Note return to page 1 “The first Part of Henry the Sixt” was printed originally in the folio of 1623, where it occupies twenty-four pages; viz. from p. 96 to p. 119 inclusive, in the division of “Histories.” It was reprinted in the folios 1632, 1664, and 1685.

Note return to page 2 P. 4.—The date of the earliest edition of “The first part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster” should have been stated to be 1594, and not 1600. Both that and the second part of the same play, with the title of “The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke,” 1595, have been reprinted by the Shakespeare Society, under the editorial care of Mr. Halliwell.

Note return to page 3 1Dead March. The Corpse of King Henry the Fifth is discovered, &c.] In our old stage there seems to have been no discovery, as it is now termed, of persons or objects on the stage. The curtain at that time did not rise, but was drawn apart, and the characters and accompaniments entered; and such was the case in this instance, as appears by the old stage-direction in these words:— “Dead march. Enter the funeral of King Henry the Fifth, attended on by the Duke of Bedford, Regent of France; the Duke of Gloster, Protector; the Duke of Exeter; Warwick; the Bishop of Winchester and the Duke of Somerset.”

Note return to page 4 2When at their mothers' moist eyes babes shall suck;] This is the line as it stands in the folio, 1632: that of 1623 has moisten'd for “moist,” giving a redundant syllable in a line where no dissyllable can be read in the time of a monosyllable. Besides, the full meaning of the poet is obtained by “moist;” and here and elsewhere in this play the corrections, if not from authority, have been made generally with great judgment by the editor of the second folio.

Note return to page 5 3&lblank; a nourish of salt tears,] Pope substituted marish, i. e. marsh, for “nourish,” which is the word in the first and in all the other folios. In fact, no change is required; and had it been a misprint for marish, the editor of the second folio, who had corrected the preceding line, would not have been likely to pass it over. “Nourish,” as Malone and Steevens proved by various quotations anterior to the time of Shakespeare, was only another form of the word nourice, or nurse; and a word of two syllables was required.

Note return to page 6 4Than Julius Cæsar, or bright——] So printed in the original, as if the entrance of the messenger had interrupted the conclusion of the sentence. Malone was of opinion that the transcriber of the MS. could not read the name, and therefore omitted it; while Johnson proposed to fill the blank with Berenice, which would ill suit the measure, unless the last two syllables were to be pronounced as one.

Note return to page 7 5A third man thinks, without expense at all,] “Man” is from the folio, 1632; and it is necessary, unless we suppose Shakespeare intended “third” to be pronounced as a dissyllable. That it was not usually so pronounced, we have the evidence of the editor of the second folio.

Note return to page 8 6&lblank; enraged he slew.] So the old copies, to which we adhere; although, as the Rev. Mr. Barry suggests, it was a very easy misprint for flew. “Slew” shows that Talbot was not only “here, there, and everywhere,” but that he made his presence known by the slaughter of the enemy.

Note return to page 9 7If sir John Fastolfe&lblank;] Mis-spelt Falstaffe in the old copies, but not of course intended for the humorous knight, who figures in “Henry IV.” parts i. and ii., and who died in “Henry V.” The text relates to the historical sir John Fastolfe, who, as Fuller complains (Worthies, 1662, p. 253), had been misrepresented on the stage, as “a Thrasonical puff,” when in fact he was “as valiant as any of his age.” However, Hall and Holinshed assert that he was degraded for cowardice, although subsequently, “upon good reason alleged in his defence, restored to his honours.”

Note return to page 10 8He being in the vaward, plac'd behind With purpose to relieve and follow them,] The “vaward” is the advanced body of the army, (see Vol. ii. p. 447,) and this passage has been hitherto thought a contradiction, inasmuch as the “vaward” could not be “behind.” But the meaning of Shakespeare seems to be, that what was usually the “vaward” of the army had in this instance purposely been “plac'd behind,” in order to “relieve and follow” the rest. Sir John Fastolfe, perhaps, ordinarily led the “vaward;” but in this case, he and his troops, for some reason, had been placed by Talbot in the rear. This explanation seems to remove a difficulty felt and expressed by most of the commentators. Monck Mason, to reconcile the matter, supposed that the army was attacked in the rear; and observes, “When an army is attacked in the rear, the van becomes the rear in its turn.” There seems no occasion for any conjecture of the kind.

Note return to page 11 9Exit.] The stage-direction in modern editions has been “Exit. Scene closes;” but in the folio, 1623, it is merely “Exit.” It may be doubted whether the curtains, separating the audience from the stage, were again drawn together, or whether “the funeral of Henry the Fifth” made its exit, as it had “entered” in the beginning of the scene.

Note return to page 12 10&lblank; to this day is not known.] So Nash, (says Steevens,) in one of the prefaces before his “Have with You to Saffron Walden,” 1596: “You are as ignorant in the true movings of my muse, as the astronomers are in the true movings of Mars, which to this day they could never attain to.”

