
 
 ers; he has no other employment than that of a 
 mere attendant ; and, indeed, the decorum of the 
 scene seems to require two servants, one attend- 
 ing on Banquo, and the other in the ordinary 
 service of his master ; to the latter of these Mac- 
 beth says, afterwards, 
 
 " Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, 
 " She strike upon the bell " 
 
 and, having so got rid of him ; to the former, 
 who had now returned from lighting Banquo to 
 his chamber, "Get thee to bed :*' and this regu- 
 lation appears necessary to reconcile the seeming 
 contradiction or inconsistency in Macbeth's or- 
 ders, " Go, bid thy mistress," &c. and " Get thee 
 to bed." 
 
 93. " How goes the night, boy ?" 
 " The moon is down" &c. 
 
 The metre as well as the sense of the context 
 seems to require a different disposition of the 
 sentences here: 
 
 Banq. " How goes the night, boy?" 
 
 Fl. " I've not heard the clock : 
 
 " The moon is down." 
 Banq. " And she goes down at twelve." 
 
 Again, some words seem to have been lost : we 
 might read, 
 
 Fl. " I take't 'tis later, sir." 
 
 Banq. " Hold, take my sword ; 
 
 " ('Tis very dark;) there's husbandry in 
 
 heaven : 
 " Take thee that too : (probably his dirk 
 
 or dagger) 
 " Give me my sword." 
 
 Banquo, but the instant before, had desired the 
 vol. i. o
 
 194 MACBETH. 
 
 boy to take his sword ; and what lie could want 
 with it now again, it is not easy to discover; but 
 if we observe that the action is not only useless 
 and improbable, but the words an intrusion on 
 the metre, I think we must regard it as an 
 interpolation. The passage might stand thus : 
 
 " Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature 
 " Gives way to in repose." 
 
 Enter Macbeth. 
 
 " Who's there?" 
 
 Macb. " A friend, 
 
 94. " Great largess to your offices.** 
 
 The latter copies read " officers," which ap- 
 pears to be right, but those are not, as Mr. Stee- 
 vens supposes, officers for the field, but officers of 
 the household. 
 
 95. " Being unprepared, 
 
 " Our zvill became the servant to defect, 
 " Which else shou'dfree have wrought.** 
 
 Not having expected this visit of the king, the 
 want of due accommodation predominated over 
 my hospitable will ; which else should have ope- 
 rated without restraint. Macbeth, always anxi- 
 ous and suspicious, has, to cloak his pernicious po- 
 licy, adopted aconstrained and ambiguous diction, 
 which he cannot throw off, even on occasions where 
 mystery is needless. I know not whether the poet 
 had, here, a glance at the character of Tiberius, 
 as given by Tacitus, but the resemblance is very 
 striking, " Tiberioque etiam in rebus quas non 
 occuleret, seu natura, sive adsuetudine, suspensa 
 semper et obscura verba; tunc vero nitenti, ut 
 sensus suos penitus abderet, in incertum et ambi-
 
 MACBETH. 195 
 
 guum magis implicabantur." As, according to 
 Mr. Malone's catalogue, there was a translation 
 of Tacitus in Shakspeare's time, it is very pro- 
 bable he had reaxl it ; although this poet's prac- 
 tical knowledge of human nature might, of itself, 
 sufficiently account for such a coincidence with 
 the philosophic historian. 
 
 " I dreamt, last night, of the three weird sisters: 
 " To you they have showed some truth." 
 
 " Macbeth, alarmed at words which seem an in- 
 trusion upon his "occult guilt," recovers suddenly 
 from his surprise, and assumes an air of indiffer- 
 ence " I think not of them ;" but, finding his 
 "corporal agents" a little unsettled and relaxed, 
 he catches up the design of fortifying his resolu- 
 tion by the co-operation of Banquo : he knows 
 not well what to propose, but something he will 
 try. 
 
 " Yet when we can entreat an hour to serve, 
 N Would spend it in some words upon that busi- 
 ness, 
 " If you would grant the time." 
 Banq. *' At your kind leisure." 
 
 This reply gives encouragement ; and he then 
 obscurely hints a bribe to his friend's ambition. 
 
 f{ If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis 
 "It shall make honour for you." 
 
 This dawn of hope, however, is at once dis- 
 sipated when Banquo says, 
 
 ** So I lose none 
 
 " In seeking to augment it, but still keep 
 " My bosom franchis'd, and allegiance clear, 
 "I shall be counseled. " 
 
 o 2
 
 196 MACBETH. 
 
 Macbeth now "shuts-up," or " pulls-in" confi- 
 dence, and dismisses Banquo, and every thought 
 of trusting him, with 
 
 " Good repose the while." 
 
 96. " If you shall cleave to my consent." 
 
 If you will stick closely to my will or purpose: 
 thus in The Tempest: 
 
 " Thy thoughts I cleave to." 
 
 99- " Go, bid thy mistress, when my drink is 
 ready, 
 " She strike upon the hell" 
 
 Macbeth, perceiving the* servant, and desiring 
 now to be alone, gives this message merely for 
 that purpose; he wanted no drink, nor any such 
 mechanical signal as a bell for the performance of 
 the murder : the bell, which afterwards strikes, 
 is the clock, that accidentally, and with much 
 more solemnity, reminds him it is time to dis- 
 patch. 
 
 " Is this a dagger," &c. 
 
 This is always delivered on the stage with an 
 expression of terror as well as surprise, but I am 
 persuaded it is a misconception: if the vision were 
 indeed terrible, the irresolute spirit of Macbeth 
 would shrink from it; but the effect is confidence 
 and animation, and he tries to lay hold of the 
 dagger; and, indeed, upon what principle of 
 reason, or on what theory of the human mind, 
 can it be presumed, that the appearance of su- 
 pernatural agency, to effect the immediate object 
 of our wish, should produce dread and not en- 
 couragement? 1
 
 MACBETH. 179 
 
 101. " The curtain 1 'd sleep." 
 
 Mr. Steevens's proposed emendation which 
 rejects the offensive repetition of " now" is very- 
 plausible and judicious. 
 
 " The curtain'd sleeper; witchcraft celebrates." 
 
 102. " Alarum *d by his centinel, the wolf, 
 " JVhose howl's his watch." 
 
 i. e. I believe, whose howl is a signal for mur- 
 der. " Watch," if I mistake not, in military lan- 
 guage, stands for watch-word. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 108. " The surfeited grooms 
 
 " Do mock their charge with snores.'* 
 
 This will admit of two interpretations : Dun- 
 can himself may be the charge, who, snoring, is 
 imitated or mocked by the grooms; or " their 
 charge " may be the obligation of their duty, (as 
 the king's guards,) which they trifle with, in go- 
 ing to sleep this latter sense I rather " cleave 
 to." 
 
 " I have drugged their possets, , 
 
 " That death and nature do contend." 
 
 And again, 
 
 111. " There's one did laugh in Jus sleep, and one 
 cried murder, 
 " That they did wake each other.'* 
 
 i. e. By an ellipsis taken notice of in the 3d 
 Scene, Act 1, so that, or insomuch that " death 
 and nature do contend," &c. insomuch that 
 " they did wake," &c. 
 
 o 3
 
 198 MACBETH. 
 
 " Listening their fear. " 
 
 The application thus of the neuter or intransitive 
 verb or participle to an active sense, seems to be 
 vicious idiom, yet Milton is chargeable with it. 
 
 " They- 
 
 -expatiate and confer 
 
 " Their state affairs." Par ad. Lost, B. 1. 
 
 And because the imperfections of great men must 
 be imitated, Thomson amuses us with " Gazing 
 the landscape," "The voice warbling the heart," 
 &c. &c. 
 
 112. " Methought I heard a voice cry, sleep na 
 more ! 
 " Macbeth does murder sleep." 
 
 This is all that the voice is said to have uttered ; 
 the rest, " the innocent sleep," &c. is Macbeth *s 
 own speech, and is falsely put into Italics, as is 
 also, for the same reason, a little lower down, 
 the line and half. 
 
 And therefore Cawdor 
 
 " Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no 
 more." 
 
 " Methought I heard a voice" &c 
 
 The distinction above noted is judicious ; a 
 similar inaccuracy is to be observed in the follow- 
 ing speech of Macbeth, 1 19 : 
 
 " Still it cried, ' sleep no more,' to all the house." 
 
 If the voice, according to this punctuation, 
 said only, " sleep no more," the words that fol- 
 low might be omitted as superfluous, it being 
 sufficiently clear that the sleepers in the house 
 were those addressed ; but the natural construc- 
 tion is,
 
 MACBETH. 199 
 
 " Still it cried, sleep no more to all the house ; 
 " Glamis hath murdered sleep." 
 
 i. e. There shall be no sleep any more to all 
 those who are noxv reposing under this roof; 
 Glamis hath murdered sleep. The following 
 part, which, as it has been justly remarked, is 
 Macbeth's own speech, approaches with a horrid 
 solemnity that is inimitable. 
 
 " And therefore Cawdor 
 
 " Shall sleep no more, Macbeth shall sleep no 
 more." B. Strutt. 
 
 1 15. " Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this 
 blood 
 " Clean from my hands ?" 
 
 A thought resembling this, but with advan- 
 tage, occurs in Hamlet 
 
 " What if this cursed hand 
 
 " Were thicker than itself with brother's blood, 
 " Is there not rain enough in the sweet heavens 
 " To wash it white as snow." 
 
 120. "Your constancy hath left you unattended." 
 Hath forsaken you, left you by yourself. 
 
 " Show us to be watchers." 
 
 To have been purposely awake, or on the watch. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 131. "Had I but died an hour before this 
 chance, 
 " / had liv'd a bless* d time." 
 
 Besides the instance quoted by Mr. M alone, 
 o 4
 
 200 MACBETH. 
 
 from The Winter's Tale; this thought occurs 
 again in Othello 
 
 " W it were now to die, 'twere now to be most 
 happy." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 138. " The near in blood, 
 
 " The nearer bloody." 
 
 Thus in K. Richard III. 
 
 " Nearer in bloody thoughts though not in 
 blood." 
 
 139. " There's warrant in that theft 
 
 " Which steals itself when there's no mer- 
 cy left* 
 
 Here is a jingle between " steel" and " steal," 
 to steal itself away, and to steel or make hard it- 
 self by dismissing the softness of good manners. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 " The heavens, as troubled with mans act, 
 " Threaten his bloody stage." 
 
 Shakspeare is very profuse of theatrical allu- 
 sions. 
 
 140. " Duncan's horses 
 
 " broke their stalls, flung out 
 
 " Contending 'gainst obedience." 
 
 Churchill has amplified on this prodigy, in the 
 Ghost 
 
 " The horses that were us'd to go 
 
 " A foot pace, in my lord mayor's shew,
 
 MACBETH. 201 
 
 " Impetuous, from their stables broke, 
 " And aldermen and oxen spoke." 
 
 141. " Make war with mankind.*' 
 
 The metre would be saved by reading, with 
 Pope, 
 
 " Make war with man.'* 
 
 " , 'Tis said they eat each other." 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 149. " Mark Antony's was by Cczsar he chid 
 the sisters" 
 
 Dr. Johnson's censure of Mr. Heath, who 
 contended for the prosody of this line, might 
 have been spared. The measure is not incompa- 
 tible with the legitimate occasional licence in 
 the structure of dramatic verse. 
 
 " Mark An'ton^'s was' by Caesar' he chid' the sis'- 
 tens.'* 
 
 See Introduction Note. 
 
 151. Put rancours in the vessel of my peace." 
 
 Embittered my cup of happiness. 
 
 157- " Acquaint you with the perfect spy 0' the 
 time." 
 
 " Acquaint" is used imperatively, and the 
 sense is obscured only by that common corruption 
 of putting the accusative plural of the second 
 personal pronoun into the place of the nomina- 
 tive : you for ye ; acquaint ye i. e. learn, make 
 yourselves acquainted.
 
 202 MACBETH. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 160. " Nought's had ; all's spent, 
 
 " Where our desire is got without content." 
 
 When disappointment accompanies the pos- 
 session of what we sought, we have in effect 
 gained nothing; and we have lost that animating 
 expectation which constitutes our chief happi- 
 ness. I fully agree with Mr. Steevens here, in 
 supposing that Shakspeare's metre was origi- 
 nally regular ; but cannot admit of the offered 
 correction in this place; an opposition is evi- 
 dently intended between what had been lost and 
 what had been gained, or " had." I would pro- 
 pose the rejection of " Madam ;" " I will," sub- 
 missively uttered, is sufficiently expressive of the 
 servant's obedience. 
 
 It has been remarked to me, by my ingenious 
 friend Mr. Strutt, that these four lines, " Nought's 
 had," &c. seem to be the property of Macbeth 
 himself) who is supposed to be speaking them as 
 he enters ; and who, at the conclusion of them, 
 is addressed by the lady. 
 
 " How now, my lord ! why do you keep alone ?" 
 
 And, indeed, the querulous spirit which they 
 breathe is much more in character with Macbeth 
 than with his wife. 
 
 162. " Better be with the dead, 
 
 tl Whom we, to gain our place, have sent to 
 peace." 
 
 I think it strange that any editor should have 
 made, and still more so that Mr. Steevens should 
 applaud, the alteration from the first copy, of
 
 MACBETH. 203 
 
 " peace" to " place ;" the old reading appears to 
 me not only in itself better, but exactly con- 
 formable to the language and turn of thinking 
 by which the author has designated the charac- 
 ter of Macbeth : the form of words is not yet 
 arranged in his mind, when he begins, 
 
 " Better be with the dead, 
 
 " Whom we, to gain our peace,'* 
 
 (That tranquillity and satisfaction which can 
 only result from Duncan's death,) have sent to 
 the grave he was about to say ; but catching 
 hold of, according to his fanciful habit, a word 
 already uttered, which will apply in the sequel of 
 the sentence, he says " to peace." 
 
 " Better be with the dead ; M 
 
 "Whom we, (in hope,) to gain our peace, 
 have (actually) sent to peace." The same senti- 
 ment had occurred a little before. 
 
 " 'Tis better to be that which we destroy, 
 
 " Than, by destruction, dwell in doubtful joy." 
 
 i. e. It is a condition more secure of peace to 
 be the victim of assassination, than by trium- 
 phant murder, to be subject to the perturbations 
 and alarms of conscience. 
 
 My friend's conjecture that the liness set down 
 to the lady, in the foregoing part of the scene, 
 should properly belong to Macbeth, may derive 
 support from the passage last quoted. 
 
 " Be bright and jovial 
 
 " Among your guests to-night. 
 Mach. " ' So shall I love, 
 
 " And so, I pray, be you ; let your re- 
 membrance 
 
 u Apply to Banquo ; present him emi- 
 nence,'* &c.
 
 204 MACBETH. 
 
 Macbeth, who had* heretofore been scrupulous, 
 timid, and rather subordinate in the work of 
 murder, acquiring confidence as he advances in 
 enormity, is now ambitious of surpassing the 
 lady in desperate device ; but though he 
 onuses to conceal his object, and reserve to him- 
 self the glory of the exploit, he is yet desirous 
 to obtain, by suggestion, the powerful incentive 
 of his wife's concurrence. Nothing can exceed 
 the art by which this is attempted. He had al- 
 ready decreed the death of Banquo ; the mortal 
 instruments were now actually at work : conscious, 
 however, of the boldness of the step he had taken, 
 he wants to fortify his resolution, by the coincidence 
 of that wisdom to which he has habitually looked 
 up; but proud of his new important project, he 
 is unwilling to hazard the credit he expects from 
 it, by the slightest disclosure at present ; and 
 therefore elaborately brings his wife, without 
 any consciousness, on her part, of his covert 
 purpose, to give her thoughts upon it. 
 
 " Present him eminence, &c. 
 
 " Unsafe the while, that we 
 
 " Should lave our honours in these flattering 
 
 streams, 
 " Making our faces vizards to our hearts, 
 " Disguising what they are." 
 
 This is not sufficient; the lady, though prompt 
 enough to concur in mischief, does not perceive 
 his drift; and taking notice only of his disorder, 
 says, " You must leave this." He now becomes 
 impatient at not being understood, or rather an- 
 ticipated, and exclaims, 
 
 " O ! full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife,"
 
 MACBETH. 205 
 
 And then advances a little more openly to the 
 point 
 
 *' Thou know'st that Banquo and his Fleance 
 live." 
 
 The lady, superior to all little scruples, replies 
 at once, with philosophic coolness 
 
 " But in them nature's copy's not eterne." 
 
 This was all that Macbeth wanted, to plume 
 himself in the pride of consummate policy, and 
 his joy almost intoxicates him. 
 
 " There's comfort yet ; they are assailable, 
 " Then be thou jocund, &c." 
 
 There is, perhaps, no one passage in this won- 
 derful drama, that exhibits so complete an evi- 
 dence of the poet's incomparable genius as this 
 does, yet the actors always omit the best part of 
 it. 
 
 l6S. " The rooky wood" 
 
 Rooky is dark, gloomy, perhaps corrupted 
 from reeky ; teeming with dark and misty exu- 
 dations. The term is well known in most parts 
 of Norfolk, where a cloudy or gloomy day is 
 called a rooky day. 
 
 170. " Things, bad begun, make strong them- 
 
 selves by ill" 
 
 Scelera celeribus tuenda. Senec 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 171. " So all men do, from hence to the palace- 
 
 gate"
 
 206 MACBETH. 
 
 The measure requires the ejection of the idle 
 particle " from." 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 173. " Sit down ; at first and last, the hearty 
 welcome." 
 
 The King is willing to wave all ceremony. 
 " Sit down," says he, " and instead of a formal 
 address, either at the beginning or ending of our 
 feast, I shall only express, once for all, the hearty 
 welcome." 
 
 175. " - / had else been perfect." 
 
 I had been composed, collected, free, indepen- 
 dent, completely master of myself. 
 
 " . / had else been perfect" 
 
 Perfect here implies " in omnibus muneris ab- 
 solutus;" it is " totus teres atque rotundus." 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 " We'll hear ourselves, again." 
 
 It is difficult to extract sense from this pas- 
 sage ; nothing that has come before me in the 
 form of explanation is at all satisfactory. May I 
 advance a desperate conjecture, in which I own 
 I place but little confidence ? Perhaps Macbeth 
 dismisses the murderer with these words : " Get 
 thee gone ;" and then, conceiving some new pur- 
 pose, says to himself " To-morrow we will" 
 But suddenly recollecting his guests, and the sus- 
 pended banquet, he breaks-off " Here" i. e. 
 " Home my thoughts ! I must now mingle with
 
 MACBETH. 207 
 
 society." But, indeed, this entrance of the as- 
 sassin^ with his bloody face, into the apartment 
 where the King is feasting his peers, and the ac- 
 count of the murder, delivered at such a time, 
 appears so unskilful and improbable, that though 
 the scene is not without some colour of our au- 
 thor s manner, I am very dubious as to its au- 
 thenticity : it has, however, been intimated to me, 
 that, in the great and throng'd halls of our ancient 
 nobility, such an incident might have taken 
 place. 
 
 The feast is sold, 
 
 " That is not often vouch 'd while 'tis a making, 
 " "Tis given with welcome" 
 
 Neither the sense nor the construction of this 
 passage is very clear : I believe the meaning is 
 the favour or obligation we confer, when we re- 
 gale our friends, is cancelled or acquitted, when 
 we omit the frequent and cordial assurances that 
 they are welcome. The embarrassment in the 
 construction arises from the relative " that,'* on 
 which is imposed a weight of inference beyond 
 what it will bear. 
 
 176. " Here had we now our country's honour 
 roofd, 
 tl Were the grac'd person of our Banquo 
 present " 
 
 This passage will admit of three different con- 
 structions ; it may mean 
 
 " O that we had here, now, Banquo, the ho- 
 nour of our country ; were he but here !" 
 
 Or " Here should we now have safely shel-
 
 208 MACBETH. 
 
 tered with us our country's chief ornament and 
 honour, if Banquo were among us." 
 
 Or ' Here should we now have collected un- 
 der one roof all the prime spirits and glory of the 
 country, if we had but Banquo to complete the 
 list." 
 
 This last, I believe, is the true sense. 
 
 " Who may I rather challenge ?*' &c. 
 
 " Who," here, was properly altered to " whom," 
 by Pope. 
 
 177. " The tables full." 
 
 In the late representations of this play, at one 
 of the great theatres in the capital, Macbeth is 
 seen 
 
 " To start and tremble at the vacant chair," 
 
 according to the conception of Mr. Lloyd, in 
 his poem called The Actor. It would be deemed 
 only a waste of criticism to combat an opinion so 
 defenceless, which presumes that Macbeth's agi- 
 tations are merely the result of phrensy j whereas 
 there can hardly be a serious doubt that the poet 
 designed the real introduction of the spectre ; and 
 the superstition, wherever it prevailed, has been, 
 that though the ghost was sometimes invisible to 
 all except the special object of its visitation, yet 
 it was really and bonajide present. 
 
 What I am goin: to advance will not obtain 
 quite so ready an assent, though I am almost as 
 firmly persuaded of its propriety. 
 
 I think two ghosts are seen ; Duncan's first, 
 and afterwards that of Banquo ; for what new 
 terror, or what augmented perturbation, is to be
 
 MACBETH. 209 
 
 roduced by the re-appearance of the same object 
 a the same scene ? or, if but one dread monitor 
 ould gain access to this imperial malefactor, 
 rhich had the superior claim, or who was the 
 tiore likely to harrow the remorseful bosom of 
 rfacbeth " the gracious Duncan," he who had 
 1 borne his faculties so meek," had been " so 
 lear in his great office," and in " the deep dam- 
 ation of whose taking off," not only friendship, 
 indred, and allegiance, but sacred hospitality, 
 ad been profaned, or Banquo, his mere " part- 
 er," of whom it only could be said, that " he 
 fas brave, and to be feared ;" that wisdom guided 
 is valour, and that under him the genius of 
 /lacbeth sustained rebuke ? Which, I demand, 
 f these two sacrifices to his " vaulting ambition" 
 ^as the more likely, at the regal banquet, to 
 ireak in upon and confound the usurper? Be- 
 ides this obvious general claim to precedence, 
 xhibited by Duncan, how else can we apply 
 hese lines ? 
 
 1 If charnel houses, and our graves, must send 
 1 Those that we bury back, our monuments 
 ' Shall be the maws of kites." 
 
 For they will not suit with Banquo, who had 
 o grave or charnel-house assigned to him, (having 
 >een left in a ditch, to find a monument in the 
 paws of kites ;) but must refer to Duncan, who, 
 /e may naturally suppose, received the formal 
 stentatious rites of sepulture. I do not over- 
 30k the words 
 
 " Thou canst not say I did it," &c. 
 
 Inch may be urged against my argument ; 
 ut if this sentence will stand, in the case of 
 vol. i. p
 
 210 MACBETH. 
 
 Banquo, as the subterfuge of one who had, L 
 deputy, and not in person, done the murder, 
 surely will accord with the casuistry of him, wl: 
 knows he struck a sleeping victim ; and thi 
 with the pains that had been taken to fix tl 
 murder on the grooms, may sufficiently defer 
 the application of the remark to the royal spectr 
 Besifles, to whom, except Duncan, can the 
 words refer ? 
 
 " If I stand here, I saw him." 
 
 The ghost being gone, and Macbeth "am; 
 again," he reasons like a man, and gives this ai 
 swer to his wife, who had reproached him wil 
 being " unmann'd in folly :" but if Banqi 
 were the object alluded to in this declaration, 
 must be unintelligible to the Lady, who had m 
 yet heard of Banquo's murder. The ghost i 
 Duncan having performed his office, and depar 
 cd, Macbeth is at leisure to ruminate on the pr< 
 digy ; and he naturally reflects, that if the gra^ 
 can thus cast up the form of buried Duncai 
 Banquo may likewise rise again, regardless of tl 
 " trenched gashes, and twenty mortal murders c 
 his crown." The Lady interrupts this reveri 
 and he proceeds to " mingle with society ;" an 
 when, insidiously, with the raised goblet in h 
 hand, he invokes the health of his friend who; 
 life he had destroyed, just at that moment h 
 friend's ghost confronts him. All this, indea 
 is only conjecture, but conjecture, I trust, on tl: 
 ground of strong probability ; a basis that, in th 
 estimation of those who are best acquainted wit 
 the subject, will, I doubt not, be deemed at leas 
 as secure as the authority of Messrs. Heming 
 and Condell, which, unhappily, is the only Dp 
 we have yet had to build upon.
 
 MACBETH. 211 
 
 178. " Impostors to true fear."" 
 
 These impostors have eluded the scrutiny of all 
 the critical inquisitors, and still are undetected. 
 I wish I could bring them to justice. Perhaps 
 the lady, in her displeasure at Macbeth's ill- 
 timed disorder, would imply, by- " these flaws 
 and starts, impostors to true fear," theatrical 
 gesticulations, such as might, indeed, become a 
 person who was counterfeiting fear, or who 
 weakly resigned his imagination to the effect of 
 an artificial tale, but are not suitable or na- 
 tural to the true impression of real fear : or 
 are we, by impostors, to understand " mean be- 
 trayers," these flaws and starts, these exterior per- 
 turbations, which disclose to the observer the 
 terrors that exist within ? This sense has some 
 support in what was said in a former scene : 
 
 Look up clear ; 
 
 " To alter favour, ever is to fear " 
 
 Which I interpret thus : To change counte- 
 nance, is always a dangerous indication of what 
 is passing in the mind ; and it is somewhat re- 
 markable that the passage before us will admit of 
 a similar construction " these flaws and starts," 
 which, by betraying what your mind is brooding 
 on, will lead to a consequence that is to be feared 
 indeed. 
 
 179. " Blood hath been shed ere now, i'the olden 
 time, 
 " Ere human statute purg'd the gentle 
 weal." 
 
 " Gentle weal (says Dr. Johnson) is the state 
 made quiet and safe by human statutes." But 
 such a state would not want to be purged. A 
 
 p 2
 
 212 MACBETH. 
 
 strong opposition seems intended between the old 
 and present times; and the former necessarily 
 implying a condition of comparative purity, " to 
 purge" must have a signification different from 
 the obvjous one, and indicative of sophistication 
 or political quackery ; and so the sense will be 
 Blood hath been shed ere now, ay, even in those 
 early days, when legal institutions had not yet 
 changed and perverted the simplicity of human 
 society, and when, of course, a murder must have 
 been more sinful and atrocious than at this pe- 
 riod, when it is not the act itself that is at all 
 strange or unusual, but these supernatural conse- 
 quences of it. 
 
 " Purg'd the gentle weal." 
 
 " Gentle weal" I think wrong, and would read 
 either " general," with Capell, or " ungentle." 
 
 " Sylvestres homines sacer interpresque Deorum 
 
 " Ccedibus <* victu fcedo deterruit Orpheus 
 
 " Dictus ob hoc lenire tigres.'* C. Lofft. 
 
 " Ttke olden time." 
 
 Perhaps " elden." I believe there is no where 
 to be found such a word as " olden." 
 
 187. " Augurs, and understood relations.** 
 
 Sir William Davenant understood relations in 
 the same sense that Dr. Warburton did ; for his 
 alteration is, 
 
 " Augurs well read in languages of birds." 
 
 I am not sure that we ought not to read, with 
 the modern editors, 
 
 " Augurs that understood." &c. 
 
 Sir William Daventon seems to have read so. 
 
 Lord Chedworth.
 
 MACBETH. 213 
 
 190. " You lack the season of all natures, sleep." 
 
 That, says Dr. Johnson, which gives the relish 
 to all nature; but is it not rather, that which 
 tempers, preserves, and nourishes nature? Mr. 
 Malone's correspondent thinks the meaning is, 
 " You "stand in need of the time or season for 
 sleep;" but the lady would hardly have advised 
 her husband to 20 to bed while she was remarking 
 that there was no time for doing so. 
 
 " My strange and self-abuse" &c. 
 
 " Strange," here, does not imply extraordinary 
 or wonderful, but only unpracticed, wanting 
 habit or experience, as in Romeo and Juliet: 
 
 " 'Till strange love, grown bold, 
 
 " Thinks love, true acted, simple modesty." 
 
 And in Cymbeline 
 
 " I pray you, sir, desire my man's abode 
 " Where I did leave him ; he is strange and 
 peevish." 
 
 SCENE VI. 
 
 198. " Hath so exasperate the king, that he" &c. 
 
 " Exasperate * has here a participial office 
 hath made the king " exasperate," or exasperated. 
 
 p 3
 
 314 MACBETH. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 20). " I conjure you, by that which you profess" 
 
 This accentuation of "c6njure," inthe^cnseof 
 solemn adjuration, as well as of the, practising ma- 
 gic, is, I think, invariable throughout these works ; 
 I find it also in Warner's Albion's England : 
 
 " I pray thee, nay I c6njure thee, to nourish as 
 thine ovvne." 
 
 But in A Mad World my Master's, by Middleton, 
 the word occurs with the modern pronunciation : 
 
 " I do conjure thee by that dreadful power." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Devil, I do conjure thee once again." 
 
 THE INCANTATIONS. 
 
 It may be amusing to compare Shakspeare's 
 charms' with those of other authors, particularly 
 with the witches of Ben Jonson and the Canidia 
 of Horace : I think Shakspeare will lose nothing 
 by the comparison. Lord Chedwortii. 
 
 212. " Had I three ears, I'd hear thee** 
 
 This is impatience at the three-fold utterance 
 of his name : Macbeth ! Macbeth ! Macbeth ! 
 you need not repeat any thing to my eager atten- 
 tion, for had I a distinct organ of hearing for 
 every word thou utterest, they should all be en- 
 gaged in listening. 
 
 216. " Thy hair," 
 
 " Thou other gold-bound brow is like the 
 Jirst."
 
 MACBETH. 215 
 
 This, the old reading, is, I am persuaded, 
 right; besides that " air " has much too modern 
 an " air" for Shakspcare, and was, I believe, ne- 
 ver used, so early as his time, in that sense : 'it was 
 the colour of* the hair, rather than the gold-bind- 
 ing which Dr. Johnson supposes, that should 
 naturally mark the visions, as the descendants, or 
 stock of Banquo; thus, in Clarence's dream, the 
 ghost of Prince Edward is described as 
 
 " The shadow of an angel with bright hair." 
 
 2 is. " ^Now I see 'tis true, 
 
 " For the blood-bolter' d Banquo smiles 
 
 upon me, 
 " And points at them for his." 
 
 But how came Banquo here in company with 
 the Visions ? He is no vision, but a real ghost; and 
 I believe it was beyond the power of these w6ird 
 women to disturb and conjure-up the noble Ban- 
 quo at their pleasure ; indeed, the producing him 
 in this manner with the prospective figures of his 
 progeny might almost justify the sarcasm, or mis- 
 take of Voltaire, iti calling them all a legion of 
 ghosts. It is the suggestion of my ingenious friend 
 Mr. Strutt. that the ghost should by no means 
 be exhibited with the visions as a part of the spec- 
 tacle, but that he should appear much more for- 
 ward upon the stage, and of his own motion, 
 jusi as the last of the visions had gone by, con- 
 firming, by his looks and action, the verity of 
 what had been' shown.' This would abundantly 
 heighten the dramatic effect in the representation, 
 as well as render that justice to the poet's concep- 
 tion and genius, of which I am persuaded he has 
 here been deprived, by the unskilfulness or inat-r 
 tention of Messrs. Heminge aud Condell. 
 
 r 4
 
 216 MACBETH. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 222. " When our actions do not, 
 
 * Our fears do make us traitors. 11 
 
 I believe the treachery alluded to by the lady is 
 Macduff's desertion of his family. 
 
 224. " Shall not be long but I '11 be here again" 
 
 This is not legitimate idiom, " the time," or 
 " it," is indispensible before " shall." 
 
 " Things at the worst will cease, or else 
 
 climb upward 
 " To what they were before" 
 
 This thought is introduced in K. Lear, with 
 enlargment : 
 
 -To be worst, 
 
 " The lowest and most abject thing of fortune, 
 " Stands still in esperance; lives not in fear; 
 " The lamentable change is from the best ; 
 " The worst returns to laughter." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 238. " Uproar the universal peace, confound." 
 
 " Upr6ar," This seems to be the proper accen- 
 tuation of the verb. Milton gives the same ac- 
 cent to the noun : 
 
 -Hell scarce holds 
 
 " The vast uproar." 
 
 241. " Thy here- approach." 
 
 A similar compound occurs a little further on 
 my here-remain.
 
 MACBETH. 217 
 
 245. " The dead man*s knell 
 
 " Is there scarce ask'd, for who." 
 
 " Who " should be whom ; but the construc- 
 tion is harsh and unwarrantable : the knell is 
 heard without the question being asked for 
 whom ? 
 
 246. " There ran a rumour 
 
 " Of many worthy fellows that were out." 
 
 i. e Abroad, in the field, against the usurper. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 249. " He has no children." 
 
 It is hardly necessary to enquire here whether 
 Macbeth really had children or not the words 
 are the passionate ejaculation of a father, and im- 
 ply no more than, " he who could do this deed 
 cannot have a father's feelings. Queen Margaret, 
 in a similar strain of reproach, exclaims, at the 
 murderers of her son Edward, 
 
 " Ye have no children, butchers ! 
 
 251. " Cut short all intermission." 
 Just so does Hotspur invoke 
 
 " O let the hours be short." 
 
 252. " Our lack is nothing but our leave.*' 
 
 We want nothing but the king's leave or per- 
 mission to go : or may it not mean, nothing now 
 remains but the ceremony of taking leave.
 
 218 MACBETH. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE II. 
 
 260. " Minutely revolts." 
 
 Revolts that are breaking out every minute. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 265. " > This push 
 
 " Will cheer me ever, or disseat me now." 
 
 It is probable that in Shakspeare's time chair 
 was pronounced as at present it is, vulgarly, like 
 " cheer;" a quibble is plainly observable between 
 " chairing" (seating), and "' cheering" (encou- 
 raging) ; a similar licence, for a similar purpose, 
 is used with reasons, and raisins, in K. Henry IV. 
 " If reasons were as plenty as blackberries." 
 
 273. " PulVt off, I say." 
 
 This is said to the person helping to arm Mac- 
 beth, who is impatient at some obstacle. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 274. " Where there is advantage to be given, 
 
 " Both more and less have given him the 
 revolt" 
 
 It appears to me, that, the true sense of this 
 passage has been overlooked by all the commenta- 
 tors. " Where there is advantage to be given," 
 I believe, implies, where there is evident infe- 
 riority; the castle is the tyrant's " main hope;" 
 because (says the speaker) from an army already 
 inferior to ours, desertions, both great and small, 
 are continually weakening him. That this is the 
 meaning, I think is clear, from a passage in King
 
 MACBETH. 219 
 
 Henry V. where the Dauphin, speaking of the 
 weak condition of the English army, asks 
 
 " Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits, 
 " And give their fasting horses provender, 
 " And after fight them ?" 
 
 " Where there is advantage to be given." 
 
 Perhaps we should read, " to be taken." 
 
 Lord Chedwort^ 
 
 SCENE VII. 
 
 287. " Either thou, Macbeth, 
 
 " Or else my sword, uith an unbattefd 
 
 edge, 
 " 1 sheathe again unheeded." 
 
 This is a broken sentence : if the speaker's im* 
 petuosity had allowed him to be explicit, he 
 would have said Either thou, Macbeth, shalt 
 receive in thy body my sword, or else I will re- 
 turn it unbattered into the scabbard. 
 
 290. " It hath cow'd my better part of 
 
 man /" 
 
 Milton says 
 
 Compassion quell'd 
 
 " His best of man." Par ad. Lost. 
 
 292. " Had I as many sons as I have hairs." 
 
 In the Pilgrim, by Beaumont and Fletcher, we 
 find a similar expression : 
 
 " Thou hast as many sins as hairs." 
 
 And Othello exclaims 
 
 " 1 Had all his hairs been lives, 
 
 " My great revenge had stomach, for them all."
 
 KING JOHN. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 S44. " Thy nephew, and right royal sovereign.' 
 
 Sovereign is not always a trisyllable. 
 
 " Might by the sovereign pow'r you have of us.' 
 
 Hamlet, Act 2, 155 
 
 345. " Be thou as lightning in the eyes Oj 
 France ; 
 " For ere thou canst report I will be there 
 " The thunder of my cannon shall be heard. 
 
 This passage appears censurable, though no 
 where Dr. Johnson has lodged his objection : tin 
 allusion is clearly to the swiftness of lightning, 
 and the suddenness with which the thunder fol- 
 lows it. Yet, had Shakspeare ascribed, as h< 
 does elsewhere, the devastation to the thunder 
 and not to the lightning, he would need no justi- 
 fication, the poetical as well as the popular notioi 
 having always been such : 
 
 " His face 
 
 " Deep scars of thunder had intrench'd " 
 
 Paradise Lost 
 
 " And the thunder 
 
 " Hath spent his shafts." Ibid. 
 
 So much the stronger prov'd 
 
 " He with his thunder." Ibid.
 
 KING JOHN. 221 
 
 but as Chatillon is to be the lightning to the 
 thunder of invasion, and as the thunder cannot 
 precede the lightning, the sense, as I conceive it, 
 demands the expunction of a letter at the begin- 
 ning of the second line : 
 
 " Or, ere thou can'st report," i, e. if you be 
 not as quick as lightning, " my thunder will be 
 there before you." 
 
 346. " Upon the right and party of her son ?" 
 
 Upon the title, claim, the question of right. 
 
 349- " 'A pops me out." 
 
 This mode of expression is common in the 
 county of Somerset, and in parts of Yorkshire. 
 
 " But whe'r I be as true begot, or no.** 
 
 Whe'r, for whether, occurs in other places, and 
 ivas anciently printed without a mark of con- 
 :raction. 
 
 550. He hath a trick of Cceur-de-Lioris face." 
 
 Trick, here, is a peculiar habit of the features, 
 rhus in King Henry IV. 
 
 M A villainous trick of thine eye, and foolish 
 langing of thy nether lip. " 
 
 58. " Well won is still well shot." 
 
 What has been effectually obtained, will al- 
 ways justify the means of obtension. We ques* 
 [on not the skill of the fowler who brings home 
 ilenty of game. 
 
 ><). " And if his name be George, I'll call him 
 Peter ; 
 " For new-made honour doth forget men's 
 names.""
 
 222 KING JOHN. 
 
 No satire was ever more true than this ; 
 
 " Too sociable 
 
 " For your conversion.'* 
 
 By " your conversion," I think the author means, 
 according to a practice not uncommon with 
 him, " the person converted;" as he would have 
 said, in the preceding line, had the metre required 
 it, "your new-made honour," for "your new- 
 made man of honour. " 
 
 36*2. " ' He is but a bastard to the time, 
 
 " That doth not smack of observation ; 
 " And not alone in habit and device, 
 " Exterior form, outward accoutrement, 
 " But from the inward motion to deliver 
 " Sweet y sweet, sweet poison to the age's 
 
 tooth ; 
 " JVhich, tho' I will not practice to de* 
 
 ceive, 
 " Yet, to avoid deceit, I mean to learn" 
 
 He is not the legitimate offspring of these 
 times who has not a knowledge of the world, and 
 does not evince that knowledge, not only by out- 
 ward conformity to the usages of life, but in the 
 artful disposition to sooth the vices of the age 
 with sweet but poisoned flattery. " Tooth" is in 
 familiar use for a lickerish appetite. Dr. Join 
 son's proposed emendation, " this," for " which 
 is hardly necessary ; the dependant word is n< 
 wholly alienated from its principal, and we slu 
 find in these works many genitural nouns stam 
 ing more proudly aloof from their humble reh 
 tives. 
 
 365. " There's toys abroad" 
 
 Vain speculations, idle fancies. Thus in Kin; 
 Richard III.
 
 KING JOHN. 223 
 
 " He hearkens after prophecies and dreams, 
 " And, for my name of George begins with G, 
 " It follows in his thought that I am he : 
 " These, as I learn, and such like toys as these, 
 " Have mov'd his highness," &c. 
 
 And in this precise sense, I believe, the word 
 is used, in the instances quoted by Mr. Steevens, 
 to support his interpretation rumours, idle re- 
 ports. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 371. " So indirectly shed." 
 
 " Indirectly" is out of due course, out of the 
 fair and equitable order of proceeding; as in Ju- 
 lius Caesar : 
 
 " I would rather coin my heart, &c. than 
 
 to wring 
 
 " From the hard hands of peasants their vile 
 
 trash, 
 " By any indirection." 
 
 " We coldly pause for thee."'' 
 
 Coldly means temperately, with stayed atten- 
 tion. 
 
 372. " Fiery voluntaries.'* 
 
 Voluntaries for volunteers. 
 
 " Fierce dragons' spleens." 
 
 Spleen here, as in other places, means " gust 
 of fury, impetuosity;" as in Richard III. 
 
 " Inspire me with the spleen of dragons." 
 
 4
 
 224 KING JOHN. 
 
 373. Have waft o'er." 
 
 We shall find in other poets an equal abuse of 
 the verb. Milton makes " uplift" a participle : 
 
 "With head uplift above the waves." 
 
 Paradise Lost. 
 
 " For courage mounteth with occasion." 
 
 "Words ending thus in sion tion, and others 
 in which a junction of vowels will admit of the 
 variety, as " conscience, egregious," &c. Shaks- 
 peare applies without any apparent preference, 
 sometimes with the prolonged and sometimes with 
 the contracted sound, as it may suit the quantity 
 of his line. Thus in Hamlet we find " occasion" 
 only a trisyllable. 
 
 " How all occasions do inform against me." 
 
 374. " This brief." 
 
 This is a smack of the attorney. 
 
 " England was Geffrey's right, 
 " And this is Geffrey's." 
 
 This is not conclusive ; the argument is 
 Geffrey was your elder brother, and this is his 
 son ; England belonged to Geffrey, and conse- 
 quently must now belong to his son. I would 
 propose to read, with the dismissal only of one 
 letter, thus: 
 
 " England was Geffrey's right, 
 
 " And Geffrey is his, in the name of God." 
 
 This, to be sure, may seem a recourse to Mr. 
 Malone's art of extending the quantity of a word 
 beyond its real capacity ; but if " Geffrey" can-
 
 KING JOHN. 225 
 
 not be admitted as a trisyllable, which its place 
 here would require, we might read - 
 
 " And Geffrey's right is his, in the" name of God." 
 
 375. " And, by whose help, I mean to chastise it." 
 
 Chastise, I think, is always in these works 
 accentuated on the first syllable, as in Macbeth : 
 
 " And chastise with the valour of my tongue." 
 
 And in the third part of King Henry VI. 
 
 " If I not chastise this high-minded strumpet." 
 
 379. " Do, child, go to it grandam, child 
 
 " Give grandam kingdom, and it grandam 
 
 will 
 " Give it a plum." 
 
 This is still the language of nurses to children. 
 I did not imagine it had been of such antiquity. 
 
 380. " / have but this to say'* 
 
 Mr. Henley has admirably explained this diffi- 
 cult passage. 
 
 SS6. " ' Be pleased, then, 
 
 " To pay that duty, which you truly owe 
 " To him that owes it.'* 
 
 In these works there is no occasion missed of 
 playing upon a word that has different meanings. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 $98. " If not complete, O say he is not she, 
 
 " And she, again, wants nothing, to name 
 
 want, 
 " If want it be not, that she is not he." 
 vol. 1. Q
 
 226 KING JOHN. 
 
 If he be not complete, it is because he is not 
 yet married to this princess ; and she wants no- 
 thing, if it be not, indeed, a want that she has 
 not yet him for her husband. Man and wife is 
 one flesh, 
 
 399- " This match:* 
 
 The conceit which Doctor Johnson deprecates 
 here undoubtedly exists. 
 
 401. " Lest zeal, now melted, by the windy 
 breath 
 " Of soft petitions, pity and remorse, 
 " Cool and congeal again to what it zcas.'* 
 
 Doctor Johnson's objection to this passage is 
 surely unanswerable : but Shakspeare, as every 
 one must have observed, is not always very soli- 
 citous about the integrity of his metaphors. 
 Philip's original inclination to the war, for that is 
 his zeal Philip, or France 
 
 " Whose armour conscience buckled on, 
 
 " Whom zeal and charity brought to the field, 
 " As God's own soldier " 
 
 is now counteracted or subdued by motives ol 
 personal interest ; and this change or relinquish- 
 ment of purpose our poet would freely call < 
 melting or dissolution of it ; but having got hole 
 of that unlucky idea, he was unwilling, as upoi 
 many other occasions, to dismiss it until it in- 
 volved him in perplexity ; and, as he had ahead} 
 melted zeal, he now not only boldly undertake! 
 to freeze it again, but violates the very nature o 
 pity and remorse, by making them his instru 
 ments. Mr. Malone, I think, has mistaken tin 
 sense of the passage : Make this match, say 
 Eleanor; it is for your advantage: 
 
 1
 
 KING JOHN. 227 
 
 " I see a yielding in the looks of France." 
 
 The parties are inclined to it. 
 
 f* Mark how they whisper ; urge them while their 
 
 souls 
 " Are capable of this ambition." 
 
 Lest, by the tender supplications of Constance 
 and her child, and the renovated impulse of pity 
 and remorse, the king should relapse into his for- 
 mer vowed hostility. 
 
 404. " Drawn and quartered." 
 
 Drawn, in the legal sentence pronounced on 
 traitors, is no more than being dragged by the 
 heels, or on a hurdle, to the place of execution. 
 See Mr. Toilet and Sir W. Blackstone on the 
 word embowelled, Richard III. Act 5, Scene 2. 
 The vulgar notion, however, is, that " drawn" 
 implies exenterated or embowelled ; and that this 
 was the poet's meaning, in the present instance, 
 is plain, from the order of the context, hanged 
 and drawn, which otherwise would have been 
 drawn and hanged. 
 
