Note return to page 1 1The second part, &c.] This and the third part were first written under the title of the Contention of York and Lancaster, printed in 1600, but since vastly improved by the Author. Pope. The second Part of K. Henry VI.] This and the Third part of King Henry VI. contain that troublesom Period of this Prince's Reign, which took in the whole Contention betwixt the two Houses of York and Lancaster: And under that Title were these two Plays first acted and published. The present Scene opens with K. Henry's Marriage, which was in the 23d Year of his Reign; and closes with the first Battle fought at St. Albans, and won by the York Faction, in the 33d Year of his Reign. So that it comprizes the History and Transactions of 10 Years. Theobald.

Note return to page 2 2As by your high, &c.] Vide Hall's Chronicle, Fol. 66. Year 23. Init. Pope. It is apparent that this play begins where the former ends, and continues the series of transactions, of which it presupposes the first part already known. This is a sufficient proof that the second and third parts were not written without dependance on the first, though they were printed as containing a complete period of history.

Note return to page 3 3The mutual conf'rence &lblank;] I am the bolder to address you, having already familiarised you to my imagination.

Note return to page 4 4&lblank; mine alder-lievest Sovereign;] Alder-lievest is an old English word given to him to whom the speaker is supremely attached: Lievest being the superlative of the comparative, levar, rather, from lief. So Hall in his Chronicle, Henry VI. Folio 12. Ryght hyghe and mighty Prince, and my ryght noble, and, after one, levest Lord. Warburton.6Q0177

Note return to page 5 5This peroration with such circumstances?] This speech crowded with so many instances of aggravation.

Note return to page 6 *The indignation of Warwick is natural, and I wish it had been better expressed; there is a kind of jingle intended in wounds and words.

Note return to page 7 6And all the wealthy kingdoms of the west,] Certainly Shakespeare wrote east. Warburton. There are wealthy kingdoms in the West as well as in the East, and the Western kingdoms were more likely to be in the thought of the speaker.

Note return to page 8 7Sort how it will.] Let the issue be what it will.

Note return to page 9 8In quill.] This is Sir T. Hanmer's reading, the rest have in the quill.

Note return to page 10 *That is, the complaint of Peter the armourer's man against his master, for saying that York was the rightful king.

Note return to page 11 †His censure.] Through all these plays censure is used in an indifferent sense, simply for judgment or opinion.

Note return to page 12 9K. Henry. Then be it so, &c.] These two Lines I have inserted from the old Quarto; and, as I think, very necessarily. For, without them, the King has not declared his Assent to Gloucester's Opinion: and the Duke of Somerset is made to thank him for the Regency, before the King has deputed him to it. Theobald.

Note return to page 13 1Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night.] The silent of the night is a classical expression: and means an interlunar night.—Amica silentia Lunæ. So Pliny, Inter omnes verò convenit, utilissimè in coitu ejus sterni, quem diem alii interlunii, al i silentis Lunæ appellant. Lib. xvi. cap. 39. In imitation of this language, Milton says, The Sun to me is dark And silent as the Moon, When she deserts the night, Hid in her vacant interlunar Cave. Warburton.

Note return to page 14 2Lord Buckingham, methinks, &c.] This repetition of the prophesies, which is altogether unnecessary, after what the spectators had heard in the Scene immediately preceding, is not to be found in the first edition of this Play. Pope.

Note return to page 15 3These Oracles are hardly attain'd, And hardly understood.] Not only the Lameness of the Versification, but the Imperfection of the Sense too, made me suspect this passage to be corrupt. York, seizing the Parties and their Papers, says, he'll see the Devil's Writ; and finding the Wizard's Answers intricate and ambiguous, he makes this general Comment upon such sort of Intelligence, as I have restor'd the Text: These Oracles are hardily attain'd, And hardly understood. i. e. A great Risque and Hazard is run to obtain them; and yet, after these hardy Steps taken, the informations are so perplex'd that they are hardly to be understood. Theobald.

Note return to page 16 4For flying at the brook.] The falconer's term for hawking at water-fowl.

Note return to page 17 5The wind was very high, And, ten to one, old Joan had not gone out.] I am told by a gentleman better acquainted with falconry than myself, that the meaning, however expressed, is, that, the wind being high, it was ten to one that the old hawk had flown quite away; a trick which hawks often play their masters in windy weather.

Note return to page 18 6With such Holiness can you do it?] Do what? the verse wants a foot, we should read, With such Holiness can you not do it? Spoken ironically. By holiness he means hypocrisy: and says, have you not hypocrisy enough to hide your malice? Warburton. The verse is lame enough after the emendation, nor does the negative particle improve the sense. When words are omitted it is not often easy to say what they were if there is a perfect sense without them. I read, but somewhat at random, A Churchman, with such holiness can you do it? The transcriber saw churchman just above, and therefore omitted it in the second line.

Note return to page 19 7&lblank; Come with thy two-hand Sword. Glo. True, Uncle, are ye advis'd? the East-side of the Grove. Cardinal, I am with You.] Thus is the whole Speech plac'd to Glo'ster, in all the Editions: but surely, with great inadvertence. It is the Cardinal, who first appoints the East-side of the Grove: and how finely does it express Rancour and Impetuosity for fear Gloucester should mistake, to repeat the Appointment, and ask his Antagonist if he takes him right! Theobald.

Note return to page 20 8The former Copies: &lblank; who said, Simon, come; Come offer at my Shrine, and I will help thee.] Why, Simon? The Chronicles, that take Notice of Glo'ster's detecting this pretended Miracle, tell us, that the Impostor, who asserted himself to be cur'd of Blindness, was called Saunder Simpcox.—Simon was therefore a Corruption. Theobald.

Note return to page 21 9Your Lady is forth-coming.] That is, your Lady is in custody.

Note return to page 22 1And poise the Cause in justice' equal scales, Whose beam stands sure, whose rightful cause prevails.] The sense will, I think, be mended if we read in the optative mood, &lblank; Justice' equal scale, Whose beam stand sure, whose rightful cause prevail.

Note return to page 23 *In craving your opinion of my Title, Which is infallible, to England's crown.] I know not well whether he means the opinion or the title is infallible.

Note return to page 24 2Sorrow would solace, and my age would Ease.] That is, sorrow would have, sorrow requires solace, and age requires ease.

Note return to page 25 *God and King Henry govern England's realm:] The word realm at the end of two lines together is displeasing; and when it is considered that much of this scene is written in rhyme, it will not appear improbable that the authour wrote, govern England's helm.

Note return to page 26 3&lblank; worse bestead,] In a worse plight.

Note return to page 27 4with a Sand-bag fastened to it.] As, according to the old laws of duels, Knights were to fight with the lance and sword; so those of inferior rank fought with an Ebon staff or battoon, to the farther end of which was fix'd a bag cram'd hard with sand. To this custom Hudibras has alluded in these humourous lines, Engag'd with money bags, as bold As men with Sand-bags did of old. Warburton.

Note return to page 28 5a cup of charneco.] On which the Oxford Editor thus criticises in his Index. This seems to have been a cant word for some strong liquor, which was apt to bring drunken fellows to the stocks, since in Spanish Charniegos is a term used for the stocks. It was no cant word, but a common name for a sort of sweet wine, as appears from a passage in a pamphlet, intitled, The discovery of a London Monster, called the black dog of Newgate, printed 1612. Some drinking the neat wine of Orleance, some the Gascony, some the Bourdeaux. There wanted neither sherry, sack nor charneco, maligo nor amber-colour'd candy, nor liquorish ipocras, brown beloved bastard, fat aligant, or any quick-spirited liquor. —And as charneca is, in Spanish, the name of a kind of turpentine tree, I imagine the growth of it was in some district abounding with that tree; or that it had its name from a certain flavour resembling it. Warburton.6Q0178

Note return to page 29 6as Bevis of Southampton fell upon Ascapart.] I have added this from the old quarto. Warb. Ascapart was the giant of the story.

Note return to page 30 7Unneath] i. e. scarcely. Pope.

Note return to page 31 8Mail'd up in shame, &lblank;] Wrapped up; bundled up in disgrace; alluding to the sheet of pennance.

Note return to page 32 *Thy greatest help is quiet, &lblank;] The poet has not endeavoured to raise much compassion for the dutchess, who indeed suffers but what she had deserved.

Note return to page 33 9&lblank; the world may laugh &lblank;] That is, the world may look again favourably upon me.

Note return to page 34 *&lblank; I long to see my prison.] This impatience of a high spirit is very natural. It is not so dreadful to be imprisoned, as it is desirable in a state of disgrace to be sheltered from the scorn of gazers.

Note return to page 35 1Me seemeth &lblank;] That is, it seemeth to me, a word more grammatical than methinks, which has, I know not how, intruded into its place.

Note return to page 36 2&lblank; your Grace's tale.] Suffolk uses Highness and Grace promiscuously to the queen. Majesty was not the settled title till the time of king James the first.

Note return to page 37 3&lblank; this gear] Gear was a general word for thing or matters.

Note return to page 38 4&lblank; these faults are easy,] Easy is slight, inconsiderable, as in other passages of this authour.

Note return to page 39 5Liefest is dearest.

Note return to page 40 6And as the Butcher takes away the Calf, And binds the wretch, and beats it when it strays.] But how can it stray when it is bound? The Poet certainly intended, when it strives; i. e. when it struggles to get loose. And so he elsewhere employs this Word. Thirlby. This emendation is admitted by the succeeding editors, and I had once put it in the text. I am, however, inclined to believe that in this passage, as in many, there is a confusion of ideas, and that the poet had at once before him a butcher carrying a calf bound, and a butcher driving a calf to the slaughter, and beating him when he did not keep the path. Part of the line was suggested by one image and part by another, so that strive is the best word, but stray is the right.

Note return to page 41 7Free Lords, &c. &lblank;] By this she means, (as may be seen by the sequel) you, who are not bound up to such precise regards of religion as is the King; but are men of the world, and know how to live. Warburton.

Note return to page 42 *'Tis York that hath more reason for his death.] Why York had more reason than the rest for desiring Humphry's death, is not very clear; he had only decided the deliberation about the regency of France in favour of Somerset.

Note return to page 43 8No; let him die, in that he is a fox By Nature prov'd an enemy to the flock, Before his chaps be stain'd with crimson blood, As Humphry prov'd by reasons to my Liege.] The meaning of the speaker is not hard to be discovered, but his expression is very much perplexed. He means that the fox may be lawfully killed, as being known to be by nature an enemy to sheep, even before he has actually killed them; so Humphry may be properly destroyed, as being proved by arguments to be the king's enemy, before he has committed any actual crime. Some may be tempted to read treasons for reasons, but the drift of the argument is to shew that there may be reason to kill him before any treason has broken out.

Note return to page 44 9I will be his priest.] I will be the attendant on his last scene, I will be the last man whom he will see.

Note return to page 45 *And censure well the deed.] That is, approve the deed; judge the deed good.

Note return to page 46 †It skills not.] It is of no importance.

Note return to page 47 1Mad-brain'd flaw.] Flaw is a sudden violent gust of wind.

Note return to page 48 *A wild Morisco.] A Moor in a military dance, now called a Morris, that is, a Moorish dance.

Note return to page 49 2In former Editions: I thank thee, Nell, these words content me much.] This is K. Henry's Reply to his Wife Margaret. There can be no Reason why he should forget his own Wife's Name, and call her Nell instead of Margaret. As the Change of a single Letter sets all right, I am willing to suppose it came from his Pen thus; I thank thee: Well, these words content me much. Theobald.

Note return to page 50 3Right now.] Just now; even now.

Note return to page 51 4Be woe for me.] That is, let not woe be to thee for Gloucester, but for me.

Note return to page 52 5The splitting rocks cow'r'd in the sinking sands, And would not dash me with their ragged sides.] Sinking sands and splitting rocks are the two destroyers of ships, but they are not otherwise allied to one another, and act their mischief by very different powers. I believe here is a transposition, and should read, The sinking sands, the splitting rocks cow'r'd in. Our poet mentions them together, as in Othello, The gutter'd rocks and congregated sands. But finding no commodious allusion for the sands, he let that idea pass without any correspondent, and proceeds to the rocks. The splitting rocks cow'r'd in, And would not dash me with their ragged sides, Because thy flinty heart &lblank;

Note return to page 53 6To sit and watch me, as Ascanius did, When he to madding Dido would unfold His Father's Acts, commenc'd in burning Troy;] The Poet here is unquestionably alluding to Virgil, (Æneid. I.) but he strangely blends Fact with Fiction. In the first Place, it was Cupid, in the Semblance of Ascanius, who sat in Dido's Lap, and was fondled by her. But then it was not Cupid, who related to her the Process of Troy's destruction, but it was Æneas himself who related this History. Again, how did the supposed Ascanius sit and watch her? Cupid was ordered, while Dido mistakenly caressed him, to bewitch and infect her with Love. To this Circumstance the Poet certainly alludes; and, unless he had wrote, as I have restored to the Text; To sit and witch me, &lblank; Why should the Queen immediately draw this Inference. Am I not witch'd like her? Theobald.

Note return to page 54 *Not Henry.] The poet commonly uses Henry as a word of three syllables.

Note return to page 55 7For seeing him, I see my life in death.] Though, by a violent operation, some sense may be extracted from this reading, yet I think it will be better to change it thus; For seeing him, I see my death in life. That is, seeing him I live to see my own destruction. Thus it will aptly correspond with the first line. Come hither, gracious Sovereign, view this body. K. Henry. That is to see how deep my grave is made.

Note return to page 56 8Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost, Of ashy semblance, meager, pale, and bloodless.] All that is true of the body of a dead man is here said by Warwick of the soul. I would read, Oft have I seen a timely-parted coarse, But of two common words how or why was one changed for the other? I believe the transcriber thought that the epithet timely-parted could not be used of the body, but that, as in Hamlet there is mention of peace-parted souls, so here timely-parted must have the same substantive. He removed one imaginary difficulty and made many real. If the soul is parted from the body, the body is likewise parted from the soul. I cannot but stop a moment to observe that this horrible description is scarcely the work of any pen but Shakespeare's.

Note return to page 57 9A sort, is a company.

Note return to page 58 1Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan] The fabulous accounts of the plant called a mandrake give it an inferiour degree of animal life, and relate, that when it is torn from the ground, it groans, and that this groan being certainly fatal to him that is offering such unwelcome violence, the practice of those who gather mandrakes is to tie one end of a string to the plant, and the other to a dog, upon whom the fatal groan discharges its malignity.

Note return to page 59 *You bad me ban, and will you bid me leave?] This inconsistency is very common in real life. Those who are vexed to impatience are angry to see others less disturbed than themselves, but when others begin to rave, they immediately see in them, what they could not find in themselves, the deformity and folly of useless rage.

Note return to page 60 2That thou might'st think upon these by the seal, Through which a thousand sighs, &c.] That by the impression of my kiss for ever remaining on thy hand thou mightest think on those lips through which a thousands sighs will be breathed for thee.

Note return to page 61 *&lblank; at an hour's poor loss,] She means, I believe, at a loss which any hour spent in contrivance and deliberation will enable her to supply. Or perhaps she may call the sickness of the cardinal the loss of an hour, as it may put some stop to her schemes.

Note return to page 62 *I'll have an Irish] Iris was the messenger of Juno.

Note return to page 63 3Forbear to judge, &c. &lblank;] Peccantes culpare cave, name labimur omnes, Aut sumus, aut fuimus, vel postumus esse quod hic est.

Note return to page 64 *This is one of the scenes which have been applauded by the criticks, and which will continue to be admired when prejudice shall cease, and bigotry give way to impartial examination. These are beauties that rise out of nature and of truth; the superficial reader cannot miss them, the profound can image nothing beyond them.

Note return to page 65 4The gaudy, blabbing, &lblank; day] The epithet blabbing applied to the day by a man about to commit murder, is exquisitely beautiful. Guilt is afraid of light, considers darkness as a natural shelter, and makes night the confidante of those actions which cannot be trusted to the tell-tale day.

Note return to page 66 5&lblank; the jades That drag the tragick melancholy night, Who with their drowsy, slow, and flagging wings, Clip dead mens' graves; &lblank;] The wings of the jades that drag night appears an unnatural image, till it is remembered that the chariot of the night is supposed, by Shakespeare, to be drawn by dragons.

Note return to page 67 6Look on my George.] In the first Edition it is my ring. Warb.

Note return to page 68 7Jove sometimes went disguis'd, &c.] This verse is omitted in all but the first old Edition, without which what follows is not sense. The next line also, Obscure and lowly swain, King Henry's blood, was falsly put in the captain's mouth. Pope.

Note return to page 69 8&lblank; abortive pride.] Pride that has had birth too soon, pride issuing before its time.

Note return to page 70 *Poole? Sir Poole? Lord?] The dissonance of this broken line makes it almost certain that we should read with a kind of ludicrous climax, Poole? Sir Poole? Lord Poole? He then plays upon the name Poole, kennel, puddle.

Note return to page 71 9Than Bargulus the strong Illyrian Pirate.] Mr. Theobald says, This wight I have not been able to trace, or discover from what legend our author derived his acquaintance with him. And yet he is to be met with in Tully's Offices; and the Legend is the famous Theopompus's history. Bargulus Illyrius latro, de quo est apud Theopompum, magnas opes habuit. lib. 2. cap. II. Warburton.