Note return to page 13 1Alarums; Excursions; afterwards a Retreat.] The stage-direction in the folio is, “Here Alarum: they are beaten back by the English with great loss.”

Note return to page 14 2I think, by some odd gimmals or device, Their arms are set like clocks&lblank;] A “gimmal,” or gimmor, as it is spelt in the folio, 1623, is a piece of machinery, which in the text is supposed to strike, like the figures in connexion with clocks, which of old struck the hours. The etymology has been disputed; but possibly it is from the Latin gemellus, and properly signifies a device, composed of double parts corresponding with each other. This is the derivation given by Skinner, Etymol. Ling. Angl.

Note return to page 15 3Deck'd with five flower-de-luces&lblank;] In the folio, 1623, the u, instead of v, with which five was formerly printed, was accidentally turned, and the word is therefore fine; but Holinshed enables us to detect the error, for he states that “five flower-de-luces were graven on both sides” of the sword of Joan of Arc.

Note return to page 16 4They fight.] The old stage-direction is, “Here they fight, and Joan de Pucel overcomes.”

Note return to page 17 5&lblank; I fear, there is conveyance.] i. e. fraud or theft. See Vol. iv. p. 193.

Note return to page 18 6&lblank; Servants in tawney Coats.] The attendants of a bishop seem to have been usually so attired. Stow, in a passage quoted by Steevens, speaks on one occasion of the bishop of London, who was “attended on by a goodly company of gentlemen in tawney coats.” Summoners, officers belonging to the Bishops' Courts, wore tawney coats.

Note return to page 19 7Pill'd priest,] “Pill'd” is what is now usually spelt peel'd, and in the folio, 1623, the orthography of the word is pield; but we have had it before, in exactly the same sense, in “Measure for Measure,” Vol. ii. p. 11. The allusion is to the shaven crown of the bishop of Winchester.

Note return to page 20 8&lblank; indulgences to sin:] The Stews in Southwark were formerly under the jurisdiction of the bishops of Winchester, whose palace (a relic of which is still left) stood near those on the Bankside. See, in a note to the Perey Society's reprint of Rowley's “Search for Money,” p. 45, a curious and early account of the Stews in Southwark.

Note return to page 21 9I'll canvass thee in thy broad cardinal's hat,] i. e. I'll sift thee. Cotgrave renders canabasser (which Skinner says means to beat hemp) by the words “to canvass, or curiously to examine, or sift out.” Winchester could not have been a cardinal at this time, according even to the chronology of the play; and in A. v. sc. 1, Exeter speaks of him as if he had then just been made cardinal. According to history, as Malone has observed, Winchester was elected cardinal in the fifth year of Henry VI.

Note return to page 22 1This be Damascus, be thou cursed Cain,] Reed pointed out the following illustrative quotation from “The Travels of Sir John Mandeville:”—“And in that place where Damascus was founded, Kayn sloughe Abel his brother.” Ritson added the subsequent passage from the “Polychronicon:”—“Damascus is as much as to say shedding of blood; for there Chaym slew Abel, and hid him in the sand.”

Note return to page 23 2Blue coats to tawney coats.] The usual livery of servants at the period when Shakespeare wrote, and long before, was blue: such therefore was the colour of the dress worn by the attendants on the duke of Gloster.

Note return to page 24 3Winchester goose!] Johnson would here make out an allusion to the “consequence of love” for the inhabitants of the Stews, under the control of the bishop of Winchester: that “consequence” was certainly called “a Winchester goose” by many old writers, (see Dyce's Webster's Works, vol. iii. p. 328,) but there is no necessary reference to it in the text. “Winchester goose!” seems merely used as a term of abuse.

Note return to page 25 4&lblank; the Mayor of London and his Officers.] We have here restored the old stage-direction, from the folio, 1623, instead of its modern substitution, “Here a great Tumult. In the midst of it, Enter the Mayor of London, and Officers.” The old stage-direction renders Shakespeare his own commentator on the word “hurly-burly,” (“Macbeth,” A. i. sc. 1,) regarding which the annotators have made various quotations from other authors.

Note return to page 26 5Here's Gloster, too,] The word “too” is from the folio, 1632.

Note return to page 27 6&lblank; to thy dear cost,] So the second folio; which seems to have been edited, as regards this play, with more than usual care. The first folio omits “dear.”

Note return to page 28 7I'll call for clubs,] The usual cry in the city in case of tumult. See “As You Like It,” Vol. iii. p. 87, note 2.

Note return to page 29 8This cardinal's more haughty than the devil.] The line stands properly in this form in the folios; but modern editors alter it to “This cardinal is,” &c. to the injury of the verse.