 " If he see aught in you, that makes him like, 
 " That any thing he sees, which moves his liking, 
 " I can with ease translate it to my will." 
 
 In this idle tautology there is manifest corrup- 
 tion. Where is the difference between what 
 makes him like, and what moves his liking ? It 
 seems to be an altered passage, with words retain- 
 ed which were meant to be rejected. I would 
 read : 
 
 ,l If he see aught in you that moves his liking, 
 f 1 1 can with ease translate it to my will." 
 
 Q 2
 
 528 KING JOHN. 
 
 407. " Hath willingly departed with apart." 
 
 This may mean yielded or parted with a part, 
 or it may signify that John has been willing to 
 go baek to England with a part only of his domi- 
 nions ; but I rather think the first of these inter- 
 pretations is the true one, as in the third part of 
 King Henry VI. Act % Scene 2 : 
 
 " Like life and death's departing.'* 
 
 " Hounded in the ear." 
 
 This phrase occurs in Camden's Remains : 
 
 " Which proud speech, when the unfortunate 
 father heard, he rounded the archbishop in the 
 eare, and said I repent me, I repent me of no- 
 thing more than of untimelie advancements." 
 Wise Speeches, p. 249. Ed. 1636. Harper. 
 
 And in Middleton : 
 
 " Then is your grandsire rounded in the ear." 
 A Mad World My Masters. 
 
 " Who having no external thing to lose 
 " But the word maid, cheats the poor maid of 
 thatr 
 Mr. Malone has laboured, with little success, 
 to reconcile this passage, as it stands, to any to- 
 lerable. conformity with grammar. Who can have 
 no other antecedent but maids ; and so the maid 
 must cheat herself. I would propose, with a 
 slight correction, to read : 
 
 " Maids; 
 
 " Who, having no external thing to lose 
 
 " But the word maid, are cheated e'en of that." 
 
 The word, maid, the external thing, is tlic 
 name or repute of virginity. 
 
 1
 
 KING JOHN. 229 
 
 408. " Commodity." 
 
 Commodity, says Mr. Steevens, is interest ; 
 but this, I suspect, is not a very accurate defini- 
 tion : perhaps expediency, or existing circum- 
 stances, accommodation, would best explain 
 it ; and I find the word so used in a transla- 
 tion of Tacitus, 1(522, by Greenwey : "That 
 happened of late under Artabanus, who, for his 
 owne commoditie, made the people subject to the 
 chiefe gentlemen." And again, " No man la- 
 boured to attaine to any knowledge unlesse he had 
 seene some commoditie in it." 
 
 " Made to run even, upon even ground." 
 
 The allusion is to the game of bowls ; and the 
 inference, that the business of mankind would 
 advance fairly and directly to its object, were it 
 not insidiously drawn aside by the influence of 
 secret corruption. 
 
 " Take head from all indifferency, 
 
 " From all direction, purpose, course, intent." 
 
 Proceed violently, unmindful of fairness and 
 impartiality, or the just rules and intention of the 
 game. 
 
 409. " Determined aid." 
 
 The aid which Lewis had at first determined to 
 give to the claims of Arthur. This seems so clear, 
 that I should never have thought of explaining it, 
 if Mr. Steevens had not produced, from Mr. M. 
 Mason, a note in which the passage is called non- 
 sense. 
 
 Q 3
 
 230 KING JOHN. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 410. " Capable of fears." 
 
 Capable, says Mr. Malone, here signifies hav- 
 ing strong sensibility ; and he quotes, from Ham- 
 let: 
 
 " His form and cause conjoin'd, 
 
 " Preaching to stones, would make them capable." 
 
 But "capable," in the cited instance, only means, 
 "susceptible," capable of feeling; and in the 
 case before us, it implies, I believe, no more than 
 being liable to, and liable in consequence of, sick- 
 ness ; as, being "oppressed with wrongs," she is 
 therefore " full of fears ;" by being " husband- 
 less," " subject to fears;" and by being " a wo- 
 man," " naturally born to fears." 
 
 412. "Prodigious" 
 
 Thus in King Richard III. 
 
 " If ever he have child, abortive be it, 
 
 " Prodigious, and untimely brought to light," &c. 
 
 419. " You have beguil'd me with a counterfeit? 
 
 Here is a tirfling allusion to the coin called a 
 royal. 
 
 420. " You came in arms to spill mine enemies* 
 , blood, 
 
 " But now in arms," &c. 
 
 Dr Johnson's anxiety has again too sure a 
 foundation; the double meaning of " arms," as 
 referring to both war aud embraces is but too 
 evident. 
 
 " Our oppression hath made up this league."
 
 KING JOHN. 231 
 
 The oppression we are to suffer was the motive 
 for the fulfilling this league. 
 
 421. " Her humorous ladyship." s 
 
 Her capricious ladyship. 
 
 423. il Force perforce.** 
 
 Accumulation of force, like vi et armis. 
 
 B. Strutt. 
 
 424. " TVhat earthly name to interrogatories 
 
 Can task the free breath of a sacred king.'"' 
 
 The meaning appears to he plainly, " What 
 mortal can task the free breath of a sacred king to 
 the answering interrogatories ?" 
 
 " What earthly name" &c. 
 
 The above explanation is just : name, here, 
 signifies (as it often does) person : there is no need 
 of recurring to the idea of the subscription of a 
 name to interrogatories exhibited in writing, as 
 Mr. Malone, by his mode of expression, appears 
 to suppose. Theobald's emendation, task, is 
 clearly right Lord Ched worth. 
 
 425. " Canonized, and zvorship'd as a saint." 
 
 Transposition is evident here : the line must 
 have run thus, 
 
 " Worship'd and canonized as a saint." 
 
 426. " JVhen law can do no right, 
 
 " Let it be lawful, that law bar no wrong." 
 
 When law is impotent to effect justice, let vio- 
 lence have the sanction of law, and not be ob- 
 structed by it. This is bold language, and the 
 author might, in times like ours, have been 
 brought to answer for it at the Old Bailey. 
 
 Q 4
 
 232 KING JOHN. 
 
 "Let it be lawful;* &c. 
 
 Our times are not singular in this respect ; for 
 this was the doctrine of Lord Russel, for which 
 he was brought to the scaffold. 13. Strutt. 
 
 427- Austria. " I must pocket up these wrongs, 
 
 " Because " 
 
 Faulc. " Your breeches best may carry 
 them.*' 
 
 I cannot discover the meaning of these words, 
 unless, in his vein of ribaldry, Faulconbridge 
 would insinuate, that a greater indignity might 
 be inflicted on Austria's breech a kicking. 
 
 " A nezo untrimmed bride." 
 
 It is some compensation for the tediousness of 
 explanatory criticism that, though the learned 
 commentators do not always convince us by their 
 argument, they frequently divert us by their ab- 
 surdity : an instance of this occurs in the note 
 upon the present passage by Warburton, so 
 "whimsical as to have relaxed into merriment the 
 rigid muscles of Dr. Johnson's countenance. 
 Theobald's emendation, and trimmed, is cer- 
 tainly a feeble one ; but Mr. Steevens, for the 
 sake of luxuriating in some rich fancies which 
 transported him all the way to Calista's bed- 
 chamber, will neither allow the lady to be dres- 
 sed nor undressed. Mr. Collins's interpretation 
 appears to me the most satisfactory, ofuntri?}n/ied t 
 unadorned, yet, with the nuptual array; which, as 
 the match was formed unexpectedly and in haste, 
 there was no time for providing. 
 
 409. My need, 
 
 " Which only lives but by the death oj 
 faith."
 
 KING JOHN. Q33 
 
 My present distress exists merely in the perfidy 
 of Philip. 
 
 430. " And even before this truce, but nezu 
 
 before, 
 " No longer" &c. 
 
 I believe we should point thus, as an abrupt 
 and broken sentence, i 
 
 " And even before this truce, but new before " 
 
 That is, before this truce, which is new even 
 before we had time (perhaps he would have said) 
 to adjust its ceremonies no longer, &c. 
 
 431. " A 11 form is formless ; order, order less.** 
 
 All form now loses distinction, and all order 
 becomes confusion. 
 
 432. " For that which thou hast sworn to do 
 
 amiss, 
 " Is not amiss when it is truly done." 
 
 The sense here, as usual in such cases, is sacri- 
 ficed to a jingle : the plain meaning seems to be, 
 your nonperformance of an oath which would 
 bind you to do wrong, becomes meritorious when 
 you have conformed to your prior and superior 
 duty of doing right : the construction requires, 
 according to a common licence, that the oath 
 itself should be understood for the object of the 
 oath. 
 
 433. " It is religion, that doth make vows kept, 
 " But thou hast szvorn against religion.** 
 
 Here is an immediate instance of our poet's 
 licence, often indulged, o contracting or ex- 
 tending the penultima in words of this construc- 
 tion : religion in the first line, is only three syl- 
 lables, but in the next, four.
 
 324 KING JOHN. 
 
 434. " And most forsxvorn, to keep what thou 
 dost sxcear." 
 
 Thus in another place: 
 
 ' It is great sin to swear unto a sin, 
 
 " But greater sin to keep that sinful oath." 
 
 437. " Husband, I cannot pray that thou mayst 
 
 xv in, 
 " Uncle, I needs must pray that thou mayst 
 
 lose, 
 
 " Grandam, I will not wish thy wishes 
 
 thrive ; 
 " Whoever xvins, on that side shall I lose" 
 
 By this distinction, so repeated, I conjecture 
 the poet would intimate, that in a bad or unjusti- 
 fiable contest, where the issue on either side would 
 be alike afflicting, it is easier to wish for failure 
 than success. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 440. " The fat ribs of peace 
 
 " Must, by the hungry, now be fed upon" 
 
 The accumulations of peace and idleness must 
 now be called forth to feed and sustain the needy 
 and the laborious. 
 
 442. " By heaven, Hubert, I am almost ashamd." 
 
 Heaven is one of those words which Shakspeare 
 uses with an extended or contracted utterance, 
 according to the quantity required in the line : 
 thus, a little lower, we find " heaven " a mono- 
 syllable 
 
 ? The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day."
 
 KING JOHN. 235 
 
 443. " The sun- 
 
 " Is all too wanton" &c. 
 
 All too is a mode of expression that I believe 
 is without example : I am confident it is here a 
 corruption, and that we should read alto or allto, 
 i. e. altogether, according to a usage, not only 
 in our author's time, but adopted by Milton : 
 
 Her wings, 
 
 That in the various bustle of resort, 
 Were allto ruffled, and sometimes impair'd." 
 
 Comus. 
 If the midnight bell 
 
 " Did, with his iron tongue and brazen mouth, 
 " Sound one unto the drowsy race of night." 
 
 The old copy here presents on not one, and into 
 not unto : the change, in the former word, was 
 Dr. Warburton's, and in the latter, Mr. Theo- 
 bald's : I doubt whether either be right; one can 
 hardly be admitted because, though midnight, 
 put generally, might imply no more than the sea- 
 son of deep repose, without reference to the dis- 
 tinct hour ; yet the midnight bell would never, I 
 believe, by the most careless writer, be said to 
 sound one ; whereas, the expression, sound on, 
 seems intended to convey the idea of the solemn 
 and lingering vibration of the bell after it has re- 
 ceived the stroke of the clapper. I am inclined 
 to impute corruption to a different word in the 
 sentence, and instead of race to read reign 
 
 " Sound on into the drowsy reign of night." 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 449- " The vile prison of afflicted breath." 
 I cannot imagine how Dr. Farmer or Mr. Stee-
 
 236 KING JOHN. 
 
 vens should have been led to suppose there was 
 any ambiguity in this passage. Breath is life, and 
 the prison of life is the body : it is a common 
 expression to say, While I breathe or while I 
 have breath, for while I live. 
 
 451. " I defy all counsel." 
 
 Defy, surely, in this and other places, has a 
 stronger meaning than Mr. Steevens ascribes to 
 it, refuse: It is to reject with vehemence, to ab- 
 jure. See Henry IV. where Hotspur impatiently 
 exclaims, 
 
 " All studies here I solemnly defy, 
 
 " Save how to gall and pinch this Bolingbroke." 
 
 452. "dnd thou shalt be canoniz'd, cardinal." 
 
 Canoniz'd seems to have been again misplaced 
 the line might easily be restored 
 
 " And cardinal, thou shalt be canoniz'd." 
 
 453. " Do glue themselves in sociable grief." 
 " Sociable," a quadrisyllable. 
 
 454. " If that be true, I shall see my boy again." 
 
 The metre requires the contraction of shall, or 
 rather of will, which, in our author's time, as 
 well as now in Ireland and Scotland, was com- 
 monly used for shall : 
 
 " If that be true I'll see my boy again. " 
 
 455. " He talks to me, that never had a son.'* 
 
 In Romeo and Juliet 
 
 " He jests at scars that never felt a wound." 
 
 456. " Ixcill not keep this form upon myJiead." 
 Form is " composed appearance/' I will d-
 
 KING JOHN. 237 
 
 range the attire of my head to suit the disorder 
 that is within it. 
 
 457- " If you have won it, certainly, you had." 
 
 This, I conclude, is a typographical error, have 
 for had. 
 
 459. " Pick matter of revolt 
 
 " Out of the bloody fingers' ends of John." 
 
 Every part of this royal murderer, from head 
 to foot, from the features of his face to his fin- 
 gers' ends, will become hateful to the people, and 
 excite revolt. 
 
 -This hurly." 
 
 This violent commotion: thus in K. Henry 
 IV. Part 2nd. 
 
 " That with the hurly death itself awake." 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 461. " Heat me these irons hot.'* 
 
 The ellipsis in the beginning of this phrase 
 " heat me " for " heat for my use " is not uncom- 
 mon : " Whip me such fellows," " Knock me 
 here at the gate," we are sufficiently acquainted 
 with the latter part, perhaps, is more objection- 
 able " to heat" is to make hot ; yet it is com- 
 mon to say, with similar tautology, " Fill the cup 
 full," though to fill can properly have no other 
 sense than " to make full." 
 
 467. " Being create for comfort."
 
 238 KING JOHN. 
 
 Milton takes the same licence: 
 
 " Bright effluence of bright essence increate." 
 
 The simple verb employed as the passive participle. 
 
 464. " The iron of itself though heat red hot.'* 
 
 This form of the participle seems to have coun- 
 tenance in the modern colloquial use of beat for 
 beaten, eat for eaten. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 470. " Or with taper light 
 
 " To seek the beauteous eye of heaven t 
 garnish." 
 
 Akenside had this passage before him when he 
 wrote, 
 
 " Who would not prefer the sun's broad light 
 " To the faint glimmering of a waxen taper ?" 
 
 471. " Startles and frights consideration." 
 
 The penultimate vowel here, as well as the last, 
 must be sounded to make up the quantity of the 
 verse : a few lines hence, in a similar word, we 
 find them both mute, or used in redundancy: 
 
 " Some reasons for this double coronatf6n." 
 
 472. " If what in rest you have, in right you 
 
 hold ; 
 " Why then your fears (which as they 
 
 attend 
 " The steps of wrong) should move you to 
 
 mew-up 
 " Your tender kindsman," &c. 
 
 Mr. Steevens would read wrest instead of rest;
 
 KING JOHN. 039 
 
 but Pembroke, at the moment he was soliciting 
 for Arthur, would hardly have thought it pru- 
 dent to talk to the king of his violence and in- 
 justice in seizing on the sovereignty. By rest I 
 understand quiet possession, and then, with the 
 necessary interchange of places proposed by Mr. 
 Henley, of then and should, the passage will be 
 intelligible. 
 
 476. " That blood, which ow'd the breadth of all 
 
 this isle, 
 " Three foot of it doth hold." 
 The same reflection is made in King Henry IV. 
 Part 1st: 
 
 " When that this body did contain a soul, 
 ** The world did seem too small a bound for it* 
 " And now two paces of the vilest earth 
 " Is room enough," &c. 
 
 And again in Hamlet, Act 5: 
 
 " The very conveyance of his lands would 
 hardly be in that box ; and must the inheritor 
 himself have no more !" 
 
 477. " Withold thy speed, dreadful occasion.'* 
 
 "Occasion" a trisyllable. Occasion is used 
 here as a generic term for all sad accidents, 
 and John invokes it to stay its course, and 
 league with him, and not, by its progress, hasten 
 on his destruction. B. Strutt. 
 
 479. " Make haste, the better foot before." 
 
 " Put your best leg foremost" is a familiar 
 phrase, but it means, not expedition, as here, but 
 address. 
 
 " Spoke like a spriteful, noble gentleman,' 1
 
 240 KING JOHN. 
 
 " Sprite" and spirit are synonimous. 
 
 " Come sisters, cheer we up his sprites, 
 
 " And shew the best of our delights." Macbeth. 
 
 And in Julius Caesar 
 
 " I'll meet thee at Philippi, said the sprite." 
 
 481. " A many thousand warlike, French.''' 
 
 This expression has been noted very properlj 
 by Dr. Lowth, as being only equivalent to a fa- 
 miliar grammatical anomaly " a great many." 
 
 483. " Thou, to be endeared to a king, 
 
 " Made it no concience to destroy a prince.' 
 
 This is doubtless an error of the press, madt 
 for made'' st. 
 
 485. "Foul, imaginary eyes of blood.*' 
 
 The eyes of an imagination distempered with 
 the scene of blood, that, in the death of Arthur, 
 was before him, the "mind's eye." It is not un- 
 common with Shakspeare, and other poets, to use 
 the adjective instead of the active participle. 
 
 " Within this bosom never enter* d yet 
 
 " The dreadful motion of a murderous thought." 
 
 From Dr. Warburton's reprehension of this 
 passage the poet, I think, may be defended : see 
 Note 495, Page 242. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 486. "Good ground, be pitiful, and hurt me not" 
 Somewhat of this thought occurs in Macbeth 
 
 " Thou sure and firm-set earth hear not my steps 

 
 KING JOHN. 241 
 
 " Which way they walk for fear thy very stones 
 " Prate of my whereabout," &c. 
 
 487- " Whose private with me." 
 
 We have seen this word before used as a noun. 
 
 489- "Sir, sir, impatience hath his privilege." 
 
 We find the same expression in King Lear 
 
 " Yes, sir, but anger hath a privilege."' 
 
 " Too precious princely." 
 This I had always considered as a compound, 
 precious-princely; but Mr. Strutt apprehends two 
 distinct words, too valuable and too noble. 
 
 490. " All murders past do stand evens' d in this; 
 " And this, so sole, and so unmatchable, 
 " Shall give a holiness, a purity, 
 " To the yet -unbe got ten sin of time, 
 " And prove a deadly bloodshed but a jest, 
 " Exampled by this heinous spectacle." 
 
 A hyperbole resembling this we find in Cym- 
 beline, Act 5, Scene 6 
 
 It is I 
 
 " Who all the abhorred things o' the earth amend, 
 " By being worse than they." 
 
 494. " I'll tell thee what, 
 
 " Thou art damn'd as black nay, nothing 
 is so black. 
 
 This figure of language, which is truly drama- 
 tic and animated, has been well noted by Addi- 
 on, in reference to a passage in Lee's Alexander : 
 
 ' Then he would talk good gods how he would 
 talk." 
 
 VOL. T. R
 
 242 KING JOHN. 
 
 495. " If I in act, consent, or sin of thought 
 " Be guilty," &c. 
 
 The censure passed by Dr. Warburton in a 
 preceding scene upon Hubert's disingenuousness, 
 Would have had a better foundation here: in dis- 
 claiming to the king any disposition to commit a 
 murder, Hubert may fairly be considered as ad- 
 verting to the pure condition of his mind, before 
 he was wrought upon by John's suggestions; bit 
 now he utters a palpable falsehood in denying 
 that he was guilty in " consent or sin of thought." 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 497. " 'Fore we are inflam*d" 
 
 Before the rage of war shall commence, or, per- 
 haps, before the combustion of invasive hostility 
 and intestine revolt shall burst upon us. 
 
 " Our people quarrel with obedience, 
 
 " Swearing allegiance and the love of soul. 1 ' 
 
 Obedience, four syllables ; allegiance, three. 
 This mode of expressing an unruly disposition 
 occurs in Macbeth, Act % where Duncan's horses 
 are said to have 
 
 " Broke their stalls, flung out, 
 " Contending 'gainst obedience." 
 
 499. "An empty casket, re he re the jewel of life 
 " By some damn'd hand was robb'd, and 
 ta'en azcay." 
 
 It was surely some damned band that thus cor-
 
 KING JOHN. 243 
 
 rupted the first of these lines, which I suppose ran 
 thus : 
 
 " An empty casket, whence the jewel life." 
 
 The life itself was the jewel ; and it was not that, 
 but the casket, which had been robbed. 
 
 500. " So, on my soul, he did." 
 
 How came Faulconbridge so certain of Hu- 
 bert's innocence, which he himself but a little be- 
 fore suspected ? 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 503. " Such a sore of time." 
 Of the time or times. 
 
 504. " 0. 
 
 " That Neptune's arms 
 
 " JVould bear 
 
 " And grapple thee unto a Pagan shore ! 
 11 And not to-spend it," &c. 
 
 This is undoubtedly, as Mr. Malone has re- 
 marked, an inaccuracy in the author's expression, 
 and no attempt of Mr. Steevens or any other cri- 
 tic will justify it: the expedient of introducing a 
 hyphen to make one word of to spend, in order to 
 support a fanciful argument, cannot be admitted, 
 and has no authority, except through haste and 
 error, either in Shakspeare or any other writer : 
 not a single instance, among all those produced 
 by Mr. Tyrwhitt and Mr. Steevens, to shew that 
 to pinch, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, is one 
 word, will serve their purpose, or is in point ; the 
 particle to, in every passage that they have ad- 
 duced, belonging not to the verb or participle 
 following it, but to the foregoing particle al or 
 nil, with which it is component : alto or allto, 
 
 b 2
 
 244 KING JOHN. 
 
 that is, entirely, altogether, as I have shewn ij 
 the place referred to, See Note 443, Page 235, 
 
 " And fairy like to-pinch him." 
 
 Merry J Fives of Windsor 
 
 505. " Figufd quite o'er with burning meteors^ 
 " Meteors" is not every where thus long : 
 
 " And call them meteors, prodigies, and signs.' 
 
 506. " Foster 'd up at hand:* 
 
 Nursed, and fed by the hand. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 51 6. "If Lewis, by your assistance, win tin 
 
 day- 
 
 Lewis is, I believe, every where in this play, tc 
 be uttered in the time of a monosyllable. Thus 
 above : 
 
 " I say, again, if Lewis do win the day." 
 
 And in the third Act : 
 
 " Shall Lewts have Blanche ? and Blanche those 
 provinces r" 
 
 517. " ' Right in thine eye." 
 
 Right is directly, plainly, without deviation. 
 
 " - I only speak right on." 
 
 Julius Casar. 
 
 I wonder that Mr. Steevens should call this 
 mode of expression obsolete : right forward 
 right across right upward right on right off, 
 are phrases that every day occur, and are, I sup- 
 pose, derived from the geometrical postulate, that
 
 KING JOHN. 245 
 
 a right line is the shortest that can be made from 
 one point to another. 
 
 SCENE VI. 
 
 522. " Who didst thou leave ?" 
 
 This, perhaps, is rather an ellipsis, than false 
 grammar. Who (is he whom) thou didst leave. 
 
 523. " Withhold thine indignation, mighty hea~ 
 
 >ven" 
 " And tempt us not to bear above our 
 power" 
 Milton has adopted this pious obsecration in. 
 Com us, where the lady says 
 
 " Eye me, blest Providence, and square my trial 
 " To my proportioned strength." 
 
 And Mr. Brook, the author of Gustavus Vasa: 
 
 " For heaven still squares our trial to our strength ; 
 " And thine is of the foremost." 
 
 SCENE VII. 
 
 524. " Death, having prey'd upon the outward 
 
 parts, 
 " Leaves them insensible ; and his siege is 
 
 now 
 " Against the mind" 
 
 This emendation of Sir T. Hanmer's, from the 
 first copy, which reads invisible, affords a plain 
 meaning, which nothing but the ingenuity of 
 commentators could misinterpret ; yet Mr. Stee- 
 vens conducts us through five or six pages of de- 
 bate about it, for the sake, principally, of achiev- 
 
 r 3
 
 246 KING JOHN. 
 
 ing a triumph over his quondam associate, Mr. 
 Malone, whose argument Mr. Steevcns has chosen 
 to pervert. That gentleman, in contending for 
 the old reading, does not supply an inference that 
 the king's body or outwarcl part was not to be 
 seen, but that the operations and progress of 
 death were invisible. I cannot, indeed, agree 
 with Mr. Malone, as to the fitness of his restora- 
 tion, though I admit that adjectives are often 
 used adverbially, and not, as Mr. Stecvens asserts, 
 in light and familiar dialogue, (where, indeed, the 
 practice will not be admitted) but in grave and 
 solemn diction onlv, as 
 
 - Nature boon 
 
 " Pour'd forth profuse" Paradise Lost. 
 
 '' Sole reigning holds the tyranny of heaven." 
 
 Ibid. 
 " The torrid clime 
 ; ' Smote on him sore besides." Ibid. 
 
 LAST SCENE. 
 
 531. " . Spleen of speed. " 
 
 Sudden, tumultuous expedition. 
 
 34. " O let us pay the time bat needful woe, 
 " Sinee it hath been before-hand 'with our 
 griefs. 
 
 As the recent events have impressed themselves 
 with sufficient affliction on the general mind, let 
 us not superfluously prolong that grief.
 
 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF 
 
 KING RICHARD II 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 5. " Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas 
 
 Mozvbray f" 
 G. " I have, my liege." 
 K. " Tell me moreover,''' &c. 
 
 The metre in this play is in general pretty well 
 preserved, and where it is imperfect there is good 
 reason to suspect corruption. In the present in- 
 stance, I suppose, we should read : 
 
 " Against the duke of Norfolk ?" 
 G. "I have, my liege." 
 
 Or else, dismissing a superfluous part of the 
 King's next speech 
 
 "Against the duke of Norfolk, Thomas 
 Mowbray ?" 
 G. " I have, my liege." 
 K. " And hast thou sounded him ?" 
 
 6. " If he appeal the duke." 
 
 And again 
 
 R 4
 
 48 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 Appeal each other/' 
 
 " Appear seems here to be used substantively, 
 for " to make the subject of appeal," as we say, 
 to summons, to subpoena. 
 
 My ingenious friend, Mr. Strutt, says it should 
 be " appeaeh ;" hut there is evidence sufficient of 
 " appeal" being used, in the present sense, by 
 the old writers ; and it is not a little remark- 
 able, that it is so applied in the account of this 
 very quarrel between Hereford and Norfolk, in 
 Warner's Albion's England : 
 
 " The other saying little, then, immediately 
 
 reueales 
 ' The secrete, and before the king his foe-made 
 
 friend appcales." 
 
 " Each day still better other's happiness." 
 
 It would be better written " tlf other's hap- 
 piness." 
 
 " As zcell appear eth by the cause you come." 
 
 The expression here is imperfect, and the sense 
 not very obvious. " By the cause,** seems to 
 mean, " from the nature of the cause ;"' but then 
 the construction would require " by the cause 
 you come in," or " with :" but " by the cause," 
 may quaintly signify, " by reason that," or " be- 
 eause." 
 
 A traitor, 
 
 " Too good to be so. and too bad to live." 
 
 Your name and rank give too much dignity to 
 the character of a traitor, and your wickedness is 
 too great to admit of your further existence.
 
 KING RICHARD II. 249 
 
 - Were I tied to run a-foot." 
 
 Were I obligated to run, &c. 
 
 10. " Which blood, like sacrificing Abel's, cries, 
 " E'en from the tongueless caverns of the 
 earth." 
 
 This thought, somewhat differently expressed, 
 occurs in Hamlet : 
 
 " For murder, tho' it have no tongue, will speak 
 " With most miraculous organ." 
 
 12. " ' But my fair name, 
 
 u (Despite of death, that lives upon my 
 grave." ) 
 
 Dr. Johnson has rightly expressed the mean- 
 ing of this passage ; but the construction is false, 
 and might easily have been corrected : 
 
 " That lives, despite of death, upon my grave." 
 
 14. " Impeach my height 
 
 " Before this outdar'd dastard ?" 
 
 Disparage my dignity. This outdared dastard 
 may mean this dastard that has been dared out 
 by me to combat : but I rather think it is put for 
 outdaring intemperately boastful. We often 
 find, in these works, the passive participle used 
 for the active. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 15. " Your exclaims," 
 
 Exclaims, as a noun, occurs elsewhere. 
 " Who, when he sees the hours ripe on earth."'
 
 250 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 As " hours" is here, so presently we find " fire," 
 a dissyllable: 
 
 " O who can hold a fire in his hand ?" 
 
 But these words were formerly so written 
 " fier," " howers." 
 
 16. " Some of those branches by the destinies 
 'cut:' 
 
 And again, a little lower: 
 
 " One flourishing branch of his most royal root." 
 
 This is an exuberance of the metre, which, not 
 too often recurring, is a grace rather than a ble- 
 mish to the verse. Milton makes more frequent 
 and happier use of it than any other of our poets. 
 
 18. " For sorroxo ends not when it seemeth 
 
 doner 
 
 i. e. The language of sorrow is not finished 
 when it pauses. 
 
 19. " Desolate, desolate, will I hence, and die." 
 
 This line is inharmonious, and, without a re- 
 dundant termination, comprises eleven syllables : 
 yet the fault is not hypermetrical; for the addition 
 of another syllable at the beginning would render 
 it unexceptionable : 
 
 " And desolate, desolate, will I hence, and die." 
 SCENE III. 
 
 c 2<2. " Depose him in the justice of his cause." 
 
 Examine him, according to the solemn and 
 established ceremonies, on his oath. Thus a
 
 KING RICHARD II. 251 
 
 person, under similar circumstances, is called, in 
 law language, a deponent. 
 
 GJ. " Rouse up thy youthful blood, be valiant 
 and live." 
 
 Unless we suppose this line was designedly an 
 Alexandrine, it is a foot too long. .We should, 
 perhaps, read : 
 
 " Rouse up thy youthful blood, be strong and 
 live." 
 
 Gaunt would hardly have expressed a doubt of 
 his son's valour, howsoever he might urge him to 
 put forth his strength. 
 
 " Never did captive with a free?' heart 
 
 " embrace enfranchisement, 
 
 " More than my dancing soul doth cele- 
 brated &c. 
 
 This is a gross pleonasm. We might read : 
 " Than doth my dancing soul now celebrate." 
 26. " Stay, the king." &c. 
 
 A word is wanting here : 
 
 " Yet stay," &c. 
 
 27- " Draw near" 
 
 I suppose the remainder of this line has been 
 lost : perhaps some words like these : 
 
 " Draw near, ye fell incensed adversaries.'* 
 
 " To wake our peace, which in our country** 
 
 cradle 
 " Draxvs the sweet infant breath of gentlr 
 
 sleep ; 
 " Which so rouz'd up 
 Might fright fair peace," Sec.
 
 252 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 This is sad confusion, which Mr. Steevens lias 
 not, I suspect, completely reconciled. " Gentle 
 sleep rouzed up, (says he) becomes " discoid," 
 and, under that metamorphose, is qualified to 
 fright fair peace." i. e. Peace changes, or is made 
 to change, her character, for the sake of fright- 
 ing herself. The passage seems to be a " ravelled 
 sleeve" of ideas, which the poet did not take the 
 trouble to " knit up." Both sense and concord 
 require some arrangement like this : 
 
 " To wake our peace, which in our country's 
 
 cradle 
 " Draws the sweet infant breath of gentle sleep ; 
 " But so rouz'd up with boisterous, untun'd arms, 
 " With harsh resounding trumpets' dreadful bray, 
 " Might from our quiet confines frighted Jly" 
 
 29 " That sun, that warm* you here, shall 
 shine on me." 
 
 A similar consolation did Richard find, in con- 
 templating the gloominess of the sky, previous to 
 the battle of Bosworth Field : 
 
 What is that to me, 
 
 " More than to Richmond ? for the self-same 
 
 heaven 
 11 That frowns on me, looks sadly upon him." 
 
 " The fly-sloxo hours shall not determinated 
 
 Why the arbitrary change, by Mr. Pope, of 
 " fly-slow" from " slie slow," in the old copies, 
 should have been adopted by the last editor, 1 am 
 at a loss to guess. There is a violent incongruity 
 in the compound " fly-slow," slowness and flight 
 being directly opposite ideas ; whereas " slie slow 
 hours" is perfectly in our poet's manner : " the
 
 KING RICHARD II. 253 
 
 hours which pass imperceptibly and deceitfully 
 away ;" as in another place (As You Like ft) we 
 find the " stealing hours of time." 
 
 " Upon pain of life." 
 
 It should be " death," as, a little before, 
 
 " You, cousin Hereford, upon pain of death;" 
 
 yet in the quarto, 1615, it is in both places 
 " life." 
 
 SI. " I swear," See. 
 
 A foot is wanting to the measure > 
 
 (i 
 
 I swear, my liege, 
 Mozvb. " -And I, to keep all this." 
 
 32. " Banish'd this frail sepulchre of our flesh.' 
 
 We find "sepulchre" differently accentuated; 
 the second Act, Scene 1, it is sepulchre: 
 
 " As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry." 
 
 *' And I from heaven banish'd as from hence / 
 But what thou art heav'n, thou, and I do 
 knozv." 
 
 " Heaven," in the first of these lines, a dissyl- 
 lable, and in the next a monosyllable. The use- 
 less preposition before " hence " might be dis- 
 missed by extending banished to its full quantity. 
 
 " And I from heaven banished, as hence." 
 Or, 
 
 " And I from heav'n be banished, as hence." 
 
 35, " What presence must not know 
 
 " From where you do remain, let paper 
 shew."
 
 254 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 As we cannot enjoy one another's presence, let 
 us converse by letters. 
 
 " What is six winters ? they are quickly 
 gone, 
 Bol. " To men in joy, but grief makes one hour 
 ten." 
 
 A rhyme seems to have been designed here. 
 
 "What is six winters? they are quickly 
 gone, 
 Bol. " In joy, but grief makes ten hours out of 
 one." 
 
 Or, with less variation, 
 
 " To men in joy, but grief makes ten of one." 
 
 36. " Journey-man to grief." 
 
 The pitiful quibble which Dr. Johnson suspects 
 to be designed here is too palpable. 
 
 " All places that the eye of heaven visits 
 " Are to a wise man ports and happy havens." 
 
 Mr. Davies observes, that these lines are evi- 
 dently borrowed from Ovid : 
 
 " Omne solum forti patria est." 
 
 Which is likewise imitated by Ben Jonson, in the 
 Fox 
 
 " Sir, to a wise man, all the world's his soil." 
 
 And Seneca 
 
 " Excelso vir animo contristari cxilio non debet." 
 
 The magnanimous words of Sir Humphrey Gil- 
 bert, when his ship was sinking, are extremely 
 remarkable ; that gallant officer was seen sitting 
 in the stern of the ship with a book in his hand, 
 and was heard to say, with a loud voice, " Cou-
 
 KING RICHARD II. Q55 
 
 rage, my lads ! we are as near heaven at sea as on 
 land." Lord Chedworth. 
 
 " There is no virtue like necessity." 
 
 There is no virtue so excellent as that which 
 leads us to conform with cheerfulness to the man- 
 dates of necessity, to assimilate our inclinations 
 to the decrees of fate, and to embrace that as a 
 benefit which we should in vain resist as a misfor- 
 tune : the same sentiment, dilated, is found in 
 As You Like It, Act 2, Scene 1 : 
 
 " Sweet are the uses of adversity." &c. 
 
 " Think not the king did banish thee." 
 
 There is something wanting here perhaps the 
 line ran thus : 
 
 " Thou must not think the king did banish thee." 
 
 I find that Mr. Ritson has proposed a word to 
 fill up the measure ; but, as no conclusion is im- 
 plied in Gaunt's speech, " therefore " will not 
 agree with the context. 
 
 37. " Faintly borne." 
 
 Borne with feebleness or dejection of mind. 
 
 38. " JTho can hold afire in his hand, 
 
 " By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?" &c. 
 
 A sentiment resembling this occurs in Romeo 
 and Juliet 
 
 " He that is stricken blind cannot forget 
 
 " The precious treasures of his eye-sight lost." 
 
 The ofTice, indeed, of the imagination in the 
 distinct instances is reversed ; in one it is active, 
 in the other passive ; here it is required to pro- 
 duce an effect, there to resist sl consequence.
 
 256 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 39. " IV e did observe. Cousin A inner le," 
 
 Something has been lost perhaps the line ran 
 thus, 
 
 " We did observe it well, cousin Aumerle." 
 
 40. " Far excel : 
 
 " And, for my heart disdained that my 
 tongue." 
 We should read, without a fragment 
 
 "Farewel, and, for my heart disdain'd, my tongue 
 Should," &c. 
 
 41. "Affects." 
 Affections, as in Othello 
 
 11 The young affects, in me defunct." 
 
 " The revenue whereof shall furnish us." 
 
 And again, Act 2 
 
 " The plate, coin, revenues, and moveables." 
 
 But not always thus in King Lear we meet 
 with 
 
 " The sway, revenue," &c. 
 
 42. " Bushy, what news f" 
 
 This fragment is not in the quarto, 1615, and 
 ought not to be here. 
 
 " Where lies he ? 
 
 At Ely-house" 
 
 We might read, 
 
 " Where does he lie ? 
 
 " At Ely-house, my liege."
 
 KING RICHARD II. 257 
 
 " Pray God, zee may make haste, and come too 
 late/" 
 i. e. I hope death will overtake him before we 
 can, even at our utmost speed. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 " Unstayed." 
 Unbridled, unrestrained. 
 
 43. " Lascivious metres." 
 
 The old copies read " meeters," which I 
 take to be, not verses, as Mr. Steevens supposes, 
 but the rhymers themselves. 
 
 44. " For violent fires soon bum out them- 
 
 selves" 
 
 The particle " do " before " burn " is necessary 
 to the euphony, unless, with Mr. Malone, our 
 ear could admit of the extending "our" to a 
 dissyllable. 
 
 45. " This precious stone, set in the silver sea." 
 
 This thought, as Bishop Newton has observed, 
 is imitated by Milton in Comus 
 
 All the sea-girt isles 
 
 ,l That like to rich and various gems inlay 
 " The unadorned bosom of the deep." 
 
 But Milton, says Mr. Warton (I think justly), 
 has heightened the comparison, omitting Shak- 
 spear's petty conceit, the silver sea, the concep- 
 tion of a jeweller, and substituting another and 
 more striking piece of imagery : this rich inlay, 
 to use an expression in the Paradise Lost, 
 
 vol. t. s
 
 258 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 11 Gives beauty to the bosom of the deep, 
 "Elseunadorn'd." 
 
 It has its effect on a simple ground. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 46\ "Pelting." 
 
 Petty, inconsiderable, mean, as in Measure for 
 Measure 
 
 " Every pelting, petty officer." 
 
 " Inky blots: 1 
 
 Mr. Steevens wishes to read " bolts," but that 
 meaning, besides the want of authority, seems 
 very harsh: " inky blots," I believe, merely re- 
 fers to the disgraceful conveyance of the kingdom's 
 revenues to the Earl of Wiltshire to the " rot- 
 ten parchment bonds." 
 
 47. " For young hot colts, being rag*d, do rage 
 
 the ??iore." 
 
 Mr. Ritson proposes " rein'd " instead of 
 " ragd ;" but I believe the plain meaning is, 
 that young colts, being enraged in their manage, 
 only become more furious. 
 
 48. " 1 see thee ill, 
 
 " III in myself to see, and in thee seeing ill.'" 
 
 The confusion made by this paltry jingle is 
 hardly worth the unfolding. " I see thee ill" 
 means at once " I see thee unwell," and " my sight 
 is imperfect." 
 
 " /// in myself," &c. 
 
 i. e. I am siek or ill to think I see at all, or ar 
 alive, under the burthen of my age and vexation! 
 and especially as I discover illness in you : " tf 
 see," as Mr. Steevens remarks, should certainlj 
 be omitted, as useless and burthensome
 
 KING RICHARD II. q 59 
 
 " 111 in myself, and in thee seeing ill." 
 
 " Too careless patient." 
 
 This use of the adjective and sometimes of the 
 participle for the adverb occurs in other places ; 
 as in Romeo and Juliet 
 
 " Too flattering sweet." 
 
 49. " Before thou wert." 
 
 " Wert " for " wast," the subjunctive instead 
 of the indicative mood : but Milton himself af- 
 fords an example of similar inaccuracy 
 
 " Before the sun, before the heavens thou wert." 
 
 Paradise Lost. 
 
 " Deposing thee before thou wert possess' d ; 
 " JVhich art possess'd now to depose thyself." 
 
 Here is a play upon the three meanings of the 
 word possess'd, invested with dominion, endued 
 with a purpose, and being bewitched, or, as Mr. 
 Steevens thinks, afflicted with a demon. 
 
 50. " Lean-wit ted.'" 
 
 I cannot help expressing my astonishment at 
 Dr. Farmer's observation; the expressions are by 
 no means similar ; the lameness spoken of in the 
 106th Psalm is, surely, not exility of wit. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 52. " Live in thy shame, but die not shame with 
 
 thee." 
 
 Continue to live in your infamy, but let not 
 your infamy perish with your life. 
 
 53. " The ripest fruit first falls, and so does he." 
 
 s 2
 
 60 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 A similar image occurs in the Merchant of Ve- 
 nice 
 
 " The weakest kind of fruit 
 
 " Falls earliest to the ground, and so let me. 1 ' 
 
 56. " To see this business ; to-morrow next." 
 
 Business a trisyllable. 
 
 " My heart is great, but it must break with 
 
 silence 
 " Eret be disburden* d with a liberal tongue." 
 
 " Great," big, swollen with vexation: " libe- 
 ral" is free, unrestrained, as in Othello, " a most 
 profane and liberal speaker." The sentiment oc- 
 curs in Hamlet 
 
 Cannot come to good, 
 
 " But break my heart, for I must hold my 
 tongue." 
 
 57. " Pilfd with grievous taxes, 
 
 " And quite lost their hearts, the nobles 
 had he Jiri d" 
 
 " Pilfd" is pillaged; "quite," as Mr. Steevens 
 has suggested, should certainly be ejected from 
 this line. 
 
 " As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what." 
 
 This line, even with the aid of so many vowels, 
 can hardly be uttered in due time: we might omit 
 " and " 
 
 " As blanks benevolences I wot not what.'* 
 
 60. " Sir John Norbery" &c. 
 
 It is probable that the names of these followei 
 of Bolingbroke did not, at first, occur to the ai
 
 KING RICHARD II. 2ft 
 
 thor, but that, a blank being left for them, they 
 were afterwards inserted without attention to the 
 measure of the verse. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 64. " ' Shapes of grief 
 
 " IVhich, looked on as it is, is nought but 
 
 shadows 
 " Of what it is not." 
 
 A similar expression occurs in Macbeth 
 
 " Function 
 
 " Is smother' d in surmise, and nothing is 
 " But what is not." 
 
 65. " % Tis nothing less." 
 
 The sense of the context seems to require that 
 this should be read, 
 
 " 'Tis something less." 
 
 " Nothing hath begot my something grief 
 
 " Or something hath the nothing that I grieve." 
 
 I grieve for something or for nothing ; if for a 
 reality, that reality is the ofFspring of nothing ; 
 or if for nothing, that nothing, that unsubstantial 
 effect proceeds from some potent existing cause. 
 It is silly antithesis. 
 
 66. " 'Tis in reversion that I do possess ; 
 
 (: But what it is, that is not yet known, 
 
 what 
 " I cajinot name; 'tis nameless woe, I wot" 
 
 " That" I conceive to be not the conjunction, 
 but the pronoun, and the meaniug to be, that 
 
 s 3
 
 262 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 which now occupies my thoughts is something 
 that is to happen hereafter, but what that is, is 
 yet a secret ; I cannot name it, but I fear it is 
 nameless woe. 
 
 67. " The Lord Northumberland, his young son 
 
 Henry Percy.'" 
 
 This should be either 
 
 " The Lord Northumberland, his son, young 
 Percy." 
 
 Or, , 
 
 '.' The Lord Northumberland, young Henry 
 Percy.*' 
 
 " His young son" would imply that there was 
 an elder son. 
 
 68. " Here comes the Duke of York*' 
 
 Some words appear to have been lost : perhaps, 
 
 " Madam, here comes my lord, the Duke of 
 York." 
 
 " Uncle, for heav'n's sake, speak comfortable 
 words. 
 
 We might omit the word "speak," or read, 
 with a contraction somewhat harsh, 
 
 " For heav'n's sake, unel, speak comfortable 
 words." 
 
 69. " Sirrah, get thee," &c. 
 
 " Sirrah" is unnecessary, and burthens the line. 
 
 " Hold, take my ring." 
 The metre wants correction ;-*
 
 KING RICHARD II. 263 
 
 " Hold, take my ring." 
 Serv. " My lord, 1 had forgot 
 
 " To tell your lordship, I to-day came by 
 
 " And call'd there, but alack! I shall but 
 grieve you 
 
 " If I report the rest." 
 York. "- What is it, knave?" 
 
 70. " Gentlemen ."&c. 
 
 Here again the . measure has been disturbed ; 
 perhaps it ran thus : 
 
 " Gentlemen, will you muster men ? if I 
 
 " Know how or which way to order these affairs." 
 
 " Never believe me. Both are my kinsmen" 
 A slight transposition is required here : 
 " Never believe me ; both my kinsmen are." 
 
 " Is my kinsman, whom the king hath zvrong'd." 
 
 Sir T. Hanmer's emendation ought to be adopt- 
 ed here, or perhaps this : 
 
 " My kinsman is, too, whom the king hath 
 wronged." 
 