Note return to page 72 1The poet seems to have confounded the story of Pompey with some other.

Note return to page 73 2&lblank; a cade of herrings.] That is, a barrel of herrings. I suppose the word keg, which is now used, is cade corrupted.

Note return to page 74 *&lblank; our enemies shall fall before us.] He alludes to his name Cade, from cado, Lat. to fall. He has too much learning for his character.

Note return to page 75 3furred pack,] A wallet or knapsack of skin with the hair outward.

Note return to page 76 4There shall be no money;] To mend the world by banishing money is an old contrivance of those who did not consider that the quarrels and mischiefs which arise from money, as the sign or ticket of riches, must, if money were to cease, arise immediately from riches themselves, and could never be at an end till every man was contented with his own share of the goods of life.

Note return to page 77 5They use to write it on the top of letters:] i. e. of letters missive, and such like publick acts. See Mabillon's Diplomats. Warburton.

Note return to page 78 6lent shall be as long as it is,] Methinks it might be read more humourously, Lent shall be as long again as it is.

Note return to page 79 *If we mean to thrive and do good, &c.] I think it should be read thus, If we mean to thrive, do good; break open the gaols, &c.

Note return to page 80 *Rul'd like a wandring planet &lblank;] Predominated irresistably over my passions, as the planets over the lives of those that are born under their influence.

Note return to page 81 7thou Say, thou serge,] Say was the old word for silk, on this depends the series of degradation, from say to serge, from serge to buckram.

Note return to page 82 *Printing to be us'd] Shakespeare is a little too early with this accusation.

Note return to page 83 8because they could not read, thou hast hang'd them;] That is, they were hanged because they could not claim the benefit of clergy.

Note return to page 84 *To let thy horse wear a cloak.] This is a reproach truly characteristical. Nothing gives so much offence to the lower ranks of mankind as the sight of superfluities merely ostentatious.

Note return to page 85 9When have I aught exacted at your hands? Kent to maintain, the King, the realm and you, Large gifts have I bestow'd on learned clerks, Because my book preferr'd me to the king;] This passage I know not well how to explain. It is pointed so as to make Say declare that he preferr'd clerks to maintain Kent and the King. This is not very clear; and besides he gives in the following line another reason of his bounty, that learning raised him, and therefore he supported learning. I am inclined to think Kent slipped into this passage by chance, and would read, When have I aught exacted at your hand, But to maintain the King, the realm, and you?

Note return to page 86 1Henry hath money.] Dr. Warburton reads, Henry hath mercy, but he does not seem to have attended to the speaker's drift, which is to lure them from their present design by the hope of French plunder. He bids them spare England, and go to France, and encourages them by telling them that all is ready for their expedition; that they have strength, and the king has money.

Note return to page 87 2Is straitway claim'd and boarded with a pirate.] So the Editions read; and one would think it plain enough; alluding to York's claim to the crown. Cade's head-long tumult was well compared to a tempest, as York's premeditated rebellion to a piracy. But see what it is to be critical; Mr Theobald says, claim'd should be calm'd, because a calm frequently succeeds a tempest. It may be so; but not here, if the King's word may be taken: who expressly says, that no sooner was Cade driven back, but York appear'd in arms, But now is Cade driv'n back, his men dispers'd; And now is York in arms to second him. Warburton.

Note return to page 88 3but for a sallet, my brain-pan, &c.] A sallet by corruption from cælata, a helmet, (says Skinner) quia galeæ cælatæ fuerunt. Pope.

Note return to page 89 4As for more words, whose greatness answers word, Let this my sword report what speech forbears] Sir T. Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read, As for more words, let this my sword report (Whose greatness answers words) What speech forbears. It seems to be a poor praise of a sword, that its greatness answers words, whatever be the meaning of the expression. The old reading, though somewhat obscure, seems to me more capable of explanation. For more words, whose pomp and tumour may answer words, and only words, I shall forbear them, and refer the rest to my sword.

Note return to page 90 5How much thou wrong'st me.] That is, in supposing that I am proud of my victory.

Note return to page 91 6So wish I, I might thrust thy soul to hell.] Not to dwell upon the wickedness of this horrid wish, with which Iden debases his character, this whole speech is wild and confused. To draw a man by the heels, headlong, is somewhat difficult; nor can I discover how the dunghill would be his grave if his trunk were left to be fed upon by crows. These I conceive not to be the faults of corruption but of negligence, and therefore do not attempt correction.

Note return to page 92 *&lblank; balance it.] That is, balance my hand.

Note return to page 93 †A scepter shall it have, have I a soul,] I read, A scepter shall it have, have I a sword. York observes that his hand must be employed with a sword or scepter; he then naturally observes, that he has a sword, and resolves that if he has a sword he will have a scepter.

Note return to page 94 7Would'st have me kneel? First let me ask of these, If they can brook I bow a knee to man. Sirrah, call in my Sons to be my bail.] As these Lines have hitherto stood, I think the Sense perplexed and obscure. I have ventur'd to transpose them. Warburton.

Note return to page 95 8Shall be their Father's Bail, and Bane to these,] Considering how our Author loves to play on Words similar in their sound, but opposite in their Signification, I make no Doubt but the Author wrote bail and bale. Bale, (from whence our common Adjective, baleful) signifies, Detriment, Ruin, Misfortune, &c. Theobald.

Note return to page 96 *Bale signifies sorrow. Either word may serve.

Note return to page 97 9Call hither to the stake my two brave bears, &lblank; Bid Salisbury and Warwick come.] York calls these Lords his bears because they had a bear for their arms.6Q0180

Note return to page 98 1Burgonet is a helmet.

Note return to page 99 2A dreadful lay.] A dreadful wager; a tremendous stake.

Note return to page 100 3And the premised flames &lblank;] Premised, for sent before their time. The sense is, let the flames reserved for the last day be sent now. Warburton.

Note return to page 101 4To atchieve, to obtain.

Note return to page 102 5So, lie thou there. For underneath an ale-house' paltry Sign, The Castle in St. Alban's, Somerset Hath made the Wizard famous.] The particle for in the second line seems to be used without any very apparent inference. We might read, Fall'n underneath an ale-house' paltry sign, &c. Yet the alteration is not necessary, for the old reading is sense, though obscure.

Note return to page 103 6Famous in his death.] The death of Somerset here accomplishes that equivocal Prediction given by Jordan, the Witch, concerning this Duke; which we met with at the Close of the first Act of this Play:   Let him shun Castles; Safer shall he be upon the sandy Plains, Than where Castles, mounted, stand. i. e. the Representation of a Castle, mounted for a Sign. Theobald.

Note return to page 104 7Brush of time.] Read bruise of time. Warburton.

Note return to page 105 8Gallant in the brow of youth] The brow of youth is an expression not very easily explained. I read the blow of youth. The blossom, the spring.

Note return to page 106 *Three times bestrid him.] That is, three times I saw him fallen, and, striding over him, defended him till he recovered.

Note return to page 107 Of this play, and the next, a very imperfect copy was published I. By W. W. for Thomas Millington. Quarto. 1600. II. For T. P. without date. I have the II. III. Folio 1623, which is undoubtedly the genuine copy of all the three parts.

Note return to page 108 1The third part] First printed under the title of the true tragedy of Richard Duke of York, and the good King Henry the sixth, or the second part of the Contention between York and Lancaster, 1590. Pope.

Note return to page 109 2The Third Part of K. Henry VI.] The action of this Play (which was at first printed under this Title, The true Tragedy of Richard Duke of York, and the good K. Henry VIth: or, the Second Part of the Contention of York and Lancaster) opens just after the first Battle at St. Albans, wherein the York Faction carried the day; and closes with the Murder of K. Henry VI. and the Birth of Prince Edward, afterwards King Edward V. So that this History takes in the Space of full sixteen Years. Theobald.

Note return to page 110 3I wonder how the King &lblank;] This play is only divided from the former for the convenience of exhibition; for the series of action is continued without interruption, nor are any two scenes of any play more closely connected than the first scene of this play with the last of the former.

Note return to page 111 4&lblank; if Warwick shake his bells.] The allusion is to falconry. The hawks had sometimes little bells hung upon them, perhaps to dare the birds; that is, to fright them from rising.

Note return to page 112 *I am the son of Henry the fifth.] The military merit of Henry the fifth is the sole support of his son. The name of Henry the fifth dispersed the followers of Cade.

Note return to page 113 *Think you, 'twere prejudicial to his Crown?] The phrase prejudicial to his Crown, if it be right, must mean, detrimental to the general rights of hereditary royalty; but I rather think that the transcriber's eye caught crown from the line below, and that we should read prejudicial to his son, to his next heir.

Note return to page 114 *They seek revenge.] They go away not because they doubt the justice of this determination, but because they have been conquered, and seek to be revenged. They are not influenced by principle, but passion.

Note return to page 115 *What is it but to make thy Sepulchre.] The Queen's reproach is founded on a position long received among politicians, that the loss of a King's power is soon followed by loss of life.

Note return to page 116 5Whose haughty spirit, winged with desire, Will cost my crown; and, like an empty eagle, Tire on the flesh &lblank;] Read coast, i. e. hover over it. Warburton. To tire is to fasten, to fix the talons, from the French tier.6Q0181

Note return to page 117 *Those three Lords] That is, of Northumberland, Westmorland, and Clifford, who had left him in disgust.

Note return to page 118 6No Quarrel, but a slight Contention.] Thus the Players, first, in their Edition; who did not understand. I presume, the force of the Epithet in the old Quarto, which I have restor'd; —sweet Contention, i. e. the Argument of their Dispute was upon a grateful Topick; the Question of their Father's immediate Right to the Crown. Theobald.

Note return to page 119 7An oath is of no moment, &lblank;] The obligation of an oath is here eluded by very despicable sophistry. A lawful magistrate alone has the power to exact an oath, but the oath derives no part of its force from the magistrate. The plea against the obligation of an oath obliging to maintain an usurper, taken from the unlawfulness of the oath itself in the foregoing play, was rational and just.

Note return to page 120 8In former Editions: Witty, courteous, liberal, full of Spirit.] What a blessed harmonious Line have the Editors given us, and what a promising Epithet, in York's behalf, from the Kentishmen being so witty? I can't be so partial, however, to my own County, as to let this Compliment pass. I make no Doubt to read, &lblank; for they are Soldiers. Wealthy and courteous, liberal, full of Spirit. Now these five Characteristicks answer to Lord Say's Description of them in the preceding Play. Kent, in the Commentaries Cæsar writ, Is term'd the civil'st Place in all this isle; The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy. Theobald. This is a conjecture of very little import.

Note return to page 121 *The Queen, with all, &c.] I know not whether the authour intended any moral instruction, but he that reads this has a striking admonition against that precipitancy by which men often use unlawful means to do that which a little delay would put honestly in their power. Had York staid but a few moments he had saved his cause from the stain of perjury.

Note return to page 122 *So looks the pent-up lion.] That is, the lion that hath been long confined without food, and is let out to devour a man condemned.

Note return to page 123 9We badg'd again; &lblank;] Of this word the meaning is plain, but I never saw it in any other place. I suppose it is only the word budged, perhaps misprinted.

Note return to page 124 *Noon-tide prick, or noon-tide point on the dial.

Note return to page 125 1It is war's prize &lblank;] Read praise. Warburton. I think the old reading right, which means, that all vantages are in war lawful prize; that is, may be lawfully taken and used.

Note return to page 126 2This napkin.] A napkin is an handkerchief.

Note return to page 127 3'Tis government, that makes them seem divine.] Government, in the language of that time, signified evenness of temper, and decency of manners.

Note return to page 128 4Would not have stain'd the roses just with blood:] So the second folio nonsensically reads the passage; but the old quarto, and first folio editions of better authority have it thus, That face of his the hungry canibals Would not have touch'd, would not have stain'd with blood. And this is sense. Could any one now have believed that an editor of common understanding should reject this, and fasten upon the nonsense of a latter edition only because it afforded matter of conjecture: And yet Mr. Theobald will needs correct, roses just with blood, to roses juic'd with blood, that is, change one blundering Editor's nonsense for another's. But if there ever was any meaning in the line, it was thus expressed, Would not have stain'd the roses just in bud. And this the Oxford Editor hath espoused. Warburton.

Note return to page 129 5Methinks, 'tis prize enough to be his son.] The old quarto reads pride, which is right, for ambition. i. e. We need not aim at any higher glory than this. Warburton. I believe prize is the right word. Richard's sense is, though we have missed the prize for which we fought, we have yet an honour left that may content us.

Note return to page 130 6And takes her farewel of the glorious sun.] Aurora takes for a time her farewel of the sun, when she dismisses him to his diurnal course.

Note return to page 131 7Blazing by our meeds.] Illustrious and shining by the armorial ensigns granted us as meeds of our great exploits. It might be plausibly read, Blazing by our deeds.

Note return to page 132 *Oh, speak no more!] The generous tenderness of Edward, and savage fortitude of Richard, are well distinguished by their different reception of their father's death.

Note return to page 133 *Like the night-owl's lazy flight.] This image is not very congruous to the subject, nor was it necessary to the comparison, which is happily enough compleated by the thresher.

Note return to page 134 *&lblank; the easy-melting King, like wax.] So again in this play, of the lady Gray, As red as fire, nay, then her wax must melt.

Note return to page 135 8Why then it sorts.] Why then things are as they should be.

Note return to page 136 *Alluding to a common proverb.

Note return to page 137 *Darraign] That is, range your host, put your hosts in order.6Q0183

Note return to page 138 *&lblank; I am resolv'd] It is my firm persuasion; I am no longer in doubt.

Note return to page 139 †To let thy tongue detect] To show thy meanness of birth by the indecency of language with which thou railest at my deformity.

Note return to page 140 9A wisp of straw.] I suppose for an instrument of correction that might disgrace but not hurt her.

Note return to page 141 1We saw our sun-shine made thy spring, And that thy summer bred us no increase.] When we saw that by favouring thee we made thee grow in fortune, but that we received no advantage from thy fortune flourishing by our favour, we then resolved to destroy thee, and determine to try some other means, though our first efforts have failed.

Note return to page 142 *Thy Brother's Blood the thirsty Earth hath drunk,] This Passage, from the Variation of the Copies, gave me no little Perplexity. The old 4 to applies this Description to the Death of Salisbury, Warwick's Father. But this was a notorious Deviation from the Truth of History. For the Earl of Salisbury in the Battle at Wakefield, wherein Richard Duke of York lost his Life, was taken Prisoner, beheaded at Pomfret, and his Head, together with the Duke of York's, fix'd over York-gates. Then. the only Brother of Warwick, introduc'd in this Play, is the Marquess of Montacute; (or Mountague, as he is call'd by our Author:) but he does not dye, till ten years after, in the Battle at Barnet; where Warwick likewise was kill'd. The truth is, the Brother here mention'd, is no Person in the Drama: and his Death is only an incidental Piece of History. Consulting the Chronicles, upon this Action at Ferribridge, I find him to have been a natural Son of Salisbury, (in that respect, a Brother to Warwick;) and esteem'd a valiant young Gentleman. Theobald.

Note return to page 143 2&lblank; methinks it were a happy life] This speech is mournful and soft, exquisitely suited to the character of the king, and makes a pleasing interchange, by affording, amidst the tumult and horrour of the battle, an unexpected glimpse of rural innocence and pastoral tranquillity.

Note return to page 144 *These two horrible incidents are selected to show the innumerable calamities of civil war.

Note return to page 145 3And let our hearts and eyes, like civil war, Be blind with tears, and break o'er-charg'd with grief.] The meaning is here inaccurately expressed. The king intends to say that the state of their hearts and eyes shall be like that of the kingdom in a civil war, all shall be destroyed by power formed within themselves.

Note return to page 146 4What stratagems, &lblank;] Stratagem seems to stand here only for an event of war, or may intend snares and surprises.

Note return to page 147 5O boy! thy father gave thee life too soon,] Because had he been born later he would not now have been of years to engage in this quarrel. And hath bereft thee of thy life too late] i.e. he should have done it by not bringing thee into being, to make both father and son thus miserable. This is the sense, such as it is, of the two lines, however an indifferent sense was better than none, as it is brought to by the Oxford Editor by reading the lines thus, O boy! thy father gave thee life too late, And hath bereft thee of thy life too soon. Warburton. I rather think the meaning of the line, And hath bereft thee of thy life too late, to be this. Thy father exposed thee to danger by giving thee life too soon, and hath bereft thee of life by living himself too long.

Note return to page 148 6And so obsequious will thy father be,] Obsequious is here careful of obsequies, or of funeral rites.

Note return to page 149 *As Priam was for all] I having but one son, will grieve as much for that one, as Priam, who had many, cold grieve for many.

Note return to page 150 7&lblank; thy tough commixtures] Perhaps better, the tough commixtures.

Note return to page 151 8No way to fly, nor strength to hold our flight.] This line is clear and proper as it is now read, yet perhaps an opposition of images was meant, and Clifford said, No way to fly, nor strength to hold out fight.

Note return to page 152 9&lblank; like life and death's departing.] Sir T. Hanmer reads, like life in death departing, which Dr. Warburton has received.

Note return to page 153 *Eager words.] Sour words; words of asperity.