Note return to page 30 9Good God! these nobles should such stomachs bear!] This is the reading of all the folios, and there is no necessity for changing “these” to that, as was first done by Rowe, and by most modern editors, some with and some without notice.

Note return to page 31 1Wont, through a secret grate&lblank;] The old copies have Went for “Wont;” but the latter, suggested by Tyrwhitt, seems to accord better with the rest of the passage, and the misprint was a very easy one. “Wont,” for “are wont,” is a frequent form of expression in our old poets.

Note return to page 32 2Could see them.] In the first folio, “for I can stay no longer” is mistakenly printed as the hemistich. In the second folio, boy in consequence is added to the line, and fully in that preceding; but unnecessarily, if the passage be regulated as in our text. We refrain from resort to the folio of 1632, in cases where the reading of the folio of 1623 can be preserved.

Note return to page 33 3The duke of Bedford&lblank;] In the folios he is mistakenly called earl.

Note return to page 34 4&lblank; so vile-esteem'd:] The old reading is, “so pil'd esteem'd,” an evident misprint for “vile-esteem'd.” “Vile” was often of old spelt vild, and hence, perhaps, the error.

Note return to page 35 5&lblank; and like thee, Nero,] “Nero” was omitted in the first folio; but the sense fills up the blank, and possibly the word had dropped out. We have previously had blanks, (see p. 9 and 26,) but there they were supplied by what printers call a rule: here there is no such indication of any deficiency.

Note return to page 36 6Salisbury lifts himself up and groans.] So the expressive stage-direction in the old copies: modern editors say only, “Salisbury groans.”

Note return to page 37 7Pucelle or puzzel, dolphin or dogfish,] “Puzzel,” in the time of Shakespeare, meant a low prostitute, and Minsheu derives it from the Italian puzza, malus fœtor; but it may be doubted whether it was not merely a corruption of pucelle, and applied in derision to women of that class. “Dauphin” is invariably printed Dolphin in the folio, 1623, and so it seems to have been pronounced: hence “dolphin or dogfish.”

Note return to page 38 8Blood will I draw on thee, thou art a witch,] It was supposed of old, and the superstition has survived even to our own day, that if blood could be drawn from a witch, the enchantment was dissolved, and her power at an end.

Note return to page 39 9&lblank; thy hunger-starved men;] The folio has hungry-starved; but if “hungry, starved men,” as Boswell would have printed it, had been intended, and not a compound word, the hyphen in the old copy would have been omitted.

Note return to page 40 1Sheep run not half so treacherous from the wolf,] The folio, 1623, reads treacherous, and the word was adopted in all editions previous to that of Pope, who changed it to “timorous.” Talbot may call them “treacherous,” or not to be trusted, because they are cowardly.

Note return to page 41 2Rescu'd is Orleans from the English wolves.] The word “wolves” is derived from the second folio, and seems necessary, though Malone contends that “English” ought to be pronounced as a trisyllable. In the next line but one, “bright” is also from the second folio, but Malone goes the length of contending that “Astræa” ought to be pronounced Asteræa.

Note return to page 42 [3] &lblank; half ready, and half unready.] i. e. half dressed, and half undressed. “Ready” and “unready,” in the time of Shakespeare, were the commonest words for dressed and undressed. Examples might be pointed out in nearly every old writer.

Note return to page 43 [4] And lay new platforms&lblank;] i. e. Plots or plans. The plot of a play was formerly called a “platform.” See the “Hist. of Eng. Dram. Poetry and the Stage,” vol. iii. p. 393, &c.

Note return to page 44 [5] This is a riddling merchant for the nonce;] “For the nonce” is for the occasion. See Vol. iv. p. 236. “Merchant” was often, of old, used as a term of contempt: thus in “Jacob and Esau,” 1568, A. v. sc. 6, “What, ye saucie merchant, are ye a prater now?” The Morality of “The Conflict of Conscience,” 1581, contains several instances of the same application of the term. See also “Romeo and Juliet,” A. ii. sc. 4, where the nurse calls Mercutio “a saucy merchant.”

Note return to page 45 [6] &lblank; no less than fame hath bruited,] “Bruited” is noised, from the Fr. bruit. It is a word of constant occurrence in writers of the time.

Note return to page 46 7Or else was wrangling Somerset in the error?] The meaning is, “Or, in other words, was not the wrangling Somerset in error?” Johnson would read i' the right for “in error;” and Sir T. Hammer, And was not, instead of “Or else was;” both being in direct opposition to the plain meaning of Shakespeare, who intended to make Richard Plantagenet assert his own correctness in two different forms of speech. In the old copy, in the prefixes, Plantagenet is called York; although near the end of the scene (see p. 43) Warwick talks of the justice of creating Plantagenet Duke of York.