 71. " / should to Plashy too." 
 
 Something is wanting, perhaps, like this, to 
 restore the metre : 
 
 " I should to Plashy, but time will not permit; 
 " Odds me ! away, begone, all is uneven, 
 " And every thing, &c. 
 
 " Is all impossible." 
 
 This hemistic might, with some constraint, and 
 s 4
 
 264 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 the dismission of a useless particle, be accommo- 
 dated in the preceding line: 
 
 " Proportional to the enemy's unpossible." 
 
 " Will you go along with us.*' 
 
 This fragment cannot subsist, even as a hemis- 
 tic ; something must be added, and something 
 omitted 
 
 " We must be brief; will you along with us ?" 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 72. Believe me, noble lord.'''' 
 
 It is impossible that in a play where (as here) 
 the language generally is measured with scrupu- 
 lous regularity, an awkward hemistic like this and 
 some others could be made by the poet : what has 
 been lost it were in vain to seek ; but something, 
 as a supplement, might be offered by the editor: 
 perhaps Northumberland would quaintly reply to 
 JBolingbroke's question " How far to Berkley?" 
 
 " Believe me, noble lord, 'tis past my knowledge, 
 " I am a stranger, &c. 
 
 73. " And hope to joy, is little less in joy, 
 " Than hope enjoy* d." 
 
 The first "joy" in this passage is certainly, as 
 Mr. Malone has remarked, a verb hope, in the 
 second line, for the sake of precious jingle, is put 
 for the object of hope. We might, perhaps, 
 read : 
 
 " And hope t'enjoy, is little less in joy, 

 
 KING RICHARD II. 265 
 
 (i. e. In enjoyment,) 
 
 " Than hope enjoy'd." 
 
 (i. e. In the accomplishment of hope.) 
 
 Mr. Gray, who adopted this thought in his 
 Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College, has 
 retained the inaccuracy : 
 
 " Gay hope is their's, by fancy fed, 
 " Less pleasing when possess'd." 
 
 It was possessed, being their's ; but the poet 
 has shifted from hope itself to what was the ob- 
 ject of hope. 
 
 " By sight of what I have, your noble company." 
 
 " Noble" might well be spared. 
 
 ** Than your good words. But who comes here ?" 
 
 Enter Percy. 
 North. " It is my son, young Harry Percy."'' 
 
 To supply the gross deficiency of these two 
 lines, the means are obvious : 
 
 " Than your good words, my lord. But who 
 comes here r" 
 
 And 
 
 " It is my son, my lord, young Harry Percy." . 
 
 " Harry, how fares your uncle t n 
 Percy. " I had thought, my lord, to have learn d 
 
 his health of you." 
 North, " Why, is he not with the queen ?' %
 
 265 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 The metrical disorder here might, perhaps, be 
 repaired thus : 
 
 " Harry, how fares your uncle r" 
 
 Percy. " I had thought, 
 
 " My lord, that I should learn his health 
 of you." 
 North. " Of me ! Why so ? Is he not with 
 the queen ?" 
 
 " He was not so resolvd, when last we spake 
 together." 
 
 ' " Together" is a stupid interpolation. 
 
 74. " And in it are the lords of York, Berkley^ 
 
 and Seymour,"" 
 
 We might read : 
 
 " And in it the lords York, Berkley, and Sey- 
 mour." 
 
 75. " Stands for my bounty. But who comes 
 
 here ? x> 
 
 Perhaps - 
 
 " Must for my bounty stand. But who comes 
 here r" 
 
 " My lord," &c. 
 
 The repetition of " my," which in three lines 
 occurs five times, and here only burthens the 
 measure, should be omitted. Mr. Steevens's pro- 
 posed amendment, omitting to you, will not agree 
 with Bolingbroke's reply. I would read : 
 
 " My answer is to Lancaster; 
 
 " Lord Hereford, my message is to 
 you." 
 Boling. " My lord, my answer," kc.
 
 KING RICHARD II. 67 
 
 76. " To raze one title of your honour out. y * 
 
 Surely it should be " tittle." The most im- 
 portant distinction that could belong to Boling- 
 broke, and what he was now peculiarly asserting, 
 would never be called by one who disclaims all in- 
 tention of offence, by the slight and general term, 
 " a title," or one " title." The sense is clearly: 
 " I mean not to efface or obscure the slightest cir- 
 cumstance belonging to your honour or dignity." 
 Besides, what sense can be annexed to " a title," 
 or " one title," of your honour ? 
 
 " My gracious" uncle ! " 
 Tori. " Tut, tut r 
 
 The interruption might justify the hemistic 
 in Bolingbroke's speech, but the measure is also 
 defective in that of York ; something appears to 
 have been lost: perhaps like this: 
 
 " My Gracious uncle !" 
 York. " Tut, tut, buy ; go to, 
 " Grace me," &c. 
 
 77. " But then more zvhy."< 
 
 I once thought that this reading of the first 
 quarto ought to be retained more question still ; 
 but this cannot well be admitted, unless many 
 questions or " whys" had been asked already. I 
 am, therefore, inclined to believe, that the text, 
 as it appears in the second quarto, is right : 
 " But more than why." More than the mere an- 
 swer to this question, with an interest more deep 
 than belongs to the question itself. 
 
 Ostentation of despised arms.'" 
 
 I wish there were authority for " deposed ;" 
 but " despised arms" may mean arms which, in the
 
 268 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 tranquillity of the time, had been thrown aside, 
 and disregarded as useless lumber. 
 
 7$). " Look on my wrongs with an indifferent 
 eye" 
 
 As here " indifferent" signifies " impartial," so, 
 in another place, " impartial" means " indif- 
 ferent :" 
 
 " In this I'll be impartial." 
 
 Measure for Measure, Act 5, Scene 3. 
 
 " v ' Chase them to the bay." 
 
 I know not the meaning of " the bay," herd 
 unless it be " a place of siege," a state of hostile 
 inclosure. 
 
 " I am denied to sue my livery here." 
 
 " Livery" is not always a dissyllable ; 
 
 " To sue his livery, and beg his peace, 
 
 Henry IV. First Part. 
 
 80. " It stands your grace upon, to do him 
 right!" 
 
 It is incumbent on you. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 82. " The king reposeth all his confidence in 
 thee." 
 
 The placing kingly confidence at all, is cer- 
 tainly sufficiently flattering to the object of it; 
 and as Alexandrines are not intended in these 
 works, I think we might, without any violence, 
 reduce this line to the ordinary measure : 
 
 " The king reposeth confidence in you."
 
 KING RICHARD II. 269 
 
 83. M Rich men look sad, and ruffians dance 
 and leap, 
 " The one, in fear to lose what they enjoy."'' 
 
 The one class. It is rather a violent ellipsis. 
 
 " Ah, Richard ! with the eyes of heavy mind, 
 " I see," &c. 
 
 This will admit of a very easy correction ; 
 
 V Ah, Richard ! I, with eyes of heavy mind, 
 " Do see," &c. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 85. " Condemns you to the death : see them de- 
 
 livered over." 
 
 The death decreed for your crimes. As in 
 Measure for Measure : 
 
 " Or else he must not only die the death," &c. 
 
 The hypermeter might be avoided, by omitting 
 " over," or by reading 
 
 " Condemns you to the death: deliver them o'er." 
 
 86. " Fairly let her be entreated." 
 
 Used, dealt-with, treated. Thus in Green wey's 
 Translation of Tacitus : 
 
 " Justice was ministered in the city ; the allies 
 entreated with modesty." 
 
 " Thanks, gentle uncle. Come, lords, away." 
 
 Come, my lords would complete the line.
 
 270 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 87. " Yea, my lord ; how brooks your grace the 
 air, 
 " After late tossing on the breaking seas T* 
 
 These gross violations of the metre could never 
 have proceeded from the poet. We might read : 
 
 " Yea, my good lord ; how brooks your grace 
 
 the air, 
 " After your tossing on the breaking seas ?" 
 
 go. " His treasons will- 
 
 tremble at his sin.' 1 
 
 But his sin is " his treasons:" so that it might 
 as well have been 
 
 " tremble at themselves." 
 
 As before : 
 
 " Then murders, 'reasons, and detested sins, 
 
 " Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves." 
 
 92. " Hearing thou wert dead." 
 
 " Wert," instead of " wast," is an abuse that 
 ought to be corrected wherever it occurs. 
 
 " Awake, thou sluggard majesty ! thou sleep'st." 
 
 I believe we should point 
 " Awake thou sluggard ! majesty thou sleep'st," 
 
 " Hath power enough to serve our turn. But 
 who comes here ?" 
 
 " Enough" is here too much, and should be 
 ejected. 1
 
 KING RICHARD II. 271 
 
 95. tl Where is the earl of Wiltshire ? where is 
 Bagot ?" 
 " What is become of Bushy ? xchere is 
 Green ?" 
 
 As the king by and by exclaims three Judases, 
 Mr. Theobald thought it necessary to omit one 
 of these four persons, and, instead of where is 
 Bagot ? inserted where is he got ? an alteration 
 which Dr. Warburton chose to adopt ; and Dr. 
 Johnson, Mr. M. Mason, and Mr. Malone, con- 
 cur in thinking that the poet made a mistake in 
 the number of Judases ; bat though the earl of 
 Wiltshire had been named along with the rest, 
 the charge of ingratitude will only apply in a 
 pointed manner to the other three ; and, there- 
 fore, the exclamation is not improper. 
 
 " Such peaceful steps V 
 
 Such unopposed, unresisted steps. 
 
 98. " As if this flesh, which walls about our 
 lifer 
 
 The same thought occurs in King John : 
 
 " Within this wall of flesh there is a soul 
 " Counts thee," &c. 
 
 " I live with bread like you, feel want, taste 
 
 grief] 
 :t Need friends : Subjected thus, 
 r Hoxv can you say," &c. 
 
 The deficiency in these lines might be supplied 
 n this manner : 
 
 ' I live with bread like you ; like you feel want, 
 ' Taste grief, need friends ; and, being subjected 
 
 thus, 
 1 How can ye," &c.
 
 272 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 101. " He would 
 
 " Have<been so brief with you, to shorten 
 
 you, 
 " For taking so the head, your zcholt 
 head's length.'* 
 
 Here is a brisk play upon words upon 
 a head," as meaning, at once, " hostile advance, 
 or unbridled course" and its common implica- 
 tion. Rowe has borrowed the concluding con- 
 ceit in Jane Shore : 
 
 Her brother Rivers, 
 
 " Ere this, lies shorter by the head at Pomfret/ 
 
 " I know it, uncle ; and oppose not." 
 A word is wanting here : 
 
 " I know it, uncle; and do not oppose." 
 Or else : 
 
 " And / not oppose." 
 
 102. " Royally .'" 
 
 Something has been lost here. Perhaps we 
 should read : 
 
 " The castle royally is mann'd, my lord, 
 " Against thy entrance." 
 Bo ling. " Royally, say's t thou ? 
 
 " Noble lord." 
 
 This fragment might find accommodation in 
 the preceding line :
 
 KING RICHARD II. 273 
 
 " Believe me bishop 6f Carlisle." 
 Baling. " Noble lord." 
 
 103. " - Doth kiss King Richard's hand." 
 
 Here, too, there seems to have been something 
 ost. Perhaps we should read : 
 
 ' And thus deliver. 
 
 ' That Harry Bolingbroke, on both his knees, 
 ' Doth, in his duty, kiss King Richard's hand." 
 
 105. " Yond', methinks, he is." 
 
 The quarto, 1615, reads " he stands;" and 
 his appears to be right. Richard dwells upon 
 he disrespect shewn by Bolingbroke, who should 
 lave been " kneeling." 
 
 ' Ere the croxvn he looks for live in 
 
 peace, 
 ' Ten thousand bloody crozvns of mothers' sons 
 1 Shall ill become the flower of England 's face" 
 
 A contest for a crown can never be determined, 
 p these works, without a pun or two ; but it is 
 trange that Mr. Steevens should have gone so 
 tir out of the way for the meaning of " the 
 ower of England's face," which is clearly the 
 hosen youth of England ; and Richard only re- 
 marks, that those youths, thus mangled and be- 
 Tieared, will exhibit a pale or white and ghastly 
 ountenance. 
 
 06. " Be rush'd upon ! Thy thrice-noble cou- 
 sin.'' 
 
 This is not metrical. We might read : 
 
 Be rush'd upon ! no, thy thrice-noble cousin, 
 Harry Bolingbroke." 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 107. " By the worth and honour oj 
 
 himself, 
 " Comprising all that may he szvoni ot 
 said." 
 This magnificent attestation has been adoptee 
 by Lee : 
 
 " I'll swear to yon by heaven, by all thing- 
 sacred, 
 " By all that's great and lovely upon earth, 
 " By him, by Guise," &c. 
 
 And, I think, by the same poet, somewher 
 else: 
 " By thy bright self, the greatest oath, I swear. 
 
 " This swears he, as he is a prince, is just.'" 
 
 " Is," before " just," does not appear in th 
 quarto, but seems a necessary emendation. " 1 
 prince is just," is here " a prince who is just," b 
 an ellipsis common enough : but we might rea 
 as just ; u e. as (he is) just. 
 
 109. " We* II make foul weather with despise 
 
 tears ; 
 " Our sighs, and they, shall lodge th 
 
 summer corn, 
 " And make a dearth," &c. 
 
 Lee has adopted and adorned the extravagant 
 of this hyperbole, in Alexander the Great : 
 
 " Till all the listening groves and quiet myrtles 
 " Shook with my sighs, as if a tempest bow' 
 them." 
 
 111. " What says his majesty ?" 
 
 This is unmetrical ; and Bolingbroke would at 
 
 now be ceremonious. I suppose the author \vrot<
 
 KING RICHARD II. 275 
 
 " What says he now ? 
 
 " -Sorrow and grief of heart," &c. 
 
 " Yet he is come.*' 
 
 The metre is imperfect here. We might read : 
 
 " Yet he is come." 
 
 Bol'uig. " Stand all apart, and shew 
 
 " Fair duty to his majesty : my lord !" 
 
 (Kneeling.) 
 
 " Me rather had." 
 
 This is a vile corruption of " I rather would :" 
 yet, though strange, it is not, perhaps, more 
 improper than the common expression " rae- 
 thinks." 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 113. " And I could weep, would weeping do me 
 good." 
 
 The old reading, " and I could sing," &c. is, 
 I believe, the true one : the lady had said, " Ma- 
 dam, I'll sing;" to which the queen replies 
 " thou wou'dst please me better, woudst thou 
 weep." The lady then says: 
 
 " I could weep, madam, would it do y6u good." 
 
 " And if weeping," says the queen, " would do 
 me good, I could rejoice at it, and sing ; for in 
 the abundance of my tears I should have security 
 for my happiness." The quaintness of the con- 
 ceit is not of force to invalidate its reality. 
 
 116. " Set to dress this garden, how dares." 
 
 I would read : 
 
 w Set here to diess this garden, say how dares." 
 
 Lord Chedwobih. 
 t 2
 
 276 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 lip. " Call forth Bagot : 
 
 " Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind.** 
 
 This disorder might thus be reconciled : 
 " Call Bagot forth : 
 
 Enter Bagot. 
 
 " Now, Bagot, speak thy mind." 
 
 120. " You had rather refuse.*' 
 
 This mode of expression, though common 
 enough, is wrong : it should be 
 
 " You rather would refuse." 
 
 " Than Bolingbroke's return/* &c. 
 
 This must be wrong : 
 
 " Rather refuse 
 
 " The offer of an hundred thousand crowns, 
 
 " Than (refuse) Bolingbroke's return." 
 
 It should certainly be, " than Bolingbroke re- 
 turn ;" i. e. than that Bolingbroke should return, 
 &c. We might read : 
 
 " Than Bolingbroke to England should return." 
 
 " Princes and noble lords." 
 
 This redundance might be avoided thus : 
 
 " In this your cousin's death. 
 A urn. " My noble lords." 
 
 " Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars.**
 
 
 KING RICHARD II. 277 
 
 I cannot perceive any need to suppose- " stars," 
 which influence birth, to be put for " birth" it- 
 self: does not " my fair stars," implying the 
 influence by which my birth and honours were 
 produced, afford a sense sufficiently clear ? 
 
 121. " Thou wert." 
 
 " Wert," for " wast," is a mistake that has 
 been too often noted. 
 
 122. " / take the earth to the like:' 
 
 The meaning, I suppose, is I kneel to the 
 ground, in acceptance of your challenge. 
 
 124. "Till thou the lie-giver, and that lie do lie" 
 
 &c. 
 
 This quibble about " lie," as meaning both to 
 tell a falshood, and to recline horizontally, occurs 
 again in Hamlet, Act 5 : 
 
 " 'Tis a quick lie," &c. 
 
 125. " To all his land and signories ; when he's 
 
 return d" 
 
 " AH" should be omitted : 
 " To Ins lands," &c. 
 
 126. " Why, bishop," &c. 
 
 This is superfluous, and encumbers the verse. 
 We might read at once : 
 
 " Is Norfolk dead ?" 
 Carl. " Sure as I live, my lord." 
 
 " Qf good old Abraham! Lords appellants:' 
 
 Either " appellants" must here have an unusual 
 accent, appellants, or a word is wanting : 
 
 t 3
 
 
 
 278 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 " Of good old Abraham, my lords appellant" 
 
 127. " And he himself not present ? 0, forbid 
 
 it, God!" 
 
 This line, with the omission of O, which is 
 useless, would be tolerably smooth : 
 
 " And he himself not present; forbid it, God." 
 
 But himself might be omitted : 
 " And he not present, O, forbid it, God !" 
 
 The quarto has, instead of" forbid," " forfend." 
 
 128. " O, if you rear this house against this 
 
 house." 
 The quarto, \G\5, reads, 
 
 " O, if you raise this house against his house." 
 
 Perhaps the true reading is, 
 
 " O, if you rear this house against his house." 
 
 The sense, indeed, of this house against this 
 house, i. e. one house against another, a mere 
 civil contention, is sufficiently clear, though not, 
 as I conceive, strong enough for the speaker's pur- 
 pose, who seems especially to deprecate hostility 
 between the faction of Bolingbroke, who is pre- 
 sent, and the adherents of the king, whom they 
 ought all to support. 
 
 130. " Found truth in all, but one ; I, in twelve 
 thousand ', none." 
 
 Alexandrines very rarely occur in these works; 
 but it would be difficult to complete the sense in 
 a narrower compass. 
 
 " To Henry Bolingbroke"
 
 KING RICHARD II. <279 
 
 The disorder in these lines might perhaps be 
 repaired thus : 
 
 " To Henry Bolingbroke." 
 
 K. R. " Give me the crown. 
 
 " Here, cousin Bolingbroke, seize you the 
 
 crown ; 
 " My hand on this side, cousin, thine on 
 
 that." 
 
 131. " Ay, no; no, ay ; for I must nothing 
 
 be; 
 " Therefore no no, for I resign to thee." 
 
 From this, and many other instances, it is 
 clear, that " ay " and " I " were sounded alike; 
 it also hence appears that a double negative some- 
 times, as now, formed an affirmative. 'Boling- 
 broke asks Richard if he is contented to resign 
 the crown, to which Richard, at last, answers : I 
 will say " no " twice, i. e. I will resign. This 
 scene is not in the first quarto. 
 
 132. " Must I ravel out 
 
 " My zveav'd- up follies ?" 
 
 To ravel out is to decompose or unknit a web. 
 In Macbeth, sleep is said to " knit-up the ra- 
 vel'd sleeve of care." 
 
 " My weav'd-up follies, gentle Northumberland." 
 
 133. "My lord." 
 
 This is among the instances where a fragment 
 of a line seems defensible from the impetuosity oi 
 interruption. 
 
 " No 3 not that name was given me at the fount, 
 | " But 'tis usurped" 
 
 Every thing is taken away from me ; there is 
 nothing that I now can call my own; my power,. 
 
 t 4
 
 280 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 my title, nay, the very name that was given to me 
 at my baptism, I suppose, is now no longer mine. 
 
 " O, that I were a mockery king of snow, 
 " To melt myself away in water-drops." 
 
 Something like this is Hamlet's wish : 
 
 " O, that this too, too solid flesh would melt, 
 " Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew." 
 
 135. " Name it, fair cousin." 
 
 My fair cousin would complete the verse. 
 
 11 And shall I haver 
 
 The quarto reads " have it," which helps the 
 measure. 
 
 Bol. "Tet ask." 
 
 K. R. " And shall I have it?" 
 
 Bol. " Ay, you shall." 
 
 " Then give me leave to go." 
 The quarto 
 
 " Why then give me leave," &c. 
 
 But still the metre will be imperfect : I would 
 propose, 
 
 " Why pr'ythee give me leave to go then'* 
 Bol. Whither?" 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 137. " ' Ill-erected." 
 
 By ill-erected, I understand inauspiciously 
 erected.
 
 KING RICHARD II. 281 
 
 140. " Transform 'd, and weakened? Hath 
 
 Bolingbroke 
 " Depos'd thine intellect ? hath he been in 
 thy heart. 1 * 
 
 Perhaps these lines would be better thus : 
 
 " Transform'd and weaken'd ; hath Bolingbroke 
 
 depos'd 
 | Thine intellect ? hath he been in thy heart ?" 
 
 141. " Foul sin gathering head 
 
 " Shall break into corruption." 
 
 More double meaning: political disaffection 
 growing formidable and breaking out in rebellion, 
 and the supuration and bursting of a sore ; cor- 
 ruption, however, but ill agrees with the first 
 meaning. 
 
 142. " Then whither he goes, thither let me go" 
 Hotspur, in K. Henry IV. says, 
 
 " But whither I go, thither shall you go too." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 146. " And barbarism itself have pitied him." 
 
 " Barbarism" here seems to mean " cruelty.'* 
 
 148. " I fear, I fear 
 
 " - What should you fear f" 
 
 We might read, # 
 
 " I fear, I fear me- 
 
 Why i what should you fear?" 
 
 y 'Tis nothing but some bond that he is enter* d 
 into 
 
 c< 
 
 For gay apparel, against the triumph "
 
 C8<2 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 These lines want correction : perhaps one word 
 is wanting and another superfluous : 
 
 " 'Tis nothing but some bond he'senter'd into 
 " For gay and fit apparel, 'gainst the triumph." 
 
 A modern editor has supplied day after triumph. 
 
 " Boy, let me see the writing''' 
 Aum. " I do beseech you, pardon me ; I may not 
 
 shew it.** 
 Duch. " What is the matter, my lord ?" 
 
 It is not easy to repair the disorder that pre- 
 vails here in the metre : some Avoids, I suppose, 
 have been lost, perhaps like these, supplied : 
 
 " Boy, let me see the writing." 
 Aum. " ' I beseech you 
 
 "To pardon me, my lord: I may not 
 shew it." &c. 
 Duch. " What is the matter ?" 
 
 York. " Who's within there ? ho ! 
 
 (Enter Servant.) 
 " Saddle my horse : now God for his 
 
 mercy, 
 " What treachery is here ?" 
 Duch. " What is't, my lord ?" 
 
 And again : 
 
 York. "Peace, foolish woman ; peace.'* 
 
 Duch. n 1 will not peace ; 
 
 " What is the fnatter, son? / pray thet 
 tell me ?" 
 
 14.9- " Give me my boots, I say.'* 
 
 The latter words in this hemistic, " I say,' 
 should be omitted :
 
 KING RICHARD II. 283 
 
 " Give me my boots." 
 Buck. " Why, York, what wilt thou do ?" 
 
 " Thou fond mad woman." 
 
 Perhaps, 
 
 " Peace, peace, I say, thou fond mad woman, 
 peace." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 151. " Takes on the point of honour.'" 
 Assumes the point of honour. 
 
 " So dissolute a crezv." 
 Perhaps we should regulate these lines thus : 
 
 11 So dissolute a crew.'' 
 Perc. " Some two days since, 
 
 " My lord, I saw the prince, and told him 
 of 
 
 " These triumphs held at Oxford." 
 Bui. " And what said he?" 
 
 156. " For ever will I kneel upon my knees." 
 
 And again: 
 
 " Our knees shall kneel." 
 
 To kneel, then, appears, in these places, only to 
 signify " to bend." 
 
 15S. " Twice saying pardon, doth not pardon 
 twain, 
 " But makes one pardon strong.'" 
 
 I do not know whether the queen means to say, 
 that the repetition of the king's pardon is not v 
 
 4
 
 284 KING RICHARD II. 
 
 be extended to any other of the conspirators, 01 
 only that it will not divide or weaken the force of 
 that which was already pronounced. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 150. "He did." 
 
 This fragment might be accommodated in the 
 next line : 
 " He did, and speaking't wistly, look'd on me." 
 
 160. " I am the kings friend, and will rid his 
 
 foes." 
 
 " Rid," here, seems to stand for speed, dispatch. 
 
 " My brain I'll prove the female to my soul ; 
 " My soul, the father " 
 
 This is agreeable to the anatomical doctrine of 
 animal procreation; which supposes the matter 
 and substance to proceed from the female ; the 
 impulse, activity, and designation, from the male. 
 Vide Mr. J. Hunter. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 161. " Refuge their shame, 
 
 " That many have.** 
 
 Take cover for their shame, in the consideration 
 that many have, &c. 
 
 162. " I wasted time, and now doth time waste 
 
 me:' 
 
 Again the old epitaph on a musician occurs : 
 
 11 Steeven and time are now bothe even, 
 
 " Steeven beat time, now time beats Steeven."
 
 KING RICHARD II. 285 
 
 165. With much ado, at length have gotten leave 
 " To look upon my sometimes master's 
 
 face." 
 
 We might relieve this last line from its excess : 
 
 " With much ado at length got leave to look 
 " Upon my sometime royal master's face." 
 
 166. " Would he not stumble" &c. 
 
 This reminds us of Mezentius's Address to his 
 Horse Phoebus : 
 
 ' ' ' Aperit si nulla viam vis 
 
 ' Occumbes pariter : neque cnim, fortissime, 
 
 credo 
 ' Jussa aliena pati et dominos dignabere Teu- 
 
 cros." JSn. lib. 10, 864. 
 
 Lord Chedworth.
 
 FIRST PART OF 
 
 KING HENRY IV. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 179. " No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil 
 " Shall daub her lips with her own chil- 
 dren's blood." 
 
 Those who are not too much frightened by 
 this monstrous personage, which Mr. M. Mason 
 has conjured up from the infernal shades, to usurp 
 a station in the text here, and whose terrible 
 right Mr. Steevens has commanded us to acknow- 
 ledge, will very readily, I believe, be satisfied 
 with the plain sense of the common reading : 
 
 " No more the thirsty entrance of this soil," &c. 
 
 t. e. " No more the gaping fissures the lips ' 
 of this parched or thirsty soil shall be bedaubed 
 with native blood." The personification, indeed, 
 is a little harsh, but the very same thought is to 
 be found in our poet's nineteenth sonnet : 
 
 " Deuouring time, blunt thou the lyon's pawes, 
 " And make the earth deuoure her own sweet 
 brood." 
 
 " No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil 
 " Shall daub her lips with her own children* i 
 blood."
 
 KING HENRY IV. 87 
 
 I have seldom been so surprised, as when, in 
 the edition of 1793, I saw Erinnys advanced 
 into the text, in the place where I used to read 
 entrance : I could hardly persuade myself that it 
 was not " the very error of my eyes." This ap- 
 pears to me as bold an emendation as I ever met 
 with, and to be outdone by no achievement of 
 Bentley or Warburton. Mr. Steevens, fully aware 
 that this reading would not be generally acqui- 
 esced in, seems desirous of deterring opposition, 
 by hurling defiance in the teeth of all who should 
 dare to object to its reception. I confess myself 
 obnoxious to all the censure which is denounced 
 against those timid critics who cannot approve 
 this " gallant effort" of Mr. M. Mason, though 
 sanctioned by the deliberate approbation of Dr. 
 Farmer. Why Shakspeare was less likely to be 
 obscure in the fifth line of a play, than in any 
 other, I do not perceive, and wish that Mr. Stee- 
 vens had informed us. The passage, as it stands, 
 is certainly difficult; but I incline to think it is 
 rightly explained by Mr. M alone, with whom I 
 agree that her lips refers to soil, and not to 
 peace. I prefer damp to daub : damb is the read- 
 ing of the folios of 1632 and 1664 : the p being 
 reversed, (a common error in printing) damp be- 
 comes damb. Lord Chedworth.* 
 
 181. " Nor bruise her jloxv rets with the armed 
 hoofs 
 " Of hostile paces." 
 
 * Upon the concluding part of this note of my Lord Ched- 
 vvorth's I insert an observation of the printer's, with the blunt 
 propriety of which I am sure his lordship himself would have 
 been highly diverted. 
 
 " Lord Cbedworth has fallen into a curious mistake: the p 
 <c being reversed, damp becomes damd, and not damb. Stick 
 M to your last, my lord ! Printer*
 
 288 FIRST PART OF 
 
 The hoofs of paces is an expression not very 
 intelligible : the words, I am persuaded, have 
 been dislocated, and I think that we should read : 
 
 " Nor bruise her flowrets with the hostile pace 
 ct Of armed hoofs." 
 
 183. " As far as to the sepulchre of Christ, 
 " (Whose soldier now, kc.) 
 
 " Forthwith a power of English shall we 
 lex, y." 
 
 This I take to be a broken sentence, which, 
 whether by design or accident, is very natural 
 where a parenthesis intrudes. 
 
 " As far as to the sepulchre of Christ I intend 
 to lead you" (the king was going to say) but 
 digressing suddenly to the idea of his being a holy 
 soldier, impressed, &c. he neglects the sequel of 
 what he commenced with, and talks of the neces- 
 sary levies. A similar abruption we find in a 
 speech of Hotspur's : 
 
 " For all those wounds, 
 
 " Those mouthed wounds, which gallantly he 
 
 bore, 
 " When on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank," &c. 
 
 The obvious drift of his speech was : Those 
 wounds exhibit a clear proof of the fidelity with 
 which he serv'd you. But going into the cir- 
 cumstances of the combat, in his ardour the ar- 
 gument is dropped. 
 
 184. " Whose arms were moulded in their mo- 
 
 ther's wombs." 
 
 Who were, at their earliest creation, ordained 
 the cuemies of the infidels.
 
 KING HENRY IV. 289 
 
 f< My liege, this haste was hot in question.'* 
 " Question," a trisyllable. 
 
 185. " Such beastly, shameless tranformation.** 
 
 " Transformation" extended to five syllables. 
 
 " The tidings 
 
 " Brake off:* 
 
 This correct form of the imperfect past tense of 
 " to break" was beginning to grow obsolete in 
 our author's time. 
 
 183. u Of Murray, Angus, and Mont eith.** 
 
 We might read, 
 " The Earls of Murray, Angus, and Monteith." 
 
 Mr Capel proposed : 
 
 " And with him the Earls 
 
 " Of Athol, Murray, Angus, and Monteith." 
 
 " In faith, 
 
 " It is a conquest, 1 * &c. 
 
 The words " it is" might well be omitted : 
 
 "In faith a conquest," &c. 
 
 190. " I will, my liege.** 
 
 This hemistic is superfluous ; a bow at West- 
 moreland's exit would be sufficient. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 199- " Were it not here apparent that thou art 
 heir apparent.** 
 vol. 1. u
 
 290 FIRST PART OF 
 
 The value of this jingle depends on the words 
 " here" and " heir" having the same sound. 
 
 201. " The drone of a Lincolnshire bagpipe.** 
 
 That by this is meant, as Mr. Steevens con- 
 jectures, the dull croak of a frog is, I think, one 
 of the pleasantest conceits that I have met with. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 207- " If thou dar'st not it and for ten shillings.'''' 
 ''Stand" is "contend," as in K. Henry V. 
 Act 3, 205 : 
 
 " Stand for your own." 
 
 210. " For two of them, I know them to be as 
 true-bred cowards as ever turned back; 
 
 and for the third, if he fight longer 
 than he sees reason, I'll forszvear 
 arms." 
 
 This passage might give some support to the 
 arguments that have been advanced to shew that 
 FalstarTwas no coward. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 214. North. " My lord" 
 
 "Good, my lord," 
 Would complete the line. 
 
 " Worcester, get thee gone, 1 * Sec. 
 
 Unless " Worcester," contrary to custom, be 
 pronounced with three syllables, Worcester, this 
 line is defective ; we might read : 
 
 " Hence, Worcester, get thee gone, for I do see." 
 
 215. " My liege, I did deny no prisoners.'*
 
 KING HENRY IV. 291 
 
 " Prisoners" occurs again in this scene as a tri- 
 syllable : 
 
 " Why yet he doth deny his pris6ners." 
 
 But a little before : 
 
 " Those prisoners in your Highness' name de- 
 manded." 
 
 2l6\ " To be so pester cl with a popinjay 
 " Out of my grief " &c. 
 
 The transposition of these lines, proposed by 
 Mr. Edwards and Dr. Johnson is certainly right. 
 
 218. " Spermaceti:' 
 
 " Parmaceti" is the word in the quarto, 16*1 3, 
 and I suppose the author used the word corrupted 
 as he found it. 
 
 219. " Shall zve buy treason ? and indent xvith 
 
 fears " 
 
 Shall we compromise with traitors ? and timo- 
 rously enter into bonds of league with them ? 
 This I take to be the plain meaning. 
 
 221. " For all those wounds, 
 
 " Those mouthed zvounds," &c. 
 
 This is a broken sentence those wounds are 
 an evidence of his unfeigned loyalty, Hotspur 
 was about to say, but, digressing to the circum- 
 stances of the combat, the impetuosity of his tem- 
 per makes him neglect the sequel of his argument. 
 See Note the third : 
 
 " As far as to the sepulchre of Christ," &c. 
 
 221. " He did confound the best part of an hour" 
 
 He kept time in consternation or astonishment. 
 The expression is nobly poetic. 
 
 u 2
 
 292 FIRST PART OF 
 
 2Qo. Severn's flood, 
 
 " Who then, affrighted," &c. 
 
 Dr Johnson lias very fairly vindicated the pro* 
 priety of : this passage, though in doing so he has 
 furnished a conspicuous instance of the capacious- 
 ness, sometimes, of his critical decisions, for, if 
 the Severn may justly be personified or have a 
 tutelary power bearing his name, there can be no 
 reason why the Thames should not have the same 
 privilege ; yet the Doctor has been very sarcastic 
 upon Mr. Gray for invoking " Father Thames," 
 in the Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton Col- 
 lege. 
 
 223. " / tell thee he durst;' &c. 
 
 " I tell thee" seems to be a clumsy interpola- 
 tion, burthensome to the measure and useless to 
 the sense. 
 
 " Art not asham'd?" &c. 
 
 Something is wanting to the measure, which 
 Mr. Capel endeavoured to supply: 
 
 " Art not asham'd to say't ? but, sirrah, hence- 
 forth." 
 
 227. " Did gage them both," &c. 
 
 " To gage," at least with a note of contraction, 
 might well stand here for to " engage ;" but does 
 not the expression refer to chivalry ? and imply 
 that these men had " laid down their nobility, 
 &c." as a gage or pledge to support the cause of 
 the usurper? 
 
 228. " Disdain d contempt"
 
 KING HENRY IV. 593 
 
 " Disdain'd," says Dr. Johnson, for " disdain- 
 ful f but so it might as well have been " disdain- 
 ful disdain," or contemptuous contempt. The 
 sense, I believe, is contempt that is repelled with 
 equal contempt or disdain. 
 
 " To o'er -walk a current, roaring loud, 
 " On the unsteadfast footing of a spear. u 
 
 This is a strange image of an action that does 
 not appear to have, been ever practised, or to be 
 practicable. 
 
 229. " An easy leap, 
 
 " To pluck bright honour from the pah' 
 fac'd moon." 
 
 D. Johnson, I think, has well defended this 
 sally of Hotspur : but, says Mr. T. Warton, it is 
 probably a passage from some bombast play, and 
 afterwards used as a common burlesque phrase 
 for attempting impossibilities. I believe neither 
 that learned critic nor Mr Steevens will find many 
 readers agreeing with him in fancying a probabi- 
 lity that our poet would designedly put into the 
 mouth of the noble Percy, at a time like this, a 
 speech of boastful nonsense and extravagant bur- 
 lesque. 
 
 232. " All studies here I solemnly defy" 
 
 " Defy," says Mr. Steevens, is " refuse;" but 
 it is rather " renounce," disclaim with vehemence, 
 abjure, as in Romeo and Juliet: 
 
 " I do defy thy conjurations." 
 
 233. " Wasp-stung." 
 
 I have always thought, with Mr. Capel and 
 Mr. Malone, that " wasp-tongue," the reading 
 
 U 3
 
 294 FIRST PART OF 
 
 of the second quarto, is right : had Hotspur 
 himself been the speaker, he might naturally have 
 said, in justification of his impatience, that he 
 was wasp-stung, as he afterwards says he is 
 " stung with pismires;" and even if Northum- 
 berland had supposed his son to be so uncomfort- 
 ably assailed, there would be no reason to won- 
 der at his restlessness ; but Hotspur is reproached 
 for being irritated without any sufficient cause, 
 and from the mere caprice and petulance of his 
 temper, and thus he is called " wasp-tongue/' as 
 Brutus says to Cassius : 
 
 " I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter, 
 " When you are waspish." 
 
 " JVasp-tongued" says Heron, " is a metaphor 
 nothing like so hard as many used by Shakspeare, 
 and implies, with a tongue, poisonous and keen 
 as the sting of a wasp : let us, with due gratitude, 
 return thanks to Mr. Steevens, for his skilful 
 quotation to prove that Shakspeare knew where 
 the sting of a wasp lies; not in the mouth, but in 
 its tail." I think wasp-tongued the true read- 
 ing, and heartily agree with Heron. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 235. " At Berkley Castle, 
 
 " You say true." 
 
 Something appears to have been lost : perhaps, 
 " *Twas there ; you say true." 
 
 236. " Nay, if you have not, to't again" 
 We might read : 
 
 " Nay, if you have not, you may to't again." 
 Or, with Mr. Capel:
 
 KING HENRY IV. 295 
 
 " Nay, if you have not, sir, to it again." 
 
 237. " For, bear ourselves as even as we can, 
 
 " The king will always think him in our 
 
 debt ; 
 " And think we think ourselves unsatis- 
 fied, 
 " Till he hath found a time to pay us home" 
 
 Dr. Johnson's observation here, as well as one 
 to the same purpose by Mrs. Montague, appears 
 to have been suggested by the following passage 
 in Tacitus, " Nam Benejicia eo usque Iceta sunt, 
 dum videntur exolvi posse : ubi multum anteve- 
 nere, pro gratia odium redditur. 
 
 It is not easy, says Gibbon, to settle between 
 a subject and a despot, the debt of gratitude ; 
 which the former is tempted to claim by a revolt, 
 and the latter to discharge by an execution. 
 
 Hist, of the Decl. and Fall of the Roman 
 Empire, vol. v. (Quarto) 63. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 " And think zve think ourselves unsatisfied.'* 
 
 This is not carelessly written: Iago says to 
 Cassio : 
 
 " I think you think I love you." 
 
 238. " O let the hours be short, 
 
 " Till fields, and blows, and groans applaud 
 our sport.** 
 
 I am afraid the poet had no better motive than 
 the pitiful jingle of a rhyme for degrading the 
 gallant Hotspur by this savage sentiment. 
 
 u 4
 
 296 * FIRST PART OF 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 243. " Time enough to go to bed with a candle." 
 
 I know not whether the humour implies, that 
 any time would serve to go to bed with a candle > 
 or that it is simply asserted that he shall be at 
 home before all lights are put out. 
 
 "Time enough to go to bed with a candle.** 
 
 I suppose we are not to look for any very pro- 
 found meaning here; the whole of the dialogue 
 shews that the carrier did not rejoice in his com- 
 panion, whom he answers jeeringly : I do not 
 suppose the words were intended to convey more 
 than " time enough to go to bed after it is dark;" 
 the answer is purposely not precise. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 247. " Great oneyers." 
 
 This phrase, which Mr. Malone would refine into 
 a meaning that, I suppose, neither Gadshill nor 
 Shakspeare ever thought of, appears to be, as Dr. 
 Johnson has remarked, a mere cant expression 
 for " great ones," or " great folks," or those who 
 assume or challenge that distinction. 
 
 248. " Such as can hold-in.'* 
 
 To hold-in, if I mistake not, is a common 
 phrase in the chace for " not to tire," not to 
 spend the breath too soon. 
 
 " To hold-in," I believe means here, not to 
 blab ; Parmenio, in the Eunuch, speaking of his 
 own guarrulity, says : 
 
 " Plenus rimarum sum, hac atq ; iliac profluo." 
 
 Lord Chedworth.
 
 KING HENRY IV. 297 
 
 " Such as will strike sooner than speak, and 
 speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than 
 pray:' 
 
 This arrangement is certainly wrong j and Dr. 
 Warburton has in vain attempted to rectify it : 
 there is, indeed, but little humour in saying of 
 this dissolute crew, that " they would speak 
 sooner than drink ;" as little is there, I believe, 
 in the proposed emendation, that " they would 
 speak sooner than think, and think sooner than 
 prey." Dr. Johnson is obliged to leave the pas- 
 sage as he found it ; and Mr. Malone appears to 
 be not at all satisfactory upon it : perhaps we 
 should read thus : " Such as will strike sooner 
 than drink, and drink sooner than speak, and 
 speak sooner than pray." i. e. They are plain 
 blunt fellows, who would rather open their 
 mouths to drink than to talk ; yet, would decline 
 their loved potations sooner than omit an oppor- 
 tunity to plunder ; and would be even loquacious 
 sooner than religious. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 252. " If I travel but four foot by the square:' 
 
 Dr. Warburton has explained this passage just 
 as I had conceived it, before I saw his note, and 
 I am persuaded he is right; the humour is com- 
 pletely in Falstaff's manner, he cannot advance 
 four feet without describing, in his motion, the 
 square surface of that measure j he is as broad as 
 he is long. 
 
 " Ere I'll rob a foot further." 
 
 Dr. Johnson would read, " rub," but there is 
 much more humour in the expression as it is : it
 
 298 FIRST PART OF 
 
 implies, that his whole career was robbery, and 
 that to check his motion would be to remit his 
 plunder. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 267. " To play with mammets and to tilt with 
 
 lips." 
 
 It has been suggested to me by my Lord Ched- 
 worth, that in Heron's Letters of Literature, 
 "mammet" is derived from the French "ma- 
 niette," a woman's breast, which is the sense re- 
 quired here ; and this, perhaps, is the true significa- 
 tion of Hamlet's words to Ophelia, " I could inter- 
 pret between you and your love, if I could see the 
 puppets dallying," i. e. if I could observe the 
 agitations of your bosom. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 290. " You elf -skin:' 
 
 I think we should read, with Sir T. Hanmer, 
 eel-skin : in the Second Part of this play Falstaff 
 says of Justice Shallow, " You might have truss'd 
 him and all his apparel into an eel-skin." 
 
 293. " Give him as much as will make him a 
 royal man, and send him back again 
 to my mother." 
 
 Give him a royal and then he may approach 
 the queen on equal terms. 
 
 305. " If, then, the tree may be known by the 
 fruit, as the fruit by the tree, then 
 there is virtue in that Falstaff."
 
 KING HENRY IV. 399 
 
 Sir T. Hanmer's transposition appears to be ne- 
 cessary to the argument ; the man being the tree, 
 and* virtue the fruit, the speaker says, that tree 
 looks as if its fruit was virtue; and if we can 
 as truly determine what the fruit is by the appear- 
 ance of the tree, as we can, what the tree is by 
 seeing the fruit, then, certainly, the fruit of that 
 tree is virtue. Mr. Malones is a very illogical 
 conclusion. 
 
 This figure occurs in the Preface to Sir Walter 
 Raleigh's History of the World: " As the fruit 
 tells the name of the tree, so do the outward 
 works of men give us whereof to guess at the 
 rest." 
 
 310. " Never call a true piece of gold a coun- 
 terfeit." 
 
 The hostess, after saying that the sheriff and 
 the watch are at the door, asks, " Shall I let 
 them in ?" To which question, I suppose the 
 Prince, by gesture, gives assent, and thereby calls 
 forth these words from Falstaff, " Never call a 
 true piece of gold a counterfeit," i. e never make 
 light of a serious matter: '* thou art essentially 
 mad without seeming so." Your admitting these 
 people, which appears to be only heedlessness and 
 levity, is errant madness. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 316. " I nave forgot the map.'* 
 
 He had forgot, in a former scene, the name of 
 the duke of York's palace. These are incidents 
 which have no connexion with the plot or the
 
 300 FIRST PART OF 
 
 action, but are admirably illustrative of the ardent 
 and impetuous temper of Hotspur, and worthy of 
 a genius like Shakspeare's. 
 
 320. " These signs have mark'd me extraordi- 
 
 nary. 
 
 " Extraordinary" must here be extended to its 
 full quantity, six syllables, as again in the next 
 scene : 
 
 " Afford no extraordinary gaze." 
 
 " Why, I can teach you, cousin,'''' &c. 
 
 " Why" should be omitted : 
 
 " I dtn teach y6u, cousin, to command the 
 devil." 
 
 321. " And sandy -hot tonid Severn, have I sent 
 
 him, 
 " Bootless home, and zv eat her -beat en 
 back." 
 
 It is strange that Mr. Steevens should choose 
 to load the first of these lines with the wore 
 " him," and leave the second to rely for its quan- 
 tity upon the bootless attempt to make " boot- 
 less" a trisyllable ; especially as he has so often, 
 with just censure, remarked on Mr. Malone's en- 
 deavours to lengthen words that will not admit of 
 such extension. I would propose : 
 
 Three times have I sent him, 
 
 " Bootless and weather-beaten home again." 
 