Note return to page 154 1Thy balm washt off, &lblank;] This is an image very frequent in the works of Shakespeare. So again in this Scene, I was anointed King. It is common in these Plays to find the same images, whether jocular or serious, frequently recurring.

Note return to page 155 *In the former act was the same line, Inferring arguments of mighty force.

Note return to page 156 2Sir John Gray.] Vid. Hall, 3d year of Edw. IV. folio 5. It was hitherto falsly printed Richard. Pope.

Note return to page 157 *Widow, we will consider.] This is a very lively and spritely dialogue; the reciprocation is quicker than is common in Shakespeare.

Note return to page 158 3Unlick'd bear-whelp. It was an opinion which, in spite of its absurdity, prevailed long, that the bear brings forth only shapeless lumps of animated flesh, which she licks into the form of bears. It is now well known that the whelps of the bear are produced in the same state with those of other creatures.

Note return to page 159 4&lblank; To o'er-bear such As are of better person than myself.] Richard speaks here the language of nature. Whoever is stigmatised with deformity has a constant source of envy in his mind, and would counter-ballance by some other superiority these advantages which they feel themselves to want. Bacon remarks that the deformed are commonly daring, and it is almost proverbially observed that they are ill-natured. The truth is, that the deformed, like all other men, are displeased with inferiority, and endeavour to gain ground by good or bad means, as they are virtuous or corrupt.

Note return to page 160 5And set the murth'rous Machiavel to school.] As this is an Anachronism, and the old quarto reads, And set th' aspiring Catiline to school, I don't know why it should not be preferr'd. Warburton.

Note return to page 161 6O, but impatience waiteth on true sorrow. And see, where comes the breeder of my sorrow.] How does impatience, more particularly, wait on true sorrow! On the contrary, such sorrow as the Queen's, which came gradually on, through a long course of misfortunes, is generally less impatient than that of those who have fallen into sudden miseries. The true reading seems to be, O, but impatience waiting, rues to morrow: And see, where comes the breeder of my sorrow. i. e. When impatience waits and solicits for redress, there is nothing she so much dreads as being put off till to morrow, (a proverbial expression for procrastination.) This was a very proper reply to what the King said last, and in a sentiment worthy of the poet. A rhime too is added as was customary with him, at the closing a scene. Warburton. It is strange that, when the sense is so clear, any commentator should thus laboriously obscure it, to introduce a new reading; and yet stranger that he should shew such confidence in his emendation as to insert it in the text.

Note return to page 162 7That this his love was an external plant,] The old quarto reads rightly eternal: Alluding to the plants of Paradise. Warburton.

Note return to page 163 8Exempt from envy, but not from disdain.] Envy is always supposed to have some fascinating or blasting power, and to be out of the reach of envy is therefore a privilege belonging only to great excellence. I know not well why envy is mentioned here, or whose envy can be meant, but the meaning is that his love is superiour to envy, and can feel no blast but from the Lady's disdain. Or, that if Bona refuse to quit or requite his pain, his love may turn to disdain, though the consciousness of his own merit will exempt him from the pangs of envy.

Note return to page 164 *You have a father able &lblank;] This seems ironical. The poverty of Margaret's father is a very frequent topick of reproach.

Note return to page 165 9Thy sly conveyance.] Conveyance is juggling, and thence is taken for artifice and fraud.

Note return to page 166 1Did I let pass th' abuse done to my Niece?] Whom King Edward attempted in the Earl of Warwick's house. Holingshed.

Note return to page 167 2Go, fear thy King] That is, fright thy King.

Note return to page 168 3In former copies, I'll join my eldest Daughter and my Joy, To him forthwith, &lblank;] Surely this is a Mistake of the Copyists. Hall, in the 9th Year of K. Edward IV. says Edward Prince of Wales, wedded Anne Second Daughter to the Earl of Warwick. And the Duke of Clarence was in Love with the Elder, the Lady Isabel; and in reality was married to her five Years before Prince Edward took the Lady Anne to Wife. And in K. Richard third, Gloucester, who married this Lady Anne when a Widow, says, For then I'll marry Warwick's Youngest Daughter. What tho' I kill'd her Husband and her Father? i. e. Prince Edward, and K. Henry VI. her Father-in-Law. See likewise Holingshed in his Chronicle; p. 671 and 674. Theob.

Note return to page 169 4&lblank; with the seas,] This has been the advice of every man who in any age understood and favoured the interest of England.

Note return to page 170 *&lblank; you would not have bestow'd the heir] It must be remembered, that till the restoration the heiresses of great estates were in the wardship of the king, who in their minority gave them up to plunder, and afterwards matched them to his favourites. I know not when liberty gained more than by the abolition of the court of wards.

Note return to page 171 5Belike the Elder; Clarence will have the Younger.] I have ventured to make Elder and Younger change Places in this Line against the Authority of All the printed Copies. The Reason of it will be obvious. Theobald.

Note return to page 172 *You, that love me and Warwick; follow me.] That Clarence should make this speech in the king's hearing is very improbable, yet I do not see how it can be palliated. The king never goes out, nor can Clarence be talking to a company apart, for he answers immediately to that which the Post says to the king.

Note return to page 173 *&lblank; night's overture] The authour must, I think, have written night's coverture. For though overture, which signifies first an opening, then an offer, may likewise mean an opportunity, yet in an overture seems to be an improper phrase.

Note return to page 174 6His Soldiers lurking in the Town about.] Dr. Thirlby advised the reading Towns here; the Guard in the Scene immediately following says, &lblank; but why commands the King, That his chief Foll'wers lodge in Towns about him, &c. Theobald.

Note return to page 175 *So we, well cover'd with the night's black mantle,] This line may confirm the reading of coverture.

Note return to page 176 *And come now to create you Duke of York.] Might we read with a slight alteration? And come to new create you Duke of York.

Note return to page 177 7&lblank; few men rightly temper with the stars;] I suppose the meaning is, that few men conform their temper to their destiny, which King Henry did, when finding himself unfortunate he gave the management of publick affairs to more prosperous hands.

Note return to page 178 *This pretty lad.] He was afterwards Henry VII. A man who put an end to the civil war of the two houses, but not otherwise remarkable for virtue. Shakespeare knew his trade. Henry VII. was Grandfather to Queen Elizabeth, and the King from whom James inherited.

Note return to page 179 8The good old man would fain that all were well,] The mayor is willing we should enter so he may not be blamed.

Note return to page 180 9Let's levy men, and beat him back again.] This line expresses a spirit of war so unsuitable to the character of Henry, that I would give the first cold speech to the King, and the brisk answer to Warwick. This line is not in the old quarto, and when Henry said nothing, the first speech might be as properly given to Warwick as to any other.

Note return to page 181 1&lblank; My meed hath got me fame:] Meed signifies reward. We should read my deed, i. e. my manners, conduct in the administration. Warburton.6Q0185

Note return to page 182 2Shout within. A Lancaster!] Surely the shouts that ushered king Edward should be a York, a York. I suppose the authour did not write the marginal directions, and the players confounded the characters.

Note return to page 183 3A Parley is sounded, &c.] This Note of Direction I restored from the old Quarto. And, without it, it is impossible that any Reader can guess at the Meaning of this Line of Clarence; Look here, I throw my Infamy at Thee Theobald.

Note return to page 184 *&lblank; to lime the stones] That is, to cement the stones. Lime makes mortar.

Note return to page 185 †Blunt.] Stupid, insensible of paternal fondness.

Note return to page 186 *Passing.] Eminent, egregious; traiterous beyond the common track of treason.

Note return to page 187 4For Warwick was a bug that scar'd us all.] Bug is a Bugbear, a terrifick being.

Note return to page 188 * Cedes cæmptis saltibus, et demo, Villâque. Hor. This mention of his parks and manours diminishes the pathetick effect of the foregoing lines.

Note return to page 189 5Which sounded like a cannon in a vault,] The old quarto reads clamour, which is undoubtedly right, i. e. a clamour of tongues, which, as he says, could not be distinguish'd. This was a pertinent similitude: The other absurd, and neither agrees with what is predicated of it, nor with what it is intended to illustrate. Warburton.

Note return to page 190 *K. Edw. Brave followers, &c.] This scene is ill-contrived, in which the king and queen appear at once on the stage at the head of opposite armies. It had been easy to make one retire before the other entered.

Note return to page 191 6Let Æsop, &c.] The prince calls Richard, for his crookedness, Æsop; and the poet, following nature, makes Richard highly incensed at the reproach.

Note return to page 192 *&lblank; thou likeness of this railer here,] Thou that resemblest thy railing mother.

Note return to page 193 *&lblank; you have rid this sweet young Prince.] The condition of this warlike queen would move compassion could it be forgotten that she gave York, to wipe his eyes in his captivity, a handkerchief stained with his young child's blood.

Note return to page 194 †'Twas sin.] She alludes to the desertion of Clarence.

Note return to page 195 7&lblank; Where is that Devil's Butcher, Richard?] Thus all the Editions. But Devil's Butcher, in other Terms, I think, is Kill-devil: rare News for the Free-Thinkers, if there were any Grounds for depending on it. But the Poet certainly wrote devil-Butcher; and the first Part of the Compound is to be taken adjectively, meaning, execrable, infernal, devilish. Theobald. Devil's butcher is a butcher set on by the devil. Either reading may serve without so long a note.

Note return to page 196 8What scene of death hath Roscius now to act?] Roscius was certainly put for Richard by some simple conceited player, who had heard of Roscius and of Rome; but did not know that he was an Actor in Comedy, not in Tragedy. Warburton.

Note return to page 197 9Peevish fool.] As peevishness is the quality of children, peevish seems to signify childish, and by consequence silly. Peevish is explained by childish, in a former note of Dr. Warburton.

Note return to page 198 1Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear.] Who suspect no part of what my fears presage.

Note return to page 199 2The raven rook'd her.] What is rook'd her? Read, croak'd hoarse. Warburt. The true reading seems to be at no great distance. &lblank; the tempest shook down trees, The raven rock'd her on the chimney's top; on the top of the chimney shaken by the tempest.

Note return to page 200 3And, if the rest be true which I have heard, Thou cam'st &lblank;] Had our Editors had but a Grain of Sagacity, or due Diligence, there could have been no Room for this absurd Break, since they might have ventured to fill it up with Certainty too. The old Quarto would have led them part of the way, Thou cam'st into the world &lblank; And that the Verse is to be compleated in the manner I have given it, is incontestible; for unless we suppose King Henry actually reproaches him with this his preposterous Birth, how can Richard in his very next Soliloquy say? Indeed, 'tis true, that Henry told me of, For I have often heard my Mother say, I came into the World with my Legs forward. I can easily see, that this Blank was caus'd by the Nicety of the Players, to suppress an indecent Idea. But, with Submission, this was making but half a Cure, unless they had expung'd the Repetition of it out of Richard's Speech too. Theobald.

Note return to page 201 *Work thou the way, and that shall execute.] I believe we should read, &lblank; and this shall execute. Richard laying his hand on his forehead says, Work thou the way, &lblank; then bringing down his hand and beholding it, &lblank; and this shall execute. Though that may stand, the arm being included in the shoulder.

Note return to page 202 4Thanks, noble Clarence; worthy Brother, thanks.] This Line has been given to King Edward; but I have, with the old Quarto, restored it to the Queen. Theobald.

Note return to page 203 The three parts of Henry VI. are suspected, by Mr. Theobald; of being supposititious, and are declared, by Dr. Warburton, to be certainly not Shakespeare's. Mr. Theobald's suspicion arises from some obsolete words; but the phraseology is like the rest of our authour's stile, and single words, of which however I do not observe more than two, can conclude little. Dr. Warburton gives no reason, but I suppose him to judge upon deeper principles and more comprehensive views, and to draw his opinion from the general effect and spirit of the composition, which he thinks inferior to the other historical plays. From mere inferiority nothing can be inferred; in the productions of wit there will be inequality. Sometimes judgment will err, and sometimes the matter itself will defeat the artist. Of every authour's works one will be the best, and one will be the worst. The colours are not equally pleasing, nor the attitudes equally graceful, in all the pictures of Titian or Reynolds. Dissimilitude of stile and heterogeneousness of sentiment, may sufficiently show that a work does not really belong to the reputed authour. But in these plays no such marks of spuriousness are found. The diction, the versification, and the figures, are Shakespeare's. These plays, considered, without regard to characters and incidents, merely as narratives in verse, are more happily conceived and more accurately finished than those of king John, Richard II. or the tragick scenes of Henry IV. and V. If we take these plays from Shakespeare, to whom shall they be given? What authour of that age had the same easiness of expression and fluency of numbers? Having considered the evidence given by the plays themselves, and found it in their favour, let us now enquire what corroboration can be gained from other testimony. They are ascribed to Shakespeare by the first editors, whose attestation may be received in questions of fact, however unskilfully they superintended their edition. They seem to be declared genuine by the voice of Shakespeare himself, who refers to the second play in his epilogue to Henry V. and apparently connects the first act of Richard III. with the last of the third part of Henry VI. If it be objected that the plays were popular, and therefore he alluded to them as well known; it may be answered, with equal probability, that the natural passions of a poet would have disposed him to separate his own works from those of an inferior hand. And indeed if an authour's own testimony is to be overthrown by speculative criticism, no man can be any longer secure of literary reputation. Of these three plays I think the second the best. The truth is, that they have not sufficient variety of action, for the incidents are too often of the same kind; yet many of the characters are well discriminated. King Henry, and his queen, king Edward, the duke of Gloucester, and the earl of Warwick, are very strongly and distinctly painted. The old copies of the two latter parts of Henry VI. and of Henry V. are so apparently imperfect and mutilated, that there is no reason for supposing them the first draughts of Shakespeare. I am inclined to believe them copies taken by some auditor who wrote down, during the representation, what the time would permit, then perhaps filled up some of his omissions at a second or third hearing, and when he had by this method formed something like a play, sent it to the printer.

Note return to page 204 1The Life and Death of King Richard III.] This Tragedy, though it is called the Life and Death of this Prince, comprizes, at most, but the last eight Years of his Time: For it opens with George Duke of Clarence being clap'd up in the Tower, which happen'd in the beginning of the Year 1477; and closes with the Death of Richard at Bosworth-field, which Battle was fought on the 22d of August in the Year 1485. Theobald.

Note return to page 205 2He capers &lblank;] War capers. This is poetical, though a little harsh; if it be York that capers, the antecedent is at such a distance that it is almost forgotten.

Note return to page 206 3Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,] By dissembling is not meant hypocritical nature, that pretends one thing and does another: But nature that puts together things of a dissimular kind, as a brave soul and a deformed body. Warburton. Dissembling is here put very licentiously for fraudful, deceitful.

Note return to page 207 4And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,] Shakespeare very diligently inculcates, that the wickedness of Richard proceeded from his deformity, from the envy that rose at the comparison of his own person with others, and which incited him to disturb the pleasures that he could not partake.

Note return to page 208 *And hate the idle pleasures.] Perhaps we might read, And bate the idle pleasures.

Note return to page 209 †Inductions dangerous.] Preparations for mischief. The Induction is preparatory to the action of the play.

Note return to page 210 5&lblank; Edward be as true and just,] i. e. as open hearted and free from deceit. Warb. The meaning is only this; if Edward keeps his word.

Note return to page 211 *Toys.] Fancies, freaks of imagination.

Note return to page 212 6Humbly complaining, &c.] I think these two lines might be better given to Clarence.

Note return to page 213 *The jealous o'erworn widow.] That is, the Queen and Shore.

Note return to page 214 7&lblank; the Queen's abjects, &lblank;] That is, not the Queen's subjects, whom she might protect, but her abjects, whom she drives away.

Note return to page 215 8Were it to call king Edward's widow sister,] This is a very covert and subtle manner of insinuating treason. The natural expression would have been, were it to call King Edward's wife sister. I will solicit for you though it should be at the expence of so much degradation and constraint, as to own the lowborn wife of King Edward for a sister. But by slipping as it were casually widow into the place of wife, he tempts Clarence with an oblique proposal to kill the king.

Note return to page 216 9I'll make a coarse of him that disobeys.] So in Hamlet, I'll make a ghost of him that holds me.

Note return to page 217 1&lblank; pattern of thy butcheries.] Pattern is instance, or example.

Note return to page 218 2&lblank; see, dead Henry's wounds Open their congeal'd mouths and bleed afresh] It is a tradition very generally received, that the murdered body bleeds on the touch of the murderer. This was so much believed by Sir Kenelm Digby that he has endeavoured to explain the reason.

Note return to page 219 3Vouchsafe, diffus'd infection of a man,] I believe diffused in this place signifies irregular, uncouth; such is its meaning in other passages of Shakespeare.

Note return to page 220 4That laid their guilt &lblank;] The crime of my brothers. He has just charged the murder of lady Anne's husband upon Edward.

Note return to page 221 5Thou wast the cause, and most accurst effect,] Effect, for executioner. He asks, was not the causer as ill as the executioner? She answers, Thou wast both. But, for causer, using the word cause, this led her to the word effect, for execution, or executioner. But the Oxford Editor troubling himself with nothing of this, will make a fine oratorical period of it. Thou wast the cause. And most accurst th' effect! Warburton. I cannot but be rather of Sir T. Hanmer's opinion than Dr. Warburton's, because effect is used immediately in its common sense, in answer to this line.