Note return to page 47 8I scorn thee and thy faction,] The old copies have fashion, a word that may possibly be tortured into a meaning, as Warburton attempted; but which was in all probability a mere misprint for “faction,” to which Theobald changed it. Warburton's notion was, that it referred to the fashion of wearing the red rose; but, as Mr. Barron Field observes to me, the same character, not long afterwards, employs the word “faction” in precisely the same sense, “Will I for ever, and my faction, wear.” A copy of the fourth folio, lent to me by Mr. Holgate, which formerly belonged to Southern, the poet, has fashion corrected to “faction,” in his hand-writing.

Note return to page 48 9Shall be wip'd out &lblank;] So the second folio: the first has “whipt out.”

Note return to page 49 1Thanks, gentle sir.] “Sir” is from the second folio: it is obviously necessary, though, as Malone remarks, it does not complete the line commenced by “And so will I.”

Note return to page 50 2&lblank; to their exigent:] i. e. To their extremity or end; an unusual application of the word, though somewhat countenanced by the following line from the comedy of “The wisdom of Doctor Dodypoll,” 1600:— “Hath driven her to some desperate exigent.”

Note return to page 51 3&lblank; king Richard thus remov'd,] The first folio omits “king,” inserted by the editor of the second folio, to complete the line; and we may presume that it had dropped out in the press.

Note return to page 52 4&lblank; the third son] “The” is also from the second folio.

Note return to page 53 5Or make my ill th' advantage of my good.] The old editions read, “Or make my will,” &c. But we adopt Theobald's amendment, which clears the sense, and preserves the antithesis. Malone properly understands by “ill,” ill usage. Some modern editors have printed “ill” for will of the folios, without any information that it was not the ancient reading. It is necessary to mark these variations, if only to test the general value of the old copies, as representing the language of the poet.

Note return to page 54 6And know the office that belongs to such.] Theobald changed the prefixes to this and some preceding lines, but apparently without sufficient reason for varying from the old copies. The altered arrangement of the speeches seems quite as liable to objection, though some editors have adopted it without notice.

Note return to page 55 [7] &lblank; an inkhorn mate,] The epithet “inkhorn” was usually applied in derision of pedantry. Thus Churchyard in his “Choice,” sign. E e 1, has this line:— “As ynkhorne termes smell of the schoole sometyme;” and in the comedy “The Weakest goeth to the Wall,” 1600, one of the characters asks, “Is not this better farre than respice, And precor, and such ink-horne terms?”

Note return to page 56 8We, and our wives, and children,] Malone inserts our before “children,” unnecessarily for the sense of the passage, and to the injury of the line as it stands in the old copies.

Note return to page 57 9&lblank; the bishop hath a kindly gird.] The difficulty in this passage is the word “gird,” which is employed in rather an unusual manner: it commonly means a taunt or reproof; and if so taken here, we must suppose Warwick to speak ironically, for “kindly gird” seems a contradiction in terms. Monck Mason tells us that “kindly gird” is yearning of kindness; but if so, how does the interpretation agree with the two lines that immediately follow, showing that Warwick thinks the bishop has no “yearning of kindness?” Possibly “gird” is a misprint for some more applicable term.

Note return to page 58 1[Aside.] Not so marked in the old copies, where the asides are seldom noticed, but clearly so to be read. Sometimes they speak so evidently for themselves, that it is needless to encumber the text.

Note return to page 59 2If Richard will be true, not that alone,] The folio, 1623, has “not that all alone;” an error which the measure detects: the folio, 1632, has the line correctly, omitting all.

Note return to page 60 3And in reguerdon &lblank;] “Reguerdon” and guerdon are the same; viz. reward or recompence. We have had “guerdon” in “Love's Labour's Lost,” Vol. ii. p. 316. “Reguerdon'd” occurs on p. 64 of this play.

Note return to page 61 4&lblank; should lose all,] The first folio omits the word “should,” which is necessary, and is found in the second folio.

Note return to page 62 5&lblank; and Soldiers dressed like Countrymen,] The old stage-direction is “and four soldiers,” the theatre being able to afford no more for the occasion.

Note return to page 63 6Now, Rouen, I'll shake thy bulwarks to the ground.] It is evident that in this line and in most others we must read “Rouen” as one syllable, and it is spelt Roan in the old copies. When it falls at the end of a line, it may be pronounced as a dissyllable, as in the commencement of this scene:— “These are the city gates, the gates of Rouen.”

Note return to page 64 [7] &lblank; and her practisants;] The meaning is very obvious; but I have not met with any other instance of the use of the word. We might read partisans, if all the old copies did not agree in “practisants.”

Note return to page 65 8Where is &lblank;] The old copies have “Here is;” an obvious error corrected by Rowe.

Note return to page 66 9No way to that, for weakness, which she enter'd.] i. e. There is no way compared to that, or as good as that, by which she entered, on account of its weakness.