 3^3. " Yea, 
 
 " But mark," &c. 
 
 The two first words are superfluous, and should 
 be omitted. 1
 
 KING HENRY IV. 301 
 
 " Mark, hozv he bears his course, and runs me 
 up ; 
 
 Gelding the opposed continent." 
 
 " Gelding" cutting out a circular piece. 
 
 B. Strutt. 
 
 " And then he runs straight and even." 
 
 We might read : 
 " And then he will run straight and evenlv :" 
 
 Or else 
 " And then he runs on straight and evenly." 
 330. " Good father, tell her, that," &c. 
 
 " That" is a careless interpolation : 
 
 " Tell her, she, and my aunt Percy.'* 
 
 But Lady Percy, in the second act, calls Mor- 
 timer her brother, as, indeed, he was. We might 
 read : 
 
 " Good father, say she, and my sister Percy." 
 
 " That pretty Welsh 
 
 " Which thou pourest down from these swelling 
 heavens." 
 
 This passage has been misunderstood by the 
 ate editors. Language may be said to be 
 " poured forth''' from the lips, but not " poured 
 down." The pretty Welsh, the language that 
 Mortimer understands, is the lady's tears, and 
 jthe " swelling heavens" are her eyes. That this 
 s the meaning is evident, from what follows : 
 
 But for shame, 
 
 " In such a parley I would answer thee."
 
 302 FIRST PART OF 
 
 Now this is the only way that Mortimer could 
 answer, or could be ashamed to answer ; for, in 
 the Welsh language, literally, he was " ignorance 
 itself." A slight transposition is wanting to the 
 prosody : 
 
 " Which thou down pourest from these swelling 
 heavens :" 
 
 Or 
 
 " Which down thou pourest from these swelling 
 heavens." 
 
 331. " Nay, if you melt, then will she rut* 
 
 mad." 
 
 Nobody, I suppose, can approve of Mr. Stee- 
 vens's expedient to repair this line : (" Why,) 
 then she will run mad." Yet something is ne- 
 cessary to be supplied! Will this do ? 
 
 " Nay, ify6umelt, then will she (e'en) run mad." 
 
 " She bids you 
 
 " Upon the wanton rushes lay you dozen." 
 
 Mr. Malone's attempt to bring this into oik 
 Hne is wholly ineffectual. " On," for " upon,' 
 might certainly, even without the authority oi 
 any peculiar copy, be admitted in a case like this, 
 but the measure cannot be made perfect withou! 
 entirely dismissing another word a word, how- 
 ever, that may well be spared. The use of the 
 epithet " wanton," here, is not suitable to the 
 character of either the lady or her father : 
 
 " She bids you on the rushes lay you down, 
 
 332. " And on your eye-lids crown the god oj 
 
 sleepy
 
 KING HENRY IV. 303 
 
 Mr. M alone says, this is a strange image ; but 
 I believe it will be deemed more strange, that 
 both he and Mr. Steevens should either be slow 
 to perceive or admit the justness of Dr. Warbur- 
 ton's applause of it : Sleep crown'd on his eye- 
 lids, is sleep seated there in the supremacy of de- 
 light: 
 
 " Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness, 
 " Making such difference between sleep and 
 
 wake, 
 " As is the difference betwixt day and night." 
 
 Mr. Sheridan seems to have had this passage in 
 his thoughts when lie was writing the Duenna, 
 and has sweetly amplified it : 
 
 " Tell me, my lute, can thy fond strain 
 " So gently speak thy master's pain, 
 " So softly breathe, so humbly sigh, 
 
 " That, tho' my sleeping love shall know 
 " Who sings, who sighs below, 
 " Her rosy slumbers shall not fly.'* 
 
 333. " Do so; 
 
 " A nd those musicians" &c. 
 
 This may all be comprehended in a legitimate 
 line with the trisyllabic ending : 
 
 " Do so ; and those musicians that shall play to 
 
 you." 
 
 334. "Neither; 'tis a xvoman's fault." 
 
 Dr. Johnson says he does not see what is a 
 woman's fault. Dr. Farmer, without shewing it 
 to him, or, I believe, to any one else, says the 
 expression is ironical. Mr. Steevens, after find- 
 ing, in two old books, " a woman's fault," three 
 times, conjectures that Hotspur " slily" means to
 
 304 FIRST PART OF 
 
 say, that the usual fault of women is, " they ne- 
 ver do what they are bid or desired to do :" and 
 Mr. Holt White, perceiving that Hotspur is in 
 the Welsh lady's bedchamber, luxuriously la- 
 bours- with a meaning, of which he seems ashamed 
 to be delivered. Now, I suppose, any one, who 
 had not, by such authorities, been obliged to 
 doubt, would readily conclude that a woman's 
 fault is only that " she will neither do one thing 
 nor the other." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 340. " So common-hackfiey'd." 
 
 The hyphen here, I believe, is improper ; either 
 " common" or " hackneyed" would express the 
 sense of the compound. <l Hackneyed" I take to 
 be a distinct word, more forcibly expressing the 
 speaker's sentiment. 
 
 " Opinion, that did help me to the crozvn, 
 " Had still kept loyal to possession." 
 
 My character, which assisted me in obtaining 
 the crown, would have continued it to the pos- 
 sessor, who, in that case, would not have been 
 more disreputable than myself. 
 
 " That men would tell their children." 
 
 " That," for " insomuch- that," as in other 
 places : 
 
 " That being daily swallow'd by men's eyes." 
 
 So- that being, &c. Fide Macbeth : 
 
 " That they did wake each other." 
 
 341. " And then I stole all courtesy from hea- 
 ven.*'
 
 KING HENRY IT. 305 
 
 I am inclined to understand this passage as 
 Warburton does. Mr. Davies remarks (I think 
 justly) that Mr. Malone explains our author to 
 mean more than he intended. Courtesy, for de- 
 votion, is surely somewhat strained : the progress 
 from courtesy to humility is natural enough. That 
 Promotheus's stealing fire from heaven was not 
 unfamiliar to Shakspeare, can be proved, from a si- 
 milar expression in Othello : 
 
 " But once put out thy light, 
 
 " I know not where is that Promethean heat 
 " That can thy light relumine." 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 Carded his state." 
 
 I cannot well understand this passage, as we 
 have it. Dr. Warburton's emendation appears 
 the most plausible " discarded." Mr. Steevens 
 says it is a metaphor taken from the wool-combers' 
 trade, and " to card wool," is " to mix it, coarse 
 and fine, together :" but this, as Mr. M. Masen 
 lias remarked, is a mistake : mixed wool, indeed, 
 may be carded, but the idea suggested by carding 
 or combing is the very reverse of mixture it is 
 separation. To say that " to card," is " to mix," 
 because the wool that is mixed may be carded, is 
 lot less erroneous than it would be to say, that 
 ' to spin," is " to mix," because different fleeces 
 lad been combined in the thread; neither can 
 
 at all agree with Mr. Ritson, who thinks 
 be allusion is to a game with cards. Perhaps 
 he word should be " carted :" Staged and ex- 
 libited his royalty to vulgar observation, like a 
 onunon shew at a fair, and openly entered the 
 ists 
 
 ' With every beardless vain comparative." 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 506 FIRST PART OF 
 
 347- V Be more myself." 
 
 K. " For all the world, 
 
 " As thou art," Sec. 
 
 This is evidently corrupt. The prince, who 
 was about to excuse himself, after his father's se- 
 vere remonstrance, would never have concluded 
 with so weak a sentence as is here ascribed to 
 him ; but he is interrupted while he was proceed- 
 ing somehow thus : 
 
 " I shall hereafter, my thrice-gracious lord, 
 
 " Be more myself than I M 
 
 K. " For all the world, 
 
 " As thou art," &c. 
 
 " He hath more worthy interest to the state, 
 " Than thou, the shadow of succession." 
 
 I do not acknowledge the obscurity here, of 
 which Dr. Johnson complains. " Percy (says 
 the king) exhibits a better and more substantial 
 claim to the sovereignty (when I shall be no more) 
 than thou, who art merely the shadow of royal 
 succession, not having any of the virtues or qua- 
 lities essential to the maintenance of it. 
 
 348. The archbishop's grace of York, Doug/as, 
 Mortimer." 
 
 This line is remarkable : if the last word but 
 one in it had not been a proper name, and one so 
 important as Douglas, the latter syllable might 
 be slurred or hurried so as to make the line come 
 within the compass of dramatic measure ; but, as 
 it is the excess is insufferable, at the same time 
 that it will admit of harmony, by the superindue- 
 tion of another word before '* Mortimer:" 

 
 KING HENRY IV. 307 
 
 " Th' archbishop's grace of York, Douglas, and 
 Mortimer." 
 
 349. " Dearest enemy." 
 
 " Dearest," says Dr. Johnson, is " most fatal." 
 But this is by no means an accurate definition. 
 " Dear," " dearer," or " dearest," no more im- 
 plies fatality, or mischief, than it does tenderness, 
 cordiality, or kindness ; it only denotes a close 
 and ardent affection of the mind, no matter whe- 
 ther hostile or friendly. Thus we sometimes 
 meet with " dearest love," and at others " dearest 
 foe." 
 
 Dearest."- 
 
 I take it, this became one of the middle words 
 capable of opposite senses, thus : dearest is that 
 which we consider as costing us most, which 
 may be said of an enemy, or as above price or es- 
 timation, which may be said of a friend. 
 
 Capel Lofft. 
 
 " And stain my favours in a bloody mask." 
 
 Surely Dr. Warburton is right in saying we 
 ought to read " favour," (i. e. countenance. ) Mr. 
 Steevens very properly, I think, denies Dr. John- 
 son's assertion, that " favours" means " features," 
 although " favour" does often signify counte- 
 nance ; but unless he can shew that the decora- 
 tions called " favours," are worn upon the face, 
 or else that a mask covers not only the face, but 
 all those parts whereon decorations or trophies 
 usually appear, his explanation cannot be admit- 
 ted. A line in exact consonance with this we find 
 in K. Richard III. 
 
 x 2
 
 308 FIRST PART OF 
 
 " Or hew "my way out with a bloody axe." 
 
 350. " This same child of honour.'* 
 
 Thus in K. Henry VIII. 
 " The great child of honour, Cardinal Wolsey." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 352. " While I am in some liking.'* 
 
 While I yet preserve some remnant of comeli- 
 ness. 
 
 253. " The inside of a church.*' 
 
 Mr. Malone's latter conjecture is certainly 
 right : " the inside of a church" is merely an ex- 
 clamatory repetition, referring to his want of reli- 
 gious devotion, and not an object of comparison 
 with himself. 
 
 356. " Lights as good cheap.'* 
 
 " Cheap" says Dr. Johnson, is "market," and 
 " good cheap," a bon marchc ; but how will this 
 accord with the context : the sack which thou 
 hast drunk would have bought me lights as good 
 market, &c. Is not the plain meaning this ? 
 The light from thy nose has often, of a dark 
 night, saved me the expence of a torch ; and yet 
 what I have paid for sack, to feed that nasal illu- 
 mination, would have purchased torch light as 
 good, ay, and comparatively cheap too, though 
 purchased at the dearest chandler's. I would 
 point " Lights as good, cheap, &c.
 
 KING HENRY IV. 309 
 
 366. " Enrich* d with any other injuries" &c. 
 
 " Injuries/* for losses whereby injury is sus- 
 tained. 
 
 368. O, I could wish, this tavern were my 
 drum." 
 
 FalstafT is now going out with a recruiting 
 commission, and the inn where the officer is 
 quartered is called, I believe, the Drum-head, and 
 perhaps, emphatically, the " Drum :" if so, Fal- 
 stafT only wishes that he could carry this tavern 
 along with him. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 369. " If speaking truth, 
 
 " In this fine age, were not thought flat- 
 tery" 
 
 If in an age, so sophistically refined and false 
 as this is, the language of truth and honest com- 
 mendation were not likely to be mistaken for 
 mere compliment and flattery, &c. 
 
 " / defy 
 
 " The tongues of soothers." 
 
 " To defy," is to abjure ; as in other places ; 
 
 " All studies here I solemnly defy," &c. 
 
 " Thou art the king of honour." 
 Perhaps 
 " I doubt it not ; thou art the king of honour." 
 
 370. " These letters come from your father." 
 
 x 3
 
 310 FIRST PART OF 
 
 I suppose we should read : 
 
 " These letters, good my lord, come from your 
 father." 
 
 How has he the leisure to be sick, 
 
 " In such ajustling time V 
 
 The same thought is introduced by Beaumont 
 and Fletcher, in the Loyal Subject : 
 
 " The general sick now ! Is this a time 
 " For men to creep into their beds ?* 
 
 371 " I would, the state of time had first been 
 whole." 
 
 I suppose it should be " the state o' the time." 
 The same expression, and the same apparent 
 error, we find in Hamlet : 
 
 " The whips and scorns of time." 
 
 373. " We may boldly spend upon the hope." 
 
 Mr. Ritson very properly proposes an amend- 
 ment of this line, by beginning " We now 
 may,"&c. But what is to be done with what 
 follows ? The best answer that occurs to me is, 
 in another question, what is the use of these 
 words, " of what is to come in ?" The sense is 
 clear and full, without any hemistic or hyper- 
 meter. 
 
 375. " Before not dreamt of. 
 
 " ^ You strain too far. 1 * 
 
 It should be : 
 
 " You do strain too far." 
 
 380. " I saw young Harry- 
 
 Rise from the ground*
 
 KING HENRY IV. 311 
 
 " And vaulted with such ease, &c. 
 " As if an angel dropt down from the 
 clouds" &c. 
 
 Who vaulted ? According to the structure of 
 the sentence, the speaker : the tense, too, is 
 wrong of the verb " dropt:" concord requires a 
 different reading : 
 
 " And vault with such an ease or so much ease, 
 
 &c. 
 " As if an angel had dropt down from the clouds," 
 
 &c. 
 
 Mr. Malone's easy emendation perhaps ought 
 to be adopted : 
 
 " And vault it," &c. 
 
 382. " Harry to Harry shall, hot horse to 
 horse, ." 
 
 The quarto, 16*13, reads " not horse to horse," 
 which certainly affords only a feeble sense, but I 
 cannot reconcile myself to " hot horse," I should 
 rather suppose that the word wanting is the sim- 
 ple conjunction " and," 
 
 " Harry to Harry shall, and horse to horse." 
 
 " That bears a frosty sound." 
 
 For an expression similar to this Dryden was 
 ridiculed by the wits who wrote the Rehearsal, 
 but it may be justified : we commonly say, ill news 
 damps our expectation, freezes our hopes, and, 
 this sound, like a frost, chills and disheartens 
 us. 
 
 " My father and Glendower being both away, 
 " The powers of us may serve so great a day." 
 
 x 4
 
 312 FIRST PART OF 
 
 The animating glory of the enterprise will ren- 
 der even our small numbers equal to its accom-. 
 plishment. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 S.90. " Looks he not for supply f* 
 
 Vern. " So do we." 
 
 The disorder of the metre might easily be re- 
 paired 
 
 V. "So we." 
 
 H. " But his is certain, ours is doubtful." 
 
 " You speak it out of fear and cold heart." 
 
 Here again a particle has been carelessly 
 omitted 
 
 " You speak it out of fear, and from cold heart.'* 
 
 391- " ' Certain horse 
 
 " Of my cousin Vernoiis" &c. 
 
 This line sets out discordantly ; the particle 
 " of" might be dismissed 
 
 Certain horse 
 
 " My cousin Vernon's." 
 
 *' That not a horse" &c. 
 
 " That," as in other places for " so that.'* 
 
 392. " Such bold hostility." 
 
 We might read, without the hypermete^ 
 
 " You conjure, &c. 
 " Hostility/' &c. 
 
 394. " The more and less."
 
 KING HENRY IV. 313 
 
 I believe, with Mr. M, Mason, that this should 
 be, 
 
 " They, more and less." 
 
 I. e. They, in greater and smaller numbers. 
 Yet we find, in Macbeth, 
 
 " And more and less have given him the revolt." 
 
 395. " To be encag'd in Wales:' 
 
 " Engage," the old reading, ought, certainly, 
 as Mr. Douce remarks, to be retained ; " en- 
 cag'd" exhibits an image not proper to the sub- 
 ject. t 
 
 396. " Into his title, the which zvejind." 
 
 This imperfect line might easily be repaired : 
 
 " Into his title, which we find to be 
 " Too indirect," &c. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 " With winged haste, to the lord Mareshai" 
 
 Unless " Mareshai" be uttered as a trisyllable, 
 a word is wanting: we might add " Mowbray." 
 
 397. " But there is Mordake Vernon and Lord 
 
 Harry Percy:* 
 
 " Harry" should be omitted, as not only bur- 
 thensome to the measure, but injurions to Percy's 
 distinction.
 
 314 FIRST PART OF 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 400. " Hear me, my liege." 
 
 This useless hemistic should be omitted, or 
 we might read, 
 
 " My liege, for me, I could be well content." 
 
 " You have not sought for it ! how comes it, 
 then." 
 
 We might read harmoniously : 
 
 " You have not sought it ! say, how comes it, 
 then." 
 
 Mr. Steevens introduces for into the text after 
 " sought," but that does not so well accord with 
 the words of the king's question. 
 
 402. " As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's 
 bird." 
 
 According to the general meaning of gull, as 
 metaphorically applied, the " sparrow" is the 
 " gull" here. 
 
 " That ungentle gull," &c. 
 
 " Gull" is used in this place as " cur" is when 
 a " dog" is spoken of contemptuously. 
 
 B. Strutt. 
 
 404. " Shall pay full dearly for this encounter" 
 
 Hereagain a word is wanting : perhaps, 
 " For this day's encounter." 
 
 405. " So tell your cousin, and bring me word." 
 We should read : 
 
 -Go and bring me word."
 
 KING HENRY IV. 315 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 408. " Here comes your cousin." 
 
 This hemistic might find accommodation in the 
 context : 
 
 " Here comes your cousin." 
 
 Hots. " My uncle is return'd, 
 
 " Deliver up Lord Westmoreland what 
 news ?" 
 
 " Lord Douglas, go you and tell him so." 
 
 It is much easier to suppose that a particle has 
 been lost or omitted here, as in numerous instances 
 besides, than to agree with Air. M alone in making 
 "Douglas" a trisyllable: Theobald rightly reads: 
 
 " Lord Douglas go you then and tell him so." 
 
 409. " Did you beg any ? God forbid /" 
 Again a word must be supplied : 
 
 " Did you beg any ? marry, God forbid." 
 
 411. " Any prince, so wild, a liberty." 
 
 This, the reading of the quarto, I believe, is 
 right : he who would give " harlotry'' for " har- 
 lot" would not scruple to give " liberty" for " li- 
 bertine." 
 
 " Better consider what you have to do, 
 
 " Than I, that have not well the gift of ' tongtie, 
 
 " Can lift your blood up with persuasion.^ 
 
 It is fitter, now, that ye yourselves consider 
 well the importance of your duty, than that I, 
 who am no orator, should strive to animate you 
 by harangue. This appears to be the sense, but 
 the construction is defective; the conjunction
 
 316 FIRST PART OF 
 
 " than" is incompetent to maintain the due rela 
 tion between the latter and the foregoing parts o 
 the sentence. 
 
 412. " My lord, here are letters for you" 
 
 We might read, 
 
 Mess. " Letters, my lord." 
 Hots. " I cannot read them now." 
 
 < - 
 
 'The time of life is short, 
 
 " To spend that shortness basely, were too long. 
 
 Concord requires the relative "it:" 
 *' To spend that shortness basely 'twere too long,' 
 
 i. e. The short time of life were too long. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 413. " Some tell me that thou art a king. 1 
 
 Surely it should be " the king." 
 
 " They tell thee true:' 
 
 I suppose the remainder of this line was care- 
 lessly omitted by the transcriber : it might hav< 
 run thus : 
 
 " Douglas, they tell thee true, for so I am.* 
 
 414. " Lord Stafford's death." 
 
 This hemistic is natural from the interruptioi 
 of the combat. 
 
 " I never had triumph' d upon a Scot." 
 
 This, which appears to be the proper accentor 
 ation of the verb, occurs elswhere, as in the nex 
 scene of this play.
 
 KING HENRY IV. 317 
 
 " I know this face full well.''' 
 
 " Full well" should be omitted : 
 
 Hots. "Where?" 
 
 i) oug , Here." 
 
 Hots. " This Douglas ! no, I know this face; 
 " A gallant\night," &c. 
 
 415. " Why didst thou tell me that thou wert a 
 
 king.'* 
 
 " Wert" should be " wast." 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 420. " I pr'ythee, 
 
 " Harry, withdraw thyself. 1 * 
 
 To the editor I would say, here, " Withdraw, 
 f pr'ythee." 
 
 " And rebels* arms triumph in massacres." 
 
 And Milton, also, accents it in the same man- 
 ler : 
 
 ' Who now triumphs and in the excess of joy." 
 
 " / will do so\ 
 
 " My lord of Westmoreland.'* 
 
 The hemistic here, and the awkward repetition 
 u Westmoreland's speech might be avoided thus: 
 
 " I will do so my lord of Westmoreland, 
 " Lead him t6 his tent." 
 IVest. " 1 will; come on, my lord." 
 
 (Douglas fieth. ) 
 
 The making Douglas, who never fled before, 
 iow flee from the Prince of Wales, seems to be 
 vith a view to Hector's flight at the approach of 
 1
 
 318 FIRST PART OF 
 
 Achilles, and appears equally liable to the cen- 
 sure which the Greek poet has perhaps justly in- 
 curred upon that score. 
 
 (Douglas fleet It.) 
 
 To flee, in the days of ancient heroism, waa 
 less disgraceful (however paradoxical it may 
 seem) than later times have made it ; but Shak- 
 speare had traditional authority, as appears by 
 Holingshead's Chronicle, for the flight of Doug- 
 las, and the disastrous circumstance which at- 
 tended it, and which the poet intimates at the 
 close of the drama ; and is it not probable that 
 Homer was authorised in the same manner? 
 
 Capel Lofft. 
 
 422. Cheerly, my lord ; how fares your grace? 
 
 This line wants a foot ; perhaps it ran, 
 
 " Now cheerly, good my lord ! how fares your 
 Grace? 
 
 " Stay, and breathe a while. 1 ' 
 
 More mutilation ; perhaps we might supply, 
 
 " Stay, Harry, yet, forbear and breathe awhile." 
 
 423. " T might have let alone 
 
 " The insulting hand of Douglas over you." 
 
 The prince "might have let alone" this display 
 of his affection, which had already been acknow- 
 ledged. 
 
 Think not, Percy, 
 
 " To share with me in glory any more." 
 
 But heretofore the glory was altogether 
 Percy's. 
 
 4#9< " If a lie may do thee grace, 
 
 " I'll gild it with the happiest terms 1 
 have:'
 
 KING HENRY IV. 319 
 
 The Prince, indeed, is generally not very tena- 
 cious of veracity, but his accommodation, in this 
 instance, is unnatural. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 430. " Had been alive this hour." 
 
 Something has been lost ; perhaps like this : 
 
 | And many a creature else, 
 
 " Now stiff in death, had been alive this hour. 
 
 " How goes the field f ' 
 
 This is a strange question here : from the 
 prince's words, the king might be enquiring about 
 Douglas. It is in vain to think of supplying the 
 genuine words in such a case, but they might be 
 to this effect: 
 
 t% Where is that fierce insurgent of the North ?* 
 
 But, indeed, as the hemistic or the question is 
 wholly useless, it is most probably interpolated.
 
 SECOND PART OF 
 
 KING HENRY IV. 
 
 ACT L SCENE I. 
 
 -*Every minute now 
 
 " Should be the father of some stratagem.** 
 
 I cannot see any occasion for annexing to 
 " stratagem," either here or in the instances 
 quoted by Mr. M. Mason, from K. Henry VI. a 
 meaning different from the obvious one, device, 
 contrivance, to oppose or prevent the enemy. 
 
 12. " He seemed, in running, to detour the 
 way." 
 
 Besides the instances quoted by the editors, of 
 similar expressions, the writer of the work called 
 Ossian's Poems says, 
 
 " He consumed the battle in his rage." 
 
 Carrie Thura. 
 
 15. " That what he feard is chanced. Yet 
 speak, Morton" 
 
 The prosody requires a transposition : 
 
 " Yet, Morton, speak." 
 
 " Tell thou thy earl," &c. 
 The quarto, 1600, reads " an earle."
 
 KING HENRY IV. 321 
 
 15. " Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead." 
 
 Dr. Johnson would give this line to the Lord 
 Bardolph, and the conclusion of the speech to 
 Morton ; but, surely, without necessity or im- 
 provement : the contradictions which the change 
 is meant to remove are well suited to the distrac- 
 tion of the speaker's mind. 
 
 \6. " If he be slain, say so." 
 
 " Say so" was added by the folio editors, and 
 something, certainly, was wanting ; perhaps this 
 supplement may be better : 
 
 " Jf he be slain, indeed.'* 
 
 u Remember' d knotting." 
 
 Remembered as knolling': there should be a 
 comma after " remember'd." 
 
 17. " Then 
 
 " Douglas did grace the shame 
 
 " Of those that turn'd their backs." 
 
 This is beautifully expressed. 
 
 18. " These news, 
 
 u Having been well, that would have made 
 me sick." 
 
 A slight transposition seems necessary here : 
 
 " That would, having been well, have made me 
 sick.*' 
 
 20. " And darkness be the burier of the dead."' 
 
 The latter part of Dr. Johnson's remark on 
 this passage is, I believe, the true expression of 
 the poet's meaning, and seems necessary to the 
 magnificence of the idea. 
 
 vol i. y
 
 322 SECOND PART OF 
 
 23. " Turns insurrection to religion.''' 
 
 " Religion," here, is of equal length with u in- 
 surrection ; but the instances are endless of the 
 poet's lengthening or contracting the sound of 
 vowels to suit the metre. 
 
 " Doth enlarge his rising.'* 
 
 Doth increase the band of insurgents. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 35. " I am the fellow with the great belly, and 
 he my clog." 
 
 Dr. Johnson says he docs not understand th< 
 joke ; he knows that dogs sometimes lead th< 
 blind, but asks, Why should a dog lead the fat i 
 Dr. Farmer answers, " If the fellow's great bell} 
 prevented him from seeing his way, he woulc 
 want a dog as well as the blind man." But this 
 reply is by no means satisfactory ; the definite 
 article repeated in " the" man, and " the" great 
 belly, seems to denote a reference to some well- 
 known object at that time. 
 
 37. " Your wit single.'" 
 
 "Single," perhaps, means unique : I imagine 
 the chief justice designs an emphatic complimeni 
 to Falstatf's wit ; he depreciates every other qua- 
 lity, and, by saying " your wit is single," means, 
 your wit is the only thing that you can fairly 
 boast of: yet single may mean small, as Mr. 
 Steevens explains. 
 
 42. " I will turn diseases to commodity." 
 
 " Commodity," as Mr. Steevens says, is gain, 
 
 Erofit, sordid advantage: thus Fauleonbridge, 
 aving dilated this sense of the word in Kill 
 John, concludes:
 
 KING HENRY IV. 323 
 
 " Since kings break faith upon commodity, 
 " Gain be my lord, for I will worship thee." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 43. " Eating the air on promise of supply.'' 7 
 Hamlet says, 
 
 " I eat the air, promise-cramm'd." 
 
 44. Hast, " It never yet did hurt 
 
 " To lay down likelihoods ," &c. 
 Bard. " Yes, in this present quality of war, 
 " Indeed, the instant action (a cause 
 
 on foot) 
 " Lives so in hope, as, in an early 
 
 spring, 
 " We see the appearing buds, xvhich, 
 
 to prove fruit, 
 " Hope gives not so much zvarrant as 
 
 despair, 
 " That frosts will bite them." 
 
 There is no harm, says Hastings, in taking 
 probabilities into reckoning : yes, cries Bardolph, 
 in the present condition of things, there is; hope, 
 or a flattering calculation, as our cause stands, 
 (in the instant action) is likely to deceive us, and 
 our prospect of success is no more to be relied on 
 than the premature promise of a spring which, to 
 an experienced mind, suggests the likelihood of 
 abortion, rather than of abundance. 
 
 Bardolph's speech to " We fortify in paper," is 
 not in the quarto. 
 
 4o\ " And waste for churlish winter's tyranny" 
 
 In As You Like It, we find : 
 y 2
 
 324 SECOND PART OF 
 
 " And churlish chiding of the winter's wind." 
 
 47- " And come against us in full puissance." 
 
 " Puissance" is occasionally a dissyllable and a 
 trisyllabic, as in line 487 : 
 
 " Upon the powr and puissance of the king." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " Have of their puissance made a little taste." 
 
 Yet, in these instances, the fluency of the 
 vowels would admit of the distinct sounds. 
 
 48. " And being now trimmd in thine oxen de- 
 sires." 
 
 Upon this line, Mr. Malone says, the last word 
 is a trisyllable ; but let us see what sort of metre 
 such a trisyllable would here produce; first of all, 
 " being" must become, what certainly it can be, 
 a monosyllable, as thus (if it were necessary so to 
 read) : 
 
 " And bemg now trim'm'd out in thine own de- 
 sires." 
 
 But, according to Mr. Malone's arrangement, 
 we must read desi-res or desi-e?\? : 
 
 " And bemg now trim'm'd in thine own desi-re's.* 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 52. I'll tickle your catastrophe." 
 
 I'll whip your breech, make your latler-end 
 smart or itch.
 
 KING HENRY IV. 325 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 51. "A prince should not be so loosely studied, 
 as to remember so weak a composition" 
 
 " Studied," in this sense, is a word adopted 
 from the stage; it occurs again in Macbeth: 
 
 " He died like one 
 
 " That had been studied in his death." 
 
 68. " / will steep his letter in sack, and make 
 him eat it." 
 
 The dose with which Poins threatens the 
 knight was actually administered, and without any 
 sack to relish it, in Ireland, where a gentleman, 
 who conceived himself slandered in a newspaper, 
 made the editor swallow one whole copy of the 
 print. 
 
 " Repent at idle times." , 
 
 i. e. At your leisure, when you have nothing 
 else to do : King Lear says, to his ungrateful 
 daughter Goneril, 
 
 " Mend when thou canst be better at thy leisure" 
 
 70. " This Doll Tear-sheet should be some 
 
 road." 
 Poins. " I warrant you, as common as the way 
 
 between St. Albans and London." 
 
 Thus in Cymbeline, a prostitute is described : 
 
 " With lips as common as the stairs, 
 
 M That mount the capitol." 
 y 3
 
 326 SECOND PART OF 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 72. " He was, indeed, the glass 
 
 " IVherein the noble youth did dress them- 
 selves." 
 And again : 
 
 " In speech, in gait, in diet, and affections, 
 " He was the mark and glass, copy and book 
 " That fashion'd others." 
 
 The same figure occurs in Hamlet : 
 
 " The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue. 
 
 sword, 
 " The glass of fashion and the mould of form, 
 " The observ'd of all observers." 
 
 " He had no legs that practised not his gait," 
 
 This phraseology is a-kin to 
 
 " Steps me a little higher than his word." 
 
 73. " Speaking thick, which nature made his 
 
 blemish, 
 
 " Became the accents of the valiant ; 
 
 " For those that could speak low, and tar- 
 dily." 
 
 11 Thick," in the preceding sentence, must 
 signify something more than " quick," and imply, 
 also, that Hotspur spoke in a high or shrill key, 
 or else for " low," we must merely understand 
 " slow." 
 
 " Second to none, unseconded by you" 
 
 I wish this line, which seems to have been ii 
 troduced merely for the sake of a worthless jir 
 gle, were omitted.
 
 KING HENRY IV. 327 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 99. '* Thou little tidy Bartholomew hoar-pig." 
 
 " Tidy," says Mr. Reed, means only fat ; but 
 in this place it would better mean lean, or, in- 
 deed, any tiling else than fat, as Tearsheet's lan- 
 guage is evidently irony. Tidy is at this day, in 
 Yorkshire and in Ireland, a current word for 
 " neat," " compact," " succinct ;"-^-it also im- 
 plies minute cleanliness. 
 
 102. " Breeds no bait with telling of discreet 
 stories" 
 
 Telling discreet stories, I suppose, means, giv- 
 ing lessons of prudential conduct and behaviour, 
 as if it had been said " There is too much levity 
 in his discourse to occasion strife." 
 
 109. " Answer, thou dead elm, answer." 
 
 I know not the fitness of this allusion. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 112. " Are at this hour asleep ! Sleep, gentle 
 sleep" 
 
 The repetition of the tragical O ! as it stands in 
 the old copy, was undoubtedly, as Mr. Steevens 
 remarks, an intrusion of somebody's : so likewise 
 must have been that of " sleep," in the second 
 instance. The line should stand thus : 
 
 " Are at this hour asleep ! O gentle sleep." 
 
 Y 4
 
 328 SECOND PART OF 
 
 113. " Of the great, 
 
 " Costly state.** 
 
 I wish this accidental and unpleasant rhyme 
 had not occurred ; it might be avoided, by read- 
 ing, instead of Xi state," " pride." 
 
 " In the slippery clouds.** 
 
 I must prefer " shrowds," here, to " clouds," 
 and, notwithstanding the instances produced by 
 Mr! Steevens, to shew that " shrowds" sometimes 
 is the same as " clouds," I cannot be reconciled 
 to slippery clouds, nor to the kind of tempest or 
 kind of poetry which would hang waves in the 
 clouds, at all, though they might, in some inflated 
 and ambitious moments, aspire to kiss or touch 
 the clouds. 
 
 " I n th e slippery clouds,** &c. 
 
 Shakspeare's idea of a tempest hauging the 
 waves in the shrowds (says Heron) was certainly 
 strong enough, without his annotators pushing it 
 to bombast. Mr. Steevens must have a bold 
 heart, and certainly deserves to be made an ad- 
 miral, for his notion that a tempest, which hangs 
 waves in the top shrowds of a vessel, is a mode- 
 rate tempest. Pray do turn poet, Mr. Steevens, 
 and give us an immoderate tempest by all means, 
 that we may know what it is to joke and to be in 
 earnest. I prefer shrowds to clouds. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 114. " That, with the hurly, death itself 
 awakes.** 
 
 Insomuch that death awakes, &c. 
 
 116. " Is it go'od morrow, lords ?'*
 
 KING HENRY IV. 329 
 
 The word " good," here, is a careless intrusion 
 of the transcriber. Warwick salutes the king : 
 
 " Many good morrows to your majesty." 
 King. " Is' t morrow, lords?'* 
 War. " 'Tis one o'clock, and past." 
 
 119- "The happiest youth, viewing his pro- 
 gress through, 
 " What perils past, what crosses to ensue 
 ** Would shut the book, and sit him down 
 and die." 
 
 If a youth, whose pre-ordained course of life 
 were the happiest that a mortal could experience, 
 should be permitted to contemplate, by anticipa- 
 tion, its progress, he would pause in the midst of 
 his visionary career, and, reflecting on the nume- 
 rous evils and vexations foregone, and to come, 
 would shut the book in despair, and die at once. 
 See Paradise Lost, Book 1 1 : 
 
 f Better end here unborn : why is life given 
 " To be thus wrested from us ? rather why 
 " Obtruded on us thus, who, if we knew 
 " What we receive, would either not accept 
 V Life offer'd, or soon beg to lay it down, 
 " Glad to be so dismiss'd in peace." 
 
 *' Would shut the book, and sit him down and 
 die." 
 
 The author of Douglas seems to have had this 
 passage in his mind, when he wrote the following 
 lines : 
 
 " O had I died when my lov'd husband fell ; 
 " Had some good angel op'd to me the book 
 " Of Providence, and let me read my life, 
 w My heart had broke when I beheld the scene
 
 330 SECOND PART OF 
 
 " Of ills which one by one I have endur'd." 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 120. " And, by the necessary form of this." 
 
 " This," I think, refers to the " hatch and 
 brood of time," the necessary deduction of similar 
 effects from similar causes. 
 
 121. " It cannot be, my lord" 
 
 My lord is evidently a careless interpolation. 
 u A certain instance that Glendbwer is dead." 
 
 But in the first part of this play we find : 
 " As Owen Gl^ndower for an enemy." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 137. " She never could away with me." 
 
 Away-with. This phrase appears to agree ex- 
 actly with one in modern colloquial use pmt-up- 
 with i. e, tolerate, bear. 
 
 152. " You might have truss'd him, and all his 
 apparel, into an eel-skin." 
 
 This appears to support Sir T. Hanmer's emen- 
 dation, in the first part of this play eel-skin, for 
 elf-skin. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 154. <c 'Tis Gaul tree forest, arit please your 
 grace" 
 
 The latter part of this speech, " an't please
 
 KING HENRY IV. 331 
 
 your grace," which is quite useless, and spoils 
 the metre, should be omitted. 
 
 157. " ' You, lord archbishop, 
 
 " Whose white investments figure inno- 
 cence. 
 
 I do not agree with Mr. Toilet, in supposing 
 that the theatrical archbishop should be habited 
 in his rocket. Westmoreland refers to what was 
 the proper habit of his office, not to what he then 
 had on. He should be in armour : he is after- 
 wards called by Lancaster an iron man. I know 
 it may be urged that Lancaster there speaks me- 
 taphorically ; but, on considering all that is said, 
 I think the archbishop ought to appear on the 
 stage in armour. See, too, Mr. Steevens's note 
 on iron man, from Holinshead, page 170. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 157, " Turning your books to graves, your ink 
 
 to blood, 
 " Your pens to lances ; and your tongue 
 
 divine 
 " To a loud trumpet, and a point of war." 
 
 Some lines resembling these in thought and 
 expression, we find in King John, Act 5 : 
 
 " Your own ladies, and pale-vizag'd maids, 
 
 " Their thimbles into armed gauntlets change ; 
 " Their needles to lances, and their gentle hearts 
 " To fierce and bloody inclination." 
 
 " Graves," I am persuaded, should be, as Mr. 
 Steevens has suggested, " greaves." 
 
 161. " My brother general, the commonwealth^ 
 " To brother born an household cruelty, 
 " / make my quarrel in particular." 
 
 4
 
 332 SECOND PART OF 
 
 The attempts to explain this passage have been 
 hitherto abortive. The best 1 can do with it is 
 this. Westmoreland had asked the archbishop 
 what he complained of? " General (replies the 
 bishop) the common-wealth, my brother gene- 
 ral, ( i. e. general brother,) become, as it is, by 
 misrule, a household cruelty to its brothers born, 
 I make my special cause of quarrel." 
 
 165. u Our battle is more full of names than 
 
 yours." 
 
 " Names," for men of eminence and title. 
 
 166. " To w?, and to our purposes, consigned" 
 
 Confind, the old reading, 1 believe right ex- 
 ecuted with a strict conformity to our intentions. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 177. " Heaven, and not we, hath safely fought 
 to-day." 
 
 The ascribing thus the success of the grossest 
 treachery to the influence of heaven, howsoever 
 it may shock the mere moralist, is perfectly pious 
 and orthodox. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 185. " This little kingdom, man" 
 
 Thus in King John, Act 4, 395 : 
 
 " In the body of this fleshly land, 
 
 u This kingdom," &c. 
 
 And in Julius Csesar, Act 2: 
 
 " The state of man, 
 
 " Like to a little kingdom, &c,
 
 KING HENRY IV. 333 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 196. " The seasons change their manners, as the 
 year 
 " Had found some months asleep, and leap" d 
 them over." 
 
 N. Lee, describing a similar disorder of the 
 Seasons, says : 
 
 " Blind winter meets the summer 
 
 " In the mid-way, and knowing not his livery, 
 " Hath driven him headlong back." (Edipus. 
 
 209. " All thy friends, which thou must 
 
 make thy friends. 1 * 
 
 i. e. I believe, all those capable or likely to as- 
 sist you, and whom it is incumbent on you to con- 
 ciliate and attach to your cause. 
 
 Mr. Seymour, thus explains this passage: 
 " All those capable or likely to assist you, and 
 whom it is incumbent on you to conciliate and 
 attach to your cause." If this be the true expla- 
 nation, (which I am rather inclined to think) Mr. 
 Tyrwhitt's emendation is inadmissible. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 $14. " William Cook." 
 
 It may be true, that, anciently, the lower or- 
 ders of the people had no surnames ; but this 
 comment of Mr. Steevens's does not tend to
 
 334 SECOND PART OF 
 
 prove it, and, indeed, might well be spared. 
 *' The note upon William Cook (says Heron) is 
 in the true antiquarian style, and as such I leave 
 it. Coke, I have no doubt, was a proper name, 
 as well as Canning." By " William Cook," 
 Shallow certainly means William, the cook. Of 
 this I should have thought no one would have 
 doubted. Lord Chedworth; 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 221. " Never shall you see, that I will 
 
 beg 
 " A ragged and forestall' d remission" 
 
 I take the plain meaning to be never will I 
 descend to the meanness of asking pardon for an 
 act, the commission of which must, in every im- 
 partial and honest mind, be already justified. 
 Forestall'd, for anticipated, is in current use at 
 this day. 
 
 223. " Was this easy F 
 
 Was this tolerable ? easily to be borne, or 
 passed-by : as in Second Part of King Henry, 
 Act 3 : 
 
 " These faults are easy."
 
 KING HENRY V. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 273. " O, for a muse of fire, that would ascend 
 " The brightest heaven of invention," &c. 
 
 I cannot, with Dr. Warburton, suppose that 
 there is here any reference to the doctrine of the 
 Peripatetics, or, with Dr. Johnson, to the nature 
 or quality of fire : it seems to be nothing more 
 than the expression of a wish to be inspired with 
 poetic ardour, equal to the sublimity of the 
 theme ; just as Milton invokes the heavenly 
 muse's aid to his 
 
 *( , Adventurous song, 
 
 " That with no middle flight intends to soar 
 " Above th' Aonian mount." 
 
 276. " Into a thousand parts divide one man" 
 
 Let every thing we shew be regarded as minia- 
 ture ; in order to extend your ideas to any thing 
 like the reality, let each man before you be sup- 
 posed to be a thousand. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 281. " The courses of his youth promts' d it not. 
 " J he breath no sooner left his father's 
 body,
 
 336 KING HENRY V. 
 
 " But that his wildness, mortified in him, 
 " Seem'd to die too." 
 
 Somewhat of this thought we find in Milton's 
 History of Britain, p. 11, folio eel. 
 
 " Who thenceforth, vice itself dissolving in 
 him, and forgetting her firmest hold, with the ad- 
 miration of a deed so heroic " 
 
 " The courses of his youth," &c. 
 
 The character of Henry V. reminds us of what 
 Tacitus says of Titus : Lcetam 'voluptatibus 
 ddolescentiam egit, suo quam Patris Imperio 
 modest ior. Hist. II. 2. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 283. " - Unloose" 
 
 " Unloose," for " untie," or " make loose," 
 occurs in King Lear " Cut the holy cords in 
 twain, too intrinsicate to unloose" and appears 
 to be a corruption from " enloose." 
 
 284. " Grew like the summer grass,'* 
 
 &c. 
 
 This brings to our recollection, from Virgil 
 
 11 Non liquidi gregibus fontes, non gramina 
 
 desunt 
 " Et quantum longis carpent armenta diebus 
 " Exigua tantum gelidus ros nocte reponet." 
 Georg. II. 200. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 295. " Stand for your own." 
 
 Contend, be resolute for your own ; as in King 
 Henry IV. First Part : " Thou com'st not of the
 
 
 
 KING HENRY V. 337 
 
 blood royal, if thou dares t not stand for ten shil- 
 lings." 
 
 " Cold for action /" 
 
 i. e. For want-of action, or waiting-for action. 
 It is an odd expression. " For inaction," i. e. 
 by reason of inaction, would be more intelligible. 
 
 303. " They have a king, &c." 
 
 r The sovereign bee is called the queen, but 
 king is put generally here for one exercising 
 the supreme authority, and so the word is used 
 by Lord Verulam : " Ferdinando and Isabella, 
 kings of Spain." 
 
 Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the 
 Seuenth. Edit. 1629. 
 
 305. " Delivering o'er to executors pale.'* 
 
 The accent, as it here rests upon " xcutors," 
 seems intended to distinguish it from executors, 
 the agents of a testator, as the word stands in the 
 fourth act of this play : 
 
 " And their executors, the knavish crows." 
 
 306. " Without defeat r 
 
 " Defect," the word in the quarto, is, perhaps, 
 the right one: " Without defect or inefficiency, 
 on account of the difference of their operations. 
 
 " Not ivor ship 1 d with a xvaxcn epitaph." 
 
 A " waxen epitaph," I believe, means merely 
 a monumental record ; even that " frail memorial" 
 shall be wanting. Henry's ambition, which 
 grasped at a more durable renown than sculpture 
 or heraldry could confer, " monumentum cere pe~ 
 rennius," would contemplate the perishable sub- 
 
 VOL. I. Z
 
 338 KING HENRY V. 
 
 stance of even brass or marble, as only wax or 
 paper. 
 
 310. " How he comes o'er us," &c. 
 
 How lie banters us. The phrase, in low lan- 
 guage, is not obsolete. 
 
 311. " Living hence.'" 
 
 Dr. Warburton appears to be right in his con- 
 ception of this passage. " I never valued (says 
 the king) this petty possession, England ; my 
 mind was always bent on France, which I consi- 
 dered as my home, and proper seat of empire ;. 
 and, regarding myself here only as a visitor, I 
 scrupled not to lay-aside my formal grandeur, and 
 to indulge, without restraint, in levity and amuse- 
 ments." 
 
 ACT II. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 31 6. " And by their hands the grace of kings 
 must die." 
 