Note return to page 222 6&lblank; they kill me with a living death.] In imitation of this passage, and I suppose of a thousand more; &lblank; a living death I bear, Says Dapper wit, and sunk beside his chair.

Note return to page 223 7These eyes, which never, &c.] The twelve following beautiful lines added after the first editions. Pope. They were added with many more.

Note return to page 224 8But 'twas thy beauty &lblank;] Shakespeare countenances the observation, that no woman can ever be offended with the mention of her beauty.

Note return to page 225 [9] &lblank; Crosby-place:] A house near Bishopsgate-street belonging to the Duke of Gloucester.

Note return to page 226 1Fram'd in the prodigality of nature,] i. e. when nature was in a prodigal or lavish mood. Warburton.

Note return to page 227 2&lblank; and, no doubt, right royal,] Of the degree of royalty belonging to Henry the sixth there could be no doubt, nor could Richard have mentioned it with any such hesitation; he could not indeed very properly allow him royalty. I believe we should read, &lblank; and, no doubt, right loyal. That is, true to her bed. He enumerates the reasons for which she should love him. He was young, wise, and valiant; these were apparent and indisputable excellencies. He then mentions another not less likely to endear him to his wife, but which he had less opportunity of knowing with certainty, and, no doubt, right loyal.

Note return to page 228 3It is determin'd, not concluded yet,] Determin'd signifies the final conclusion of the will: concluded, what cannot be alter'd by reason of some act, consequent on the final judgment. Warburton.

Note return to page 229 4Here comes the Lords of Buckingham and Derby.] This is a Blunder of Inadvertence, which has run thro' the whole Chain of Impressions. It could not well be original in Shakespeare, who was most minutely intimate with his History and the Intermarriages of the Nobility. The Person here called Derby, was Thomas Lord Stanley, Lord Steward of King Edward the IVth's Houshold. But this Thomas Lord Stanley was not created Earl of Derby till after the Accession of Henry VII; and, accordingly, afterwards in the Fourth and Fifth Acts of this Play, before the Battle of Bosworth-field, he is every where call'd Lord Stanley. This sufficiently justifies the Change I have made in his Title. Theobald.

Note return to page 230 5Of your ill will, &c.] This line is restored from the first edition. Pope.

Note return to page 231 6Tell him, and spare not; look, what I have said,] This Verse I have restored from the old Quarto's. Theobald.

Note return to page 232 7My pains.] My labours; my toils.

Note return to page 233 8Out, Devil! &lblank;] Read no. Warburton. There is no need of change, but if there were, the commentator does not change enough: he should read, I remember them too well; that is, his pains.

Note return to page 234 9&lblank; Was not your husband, In Marg'ret's battle] It is said in Henry VI. that he died in quarrel of the house of York.

Note return to page 235 1Hear me, ye wrangling Pirates, &c.] This scene of Margaret's imprecations is fine and artful. She prepares the audience, like another Cassandra, for the following tragic revolutions. Warburton.

Note return to page 236 2Ah, gentle villain, &lblank;] We should read, ungentle villain. Warburton. The meaning of gentle is not, as the commentator imagines, tender or courteous, but high born. An opposition is meant between that and villain, which means at once a wicked and a low born wretch. So before, Since ev'ry Jack is made a gentleman There's many a gentle person made a Jack.

Note return to page 237 3Q. Mar. So just is God, &c.] This line should be given to Edward IVth's Queen Warb.

Note return to page 238 4By surfeit die your King.] Alluding to his luxurious life.

Note return to page 239 5&lblank; rooting hog!] The expression is fine, alluding (in memory of her young son) to the ravage which hogs make, with the finest flowers, in gardens; and intimating that Elizabeth was to expect no other treatment for her sons. Warb. She calls him hog as an appellation more contemptuous than bear, as he is elsewhere termed from his ensigns armorial. There is no such heap of allusion as the commentator imagines.

Note return to page 240 6The slave of nature, &lblank;] The expression is strong and noble, and alludes to the antient custom of masters' branding their profligate slaves: by which it is insinuated that his mis-shapen person was the mark that nature had set upon him to stigmatize his ill conditions. Shakespear expresses the same thought in The Comedy of Errors. He is deformed, crooked, &c. Stigmatical in making &lblank; But as the speaker rises in her resentment, she expresses this contemptuous thought much more openly, and condemns him to a still worse state of slavery, Sin, Death and Hell have set their marks upon him. Only, in the first line, her mention of his moral condition insinuates her reflections on his deformity: and, in the last, her mention of his deformity insinuates her reflections on his moral condition: And thus he has taught her to scold in all the elegance of figure. Warb.

Note return to page 241 7Thou rag of honour, &c.] We should certainly read, Thou wrack of honour &lblank; i. e. the ruin and destruction of honour; which I suppose was first writ rack, and then further corrupted to rag. Warb. Rag is, in my opinion, right, and intimates that much of his honour is torn away.

Note return to page 242 8Bottled spider.] A spider is called bottled, because, like other insects, he has a middle slender and a belly protuberant. Richard's form and venom make her liken him to a spider.

Note return to page 243 9He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains.] A Frank is an old English word for a hog-sty. 'Tis possible he uses this metaphor to Clarence, in allusion to the crest of the family of York, which was a Boar. Whereto relate those famous old verses on Richard III. The cat, the rat, and Lovel the dog Rule all England under a hog. He uses the same metaphor in the last scene of act 4. Pope.

Note return to page 244 1Faithful man.] Not an infidel.

Note return to page 245 2That woo'd the slimy bottom.] By seeming to gaze upon it.

Note return to page 246 3Fleeting is the same as changing sides.

Note return to page 247 4O God! if my deep prayers, &c.] The four following lines have been added since the first edition. Pope.

Note return to page 248 5Sorrow breaks seasons, &c.] In the common editions the keeper is made to hold the dialogue with Clarence till this line. And here Brakenbury enters, pronouncing these words; which seem to me a reflection naturally resulting from the foregoing conversation, and therefore continued to be spoken by the same person, as it is accordingly in the first edition. Pope.

Note return to page 249 6Princes have but their titles for their glories, An outward honour, for an inward toil.] The first line may be understood in this sense. The glories of princes are nothing more than empty titles: but it would more impress the purpose of the speaker, and correspond better with the following lines, if it were read, Princes have but their titles for their troubles.

Note return to page 250 7&lblank; For unfelt imaginations, They often feel a world of restless cares.] They often suffer real miseries for imaginary and unreal gratifications.

Note return to page 251 8Take the Devil in thy mind, and believe him not: he would insinuate with thee, &c.] One villain says, Conscience is at his elbows persuading him not to kill the Duke. The other says, take the devil into thy nearer acquaintance, into thy mind, who will be a match for thy conscience, and believe it not, &c. It is plain then, that him in both places in the text should be it, namely, conscience. Warb.

Note return to page 252 *Spoke like a tall fellow.] The meaning of tall, in old English, is stout, daring, fearless and strong.

Note return to page 253 9We'll reason.] We'll talk.

Note return to page 254 1Are you call'd forth from out a world of men.] I think it may be better read, Are ye cull'd forth.

Note return to page 255 2Quest is inquest or jury.

Note return to page 256 3Springing Plantagenet.] Blooming Plantagenet; a prince in the spring of life.

Note return to page 257 *Novice.] Youth; one yet new to the world.

Note return to page 258 4&lblank; and save your souls, &c] The six following lines are not in the old edition. Pope. They are not necessary, but so forced in, that something seems omitted to which these lines are the answer.

Note return to page 259 *What beggar pities not.] I cannot but suspect that the lines, which Mr. Pope observed not to be in the old Edition, are now misplaced, and should be inserted here, somewhat after this manner. Clar. A begging Prince what Beggar pities not? Vil. A beggging Prince! Clar. Which of you if you were a Prince's son, &c. Upon this provocation the Villain naturally strikes him.

Note return to page 260 5The forfeit.] He means the remission of the forfeit.

Note return to page 261 6Have I a tongue to doom my brother's death?] This lamentation is very tender and pathetick. The recollection of the good qualities of the dead is very natural, and no less naturally does the king endeavour to communicate the crime to others.

Note return to page 262 7His images.] The children by whom he was represented.

Note return to page 263 8Being governed by the watry moon.] That I may live hereafter under the influence of the moon, which governs the tides, and, by the help of that influence, drown the world. The introduction of the moon is not very natural.

Note return to page 264 1Forthwith from Ludlow the young Prince be fetch'd,] Edward the young Prince, in his Father's Life-time and at his Demise, kept his Houshold at Ludlow as Prince of Wales; under the Governance of Antony Woodville Earl of Rivers, his Uncle by the Mother's side. The Intention of his being sent thither was to see Justice done in the Marches; and, by the Authority of his Presence, to restrain the Welshmen, who were wild, dissolute, and ill-disposed, from their accustomed Murders and Outrages. Vid. Hall, Holingshead, &c. Theobald.

Note return to page 265 *Which in his nonage.] The word which has no antecedent, nor can the sense or connection be easily restored by any change. I believe a line to be lost in which some mention was made of the Land or the People.

Note return to page 266 2&lblank; the wretched'st thing.] Wretched is here used in a sense yet retained in familiar language, for paltry, pitiful, being below expectation.

Note return to page 267 3Been remembered.] To be remembered is in Shakespeare, to have one's memory quick, to have one's thoughts about one.

Note return to page 268 *For what offence?] This question is given to the Archbishop in former copies, but the messenger plainly speaks to the Queen or Dutchess.

Note return to page 269 4Awless.] Not producing awe, not reverenced. To jut upon is to encroach.

Note return to page 270 5Or let me die, to look on Earth no more.] This is the Reading of all the Copies, from the first Edition, put out by the Players, downwards. But I have restored the reading of the old Quarto in 1597, which is copied by all the other authentick Quarto's, by which the Thought is finely and properly improved. Or let me die, to look on Death no more. Theobald.

Note return to page 271 6&lblank; to your Chamber.] London was antiently called Camera regia. Pope.

Note return to page 272 7Too ceremonious, and traditional.] Ceremonious for superstitious; traditional for adherent to old customs. Warburton.

Note return to page 273 8Weigh it but with the grossness of this age.] But the more gross, that is, the more superstitious the age was, the stronger would be the imputation of violated sanctuary. The question, we see by what follows, is whether sanctuary could be claimed by an infant. The speaker resolves it in the negative, because it could be claimed by those only whose actions necessitated them to fly thither; or by those who had an understanding to demand it; neither of which could be an infant's case: It is plain then, the first line, which introduces this reasoning, should be read thus, Weigh it but with the greenness of his age. i. e. the young Duke of York's, whom his mother had fled with to sanctuary. The corrupted reading of the old quarto is something nearer the true. &lblank; the greatness of his age. Warburton. This emendation is received by Hanmer, and is very plausible; yet the common reading may stand. Weigh it but with the grossness of this age, you break not sanctuary. That is, compare the act of seizing him with the gross and licentious practices of these times, it will not be considered as a violation of sanctuary, for you may give such reasons as men are now used to admit.

Note return to page 274 9As 'twere retail'd to all Posterity;] And so it is: And, by that means, like most other retail'd things, became adulterated. We should read, &lblank; intail'd to all Posterity; which is finely and sensibly expressed, as if truth was the natural inheritance of our children; which it is impiety to deprive them of. Warburton. Retailed may signify diffused, dispersed.

Note return to page 275 1Thus like the formal Vice, Iniquity, I moralize two Meanings in one Word.] By Vice, the Author means not a Quality but a Person. There was hardly an old Play, till the Period of the Reformation, which had not in it a Devil, and a droll Character, a Jester; (who was to play upon the Devil;) and this Buffoon went by the Name of a Vice. This Buffoon was at first accoutred with a long Jerkin, a Cap with a Pair of Ass's Ears, and a wooden Dagger, with which (like another Arlequin) he was to make Sport in belabouring the Devil. This was the constant Entertainment in the Times of Popery, whilst Spirits, and Witchcraft, and Exorcising held their own. When the Reformation took place, the Stage shook off some Grossities, and encreased in Refinements. The Master-Devil then was soon dismissed from the Scene; and this Buffoon was changed into a subordinate Fiend, whose Business was to range on Earth, and seduce poor Mortals into that personated vicious Quality, which he occasionally supported; as, Iniquity, in general, Hypocrisy, Usury, Vanity, Prodigality, Gluttony, &c. Now as the Fiend, (or Vice,) who personated Iniquity (or Hypocrisy, for Instance) could never hope to play his Game to the Purpose but by hiding his cloven Foot, and assuming a Semblance quite different from his real Character; he must certainly put on a formal Demeanour, moralize and prevaricate in his Words, and pretend a Meaning directly opposite to his genuine and primitive Intention. If this does not explain the Passage in Question, 'tis all that I can at present suggest upon it. Theobald. Thus like the formal Vice, Iniquity, I moralize two meanings in one word.] That the buffoon, or jester of the old English farces, was called the Vice, is certain: and that, in their moral representations, it was common to bring in the deadly sins, is as true. Of these we have yet several remains. But that the Vice used to assume the personage of these sins, is a fancy of Mr. Theobald's, who knew nothing of the matter. The truth is, the Vice was always a fool or jester: And, (as the Woman, in the Merchant of Venice, calls the Clown, alluding to this Character,) a merry Devil. Whereas these mortal sins were so many sad, serious ones. But what misled our editor was the name Iniquity, given to this Vice: But it was only on account of his unhappy tricks and rogueries. That it was given to him, and for the reason I mention, appears from the following passage of Johnson's Staple of News, second intermeane. M. How like you the Vice i'the play? T. Here is never a fiend to carry him away. Besides he has never a wooden dagger. M. That was the old way, Gossip, when Iniquity came in like Hocas Pocas, in a Jugler's Jerkin, with false skirts like the Knave of Clubs. And, in The Devil's an Ass, we see this old Vice, Iniquity, described more at large. From all this, it may be gather'd, that the text, where Richard compares himself to the formal Vice Iniquity, must be corrupt: And the interpolation of some foolish player. The Vice or Iniquity being not a formal, but a merry, buffoon character. Besides, Shakespear could never make an exact speaker refer to this character, because the subject he is upon is Tradition and Antiquity, which have no relation to it; and because it appears from the turn of the passage, that he is apologizing for his equivocation by a reputable practice. To keep the reader no longer in suspence my conjecture is, that Shakespear wrote and pointed the lines in this manner, Thus like the formal-wise Antiquity I moralize: Two meanings in one word. Alluding to the Mythologic learning of the antients, of whom they are all here speaking. So that Richard's ironical apology is to this effect, You men of morals who so much extol your allwise antiquity, in what am I inferior to it? which was but an equivocator as I am. And it is remarkable, that the Greeks themselves called their remote antiquity, &grD;&gri;&grx;&groa;&grm;&gru;&grq;&gro;&grst; or the equivocator. So far as to the general sense; as to that which arises particularly out of the corrected expression, I shall only observe, that formal-wise is a compound epithet, an extreme fine one, and admirably fitted to the character of the speaker, who thought all wisdom but formality. It must therefore be read for the future with a hyphen. My other observation is with regard to the pointing; the common reading, I moralize two meanings &lblank; is nonsense: but reformed in this manner, very sensible, Thus like the formal-wise Antiquity I moralize: Two meanings in one word. i. e. I moralize as the antients did. And how was that? the having two meanings to one word. A ridicule on the morality of the antients, which he insinuates was no better than equivocating. Warburton. This alteration Mr. Upton very justly censures. Dr. Warburton has, in my opinion, done nothing but correct the punctuation, if indeed any alteration be really necessary. See the dissertation on the old Vice at the end of this play. To this long collection of notes may be added a question, to what equivocation Richard refers? The position immediately preceding, that Fame lives long without characters, that is, without the help of letters, seems to have no ambiguity. He must allude to the former line, So young, so wise, they say, did ne'er live long, in which he conceals, under a proverb, his design of hastening the Prince's death.

Note return to page 276 2Lightly, commonly, in ordinary course.

Note return to page 277 3Dread Lord.] The original of this epithet applied to Kings has been much disputed. In some of our old statutes the King is called Rex metuendissimus.

Note return to page 278 4Too late he died &lblank;] i. e. too lately, the loss is too fresh in our memory. But the Oxford Editor makes him say, Too soon he died &lblank; Warb.

Note return to page 279 5And being but a toy which is no gift to give.] This is the reading of the quartos; the first folio reads, And being but a toy, which is no grief to give. This reading, made a little more metrical, has been followed, I think erroneously, by all the editors.

Note return to page 280 6I weigh it lightly, &c.] i. e. I should still esteem it but a trifling gift were it heavier. But the Oxford Editor reads, I'd weigh it lightly, i. e. I could manage it tho' it were heavier. Warburton.

Note return to page 281 9Because that I am little like an ape.] The reproach seems to consist in this: at country shews it was common to set the monkey on the back of some other animal, as a Bear. The Duke, therefore, in calling himself Ape, calls his uncle Bear.

Note return to page 282 8Divided counsels.] That is, 2 private consultation, separate from the known and publick council. So, in the next scene, Hastings says, Bid him not fear the separated councils.