Note return to page 67 1That hardly we escap'd the pride of France.] Theobald read “prize of France;” and Warburton and Steevens explain “pride of France” as haughty power of France; but surely the reference is to La Pucelle, the “pride of France,” from whom Talbot and his friends had “hardly escap'd.”

Note return to page 68 2Away, captains!] Malone and Steevens, (as a supposed improvement of Shakespeare's verse, perhaps) inverted these words, and read, “Captains, away,” without any authority.

Note return to page 69 3&lblank; and Charles his gleeks?] i.e. scoffs. Spelt glikes in the folio, 1623; but the same as the verb in “Midsummer Night's Dream,” Vol. ii. p. 424, and the participle in “Henry V.” Vol. iv. p. 563.

Note return to page 70 4What, all a-mort?] All dispirited, dead. See “Taming of the Shrew,” Vol. iii. p. 176.

Note return to page 71 3That, whoso draws a sword, 'tis present death,] The meaning seems to be, that whoever drew a sword within the precincts of the palace was punished with death. Warburton would read, “That who so draws a sword i' th' presence 't's death;” but as the king was not present, he was obliged to apply his alteration to the presence chamber. No such awkward accumulation of apostrophes appears necessary.

Note return to page 72 4&lblank; at the battle of Patay,] The old copy has Poictiers. The typographical error was not corrected, strange as it may seem, until the time of Steevens. The action of which Shakespeare is speaking happened (according to Holinshed) “neere unto a village in Beausse called Pataie,” in 1428, whereas the battle of Poictiers was fought in 1357. “From this battell (of Patay) departed without anie stroke stricken, Sir John Fastolfe, the same yeere by his valiantnesse elected into the order of the garter. But for doubt of misdealing at this brunt, the duke of Bedford tooke from him the image of St. George and his garter.” &c. See also p. 12, note 7.

Note return to page 73 5Pretend some alteration, &c.] The verb “pretend” is here used in its etymological sense of hold out. In the opening of this scene we have had it employed in the kindred sense of intend, which was its commonest signification in the time of Shakespeare.

Note return to page 74 6And, if I wist, he did,] So Steevens reads, and in all probability rightly. The folios have “And if I wish he did.” York means to hold out a sort of threat, “And if I wist, or knew, that he did;”—but, as we find from what follows, he immediately corrects and restrains himself, by “suppressing his voice.” The copy of the fourth folio (now the property of Mr. Holgate), which once belonged to Southern, as is ascertained by his autograph, and various conjectural emendations in his hand-writing, has “And if I wish he did” altered to “And yet I wish he did;” but the slight change made by Steevens is the best: the old compositor merely took up an h instead of a t, and this is the whole error. We might read “And if—I wish he did,—” but there seems no reason why York should desire it.

Note return to page 75 7That I, thy enemy, 'due thee withal;] The old copies print “'due,” dew, and some commentators have supposed that it was to be taken in the sense of bedew; but we prefer Johnson's explanation, that “'due” was to be understood as endue, the first syllable being elided. Not only Shakespeare, but Milton and many other writers, have “endue” for invest.

Note return to page 76 8Not rascal-like, to fall down with a pinch;] We have before had “rascals” used for poor lean deer, Vol. iii. p. 62, &c. My friend Mr. Thoms has furnished me with the following very applicable quotation from Verstegan's “Restitution of Decayed Intelligence,” 1605:—“As before I have showed how the ill names of beasts, in their most contemptible state, are in contempt applied unto women; so is rascall, being the name for an ill-favoured, leane, and worthlesse deere, commonly applied unto such men as are held of no credit or worth.” Most of the terms used in this part of Talbot's speech have reference to the forest: “be then in blood” was technical. See “Love's Labour's Lost,” Vol. iii. p. 354.

Note return to page 77 9And I am lowted by a traitor villain,] i. e. says Malone, “I am treated with contempt, like a lowt or country fellow.” To “lout” is to bow, and is so used by Chaucer, and many other poets: the meaning may be, that York complains that he is made to bow or submit.

Note return to page 78 1Enter Sir William Lucy.] The old stage-direction is (not “Enter a Messenger,” as Malone states) “Enter another Messenger,” one messenger having already brought intelligence to York. The second messenger, as appears afterwards, was Sir William Lucy.

Note return to page 79 2&lblank; from his weak legions.] The folios have regions; most probably, though not necessarily, an error, which was corrected by Rowe.

Note return to page 80 3Orleans the Bastard, Charles, and Burgundy,] The conjunction is from the folio, 1632, and the line can scarcely be read metrically without it. In the preceding line, the second folio also corrects yield of the first folio to “yields.”

Note return to page 81 4A terrible and unavoided danger:] Shakespeare uses “unavoided” precisely in the same way in “Richard II.” vol. iv. p. 145. “And unavoided is the danger now;” meaning inevitable, or not to be avoided.