 I cannot recognise the absence of meaning 
 that Dr. Johnson complains of in these lines : 
 the chorus tells us, " the conspirators are bribed 
 by France, and that, by their hands, if hell hold 
 its purpose, the king must die before he take- 
 ship, and at Southampton." " Have a little pa- 
 tience, (proceeds the chorus) and make due al- 
 lowance for the violent changes of time and place 
 which we are forced to use in the conduct of this 
 play. Suppose the price of treason to have been
 
 KING HENRY V. 339 
 
 paid, the plan of execution agreed upon, and the 
 king having set off from London and now ima- 
 gine the scene to be at Southampton." 
 
 SCENE I. 
 
 320. " It will toast cheese. 1 ' 
 
 Butler, I believe, remembered Nym's sword, in 
 his description of Hudibras's dagger: 
 
 f* It would scrape trenchers, or chip bread, 
 " Toast cheese and bacon ; tho' it were 
 " To bait a mouse-trap, 'twould not care." 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 " When I cannot live any longer, I will do as I 
 may." 
 
 Mr. M. Mason would read " die as I may :" 
 but he seems to forget the language and charac- 
 ter of Nym, whose idiom is that in the text. 
 
 326. " Thy nasty mouth I" 
 
 " Messful," the word in the quarto, is, I be- 
 lieve, right, according to Pistol's phraseology : 
 " Thy glutton's mouth, which contains at once 
 as much as would make a meal or mess for a mo- 
 derate feeder." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 337. " Devils, that suggest." 
 
 " Suggest" is " prompt," " instigate," as in 
 Othello : 
 
 c When devils do their blackest sins put on, 
 ' They do suggest at first, with heavenly shews." 
 
 z 2
 
 340 KING HENRY V. 
 
 Temper* d thee.'* 
 
 Made thee fit to be wrought-upon ; fit to re- 
 ceive the designed impression. The allusion 
 seems to be to the act of softening wax. N. 
 Lee, in the Massacre of Paris, writes : 
 
 " See how she tempers him between her fingers." 
 
 338. " O how hast thou with jealousy infected 
 " The sweetness of affiance /'' 
 
 " Jealousy," here, is doubt, suspicion. A si- 
 milar sentiment occurs in Much Ado About 
 Nothing : 
 
 " For thee I lock-up all the gates of love, 
 " And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang, 
 " To turn all thoughts of beauty into harm, 
 " And never shall it more be gracious." 
 
 ACT III. SCENE II. 
 
 372. " . Be merciful, great duke." 
 
 Great duke, I believe, is no more than a fanci- 
 ful compellation of Pistol's. The pains which 
 some of the editors take to translate Pistol's 
 bombast into sober sense, appears to me Very 
 curious. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 " Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould /" 
 
 t. e. Says Dr. Johnson, to men of earth, poor 
 mortal men. To this explanation, I believe, the 
 above remark of Lord Chcd worth's will apply. 
 Pistol's accuracy of language was not equal to
 
 KING HENRY V. 341 
 
 Dr. Johnson's ; and by men of mould, I suppose 
 he only meant " men of condition, men of that 
 superior stamp which Pistol would assume." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 379. " As send precepts to the Leviathan." 
 
 This accentuation of precepts is quite obsolete, 
 if it ever prevailed; the word, in its forensic, as 
 well as moral sense, having- the accent on the first 
 syllable. 
 
 " Deadly murder.''' 
 
 Shakspeare seldom wastes an epithet ; " dead- 
 ly" is, indeed, a strong word, but applied to mur- 
 der, it is superfluous. The quarto docs not ex- 
 hibit the passage at all : but what says the copy 
 of the best subsequent authority ? The first folio 
 reads " headly ;" and does not this, with the bare 
 extrusion of a careless letter, supply the true 
 sense, " heady murder," the impetuous and ungo- 
 vernable havoc of soldiers in a storm. Thus in 
 King Henry IV. Lady Percy talks of " the tu- 
 mult of a heady jight." I find now that this 
 became Mr. Steevens's opinion. 
 
 SCENE VI. 
 
 404. " lVho y when they were in healthy 
 " I thought? &c. 
 
 This is a broken sentence, and should so be 
 pointed : 
 
 " Who, when thev were in health 
 
 " I thought," &c." 
 
 The quarto reads, I think with advantage, 
 " heart." 
 
 z 3
 
 342 KING HENRY V. 
 
 ACT IV. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 417. "From camp to camp, through the foul 
 womb of night, 
 " The hum of either army stilly sound*" 
 &c. 
 
 A picture much resembling this of the French 
 and English encampments is exhibited by Taci- 
 tus when he is describing the condition of the 
 Roman army in Germany under Caecina, and 
 that of the Barbarians under Arminius : " Nov 
 per diversa inquies, cum barbari festis epulis, 
 Iceto cantu, aut truci sonore subject a vallium ac 
 resultantis saltus complerent : apud Romanos 
 invalidi ignes interrupts voces, atque ipsi pas- 
 sim adjacerent vallo, oberrarent tentoriis, in- 
 somnes magis quampervigiles. Ann. Lib. I. 
 
 SCENE I. 
 
 435. " Let us our lives, our souls, 
 
 " Our debts, our careful wives, our chil- 
 dren, and 
 " Our sins lay on the king ; we must bear 
 all." 
 
 This sentiment seems to have been borrowed 
 by Milton : 
 
 " A crown, 
 
 11 Golden in shew brings 
 
 " Dangers to him who wears the diadem, 
 11 When on his shoulders each man's burthen lies." 
 
 Paradise Regained B. II. 
 
 437. " With a body filfd and vacant mind.''
 
 KING HENRY V. 343 
 
 Lee seems to have had this passage in his 
 thoughts when he wrote the following lines in 
 Theodosius : 
 
 " We'll fly to some far distant lonely village, 
 " Forget our former state, and breed with slaves, 
 " Sweat in the eye of day, and when night comes, 
 " With bodies coarsely fWd and vacant souls, 
 " Sleep like the labour'cl hinds, and never think." 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 445. " Each naked curtle-ax 
 
 " That our French gallants shall to-day 
 
 draw out, 
 " And sheath for lack of sport." 
 
 The same thought occurred before : 
 
 " And sheath'd their swords for lack of argu- 
 ment." 
 
 The destruction made by the sword, too, is 
 also, in another place, called sport: Hotspur says, 
 
 " O, let the hours be short, 
 
 " Till fields and blows and groans applaud our 
 sport." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 454. " Rather proclaim it, JVestmoreland, 
 through my host.'" 
 
 The quarto, in which this speech is addressed 
 to Warwick, reads, 
 
 " Rather proclaime it presently through our 
 
 camp." 
 454. " H et) which hath no stomach to this 
 
 fightr 
 
 z 4
 
 344 KING HENRY V. 
 
 The quarto : 
 
 " He Ma/ hath," &c. 
 
 " He that hath no stomach to thisfgkt, 
 
 " Let him depart, his passport shall be made.*' 
 
 (Quarto, drawne.) This liberal sentiment oc- 
 curs in Warner's Albion's England : 
 
 " I graunt that part of vs are fled and linked to the 
 foe, 
 
 " And glad I am our armie is of traitors cleared 
 so; 
 
 " Yea, pardon hath he to depart that stayeth mal- 
 content ; 
 
 " I prize the mind aboue the man, like zeal hath 
 like euent." 
 
 SCENE VII. 
 
 483. " Know'st thou not 
 
 " That Ihavefn'd these bones of mine for 
 ransomed* 
 
 This expression of fining the bones for ran- 
 som, I do not understand ; none of the commenta- 
 tors has attempted to explain it ; probably because 
 they all thought it too plain to need explanation: 
 I cannot, however help adverting to a just remark 
 of Mr. Wakefield's: " Nimis omnes proni sumus 
 dissimulare, atque silentio pratervehi, qua sunt 
 supra nostrum acumen posita." 
 
 Vide Wakefield's Note on Lucretius Lib. L 
 V. 89. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 The best explanation I can offer of fm'd is, 
 committed, dedicated, pledged ; taxed, perhaps, 
 would not have been obscure.
 
 KING HENRY V. 345 
 
 ACT V. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 496. " Toward Calais : grant him there ; there 
 
 to 
 
 seen." 
 
 Some word, such as Mr. Steevens has offered, 
 is necessary for the metre ; toward cannot be a 
 dissyllable without throwing the accent upon the 
 second syllable of the word following Calais; 
 neither can the actoerb there, by any utterance 
 that will be admitted, support the quantity of 
 two syllables. 
 
 498. " As, by a lower but by loving likelihood" 
 
 This line, as it stands, is a foot too long ; the 
 second by should be ejected, and then, by con- 
 tracting the sound of lower, we shall have the 
 just measure : 
 
 " As bv a low r r but loving likelihood." 
 
 At present we have an alexandrine instead of a 
 quintameter : 
 
 " As by a lower, but by loving likelihood.'* 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 508. " Her husbandry doth lie on heaps, 
 
 " Corrupting in its own fertility." 
 
 Milton has copied this in Comus : 
 
 " Nature would be 
 
 <>- 
 
 -Surcharg'd with her own weight, 
 f- And strangled with her waste fertility."
 
 FIRST PART OF 
 
 KING HENRY VI 
 
 There was no quarto publication of this play, 
 which first appeared in the folio of Hemings and 
 Condell : that Dr. Johnson should assert, in his 
 remarks on it, "the diction, the versification, and 
 the figures are Shakspeare's," or that he and Mr. 
 Steevcns, or, indeed, any person but moderately 
 acquainted with the compositions of our poet, 
 could hesitate indignantly to reject it as a clumsy 
 imposture, is, to me, surprising: if we except the 
 simile of a circle in the water, in the 2d Scene, 
 and the first speech of Mortimer in the Tower, 
 (which yet I do not ascribe to Shakspeare,) there 
 is not, I think, one scene, or hardly a line, which 
 partakes at all of his manner. Dr. Johnson ap- 
 pears to have left this foundling at the door of 
 our poet merely to get rid of an encumbrance, and 
 because he could not tell who the true parent was, 
 for he asks, " If we take these plays from Shak- 
 speare, to whom shall they be given ?" an argu- 
 ment, as Dr. Farmer remarks, at best, ad igno~ 
 rantiam : but Mr. Malone has furnished the an- 
 swer : to some of those who were muttering that 
 " an upstart crow, beautified with our feathers, 
 with his tiger's head wrapt in a player's hide, 
 supposes he is as well able to bombast out a blank 
 verse as the best of you; and being an absolute 
 Johannes Fac totum is, in his own conceit, the
 
 KING HENRY VI. 347 
 
 only Shake-scene in a country," I repeat, to 
 Lodge, Green, Peele, or Marlow j and to them, 
 with as little scruple, I assign, not only Titus 
 Andronicus, and Pericles, but all the applause that 
 may be due to no inconsiderable portion of many 
 other plays, which have hitherto been indiscrimi- 
 nately imputed to Shakspeare. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 6. " That have consented unto Henry's death? 
 
 Mr. Steevens's explanation of " consented" 
 here (which I am persuaded is right) might, if it 
 were wanting, receive support from a passage in 
 the next speech but one 
 
 " What, shall we curse the planets of mishap, 
 " That plotted thus our glory's overthrow ?" 
 
 and is among those numerous classical ideas 
 which, as Mr. Malone has justly remarked, con- 
 tribute to prove that this play is not the work of 
 our poet. 
 
 8. " He ne'er lift up his hand but conquered" 
 
 This is wrong construction : he is wanted be- 
 tween " but" and " conquered ;" lift for lifted, 
 the present for the past tense : Milton uses lift as 
 the passive participle : 
 
 " With head up-lift above the waves." 
 
 " He ne'er lift up" &c. 
 
 Lift was anciently used both as the past tense 
 and the participle passive. See John x'ri'i. 18. 
 
 Lord Chedworth.
 
 S48 FIRST PART OF 
 
 1 1 " What say st thou, man, before dead Hen- 
 ry's corse ? 
 " Speak softly ; or the loss of those great 
 
 towns 
 " Will make him burst his lead and rise from 
 death" 
 
 But if a miracle, so " devoutly to be wish'd 
 for," could be wrought by loud speech, why 
 should Bedford desire the messenger to speak 
 softly. 
 
 13. " Having full scarce siv thousand in his 
 
 troop" 
 
 I believe there is a transposition here, and that 
 we should read, 
 
 " Having scarce full six thousand," &c. 
 
 The passage quoted by Mr. Steevens from the 
 Tempest is not parallel, " a full poor cell," is a 
 cell, poor in the extreme ; but *' in the extreme 
 scarcely" (for " scarce, 1 ' here, is the adverb) is 
 a mode of speech, I believe, so very scarce as to 
 be no where else discoverable. 
 
 14. " A Talbot ! a Talbot ! cried out amain." 
 We might obtain metre by reading : 
 
 " A Talbot ! cried, a Talbot ! out, amain." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 24. " Otherwise I renounce all confidence." 
 
 A slight transposition would harmonise this 
 line : 
 
 " I otherwise renounce," &c. 
 
 " Out of a deal of old iron I chose forth."
 
 KING HENRY VI. 349 
 
 It is a waste of criticism, of time, and thought 
 to remark upon the numerous wretched lines oc- 
 curring in this play, but when Mr. Steevens chose 
 to reform the prosody here, we might have ex- 
 pected something more like metre than this : 
 
 " Out of a deal of old iron I chose forth," 
 
 in which, it is true, we may count ten syllables, 
 but can only utter them in this manner: 
 
 " Out a deal of old iron I chose forth." 
 26. " Glory is like a circle in the water, 
 " Which never cease th to enlarge itself, 
 " Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to 
 
 nought. 
 " With Henry's death the English circle 
 
 ends ; 
 " Dispersed are the glories it included." 
 
 Glory, here, is evidently ambition. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 28. " I am come to survey the tower this day.'" 
 This line can only be measured by the syllables : 
 "lam come to-survey the tow'r this day." 
 Again, in the next scene : 
 
 " Who is there that knocks so imperiously ?" 
 Which must be read : 
 
 " Who is there that knocks s6 imperiously?" 
 Who might perhaps read : 
 " I am come here to survey the tower this day."
 
 350 FIRST PART OF 
 
 And: 
 " Who's there that so imperiously doth knock." 
 
 32. " /'// canvas thee in thy broad Cardinals 
 hatr 
 
 I suspect a double meaning, which, after all, 
 is not very well worth the search; I'll canvas 
 thee may mean at once, I'll sift and expose thy 
 villany, and, I'll have thee tossed in a blanket or 
 sheet. 
 
 35. " For I intend to have it ere long." 
 
 For the purpose of making up this defective 
 line, I wonder we have not been told that we 
 should read ere as a dissyllable. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 42. " Salisbury, cheer thy spirit with this com- 
 fort ; 
 " Thou shalt not die, whiles" 
 
 What comfort was Talbot going to propose ? 
 or what extent of life ? 
 
 These words of Talbot's refer to the fame of 
 Salisbury : " Thy renoun shall not die so long 
 (he would say) as the story of this war shall exist." 
 
 B. Strutt. 
 
 The metre might be mended : 
 
 " Cheer, Salisbury, thy spirit with this comfort." 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 46' " Or horse, or oxen, from the leopard.''* 
 " Leopard" a trisyllable.
 
 KING HENRY VI. 351 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 52. " To quittance their deceit" 
 
 This verb occurs in K. Richard III, Act 3, 310: 
 
 " Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me." 
 
 54. " U unready" 
 
 " Unready" for unattired, undressed, is still a 
 common expression in Ireland. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 6*0. " Is this the Talbot so much feared abroad, 
 " That with his name them others still their 
 babes ?" 
 
 In Camden's Remains, fifth impression, 1636, 
 there is a quotation from Jan Sire de JonvihVs 
 Life of St. Lewis, referring to King Richard I. 
 of England: " This prince was of such prowesse 
 that he was more feared and redoubted amongst 
 the Saracens than ever was any prince Christian, 
 insomuch that whenas their little infants began 
 to cry, their mothers would say, to make them 
 hold their peace, King Richard comet h and will 
 hare you ; and immediately the little children,, 
 hearing him named, would forbear crying," &c. 
 
 64. " Taste of your wine" &c. 
 
 It seems not very consistent with discretion in 
 Talbot thus to solicit a repast from one that had 
 just been plotting his" destruction ; she who in- 
 tended to hang him would not have scrupled to 
 give him poison.
 
 252 FIRST PART OF 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 65. " Faith I have been a truant in the law, 
 
 " And never yet could frame my will to it, 
 " And therefore frame the laxv unto my 
 wilW 
 
 " Et mihi res, non me rebus, submit t ere conor." 
 
 Hor. Ep. Lib. I. 19. 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 66. " Let him that is no coward, nor no flatterer: 
 
 This is correctly expressed, " nor" is not a re- 
 duplication of the negative sense, but the con- 
 junction appropriate to negative position. 
 
 67. " If I, my lord, for my opinion bleed, 
 " Opinion shall be surgeon to my hurt, 
 
 " And keep me 07i the side where still I am.' 
 
 If, for my opinion, I must suffer, the consci- 
 ousness of that opinion's being right shall com- 
 pensate for the injury, and be an argument to fis 
 and confirm my resolution. 
 
 72. " My faction. 1 * 
 
 "My party:" faction is often used without 
 any idea of reproach. 
 
 81. " Long after this, when Henry the Fifth.*' 
 
 We should read, here, Henry nam'd the Fifth, 
 as in the next Act, page 94 : 
 
 " Which in the time of Henry nam'd the Fifth." 
 
 And again, Act 4 : 
 
 " God save King Henry, of that name the Sixth."
 
 KING HENRY VI. 353 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 86. " If 1 were covetous, ambitious, or perverse'* 
 Mr. Steevens's proposed reading, 
 
 " Were I covetous, ambitious, or perverse," 
 
 would not mend the metre, though it reduces- the 
 redundance : perhaps we should read, 
 
 " Were I ambitious, covetous, or perverse." 
 
 87. " This Rome shall remedy ; 
 
 " Roam thither, then.** 
 
 To support the jingle here intended, " Rome" 
 and " roam" must be pronounced alike. 
 
 88. "Verdict." 
 Opinion simply. 
 
 89- " This unaccustom* d jight** 
 
 " Unaccustom'd," here, is surely not, as Dr. 
 Johnson explains, unseemly, indecent , but 
 strange, extraordinary. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 100. " I speak not to that railing Hecate.** 
 
 This correct accentuation of Hecate is singular, 
 and may help to " thicken other proofs that de- 
 monstrate not thinly" the spuriousness of this 
 play. 
 
 102. " Gather we our forces out of hand." 
 
 i. e. Immediately. 
 
 VOL. I. A A
 
 354 FIRST PART OF 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 105 " Dismay not, princes, at this accident: 
 Dismay a verb neuter. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 110. " To do my duty to my sovereign" 
 " Sovereign" a trisyllable. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE II. 
 
 126. " Thy timorous soul" 
 
 But a minute before, the speaker, in the tau- 
 tology of applause, had called Talbot "a man of 
 an invincible, unconquered spirit. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 130. " That ever-living man of memory." 
 
 " Memory" appears to signify " renown ;" yet 
 it may be " that man of ever-living, or immortal 
 memory." 
 
 - SCENE V. 
 
 134. " If you love my mother, 
 
 " Dishonour not her honourable name, 
 " To make a bastard and a slave of me" 
 
 "We meet with this thought in K. Henry V. 
 
 " Dishonour not your mothers ; now attest 
 
 " That those whom ye call fathers did beget you."
 
 KING HENRY VI. 355 
 
 SCENE VII. 
 
 143. " How the young whelp of Talbot's, raging 
 wood." 
 
 I believe, for wood, we should read brood. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE III. 
 
 160. " If thou wilt condescend to be my"* 
 
 " What V* 
 
 His love." 
 
 Mr. Steevens's correction appears necessary 
 both to the sense and the metre ; if the king loved 
 her, she must be his love ; i. e. the object of his 
 love, without any condescension. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 174. " So full replete." 
 
 This is a strange pleonasm, yet, perhaps, not 
 imore justly exceptionable than the familiar one, 
 " fill full;" " to fill," being of itself " to put-in 
 all that can be contained." 
 a a 2
 
 SECOND PART OF 
 
 KING HENRY VI. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 186. " I deliver up the queen 
 
 " To your most gracious hands, that are the 
 
 substance 
 " Of that great shadow I did represent? 
 
 Represent, here, may only signify " exhibit;" 
 and so the sense is good : but I fear " depu- 
 tation" is implied, and that consequently there is 
 a confusion of ideas between the substance repre- 
 sented, and the shadow representing. 
 
 If that, in the second line, be the relative 
 to the king implied, are should be art ; but 
 the quarto will direct us, perhaps, to a better 
 reading : 
 
 " Unto your excellence, that art the substance," 
 &c. 
 
 195. " And common profit of his country f" 
 
 The metre wants repairing : perhaps thus : 
 
 " The good and common profit of his country !" 
 
 " Then let's make haste away, and look unto the 
 main." 1
 
 KING HENRY VI. 557 
 
 The words make haste should be omitted, or 
 else the reading of the quarto restored : 
 
 " Come sons away, and look unto the main." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 198. " We'll both together lift our heads to 
 
 heaven ; 
 " And never more abase our sight so low, 
 " As to vouchsafe one glance unto the 
 
 ground." 
 
 This thought is introduced in Julius Caesar: 
 
 Young Ambition's ladder, 
 
 \ To which the climber upward turns his face ; 
 " But when he once attains the utmost round, 
 " He then unto the ladder turns his back, 
 " Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees 
 " By which he did ascend." 
 
 200. "Whereas* 
 
 for " where." In the third act we find " where" 
 for " whereas.** 
 
 201, " Here's none but thee, and I* 
 
 " Thee" should be silently corrected in the text 
 o " thou." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 206. Izvould, the college of cardinals." 
 
 A syllable is wanting to the metre. We might 
 read: 
 
 A A 3
 
 358 SECOND PART OF 
 
 " I would, the college, now, of cardinals." 
 
 207. " And in her heart she scorns her poverty " 
 
 1 suppose this is a typographical error, her (in 
 the second instance) for our. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 219. " That I had said and done !" 
 
 i. e. O that I had said and done. It is opta- 
 tive. 
 
 220. " False fend, avoid /" 
 
 Make a void, by removing yourself; or, as 
 Oliver says to Orlando, " be nought." The 
 word, in this neutral use, occurs in other places, 
 as in Cymbeline : 
 
 " Thou basest thing, avoid," 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 224 " Fain of climbing high.' 
 
 There appears to be little need of explanation 
 in this passage, and still less for supposing, as Mr. 
 Steevens does, that Jain has a meaning different 
 from the obvious and common one, eagerly de- 
 sirous. 
 
 227. " Thy two -hand sword" 
 
 The old English warriors used a large two- 
 handed sword, not much unlike the present pink- 
 ing iron. 13. Strutt. 
 
 Milton mentions a sword with 
 
 " Fell two-handed sway."
 
 KING HENRY VI. 359 
 
 229. " Come to the king, and tell him what 
 
 miracle.'* 
 
 
 It is not easy to decide who is the more cen- 
 surable, the early transcriber, or the modern edi- 
 tor, for admitting into the text so clumsy, dis- 
 cordant, and useless a hypermeter as the word 
 him makes here. 
 
 234. " You made, in a day, my lord, whole towns 
 tofiy.*' 
 
 The gross violations of metre so often occur- 
 ring in this play, and those other two which im- 
 mediately precede and follow it, are less to be 
 wondered at, than that the modern editors, so te- 
 nacious as they often seem to be of minute accu- 
 racy, should suffer such barbarism to continue. 
 The present line might be read thus : 
 
 *' You in a day, my lord, made whole towns fly." 
 
 237- " - Justice* equal scales, 
 
 " Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful 
 cause prevails." 
 
 This appears to me one among very few in- 
 stances in which Dr. Johnson's good sense and 
 ingenuity descends to petty and absurd emenda- 
 tion. He would have the verbs to stand and to 
 prevail in the optative mood : 
 
 " Whose beam stand sure ! whose rightful cause 
 prevail !'* 
 
 But there can be no doubt the sense of the ex- 
 pression is consequence, deduction; the equal 
 scales of Justice, whose beam is firm, and whose 
 cause is sure ultimately to prevail. 
 A a 4
 
 360 SECOND PART OF 
 
 Justice* equal scales, 
 
 " IV hose beam stands sure, whose rightful 
 cause prevails." 
 
 Whose rule of equity is stedfast, and who is 
 sure to maintain it. There seems to be no need 
 of Dr. Johnson's emendation. 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 253. " MaiVd up in shame. 1 * 
 
 Covered, cased-up in disgrace, as with armour. 
 
 255. " Entreat her not the worse.'* 
 
 Treat her, use her not the worse, &c. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 263. " These faults are easy.** 
 
 i. e. Tolerable to be endured quietly. 
 
 It is strange that Mr. Steevens should dissent 
 here from Dr. Johnson's explanation of easy, 
 and think, with Mr. Ritson, that it is put adver- 
 bially : we find the word used just in the present 
 sense in Henry IV. Second Part, Act 5 w 'as this 
 easy ? 
 
 Q67 . lt Free lords.** 
 
 Free is merely at liberty, unrestrained -, as in 
 Macbeth, Act 1 : 
 
 " Let us speak ouryWe hearts each to other." 
 
 271. " It skills not greatly who impugns our 
 doom.*'
 
 KING HENRY VI. 361 
 
 Perhaps it requires not skill to determine who 
 are to be our opposers, since what we resolve 
 upon cannot be counteracted. This is all I can 
 do towards reconciling the expression. The sense 
 intended seems merely it matters not it is of 
 no moment. The phrase itself was common. 
 
 275. " Tedious snares." * 
 
 " Tedious" seems to mean " embarrassing, 
 vexatious, cumbrous." 
 
 " John Cade of Ashford." 
 
 Something has been lost here. Perhaps, " with 
 a headlong crew." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 289. " Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost.*' 
 
 A timely-parted ghost is put to express a body 
 from which the ghost or spirit had recently part- 
 ed. I would read, with Dr. Johnson, corse. 
 
 297- " Would curses ftiff. " 
 
 Jaffier makes the same reflection in Venice 
 Preserved : 
 
 11 Curses stick not. Could I kill with cursing," 
 &c. 
 
 299- " The seal, 
 
 " Through whom." 
 
 " Whom," for " which." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 306. " Died he not in his bed ? where should he 
 die f 
 " Can I make men live ?" &c.
 
 36*2 SECOND PART OF 
 
 Something like this we find in Macbeth : 
 " Thou canst not say I did it." 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 318. " Walters 
 
 To reconcile the terror which this name excites 
 in Suffolk, with the caution he had received from 
 the spirit, in the first act, we must suppose that 
 the / in Walter was not usually sounded ; and, 
 indeed, in the quarto, the letter is omitted in the 
 name, which is printed Water. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 324. " We John Cade" &c. 
 
 Mr. Malone remarks rightly on Mr. Tyrwhitt's 
 proposed transposition, to justify which, we must 
 change the word " of" to u for." 
 
 SCENE VIII. 
 
 355. " That you should leave me at the White 
 Hart in Southrvark" 
 
 I suspect that a conceit was here intended, re- 
 ferring at once to the sign of the inn, and to 
 cowardice with a white heart. 
 
 SCENE IX. 
 
 361. " For yet," &c. 
 Perhaps we should read : 
 * Or yet," &c.
 
 KING HENRY VI. 363 
 
 SCENE X. 
 
 367- " And hang thee o'er my tomb/' Sec. 
 
 " Hang/' perhaps, was meant imperatively or 
 optatively, and addressed to the sword ; in which 
 case we must read " thou :" but I rather think, 
 Mr. Malone is right, and that by " hang thee,'* 
 we are to understand, " have thee hung." 
 
 ACT V. SCENE II. 
 
 389. " As did Mneas old Anchises bear." 
 
 This allusion occurs in Julius Caesar : 
 
 " As iEneas, our great ancestor, 
 
 11 Did on his shoulders, from the flames of Troy, 
 
 " The old Anchises bear." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 394. " A gallant in the brow of youth" 
 
 " The brow of youth" means, I believe, the 
 countenance and complexion of youth, its fore- 
 head, openly-advanced front, " its bloom of lus- 
 tihood." Thus in King Lear : 
 
 " Let it plant wrinkles in her brow of youth." 
 
 596. " We have not got that which we have.** 
 
 Thus in Cymbeline : 
 
 " Ye gentle gods, give me but this I have."
 
 THIRD PART OF 
 
 KING HENRY VI. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 15. " May that ground gape, and swallow me 
 alive" 
 
 Otway has a similar imprecation in the Orphan : 
 " Gape, Hell, and swallow me to quick perdition." 
 19. " Who can be patient in such extremes ?*' 
 
 Patient a trisyllable. 
 
 " Seeing thou hast proved so unnatural a fa- 
 ther." 
 
 This line, which appears, as it is set down, very 
 inharmonious, may yet be uttered without harsh- 
 ness : 
 
 " Seeing thou hast pr5v'd s6 unnatural a father." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 31. " Many a battle have I won in France, 
 
 " When as the enemy hath been ten to one." 
 
 Whenas is one word, and means at which time. 
 Vide Note, Measure for Measure, Act 3, Scene 2, 
 p. 98. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 32. " Devouring paws." 
 
 " Devouring" stands here for destroying, and
 
 KING HENRY VI. 365 
 
 might perhaps warrant the substitution of the 
 epithet " destroying" for " devouring," in that 
 beautiful sonnet of our poet's, beginning with 
 
 " Devouring time, blunt thou the lion's claws, 
 " And let the earth devour her own sweet brood." 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 41. " Shook hands with death." 
 
 To shake hands is equivocal : it is at one time 
 a token of separation, and at another, as here, a 
 signal of meeting. 
 
 43. " How could'st thou drain the life-blood 
 of the child, 
 " And yet be seen to bear a woman 's face?" 
 
 This thought occurs in Titus Andronicus, and 
 may favour the arguments advanced to shew that 
 these plays were not originally the production of 
 Shakspeare, but probably were written by the au- 
 thor of that tragedy : 
 
 " O Tamora ! thou bear'st a woman's face." 
 
 See Note, p. 370. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 47. " I cannot joy, until I be resoh*d 
 
 " Where our right valiant father is be- 
 come" 
 
 Become, in this locomotive sense, is used again 
 in the fourth act : 
 
 " But, madam, where is Warwick then become?"
 
 366 THIRD PART OF 
 
 48. " Mcthinks, 'tis prize enough to be hit 
 
 son. 
 
 " Pride," as in the old quarto, is, I believe, the 
 right word, which derives support from a similar 
 expression in As You Like It, where Orlando 
 exclaims 
 
 " I am more proud to be Sir Rowland's son," &c. 
 
 52. " Is kindling coals, thatjire all my breast.** 
 
 " Fire" being here, as in many other places, a 
 dissyllable, should be so marked, according to 
 the ancient orthography, " her." 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 81. " How many make the hour full complete.** 
 
 In this speech the word hour occurs seven 
 times, and always as a dissyllable ; but it ought 
 so to be printed, hotter, according to the old or- 
 thography. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 104. "Look, as I blow this feather from my 
 face." 
 
 A feather, I suppose, M'orn in the cap of the 
 speaker. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 118. " A forlorn." 
 
 " Forlorn," a noun;
 
 KING HENRY VI. 367 
 
 This mode of speech, which I take to be a 
 Gallicism, is very prevalent in the compositions 
 of our modern novelists and play-wrights. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 143. Make prepare for war." 
 
 Prepare, a substantive. 
 
 SCENE VII. 
 
 162. " Abodements must not now affright 
 
 us." 
 
 Abodements, for bodements, omens. In Mac- 
 beth we meet with " sweet bodements." 
 
 ACT V. SCENE II. 
 
 181. " My parks, my walks" &c. 
 
 Dr. Johnson, who censures this passage as di- 
 minishing the pathos of the foregoing lines, 
 seemed once to believe it not improbable that 
 dying men should think on such things; when, 
 on Mr. Garrick shewing him his elegant villa and 
 splendid furniture at Hampton, he observed, Ah ! 
 David, these are the things that make a death-bed 
 terrible. Lord Chedworth. 
 
 I cannot help regarding these celebrated words 
 of Dr. Johnson as a striking instance of that ca- 
 priciousness of sentiment, for the indulgence of 
 which the solidity of his judgment is ofren sacri- 
 ficed to the playfulness of his imagination, and a
 
 368 THIRD PART OF 
 
 brilliant expression is imposed for a sound argu- 
 ment ; indeed, the doctor, at intervals, appears 
 to be, like Voltaire, regardless what he says, 
 provided he can but say it well. It is not true 
 that a death- bed derives its terrors from our me- 
 ditating on the refinements and elegancies, any 
 more than on the humbler comforts and accom- 
 modations which it may have been our lot to en- 
 joy ; they issue from a very different source, from 
 the retrospect of a mispent life, operating on a 
 mind, (perhaps not originally robust,) enfeebled 
 by disease and perplexed by superstition, with just 
 enough of religion to raise up frightful pictures 
 of a future state, and without the fortitude and 
 salutary habits of reflection that would have 
 armed and prepared him for an event which he 
 knew was inevitable : to such an unhappy mor- 
 tal, indeed, 
 
 " The weariest and most loathed worldly life 
 " That ache, age, penury, imprisonment 
 " Can lay on nature, were a paradise 
 " To what he fears of death." 
 
 Of all my lands, 
 
 " Is nothing left vie but my body's length /" 
 
 This is a favourite sentiment with the poet : 
 
 " Are all thy conquests, glories, triumphs, spoils, 
 " Shrunk to this little measure !" Jul. Cazsar. 
 
 " When that this body did contain a spirit, 
 44 A kingdom for it was too small a bound ; 
 44 And now two paces of the vilest earth 
 " Is room enough." K. Henry IV. 
 
 " The very conveyance of his lands will hardly 
 lie in that box.*' Hamlet.
 
 KING HENRY VI. 369 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 185. u I mean, my lords, those powers, that the 
 queen 
 " Hath raised in Gallia, have arrived our 
 coast." 
 
 " Arrive" has the same office assigned to it in 
 Julius Caesar: 
 
 " But ere we could arrive the point propos'd." 
 
 " Powers" a trisyllable. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 I89. " Methinks, a woman of this valiant spirit 
 " Should, if a coward heard her speak these 
 
 words, 
 " Infuse his breast with magnanimity." 
 
 Infuse, in this neuter sense, we find introduced 
 in Julius Caesar : 
 
 " Heaven hath infus'd them with these spirits, 
 " To be the instruments," &c. 
 
 " 'Did I but suspect a fearful man, 
 
 " He should have leave to go away betimes^ 
 
 " If any such be here, as God forbid, 
 " Let him depart." 
 
 The same magnanimous policy, a little extend- 
 ed, is displayed by Henry V. 
 
 'Wish not a man from England ; 
 
 Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through- 
 out my host, 
 That he who has no stomach to this fight, 
 vol. 1. B B 
 
 a
 
 370 THIRD PART OF 
 
 ' May straight depart; his passport shall be made, 
 " And crowns for convoy put into his purse." 
 
 SCENE VI. 
 
 201. " And yet, for all his wings, the fool was 
 
 drown* a." 
 
 Fool, in this line, should be, I apprehend, fowl, 
 according to the quarto, or perhaps a jingle may 
 be intended, if those two words, in our author's 
 time, were, as they are at present in Scotland 
 and some northern parts of England, pronounced 
 alike the quarto reads : 
 
 " Why what a foole was that of Crete, 
 " That taught his sonne the office of a bira, 
 " And yet, for all that, the poore fowle was 
 drown'd." 
 
 202. " The night-crow:* 
 
 I take to be the screech-owl. 
 
 203. " The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top: 1 
 
 " Rook'd," I believe, means " perch'd gloomi- 
 ly;" " rooky" we meet with in Macbeth, where 
 I am persuaded the sense is dark, lowering, over- 
 cast : the word " rooky," as applied to the day, 
 or the appearance of the heavens, is well under- 
 stood in Norfolk, and means " a dark or gloomy 
 day." 
 
 There has been much contention about the 
 
 genuineness of the three Parts of Henry the 
 
 Sixth, in which those compositions havenot always 
 
 been duly distinguished : Theobald says, generally, 
 
 2
 
 KING HENRY VI. 371 
 
 " Though there are several master-strokes in these 
 three plays, which incontestibly betray the work- 
 manship of Shakspeare, yet I am almost doubtful 
 whether they were entirely of his writing." Dr. 
 Warburton more decidedly condemns them, but 
 unluckily omits to give his reasons at full. Dr. 
 Farmer, indeed, proceeds further; and Mr. Ma- 
 lone is ingenious, argumentative, and perspicuous 
 on the same side. I have only to add, though I 
 believe, with Mr. Malone, that Shakspeare was 
 not the original author of The Contention of the 
 Two Famous Houses, &c. any more than of The 
 First Part of Henry the Sixth, yet there ap- 
 pears to me a very material difference between 
 the compositions in question. Upon the play of 
 Henry the Sixth, called by Hemings and Condel 
 The First Part, I have already offered my opi- 
 nion, that there is none of it Shakspeare's. The 
 Quarto Plays, The Contention, &c. I estimate 
 otherwise; they have unquestionably been altered, 
 and materially improved in the folio ; but the 
 hand of Shakspeare is, I think, indelibly im- 
 pressed upon many passages in The Contention, 
 &c. I here agree thus far with Mr. Malone, that 
 these two plays, as well as the first, were the 
 work, originally, of some other author; of Green, 
 Lodge, Peele, or Marlow, and that, by accident 
 or device, some of the improvements of Shak- 
 speare were introduced into the copy published 
 by Millington. I believe, there is hardly any 
 where to be found, in the versification of our 
 poet, a line so constructed as this : 
 
 " And waste his subjects/br to conquer France." 
 
 Yet the writer of these plays was so charmed 
 with the grace of it, that he repeats it without 
 end : b b 2
 
 372 THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI. 
 
 " Alas ! my lord, I am not able for to fight," 
 " And charm the fiends for to obey your wills." 
 " To aide and helpe thee for to win thy right." 
 
 -Slice thy cursed heart 
 
 " For to revenge the murders thou hast done." 
 " To levy soldiers^/or to go with you." 
 " And shut the gates/or to preserve the towne." 
 " And, hand to hand, enforce him for to yield."
 
 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF 
 
 KING RICHARD III. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 Q69. " Now is the winter of our discontent 
 " Made glorious summer" &c. 
 
 In the early quarto there is a hiatus between 
 " of" and " discontent," by which it appears 
 that a word has been lost, to supply which and 
 fill up the metre, " our" has been feebly intro- 
 duced. It is the suggestion of my ingenious 
 friend Mr. Strutt that we should read, with the 
 addition of but a single letter, sour discontent ; 
 this certainly gives point and vigour to the ex- 
 pression. 
 
 " This sun of York.** 
 
 Here is a three-fold quibble, sun, the luminary, 
 son, the offspring, and sun, the armorial bear- 
 ing of the Duke of York. 
 
 272. " Dissembling nature.** 
 
 " Dissembling nature," I believe, means, here, 
 howsoever licentiously, nature combining or form- 
 ing things disproportioned and dissimilar : this I 
 find is Dr. Warburton's opinion. 
 
 274. " If King Edward be as true and just, 
 " As I am subtle," &c. 
 BBS
 
 374 KING RICHARD III. 
 
 i, e. Says Dr. Johnson, if Edward keep his 
 word ; but I question if this explanation be " true 
 and just ;" I rather think the sense is, if Edward 
 attend as faithfully to the maintenance of his au- 
 thority and the rigorous dispensation of justice, 
 as I do to the practice of what forms my charac- 
 ter. 
 
 9,75. " That tempers him." 
 
 Mr. Malone appears to be not quite correct in 
 his definition of " to temper;" it is not, I appre- 
 hend, to fashion or mould, but to soften or make 
 pliant, to prepare for the mould. 
 
 976. " Her brother there? 
 
 \ cannot help, with Mr. Steevens, repeating 
 my surprise at Mr. Malonc's contending for the 
 word " there" being a dissyllable, as such a pro- 
 nunciation of it, at least in the present instance, 
 must be contrary to all usage : 
 
 " Anthony Woodeville, her brother, the-re (or 
 the-ar)." 
 
 277- " Jlell struck in years ; fair, and not 
 jealous" - 
 
 This is not measure ; a word is wanting : per- 
 haps, 
 
 " Well struck in years, fair, loving, and not 
 jealous." 
 
 The phrase, struck in years, which Mr. Stee- 
 vens seems to consider as an inexplicable perver- 
 sion of sense, may, I apprehend, be resolved ; 
 one meaning of to strike, is to afflict, as poverty- 
 struck, i. e. afflicted with poverty; struck in 
 years may be, loaded, encumbered, or afflicted 
 with age ; well struck, is sufficiently struck.
 
 KING RICHARD III. 375 
 
 " A cherry lip." 
 
 There seems to have been something lost in the 
 enumeration of the lady's features, perhaps words 
 like these, " fair forehead, dimpled cheeks." 
 
 278. " We are the queens abject s, n &c. 
 
 Though the copies give no authority for alteration 
 here; I cannot but suspect that Richard's remark 
 was suggested by words different from these utter- 
 ed by Clarence, who, in the meekness of his loy- 
 alty, might naturally have said, 
 
 " We're the king's subjects, and we will obey." 
 
 To which Richard sarcastically adds : 
 
 " We're the queen's abjects, and we must obey." 
 
 280. " I do love thee so, 
 
 " That I will shortly send thy soul to 
 heaven." 
 
 Richard expresses this thought in another 
 scene : 
 
 Lady Anne. " He is in heaven," &c. 
 
 Rich. " Was I not kind to send him thi- 
 
 ther, then?" 
 
 " No news so bad" &c. 
 
 From the words of this reply, and the defici- 
 ency of the verse in Gloster's question, it would 
 seem that something has been omitted, perhaps 
 to this effect : 
 
 Gl. " The times are bad, my lord; what news 
 
 abroad ?" 
 Hast. " No news so bad," &c. 
 
 281. " Another secret, close intent, 
 
 "By marrying her, which I must reach 
 unto." b b 4
 
 376 KING RICHARD III. 
 
 A slight transposition would render the con- 
 struction easier : 
 
 " Which I, by marrying her, must reach unto." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 282. " Key-cold." 
 
 Milton has this expression : " Her apostolic 
 virtue is departed from her, and hath left her 
 key -cold." 
 
 Reasons of Church Government urged 
 against rrelaty. 
 
 285. " Wounds 
 
 " Open their con g eaV d mouths." 
 
 This conceit occurs in K. Henry IV. Part 1 : 
 
 " . . Those wounds, 
 
 " Those mouthed wounds," &c. 
 And again in Julius Caesar : 
 
 " Thy wounds 
 
 " Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby 
 lips." 
 
 " Exhales this blood 
 
 " From cold and empty veins where no blood 
 dwells." 
 
 Your presence works a miracle it makes blood 
 issue from veins that, by the established rule of 
 nature, were bloodless : or " dwells" may em- 
 phatically imply, " lives," is quick, abides, in a 
 state of circulation : but I rattier think the sense 
 is general, as in the first conjecture ; and some- 
 what resembling this construction we find in a 
 passage of the Paradise Lost, Book I. 
 
 'Doleful shades where peace 
 
 " And rest can never dwell ; hope never comes 
 " That comes to all."
 
 KING RICHARD III. 377 
 
 286. " Diffused infection of a man,"" 
 
 '* DifTus'd," I believe, means " overspread," 
 and the allusion seems to be to the leprosy or 
 other loathsome diseases. 
 
 287. " By despairing shalt thou stand excused 
 " For doing worthy vengeance on thyself" 
 
 This argument is urged to Cromwell in the In- 
 troduction to the famous pamphlet, Killing No 
 Murder : " Let this consideration arm and fortify 
 your highness's mind against the fears of death 
 and the terrors of an evil conscience, that the 
 good you shall do by your death will, in some 
 sort, atone for the evils of your life," 
 
 " Say that I slew them not,- 
 
 (Why) then they are not dead." 
 
 Why should be omitted : 
 
 " Then they're not dead." 
 
 Again : 
 
 " I did not kill your husband,- 
 
 (Why) then he is alive." 
 
 It should be, " then he lives." 
 
 288. " Some dungeon. 
 
 " Your bedchamber." 
 
 Something, undoubtedly, as Mr. Steevens sup- 
 poses, has been omitted here ; perhaps the verse 
 ran thus : 
 
 " Some dungeon, then. 
 
 " No lady ; your bedchamber." 
 
 290. " (She spits at him.)" 
 
 This indelicate action Rosalind was not asham-
 
 378 KING RICHARD III. 
 
 ed, either to commit or tell us of. See As You 
 Like It, Act 3, Scene 2. 
 
 295. " Unknozvn reasons. 1 ' 
 
 Reasons which I do not make known, which 
 you are not to know. 
 
 298. " Since lam crept in favour with myself.** 
 
 " In" for " into" occurs in other places, as in 
 the line next but one following : 
 
 " But first I'll turn yon' fellow in his grave." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 304. " This careful height." 
 
 This anxious eminence. 
 
 " . Vile suspects.'* 
 
 We meet with " suspect" as a noun in other 
 places, as, 
 
 " The suspect is great." 
 
 K. Henry VI. P. 2. 
 
 And again in the present play : 
 
 " He liv'd from all attainder of suspect." 
 
 " You may deny that you were not the cause." 
 
 " Deny" seems here to have a loose and gene- 
 ral meaning, and not to be intimately or directly 
 connected with the instance that follows : this 
 mode of expression is undoubtedly wrong, yet I 
 believe it is not careless; a similar anomaly occurs 
 in the Merchant of Venice : 
 
 " You may as well forbid the mountain pines 
 " To wag their high-tops, and to make no noise."
 
 KING RICHARD III 379 
 
 307. " I am too childish-foolish." 
 