Note return to page 283 9Wanting instance.] That is, wanting some example or act of malevolence, by which they may be justified; or which, perhaps, is nearer to the true meaning, wanting any immediate ground or reason.

Note return to page 284 1Have with you.] A familiar phrase in parting, as much as, take something along with you, or I have something to say to you.

Note return to page 285 2They, for their truth.] That is, with respect to their honesty.

Note return to page 286 *Hold it, that is, continue it.

Note return to page 287 *Exercise.] Performance of divine service.

Note return to page 288 3Shriving work is Confession.

Note return to page 289 4Had you not come upon your cue.] This expression is borrowed from the theatre. The Cue, queue, or tail of a speech, consists of the last words, which are the token for an entrance or answer. To come on the cue, therefore, is to come at the proper time.

Note return to page 290 5Likelihood.] Semblance; appearance.

Note return to page 291 6In former copies: Lovel and Ratcliff, look that it be done.] The Scene is here in the Tower: and Lord Hastings was cut off on that very day, when Rivers, Gray and Vaughan suffered at Pomfret. How then could Ratcliff be both in Yorkshire and the Tower? In the Scene preceding this, we find him conducting those Gentlemen to the Block. In the old Quarto, we find it Exeunt: Manet Catesby with Hastings. And in the next Scene, before the Tower-Walls, we find Lovel and Catesby come back from the Execution, bringing the Head of Hastings. Theobald.

Note return to page 292 7So Horace, Nescius auræ fallacis.

Note return to page 293 8Seen in thought.] That is, seen in silence, without notice or detection.

Note return to page 294 9Intend some fear.] Perhaps pretend; though intend will stand in the sense of giving attention.

Note return to page 295 *As I can say, nay to thee.] I think it must be read, &lblank; If you plead as well for them As I must say nay to them for myself.

Note return to page 296 1To engross.] To fatten; to pamper.

Note return to page 297 2And almost shoulder'd in the swallowing gulf Of dark forgetfulness.] What it is to be shoulder'd in a gulph, Hanmer is the only Editor who seems not to have known: for the rest let it pass without observation. He reads, Almost shoulder'd into th' swallowing gulph. I believe we should read, And almost smoulder'd in the swallowing gulph. That is, almost smother'd, covered and lost.

Note return to page 298 3And much I need to help you.] And I want much of the ability requisite to give you help, if help were needed.

Note return to page 299 4To this act should, perhaps, be added the next scene, so will the coronation pass between the acts; and there will not only be a proper interval of action, but the Conclusion will be more forcible.

Note return to page 300 5Who meets us here? my Niece Plantagenet, Led in the hand of her kind Aunt of Glo'ster?] Here is a manifest intimation, that the Dutchess of Glo'ster leads in somebody in her hand; but there is no direction mark'd in any of the Copies, from which we can learn who it is. I have ventur'd to guess, it must be Clarence's young Daughter. The old Dutchess of York calls her Niece, i. e. Grand daughter; as Grand children are frequently called Nephews. Theobald.

Note return to page 301 *I must not leave it so.] That is, I may not so resign my office, which you offer to take on your at your peril.

Note return to page 302 6But with his tim'rous dreams.] 'Tis recorded by Polydore Virgil, that Richard was frequently disturbed by terrible dreams: this is therefore no fiction.

Note return to page 303 *To call the Tower nurse and playfellow is very harsh: perhaps part of this speech is addressed to the Tower, and part to the Lieutenant.

Note return to page 304 †Hither the third act should be extended, and here it very properly ends with a pause of action.

Note return to page 305 7Ah! Buckingham, now do I play the Touch.] The technical term is requisite here. The poet wrote, &lblank; now do I ply the touch. i. e. apply the touchstone: for that is meant by what he calls touch. So, again, in Timon of Athens, speaking of Gold, he says; &lblank; O, thou touch of hearts! i. e. thou trial, touchstone. Warburton.

Note return to page 306 *Close exploit, is secret act.

Note return to page 307 8A King, perhaps &lblank;] From hence to the words, Thou troublest me, I am not in the vein— have been left out ever since the first editions, but I like them well enough to replace them. Pope. The allusions to the plays of Henry VI. are no weak proofs of the authenticity of these disputed pieces.

Note return to page 308 *This passage, though I do not believe it corrupted, I do not understand.6Q0189

Note return to page 309 9&lblank; fearful commenting Is leaden servitor.] Timorous thought and cautious disquisition are the dull attendants on delay.

Note return to page 310 1Dire induction.] Induction is preface, introduction, first part, It is so used by Sackville in our authour's time.

Note return to page 311 2&lblank; say, that right for right] It's plain Shakespeare wrote wrong for wrong; but the players thought that a little rhine was better than all reason. Warburton. It is so unlikely that words so plain, and so proper, as wrong for wrong would have been either ignorantly or officiously changed, that I believe right for right is the true though not the best reading. This is one of these conceits which our authour may be suspected of loving better than propriety. Right for right is justice answering to the claims of justice. So in this play, &lblank; That forehead Where should be branded, if that right were right.

Note return to page 312 3Seignory for Seniority.

Note return to page 313 4Pue-fellow seems to be companion. We have now a new phrase, nearly equivalent, by which we say of persons in the same difficulties, that they are in the same box.6Q0190

Note return to page 314 5Young York he is but boot.] Boot is that which is thrown in to mend a purchase.

Note return to page 315 6Th' adulterate Hastings, &lblank;] I believe Shakespeare, wrote, Th' adulterer Hastings, &lblank; Warburton.

Note return to page 316 7The flatt'ring index of a direful pageant.] Without doubt Shakespear wrote &lblank; direful page. Warburton.

Note return to page 317 *In former editions this line was read thus: Windy attorneys to your client's woes. The emendation is Sir Thomas Hanmer's.

Note return to page 318 8Airy Succeeders of intestine joys,] I cannot understand this Reading. I have adopted another from the Quarto in 1597, Airy Succeeders of intestate joys, i. e. Words, tun'd to Complaints, succeed Joys that are dead; and unbequeath'd to them, to whom they should properly descend. Theobald.

Note return to page 319 9A touch of your condition.] A spice or particle of your temper or disposition.

Note return to page 320 1That ever grac'd me.] To grace seems here to mean the same as to bliss, to make happy. So gracious is kind, and graces are favours.

Note return to page 321 2Shame serves thy life.] To serve is to accompany, servants being near the persons of their masters.

Note return to page 322 3Stay, Madam.] On this dialogue 'tis not necessary to bestow much criticism: part of it is ridiculous, and the whole improbable.

Note return to page 323 4The high imperial type] Type is exhibition, shew, display.

Note return to page 324 5Canst thou demise &lblank;] The sense of the word demise is evident, but I do not remember it any where so used: perhaps it should be devise, which the lawyers use, for to transfer, or make over.6Q0191

Note return to page 325 6As sometime Marg'ret.] Here is another reference to the plays of Henry VI.

Note return to page 326 7Bloody spoil] Spoil is waste, havock.

Note return to page 327 8Bid is the past tense from bide.

Note return to page 328 9Advantaging their Love with Int'rest, Oftentimes double Gain of Happiness.] My easy Emendation will convince every Reader Love and Lone are made out of one another, only by a Letter turned upside down. Oftentimes is a stupid Concretion of three Words. My Emendation gives this apt and easy Sense. The Tears, that you have lent to your Afflictions, shall be turn'd into Gems; and requite you by way of Interest, with Happiness twenty times as great as your Sorrows have been. Theobald.

Note return to page 329 1Some light-foot friend post to the Duke.] Richard's precipitation and confusion is in this scene very happily represented by inconsistent orders, and sudden variations of opinion.

Note return to page 330 2More competitors.] That is, more opponents.

Note return to page 331 3Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me;] The Person, who is call'd Sir Christopher here. and who has been stil'd so in the Dramatis Personæ of all the Impressions, I find by the Chronicles to have been Christopher Urswick, a Bachelor in Divinity; and Chaplain to the Countess of Richmond, who had intermarried with the Lord Stanley. This Priest, the History tells us, frequently went backwards and forwards, unsuspected, on Messages betwixt the Countess of Richmond, and her Husband, and the young Earl of Richmond, whilst he was preparing to make his Descent on England. Theobald.

Note return to page 332 4Is the determin'd respite of my wrongs.] This is nonsense, we should read respect of my wrongs, i. e. requital. Warburton. Hanmer had rightly explained it, the time to which the punishment of his wrongs was respited. Wrongs in this line means wrongs done, or injurious practices.

Note return to page 333 5Blame the due of blame.] This scene should, in my opinion, be added to the foregoing act, so the fourth act will have a more full and striking conclusion, and the fifth act will comprise the business of the important day, which put an end to the competition of York and Lancaster. Some of the quarto editions are not divided into acts, and it is probable that this and many other plays were left by the authour in one unbroken continuity, and afterwards distributed by chance, or what seems to have been a guide very little better, by the judgment or caprice of the first editors.

Note return to page 334 6Embowell'd bosoms] Exenterated; ripped up; alluding, perhaps, to the Promethean vulture; or, more probably, to the sentence pronounced in the English courts against traytors, by which they are condemned to be hanged, drawn, that is, embowell'd, and quartered.

Note return to page 335 7Sound direction.] True judgment; tried military skill.

Note return to page 336 *Give me some ink and paper;] I have placed these lines here as they stand in the first editions: the rest place them three speeches before, after the words Sir William Brandon. you shall bear my standard; interrupting what there follows: The Earl of Pembroke, &c. I think them more naturally introduced here, when he is retiring to his tent; and considering what he has to do that night. Pope.

Note return to page 337 9Give me a watch.] A watch has many significations, but I should believe that it means in this place not a sentinel, which would be regularly placed at the King's tent; nor an instrument to measure time, which was not used in that age; but a watchlight, a candle to burn by him; the light that afterwards burnt blue; yet, a few lines after, he says, Bid my guard watch. which leaves it doubtful whether watch is not here a sentinel.

Note return to page 338 1Look that my staves be sound.] Staves are the wood of the lances.

Note return to page 339 2By attorney.] By deputation.

Note return to page 340 3I, as I may &lblank; With best advantage will deceive the time.] I will take the best opportunity to elude the dangers of this conjuncture.

Note return to page 341 4&lblank; The leisure, and the fearful time, Cuts off the ceremonious vows of love.] We have still a phrase equivolent to this, however harsh it may seem, I would do this if leisure would permit, where leisure, as in this passage, stands for want of leisure. So again, &lblank; More than I have said The leisure and enforcement of the time Forbids to dwell upon.

Note return to page 342 *This prophecy, to which this allusion is made, was uttered in one of the parts of Henry the sixth.

Note return to page 343 5Let us be laid within thy Bosom, Richard,] This is a poor feeble Reading, I have restored from the elder Quarto, published in 1597, which Mr. Pope does not pretend to have seen; Let us be Lead within thy Bosom, Richard, This corresponds with what is said in the Line immediately following, And weigh thee down to Ruin, Shame, and Death! Theobald.

Note return to page 344 6I dy'd for Hope] i. e. I died for wishing well to you. But Mr. Theobald, with great sagacity, conjectured holpe or aid; which gave the line this fine sense, I died for giving thee aid before I could give thee aid. Warburton. Hanmer reads, I died forsoke, and supports his conjecture thus. This, as appears from history, was the case of the Duke of Buckingham: that being stopt with his army upon the banks of Severn by great deluges of rain he was deserted by his soldiers, who being in great distress, half famished for want of victuals, and destitute of pay, disbanded themselves and fled. Hanmer.

Note return to page 345 7Give me another horse.] There is in this, as in many of our authour's speeches of passion, something very trifling, and something very striking. Richard's debate, whether he should quarrel with himself, is too long continued, but the subsequent exaggeration of his crimes is truly tragical.

Note return to page 346 8O coward Conscience!] This is extremely fine. The speaker had entirely got the better of his Conscience, and banished it from all his waking thoughts. But it takes advantage of his sleep, and frights him in his dreams. With greater elegance therefore he is made to call it coward Conscience, which dares not encounter him while he is himself awake, and his faculties entire; but takes advantage of reason being off its guard, and the powers of the soul dissolved in sleep. But the Players, amongst their other innumerable absurdities in the representation of this Tragedy, make Richard say, instead of O coward Conscience, O tyrant Conscience! whereby not only a great beauty is lost, but a great blunder committed. For Richard had entirely got the better of his Conscience; which could, on no account, therefore, be said to play the tyrant with him. Warburton.

Note return to page 347 *Methought, the souls, &c.] These lines stand with so little propriety at the end of this speech, that I cannot but suspect them to be misplaced. Where then shall they be inserted? Perhaps after these words, Fool do not flatter.

Note return to page 348 9&lblank; By the foil Of England's chair.] It is plain that foil cannot here mean that of which the obscurity recommends the brightness of the diamond. It must mean the leaf (feueille) or thin plate of metal in which the stone is set.

Note return to page 349 1The ransom of my bold attempt.] The fine paid by me in atonement for my rashness shall be my dead corps.

Note return to page 350 2This, and St. George to boot.] That is, this is the order of our battle, which promises success, and over and above this, is the protection of our patron Saint.6Q0194

Note return to page 351 *A sort, that is, a company, a collection.

Note return to page 352 3They would restrain the one, distain the other.] The one means the Lands; the other their wives. It is plain then we should read, They would distrain, i. e. seize upon. Warb.

Note return to page 353 4And who doth lead them but a paltry fellow, Long kept in Britaine at our Mother's Cost?] This is spoken by Richard, of Henry Earl of Richmond: but they were far from having any common Mother, but England: and the Earl of Richmond was not subsisted abroad at the Nation's publick Charge. During the greatest part of his Residence abroad, he was watch'd and restrain'd almost like a Captive; and subsisted by Supplies convey'd from the Countess of Richmond, his Mother. It seems probable therefore, that we must read; Long kept in Bretagne at his Mother's Cost. Theobald.

Note return to page 354 5That is, fright the skies with the shivers of your Lances.

Note return to page 355 6&lblank; and make use of it.] Some old books read, make much of it: and therefore Mr. Theobald reads so too: but very foolishly. Without doubt Shakespear himself thus corrected it, to make use of it. Which signifies don't abuse it like the Tyrant you have destroyed; whereas the other reading make much of it, signifies be fond of it; a very ridiculous moral for the conclusion of the Play. Warb.

Note return to page 356 *All this divided York and Lancaster, Divided in their dire division.] I think the passage will be somewhat improved by a slight alteration. All that divided York and Lancaster, Divided in their dire division, O now let Richmond and Elizabeth, The true Succeeders of each royal house, By God's fair ordinance conjoin together. Let them unite all that York and Lancaster divided.

Note return to page 357 7This is one of the most celebrated of our authour's performances; yet I know not whether it has not happened to him as to others, to be praised most when praise is not most deserved. That this play has scenes noble in themselves, and very well contrived to strike in the exhibition, cannot be denied. But some parts are trifling, others shocking, and some improbable.