Note return to page 82 5And soul with soul from France to heaven fly.] Johnson remarked upon the peculiarity that this scene should be in rhyme, and he suspected that it had formed part of some earlier poem. That it formed part of the old lost play on which Shakespeare founded the first part of “Henry VI.” is highly probable: he, however, introduced the rhyming portion by blank-verse of his own, and concluded it in the same way after the entrance of Sir William Lucy.

Note return to page 83 6And like me] i. e. And liken me to, or compare me with.

Note return to page 84 7Thou antick, death,] Shakespeare, in “Richard II.” Vol. iv. p. 167, has called death an “antick.”

Note return to page 85 [8] &lblank; through the lither sky.] i. e. “Through the yielding sky.” Milton's epithet, buxom, as applied to the air, has much the same meaning, for the old signification of buxom was obedient. Chaucer uses it both in the sense of obedient and civil. See Tyrwhitt's Glossary.

Note return to page 86 [9] &lblank; raging wood,] i. e. Raging mad. The old word for mad was “wood.” See “Midsummer-Night's Dream,” Vol. ii. p. 410.

Note return to page 87 1Great earl of Washford,] “Washford” seems to have been the ancient name of Wexford. R. Compton, in his “Mansion of Magnanimitie,” 1599, which contains verses upon Talbot, speaking of his titles, calls him earl of Washford.

Note return to page 88 2For God's sake, let him have 'em;] The folios, 1623 and 1632, and the subsequent folios, have him for “'em” or them. Theobald introduced the change, in consistency with the sense and with the same alteration six lines lower, which was made in the folio, 1632.

Note return to page 89 [3] Act v. Scene i.] In the folio, 1623, the acts and scenes are usually correctly marked; but here, what we must consider the commencement of A. v. is only called Scena Secunda.

Note return to page 90 4Enter a Scout.] So called in the stage-direction to the old copies: “Scout” designates his particular employment, and he was not a mere messenger, as he is termed in modern editions. He is also called Scout in the prefixes.

Note return to page 91 5&lblank; ye charming spells, and periapts;] “Periapts,” or amulets, were worn about the neck as preservatives from disease or danger. Of these, the first chapter of St. John's gospel was deemed the most efficacious. See Reginald Scott's “Discovery of Witchcraft,” 1584, p. 230, &c.

Note return to page 92 6&lblank; La Pucelle and York fight hand to hand.] In the old stage-direction we are told, “Burgundy and York fight hand to hand.” It is clearly an error, as Burgundy is not on the stage.

Note return to page 93 7Fell, banning hag!] To “ban” was very commonly used as a synonime to curse. It is from the Sax. abannan.

Note return to page 94 8I kiss these fingers [Kissing her hand] for eternal peace, And lay them gently on thy tender side.] Malone and others transpose these lines, but without necessity: Somerset takes the lady Margaret's hand, which was hanging down by her side, and when he has kissed it, he restores it to its place again. Such is Mr. Knight's view of the passage.

Note return to page 95 9Keeping them prisoners underneath her wings.] The folio, 1623, has prisoner and his: the folio, 1632, only corrects his to hir, (for which it was a misprint, her of old having been frequently spelt hir,) and the folio, 1664, gives both words rightly.

Note return to page 96 1Hast not a tongue? is she not here thy prisoner?] The words “thy prisoner” are from the second folio, and they are clearly necessary to the sense. Some modern editors have inserted “thy prisoner” without notice, as if the first folio had not been defective.

Note return to page 97 2&lblank; a wooden thing.] An awkward business, (says Steevens,) an undertaking not likely to succeed. The epithet “wooden” was often so applied.

Note return to page 98 3If thou wilt condescend to be my—] Steevens with plausibility supposed that the words “be my,” in all the folios, were an interpolation, and that the incomplete sentence of Suffolk ended at “to.” The change is certainly an improvement of the measure, and gives a more delicate turn to the sense. In our text, however, we adhere to the old copies.

Note return to page 99 4&lblank; modestly&lblank;] First folio, modesty. Corrected by the editor of the second folio.

Note return to page 100 5&lblank; such peevish tokens&lblank;] i. e. Such silly or trifling tokens. See Vol. ii. p. 150. 162; Vol. iii. p. 348; Vol. iv. p. 286. 523.

Note return to page 101 6Mad, natural graces&lblank;] So the old copies; and Steevens explains “mad” as wild, with appearance of probability. Monck Mason would convert “mad” into and; but surely, if change be required, Mid is much nearer the letters and the sense: then, the passage would run, “Bethink thee on her virtues, that surmount, Mid natural graces that extinguish art. [Notes and Emendations to the 1632 Folio]11Q0714” However, as a clear meaning is to be collected from the text of the folios, we are not warranted in introducing the alteration. The Rev. Mr. Barry prefers Made, the reading of the folio 1632, to “Mad.”