 The quarto does not give this as a compound ; 
 and, indeed, I see no reason for its being made 
 so, except for the sake of obscurity. 
 
 B. Strutt. 
 310. " And turn you all your hatred noxv on me.'* 
 
 Margaret had little reason to be surprised at 
 this united resentment, after she had, herself, so 
 furiously commenced the attack against them all. 
 
 317- " Awake God's gentle-sleeping peace/' 
 
 This is not a just figure ; when peace sleeps, 
 fury or war is awake; and when war reposes, 
 peace must be awake : perhaps we should read : 
 
 " God's gentle- sleeping wrath." 
 
 His wrath which was gently reposing. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 332. " Before I be convict" 
 
 " Convict," a participle convicted. 
 
 336. " Kind as snow in harvest" 
 
 I do not understand this expression, unless it 
 be meant to signify, that kindness was as differ- 
 ent from Gloster's nature as the chilness and rigi- 
 dity of snow is from the warmth and liberality of 
 the autumnal season. I am told it is a provincial 
 sarcasm for want of kindness.
 
 380 KING RICHARD III. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 343. u Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the 
 rest ?" 
 
 Each 
 
 " In other's countenance read his own dismay, 
 " Astonish'd." Paradise Lost, Book II. 
 
 " Is Clarence dead f" 
 
 The unhappy fate of Clarence resembles strongly 
 that of Posthumus Agrippa, as related by Tacitus, 
 not only in the manner of their being taken-ofT, 
 but in the compunction and reconcilement of 
 Edward and Augustus, and the insidious and 
 callous policy that actuated both Richard and 
 Tiberius. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 353. " Meseemeth" 
 
 This word, which is not more anomalous than 
 the familiar one, "methinks," occurs again in the 
 Second Part of K. Henry VL Act % Scene 1. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 357- " In him there is a hope of government, 
 " That in his nonage counsel under him." 
 
 No sense has been extracted from this pas- 
 sage by any of the editors; but I think the 
 meaning is discoverable under the obscurity of the 
 word him, which ought to be them, i. e. the re- 
 gency. 
 
 M So stood the state when Henry the Sixth"
 
 KING RICHARD III. 381 
 
 We might read here, as in other places, to re- 
 cover the metre, 
 
 " So stood the state, when Henry, nanCd the 
 Sixth." 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 363. " Pitchers have ears."- 
 
 I suspect the handles of pitchers, called ears, 
 gave rise to this saying: inanimate things can 
 hear ; they have organs ; for even pitchers have 
 ears. B. Strutt. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 366. " Welcome, dear cousin, my thought's so- 
 vereign." 
 
 " Sov6r6ign," a trisyllable. 
 
 368. " You are too senseless-obstinate." 
 
 Here again, without authority from the quarto, 
 a senseless, or at best an unnecessary, compound 
 is formed. The plain meaning is " you are too 
 insensible, too obstinate." 
 
 " Too ceremonious,*' &c. 
 
 " Ceremonious," says Dr. Warburton, for su- 
 perstitious ; but I perceive no more than the com- 
 mon signification precise, tenacious of forms. 
 
 370. " I do not like the tower of any place''' 
 
 i. e. Set in the scale of comparison with any 
 i other place. 1
 
 382 KING RICHARD III. 
 
 This is the only way in which, I think, the 
 construction of the following passage in Paradise 
 Lost can be made out : 
 
 " Adam the goodliest man, of men since born 
 " His sons; the fairest of her daughters Eve." 
 
 372. " With zvhat his valour did enrich his zvit, 
 " His wit set down, to make his valour 
 live." 
 
 There is a harshness of construction in the first 
 of these lines, that occasions some obscurity, 
 owing to the distant precedence of the preposi- 
 tion " with," from " wit," which, in natural ar- 
 rangement, it ought to follow : 
 
 " What his valour did enrich his wit with, 
 " His wit set down," &c. 
 
 Or 
 
 " That with which his valour did enrich his wit." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 388. " My lord, I hold my life as dear as 
 yours." 
 
 There is no such ellipsis here as Mr. Steevens 
 talks of: 
 
 " I hold my life as dear as (you do) yours." 
 
 The sense is, simply, " I consider my life to be 
 as precious as yours is." 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 401. " The rest that love ?ne, rise and follow 
 me."
 
 KING RICHARD III. 383 
 
 In the Third Part of King Henry VI. Act 4, 
 Clarence says 
 
 " You that love me, and Warwick, follow me." 
 SCENE VII. 
 
 41 1. " I did; with his contract with Lady Lucy" 
 
 " Contract," the noun, as well as the verb, has, 
 I believe, invariably this accent throughout these 
 works. 
 
 413. " I did infer, your lineaments 
 
 " Being the right idea of your father , 
 " Both in your form ," &c. 
 
 I do not recollect any mention, either histori- 
 cal or poetical, of the duke of York's being de- 
 formed, as Gloster is represented to be. 
 
 417. " And pardon us the interruption 
 
 " Of thy devotion and right Christian 
 zeal." 
 
 In this distich we have a striking instance of 
 the freedom with which the sound of conjoining 
 vowels is shortened, or extended, to suit the mea- 
 sure of the verse. 
 
 420. " Your empery." 
 
 This word occurs in Cymbeline : 
 
 " A lady 
 
 " So fair, and fasten'd to an empery," &c. 
 
 Also in Titus Andronicus, and other places. 
 
 421. " As the ripe revenue and due of birth. 1 * 
 
 " Revenue" is not always thus accentuated : 
 
 " That no revenue hast, but thy good spirits." 
 
 Hamlet.
 
 384 KING HICHARD III. 
 
 The first quarto reads preferably, I think i 
 " As my ripe revenue, and due by birth." 
 423. I give a sparing limit to my tongue.** 
 
 A narrow bound. 
 
 " Yet know, whe*r you accept our suit or no** 
 
 " Whether,*' undoubtedly, in other places, is 
 contracted, if not in the letters, at least in the 
 prosody, to the quantity of a monosyllable ; but 
 riere, in the quarto, it is at full length, and the 
 unnecessary cacophonous, " know," has not a 
 place in the line ; 
 
 " Yet, whether you accept our suite or no." 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 427. " This dead-killing news.** 
 
 This phrase, which may be classed with " fil* 
 ling-full, means, I suppose, killing effectually, or 
 at once killing on the spot. 
 
 432. " Rude ragged nurse ! old sullen play- 
 fellow? 
 
 " Ragged," for " rugged," occurs elsewhere; 
 as in King Henry IV. Second Part : 
 
 " Approach the ragged'st hour." 
 
 And Gray seems to have had this passage in 
 his thoughts, when he thus apostrophized adver- 
 sity : . 
 
 " Stern rugged nurse !"
 
 KING RICHARD III. 385 
 
 I am inclined to think that the harshness of 
 which Dr. Johnson complains here will not ge- 
 nerally he insisted on. The tower, once animated 
 and apostrophised by a mother, going; to deposit 
 her babes there, might naturally enough be called 
 by her a rugged nurse, cradle, or play-fellow : for 
 infants will play ; and what they play with may, 
 without much violence, be called a play-fellow. 
 
 434. . Iron-xcit ted fools.** 
 
 Creatures who, either from habits of cruelty, 
 or dulness of sentiment, are fortified against com- 
 punction, and unsusceptible of reflection. " Un- 
 respective" is inconsiderate. 
 
 435. " The deep-revolving witty Buckingham.'* 
 
 " Witty" is used ironically. This shallow/bo/, 
 who thinks himself profound and wise. 
 
 Mr. Steevens says, " witty" here means judi- 
 cious but I believe it is quite the reverse ; and 
 Richard, in another place, calls him the " dull- 
 brain'd Buckingham." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 443. " Within their alabaster innocent arms.** 
 
 This is one of those seeming hyperrneters 
 which, by the ready accord of the component 
 vowels, are, at least in blank verse, rather a grace 
 than a blemish. This Milton knew, and he has 
 made free and most happy use of the licence. 
 
 445. " Come to me, Tyrrel, soon, at after sup- 
 per.'* 
 vol i. c c
 
 386' KING RICHARD IIL 
 
 At the time when supper shall be over. The 
 phrase, I believe, is local or provincial. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 449. " Rest thy unrest" &c. 
 
 Repose thy weariness. It is quaintly expressed, 
 and perhaps suggested the ludicrous passage in 
 Chronon-hoton-thologos : 
 
 " Fatigtt'd with the tremendous toils of war, 
 " Himself he unfatigues with gentle sleep." 
 
 451. " O, Harry* s wife, triumph not in my 
 
 zvoes." 
 
 This seems to be the proper accentuation of 
 the verb " to triumph," and Milton so applies it: 
 
 " Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy," 
 &c. Paradise Lost. 
 
 452. " Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, 
 
 saints pray. " 
 
 The deficiency of this line, which wants a foot, 
 makes it probable that something has been lost. 
 It is in vain, perhaps, to conjecture what that 
 was ; but it might have been to this effect : 
 
 " Earth gapes, heaven lowers, hell burns, fiends 
 roar, saints pray." 
 
 The line which follows 
 
 " To have him suddenly convey 'd from hence," 
 
 has, to avoid the rhyme, I suppose, been altered, 
 and impaired, from the quarto, which reads : 
 
 " To have him suddenly convey \l away."
 
 KING RICHARD III. 387 
 
 We might read, without the cumberous prepo- 
 sition, 
 
 " To have him suddenly conveyed hence, 
 " Earth gapes, hell burns," &c. 
 
 Something resembling the terrible beauty of 
 this passage, though I think not equal to it, we 
 find in Milton : 
 
 " Infernal ghosts and hellish furies round 
 
 " Environ' d thee ; some howl'd, some yell'd, some 
 
 shriek'd, 
 " Some bent at thee their fiery darts."' 
 
 Paradise Regained, Book IV. 
 B. Strutt. 
 
 453. " A dream of what thou wast.'* 
 
 Right: but presently we find (nineteen lines 
 forward) 
 
 " No more, but thought of what thou 
 
 wert." 
 
 The error is too common with our best writers, 
 and certainly, without any scruple, should be 
 corrected by editors. 
 
 462. " Cousins, indeed, and by their uncle 
 cousin' d." 
 
 This jingle was too pleasing not to be repeated 
 on another occasion. See King Henry IV. First 
 Part : 
 
 " 'Twas gentle Harry Percy and kind cousin : 
 " The devil take such cousiners." 
 c c 2
 
 388 KING RICHARD III. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE III. 
 
 505. " / died for hope, ere I could lend thee 
 aid." 
 
 I believe the meaning is, I died in consequence 
 of adventuring too boldly and prematurely, before 
 I was sufficiently prepared, or strong, to attain 
 the object of my hope, in giving thee effectual 
 aid. 
 
 511. " If I thrive, the gain of my at* 
 
 tempt, 
 " The least of you shall share his part 
 thereof* 
 
 As this sentence stands in the text, there is an 
 apparent pleonasm in the first part of the com- 
 pound " thereof;" but it is, like many other pas- 
 sages, a broken or interrupted sentence, where 
 the structure of it, in the speaker's mind, under- 
 goes a change, and ought to be so distinguished : 
 
 " If I thrive, the gain of my attempt 
 " Shall be divided among you,'" 
 
 is the natural sequence of the proposition but 
 the drift of the speech is suddenly altered 
 
 " If I thrive, the gain of my attempt, 
 
 " The least of you shall share his part thereof." 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 523. " Well hast thou acquit thee /" 
 
 " Acquit," for " acquitted."
 
 KING RICHARD III. 389 
 
 Doctor Johnson, adverting to the popularity 
 of this play, observes, that I 1 it may, in this in- 
 stance, have happened to the author to be praised 
 most where praise was not most deserved ;" and, 
 I believe, few people will dissent from the just- 
 ness of the remark. But though Richard the 
 Third cannot aspire to a competition with Mac- 
 beth, or Othello, I am inclined to think, that, 
 were the dramas of our poet to be formed into 
 classes, three or four, of gradual excellence, this 
 would be entitled to a place at least in the second 
 class. The manner in which the play is gene- 
 rally exhibited on the stage, is, doubtless, as Mr. 
 Steevens observes, upon the whole, judicious, 
 though I cannot commend Cibber for superin- 
 ducing compunction into the character of 
 Richard. But when Mr. Steevens, applauding 
 the retrenchments that have been made, trium- 
 phantly asks what modern audience would pa- 
 tiently listen to the narration of Clarence's dream, 
 I am hurried back to the scene, amazed, and ea- 
 ger to find out whether I myself have not long 
 been in a profound dream about the captivating 
 beauty which I fancied was existing in that de- 
 scription. I really have never been more asto- 
 nished not even when I heard the author of a 
 modern tragedy extol a dream which is there in- 
 troduced, and tell us it was better than this by 
 Shakspeare. 
 
 c c 3
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 
 
 PROLOGUE. 
 
 There can be little doubt, in my opinion, of 
 Dr. Johnson's being right, in ascribing this pro- 
 logue, together with the epilogue, to Ben Jon- 
 son, whose manner is clearly discernible in both. 
 To this conjecture Dr. Farmer has added, that he 
 thinks he can " now and then" perceive the hand 
 of Ben in the dialogue. It is to be lamented 
 that the Doctor did not produce the instances on 
 which his opinion was formed ; and the omission 
 is the more remarkable, as there seems to have 
 been required less skill and perspicacity than that 
 critic possessed, to ascertain indubitably the in- 
 terpolations. If strong and peculiar features of 
 style are evidence admissible, I do not hesitate to 
 pronounce, that not only the prologue and epi- 
 logue are not of Shakspeare's writing, but that 
 the whole third scene in the first act, and all the 
 third scene of the fifth, are interpolated ; and I 
 assert, with equal confidence, that these interpo- 
 lations, together with the prologue and epilogue, 
 are not only not Shakspeare's, but positively and 
 bona fide old Ben's. My argument, which in this 
 instance I hold to be complete, does not rest on 
 a particular phrase, line, or passage, but upon 
 every line and every passage throughout those 
 two scenes ; not one part of which has the least 
 resemblance to our poet, but is inalienably Jon-
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 391 
 
 son's. With respect to the character of the play 
 itself, I believe there will be found few readers 
 agreeing with Dr. Johnson, while he says that 
 " the genius of Shakspeare comes in and goes 
 out with Catharine," and that " every other part 
 may be easily conceived and easily written." The 
 poet's genius appears to me not more conspicu- 
 ous, even in those fine scenes which Dr. Johnson 
 justly applauds, than in many other places ; in 
 the parts of Cromwell, Griffith, Buckingham, and 
 the whole of Cardinal Wolsey. 
 
 4. " Richly in two short hours. Only they.'''' 
 
 11 Hours," here, as in other places where it is a 
 dissyllable, should so be printed, according to the 
 old orthography, " howers," or " hcuers." 
 
 77/ e opinion that we bring, 
 
 " (To make that only true we now intend, y 
 
 I believe, " the opinion that we bring," means 
 the " expectation we entertain," and that " in- 
 tend" is put, somewhat pedantically, for hold 
 out, display, exhibit. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 How have you done, 
 
 " Since last we saw in France ?" 
 
 A mode of expression resembling this occurs in 
 Cymbeline, Act 1, Scene 5 : 
 
 " We have known together in Orleans :" 
 
 And in Milton's Lycidas : 
 c c 4
 
 392 KING HENRY VIII. 
 
 " We drove a-field, and both together heard." 
 t. e. Listened, had our ears open. 
 
 12. " That former fabulous story, 
 
 " Being noxo seen possible enough, got 
 
 credit, 
 " That Bevis was believd.'* 
 
 " That," in the last line, I believe, ought to 
 be and. 
 
 13. " One, certes, that promises no element." 
 
 " That" might be omitted elliptically to save 
 the metre* 
 
 14. " And keep it from the earth." 
 " Surely, sir" 
 
 A word is wanting to the measure. We might 
 read now, surely, sir. 
 
 1 8 . Aboded." 
 
 i. e. Foretold ; as in Macbeth : 
 
 " Sweet bodements !" 
 
 22. " Prone to mischief." 
 
 Prone is naturally or intuitively inclined, as in 
 Measure for Measure : 
 
 In her youth 
 
 " There is a prone and speechless dialect." 
 
 23. " Pray, give me favour, sir. This cunning 
 cardinal." 
 
 " Sir" might well be omitted, to render the 
 metre tolerable, and then should read: 
 
 " Pray give me favour. This cunning cardinal.'
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 393 
 
 4. " / do pronounce him in that very shape, 
 " He shall appear in proof" 
 
 This is carelessly expressed. It was not meant 
 to say he should appear a shape, but the con- 
 struction requires the repetition of the preposition 
 in : I do pronounce him in that very shape, in 
 which he shall appear in proof. 
 
 9,6. " Nicholas Hopkins:' 
 
 " Henton," which stood in the place of Hop- 
 kins, from confounding the name of the convent 
 with that of the monk, is, says Mr. Steevens, " a 
 mistake that must have been Shakspeare's ; as it 
 would be doing too much honour to the players, 
 to suppose them capable of being the authors of 
 it." 
 
 The honour of being capable of making such 
 a mistake, the players (of whom the critic seems 
 to forget that our poet was one) would have been 
 as little disposed to covet, as would Shakspeare 
 himself to deprecate the disgrace of it. The truth 
 is, there is little of disgrace, and still less of ho- 
 nour, at all belonging to the question ; but if the 
 honour, thus magnified, be the praise due to 
 knowledge, howsoever misapplied, many of those 
 players were as much above Shakspeare, in cor- 
 rect and systematic acquirements, as Shakspeare 
 himself is superior in genius to the most elaborate 
 of his commentators. 
 
 " I am the shadow of poor Buckingham ; 
 
 u Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on, 
 
 " By dark'ning my clear sun." 
 
 I am but Buckingham's shadow ; and my sub- 
 stance is become only a mark or emblem to dis-
 
 394 KING HENRY VIII. 
 
 tinguish or characterise the cloud of disgrace that 
 overwhelms me. If this be not satisfactory, I 
 must leave the sense to be developed by some one 
 more discerning and perspicuous than myself, and 
 more lucky than have been heretofore the efforts 
 of any of the ingenious commentators. 
 
 " I am the shadow" &c. 
 
 It occurs to me now, that Buckingham's allu- 
 sion is to the accidental appearance of a dark 
 cloud, while he is speaking, which he compares 
 with the cloud of disgrace that obscures his 
 honour. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 28. " Let he called before us 
 
 " That gentleman of Buckingham's" 
 
 Passages of similar construction to this are fre- 
 quently pointed at, both by Mr. Steevens and 
 Mr. Malone, as censurable, on account of gram- 
 mar, or as requiring indulgence, for being the 
 language of our poet's time. But the fact is, as 
 I think I have shewn in another place, it is the 
 language not only of the former, but of the pre- 
 sent, and all intermediate times, and is so far from 
 being improper or ungrammatical, that the cor- 
 rections which the remarks of those gentlemen 
 suggest, would alter and pervert the meaning. 
 " That gentleman of Buckingham" could not be 
 otherwise interpreted, than that gentleman of the 
 town or county of Bucks ; whereas the person in- 
 tended here is that particular gentleman of or 
 among the gentlemen attending on the duke.
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 395 
 
 30. " There have been coi?imissions 
 
 " Sent down among them, which hath flawed 
 
 the heart 
 " Of all their loyalties'* 
 
 Perhaps this seeming false concord may thus 
 be reconciled, by taking " hath," as the verb 
 agreeing not with " commissions," but with the 
 implied noun, the act of framing those commis- 
 sions. 
 
 32. " You frame 
 
 " Things, thai are known alike.''* 
 
 I would read, for the sake of the argument and 
 propriety, according to a common ellipsis. 
 
 " 1 You frame 
 
 The things, are known alike," &c. 
 
 They say, 
 
 CI 
 
 " They are dems'd by you ; or else you 
 
 suffer 
 " Too hard an exclamation.*' 
 
 " Or else" does not refer to what was " said," 
 but to the act itself of Wolsey, and instead of 
 the words '* or else," to make sense of the pas- 
 sage, we should read " if not." 
 
 33. " Tongues spit their duties out." 
 
 i. e. I suppose, disclaim their accustomed du- 
 ties with indignation and contempt. 
 
 " There is no primer business." 
 
 I think Dr. Warburton's correction here is 
 right. Mr. Steevens has produced an authority 
 from Othello for an acknowledged sense of the 
 word " prime :" had he cited an instance to prove 
 that baseness ever means mischiej] 1 should have
 
 396 KING HENRY VIII. 
 
 been more ready to concur with him in retaining 
 that word. Lord Chedwortii. 
 
 34. " By sick interpreters, once weak ones.'* 
 
 " Once," as Mr. Steevens remarks, is undoubt- 
 edly often used for at some time, or at any time, 
 but in that sense it cannot be understood here, 
 and I know not any other way to obtain the 
 meaning than by adopting the emendation or weak 
 ones. 
 
 35. " For our best act. If we shall stand still.*' 
 
 Mr. Steevens, I think, might have carried his 
 necessary emendation, action for " act," into the 
 text. 
 
 S6\ " The gentleman is learn d, and a most rare 
 speaker." 
 
 The metre might be preserved by reading 
 
 " The gentleman is learned; a rare speaker." 
 
 37- " And never seek for aid out of himself . 
 "Yet see." 
 
 This line might be reformed with ease 
 
 "And ne'er seek aid out of himself; yet see." 
 
 " When we, 
 
 " Almost with ravislid listening," &c. 
 
 This, surely, should be " almost with list'ning 
 ravish'd." 
 
 Practices; whereof 
 
 " We cannot feel too little, hear too ?nuch." 
 
 We cannot sufficiently suppress the emotions of 
 regret at his fall, nor accumulate too many in-
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 397 
 
 stances of his guilt, to make us acquiesce in the 
 propriety of his punishment. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 This scene, I am persuaded, is interpolated, and 
 none of Shakspeare's writing. Every line of it 
 is stampt with the seal of Ben Johnson. 
 
 4o\ " Their cloaths are after such a pagan cut 
 too, 
 " That, sure, they have worn out Christen- 
 dom. 1 * 
 
 " Worn-out" for having been antecedent -to. 
 Churchill has amplified this thought in the Ghost. 
 
 " -Garments well sav'd, which first were made, 
 
 " When taylors, to promote their trade, 
 
 " In arms, against the Picts, arose 
 
 " And drove them out, or made them cloaths.** 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 55. " A good digestion to you all; and, once 
 
 more, 
 u I shower a welcome on you; Welcome 
 all:* 
 
 " And," in the first of these line, should be 
 ejected. 
 
 56. " Leave their flocks." 
 
 I do not know what meaning these words, 
 which the editors pass by in silence, were intend- 
 ed to convey, unless it be absent themselves from 
 or neglect their beds beds stuffed with flock or 
 wool.
 
 398 KING HENRY VIII. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 6*0. " The duke desir'd 
 
 " To him brought, vivd voce, to his face.'* 
 
 It is strange that Mr. M. Mason's correction 
 has not been adopted here 
 
 " To have brought viva voce," &c. 
 
 63. " Although the king have mercies." 
 
 This being affirmative, and not hypothetic or 
 suppositious, the verb should be hath or has, the 
 indicative, not the subjunctive mood. 
 
 64. " JVo black envy 
 
 " Shall make my grave" &c. - 
 
 I think Dr. Warburton's emendation, mark 
 my grave, should be adopted. 
 
 65. " Ever belov*d, and loving, may his rule 
 
 be.'' 
 
 A slight alteration seems wanting here 
 " Ever belov'd and loving be his rule !" 
 
 67. Be sure, you be not loose; for those you 
 
 make friends" 
 
 "For,'* here, should be dismissed, " loose" is 
 careless, not circumspect. 
 
 68. " Betxceen the king and Katharine ? 
 " Yes, but it held not." 
 
 " Ye*" might be spared here for the sake of 
 the metre.
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 399 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 70. " Between us and the emperor, the queen's 
 great nephew" 
 
 " Great," here should be ejected. 
 
 74. " This priest has no pride in him*" 
 " Not to speak of" 
 
 I was not aware that this phrase of colloquial 
 irony was of such antiquity. 
 
 " All the clerks 
 
 " Have their free voices." 
 
 Mr. Malone's construction, implying " sent," 
 (" all the clerks have their free voices, i. e. have 
 tent their free voices") from the succeeding ex- 
 pression, " Rome hath sent" is inadmissible as to 
 grammar, the numbers of the verb disagreeing; 
 but the sense also is different. Wolsey states that 
 the trial and its process is impartial; that not only 
 in England, but throughout Christendom, the 
 learned are allowed to give their free opinions. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 79. " I swear 'tis better to be lowly born.'* 
 
 I swear, I cannot resist an impulse to repeat 
 here a line from Othello, exactly consonant upon 
 the ear to this : 
 
 " I swear 'tis better to be much abus'd." 
 
 80. " / would not be a young count in your 
 
 way, 
 " For more than blushing comes to." 
 
 What is that ? I suppose the old lady would 
 infer the pleasure of incontinence. 
 
 " You'd venture an emballing" 
 4
 
 400 KING HENRY VIII. 
 
 Notwithstanding Mr. Toilet's remark, which I 
 think is sufficiently answered by Mr. M. Mason, 
 I believe Dr. Johnson's is the true explanation ; 
 the prurient sagacity of Mr. Ritson has, I think, 
 found out " a meaning never meant." 
 
 Lord Chedworth. 
 
 Mr. Whalley offers very plausibly, I think, 
 embalming instead of " emballing." 
 
 82. " What wer't worth to knoxj 
 
 " The secret of your conference ?" 
 
 An. " Not your demand : it values not your 
 asking ; 
 " Our mistress* sorrows we were pitying." 
 
 It certainly could not be such sorrows as those 
 of Catherine that were so depreciated, and I 
 know not whether it was the "pity" or the " se- 
 cret." 
 
 83. " I do not know 
 
 " What kind of my obedience I should ten- 
 der ; 
 " More than my all is nothing.** 
 
 So says Duncan to Macbeth : 
 
 " More is thy due, even more than all can pay. v 
 
 And, afterwards, the Lady, with amplification, 
 to Duncan : 
 
 " -All our services, 
 
 "In every part twice done, and then done double, 
 
 " Were poor and single business," &c. 
 
 tt , ff Qr m y p r(l y erS 
 
 " Are not words duly hallow* d." 
 Mr M. Mason says, this passage is not sense as 
 it stands, and proposes to read "for" instead of 
 " nor," but I think he is mistaken " nothing,"
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 401 
 
 in the first line, is, not any thing, and the parti- 
 cle " nor" is the suitable conjunction. 
 
 91. " Or made it not mine too? Or which of 
 your friends." 
 
 " Or,'' in the latter part of this line, is unneces- 
 sary and spoils the metre. 
 
 Which of your friends 
 
 " Have I not strove to love, although I knew 
 " He were mine enemy ?" 
 
 It should be was mine enemy ; it is only the 
 leading part of the sentence that requires the sub- 
 junctive mood. 
 
 -What friend of mine 
 
 " That had to him deriv'd," &c. 
 
 Otway, perhaps without copying, as the senti- 
 ment is so natural, has the same appeal in the 
 Orphan : 
 
 " When had I a friend that was not Polydore's, 
 " Or Polydore a foe that was not mine ?" 
 
 What friend of mine 
 
 " That had to him deriv'd your anger, did I 
 " Continue in my liking ? nay, gave notice 
 u He was from thence discharg'd." 
 
 The seeming inaccuracy of the construction 
 here is, I believe, the poet's own. The question 
 that the queen asks is immediately, in the speak- 
 er's mind, changed to an affirmation " What 
 friend did I continue in my liking ?" the queen 
 makes, as she proceeds, to stand for, / always 
 withdrew my favour from such a friend. 
 
 92. " Who deem'd our marriage lawful ; where* 
 fore I humbly." 
 
 VOL. I. D D
 
 402 KING HENRY VIII. 
 
 Shakspeare never loaded a line in this manner, 
 and so uselessly " wherefore" should he dismis- 
 sed, and the line proceed thus : 
 
 " Who deem'd our marriage lawful ; humbly I 
 " Beseech you, Sir," &c. 
 
 93. " Lord Cardinal, 
 
 " To you I speak" 
 
 This equivocal address, where there were pre- 
 sent two cardinals, engages the attention of them 
 both, and Catherine found it necessary to dis- 
 tinguish Wolsey in this emphatic manner. 
 
 94. " Overtopping womaiisjpower. Madam, you 
 
 do me wrong.** 
 
 " Madam" is a useless hypermeter. 
 
 95. " Where powers are your retainers." 
 
 By " powers,'* I believe, is meant potentates, 
 supremes of state; and the sense, that Wolsey 
 had made these powers subservient to him. 
 
 98. " Unloosd." 
 
 This word occurs again in K. Henry V. It per- 
 haps should be altered, or rather restored to its 
 primitive and natural form, enloos'd ; to unloose 
 should mean to fasten. 
 
 " Whether ever I 
 " Have to you spake.'" 
 
 It should be " spoken," or the accepted abbre- 
 viation spoke ; but the metre is excessive. We 
 might read, dismissing one word, 
 
 " A royal lady, spoke the least word, might." 
 
 99. ' I speak, my good Lord Cardinal, to tit is 
 
 point."
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 403 
 
 I represent my Lord Cardinal as he really 
 acted in this ease. 
 
 100. " The bosom of my conscience." 
 
 The inmost recess ; equivalent to the expres- 
 sion, " my heart's core," " my heart of hearts." 
 
 101. " I meant to rectify my conscience which 
 11 I then did feel full sick, and yet not 
 
 well." 
 
 " And which is yet not well." 
 
 " / committed 
 
 " The daring' st counsel which I had to doubt? 
 
 "Daring" means, here, confident, resolute; that 
 counsel, on which otherwise I would have placed 
 the firmest reliance, I began to suspect as falla- 
 cious. 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 106. " And that way I am wife in" &c. 
 
 I am persuaded this passage has been corrupted ; 
 neither " wife" nor wise affords any tolerable 
 sense. 
 
 108. " The willing'st sin." 
 
 " Willing'st" for wilfullest. 
 
 109. " They that must weigh out my afflictions, 
 " They that my trust must groxv to, live 
 
 not here? 
 
 " Weigh out" for outweigh, says Mr. Steevens; 
 but that explanation will by no means accord 
 with the sense. Is not this rather the meaning? 
 They who must poise and estimate fairly my seve- 
 ral afflictions. dd2
 
 404 KING HENRY VIII. 
 
 1 10. " Out upon ye- 
 
 The more shame for ye ; holy men I 
 thought ye 
 
 " Hollow hearts, I fear ye 
 
 " I will not wish ye half my miseries 
 
 " But say, I xvarn'd ye 
 
 " The burden oj my sorrows jail upon ye." 
 
 Here, in ten successive lines, is, to the reproach 
 of the editors, a repetition seven times of a vulgar 
 misuse of the cases, the nominative for the accu- 
 sative: in familiar conversation, indeed, the 
 pronoun " you," when not emphatic, or put in 
 opposition to some other person, is uttered with 
 the short, flat sound of the e, ye" ; but to set 
 down thus, in the chastened publication of an 
 eminent author, repeatedly, so barbarous an ano- 
 maly as the nominative case for the accusative, 
 is, I think, utterly unpardonable. 
 
 111. " Woe upon ye !" 
 
 And again, in the second line, this impropriety 
 (according to a custom too prevalent) reversed, 
 " you" instead of ye : 
 
 " If you have any justice, any pity." 
 
 But the very next line, again, properly: 
 
 " If ye be any thing but churchmen's habits." 
 
 " All your studies 
 
 " Make me a curse like this" 
 
 The sense is imperative : let your wits do their 
 utmost to produce a misery to me equal to this. 
 
 " Your fears are worse." 
 
 I believe this is in reference to the last words 
 uttered by the queen ; your fears create an evil 
 worse than what really exists,
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 405 
 
 1 12. " Ye have cui gels faces." 
 
 The origin of tills jingle is related by Camden, 
 from Beda: "Gregory the Great, Bishop of 
 Rome, on a time, saw beautifull boyes to be sold 
 in the market at Rome, and demanded from 
 whence they were ; answer was made him, out of 
 the isle of Britan: then asked he againe whether 
 they were Christians or no ? They said, no. Alas ! 
 for pitie, said Gregory," &c. " Then he would 
 know of thcr by what name their nation was 
 called ; and they told him Angleshmen ; and 
 justly be they so called, quoth he, for they have 
 angelike faces, and seem meete to be made co- 
 heirs with the angels in heaven." 
 
 Remains Britaine. 
 
 1 14. The king loves you, 
 
 " Beware you lose it not" 
 
 We should read, beware you lose him not. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 117. " How he coasts, 
 
 " And hedges his own way." 
 
 " To hedge, in the language of gamesters, is to 
 counteract in some measure the probable loss of a 
 bet by wagering a part of the amount of it in a 
 new bet upon the contrary side. 
 
 123. " You are full of heavenly stuff" 
 
 Stuff is merely matter, whether good or bad. 
 
 125. " My loyalty, 
 
 " Which ever has and ever shall be grow- 
 ing, 
 " Till Death, that winter, kill it." 
 D 3
 
 406 KING HENRY VIII. 
 
 This is false concord : it should be, 
 My loyalty, 
 
 " Which still has been, and ever shall be grow- 
 ing," &c. 
 
 126\ " 1 do profess 
 
 " That for your highness' good I ever la- 
 
 bour'd 
 " More than my own ; that am, have, and 
 
 will be, 
 " Though all the world should crack their 
 
 duty to you, 
 " And throw it from their soul, though 
 
 perils," &c. 
 
 There is here a palpable omission, that leaves 
 the sense perplexed and imperfect. Some arrang- 
 ment like this is necessary : 
 
 I do profess, 
 
 " That for your highness* good I ever labour'd 
 " More than my own; that I am, have been, and 
 
 shall b, 
 " Though all the world should crack their duty 
 
 to you, 
 " And throw it from their soul (most firm and 
 
 loyal) 
 " Though perils," &c. 
 
 1 30. " How eagerly ye follow my disgraces, 
 " As if it fed ye." 
 
 Grammar requires "disgrace," here, in the sin- 
 gular number, and you, after " fed" instead of 
 " ye." 
 
 133. " IV hen the brown wench 
 
 " Lay kissing in your arms, Lord Cardi- 
 nal."
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 407 
 
 This seems an allusion to some incident known 
 at the time ; I wonder it has not engaged the at- 
 tention, and excited the enquiry of some of the 
 commentators. 
 
 134. " Noxv, if you can blush, and cry guilty, 
 Cardinal^ 
 " You'll shew a little honesty." 
 
 There are two modes of pointing this passage, 
 with, perhaps, equal claims to acceptance. Now, 
 if you can (/. e. if there be any shame in your na- 
 ture) blush and cry guilty, in doing so you'll shew 
 a little honesty. Or else : Now if you can blush 
 and cry guilty, you will shew (in such humilia- 
 tion) a little honesty. The first of these modes, 
 with the imperative, " blush," I am rather in- 
 clined to, as I am to the pointing a passage some- 
 what similar to this, in Cymbeline : 
 
 ** Now, if you can, be pale." 
 
 138. " Vain pomp, and glory of this world, I 
 hate ye." 
 
 " Ye" should be corrected to you. 
 
 144. " O, Cromwell, 
 
 " Had I but serv'd my God with half the 
 
 zeal 
 " I sej'v'd my king, he would not,'" &c. 
 
 There is, in this celebrated passage, a gram- 
 matical inaccuracy : the preposition before the 
 implied pronoun which, is necessary in the com- 
 parison between " my God" and " my king:" 
 
 " With half the zeal with (which) I serv'd my 
 king.*' 
 
 D D 4
 
 408 KING HENRY VIII. 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 150. " God save you, sir! where have you been 
 broiling." 
 
 A word or syllable is wanting : perhaps, a- 
 broiling. 
 
 152. " The press." 
 i. e. The crowd. 
 
 153. " Ye shall go my way, which 
 
 " Is to the court, and there ye shall be my 
 guests." 
 
 " Ye,*' in the last line, spoils the measure, and 
 ought to be ejected. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 158. " He was never, 
 
 " But where he meant to ruin, pitiful." 
 
 He never made shew of compassion but where 
 his secret purpose was cruelty. The writer of 
 Junius's Letters seems to have made use of this 
 passage, where, speaking of an instance of ap- 
 parent candour in Lord Mansfield, he remarks, 
 " that cunning Scotchman never speaks truth but 
 with a fraudulent design;" and Otway, in the 
 Orphan : 
 
 " 'Tis thus the false hyena makes her moan, 
 
 To 
 
 " And all that pity you are made your prey." 
 
 15). " Men's evil manners live in brass ; their 
 virtues 
 " We write in water."
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 409 
 
 This sentiment occurs in Julius Cassar : 
 
 " The evil that men do lives after them ; 
 " The good is oft interred with their bones." 
 
 160. " This Cardinal, 
 
 " Though from an humble stock, undoubt- 
 edly 
 
 " Was fashion'd to much honour : from 
 his cradle 
 
 " He was a scholar, and a ripe and good 
 one.'* 
 
 I am surprised to find Theobald's clear punctu- 
 ation of this passage rejected both by Mr. Malone 
 and the last editor. 
 
 " Was fashion* d to much honour from his cra- 
 dle:* 
 
 There is no violence (at least poetic precedent 
 fully warrants it) in saying a man was formed by 
 nature for greatness ; that he was ennobled by na- 
 ture at his birth ; but to say that any one was born 
 a scholar, and a ripe scholar, cannot be recon- 
 ciled to any thing like truth or propriety of ex- 
 pression : besides, the passage quoted from 
 Holinshed, which unquestionably was before 
 our author when he wrote these lines, appears to 
 be decisive on the side of Theobald : 
 
 " This Cardinal was a man undoubtedly born to 
 honour." 
 
 163. " Whom I most hated," &c. 
 
 " Whom" cannot properly stand for * him 
 whom." 
 
 164. " Bright faces 
 
 " Cast thousand beams upon me."
 
 410 KING HENRY VIII. 
 
 This is vicious idiom; but as great men must 
 be copied, even in their errors, Mr. Collins has 
 introduced it in his Ode on the Passions : 
 
 " Cast thousand odours from his dewy wings." 
 
 168. " For honesty, and decent carriage." 
 
 Carriage a trisyllable. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 170. " These should be hours for necessities.'''' 
 
 When hour occurs with the quantity of two 
 syllables, as it often does, it should be printed so, 
 how'er, or holier, according to the old ortho- 
 graphy. 
 
 180. " Know you not hozv 
 
 " Your state stands ithe world, with the 
 
 whole world ? 
 " Your enemies.'* 
 
 " The whole world" is here an awkward, un- 
 meaning interpolation, encumbering the measure, 
 and ought to be ejected : 
 
 " Know you not how 
 
 " Your state stands i' the world ? Your enemies 
 
 " Are many," &c. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 186. " The chief cause concerns his Grace of 
 Canterbury.'* 
 
 But this was the only cause, and " chief,'* 
 therefore, which is alike impertinent to the sense
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 411 
 
 and burtliensome to the measure, should be with- 
 drawn, i 
 
 187. We all are men 
 
 " /// our own natures frail, and capable of 
 our flesh" 
 
 Capable of our flesh, I think, must mean, 
 susceptible- of or liable- to the frailties of our 
 flsh : capable is used in Hamlet for susceptible: 
 
 " His form and cause conjoin'd 
 
 " Preaching to stones would make them capable." 
 
 194. " I come not 
 
 " To hear such flattery now, and in my 
 
 presence, 
 (t They are too thin and base to hide of- 
 
 fences." 
 
 I cannot agree with Mr. Whalley in supposing 
 that the punctuation, here, is right. Where should 
 the king " hear" flattery but in his " presence?" 
 I came not, he says, to hear such flattery ; and, 
 while I am present, to utter such gross adulation, 
 is too flimsy and mean a cloak of those purposes 
 at which I am offended. This I take to be the 
 meaning, and if so, the former pointing was 
 right: 
 
 1 come not 
 
 " To hear such flattery now : and in my presence 
 " They are too thin," &c. 
 
 195. " To me you cannot reach, you play the 
 
 spaniel" 
 
 The construction seems to be : 
 
 " To me (whom) you cannot reach, you play the 
 spaniel." 
 
 198. " Two noble partners with you ; the old 
 Duchess of Norfolk." 
 
 The word " old," here, should be omitted.
 
 4112 KING HENRY VIII. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 214. " Nor shall this peace sleep with her," &c. 
 
 These lines, alluding to King James, were 
 manifestly, as Dr. Johnson observed, inserted at 
 a period subsequent to the time of the play's first 
 representation, and for the purpose of compli- 
 menting the successor of Elizabeth. Mr. M alone 
 thinks they are not of Shakspeare's writing, but 
 that they were supplied after our poet had left the 
 stage, by "that hand which tampered with the other 
 parts of the play, so much as to have rendered the 
 versification of it of a different colour from all the 
 plays of Shakspeare." And Mr. Steevens, though 
 he will not recognise this " tamperer," makes lit- 
 tle scruple of ascribing to Ben Jonson the lines in 
 question. I cannot bring myself to agree, on the 
 present subject, with either of these critics. That 
 many passages in the play are marked with adul- 
 teration is not disputed, and I have pointed out 
 two whole scenes which I am completely satisfied 
 are, as well as the Prologue and the Epilogue, the 
 property of Jonson, whose pen occasionally, I 
 think, may be traced in other places ; as in the 
 1st Scene of the 1st Act, where Norfolk says, 
 
 " As I belong to worship, and affect 
 " In honour, honesty, the tract of every thing 
 " Would, by a good discourser, lose some life, 
 " Which action's self was tongue to. All was 
 
 royal ; 
 " To the disposing of it nought rebeird, 
 " Order gave each thing view : the office did 
 " Distinctly his full functions." 
 
 Buck. " Who did guide, 
 
 " I mean, who set the body and the limbs
 
 KING HENRY VIII. 410 
 
 " Of this great sport together, as you guess ?** 
 
 Norf, " One, certes, that promises no element 
 " In such a business," &c. 
 
 These lines partake much of his manner, and 
 are utterly unlike the style of our poet. The 
 other instances of corruption appear to me to be 
 chiefly in the uncouth redundancy of particular 
 lines, contrary to the practice of Shakspeare, 
 (as I think I have shewn in the preface to these 
 remarks) ; but they are not, in my opinion, by 
 any means, so extended as to warrant Mr. Ma- 
 lone's assertion, that the general versification is 
 " of a different colour from all the plays of Shak- 
 speare." With respect to the interpolation in 
 Cranmer's speech, I not only am unable to dis- 
 cover in it, with Mr. Steevens, any kind of re- 
 semblance to Ben Jonson, but I frankly, and 
 without difficulty, declare, it appears to me no- 
 thing else but genuine Shakspeare. That it is 
 not very skilfully combined with the context is 
 no argument against its authenticitv : it was su- 
 perinduced merely to flatter James, and, having 
 answered that purpose, the author was not very 
 solicitous about accurate conformity: the com- 
 pliment itself was not impaired by its abruptness." 
 
 217. " And ye shall find me thankful. Lead thr 
 way, lords." 
 
 " Lords'" should be withdrawn. 

 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE* I. 
 
 234. " What goddess e'er she be." 
 
 " Quisquisfuit Me deorum." 
 
 237- " Hard as the palm of ploughman." 
 
 We meet with this expression in Julius Caesar: 
 
 " The hard hands of peasants." 
 
 And again, in Cymbeline : 
 
 " Hands made hard with hourly falsehood." 
 
 " Thou lay' st in every gash that love hath given 
 
 me 
 " The knife that made it" . 
 
 Tins is very quaintly expressed love gives, 
 and the knife makes the wound. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 241. " Hector, whose patience 
 
 " Is, as a virtue, Jfo*d. n 
 
 Dr. Warburton's objection to the expression, 
 here, is well founded, though his emendation, I 
 fear, is too far-fetched: Dryden, indeed, made 
 sense and poetry in his alteration of this passage, 
 which, as we have it, is only pompous diction, 
 without meaning.
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 415 
 
 242. " Before the sun rose, ke was harness'd 
 light." 
 
 Surely there is no obscurity in this passage, 
 upon which such extended comments are given : 
 any plain reader would perceive, that, by being 
 " harness'd light," the warrior was represented as 
 wearing armour which would not prevent his na- 
 tural agility. 
 
 250. " Her eyes ran o'er." 
 
 Cres. " With mill-stones." 
 
 It has been suggested, with some plausibility, 
 in an ingenious " specimen of a commentary up- 
 on Shakspeare," that the phrase of " weeping 
 mill-stones," might have arisen from the awkward 
 and clumsy imitation of " tears in some of the 
 old tapestry." 
 
 257. " You are such another /" 
 
 This colloquial vulgarism is still extant. 
 
 u Joy's soul lies in the doing." 
 
 Mr. M. Mason proposes dies in the doing; but 
 there is no need of change : the sense is, the su- 
 preme enjoyment of lovers is during the time of 
 courtship ; but possession once obtained, puts an 
 end to that enjoyment. If any change were to 
 be made, it should, perhaps, be 
 
 " Joy's soul lives in the doing." 
 
 258. " Achievement is command ; ungain'd, be- 
 
 seech." 
 
 Mr. Steevens has rightly explained this pas- 
 sage, the sense of which is more fully expressed 
 in Julius Caesar : 
 2
 
 416 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 " For lowliness is young Ambition's ladder, 
 " Whereto the climber upward turns his face ; 
 " But when he once attains the utmost round, 
 " He then unto the ladder turns his back, 
 " Looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees 
 " By which he did ascend." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 259. " That unbodied figure of the 
 
 thought 
 " That gav't surmised shape. 1 * 
 That unsubstantial portraiture, formed by anti- 
 cipation, in the mind. " Figure" means configu- 
 ration. 
 