Note return to page 358 I shall here subjoin two Dissertations, one by Dr. Warburton, and one by Mr. Upton, upon the Vice. [Subnote: ACT III. SCENE I. Page 284. Thus like the formal Vice, Iniquity, &c.] As this corrupt reading in the common books hath occasioned our saying something of the barbarities of theatrical representations amongst us before the time of Shakespear, it may not be improper, for a better apprehension of this whole matter, to give the reader some general account of the rise and progress of the modern Stage. The first form, in which the Drama appeared in the West of Europe, after the destruction of learned Greece and Rome, and that a calm of Dulness had finished upon letters what the rage of barbarism had begun, was that of the Mysteries. These were the fashionable and favourite diversions of all Ranks of people both in France, Spain, and England. In which last place, as we learn by Stow, they were in use about the time of Richard the Second and Henry the Fourth. As to Italy, by what I can find, the first rudiments of their stage, with regard to the matter, were prophane subjects, and, with regard to the form, a corruption of the ancient Mimes and Attellanes: By which means they got sooner into the right road than their neighbours; having had regular plays amongst them wrote as early as the fifteenth Century. As to these Mysteries, they were, as their name speaks them, a representation of some scripture-story, to the life: as may be seen from the following passage in an old French history, intitled, La Chronique de Metz composée par le curé de St. Euchaire; which will give the reader no bad idea of the surprizing absurdity of these strange representations. “L'an 1437 le 3 Juillet (says the honest Chronicler) fut fait le Jeu de la Passion de N. S. en la plaine de Veximiel. Et fut Dieu un sire appellé Seigneur Nicolle Dom Neufchastel, lequel etoit Curé de St. Victour de Metz, lequel fut presque mort en la Croix, s'il ne fût eté secourus; & convient qu'un autre Prêtre fut mis en la Croix pour parfaire le Personnage du Crucifiment pour ce jour; & le lendemain le dit Curé de St. Victour parfit la Resurrection, et fit très hautement son personage; & dura le dit Jeu—Et autre Prêtre qui s' appelloit Mre. Jean de Nicey, qui estoit Chapelain de Metrange, fut Judas; lequel fut presque mort en pendant, car le cuer li faillit, & fut bien hâtivement dependu & porté en Voye. Et etoit la bouche d'Enfer tres-bien faite; car elle ouvroit & clooit, quand les Diables y vouloient entrer et isser; & avoit deux gross Culs d'Acier, &c.” Alluding to this kind of representations Archbishop Harsnet, in his Declaration of Popish Impostures, p. 71. says, “The little Children were never so afraid of Hell-mouth in the old Plays, painted with great gang teeth, staring eyes, and foul bottle nose.” Carew in his Survey of Cornwall, gives a fuller description of them in these words, “The Guary Miracle, in English a Miracle-Play, is a kind of interlude compiled in Cornish out of some Scripture-history. For representing it, they raise an earthen Amphitheatre in some open Field, having the diameter of an inclosed Playne, some 40 or 50 foot. The country people flock from all sides many miles off, to hear and see it. For they have therein Devils and Devices, to delight as well the eye as the ear. The Players conne not their parts without book, but are prompted by one called the Ordinary, who followeth at their back with the book in his hand, &c. &c.” There was always a Droll or Buffoon in these Mysteries, to make the People mirth with his sufferings or absurdities: and they could think of no better a personage to sustain this part than the Devil himself. Even in the Mystery of the Passion mentioned above, it was contrived to make him ridiculous. Which circumstance is hinted at by Shakespear (who has frequent allusions to these things) in the Taming of the Shrew, where one of the Players asks for a little Vinegar (as a Property) to make their Devil roar. For after the spunge with the Gall and Vinegar had been employed in the representation, they used to clap it to the nose of the Devil; which making him roar, as if it had been holy-water, afforded infinite diversion to the People. So that Vinegar in the old Farces, was always afterwards in use to torment their Devil. We have divers old English Proverbs, in which the Devil is represented as acting or suffering ridiculously and absurdly, which all arose from the part he bore in these Mysteries, as in that, for instance, of—Great cry and little wool, as the Devil said when he sheared his hogs. For the sheep shearing of Nab l being represented in the Mystery of David and Abigail, and the Devil always attending Nabal, was made to imitate it by shearing a Hog. This kind of absurdity, as it is the properest to create laughter, was the subject of the ridiculous, in the ancient Mimes, as we learn from these words of St. Austin: Ne faciamus at Mimi solent, et optemus à Libero Aquam, à Lymphis Vinum* [Subnote: *Civ. D. l. 4.] These Mysteries, we see, were given in France at first, as well as in England, sub dio, and only in the Provinces. Afterwards we find them got into Paris, and a Company established in the Hôtel de Bourgogne to represent them. But good Letters and Religion beginning to make their way in the latter end of the reign of Francis the First, the stupidity and prophaneness of the Mysteries made the Courtiers and Clergy join their interest for their suppression. Accordingly, in the year 1541, the Procureur-General, in the Name of the King, presented a Request against the Company to the Parliament. The three principal branches of his charge against them were, that the representation of the Old-Testament-Stories inclined the people to Judaism; That the New-Testament-Stories encouraged libertinism and infidelity; and that both of them lessened the Charities to the Poor: It seems that this prosecution succeeded: for, in 1548, the Parliament of Paris confirmed the company in the possession of the Hôtel de Bourgo ne, but interdicted the representation of the Mysteries. But in Spain, we find by Cervantes, that they continued much longer; and held their own, even after good Comedy came in amongst them: As appears from the excellent Critique of the Canon, in the fourth book, where he shows how the old extravagant Romances might be made the foundation of a regular Epic (which, he says, tambien puede escrivirse en prosa como en verso;† [Subnote: †B. 4. c. 20.] ) as the Mystery-Plays might be improved into artful Comedy. His words are, Pues que si venimos à las Comedias divinas, que de milagros falsos fingen en ellas, que de cosas apocrifas, y mal entendidas, attribueyendo a un Santo los milagros de otro‡ [Subnote: ‡Ib. 21.] ; which made them so fond of Miracles that they introduced them into las Comedias bumanas, as he calls them. To return; Upon this prohibition, the French poets turned themselves from Religious, to Moral Farces. And in this we soon followed them: The public taste not suffering any greater alteration at first, tho' the Italians at this time afforded many just compositions for better Models. These Farces they called Moralities. Pierre Gringore, one of their old Poets, printed one of these Moralities, intitled La Moralité de l'Homme Obstiné. The Persons of the Dramá are l'Homme Obstiné —Pugnition Divine— Simonie—Hypocrisie—and Demerites-Communes. The Homme Obstiné is the Atheist, and comes in blaspheming, and determined to persist in his impieties. Then Pugnition Divine appears, sitting on a throne in the Air, and menacing the Atheist with Punishment. After this Scene, Simonie, Hypocrisie and Demerites-Communes appear and play their parts. In conclusion, Pugnition Divine returns, preaches to them, upbraids them with their Crimes, and, in short, draws them all to repentance, all but the Homme Obstiné, who persists in his impiety, and is destroyed for an example. To this sad serious subject they added, tho' in a separate representation, a merry kind of Farce called Sottie, in which there was un Paysan [the Clown] under the name of Sot Commun [or Fool.] But we, who borrowed all these delicacies from the French, blended the Moralité and Sottié together: So that the Paysan or Sot-commun, the Clown or Fool, got a place in our serious Moralities: Whose business we may understand in the frequent allusions our Shakespear makes to them: As in that fine speech in the beginning of the third Act of Measure for Measure, where we have this obscure passage, &lblank; meerly thou art Death's Fool, For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun, And yet runn'st tow'rd him still. For, in these Moralities, the Fool of the piece, in order to shew the inevitable approaches of Death, (another of the Dramatis Personæ) is made to employ all his Stratagems to avoid him; which, as the matter is ordered, bring the Fool, at every turn, into the very Jaws of his enemy: So that a representation of these Scenes would afford a great deal of good mirth and morals mixed together. The very same thing is again alluded to in these lines of Love's Labour lost, So Portent-like I would o'er-rule his State, That he should be my Fool, and I his Fate. Act iv. Sc. 2. But the French, as we say, keeping these two sorts of Farces distinct, they became, in time, the Parents of Tragedy and Comedy; while we, by jumbling them together, begot in an evil hour, that mungrel Species, unknown to Nature and Antiquity, called Tragi-Comedy. Warburton.] [Subnote: To this, when Mr. Upton's Dissertation is subjoined, there will, perhaps, be no need of any other account of the Vice. Like the old Vice.] The allusion here is to the Vice, a droll character in our old plays, accoutred with a long coat, a cap with a pair of ass's ears, and a dagger of lath. Shakespeare alludes to his buffoon appearance in Twelfth-Night, Act IV. In a trice, like to the old Vice; Who with dagger of lath, in his rage, and his wrath Cries, ah, ha! to the Devil. In the second part of K. Henry IV. Act III. Falstaff compares Shallow to Vice's dagger of lath. In Hamlet, Act III. Hamlet calls his uncle, A Vice of Kings: i. e. a ridiculous representation of majesty. These passages the editors have very rightly expounded. I will now mention some others, which seem to have escaped their notice, the allusions being not quite so obvious. The iniquity was often the Vice in our old Moralities; and is introduced in B. Johnson's play call'd the Devil's an ass: and likewise mentioned in his Epigr. CXV. Being no vitious person, but the Vice About the town. Acts old Iniquity, and in the fit Of miming, get's th'opinion of a wit. But a passage cited from his play will make the following observations more plain. Act I. Pug asks the Devil “to lend him a Vice. “Satan. What Vice? “What kind would thou have it of? “Pug. Why, any Fraud, “Or Covetousness, or Lady Vanity, “Or old Iniquity: I'll call him hither.” Thus the passage should be ordered. “Pug. Why, any: Fraud, Or Covetousness, or Lady Vanity, Or old Iniquity. “Satan. I'll call him hither. “Enter Iniquity, the Vice. “Ini. What is he calls upon me, and would seem to lack a Vice? “Ere his words be half spoken, I am with him in a trice.” And in his Staple of News, Act II. “Mirth. How like you the Vice i' the play? Expectation. Which is he? Mirth. Three or four, old Covetousness, the sordid Peniboy, the Moneybawd, who is a flesh-bawd too they say. Tattle. But here is never a Fiend to carry him away. Besides, he has never a wooden-dagger! I'd not give a rush for a Vice, that has not a wooden-dagger to snap at every body he meets. Mirth. That was the old way, Gossip, when Iniquity came in like hokos pokos, in a juglers jerkin, &c.” He alludes to the Vice in the Alchymist, Act I. Sc. III. “Subt. And, on your stall, a puppet, with a Vice.” Some places of Shakespeare will from hence appear more easy: as in the 1st part of Henry IV. Act II. where Hal. humourously characterizing Falstaff, calls him, That reverend Vice, that grey Iniquity, that father Ruffian, that Vanity in years, in allusion to this buffoon character. In K. Richard III. Act III. Thus like the formal Vice, Iniquity, I moralize two meanings in one word. Iniquity is the formal Vice. Some correct the passage, Thus, like the formal wise Antiquity I moralize two meanings in one word. Which correction is out of all rule of criticism. In Hamlet, Act I. there is an allusion, still more distant, to the Vice; which will not be obvious at first, and therefore is to be introduced with a short explanation. This buffoon character was used to make fun with the Devil; and he had several trite expressions, as, I'll be with you in a trice: Ah, ha, boy, are you there, &c. And this was great entertainment to the audience, to see their old enemy so belabour'd in effigy. In K. Henry V. Act IV. a boy characterizing Pistol, says, Bardolph and Nim had ten times more valour, than this roaring Devil i' th' old play; every one may pare his nails with a wooden dagger. Now Hamlet, having been instructed by his father's ghost, is resolved to break the subject of the discourse to none but Horatio; and to all others his intention is to appear as a sort of madman: when therefore the oath of secrecy is given to the centinels, and the Ghost unseen calls out swear; Hamlet speaks to it as the Vice does to the Devil. Ah, ha, boy, sayst thou so? Art thou there, trupenny? Hamlet had a mind that the centinels should imagine this was a shape that the Devil had put on; and in Act III. he is somewhat of this opinion himself. The Spirit that I have seen May be the Devil. This manner of speech therefore to the Devil was what all the audience were well acquainted with; and it takes off in some measure from the horror of the scene. Perhaps too the poet was willing to inculcate, that good humour is the best weapon to deal with the Devil. True penny either by way of irony, or literally from the Greek, &grt;&grr;&grua;&grp;&gra;&grn;&gro;&grn;, veterator. Which word the Scholiast on Aristophanes' Clouds ver. 447. explains, &grt;&grr;&grua;&grm;&grh;, &gror; &grp;&gre;&grr;&gri;&grt;&gre;&grt;&grr;&gri;&grm;&grm;&grea;&grn;&gro;&grst; &gres;&grn; &grt;&gro;&gric;&grst; &grp;&grr;&graa;&grg;&grm;&gra;&grs;&gri;&grn;, &grora;&grn; &grhr;&grm;&gre;&gric;&grst; &grT;&grR;&grU;&grP;&grA;&grN;&grO;&grN; &grk;&gra;&grl;&gro;&gruc;&grm;&gre;&grn;. Several have tried to find a derivation of the Vice; if I should not hit on the right, I should only err with others. The Vice is either a quality personalized as &grB;&grI;&grH; and &grK;&grA;&grR;&grT;&grO;&grST; in Hesiod and Aeschylus. Sin and Death in Milton; and indeed Vice itself is a person. B. XI. 517. And took his image whom they serv'd, a brutish Vice. his image, i. e. a brutish Vice's image: the Vice Gluttony; not without some allusion to the Vice of the old plays: but rather, I think, 'tis an abbreviation of Vice-Devil, as Vice-roy, Vice-doges, &c. and therefore properly called The Vice. He makes very free with his master, like most other Vice-roys, or prime-ministers. So that he is the Devil's Vice, and prime minister; and 'tis this, that makes him so sawcy. Upton.] Mr. Upton's learning only supplies him with absurdities. His derivation of vice is too ridiculous to be answered. I have nothing to add to the observations of these learned criticks, but that some traces of this antiquated exhibition are still retained in the rustick puppet-plays, in which I have seen the Devil very lustily belaboured by Punch, whom I hold to be the legitimate successor of the old Vice.

Note return to page 359 There is no enumeration of the persons in the old Edition: such as the late editions have exhibited was added by Rowe. Of this play there is no edition before that of 1623, in folio.

Note return to page 360 1&lblank; or to see a Fellow In a long motley Coat,] Alluding to the Fools and Buffoons, introduced for the generality in the plays a little before our Author's Time: and of whom he has left us a small Taste in his own. Theobald.

Note return to page 361 2&lblank; such a show As fool and fight is,] This is not the only passage in which Shakespeare has discovered his conviction of the impropriety of battles represented on the stage. He knew that five or six men with swords give a very unsatisfactory idea of an army, and therefore, without much care to excuse his former practice, he allows that a theatrical fight would destroy all opinion of truth, and leave him never an understanding friend. Magnis ingeniis et multa nihilominus habituris simplex convenit erroris confessio. Yet I know not whether the coronation shewn in this play may not be liable to all that can be objected against a battle.

Note return to page 362 3&lblank; th' opinion that we bring To make that only true we now intend,] These lines I do not understand, and suspect them of corruption. I believe we may better read thus: &lblank; th' opinion which we bring Or make; that only truth we now intend.

Note return to page 363 3&lblank; Think ye see The very Persons of our noble Story,] Why the Rhyme should have been interrupted here, when it was so easily to be supplied, I cannot conceive. It can only be accounted for from the Negligence of the Press, or the Transcribers; and therefore I have made no Scruple to replace it thus; Think before ye. Theobald. This is specious, but the laxity of the versification in this prologue, and in the following epilogue, makes it not necessary.

Note return to page 364 *&lblank; a fresh admirer.] An admirer untired; an admirer still feeling the impression as if it were hourly renewed.

Note return to page 365 1Till this time Pomp was single, but now marry'd To one above itself. &lblank;] The thought is odd and whimsical; and obscure enough to need an explanation—'Till this time (says the speaker) Pomp led a single life, as not finding a husband able to support her according to her dignity; but she has now got one in Henry VIII. who could support her even above her condition of finery. Warburton. Dr. Warburton has here discovered more beauty than the authour intended, who meant only to say in a noisy periphrase, that pomp was encreased on this occasion to more than twice as much as it had ever been before. Pomp is no more married to the English than to the French king, for to neither is any preference given by the speaker. Pomp is only married to pomp, but the new pomp is greater than the old.

Note return to page 366 2&lblank; Each following day Became the next day's master, &c.] Dies diem docet. Every day learned something from the preceding, till the concluding day collected all the splendour of all the former shews.

Note return to page 367 3All clinquant, all glittering, all shining. Clarendon uses this word in his description of the Spanish Juego de Toros.

Note return to page 368 4&lblank; Him in eye, Still him in praise;] So Dryden, &lblank; Two chief, So match'd as each seem'd worthiest when alone.

Note return to page 369 5Durst wag his tongue in censure &lblank;] Censure for determination, of which had the noblest appearance. Warburton.

Note return to page 370 6The old romantic legend of Bevis of Southampton.] This Bevis (or Beavois) a Saxon, was for his Prowess created by William the Conqueror Earl of Southampton: Of whom, Camden in his Britannia. Theobald.

Note return to page 371 7&lblank; the tract of every thing, &c.] The course of these triumphs and pleasures, however well related, must lose in the description part of that spirit and energy which were expressed in the real action.

Note return to page 372 8&lblank; All was royal, &c.] This speech was given in all the editions to Buckingham; but improperly. For he wanted information, having kept his chamber during the solemnity. I have therefore given it to Norfolk. Warburton.

Note return to page 373 9&lblank; The office did Distinctly his full function.] The commission for regulating this festivity was well executed, and gave exactly to every particular person and action the proper place.

Note return to page 374 1Element.] No initiation, no previous practices. Elements are first principles of things, or rudiments of knowledge. The word is here applied, not without a catachresis, to a person.

Note return to page 375 2Fierce vanities.] Fierce is here, I think, used like the French fier for proud, unless we suppose an allusion to the mimical ferocity of the combatants in the tilt.

Note return to page 376 3That such a keech &lblank;] Ketch, from the Italian Caicchio, signifying a tub, barrel, or hogshead. Skinner. Pope. The word in the folio is keech, which not being understood, is changed into ketch. A keech is a solid lump or mass. A cake of wax or tallow formed in a mould is called yet in some places a keech.

Note return to page 377 4Out of his self drawing web.] Thus it stands in the first edition. The later Editors, by injudicious correction, have printed, Out of his self-drawn web.

Note return to page 378 5A gift that heaven gives for him, which buys A place next to the King.] It is evident a word or two in the sentence is misplaced, and that we should read, A gift that heaven gives; which buys for him A place next to the King &lblank; Warburton. It is full as likely that Shakespeare wrote, gives to him, which will save any greater alteration.

Note return to page 379 6&lblank; the file, that is, the list.

Note return to page 380 *&lblank; council out,] Council not then sitting.

Note return to page 381 7Must fetch in him he papers.] He papers, a verb; his own letter, by his own single authority, and without the concurrence of the council, must fetch in him whom he papers down.—I don't understand it, unless this be the meaning. Pope.

Note return to page 382 8&lblank; What did this vanity But &lblank;] What effect has this pompous shew, but the production of a wretched conclusion.