Note return to page 102 7Decrepit miser!] “Miser” is of course here employed in its etymological sense, and it was not uncommon so to use it at the period.

Note return to page 103 8&lblank; that thou wilt be so obstacle!] In various writers of the time of Shakespeare, and earlier, “obstacle” was used for obstinate. Steevens produces instances from Chapman's “May-Day,” 1611, and Chettle's “Hoffman,” printed in 1631, but written about 30 years earlier: other proofs might be found without much difficulty.

Note return to page 104 9No; misconceived Joan of Arc hath been A virgin from her tender infancy,] Malone, Steevens, and other modern editors, strangely point this passage as follows:— “No, misconceived! Joan of Arc hath been,” &c. and add in a note, that “misconceived” is to be understood misconceivers; when in fact the meaning merely and clearly is, that Joan asserts that she has herself been mistaken and “misconceived,” as she is not what she has been supposed to be. Capell boldly inserted misconceivers, as if it were Shakespeare's text.

Note return to page 105 1Whereas the contrary bringeth bliss,] The second folio reads, “bringeth forth bliss,” but the line reads as well without the word as with it; not, however, supposing, with Malone, that the word “contrary” was meant by Shakespeare to be pronounced conterary. Forth is clearly surplusage, as regards the poet's meaning.

Note return to page 106 “The second Part of Henry the Sixt, with the death of the Good Duke Hvmfrey,” was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies twenty-seven pages; viz. from p. 120 to p. 146 inclusive,in the division of “Histories.” It fills the same place in the subsequent folio impressions.

Note return to page 107 1&lblank; twenty reverend bishops,] So Holinshed, and Hall whom he copied. The quarto, 1600, of “The First Part of the Contention,” reads erroneously, “and then the reverend bishops;” but the edition 1619 of the same play corrects it to “twenty,” as in the chroniclers.

Note return to page 108 2With you mine alderlievest sovereign,] “Alderlievest” is a compound word, which does not occur in “The First Part of the Contention,” where the whole speech is different. It is derived from alder or aller, as Tyrwhitt states, the genitive case plural, and the superlative of lieve; it means, dearest of all. The Germans still use the word allerliebst. In English, “alderlievest” is met with in Gascoigne, and in Marston; but the latter gives it to his Dutch Courtesan, who may be supposed to use it as her native word: it is by no means of frequent occurrence.

Note return to page 109 P. 110.&lblank; With you mine alderliefest sovereign.] In the curious tract, “The Cobbler of Canterbury,” 1590, we have the same word in the comparative degree:— “An alderliefer swaine, I weene, In the barge there was not scene.” Skelton uses “alderbest” in the sense of best of all.

Note return to page 110 3&lblank; and delivered to the king her father] In the quarto “Contention,” Gloster breaks off at the first syllable of the word “father,” and a stage-direction is added, “Duke Humphrey lets it fall.” No such intimation is given in the folio, 1623, and we are to suppose that Winchester picks up the treaty, and that the king, in consequence, requires him to continue the perusal of it. There is a verbal variation between what Gloster has read, as part of the document, and the words Winchester reads. Possibly it was not meant that Gloster should give the exact words, on account of the state of his mind; but still he is more particular than Winchester.

Note return to page 111 4And was his highness in his infancy Crowned in Paris, in despite of foes?] We have substituted “was” for hath of the folio, 1623: we have thought this slight change, of one auxiliary verb for another, preferable to the insertion of been in the second line, before “crowned,” which is of course to be read as a dissyllable, and is so printed in all the old copies, showing the line to be complete. Steevens, and other modern editors, add a new word, instead of merely correcting one already found in the original text.

Note return to page 112 5&lblank; where kings and queens were crown'd;] Modern editors have substituted are for “were,” against all authority.

Note return to page 113 6Sir John!] i. e. Sir John Hume: he was a priest, and to persons of his profession the title of “sir” was of old frequently applied. See “Twelfth-Night,” Vol. iii. p. 393. In Davenport's “New Trick to cheat the Devil,” 1639, we meet with this expression:—“Sir me no sirs: I am no knight or churchman.”

Note return to page 114 7With Margery Jourdain,] It appears, (says Douce, Illustr. of Shakesp. ii. 7,) from Rymer's “Fœdera,” vol. x. p. 505, that in the tenth year of King Henry the Sixth, Margery Jourdemayn, John Virley, clerk, and friar John Ashwell, were, on the ninth of May, 1433, brought from Windsor by the constable of the castle, to which they had been committed for sorcery, before the council at Westminster, and afterwards, by an order of council, delivered into the custody of the lord chancellor. The same day it was ordered by the lords of council, that whenever the said Virley and Ashwell should find security for their good behaviour, they should be set at liberty; and in like manner that Jourdemayn should be discharged on her husband's finding security. This woman was afterwards burned in Smithfield, as stated in the play, and also in the chronicles.