 " Trials of great Jove, 
 
 " To find persist ive constancy in men ? 
 " The fineness of which metal is not found 
 " In fortune's lore : for then, the bold 
 
 and coward, 
 11 The wise and fool, the artist and unread, 
 " The hard and soft, seem all ajjui'd and 
 
 kin : 
 " But, in the wind and tempest of her 
 frozen," &c. 
 
 And, a little lower, 
 
 In the reproof of chance 
 
 " Lies the true proof of men : The sea 
 
 being smooth, 
 " How many shallow bauble boats dare 
 
 sail 
 " Upon her patient breast, making their 
 
 way 
 " With those of nobler bulk ? 
 " But let the 'ruffian Boreas," &c.
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 417 
 
 Coriolanus expostulates in the same manner : 
 
 " . You were us'd 
 
 " To say, extremity was the trier of spirits ; 
 
 " That common chances common men could 
 
 bear; 
 " That when the sea was calm, all boats alike 
 " Shew'd mastership, in floating," &c. 
 
 " Reproof of chance" is the magnanimity, or 
 the effect of that magnanimity, which counter- 
 acts and proves superior-to accident. 
 
 " Lies, rich in virtue, and unmingled." 
 
 " Unmingled," a quadrisyllable. 
 
 262. " Made a toast for Neptune"* 
 
 How a " toast" is to be made by immersion in 
 water, or drowning, I cannot conceive, and wish 
 some of the commentators had instructed us. 
 
 When the splitting wind 
 
 " Makes flexible the knees of knotted oaks, 
 " And flies fled under shade, ichi), then, the 
 thing of courage." 
 
 " Makes" and " fled" h an expression that 
 cannot be allowed. We might read " and flies 
 are fled to shade." The words " why then" are 
 not wanting to the sense, and, as they burthen 
 the line, they ought to be omitted. 
 
 263. " The thing of courage.'' 
 
 " Thing" is used in other places with dignity. 
 Coriolanus is addressed, " thou noble thing!" 
 
 " Returns to chiding fort tine." 
 
 Gives chiding fortune as good as she brings*. 
 
 VOL. I. E E
 
 418 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 u 
 
 Both your speeches, which were such, 
 " As Agamemnon and the hand of Greece 
 " Should hold up high in brass ; and such again, 
 " As venerable Nestor, hatch'd in silver, 
 1 Should with a bond of air (strong as the 
 
 axletree 
 ' On which heaven rides,) knit all the Greekish 
 
 ears 
 *' To his experienced tongue.* 1 
 
 It is impossible to reconcile the construction of 
 this exordium, as it stands, to any sense ; but I 
 believe the meaning is this " Your several 
 speeches (says Ulysses) were such, that one of 
 them, for its convincing energy, should, by the 
 supreme authority and general consent of Greece, 
 be recorded in brass ; the other, on account of its 
 persuasive sweetness, ought to be commemorated 
 in an engraving upon silver, which should repre- 
 sent Nestor, as fascinating, or binding with the 
 charm of his eloquence, (the bond of air) the 
 ears and attention of the Greeks. 
 
 This " bond of air" reminds me of a passage, 
 which I have met with somewhere, quoted from 
 Apuleius, in which the fine transparent web that 
 covers, without hiding, the bosom of a lady, is 
 called ventum textilem. 
 
 264. " Yet let it please both." 
 
 " Let," which overloads the line, might be 
 omitted : 
 
 " Yet please it both." 
 
 269. " Insisture." 
 
 This seems to mean " peremptory purpose ;" 
 but the word is not, I believe, elsewhere to be 
 found, and probably is not Shakspeare's.
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 419 
 
 271. " Peaceful commerce from dhidable 
 shores," 
 
 Commerce occurs again in the third act, with 
 this accentuation. 
 
 - The bounded waters 
 
 " Should lift their bosoms higher than the 
 shores." 
 
 The auxiliary verbs, shall and will, are often 
 confounded in these works, as they are still in, 
 Ireland. 
 
 272. " That by a pace goes backward, with a 
 purpose 
 " It hath to climb." 
 
 This seems inconsequential : should it not have 
 been either " goes downward" or " it hath 
 f advance ?" 
 
 " Pale and bloodless emulation" 
 
 Dr. Johnson explains this, an emulation " not 
 vigorous and active, but malignant and sluggish;" 
 but surely it is a reference to the plebeian base- 
 ness, the want of nobility or blood in those who 
 would thus mount over their superiors. 
 
 273. " ' The wooden dialogue and sound 
 
 " l Twi.vt his stretch'd footing and the scaf 
 
 foldage" 
 
 " The scafToldage,'* says Mr. Malone, is the 
 gallery ; but is it not rather the stage ? 
 
 274. " Speaks, 
 
 " with terms unsquar % d, 
 
 " TVhichy-from the tongue of roaring Ty* 
 
 phon dropped, 
 " Would seem hyperboles."^ 
 E3
 
 4-20 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 This is not concord; by " which," we are 
 obliged to understand such as. 
 
 As near as the extremest ends 
 
 " Of parallels/' 
 
 Dr. Johnson says this is an allusion to the 
 parallel lines on a map, east and west ; but I be- 
 lieve it rather refers to the mathematical property 
 of parallels, whose ends can never meet, but, at 
 their greatest extent, are as far from each other as 
 they were at first. 
 
 " And with a palsy -fumbling on his gorget, 
 " Shake in and out the rivet."- 
 
 The making thus a compound of palsy and 
 fumbling, gives such a construction as I believe 
 nobody can understand. What can be plainer 
 than this? Patroclus (says Ulysses) now pro- 
 ceeds to mimic the infirmities of Nestor, to cough 
 and spit : 
 
 " And, with a palsy, fumbling on his gorget, 
 (i. e. Putting it on in a fumbling manner,) 
 
 " (To) shake in and out the rivet." 
 
 $75. " Severals and generals.'' 
 
 What are peculiar, as well as what are common. 
 
 " Paradoxes." 
 
 By this word, I believe is meant, here, prepos- 
 terous and disgraceful antics. 
 
 276. " Forestall prescience, and esteem no act 
 " But that of hand: 1 
 
 " Forestall" seems to have here an unusual sig- 
 nification undervalue, contemn.
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 421 
 
 QY7. " Look, Menelaus." 
 
 " Menelaus" should be omitted, as encumber- 
 ing the verse. I suppose it crept into the text, 
 from being a stage direction (to Menelaus.) 
 
 278. JEneas. " Ay." 
 
 I am surprised to find this word, without the 
 least meaning, here, taking up the space of a 
 line. 
 
 " Bending angels" 
 
 Means, I believe, angels relaxing from their 
 graver occupations. 
 
 281. "If there be one among the fair'st of 
 
 Greece, 
 " That holds his honour higher than his 
 
 ease, 
 " That seeks his praise more than he fears 
 
 his peril." 
 
 Some lines very like these we find in Corio- 
 lanus : 
 
 " n If any fear 
 
 " Lesser his person than an ill report ; 
 
 " If any think brave death outweighs bad life, 
 
 " And that his country's dearer than himself, 
 
 " Let him," &c. 
 
 284. " Substance, 
 
 " Whose grossness little characters sum 
 up." 
 
 This is not very clear : the best sense I can an- 
 nex to it is grossness, or bulk, which is com- 
 posed of minute and imperceptible atoms. 
 
 285. " Most meet." 
 
 E e 3
 
 422 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 " Meet," for probable commensurate to rea- 
 son. 
 
 " Our imputation shall be oddly pois'd." 
 
 " Oddly," I believe, means, here, " at odds," 
 at disadvantage. 
 
 286. " To their subsequent volumes, there is 
 seen." 
 
 This play abounds with lines of unusual ac- 
 centuation. 
 
 286. " A man 
 
 " Who miscarrying, 
 
 " What heart receives from hence a con- 
 quering part, 
 " To steel a strong opinion to themselves.^ 
 
 Was this passage deemed by the commentators 
 too plain to require any explanation ? or is it ob- 
 scure only to myself? The meaning intended, I 
 believe, is if the antagonist of Hector should be 
 defeated, who is there, that, from such an event, 
 would derive any confidence in his own prowess ? 
 But how can we reconcile this to the construc- 
 tion ? There is evident depravation : some words 
 have been lost or changed. Sense might be ob- 
 tained, by reading 
 
 " What heart receives from thence a conquering 
 
 hope, 
 " Or feels a strong opinion (/. e. a confidence) 
 
 in himself? 
 
 " Which entertain' d, limbs are his instruments, 
 " In no less working, than are szvords and boxes 
 " Directive by the limbs." 
 
 I suppose the meaning here is this confident 
 spirit being obtained, the next consideration is
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 423 
 
 corporal vigour and strength of limbs, no less es* 
 sential to courage, in such a conflict, than are 
 swords and bows to the hands which are to use 
 them. 
 
 u And think, perchance, they* II sell ; if not." 
 
 The foot which is wanting here to the metre 
 should certainly be supplied in some way or 
 other, and Mr. Steevens's proposal seems accept- 
 able : 
 
 " And think, perchance, they'll sell ; if they do 
 not." 
 
 Or, perhaps or, if they do not." 
 
 287. " Make a lottery; 
 
 " And, by device, let blockish Ajax draw" 
 
 I hope the poet had not here any libellous pros- 
 pective reference to falsely-imputed modern 
 practices in ballotation. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 291. " The plague of Greece upon thee. 
 
 The plague, says Dr. Johnson, sent by Apollo ; 
 but I rather suspect it is the plague sent by Ve- 
 nus, which, in another place, is called the malady 
 of Corinth. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 300. " Bread Priam, 
 
 " There is no lady of more softer bowels" 
 
 By dismissing the obsolete hypercomparative 
 4
 
 424 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 " more," the fragment preceding this latter line 
 may be received into the measure : 
 
 " Dread Priam, there's no lady of softer bowels." 
 
 The wound of peace is surety, 
 
 " Surety secure." 
 
 If this be not tautology, it is at least very like 
 it. " Surety" means confidence, and security, in 
 the present case, can mean nothing else. The 
 sense intended seems to be the danger to which 
 peace is chiefly exposed, is the supposition that 
 we are safe from attack, and an implicit confi- 
 dence in that supposition. 
 
 301. " Not worth to us, 
 
 " Had it our name, the value of one ten." 
 
 I once thought, that, for ten, we should un- 
 derstand tenth ; but I now think otherwise. 
 Hector would not insult Helen, though he chose 
 to reduce her estimation. " She is not (says he) 
 worth to us, even were she Trojan, any ten of 
 those whose lives have been sacriliced in retaining 
 her." 
 
 303. " What infectiously itself affects:' 
 
 " Infectiously," for in a state of disease. 
 
 308. " Distaste the goodness of a quar- 
 rel:' 
 
 Dr. Johnson's explanation of " distaste," cor- 
 rupt, change to a worse state, is too vague, and 
 would better suit the word disstate. To " dis- 
 taste," means, here, to destroy or take-away the 
 relish of 
 
 " To make it gracious" 
 
 " Gracious" is comely, graceful, of commend- 
 able appearance.
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 425 
 
 Jove forbid, there should be done 
 amongst us 
 
 " Such things as might offend the weakest 
 
 spleen 
 u To fight for and maintain !** 
 
 This passage is not very clear: " weakest 
 spleen'* may signify either " the most irritable 
 person," or " him who has the least disposition 
 to quarrel ;" or, further, the disposition itself, ei- 
 ther as it is most easily rouzed, or subsists in the 
 smallest degree. Perhaps Troilus only means to 
 correct the vehemence of his argument, by de- 
 precating any ill-will, among his brothers, about 
 the question. " I am (says he) no more con- 
 cerned than the rest of Priam's sons ; and Jove 
 forbid, that, in such a dispute between brothers, 
 there should be any the least act committed 
 that could provoke the most impatient of our 
 tempers to violent contention." 
 
 30g. " Glozd." 
 
 To glose, says Mr. Stcevens, is, in Shakspeare, 
 to comment : but in this place, as well as in the 
 passage quoted from Henry the Fifth, it is, I be- 
 lieve, rather to argue plausibly : this, too, I take 
 to be the sense of the word, in the instance 
 brought by Mr. Steevens from the Fairy Queen. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 316. " Agamemnon is a fool," &c. 
 
 Mr. Malone says, there is here a profane allu- 
 sion ; but I cannot at all perceive it. 
 
 " Make that demand of the prover" 
 
 This, to me, is unintelligible : I suppose a word 
 has been changed.
 
 426 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 318. " Their fraction is more our wish than 
 
 their faction.'* 
 
 Their disruption from each other is better for 
 us than their agreement : faction is league, 
 merely. 
 
 319. " - His evasion, wing'd thus with 
 
 szvif't scorn, 
 " Cannot outfly our apprehensions" 
 
 He is not more ready to frame evasions than we 
 are to suspect his sincerity it is very quaintly 
 expressed. 
 
 " . Much attribute he hath. n 
 
 Much reputation, honour, praise: thus, in 
 Hamlet: 
 
 " The pith and marrow of our attribute." 
 
 And in K. Henry IV. First Part : 
 
 " Such attribution should the Douglas have.' 
 
 " All his virtues, 
 
 " Not virtuously on his own part beheld. n 
 
 It is not easy to understand this line, which the 
 commentators have silently passed by. I sup- 
 pose it was intended to signify that his virtues, 
 according as Achilles used them, did not appear 
 to be virtues. 
 
 320. " Underwrite." 
 
 This word does not, I believe, mean so much 
 as Dr. Johnson supposes, "to obey/' but only to 
 shew deference as to a superior, and in this sense 
 is '* subscription," in the quoted instance from 
 Lear, to be understood.
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 427 
 
 321. " Allowance" 
 
 Is " rate," valuation, or estimation, as in Ham- 
 let: " The censure of which one must, in your 
 allowance," &c. And in Othello : 
 
 " His pilot, 
 
 " Of very expert and approv'd allowance." 
 
 322. " JVhate'er praises itself but in the 
 
 deed, devours the deed in the praise.''* 
 
 Even in the act or " deed" of self-praise, the 
 merit of the action, so praised, is countervailed. 
 Thus one of the Plebeians says of Coriolanus's 
 pride, which is a kind of silent self-applause, " I 
 could be content to give him good report, but 
 that he pays himself by being proud." 
 
 " Things small as nothing, for request's 
 
 sake only, 
 " He makes important." 
 
 i. e. Merely because they were requested. 
 
 " Speaks not to himself but with a pride 
 " That quarrels with self-breath." 
 
 He cannot, though his own flatterer, find terms 
 of eulogy suited to the inordinate claims of his 
 pride. This I suppose is the meaning : 
 
 " He speaks to himself," &c. 
 
 He is fearful that his own familiarity with him- 
 self should be a disgrace. ]J. Stkutt. 
 
 323. " Kingdom'd Achilles:' 
 
 Achilles, comprehending in himself a haughty 
 state, detached and independent of the rest of 
 mankind. 
 
 14 He is so plaguy proud that the death tokens 
 
 of a:'
 
 428 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 " Plaguy" should, doubtless, as Mr. Steevens 
 observes, be removed from the line, which it only 
 encumbers. 
 
 324. " Stale his palm:' 
 
 Make his honours, his military trophies so 
 cheap, common and familiar. 
 
 " His fat-already" 
 
 As well as t( to-be-pitied," in the 1st Act, 
 might be added to Mr. Tyrwhitt's list of strange 
 words occurring in this play. 
 
 " Til pash him 
 
 " Over the face." 
 
 " To pash," I believe, means to crush and 
 confound by sudden violence : thus Lee applies 
 the word in the Massacre of Paris : 
 
 " Your subtle engines have with labour rais'd 
 " My anger, like a mighty engine, up, 
 " To fall and pash thee dead." 
 
 325. " 1*11 pheeze his pride" 
 
 I believe " to pheeze" is to thump, to beat with 
 the fist as boxers do. 
 
 326*. " He'd have ten shares" 
 
 An allusion to the distribution of theatrical pro- 
 fits which are still, in some country companies, 
 divided into parts that are called shares. 
 
 327. "Emulous." 
 
 " Emulous," Mr. Malone says, is envious, but 
 I believe it is, rather, overweening.
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 429 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 331. " Love's invisible soul." 
 
 The servant would call Helen " the soul of 
 love," and " soul" being invisible, he adds " in- 
 visible soul:" this appears tome to be the mean- 
 ing. 
 
 334. " My disposer, Cressida." 
 
 To whatsoever speaker these words may be as- 
 signed, it seems impossible to ascribe a mean- 
 ing to them. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 340. " The imaginary relish is so sweet 
 
 " That it enchants my sense; zvhat will it 
 
 be 
 " When that thexvatry palate tastes, indeed, 
 " Love's thrice-reputed nectar /" 
 
 This thought occurs in Romeo and Juliet : 
 
 " Ah me ! how sweet is love itself, possess'd, 
 " When but love's shadows are so rich in joy !" 
 
 (f Watry" is lickerish, eager to taste, 
 
 343. " A kiss in fee-farm? 
 
 Mr. Steevens exclaims, here, " How much 
 more poetically is the same idea expressed in 
 Coriolanus, when the jargon of the law was ab- 
 sent from our author's thoughts !" Was the cri- 
 tic lamenting that Pandarus did not think and 
 speak like Coriolanus ? 
 
 353. " And mighty states characterless are 
 granted.''' 
 
 4
 
 430 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 The same accentuation of " character" we find 
 in Hamlet: 
 
 " Look thou character; give thy thoughts no 
 
 tongue. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 357- " Through the sight I bear in things, 
 
 to Jove 
 " I have abandoned Troy. 1 ' 
 
 Mr. Steevens's defence of " love," supposing 
 that word to stand in the place of Jove (for the 
 printing, in the quarto, leaves it dubious), is much 
 strained; and Mr. M. Mason, who calls the pre- 
 sent reading nonsense, because Juno, and not 
 Jupiter, was the persecutor of Troy, is rather 
 trifling in sophistry than rationally arguing. 
 Though Calchas had prudently withdrawn from 
 the ruin which he saw impending, but could not 
 avert, and had even rendered some services to 
 the Greeks ; it does not appear that he had any 
 such hatred to Troy, as to render probable his 
 saying, he willingly gave her up to the fury of 
 her implacable enemy, though he might, with 
 perfect propriety, and suitably to the decorum of 
 his sacerdotal character, declare that, bowing to 
 the divine will, he had abandoned Troy to the 
 supreme disposer of events and kingdoms. With 
 respect to the words, " the sight I bear in 
 things," Mr. Mason's objections are easily re- 
 moved ; " in" is commonly, throughout these 
 works, put for into; and "sight into things" 
 very clearly implies foresight. 
 
 36'2. " In most accepted pain." 
 
 Pain means pains, assiduous endeavours.
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 431 
 
 tl Why such unplausive eyes are bent, why 
 turn'd on him.** 
 
 After Sir T. Hanmer had so properly marked 
 the exuberant and interpolated words here, (a 
 correction that Mr. Steevens himself approves 
 of), it is really surprising to find them again de- 
 forming the text. Sir T. Hanmer read, 
 
 " Why such unplausive eyes are bent on him." 
 
 364. " And not a man for being simply man, 
 " Hath any honour ; but honour for those 
 honours." 
 
 The second " honour" in this line, which 
 spoils the metre and perplexes the sense, was, I 
 think, evidently, a slip of the transcribers, much 
 more excusable than ail the editors are who have 
 retained the mistake. 
 
 " The love that lean'd on them as slippery too, 
 "Do one pluck down another; and together, 
 " Die in the fall '." 
 
 How such vicious construction as this should 
 be gravely reprinted, without a note, through 
 successive editions, by editors generally tenacious 
 of accuracy, is astonishing. Concord imperiously 
 requires some correction : 
 
 " Not a man, being simply man, 
 
 " Hath any honour; but for those hon'ours 
 
 " That are without him; as place, riches, favour, 
 
 " Which, when they fall, as being slippery 
 
 standers, 
 " The love* that lean'd on them, as slippery too : 
 " Do not pluck down another," &c. 
 
 367. " How some men creep in skittish fortune's 
 hall, 
 " White others play the ideots in her eyes."
 
 432 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 Dr. Johnson interprets " creep" into keep out 
 of sight, a definition that Mr. Malone very pro- 
 perly, in my opinion, rejects; but I cannot ad- 
 mit that Mr. M alone' s own explanation of 
 " creep" (remain tamely inactive), is right : 
 creeping, howsoever tardily, contradistinguished 
 to running, cannot be called inaction. Neither 
 am I satisfied with Dr. Johnson's exposition of 
 " play the ideots in her eyes," others, though they 
 but play the ideot, are always in her eye, in the 
 Kay of distinction. There is an expression belong- 
 ing to the nursery, from which, 1 believe, this 
 latter one has been derived, making babies in the 
 eyes, from the mutual miniature reflections by 
 looking into each other's eyes. And the sense of 
 the whole I take to be, 'tis strange how some 
 men creep or advance by sluggish paces, in the 
 vestibule or hall of fortune, while others have ac- 
 cess to her immediate presence ; and familiarly 
 converse with her, face to face. 
 
 368. " As done : perseverance dear, my lord." 
 
 This defective line stands in the text without 
 any remark, except a note of accentuation in the 
 Avoid perseverance, which seems as if intended to 
 repair or accommodate the metre : but, with the 
 accent so placed, there will be the deficiency of 
 a foot: we might read, 
 
 " As done, 'tis perseverance dear, my lord." 
 
 369' " They leave you hindmost, 
 
 " Or, like a gallant horse, falVn in first 
 
 rank, 
 " Lie there for pavement to the abject 
 
 rear.'" 
 
 The exhibition which frequently occurs of 
 passages like this, without a note to qualify or
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 433 
 
 censure their incongruity, is utterly unpardon- 
 able : as the construction stands, it is they, (i. e. 
 the ignoble multitude) leave you, or lie there for 
 pavement, whereas the sense is quite the contrary: 
 it is necessary to read, instead of " Lie there for 
 pavement," 
 
 " You're left for pavement," &c. 
 
 370. " And give to dust, that is a little gilt, 
 " More laud than gilt o'er-dusted." 
 
 Theobald appears to me to have had the right 
 conception of this passage : there is evidently in- 
 tended an opposition between dust gilded, and 
 gold itself, obscured by dust ; and we should, 
 doubtless, read, 
 
 " And give to dust, that is a little gilt, 
 " More laud than gold (i. e. than to gold) o'er- 
 dusted." 
 
 371. " And drave great Mars to faction.** 
 
 This obsolete propriety of tense occurs again in 
 As You Like It : 
 
 " I drave my suitor from a living humour/' 
 " Of this my privacy.** 
 
 There is no need of the word "this," and it 
 spoils the metre. 
 
 " In love 
 
 " With one of Priam* s daughters. 
 
 Ha! known r 
 
 This is defective : perhaps, 
 
 " Ha ! known say you ?" 
 
 But another hemistic immediately follows this 
 
 VOL. I. F F
 
 434 TRIOLUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 372- " Uncomprehensive deeps." 
 
 " Uncomprehensive" for "uncomprehensible," 
 the active for the passive form. We find the 
 same license used by Milton : 
 
 " The unexpressive nuptial song." 
 
 " ' Almost every grain of Plutus' gold" 
 
 I am far from disapproving of the easy and pro- 
 per correction of such a mistake as the insertion 
 of Pluto for Plutus ; but, when Mr. Malone 
 calls it an obvious error of the press, I must 
 take the liberty of utterly denying his assertion, 
 and exonerating the printers, by laying the blame 
 directly and solely on the poet ; and the votaries of 
 Shakspeare's muse need not blush at such a slip of 
 his, while there is authority no less than that of 
 the learned Bacon, to keep them in qountenance : 
 " But in all those things (though wisely layed 
 downe and considered) Ferdinando had failed, 
 but that Pluto was better to him than Pallas." 
 
 History of the Raigne of King Henry VII. 
 
 373. " There is a mystery (with whom relation 
 " Durst never meddle) in the soul of state.'" 
 
 By " relation," I believe, is meant, not as Dr. 
 Johnson supposes, history, but rational deduc- 
 tion, the relation or natural connection of things : 
 in this sense the word is used by Macbeth : 
 
 " Augurs, and understood relations have, 
 " By magpies," &c. 
 
 " Whom" for which (the proper neuter pro- 
 noun) is wrong. 
 
 11 All the commerce that you have had with 
 Troy."
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 435 
 
 We had this accentuation of commerce before, 
 Act I, Scene 3, page 271. 
 
 " Unloose." 
 
 This word, perhaps, should be written, " en- 
 loose." 
 
 374. u Omission to do zvhat is necessary 
 
 " Seals a commission to a blank of danger" 
 
 By omitting to do w r hat is fit and expedient to 
 be done, we give a discretionary authority a 
 chart blanch for danger to annoy us. 
 
 375. " A plague of opinion.** 
 
 " Opinion" seems, here, to mean, conceit, self- 
 approbation. 
 
 377- " His horse the more capable crea- 
 ture" 
 
 u Capable," says Mr. Malone, is intelligent, 
 but I believe it is rather, sensible, susceptible, as 
 in Hamlet: 
 
 His form and cause conjoin'd 
 
 " Preaching to stones, would make them capa- 
 ble." 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE L 
 
 379- " A thousand com'plete courses of the sun" 
 
 The same accentuation we find in Hamlet : 
 
 " That thou, dead corse, again in com'plete 
 steel." . 
 
 380. " Not palating the taste of her dishonour.'''' 
 
 f f 2
 
 436 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 This is tautology, as palating, here, can only 
 signify tasting, or perceiving by the palate. 
 
 382. " We'll not commend what we intend to 
 selL" 
 
 As Paris had no design to sell Helen, I do not 
 understand this passage as it stands : perhaps a 
 word has been changed, " you," says Paris, 
 
 " Do as chapmen do, 
 
 " Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy; 
 " But we, in silence, hold this virtue well." 
 
 i. e. But we, tacitly approving of your policy, 
 will conform to it, and only 
 
 " Not commend till we intend to sell." 
 
 SCENE II.- 
 
 384. " With wings more moment ary-sxei ft than 
 thought." 
 
 Thus in Hamlet : 
 
 On wines as swift 
 
 " As meditation or the thoughts of love." 
 
 " As tediously as hell" 
 
 Sir T. Hanmer's restoration of the metre ought 
 to be adopted : 
 
 " Tedious as hell." 
 
 385. " You bring me to do, and then you flout 
 me too." 
 Cressida, it is true, is not distinguished for her 
 delicacy, yet there is no need to suppose, with 
 Mr. Collins, that "do," here, is used, as in some 
 other places, in a wanton sense : Cressida only
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 437 
 
 means to say, You bring or induce me to com- 
 ihit the act for which you aftenoards reproach 
 me : this general signification is evident from 
 Pandarus's question, " To do what? what have 
 I brought you to do r" 
 
 387. " Hozv my achievements mock me !** 
 
 Here, Mr. Steevens subjoins, so in Anthony 
 and Cleopatra, 
 
 " r" And mock our eyes with air," 
 
 as if the passage referred to were any illustration 
 of that which was immediately before us; indeed, 
 that gentleman frequently " shuffles us off with 
 such uncurrent pay :" he compliments his readers, 
 too, largely, in thus supposing them all to be as 
 knowing as himself. This practice, in which Mr. 
 Steevens often indulges, of dismissing a difficult 
 passage with only saying so, in such a play, and 
 so, in another, where, indeed, a remarkable word 
 may have place, but not at all amounting to ex- 
 planation, reminds me of an instance of the late 
 Mr. Bannister's pleasantry on this very subject. 
 The present remarker was applauding the labours 
 and sagacity of Mr. Steevens, to whom he 
 thought, as still he does, that every reader of 
 Shakspeare has extensive obligations. Yes, says 
 Bannister, many of that gentleman's remarks 
 may be ingenious and profound, but I have too 
 often found them to be only so so. 
 
 388. " Good, good, my lord; the secrets of na- 
 ture." 
 
 As the accent cannot rest upon the latter syl- 
 lable of nature, a word is wanting to the measure : 
 we might read, 
 
 " The secrets e'en of nature." 
 f r 3
 
 438 TROILUS A^D CRESSIDA. 
 
 390. " With sounding Troilus. I will not go 
 from Troy.** 
 
 Mr. Steevens's offered ellipsis, for reducing this 
 line to metre, is not wanted ; as the common 
 contraction of " I will" to " I'll" is sufficient for 
 the purpose. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 394. " Time- 
 
 11 Scants us with a single famish' d kiss, 
 " Distasted with the salt of broken tears." 
 
 i. e. Says Mr. Malone, of tears to which we 
 are not permitted to give full vent; but I believe 
 the meaning rather is, a single kiss, unfed, un- 
 cherished by our wonted continuity of pressure, 
 and disrelished or made unpalatable by the salt of 
 abruptly-extorted tears. 
 
 397. " They're loving, well compos'd, with gifts 
 
 of nature flowing." 
 
 This extravagant line, without any thing to 
 recommend it, is not in the quarto, and must 
 have been, I think, an unskilful interpolation. 
 
 398. " A still and dumb-discoursive devil."' 
 
 In Measure for Measure we meet with a similar 
 thought : 
 
 " A prone and speechless dialect." 
 
 " Do you think I will?" 
 Troil. "No." 
 
 Some words here have been lost : perhaps we 
 might read, 
 
 Ores. " Howl do you think I will be tempted ?" 
 
 Troil. " * No." 
 
 4
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 439 
 
 " While some, with cunning gild their copper 
 
 crowns, 
 " With truth and plainness, I do wear mine 
 
 bare." 
 
 There is here a very capricious association of 
 ideas, specious impudence and mercenary fraud 
 appear to be implied -in the first line. Anachron- 
 ism is no obstacle to prevent the delight of a jin- 
 gle, and Troilus is made to talk, with equal free- 
 dom, of gilding a piece of English coin, and the 
 disguising impudent falsehood under the shew 
 of honesty. 
 
 400. " I'll answer to my lust" 
 
 This, surely, should be " list," the reading 
 which Dr. Johnson contends for. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 403. " Give with thy trumpet a loud note to 
 
 Troy, 
 " That the appalled air 
 " May pierce the head of the great comba- 
 tant." 
 
 This seems to have a metaphisical reference to 
 the doctrine of sounds. 
 
 404. " Thou blow 3 st for Hector." 
 Ulysses. " No trumpet answer s. n 
 
 There was no need for Ulysses to tell what 
 must be known by the rest as well as himself. 
 These words were a stage direction, which has stu- 
 pidly been thrust into the text ; the next words 
 complete the measure : 
 
 m ___ jYj 0U f e arly days." 
 
 ff4
 
 440 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 "Early days," indeed, for an early hour or 
 time of the day, is an extraordinary expression, 
 and early clay would not much reconcile it : we 
 might read, 
 
 " It is early yet" 
 
 405. " May I, sweet lady, beg a kiss of you f" 
 Cres. " You may.'''' 
 
 Ulys. " I do desire it" 
 
 Cres. " Why beg then." 
 
 This passage would have passed without remark 
 by me, but that Dr. Johnson seems to have mis- 
 taken the meaning, when, supposing a rhyme to 
 be intended, he says we should read, in the con- 
 cluding words of Cressida : 
 
 " Why beg, two" 
 
 The humour intended, such as it is, I take to 
 be very different, and to depend upon the words 
 of Ulysses' first question to the lady, " May I 
 beg a kiss ?" to which Cressida answers, " You 
 may;" holding in reserve her advantage of equi- 
 vocation, the permission to kiss, and the leave 
 to ask a kiss; as, in The Taming of a Shrexv : 
 
 Cath. " Let me entreat you, stay ?" 
 Petr. " I am content." 
 Cath. C i-And will you stay ?" 
 Petr. " I am content that you entreat my stay r 
 HJBut yet not stay, entreat me how you 
 will." 
 
 406. 4l There's language in her eye, her cheek, 
 
 her lip, 
 
 " Nay, her foot speaks; her wanton spi- 
 rits look out, 
 
 " At every joint and motive of her body,"
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 441 
 
 Dryden seems to have made use of this thought, 
 and refined it, in his epitaph on Mrs. Killegrew : 
 
 " So faultless was the frame, as if the whole 
 " Had been an emanation of the soul." 
 
 407. " These e)icounterers, so glib of tongue, 
 " That give a coasting zvelcome ere it 
 comes." 
 
 I do not think; that any of the attempts to ex- 
 plain this passage has been successful ; and yet 
 it seems to me to be not at all abstruse. Dr. 
 Johnson says, " a coasting welcome" means an 
 amorous address, but he omits to tell us how it 
 does so : and Mr. Malone says it is a concilia- 
 tory welcome, one that makes silent advances 
 bejbre the tongue has uttered a word ; and he 
 fortifies his explanation by this passage from Ve- 
 nus and Adonis : 
 
 " Anon she hears them chaunt it lustily, 
 " And all in haste she coasteth to the cry." 
 
 But " coasting," in this instance, is merely a 
 word by which the poet has chosen to express 
 motion, and does not in the least, to my appre- 
 hension, clear up the text before us give a coast- 
 ing zvelcome. Mr. M. Mason is confident that 
 we should read " accost i?ig, welcome," because, 
 as the text stands, there is, he says, no antecedent 
 to the pronoun it ; but the antecedent appears to 
 me very obvious in welcome. " This forward 
 woman (says Ulysses) gives the welcome she 
 ought first to have received ; she holds out, in- 
 discriminately, as coasting navigators do, thq 
 Jlag of salutation to every port or region that she 
 arrives at.
 
 442 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 408. " What shall be done 
 
 " To him that victory commands V* 
 
 This is equivocally expressed : " him that vic- 
 tory commands," may as well imply " him who 
 is subdued," as him who conquers. The succeed- 
 ing words, however, shew that here the latter is 
 the sense. 
 
 412. " Vindicative" 
 
 Another word peculiar, I believe, to this play. 
 
 413. " Addition^ 
 
 Addition is title, distinction, &c. as in many 
 other places. 
 
 415. " The issue is embracement : Ajax, 
 farewells 
 
 An easy transposition would procure measure : 
 
 " ' Farewell, Ajax !" 
 
 417, " Venus' glove" * 
 
 Venus' glove, I suppose, means no more than 
 a token of amorous assignation; as a mans glove 
 or gauntlet is a chivalrous signal for combat. 
 As to a glove made of flowers, I have as little 
 conception of it as Mr. Steevens. 
 
 423. " -The general state, I fear, 
 
 " Can scarce entreat you to be odd with 
 him." 
 
 " Suspend (says Ajax) your threats, until ac- 
 cident or agreement bring you together in the 
 field: 
 
 " You may have every day enough of Hector, 
 " If you have stomach :"
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 443 
 
 But upon your caprice only, not any regard to 
 the general good, must such a meeting depend. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 427. " You ruinous butt." 
 
 Butt, I suppose, is put for " buttress," as ex- 
 pressive of deformity. 
 
 " Ruinous butt." 
 
 Crazy vessel. B. Strutt. 
 
 430. " i A herring without a roe" 
 
 This expression occurs in Romeo and Juliet: 
 
 " Without his roe, like a dried herring.'* 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 433. " She will sing any man at first sight." 
 Ther, " And any man may sing her, if he can 
 take her cliff." 
 
 " Sing," as well as " cliff," appears to have a 
 second covert meaning, which the commentators 
 have omitted to explain. I am unable to supply 
 the deficiency, with respect to the former word, 
 and unwilling to furnish the suggestion in the 
 latter. 
 
 443. " If there be rule in unity itself." 
 
 If there be any such thing as consistency in 
 nature, if any individual thing be really and un- 
 changeably itself.
 
 444 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 ,, Mule in unity" 
 
 " Unity" is God. B. Strutt. 
 
 446. " Shall dizzy." 
 
 This verb, with a ludicrous application, occurs 
 in Hamlet : 
 
 " Dizzy the arithmetic of memory." 
 
 447. " O Cressid ! 
 
 " Let all untruths stand by thy stained 
 
 name, 
 " And they 11 seem glorious.*' 
 
 This thought occurs in Cymbeline : 
 
 It is I 
 
 " That all tli* abhorred things o' the earth amend, 
 " By being worse than they." 
 
 And again 
 " _ Every villain be call'd 
 " Posthumus Leonatus, and be villany 
 *' Less than it was." 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 450. " Do not count it holy 
 
 " To hurt j by being just." 
 
 " Just," for " faithful to a vow." 
 
 451. " The weather of my fate." 
 
 The command of the wind, theweather-sazc. 
 Rosalind says, of her heart, that it keeps " the 
 windy side of care." 
 
 452. " The fan and wind of your fair sword." 
 
 " Fair sword," j'our honourable sword. In 
 Hamlet we meet with a line like this : 
 
 M But with the whiff and wind of his fell sword."
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 445 
 
 453. " Who should withhold me ?" 
 
 Some words are wanting ; perhaps these ; 
 
 " Who is there, brother, tell me, should with- 
 hold me ?" 
 
 454. " I myself ~ 
 
 " Am like a prophet suddenly enrapt" 
 Thus says John of Gaunt, in K. Richard II. 
 " Methinks I am a prophet, new-inspir'd/* 
 
 SCENE XI. 
 
 479- A goodly med* cine for my aching bones" 
 
 The nurse in Romeo and Juliet exclaims: 
 " Is this the poultice for my aching bones ?" 
 
 Upon many pages of this play the stamp of 
 Shakspeare is distinctly impressed : but an atten- 
 tive examination will, I believe, convince the dis- 
 criminating reader, that, here, as upon other oc- 
 casions, the genius and taste of our poet have 
 been exercised upon the work of some former 
 writer. The versification and the diction have 
 frequently no more resemblance to the style of 
 Shakspeare, than has that multitude of uncouth 
 words, phrases, and accentuations peculiar to 
 this play,' and to the list of which, set down by 
 Mr. Tyrwhitt, may be added these : orgulous, 
 primogenitive, oppugnancy, neglection, to-be- 
 pitied, fat-already, subsequent, prescience, disme, 
 propend, transportance, commerce, violenteth, 
 maculation, impair, (adjective) vindicative, com- 
 mixtion, mirable, seld. (seldom) convive, recorda- 
 tion, constring'd, frush.
 
 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 ACT I. SCENE I. 
 
 6. " If they would yield us but the superfluity, 
 
 while it were wholesome, we might 
 guess, they relieved us humanely.'* 
 
 There would, in that case, be room for a sup- 
 position that they were influenced by humanity, 
 in relieving us. 
 
 7. " And could be content to give him good re- 
 
 port for't, but that he pays himself 
 with being proud." 
 
 He prevents the applause that is due to his 
 great actions, by his own arrogant estimation of 
 them. 
 
 " What he hath done famously, he did it to that 
 end." 
 
 To the end, or with the motive of fame, or 
 vain glory. 
 
 11 He did it to please his mother, and to be 
 partly proud." 
 
 But Marcius was not partly proud ; he was 
 thoroughly and extremely proud, " even to the 
 altitude of his virtue." The sense is " and partly 
 to indulge his pride." Perhaps incorrectness of 
 expression was designed.
 
 CORIOLANUS. 447 
 
 p. " To scale *t a little more." 
 
 Theobald's emendation, stale V, I believe, is 
 right : continue the trite repetition. In the same 
 ^ense the word occurs in Julius Caesar: 
 
 " Were I a common laugher, or did use 
 " To stale, with ordinary oaths, my love 
 " To every new protestor." 
 
 Mr. Steevens says, that " to scale," is to dis- 
 perse ; but, besides that dispersion implies a sepa- 
 ration of parts, (a sense incompatible with the 
 context) how can repeating a story to those who 
 have heard it before, be called dispersing it ? 
 
 1 1. " Like labour with the rest ; where the 
 
 other instruments 
 " Did see," Sec. 
 
 I am not sure that " where," in this place, is 
 put for whereas, as Dr. Johnson says ; it may 
 mean no more than in which state of compari- 
 son, 
 
 " They are not such as you. 1 * 
 
 u Your belly's answer : What /" 
 
 How the word " what" came in here, or why 
 it is suffered so stupidly to burthen the mea- 
 sure, I am unable to discover. 
 
 12. " / will tell you ; 
 
 " If you 11 bestozv a small (of what you 
 
 have little,) 
 " Patience" &c. 
 
 " A small of patience" is a mode of speech, I 
 believe, unsupported by any example. I suppose 
 the author wrote : 
 
 " If you'll bestow a little (of what you've little,) 
 " Patience," &c.
 
 448 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 " I send it through the rivers of your blood, 
 " Ex>en to the court, the heart, to the seat 
 o'the brain." 
 
 I am clearly of Mr. Malone's opinion, that the 
 text is right ; and, thinking- so, am persuaded 
 that the poet makes an obvious distinction be- 
 tween " the heart" and the " seat of the brain," 
 which Mr. Malone would explain as synonymous. 
 The seat of the brain cannot, surely, be any thing 
 but the head. The reasoning faculty might, 
 doubtless, be imagined by Shakspeare, as well as 
 others, to reside in the heart, but that hypothesis 
 had no tendency to remove the brain from its 
 natural repository. Those who use brain figura- 
 tively, to express reason, consider reason as the 
 result of the brain's operation, and would never 
 so apply the word if they supposed the heart to 
 be the region of intellect ; accordingly, Camden, 
 in the instance produced by Mr. Malone, ascribes 
 to the heart advice and reason, but does not say 
 a syllable about brains. 
 
 14. " Thou rascal, that art worst in blood, to 
 run 
 11 'Lead' 'st first to rvin some vantage. 
 
 I do not think there is in this place any allu- 
 sion to deer, either fat or lean ; but that " blood" 
 refers to running horses ; and that " rascal" 
 means only, according to its common usage, a 
 base fellow. Thou rascal, the most ignoble of 
 the whole troop, that hast not blood or spirit to 
 run fairly, dost meanly take the start of all, in 
 order, by such advantage, to repair thy natural 
 inferiority. 
 
 16*. " Beneath abhorring. What would you 
 have, you curs ? '
 
 CORIOLANUS. 449 
 
 The word " have," here, which overloads the 
 line, might be spared. 
 
 " To make him worthy, whose offence subdues 
 
 him, 
 " And curse that justice did it."< 
 
 I am inclined to Mr. Steevens's explanation 
 of this passage; but it will admit of a differ- 
 ent construction, taking " that" for the conjunc- 
 tion, not the pronoun, and understanding " curse" 
 as the verb neuter. Ye extol him whose offence 
 subjected him to punishment, and then rail, that 
 justice exercised her function on him. 
 
 " What would you have, you curs." 
 
 The corruption of using, thus, the plural accu- 
 sative of thou, for the nominative ye, as well as 
 for the nominative and accusative singular of 
 that pronoun, has become so general and invete- 
 rate, as not to admit of reformation ; but while this 
 can only be lamented, we are not bound to sub- 
 mit to the inversion of the impropriety, and take 
 ye for you, in the accusative plural, as here. 
 17 Trust ye V 
 
 Which can only stand imperatively. We should 
 read : 
 
 " Hang ye ! Trust you r" 
 
 i. e. Go hang yourselves ! Trust you, indeed ! 
 
 " JVJiafs their seeking ?" 
 
 II Seeking" is, here, as Mr. Malone observes, a 
 substantive ; but there is a want of congruity in 
 the terms of the question and answer. We might 
 read : 
 
 41 What's their seeking ?" 
 Men. " Corn at their own rates ; whereof, they 
 do say," &c. 
 vol i. o g
 
 4.30 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 " , , Who's like to rise, 
 
 " Who thrives, and who declines : side factions, 
 
 and give out 
 " Conjectural jnarriagcs." 
 
 The hypermeter here, I have no doubt, was in- 
 terpolation ; but I cannot, with Mr. Steevens, 
 call it tasteless; on the contrary, I think that 
 this excess was a correction by Shakspeare 
 himself, who carelessly omitted to expunge the 
 words lie had superseded. Supposing them all, 
 as I do, to be the words of our poet, we ought to 
 retain those which are the best ; and I would 
 read : 
 
 " Who's like to rise, 
 
 " Who thrives, declines : side factions, and give 
 
 out 
 " Conjectural marriages." 
 
 18. " Below their cobbled shoes. They say f 
 there's grain enough T* 
 Of this line, " enough" may well be spared, to 
 preserve the metre : 
 
 " Below their cobbled shoes. They say, there's 
 grain !" 
 This surely is enough, and Coriolanus would 
 have scorned to give the rabble a grain more. 
 
 " As high 
 
 " As I could pick my lance." 
 
 Pitch is certainly, at this day, in Yorkshire, 
 and other places, pronounced as pick ; though, 
 perhaps, we ought rather to write it pich. The 
 hemistic inclines one to suppose some words have 
 been lost perhaps like these : 
 
 " As I could pich my lance. Away, ye knaves." 
 
 ip. " For though abundantly they lack discre- 
 tion, 
 ft Yet are they passing cowardly."-
 
 CORIOLANUS. 451 
 
 This is admirably expressed. Courage is na- 
 turally inconsiderate and imprudent ; but these 
 fellows, though too stupid to be capable of pru- 
 dential regards, are yet absolute cowards. 
 
 " Yet are they passing cowardly. But, I be- 
 seech you.'* 
 
 The line might be restored to metre thus : 
 " Yet are they passing, coward. I beseech you." 
 
 This phraseology, to the readers of Shakspeare, 
 and his contemporaries, needs no illustration. 
 
 19. " A petition granted them, a strange 
 
 one, 
 " (To break the heart of generosity.)" 
 
 I am not satisfied that Dr. Johnson's explana- 
 tion of this passage is right, or that generosity is 
 high birth : I rather think the sense is, to de- 
 stroy the vital principle of generosity, or boun- 
 ty, by such an abuse of it. 
 
 20. " Go, get you home, you fragments /" 
 
 A fragment is wanting here; perhaps, " hence, 
 begone." 
 
 21. " Where's Cuius Marcius ?" 
 
 ]tf ar , Here : What's the matter ? n 
 
 The elision in " what's" ought to be removed, or 
 some other word added to make up the measure. 
 