Note return to page 383 9&lblank; Every man, After the hideous storm that follow'd, &c.] His author, Hall, says, Monday, 18th day of June, there blew such storms of wind and weather that marvel was to hear; for which hideous tempest some said it was a very prognostication of trouble and hatred to come between princes. In Henry VIII. p. 80. Warburton.

Note return to page 384 1Th' ambassador is silenc'd?] Silenc'd for recall'd. This being proper to be said of an Orator; and an ambassador or publick minister being called an Orator, he applies silenc'd to ambassador. Warburton. I understand it rather of the French ambassadour residing in England, who, by being refused an audience, may, without any remote meaning, be said to be silenc'd.

Note return to page 385 2A proper title of a peace.] A fine name of a peace. Ironically.

Note return to page 386 *&lblank; comes that rock.] To make the rock come is not very just.

Note return to page 387 3&lblank; A beggar's book Out-worths a noble's blood.] That is, the literary qualifications of a bookish beggar are more prized than the high descent of hereditary greatness. This is a contemptuous exclamation very naturally put into the mouth of one of the antient, unlettered, martial nobility.

Note return to page 388 4He bores me with some trick.] He stabs or wounds me by some artifice or fiction.

Note return to page 389 5&lblank; From a mouth of honour.] I will crush this baseborn fellow, by the due influence of my rank, or say that all distinction of persons is at an end.

Note return to page 390 6&lblank; Sincere motions.] Honest indignation; warmth of integrity. Perhaps name not, should be blame not. Whom from the flow of gall I blame not.

Note return to page 391 7&lblank; his mind and place Infecting one another;] This is very satirical. His mind he represents as highly corrupt; and yet he supposes the contagion of the place of first minister as adding an infection to it. Warburton.

Note return to page 392 8&lblank; suggests the King our master] suggests, for excites. Warburton.

Note return to page 393 9I am sorry To see you ta'en from liberty, to look on The business present.] I am sorry that I am obliged to be present and an eye-witness of your loss of liberty.

Note return to page 394 1One Gilbert Peck, his Counsellor.] So the old Copies have it, but, I, from the Authorities of Hall and Holingshead, chang'd it to Chancellor. And our Poet himself, in the Beginning of the second Act, vouches for this Correction. At which; appear'd against him his Surveyor, Sir Gilbert Peck his Chancellor. Theobald.

Note return to page 395 2Michael Hopkins?] So all the old Copies had it; and so Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope from them. But here again by the help of the Chronicles, I have given the true Reading. Theob.

Note return to page 396 *&lblank; my life is spanned already.] To span is to gripe or inclose in the hand; to span is also to measure by the palm and the fingers. The meaning, therefore, may either be, that hold is taken of my life, my life is in the gripe of my enemies; or, that my time is measured, the length of my life is now determined.

Note return to page 397 3I am the shadow of poor Buckingham, Whose figure ev'n this instant cloud puts on, By dark'ning my clear sun.] These lines have passed all the Editors. Does the reader understand them? By me they are inexplicable, and must be left, I fear, to some happier sagacity. If the usage of our authour's time could allow figure to be taken, as now, for dignity or importance, we might read, Whose figure ev'n this instant cloud puts out. But I cannot please myself with any conjecture.6Q0196

Note return to page 398 4&lblank; and the best heart of it,] The expression is monstrous. The heart is supposed the seat of life: But, as if he had many lives, and to each of them, a heart, he says, his best heart. A way of speaking that would have become a cat rather than a King. Warburton. This expression is not more monstrous than many others. Heart is not here taken for the great organ of circulation and life, but, in a common and popular sense, for the most valuable or precious part. Our authour, in Hamlet, mentions the heart of heart. Exhausted and effete ground is said by the farmer to be out of heart. The hard and inner part of the oak is called heart of oak.

Note return to page 399 5&lblank; Stood i' th' level Of a full-charg'd confed'racy,] To stand in the level of a gun is to stand in a line with its mouth, so as to be hit by the shot.

Note return to page 400 6The many to them 'longing] The many is the meiny, the train, the people. Dryden is, perhaps, the last that used this word. The Kings before their many rode.

Note return to page 401 7And lack of other means, &lblank;] Means does not signify methods of livelihood, for that was said immediately before—unfit for other life; but it signifies, necessaries —compelled, says the speaker, for want of bread and other necessaries. But the poet using, for the thing, [want of bread] the effect of it, [bunger] the passage is become doubly obscure; first, by using a term in a licentious sense, and then by putting it to a vicious construction. The not apprehending that this is one of the distinguishing peculiarities in Shakespear's stile, has been the occasion of so much ridiculous correction of him. Warburton. I have inserted this note rather because it seems to have been the writer's favourite, than because it is of much value. It explains what no reader has found difficult, and, I think, explains it wrong.

Note return to page 402 8And Danger serves among them.] Could one easily believe, that a writer, who had, but immediately before, sunk so low in his expression, should here rise again to a height so truly sublime? where, by the noblest stretch of fancy, Danger is personalized as serving in the rebel army, and shaking the established government. Warburton.

Note return to page 403 9&lblank; front but in that file.] I am but primus inter paces. I am but first in the row of counsellors.

Note return to page 404 1In the old edition: There is no primer baseness.] The Queen is here complaining of the suffering of the Commons; which, she suspects, arose from the abuse of power in some great men. But she is very reserved in speaking her thoughts concerning the quality of it. We may be assured then, that she did not, in conclusion, call it the highest baseness; but rather made use of a word that could not offend the Cardinal, and yet would incline the King to give it a speedy hearing. I read therefore, There is no primer business. i. e. no matter of state that more earnestly presses a dispatch. Warburton.

Note return to page 405 2To cope; to engage with; to encounter. The word is still used in some counties.

Note return to page 406 3By sick, &c.] The old edition reads, By sick interpreters (once weak ones) is Not ours, &lblank; I do not know that the old reading ought to be restored, but it may be noted.

Note return to page 407 4&lblank; What worst, as oft Hitting a grosser quality.] The worst actions of great men are commended by the vulgar, as more accommodated to the grossness of their notions.

Note return to page 408 5From every tree, lop, bark, and part o' th' timber:] Lop is a substantive, and signifies the branches. Warburton.

Note return to page 409 6&lblank; out of himself.] Beyond the treasures of his own mind.

Note return to page 410 7Noble benefits—not well disposed.] Great gifts of nature and education, not joined with good dispositions.

Note return to page 411 8&lblank; This man so compleat, Who was enroll'd 'mongst wonders, and when we, Almost with list'ning ravish'd, could not find His hour of speech, a minute; he, my lady, &c.] This sentence is broken and confused, though, with the allowances always to be made to our authour, it may be understood. Yet it may be proper to examine the old edition, which gives it thus: &lblank; and when we, Almost with ravish'd list'ning &lblank; I know not whether we may not read, &lblank; this man Who was enroll'd with wonder, and whom we Almost were ravish'd listening, could not find His hour of speech a minute. To listen a man, for, to hearken to him, is commonly used by our authour. So by Milton, I listen'd them a while. I do not rate my conjecture at much; but as the common reading is without authority, something may be tried. Perhaps the passage is best as it was originally published.

Note return to page 412 9This dangerous conception in this point.] Note this particular part of this dangerous design.

Note return to page 413 1In former editions: By a vain Prophecy of Nicholas Henton.] We heard before, from Brandon, of one Nicholas Hopkins; and now his Name is changed into Henton; so that Brandon and the Surveyor seem to be in two Stories. There is, however, but one and the same Person meant, Hopkins; as I have restored it in the Text, for Perspicuity's Sake: yet will it not be any Difficulty to account for the other Name, when we come to consider, that he was a Monk of the Convent, call'd Henton, near Bristol. So both Hall and Holingshead acquaint us. And he might, according to the Custom of those Times, be called Nicholas of Henton, from the Place; as Hopkins, from his Family. Theobald.

Note return to page 414 2&lblank; under the Commission's Seal He solemnly had sworn.] So all the Editions down from the very Beginning. But, what Cemmission's Seal? That is a Question, I dare say, none of our diligent Editors ever ask'd themselves. The Text must be restored, as I have corrected it; and honest Holingshead, from whom our Author took the Substance of this Passage, may be call'd in as a Testimony.— “The Duke in Talk told the Monk, that he had done very well to bind his Chaplain, John de la Court, under the Seal of Confession, to keep secret such Matter.” Vid. Life of Henry VIII. p. 863. Theobald.

Note return to page 415 3&lblank; so rank.] Rank weeds, are weeds that are grown up to great height and strength. What, says the King, was he advanced to this pitch?

Note return to page 416 4Is't possible, the spells of France should juggle Men into such strange mysteries?] These mysteries were the fantastic court-fashions. He says they were occasioned by the spells of France. Now it was the opinion of the common people, that conjurers, jugglers, &c. with spells and charms could forte men to commit idle fantastic actions; and change even their shapes to something ridiculous and grotesque. To this superstition the poet alludes, who, therefore, we must think, wrote the second line thus, Men into such strange mockeries: A word well expressive of the whimsical fashions here complained of. Sir Thomas More, speaking of this very matter at the same time, says, Ut more simiæ laboret fingere Et æmulari Gallicas ineptias. But the Oxford Editor, without regard to the metaphor, but in order to improve on the emendation, reads mimick'ries; not considering neither that whatsoever any thing is changed or juggled into by spells, must have a passive signification, as mockeries, [i. e. visible figures] not an active, as mimick'ries. Warburton. I do not deny this note to be plausible, but am in doubt whether it be right. I believe the explanation of the word mysteries will spare us the trouble of trying experiments of emendation. Mysteries were allegorical shews, which the mummers of those those times exhibited in odd and fantastic habits. Mysteries are used, by an easy figure, for those that exhibited mysteries; and the sense is only, that the travelled Englishmen were metamorposed, by foreign fashions, into such an uncouth appearance, that they looked like mummers in a mystery.

Note return to page 417 *A fit or two o'th'face, &lblank;] A fit of the face seems to be what we now term a grimace, an artificial cast of the countenance.

Note return to page 418 5&lblank; noble bevy.] Milton has copied this word: A bevy of fair dames.

Note return to page 419 6As, first, good Company, good wine, &c.] As this Passage has been all along pointed, Sir Harry Guilford is made to include all these under the first Article; and then gives us the Drop as to what should follow. The Poet, I am persuaded, wrote; As first-good Company, good Wine, good Welcome, &c. i. e. he wou'd have you as merry as these three Things can make you, the best Company in the Land, of the best Rank, good Wine, &c. Theobald. Sir T. Hanmer has mended it more commodiously: As first, good company, then, good wine, &c.

Note return to page 420 7Take it, that is, take the chief place.

Note return to page 421 8Unhappily, that is, unluckily; mischievously.

Note return to page 422 9Ye few, that loved me, &c.] These lines are remarkably tender and pathetick

Note return to page 423 1&lblank; no black envy Shall make my grave. &lblank;] The sense of this is, that envy should not procure or advance his death. But this is not what he would say; he believed the Cardinal's envy did procure his death. He is speaking not of another's envy, but his own. And his thought is, that he would not be remembered for an implacable unforgiving temper. We should read therefore, &lblank; no black envy Shall mark my grave. &lblank; alluding to the old custom of marking good or ill, by a white or black stone. Warburton. Dr. Warburton has with good judgment observed the errour, but has not, I think, very happily corrected it. I do not see how the envy of those that are buried can mark the grave. In reading the lines I cannot but suspect that two words, as it may naturally happen, have changed places. There cannot be those numberless offences 'Gainst me, I can't take peace with: no black envy Shall make my grave. &lblank; I would read thus: There cannot be those numberless offences 'Gainst me, I can't make peace with, no black envy Shall take my grave. To take in this place is to blast, to strike with malignant influence. So in Lear, &lblank; Strike her young limbs Ye taking airs with lameness. So in Hamlet, &lblank; No spirit dares walk abroad, No planet takes. &lblank;

Note return to page 424 *I now seal it, &c.] I now seal my truth, my loyalty, with blood which blood shall one day make them groan.

Note return to page 425 *Strong faith is great fidelity.

Note return to page 426 2From princes into pages.] This may allude to the retinue of the Cardinal, who had several of the nobility among his menial servants.

Note return to page 427 3Into what pitch he please.] Here is a strange dissonance in the metaphor, which is taken from unbaked dough. I read, Into what pinch he please. i. e. into what shape he please. Warburton. I do not think this emendation necessary, let the allusion be to what it will. The mass must be fashioned into pitch or height as well as into particular form. The meaning is, that the Cardinal can, as he pleases, make high or low.

Note return to page 428 4&lblank; have great care I be not found a talker.] I take the meaning to be, Let care be taken that my promise be performed, that my professions of welcome be not found empty talk.

Note return to page 429 *&lblank; so sick though.] That is, so sick as he is proud.

Note return to page 430 5Kept him a foreign man still.] Kept him out of the King's presence, employed in foreign embassies.

Note return to page 431 6To give her the avant!] To send her away contemptuously; to pronounce against her a sentence of ejection.

Note return to page 432 [7] Yet if that quarrel, Fortune, &lblank;] He calls Fortune a quarrel or arrow, from her striking so deep and suddenly. Quarrel was a large arrow so called. Thus Fairfax &lblank; Twang'd the string, out flew the quarrel long. Warburton. Such is Dr. Warburton's interpretation. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads, That quarreller Fortune. I think the poet may be easily supposed to use quarrel for quarreller, as murder for murderer, the act for the agent.

Note return to page 433 *&lblank; stranger now again.] Again an alien; not only no longer Queen but no longer an Englishwoman.

Note return to page 434 8&lblank; our best Having.] That is, our best possession. So in Macbeth, &lblank; Promises Of noble having and of royal hope. In Spanish, hazienda.

Note return to page 435 *Cheveril, is kid's skin, soft leather.

Note return to page 436 †Pluck off a little.] What must she pluck off? I think we may better read, &lblank; pluck up a little. Pluck up! is an idiomatical expression for take courage.

Note return to page 437 9You'd venture an emballing.] You would venture to be distinguished by the ball, the ensign of royalty.

Note return to page 438 1More than my all, is nothing:] No figure can free this expression from nonsense. In spite of the exactness of measure, we should read, More than my all, which is nothing. i. e. which all is nothing. Warburton. It is not nonsense, but only an hyperbole. Not only my all is nothing, but if my all were more than it is, it were still nothing.

Note return to page 439 2I shall not fail, &c.] I shall not omit to strengthen, by my commendation, the opinion which the King has formed.

Note return to page 440 3&lblank; a Gem To lighten all this isle? &lblank;] Perhaps alluding to the carbuncle, a gem supposed to have intrinsic light, and to shine in the dark; any other gem may reflect light, but cannot give it.

Note return to page 441 *Senet.] I know not the meaning of this word, which is in all the editions, except that Hanmer, not understanding it, has left it out. It should probably be Seneschals.6Q0197

Note return to page 442 4Pillars were some of the ensigns of dignity carried before cardinals. Sir Thomas More, when he was speaker to the Commons, advised them to admit Wolsey into the house with his maces and his pillars. More's Life of Sir T. More.

Note return to page 443 5In former editions: &lblank; nay, gave notice] Which, though the authour's common liberties of speech might justify, yet I cannot but think that not was dropped before notice, having the same letters, and have therefore followed Sir Thomas Hanmer's correction.

Note return to page 444 6&lblank; and make my challenge, You shall not be my judge.] Challenge is here a verbum juris, a law term. The criminal, when he refuses a juryman, says, I challenge him. I think there is a slight errour which destroys the connection, and would read, Induc'd by potent circumstances, that You are mine enemy, I make my challenge. &lblank; You shall not be my judge.

Note return to page 445 7You sign your place and calling, &lblank;] Sign, for answer. Warburton. I think, to sign must here be to show, to denote. By your outward meekness and humility you show that you are of an holy order, but, &c.

Note return to page 446 8&lblank; You are mounted, Where Pow'rs are your retainers; and your words, Domesticks to you, serve your will.] You have now got power at your beck, following in your retinue; and words therefore are degraded to the servile state of performing any office which you shall give them. In humbler and more common terms; Having now got power you do not regard your word.

Note return to page 447 9&lblank; could speak thee out] If thy several qualities had tongues to speak thy praise.

Note return to page 448 1&lblank; although not there At once, and fully satisfy'd: &lblank;] What he aims at is this; where I am robbed and bound, there must I be unloosed, though the injurers be not there to make me satisfaction: as much as to say, I owe so much to my own innocence, as to clear up my character, tho' I do not expect my wrongers will do me justice. It seems then that Shakespear wrote, Aton'd, and fully satisfy'd. &lblank; Warburton. I do not see what is gained by this alteration. The sense, which is incumbered with words in either reading, is no more than this. I must be loosed, though when so loosed I shall not be satisfied fully and at once; that is, I shall not be immediately satisfied.

Note return to page 449 2&lblank; on my Honour I speak my good Lord Cardinal to this Point] The King, having first addressed to Wolsey. breaks off: and declares upon his Honour to the whole Court, that he speaks the Cardinal's Sentiments upon the Point in question; and clears him from any Attempt, or Wish, to stir that Business. Theobald.

Note return to page 450 3Scruple, and prick,] Prick of conscience was the term in confession.