 " Here : What is the matter?" 
 
 Or 
 
 " Here : Now, what's the matter?" 
 
 " I'd revolt, to make 
 
 " Only my wars with him." 
 
 This is inaccurate; it should be : 
 
 " I'd revolt, to make 
 
 " My wars only with him.". 
 g g 2
 
 452 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 A similar dislocation occurs in Dryden's Cimon 
 and Iphigenia : 
 
 " Her bosom to the view was only bare," 
 
 instead of 
 
 " Her bosom only, to the view was bare/' 
 
 C2. " Worshipful mutineers." 
 
 For the sake of the measure, we might read : 
 
 " Worthy mutineers !" 
 
 '23. " Your valour puts well forth : pray, 
 follow: 1 
 
 This is defective. We might read : 
 
 " ' /prayi/ow, follow." 
 
 " The present wars devour him."- 
 
 I believe this alludes to the eagerness and ar- 
 dour with which Marcius is caressed by those who 
 regard him as Rome's great champion. The wars 
 furnish occasion for devouring him with caresses. 
 If this will not be admitted, I must, with Dr. 
 Warburton, consider the words as an imprecation. 
 " Too proud to be so valiant," means, I suppose, 
 no more than, too proud of being so valiant as he 
 is. 
 
 25. " In what fashion, 
 
 " More than in singularity, he goes." 
 
 This is very obscure, and I do not think the 
 commentators have succeeded in explaining it. 
 All the sense I can extract from it is this Let 
 us go and hear what circumstances, beside his 
 peculiar pride, accompany him on this occasion. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 28. " Farewell." 
 
 This third " farewell" should be dismissed, as 
 a useless burthen to the line."
 
 CORIOLANUS. 453 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 29. " / was pleased to let him seek dan- 
 
 ger where lie was like to find fame." 
 
 Here is a striking difference between the lan- 
 guage of poetry and that of prose : in plain con- 
 struction, it -would have been, to let him seek 
 fame where he was likely to find danger. 
 
 30. " Had la dozen sons, &c. I had rather had 
 
 eleven die," &c. 
 
 This wants correction. It should be : 
 
 " Had I a dozen sons, &c. I would rather 
 have eleven die," &c. 
 
 " Methinks, I hear hither your husba?id's 
 drum." 
 
 " To hear hither' is a strange expression, and, 
 I suspect, corruption. Perhaps we should read : 
 
 u Methinks, e'en noiv, I hear your husband's 
 drum." 
 
 " See him pluck Aufidius down by the hair." 
 
 Here, too, a transposition of words is neces- 
 sary. 
 " See him pluck down Aufidius by the hair." 
 
 " As children from a bear, the Voices shunning 
 him." 
 
 As we cannot admit the expression " shunning 
 from," I would read : 
 
 " As children shun a bear, the Voices flying 
 him." 
 
 Or else : 
 
 " As children fly a bear, the Voices shunning 
 him." 
 
 g g 3
 
 454 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 Methinks, I see him stamp thus, and call thus." 
 
 Should it not be, rather : 
 " Methinks, I see him stamp thus, and thus call." 
 31. " Gilt his trophy." 
 
 Gilt is merely gilding. 
 
 " Hector's forehead, "when it spit forth 
 
 blood 
 
 { * At Grecian swords 1 contending." 
 
 " Contending at" is not a just expression, and 
 I think it is plain a word has, by mistake, been 
 altered. I read, instead of contending, contemn- 
 ing, in the neuter sense, which agrees perfectly 
 with the spirit of what went before : 
 
 " " Spit forth blood 
 
 " At Grecian swords, contemning." 
 
 f. e. Contemptuously." 
 
 " Tell Valeria, 
 
 " We are jit to bid her welcome." 
 
 Some words, I suppose, are lost : perhaps it 
 was 
 
 " That we are zvaiting here, to bid her welcome." 
 Again there follows an awkward hemistic 
 " And tread upon his neck " 
 
 which might be thus supplied. 
 
 Val. " Good day to you." 
 
 " My ladies both," 1 take to be interpolated. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 34. " My horse to yours, no" 
 " Tis done." 
 
 Agreed."
 
 CORIOLANUS. 455 
 
 A syllable is wanting here to the measure, 
 which may be easily supplied : 
 
 " My horse to yours, no J so.*' 
 
 " 'Tis clone." 
 
 " Agreed." 
 
 " ' Within this mile and half" 
 
 The hypermeter should be removed, by making 
 the answer correspondent to what is afterwards 
 said, p. 43, concerning the distance between the 
 armies : 
 
 " How far off lie these armies ?" 
 " Not a mile" 
 
 36. " Your cloven army." 
 
 I am not sure whether this means your army 
 that is divided by policy, or your army, which 
 Marcius has cleft or cut asunder. 
 
 " They do disdain us much beyond our 
 thoughts." 
 
 Beyond what we had any conception of. 
 
 37. " You shames of Home ! you herd of- 
 
 Boils and plagues." 
 
 This abruption is highly dramatic, and a figure 
 that Lee is often happy in the use of; as in The 
 Massacre of Paris : 
 
 " For Beeza, too, 
 
 " That set him on, with the rewards of heaven, 
 " To act so black, so deep, so damn'd a murder. 
 
 " O why will Charles thus sheath the 
 
 sword of justice," &c. 
 
 38. " Have shut him in." 
 
 " - To the pot, I warrant him." 
 
 The phrase, I believe, is not " to the pot," but 
 only " to pot" which here preserves the metre. 
 
 g g 4
 
 456 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 40. " As if the world 
 
 " Were feverous, and did tremble.'" 
 
 We find, in K. Henry IV. First Part, a simi- 
 lar expression : 
 
 " The frame and the foundation of the earth 
 " Shak'd like a coward." 
 
 And again : 
 
 " The heavens were all on fire, the earth did 
 tremble." 
 
 And, in Julius Csesar: 
 
 " The sway of earth 
 
 " Shakes like a thing infirm." 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 42. " The blood I drop is rather physical.** 
 
 " Physical" for " medicinal," as in Julius 
 Caesar : 
 
 " Is Brutus sick ! and is it physical, 
 "To walk unbrac'd?" 
 
 SCENE VI. 
 
 45. " Even like a fawning greyhound in the 
 leash, 
 " To let him slip at will" 
 We find the same image in K. Henry V. 
 " Methinks ye stand like greyhounds in the slips, 
 " Straining upon the start." 
 
 47. " We prove this very hour.** 
 Disclose the event of it. 
 
 48. " March, 
 
 " And four shall quickly draw out my com- 
 
 mand, 
 11 Which men are best inclined"
 
 CORIOLANUS. 457 
 
 There is, I think, no doubt of this passage 
 being corrupted, the commentators have all failed 
 in explaining it; and, indeed, as it stands, it is 
 inexplicable. 
 
 SCENE VII. 
 
 49. " Keep your duties 
 
 " As I have set them clown. If I do send, 
 dispatch," &c. 
 
 We might read smoothly : 
 
 " As they're set down; if I do send dispatch." 
 
 SCENE VIII. 
 
 50. " Not Afric owns a serpent, I abhor 
 " More than thy fame and envy." 
 
 Envy, I believe, is used here in its ordinary 
 signification ; and the meaning of the passage I 
 take to be plainly this, Africa owns not a serpent 
 that I more abhor than I do thy fame, and the 
 envy which is excited by that fame. " Owns," I 
 suspect, should be owes. 
 
 51. " The whip of your bragg'd progeny." 
 
 The scourge (of the Greeks) belonging to the 
 
 race which boasts its lineage from the kings of 
 Troy. B. Strutt. 
 
 52. " Your condemned seconds." 
 
 Mr. Steevens's defence of this reading appears 
 to me much strained ; and I do not hesitate to 
 adopt Dr. Johnson's emendation, " contemned? 
 
 SCENE IX. 
 
 55. " Well might they fester ' 'gainst ingrati- 
 tude." 
 
 " "Gainst" for at or by reason of.
 
 458 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 " (Whereof we have ta'en good, and good store) 
 
 of all." 
 As a negative repeated, contradicts itself, so 
 the repetition of " good," here, is only productive 
 of evil : I suppose the word fell into the page by 
 mistake : it certainly should be ejected from the 
 line : 
 " (Whereof we have ta'en store, and good) of 
 
 all." 
 " The treasure,** &c. 
 
 55. " When drums and trumpets shall, 
 
 " r the field prove flatterers, let courts and 
 
 cities be 
 " Made all oj ' false- fac 7/ soothing/* 
 
 The word " let," which is not necessary to the 
 construction, and loads the metre, should be dis- 
 missed. 
 
 56. " When steel grows 
 
 " Soft as the parasite's silk, let him be made 
 " An overture for the wars.** 
 
 Whether we are to understand the silk or the 
 parasite as the antecedent to which " him" refers, 
 " an overture for the wars," means, I believe, a 
 signal, an ensign, or displayed flag. 
 
 57. " Give you truly. 
 
 Deliver your character and dcservings faith- 
 fully. 
 
 " His trim belonging.'" 
 
 "Belonging," a noun, appertenance : as, in 
 Measure for Measure, 
 
 " Thyself and thy belonging." 
 
 " Coriolanus.'* 
 
 This Agnomen has furnished an opportunity 
 for speculative refinement to amuse us, of late, 
 upon the stage, with a very whimsical mode of
 
 CORIOLANUS. 459 
 
 pronunciation, not by placing the emphasis upon 
 the second syllable, as in Cor'ioli, (which the 
 metre forbids,) but by making the iinacceniuated 
 i, long, contrary to, 1 believe, an unvarying rule, 
 by which i, preceding o, or, indeed, any other 
 vowel, is short, unless it be emphatic also; thus we 
 say, socrety, impi'ety, variety; but we say social, 
 impious, various; and not social impious various: 
 we say violent, rfotous ; but we say, furious, 
 curious, not furious, curious ; in short, until I 
 know an instance of the i going before another 
 vowel, with the long or open sound, unless, at 
 the same time, it be emphatic, till I can find a 
 single example to countenance this cacophonous 
 utterance of Cdiiolanus, I shall conform to cus- 
 tom and prosody, and say Coriolanus. 
 
 58. " To utidercrest your good addition. 
 " To the fairness of my power." 
 
 The meaning, I believe, is, to confirm, as well 
 as I can, by deeds, my right to those honourable 
 distinctions which you bestow upon me ; for 
 " fairness," I wish we might read, " fulness." 
 
 59. " ' I sometimes lay, here in Corioli, 
 "At a poor man's house; he us'd me kindly" 
 
 There is a syllable wanting to the measure, and 
 North's translation of Plutarch seems to afford 
 the means of supplying the defect : 
 
 " At a poor Voice's house; he us'd me kindly." 
 
 " His name ? 
 
 a , _gy Jupiter, forgot : 
 
 " I am weary, 1 ' &c. 
 These casual peculiarities of character Shak- 
 speare is fond of exhibiting, ftrutus forgets 
 where he had laid his book ; and Hotspur forgets 
 to bring the map. Though these incidents are 
 not at all connected with the plot or conduct of 
 the play, they are all highly interesting.
 
 460 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 SCENE X. 
 
 60. " / would I were a Roman ; for I cannot, 
 " Being a Voice, be that I am." 
 
 I would I were of any other country, even 
 that of our enemy ; for the disgrace which has 
 fallen upon the Volcians is utterly incompatible 
 with the honour and dignity that otherwise and 
 naturally belong to me. 
 
 61. " My valour's poison 1 d 
 
 " With only suffering stain by him ; for 
 
 him 
 " Shall fly out of itself" 
 
 Part of the difficulty, here, arrises from the 
 improper construction already noted in a preced- 
 ing -passage : 
 
 " I'd revolt to make 
 
 " Only my wars on him." 
 
 Instead of, my wars only on him. Here the 
 sense is, 
 
 " My valour's poisoned, 
 
 " Only with suffering stain by him." 
 
 That degradation subdues my honourable cou- 
 rage, which, for his sake, or, by his means, will 
 vanish, or fly out of itself. 
 
 ACT II. SCENE I. 
 
 65. " Else your actions would grow xcon- 
 
 drous single." 
 
 " Single" and " double" appear sometimes to 
 be used with a meaning different from the obvious 
 ones, and imply small, feeble, inconsiderable ; and 
 great, powerful, and overbearing; thus, besides the 
 instance before us, the Chief Justice in the Second
 
 CORIOLANUS. 461 
 
 Part of K. Henry IV. tells Falstaff, that his wit 
 is single ; whereby I suppose is meant small, 
 weak, unfortified ; and, on the other hand, we 
 find, in Othello, a voice as double as the duke's ; 
 that is, as strong, as efficient. 
 
 66. " Then you should discover a brace of un- 
 meriting, proud, violent, testy magis- 
 trates (alias fools) as any in Rome." 
 
 Mr. Malone thinks it proper to tell us, here, 
 that this was the phraseology of Shakspeare's age, 
 of which he had found many instances in the 
 books of that time. This is really a very extraor- 
 dinary remark, as the expression, to which it re- 
 fers, is neither peculiar to Shakspeare, nor to the 
 writers of his time ; but was then, and has been 
 ever since, the language of all our poets : 
 
 " Black it stood as night, 
 
 " Fierce as ten furies, horrible as hell." 
 
 Paradise Lost. 
 
 " O ! my earthly saint ! I see your visage, 
 
 " Pale as the cherubin at Adam's fall. N. Lee. 
 
 And again : 
 
 " . O ! a kiss, 
 
 " Balmy as cordials that recover souls ; 
 " Chaste as maids' sighs, and keen as mothers' 
 lono-ino:." Lbidem. 
 
 Shakspeare, like any other poet, either admits 
 or rejects the comparative particle at the begin- 
 ning of the sentence, just as it may suit the struc- 
 ture of his verse ; he admits it in this very play : 
 
 " Let me clip thee 
 
 " In arms as sound as when I woo'd; in heart 
 " As merry as when our nuptial day was done." 
 
 And also in Julius Caesar: 
 " As dear to me as are the ruddy drops 
 " That visit my sad heart."
 
 46*2 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 And here it is remarkable that an excellent 
 poet of our own time, who imitated this latter 
 passage, chose to reject the initiate conjunction, 
 and adopt that mode of expression which is called 
 the phraseology of Shakspeares age: 
 
 " Dear as the light that visits these sad eyes, 
 " Dear as the ruddy drops that warm my heart." 
 
 Gray. The Bard. 
 67. " The ass in compound with the major part 
 of your syllables.'' 1 
 
 I suppose there is a quibble intended here; ass, 
 alluding to the imputed dullness of the citizen, 
 and to the particle as, which, perhaps, formerly, 
 as it is now, was often used by the vulgar out of 
 its place. 
 
 73. " In honour follows, Coriolanus." 
 
 From the line preceding, a word might, with- 
 out injury, be borrowed, to repair the deficiency 
 of this : 
 
 " He hath won, 
 
 " With fame, a name to Cains M arcius ; 
 "In honour, Coriolanus follows these." 
 
 " My gracious silence, hail /" 
 
 " Gracious" is amiable it is beautifully ex- 
 pressed. Thus, in Much Ado About Nothing: 
 
 " On my eyelids shall conjecture hang, 
 
 " To turn all thoughts of beauty into harm, 
 " And never shall it more be gracious." 
 
 75. " Menenius, ever, ever." 
 
 These words seem useless ; and, perhaps, were 
 better omitted. 
 
 7 6\ / f tave n v >d 
 
 " To see inherited my very icishes." 
 To see myself in possession of what I wished 
 2
 
 CORIOLANUS. 463 
 
 for : wishes for the objects of wish. Thus, K. 
 Richard III. says to Buckingham, 
 
 " Think, how I may do thee good, 
 " And he inheritor of thy desire." 
 
 " I had rather be their servant, in my way, 
 " Than sway zvith them in theirs.'''' 
 
 "With," here, has a loose signification, with 
 reference to, as if the speaker had said, he lords 
 it with them, i. e. he domineers over them. 
 
 77. " While she chats him : the kitchen malkin 
 pins" &c. 
 
 The measure, here, is imperfect ; I suppose we 
 should read, 
 
 " While she chats to him," &c. 
 7.9. " As if that whatsoever God," &c. 
 
 " Quisquis fuit Me deorum." Ovid, 
 
 80. " From where he should begin, and end." 
 We should, perhaps, read, 
 
 " From where he should begin to the end." 
 
 *' As he is proud to do't. 
 
 I do not think that Dr. Johnson's interpreta- 
 tion of these words is right. Sicinius says that 
 the commons, for a very slight cause, will forget 
 Coriolanus's new honours ; and, that he will fur- 
 nish such cause there is no more doubt than 
 there is of his having pride enough for the pur- 
 pose. 
 
 83. " This, as you say, suggested 
 
 " At some time when his soaring insolence 
 
 " Shall teach the people will be his fire, 
 
 " To kindle their dry stubble." 
 
 It seems, to me, wonderful, that the commen- 
 tators should have overlooked a most easy correc-
 
 464 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 tion, which will restore this passage to complete 
 sense ; the word, that has perplexed them all, 
 " teach," is not, I am persuaded, instruct, (from 
 which no suitable meaning can be drawn,) but 
 tech, i. e. irritate, excite the techiness of the 
 people, which at once reconciles the whole con- 
 text ; Shakspearc would have no scruple to make 
 such a verb from techy." 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 87- " To remember, 
 
 " With honours like himself." 
 
 Suitable to his deservings. 
 " Leave nothing out for length''' 
 
 Do not, for fear of being prolix, leave untold 
 any material circumstance. 
 89. " Than hear say how I got them." 
 
 Than hear it told how, &c. This, though not 
 unusual, is a very corrupt phrase. 
 
 93. " From face to foot 
 
 " He was a thing of blood." 
 The same image is introduced in Hamlet: 
 
 " From head to foot 
 
 " Now is he total gules." 
 
 Q5. " Is content 
 
 " To spend the time, to end it." 
 Is content to pass away his life, to the end of 
 it, without being dazzled or allured by those re- 
 wards and distinctions, that are the objects of 
 ordinary ambition. 
 
 96. " Take to you, as your predecessors have, 
 " Your honour with your form." 
 This is carelessly expressed : Menenius does
 
 CORIOLANUS. 465 
 
 not mean, " take your honour, &c. as your pre- 
 decessors have done," &c. but, take, as they 
 have done, the form of humility, and with it 
 take to you (j. e. bear in mind) your real inter- 
 nal worth and dignity, to atone for this exterior 
 and temporary disgrace. 
 
 97. " We recommend to you, tribunes of the 
 
 people, 
 " Our purpose to them ; and to our noble 
 
 Consul, 
 " Wish we all joy and honour."" 
 
 It is strange that the text should be exhibited 
 in this manner, from which no sense can be 
 drawn, after Mr. M. Mason had so clearly and 
 judiciously thus corrected the punctuation, and 
 displayed the meaning : 
 
 " We recommend to you, tribunes of the people, 
 " Our purpose ; to them and to our noble consul 
 " We wish all joy and honour." 
 
 98. " May they perceive his intent ! he that 
 
 will require them." 
 
 This line isunmetrical; we might read, (reject- 
 ing an unnecessary- word.) 
 
 " May they perceive it ! he that will require 
 them." 
 
 " As if he did contemn what he requested 
 " Should be," &c. 
 
 " Contemn," here, is neutral as if he did 
 contemn that, what he requested, should, &c. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 " Once, if he do require our voices." 
 
 I believe this was a casual transposition of 
 words at the press ; and that we should read, 
 
 If Once he do require," &c. 
 
 VOL. I. H H
 
 466 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 99, " If he show us his wounds we are to put 
 our fatigues into those wounds, and 
 speak j or them." 
 
 Thus, in Julius Cassar: 
 
 " "Wounds, 
 
 " Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips, 
 " To beg the voice and utterance of my tongue." 
 
 " For once, when we stood up about the corn" 
 
 I perceive no reason for supposing the word 
 " once," here, to have any other import than the 
 common and obvious one, at one time, or upon 
 a certain occasion. 
 
 107. " Battles thrice si,v 
 " I hate seen and heard of." 
 I believe it should be I have seen, or heard 
 of. Coriolanus, although he is in earnest desir- 
 ous to be consul, cannot omit his pride, which 
 checks him in this recital of his exploits. " Bat- 
 tles thrice six I have seen or heard some vague 
 reports of." 
 
 111. " Arriving 
 
 " A place of potency. 1 * 
 " Arrive," in another place, assumes this active 
 form : 
 
 " But ere we could arrive the point propos'd." 
 
 Julius Ccesar. 
 
 112. " Of no more voice 
 
 " Than dogs, that are as often beat for 
 
 barking, 
 " As, therefore, kept to do so." 
 There is, here, a careless pleonasm : " there- 
 fore," or else " to do so," is superfluous. The 
 text, I believe, is corrupted. A similar thought 
 to this occurred before : 
 " Of no more soul nor fitness for the world, 
 " Than camels in their war, who have their pro- 
 vender,
 
 CORIOLANUS. 467 
 
 " Only for bearing burdens ; and hard blows, 
 " For sinking under them." 
 
 115. " Scaling his present bearing with his past" 
 The sense, I believe is, as Dr. Johnson has 
 given it, weighing his past and present behavi- 
 our ; but it may be, " surveying from an advan- 
 tageous eminence," overlooking the specious po- 
 licy of his present humility, in allusion to a wall 
 and scaling ladder. The same uncertainty of 
 meaning attends this word in another place : 
 " The corrupt deputy scafd." 
 
 Measure for Measure. 
 " __ Say, you ne'er had done't 
 This is hypermetrical ; ''say" might be ejected, 
 and the passage run thus : 
 
 " Your sudden approbation : you'd (i. e. you 
 had) ne'er done't, 
 
 ACT III. SCENE I. 
 
 116. " Make road" 
 Incursion, inroad. 
 
 120. " Let them 
 
 " Regard me as I do not fatter ; and 
 " Therein behold themselves." 
 I believe Coriolanus only means to say, that 
 the plebeians were as little inclined to flatter the 
 nobilitv, as he was to flatter them. 
 
 124. " You are plebeians, 
 
 " If they be senators ; and they are no less, 
 " When both your voices blended, the great- 
 est taste 
 il Most palates theirs." 
 The greatest taste, I believe, is, the prepon- 
 derancy of the public inclination or will, which, 
 when plebeians are allowed to vote with their su- 
 periors, is sure to be on the side of the former. 
 Taste, I suppose, we must interpret appetite. 
 
 h h 2
 
 s 
 
 468 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 185. " He would not flatter Neptune for his 
 trident, 
 
 " Nor Jove for his power to thunder." 
 Tliis is a strong instance, indeed, of the noble 
 pride of Marcius, not to abate his dignity even 
 for the power to gratify his spleen towards the 
 hated multitude. 
 
 139. " The service of the foot, 
 
 " Being once gangrened, is not then 
 
 respected, 
 " For what before it was." 
 This last line and half, I am persuaded, with 
 Dr. Warburton, could not have proceeded from 
 the apologist of Coriolanus, who was, probably, 
 about to say something very different, when Ci- 
 cinius interrupted him : 
 
 Men. " The service of the foot" 
 
 Cic. " Being once gangren'd,'' &c. 
 
 Men. " One word more, one word." 
 
 Brut. " Spread further : 
 
 The measure wants a foot : w r e might read, 
 " One word more, one word, I say." 
 
 140. " The end of it, 
 
 " Unknown to the beginning.'' 
 i. e. Popular outrages conclude, generally, in 
 extremities which were never thought of, at the 
 commencement. 
 
 141. " '/// bring him to you." 
 
 A syllable is wanting : perhaps, 
 
 " In our first way, 
 
 " ' I'll bring him to you, strait. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 142. " / muse, my mother." 
 
 There is disorder here in the metre, which 
 might be repaired thus :
 
 CORIOLANUS. 469 
 
 Yet will I still 
 
 " Be thus." 
 
 Patr. " You do the nobler." 
 
 Cor. " I muse, mother." 
 
 The words rejected may well be spared : again, 
 
 " ; To shexo bare heads ; 
 
 " In congregations (to) yawn, be still, and 
 wonder."' . - 
 
 The particle to should be withdrawn. 
 
 144. " j[ heart as little apt as yours." 
 
 " Apt," for pliant, practicable. 
 
 145. " If it be honour, in your wars, to seem 
 
 " The same you are not (which, for your 
 best ends, 
 
 " You adopt your policy) how is it less, or 
 worse, 
 
 " That it shall hold companionship in peace, 
 
 11 With honour, as in war." 
 This is another of those passages which the 
 commentators seem to have thought too plain to 
 require any explanation, yet I find great difficulty 
 in searching for the meaning and for the order of 
 the construction : as the text stands, this is the 
 argument, if it be honour, in war, to seem differ- 
 ent from what you are, how is it less fitting that 
 it should hold companionship with honour, in 
 peace as well as in war? i. e. how is it that 
 honour shall not hold companionship with ho- 
 nour ? for " honour" is the only antecedent to 
 " it." All that I can do to obtain sense or con- 
 sistency is, by substituting policy for " honour," 
 in the second instance : " If it be honour in your 
 wars to seem, &c. how is it less fitting that it 
 should hold, in peace, the same companionship 
 with policy that it does in war ?" 
 
 ft Nor by the matter (which) your heart 
 prompts you to." 
 
 H H 3
 
 tt 
 
 tt 
 
 470 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 " Which" should be withdrawn. 
 
 146. " But with such words that are but 
 
 rooted in." 
 The comparison requires the conjunction as 
 instead of the pronoun "that." 
 
 " Your tongue, though but bastards, and syl- 
 lables. " 
 This is only a line in syllables ; we might ob- 
 tain metre by a slight change : 
 "Your tongue, fl/though but bastards, syllables 
 " Of no allowance," &c. 
 
 147. " Take in a town. u 
 
 " Take in," I believe, is not so much "to con- 
 quer," as " to bring into the circle or scope of 
 dominion :" thus, in Anthony and Cleopatra : 
 
 Take in that province, and enfranchise this." 
 
 I am, in this, 
 
 " Your wife, your son, these senators,'''' &c. 
 I am persuaded that Dr. Warburton's inter- 
 pretation is right; in this advice which I give, 
 I urge the wishes of all your other friends. 
 
 148. " Go to them, with this bonnet in thy hand, 
 " And thus far having stretch'd it," &c. 
 
 The action of Volumnia's taking hold of the 
 bonnet, and instructing Coriolanus how to use 
 it, would be extremely unbecoming; yet the 
 words seem to imply all this. The passage, I 
 fear, is incurably corrupt, and I am unable, with 
 all the aid of the commentators, to find out either 
 the construction or sense of what follows : 
 
 " Waving thy head 
 
 " Which> often thus correcting thy stout heart, 
 " That, humble as the ripest mulberry, 
 " Now will not hold the handling." 
 
 151 " They have pardons, being ask \l, as free 
 
 " As words to little purpose.
 
 CORIOLANUS. 471 
 
 They are as kindly forgiving as foolishly loqua- 
 cious. 
 
 " 'Thou had' st rather/ 
 
 It should be, 
 
 << Thou would'st rather." 
 
 This corruption has been remarked by Dr. 
 Lowth, and proceeds, as he has justly observed, 
 from mistaking the contraction of I would, thou 
 wouldst ; Pd, thou'dst, for I had, thou hadst, &c. 
 
 152. " This mould of Marcius." 
 
 " Mould," here, I believe, is put equivocally 
 for frame, and piece of earth. 
 
 153. " Such a part, which never." 
 
 This inaccuracy occurred before ; the pronoun 
 
 instead of the comparative conjunction as. 
 
 154. " My arm'd knees, 
 
 " Who bozv'd but in my stirrop" &c. 
 
 The personification of " knees" is very violent ; 
 I should be inclined to insert "which." 
 
 " . Let 
 
 " Thy mother rather feel thy pride, than 
 
 fear 
 " Thy dangerous stoutness." 
 
 Dr. Johnson's explanation is right, and has sup- 
 port in a kindred sentiment in Macbeth : 
 
 " Let the frame of things disjoint, both the 
 
 worlds suffer, 
 " Ere we will eat our meal in fear," &c. 
 
 155. " [fell, mildly be it then, mildly." 
 This is defective : perhaps we might add, 
 
 " Well mildly be it then, (as you say,) mildly !" 
 
 Thus, in Othello : 
 " And she's obedient, as you say, obedient !" s 
 h h 4
 
 472 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 156. " Insisting on the old prerogative, 
 
 " And power i' the truth o' the cause." 
 I believe the meaning is, insisting on the right 
 and power you have to proceed in taking ven- 
 geance on him whose crimes are fairly and truly 
 prov'd before you. 
 
 159. " First hear me speak. 
 
 " J Veil say ; peace, ho I 
 
 The deficient measure might be made up thus: 
 
 " First hear me speak. 
 
 " Well say; peace, ho ! say on." 
 
 160. " Such as become a soldier, 
 
 " Rather than envy you" 
 
 Envy, I believe, is not accurately defined, here, 
 either by Dr. Johnson, Mr. Monk Mason, or 
 Mr. Malone. It is, I think, in the present in- 
 stance, neither put to express malignity, injury, 
 nor ill will; but merely blame, censure, reproach; 
 in which sense the noun was, in our poet's time, 
 very commonly applied j as, by Bacon: "This 
 tax (called beneuolence) was deuised by Edward 
 the Fourth, for which he sustained much enuie." 
 Hist, of K. Henry VII. Again, speaking of 
 Bishop Morton, " He was willing also to take 
 envy from the king more than the king was wil- 
 ling to put upon him; for the king cared not for 
 subterfuges, but would stand enuie, and appeare 
 in any thing that was to his mind." 
 
 161. " In 
 
 " Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would 
 
 say, 
 " Thou liest unto thee," &c. 
 The force of the climax, here, is defeated by 
 anticipation : if it was notorious that the tribune
 
 CORIOLANUS. 473 
 
 had a lying tongue, there was nothing very 
 forcible in telling him " he lied :" the word, I am 
 persuaded, has been introduced by the careless- 
 ness of the printer or transcriber, instead of some 
 other; possibly " brutal" or, perhaps, more 
 likely, tribune tongue. 
 
 I would say, 
 
 " Thou liest, unto thee, with a voice as free 
 " As I do pray the gods." 
 
 This is imperfect construction ; the preposition 
 with is wanting, in the comparison, to the im- 
 plied pronouns which and that: 
 
 " As I do pray the gods with, i. e. as (that with 
 which) I do pray," &c. 
 We might read, with less inaccuracy, 
 
 " As when I pray the gods." 
 
 I say with less inaccuracy, for, in the emended 
 reading, the ellipsis assumes more than can be 
 strictly demanded : 
 
 " As (it is) when I pray," Sec. 
 
 But this has at least the sanction of our author's 
 example in another passage of this play : 
 
 O let me clip thee 
 
 ." In arms as sound as when I woo'd, in heart 
 " As merry as when our nuptial day was done 
 " And tapers burn'd to bed ward." 
 
 " ' 77/ know no further.'" 
 
 The measure is defective ; but might easily be 
 repaired : 
 
 Com. " ' Know, 
 
 " I pray you, yet to" 
 
 Cor. " I will know no further." 
 
 163. " You common cry of curs.'"
 
 474 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 "Cry," says Mr. Malone, "signifies troop or 
 pack ;" but it implies something more : it means a 
 collection of mongrels, or unbred clogs, such as 
 are not fit for the chace, but only interrupt it. 
 Thus, in Othello, Roderigo says, " I do follow 
 here in the chace, not like a hound that hunts, 
 but one that fills-up the cry.'* 
 
 ACT IV. SCENE I. 
 
 168. " Resume that spirit, when you were wont 
 to say." 
 This is an ellipsis too violent : " That spirit, 
 (which' you possess'd) when," &c. 
 
 170. " Noble touch." 
 
 Refined and attested nobility. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 174. " In anger, Juno-like. Come, come, come. n 
 Men. " Fye, fye, fye /" 
 
 We might exclaim, once more, fye ! upon the 
 transcriber, here, who, instead of adding the word 
 a third time, should rather have removed the third 
 " come," which would have furnished the mea- 
 sure. 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 177. " City, 
 
 " 'Tis I that made thy widows.'" 
 Dr. Young appears to have had this soliloquy 
 in his mind, when he wrote that of Zanga : 
 " Proud, haughty Spain, that thirst'st for Moorish 
 
 blood, 
 " Dost thou not feel thy deadly foe within thee ? 
 " Shake not thy tow'rs, where'er I pass along, 
 " Conscious of ruin, and thy great destroyer I"
 
 CORIOLANUS. 475 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 184. " My name is Cains Martins." 
 
 An incident much resembling this submission 
 
 of Coriolanus, and his reconcilement with Aufi- 
 dius, is described by Tacitus, Lib. 12 Anal, where 
 Mithridates, throwing himself upon the clemency 
 of his old enemy, Eunones, obtains his friend- 
 ship : 
 
 " Igitur cultu, vultuque quam maxime ad 
 prcesentem fortunam comparator regiam ingre- 
 ditur, genibusque ejus provolutns, Mithridates, 
 inquit, terra marique Romanis per tot annos 
 qucesitus, sponte adsum ; utere ut voles prole 
 magni Achemenis, quod mihi solum hostes non 
 abstulerunt. At Eunones, claritudine viri, mu- 
 tatione rerum, 8$ prece hand degenere permotus, 
 allevat supplicem, laudatque quod gent em Ador- 
 sorum qudd, suam dexteram yetenda Venice de- 
 legerit. 
 
 185. " The spleen 
 
 " Of all the under fiends." 
 
 Mr. Steevens is very diverting here, about sub- 
 ordination among fiends, predominance of inve- 
 teracy, and Jack Cade ; while, I suppose, it is 
 pretty evident that the word " under" has no 
 other meaning than a reference to the nether 
 position of hell. 
 
 186. " It be to do thee service." 
 
 " O Martins, Marcius" 
 
 The " O" should not be suffered to oppress the 
 metre, here, but might be carried usefully into 
 the next line : 
 
 " A root of ancient envy. Of if Jupiter." 
 Yet this is not necessary ; for the latter syllable 
 of envy may be sunk in the succeeding vowel : 
 " A root of ancient env^. If Jupiter."
 
 476 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 188. u We have been dozen to get he?', 
 " And waled." 
 
 The parenthesis, which Mr. Malone suggests, 
 would indeed be necessary to reconcile the con- 
 struction; hut I think the poet had, manifestly, 
 forgot the order in which the sentence ought to 
 proceed. 
 
 189. " To fright them, ere destroy. But come 
 
 ' in." 
 This is lame. We might supply a word : 
 
 " But coir.e uc in." 
 
 191. " Sanctifies himself with* 8 hand" 
 
 I am inclined to think that " sanctifies" is 
 used here, ho\\ r soever improperly, to signify only, 
 gives him sanction, currency, authenticity, in 
 the honour of shaking hands with him. 
 
 'a 
 
 SCENE VI. 
 
 195. " Of late. Hail, sir!" 
 
 " Hail to you both" 
 
 A foot is wanting here. I would read : 
 
 " Of late. Hail to you, sir !" 
 
 " Hail to you both." 
 
 Again 
 197. " JFithout assistance." 
 
 " i" think not so." 
 
 We should add do, or nay : 
 
 " I do think not so," 
 
 Or 
 
 " Nay, I think not so." 
 
 199. Turns their countenances." 
 
 Make them look pale, " blanches their checks." 
 
 004. " Obeys his points." 
 
 Does as he appoints, or orders. 
 
 205. " You and your cry." 
 
 Vide Act 3, P. 474.
 
 CORIOLANUS. 477 
 
 " Shall us to the Capitol ?" 
 This barbarism occurs in Cymbeline : 
 " Shall us have a play of this ?" 
 
 " These are a side.*'' 
 A party, a faction. 
 
 SCENE VII. 
 
 206. u I cannot help it now ; 
 
 " Unless, by using means, I lame the foot 
 
 Of our design."* 
 
 This is licentiously elliptical. " I cannot help 
 it, unless by using means, (whereby I should) 
 lame the foot," &c. 
 
 " Some news is come 
 
 " That turns their countenances" 
 I suspect, the poet wrote soure news ; the u 
 and the r might be readily mistaken for an m. 
 
 208. " So banisKd : But he has a merit, 
 
 *' To choke it in the utterance." 
 I am inclined to think that " it," in this pas- 
 sage, refers to the sentence or decree of banish- 
 ment ; and that choke is used for destroy or can- 
 cel by counterbalance ; the article " a," I think, 
 should be removed : the six lines following ap- 
 pear utterly unintelligible. 
 
 ACT V. SCENE I. 
 
 212. " It was a bare petition of the state.'" 
 Bare, here, I believe, is naked, not covered or 
 
 adorned with fitness or plausibility. 
 
 213. Unheard; what then?" 
 
 Something appears to have been lost : perhaps, 
 "Unheard; what then? How should I then 
 appear V*
 
 478 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 " But as a discontented friend, grief-shot 
 " With his unk'uidness f Say*t be so ?" 
 
 " Say't be so," I take to be an idle interpola- 
 tion, and would use Brutus's words to complete 
 the line : 
 
 " But yet your good will.'* 
 
 215. " i What he would not, 
 
 " Bound with an oath, to yield to his con- 
 ditions." 
 It is very difficult to reconcile the construction 
 here, or to adapt a meaning to it. I believe that 
 some words have been lost. 
 
 SCENE II. 
 
 218. " Whence are you ?" 
 
 " Stand, and go back" 
 
 This is not measure : 
 
 " , Whence are you ? speak /" 
 
 " Stand there, or get you back." 
 
 " To speak with Coriolanus" 
 
 " From whence ?** 
 
 " From Rome." 
 
 The useless preposition should be omitted. 
 
 " Our general . 
 
 " Will no more hear from thence.** 
 
 This hemistic might be repaired thus : 
 
 " Will hear no more from Rome ; so get 
 you back.** 
 
 " ' It is lots to blanks, 
 
 " My name hath touch *d your ears."*' 
 " Lots" is explained prizes ; and if so, as Me- 
 nem us argues, that the chances are in favour of 
 his having been named by Coriolanus, we ought 
 to read, " it is blanks to lots ;" but Mr. Steevens 
 says, " lots to blanks" is equivalent to " all the 
 world to nothing." Is it not the very reverse ?
 
 CORIOLANUS. 479 
 
 SCENE III. 
 
 226. " Out, affection ! 
 
 " All bond and privilege of nature, break!" 
 Thus in King Lear : 
 
 " Crack nature's moulds, all germins spill 
 
 at once, 
 " That make ungrateful man." 
 
 230. " The things, I have forsworn to grant." 
 i. e. Sworn not to grant." 
 
 232. " f To poor we." 
 
 IVe should be altered to us, in the text. 
 
 233. " Rather to show a noble grace to both 
 
 parts" 
 " Parts" would be sufficiently implied, if the 
 measure were disburthened of the word. 
 
 234. " - To charge thy sulphur with a 
 
 bolt 
 " That should but rive an oak." 
 " Should," here, is put for would ; according 
 to a custom, common in our author's time, (and 
 still prevailing in Ireland) of confounding the 
 auxiliary verbs shall and will. The thought oc- 
 curs in another place : 
 
 "Merciful heaven ! 
 
 " Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous 
 
 bolt, 
 " Split'st the unwedgeable and knarled oak, 
 " Than the soft myrtle." Measure for Measure. 
 
 34. " To tear with thunder the wide cheeks 
 o y the air." 
 In King Lear we find the same thought : 
 " Blow winds, and crack your cheeks."
 
 480 CORIOLANUS. 
 
 235. " To his surname Coriolanus 'longs more 
 pride, 
 
 " Than pity to our prayers" 
 
 Volumnia would here disclaim any share in her 
 son's pride, which he does not derive from his na- 
 tivity, but from his foreign addition* 
 
 SCENE IV. 
 
 238. " He sits in his state, as a thing made for 
 Alexander" 
 It appears doubtful whether this means, he sits 
 like a statue of Alexander, or, he is seated in a 
 magnificence of state, resembling that of Alexan- 
 der. 
 
 SCENE V. 
 
 24 1 . " Him I accuse^ 
 
 Hath entered" &c. 
 
 No examples of similar mistakes should war- 
 rant the grossness of this being suffered to dis- 
 grace the text. " Him" should be changed to 
 he, without remark. 
 
 245. " There was a yielding ; This admits no 
 excuse." 
 " Excuse" might be compressed to accord with 
 the metre, by the elision which is used in The 
 Merchant of Venice : 
 
 " That scuse serves many men to save their gifts. " 
 
 This play, the merits of which Dr. Johnson has 
 no less justly than elegantly appreciated, is gene- 
 rally written in the true spirit of the author. 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 Wright, Printer, St. John's Squwe, Clerk enwell.
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 DEDICATION, Page r 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT, vii 
 
 INTRODUCTION, 1 
 
 TEMPEST, Ti 
 
 TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, 37 
 
 MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, 41 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 53 
 
 TWELFTH NIGHT: OR, WHAT YOU WILL, .. G2 
 
 M UCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, 72 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, 81 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, 106 
 
 MERCHANT OF VENICE, 110 
 
 AS YOU LIKE IT, - 128 
 
 ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, 140 
 
 THE TAMING OF THE SHREW, 151 
 
 WINTER'S TALE, 156 
 
 MACBETH, 172 
 
 KING JOHN, 220 
 
 KING RICHARD II 247 
 
 FIRST PART OF KING HENRY IV 286 
 
 SECOND PART OF KING HENRY IV 320 
 
 KINGHENRYV 335 
 
 FIRST PART OF KING HENRY VI 346 
 
 SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI 356 
 
 THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI 364 
 
 LIFE AND DEATH OF KING RICHARD III. .. 373 
 
 KING HENRY VIII 390 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, 414 
 
 CORIOLANUS, 446 
 
 g e
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 JULIUS CjESAR, 1 
 
 ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA 34 
 
 KING LEAR, 85 
 
 HAMLET, 138 
 
 CYMBELINE, 209 
 
 TIMON OF ATHENS, 236 
 
 OTHELLO, THE MOOR OF VENICE, 291 
 
 ROMEO AND JULIET, 381 
 
 COMEDY OF ERRORS, 420 
 
 TITUS ANDRONICUS, 423 
 
 PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE, 426
 
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 ERRATA. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Page 50, Reed 468, fcr " amendment that that " read " amendment than that." 
 
 87, 229, for " from an inattention " read " from inattention," &c. 
 
 9 s 26y, for " their sentiment" read " the sentiment." 
 
 12 7> 377 1 for " encomiums " read "encomium ;" with a semicolon aftr 
 
 " measures ;" Dele a before Plato. 
 
 J '7, 141, for " chronicles " read " chroniclers." 
 
 308, 363, for " I out " read " Icut out." 
 
 367, for " milk my eyes" read " milk my ewes.** 
 
 J 88 - for "general suggestions" read "generous suggestions." 
 
 205 170, for " celeribus " read " sceleribus." 
 
 822 362, for " to the age's tooth" read "for the aee's tooth." 
 
 ** 2 > 427, for " nuptual " read " nuptial," and for " transported " nail 
 
 " transport." 
 
 "00, ji > before " Lord Hereford," &c. insert " Berk." 
 
 282, tor " his mercy" read " his good mercy." 
 
 284 159, the comma alter " wistly" should follow " speak in't." 
 
 285i 166, for " Phoebus " read ' Hluebus." 
 
 2 90, 248, for " Parmenio " read " Parmeno." 
 
 303 In the. sonnet, for" softly breathe" read " softly sing." 
 
 349 24, from " Out of a deal,'' &c. dele of. 
 
 3*9 28, for " Who minlit perhaps" read " We might perhaps," &c. 
 
 351, 60, for " them others" read " the mothers." 
 
 392 23, for " then should read" put " then we should read," 
 
 *W2 95, for " supremes of state " read " supremes of states." 
 
 31, 364, for " do not pluck down" read " do one pluck down." 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 21, After " in reproof of this lies the jest," add, " and in Troilus and 
 
 Cressida. Act 1, Sc. 3, 
 
 " In reproof of chance 
 
 " Lias the true proof of meu." 
 
 Page 58, In the passage from Lee, for " I bear you that " read " I bar yo 
 
 that." 
 68, Reed l6l, for " sail" read " sails." 
 
 125, 528, for " ends forth " read " send forth." 
 
 128, ........ 589, for " too rooted" read " too deeply rooted." 
 
 131, 553, for " same" read " sane." 
 
 132 566, dismiss after " no cause, no cause," the note of admiration. 
 
 135, 581, for " man's work" md " a man's work." 
 
 138, 9> for " our ears " read " your ears." 
 
 143, In the emended text for " We h.w.: Uispatch'd " read " We here 
 
 dispatch," &c. 
 
 153, In the Italian sentence, for " it " read " U." 
 
 156, 64, for " hour" read "season." 
 
 178 209, for " interpretators " read " interpreters." 
 
 194 270, for " Ballerophon " read " Bellerophon " 
 
 929 584, after " Mr. Steevens, in a remark" read the words which follow 
 
 " upon a passage in Pericles ! not correct, in asserting that this 
 nunie in Ct/mbttiite is always Posthiinius." 
 
 448, 47, Regulate the metre after 
 
 And wear it kind my lord ? 
 
 Is* Ld. I am so far 
 
 Already in your gifts. 
 
 All. So are we all. 
 
 *62, after " himself by't," instead of " but then" read " but I think 
 
 that," ice. 
 
 290 instead of " and is his happiest " read " and in his happiest," tic. 
 
 299. in the passage from Camden, for " virtue's " read " virtues." 
 
 331 . for " the captain in the citadel " read " the captains," iVc. 
 
 374, 506, for " are you man " read " are you mail." 
 
 375, The note of interrogation placed after " villain" belongs to " thunder." 
 
 434, 321, for " king doubt "read " Ling double."
 
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