Note return to page 451 4&lblank; This Respite shook The Bosom of my Conscience,] Tho' this Reading be Sense, yet, I verily believe, the Poet wrote; The Bottom of my Conscience,— Shakespeare, in all his historical Plays, was a most diligent Observer of Holingshead's Chronicle. Now Hollingshead, in the Speech which he has given to King Henry upon this Subject, makes him deliver himself thus: “Which Words, once conceiv'd within the secret Bottom of my Conscience, ingendred such a scrupulous Doubt, that my Conscience was incontinently accombred, vex'd, and disquieted.” Vid. Life of Henry VIII. p. 907. Theobald.

Note return to page 452 5&lblank; hulling in The wild sea &lblank;] That is, Floating without guidance; tost here and there.

Note return to page 453 6I have rescued the Text from Hollingshead.—“I mov'd it in Confession to You, my Lord of Lincoln, then ghostly Father. And forasmuch as then you yourself were in some Doubt, you mov'd me to ask the Counsel of all these my Lords. Whereupon I moved you, my Lord of Canterbury, first to have your Licence, in as much as you were Metropolitan, to put this Matter in question; and so I did of all you, my Lords.” Hollingshead, ibid. p. 908. Theobald.

Note return to page 454 *That's paragon'd i'th'world.] Hanmer reads, I think, better, &lblank; The primest creature That's paragon o'th' world.

Note return to page 455 1They should be good men, their affairs are righteous,] Affairs for professions; and then the sense is clear and pertinent. The proposition is, they are priests. The illation, therefore they are good men; for being understood: But if affairs be interpreted in its common signification, the sentence is absurd. Warburton. The sentence has no great difficulty; affairs means not their present errand, but the business of their calling.

Note return to page 456 2Envy and base opinion set against 'em.] I would be glad that my conduct were in some publick trial confronted with my enemies, that envy and corrupt judgment might try their utmost power against me.

Note return to page 457 3&lblank; and that way I am wife in.] That is, if you come to examine the title by which I am the king's wife; or, if you come to know how I have behaved as a wife. The meaning, whatever it be, is so coarsely and unskilfully expressed, that the latter Editors have liked nonsense better, and, contrarily to the antient and only copy, have published, And that way I am wife in.

Note return to page 458 4Though he be grown so desp'rate to be honest.] Do you think that any Englishman dare advise me; or, if any man should venture to advise with honesty, that he could live?

Note return to page 459 5&lblank; weigh out my afflictions.] This phrase is obscure. To weigh out, is, in modern language, to deliver by weight; but this sense cannot be here admitted. To weigh is likewise to deliberate upon, to consider with due attention. This may, perhaps, be meant. Or the phrase, to weigh out, may signify to counterballance, to counteract with equal force.

Note return to page 460 6The more shame for you.] If I mistake you, it is by your fault, not mine; for I thought you good. The distress of Catharine might have kept her from the quibble to which she is irresistibly tempted by the word Cardinal.

Note return to page 461 7&lblank; superstitious to him.] That is, served him with superfluous attention; done more than was required.

Note return to page 462 8Ye've angels' faces.] She may perhaps allude to the old juggle of Angli and Angeli.

Note return to page 463 9Force is enforce, urge.

Note return to page 464 1&lblank; or at least Strangely neglected? &lblank;] The plain sense requires us to read, stood not neglected. Warburton. Dr. Warburton's alteration makes a more correct sentence, but in our authour's licentious English, the passage, as it stands, means the same as, which of the peers has not gone by him contemned or neglected.

Note return to page 465 2&lblank; when did he regard The stamp of nobleness in any person Out of himself?] The expression is bad, and the thought false. For it supposes Wolsey to be noble, which was not so: we should read and point, &lblank; when did he regard The stamp of nobleness in any person; Out of't himself? i. e. when did he regard nobleness of blood in another; having none of his own to value himself upon. Warburton. I do not think this correction proper. The meaning of the present reading is easy. When did he, however careful to carry his own dignity to its utmost height, regard any dignity of another.

Note return to page 466 3Contrary proceedings.] Private practices opposite to his publick procedure.

Note return to page 467 4And hedges his own way] It is not said, that the King perceives how he obstructs his own way; but how obliquely he pursues it: we should read therefore, edges his own way. Warburton. To hedge, is, to creep along by the hedge; not to take the direct and open path, but to steal covertly through circumvolutions.

Note return to page 468 5To trace, is, to follow.

Note return to page 469 6Beyond all man's endeavours. &lblank;] Endeavours for deserts. But the Oxford Editor, not knowing the sense in which the word is here used, alters it to ambition. Warburton. To put ambition in the place of endeavours is certainly wrong; and to explain endeavours by deserts is not right. The sense, and that not very difficult, is, my purposes went beyond all human endeavour. I purposed for your honour more than it falls within the compass of man's nature to attempt.

Note return to page 470 7Yet, fil'd with my abilities.] My endeavours, though less than my desires, have fil'd; that is, gone an equal pace with my abilities.

Note return to page 471 8&lblank; o'th' contrary The foulness is the punishment.] So Hanmer. The rest read, i'th' contrary.

Note return to page 472 9&lblank; notwithstanding that your bond of duty.] Besides the general bond of duty by which you are obliged to be a loyal and obedient subject, you owe a particular devotion of yourself to me, as your particular benefactor.

Note return to page 473 1'Till I find more than will, or words to do it, (I mean your malice;) know &lblank; I dare &lblank; deny it.] They bid him render up his seal. He answers, where's your commission? They say, we bear the King's will from his mouth. He replies, 'Til I find, &c. i. e. all the will or words I yet discover proceed from your malice; and, 'till I find more than that, I shall not comply with your demand. One would think this plain enough; yet the Oxford Editor, in the rage of emendation, alters the line thus, Whilst I find more than his will, or words to do it, I mean your malice, &c. which bears this noble sense, worthy a wise Lord Chancellor: Whilst I find your malice joined to the King's will and pleasure, I shall not obey that will and pleasure. Warburton. Wolsey had said, &lblank; words cannot carry Authority so mighty. to which they reply, Who dare cross 'em, &c. Wolsey, answering them, continues his own speech. 'Till I find more than will or words (I mean more than your malicious will and words) to do it; that is, to carry authority so mighty; I will deny to return what the King has given me.

Note return to page 474 2Worse than the sacring Bell,] The little Bell, which is rung to give Notice of the Host approaching when it is carried in Procession, as also in other offices of the Romish Church, is called the Sacring, or Consecration Bell; from the French Word, Sacrer. Theobald.

Note return to page 475 3In former Editions: Castles, and whatsoever,] I have ventur'd to substitute Chattels here, as the Author's genuine Word, because the Judgment in a Writ of Præmunire is, that the Defendant shall be out of the King's Protection; and his Lands and Tenements, Goods and Chattels forfeited to the King; and that his Body shall remain in prison at the King's pleasure. This very Description of the Præmunire is set out by Holingshead in his Life of K. Henry VIII. p. 909. Theobald.

Note return to page 476 4&lblank; Nips his root;] As spring frosts are not injurious to the roots of fruit trees, I should imagine the Poet wrote shoot, i. e. that tender shoot on which are the young leaves and blossoms. The comparison, as well as expression of nips, is juster too in this reading. He has the same thought in Love's Labour Lost. Byron is like an envious sneaping frost That bites the first-born infants of the spring. So Milton in Sampson Agonistes, Abortive as the first-born bloom of spring, Nip'd with the lagging rear of winter's frost. which seems to be taken from the place in question. Warburton. Here is a long note. But at last we may as well continue the ancient reading. Vernal frosts indeed do not kill the root, but then to nip the shoots does not kill the tree or make it fall. The metaphor will not in either reading correspond exactly with nature.

Note return to page 477 5A tomb of orphans' tears wept on him.] The Chancellor is the general guardian of orphans. A tomb of tears is very harsh.

Note return to page 478 6&lblank; Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory,] As the words, sounded, depths, shoals, wreck, follow; the uniformity of metaphor would dispose Shakespear methinks to write here, &lblank; rode the waves of glory. So in Troilus and Cressida. As if the passage and whole carriage of this action rode on his tide. Warburton.

Note return to page 479 7&lblank; cherish those hearts, that hate thee:] Though this be good divinity; and an admirable precept for our conduct in private life; it was never calculated or designed for the magistrate or publick minister. Nor could this be the direction of a man experienced in affairs to his pupil. It would make a good christian but a very ill and very unjust statesman. And we have nothing so infamous in tradition, as the supposed advice given to one of our kings, to cherish his enemies and be in no pain for his friends. I am of opinion the Poet wrote &lblank; cherish those hearts that wait thee. i. e. thy dependents. For the contrary practice had contributed to Wolsey's ruin. He was not careful enough in making dependents by his bounty, while intent in amassing wealth to himself. The following line seems to confirm this correction, Corruption wins not more than honesty. i. e. You will never find men won over to your temporary occasions by bribery so useful to you as friends made by a just and generous munificence. Warburton.

Note return to page 480 8This sentence was really uttered by Wolsey.

Note return to page 481 1&lblank; once again.] alluding to their former meeting in the second act.

Note return to page 482 2&lblank; this day &lblank;] Hanmer reads, these days, but Shakespeare meant such a day as this, a coronation day. And such is the English idiom, which our authour commonly prefers to grammatical nicety.

Note return to page 483 3&lblank; like rams.] That is, like battering rams.

Note return to page 484 4This scene is above any other part of Shakespeare's tragedies, and perhaps above any scene of any other poet, tender and pathetick, without gods, or furies, or poisons, or precipices, without the help of romantick circumstances, without improbable sallies of poetical lamentation, and without any throes of tumultuous misery.

Note return to page 485 1&lblank; one, that by suggestion Ty'd all the kingdom;] i. e. by giving the King pernicious counsel, he ty'd or enslaved the kingdom. He uses the word here with great propriety, and seeming knowledge of the Latin tongue. For the late Roman writers, and their glossers, agree to give this sense to it: suggestio est cum magistratus quilibet principi salubre consilium suggerit. So that nothing could be severer than this reflexion, that that wholsome counsel, which it is the minister's duty to give his prince, was so empoisoned by him, as to produce slavery to his country. Yet all this fine sense vanishes instantaneously before the touch of the Oxford Editor, by his happy thought of changing Ty'd into Tyth'd. Warburton.

Note return to page 486 1Not for delights.] Gardiner himself is not much delighted. The delight at which he hints seems to be the King's diversion, which keeps him in attendance.

Note return to page 487 2Some touch of your late business.] Some hint of the business that keeps you awake so late.

Note return to page 488 3&lblank; mine own way.] Mine own opinion in religion.

Note return to page 489 4Stands in the gap and trade for more preferments.] We should read tread, i. e. road. Warburton. Trade is the practised method, the general course.

Note return to page 490 5&lblank; broken with the King.] They have broken silence; told their minds to the King.

Note return to page 491 6&lblank; You a brother of us.] You being one of the council, it is necessary to imprison you, that the witnesses against you may not be deterr'd.

Note return to page 492 *The good I stand on.] Though good may be taken for advantage or superiority, or any thing which may help or support, yet it would, I think, be more natural to say, The ground I stand on.

Note return to page 493 7&lblank; bless her!] It is doubtful whether her is referred to the Queen or the girl.

Note return to page 494 8Chan. Speak to the Business.] This Lord Chancellor, tho' a Character, has hitherto had no place in the Dramatis Personæ. In the last Scene of the fourth Act, we heard, that Sir Thomas More was appointed Lord Chancellor: but it is not he, whom the Poet here introduces. Wolsey, by Command, deliver'd up the Seals on the 18th of November, 1529; on the 25th of the same Month, they were deliver'd to Sir Thomas More, who surrender'd them on the 16th of May, 1532. Now the Conclusion of this Scene taking Notice of Queen Elizabeth's Birth, (which brings it down to the Year 1534) Sir Thomas Audlie must necessarily be our Poet's Chancellor; who succeeded Sir Thomas More, and held the Seals many Years. Theobald.

Note return to page 495 9&lblank; we are all men In our own natures frail, and capable Of frailty, &lblank;] If all men were actually frail, they were more than capable of frailty; to understand this therefore, as only said of the natural weakness of humanity, it is absurdly expressed; but this was not our authour's sense: By, in our own natures frail, he alludes to the doctrine of original sin: So that the sentiment is this, We are sinners by imputation, and liable to become actually so. Warburton. This sentence I think needed no commentary. The meaning, and the plain meaning, is, we are men frail by nature, and therefore liable to acts of frailty, to deviations from the right. I wish every commentator, before he suffers his confidence to kindle, would repeat, &lblank; We are all men In our own natures frail, and capable Of frailty; few are angels.

Note return to page 496 1&lblank; Your painted gloss, &c.] Those that understand you, under this painted gloss, this fair outside, discover your empty talk and your false reasoning.

Note return to page 497 2&lblank; you'd spare your spoons.] It appears by this and another passage in the next scene, that the gossips gave spoons.

Note return to page 498 3Paris Garden.] The Beargarden of that time.

Note return to page 499 4These are but switches to 'em.] To what, or whom? We should point it thus, These are but witches.—To 'em. i. e. have at you, as we now say. He says this as he turns upon the mob. Warburton. The present pointing seems to be right.

Note return to page 500 5Sir Guy, nor Colebrand.] Of Guy of Warwick every one has heard. Colebrand was the Danish giant whom Guy subdued at Winchester. Their combat is very elaborately described by Drayton in his Polyolbion.

Note return to page 501 6Morefields to muster in?] The trainbands of the city were exercised in Morefields.

Note return to page 502 *he should be a brasier by his face.] A brasier signifies a man that manufactures brass, and a mass of metal occasionally heated to convey warmth. Both these senses are here understood.

Note return to page 503 *the meteor] The fire-drake, the brasier.

Note return to page 504 7the hope of the strand.] Hanmer reads, the forlorn hope.

Note return to page 505 8the Tribulation of Tower-Hill, or the limbs of Limehouse] I suspect the Tribulation to have been a puritanical meeting-house. The limbs of Limehouse I do not understand.

Note return to page 506 †running banquet of two beadles,] A publick whipping.

Note return to page 507 9&lblank; here ye lie baiting of bumbards] A bumbard is an ale-barrel; to bait bumbards is to tipple, to lie at the spigot.

Note return to page 508 1Nor shall this peace sleep with her.] These lines, to the interruption by the King, seem to have been inserted at some revisal of the play after the accession of King James. If the passage, included in crotchets, be left out, the speech of Cranmer proceeds in a regular tenour of prediction and continuity of sentiments; but by the interposition of the new lines, he first celebrates Elizabeth's successor, and then wishes he did not know that she was to die; first rejoices at the consequence, and then laments the cause. Our authour was at once politick and idle; he resolved to flatter James, but neglected to reduce the whole speech to propriety, or perhaps intended that the line inserted should be spoken in the action, and omitted in the publication, if any publication ever was in his thoughts. Mr. Theobald has made the same observation.

Note return to page 509 2And you good Brethren,] But the Aldermen never were called Brethren to the King. The top of the nobility are but Cousins and Counsellors. Dr. Thirlby, therefore, rightly advised; And your good Brethren &lblank; i.e. the Lord Mayor's Brethren; which is properly their Style. Theobald.

Note return to page 510 1In the character of Catharine.

Note return to page 511 The play of Henry the eighth is one of those which still keeps possession of the stage, by the splendour of its pageantry. The coronation about forty years ago drew the people together in multitudes for a great part of the winter. Yet pomp is not the only merit of this play. The meek sorrows and virtuous distress of Catherine have furnished some scenes which may be justly numbered among the greatest efforts of tragedy. But the genius of Shakespeare comes in and goes out with Catherine. Every other part may be easily conceived, and easily written.

Note return to page 512 Though it is very difficult to decide whether short pieces be genuine or spurious, yet I cannot restrain myself from expressing my suspicion that neither the prologue nor epilogue to this play is the work of Shakespeare; non vultus, non color. It appears to me very likely that they were supplied by the friendship or officiousness of Johnson, whose manner they will be perhaps found exactly to resemble. There is yet another supposition possible: the prologue and epilogue may have been written after Shakespeare's departure from the stage, upon some accidental revisal of the play, and there will then be reason for imagining that the writer, whoever he was, intended no great kindness to him, this play being recommended by a subtle and covert censure of his other works. There is in Shakespeare so much of fool and fight, &lblank; the fellow In a long motley coat, guarded with yellow, appears so often in his drama, that I think it not very likely that he would have animadverted so severely on himself. All this, however, must be received as very dubious, since we know not the exact date of this or the other plays, and cannot tell how our authour might have changed his practice or opinions.

Note return to page 513 The historical Dramas are now concluded, of which the two parts of Henry the Fourth, and Henry the Fifth, are among the happiest of our authour's compositions; and King John, Richard the Third, and Henry the Eighth, deservedly stand in the second class. Those whose curiosity would refer the historical scenes to their original, may consult Hollingshead, and sometimes Hall: from Hollingshead Shakespeare has often inserted whole speeches with no more alteration than was necessary to the numbers of his verse. To transcribe them into the margin was unnecessary, because the original is easily examined, and they are seldom less perspicuous in the poet than in the historian. To play histories, or to exhibit a succession of events by action and dialogue, was a common entertainment among our rude ancestors upon great festivities. The parish clerks once performed at Clerkenwell a play which lasted three days, containing, The History of the World.

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