Note return to page 115 8Sort it will,] i. e. Let it happen as it will: an etymological use of the word “sort” very common in our old writers.

Note return to page 116 9&lblank; our supplications in the quill.] i. e. Our petitions written with a quill. Such, from what follows, seems to be the meaning of this disputed expression. Tollet contended that “in the quill” was with great exactness, in the same way as, after the invention of printing, in print was employed.

Note return to page 117 1That my master was?] The old copy has mistress for “master,” an error occasioned, no doubt, by master having been denoted in the MS. from which this play was printed merely by the letter M. It may be worth while here to insert the reading of the quarto, “First Part of the Contention,” &c., as in some degree it confirms Malone's alteration of mistress to “master.” Peter is there called, in the prefixes, Peter Hump. “Peter Hump. Mary, sir, I come to tell you that my master said that the duke of Yorke was true heire unto the crowne, and that the king was an usurer. “Queene. An usurper, thou wouldst say. “Peter. Yea forsooth, an usurper. “Queene. Didst thou say the king was an usurper? “Peter. No forsooth; I said my master said so, th' other day, when we were scouring the duke of Yorkes armour in our garret.” In the old copies, quarto and folio, Peter is called “the armourer's man” in the stage-direction:—“Enter three or four Petitioners, the Armourer's man being one.”

Note return to page 118 2I would, the college of the cardinals] Malone omits “the,” to the destruction of the metre, as it stands in the folio, 1623. There is no corresponding line in the quarto.

Note return to page 119 3&lblank; base-born callat&lblank;] “Callat” was a term of abuse applied to women of frequent occurrence in almost every writer of the time of Shakespeare, as well as considerably earlier. See, for its supposed etymology, “The Winter's Tale,” Vol. iii. p. 466, note 2.

Note return to page 120 4Then let him be denay'd the regentship.] To employ the verb “to denay” for to deny was not unusual. In “Twelfth Night,” Vol. iii. p. 364, we have “denay” used as a substantive, which some editors seem to have confounded with the verb.

Note return to page 121 5To give his censure.] “Censure” was of old generally used merely in the sense of opinion or decision.

Note return to page 122 6She shall not strike dame Eleanor unreveng'd.] We give this part of the scene as it stands in “The First Part of the Contention,” &c. It is to be observed, that it there follows the commitment of York. “The Queene lets fall her glove, and hits the Dutchess of Gloster a boxe on the eare. “Queene. Give me my glove: why, minnion, can you not see! [She strikes her. I cry you mercy, madame, I did mistake. I did not think it had been you. “Elnor. Did you not, prowd French-woman? Could I come neare your daintie visage with my nails, I'de set my ten commandments in your face. “King. Be pacient, gentle aunt: It was against her will. “Elnor. Against her will! good king, sheele dandle thee, If thou wilt alwaies thus be rulde by her. But let it rest: as sure as I do live, She shall not strike dame Elnor unrevengede. [Exit Elnor. “King. Beleeve me, love, thou wert much too blame. I would not for a thousand pounds of gold, My noble uncle had been here in place!”

Note return to page 123 7She's tickled now; her fume can need no spurs,] “Can” is from the second folio: it probably dropped out in the press.

Note return to page 124 8She'll gallop far enough&lblank;] So all the old copies, and very intelligibly: had any change been necessary, it would probably have been introduced by the editor of the second folio, who corrected the preceding line. Pope changed “far” to fast, and most modern editors have followed his reading.

Note return to page 125 9I humbly thank your royal majesty.] The quarto “Contention” contains here a good deal omitted in the folio as unnecessary, and, among other passages, two lines by the king, concurring in the appointment of Somerset. As Malone suggested, we have only to suppose that the king's assent to Gloster's proposal was signified by a nod, and Somerset's expression of gratitude will be accounted for.

Note return to page 126 1Enter Margery Jourdain,] Bolingbroke calls her “mother Jordan” in the folio; but in the stage-directions and in the prefixes, she is only styled “witch.”

Note return to page 127 2First of the king: what shall of him become?] The modern editors here insert “Reading out of a paper;” but it is wanting in the old copies, and is not necessary: a needless multiplication of stage-directions is always to be avoided. Malone objects that Bolingbroke reads, and not Southwell, who had been told by Bolingbroke to read; but what Southwell was to read was the charm, Conjuro te, &c. We need not suppose that Bolingbroke's questions were written in the first instance, though Southwell must have written down both Bolingbroke's questions and the answers of the spirit, as Buckingham afterwards seizes and reads them.

Note return to page 128 3These oracles are hardly attain'd, And hardly understood.] This is the regulation of the verse, as far as verse it can be called, of the old copies: the meaning is, that it has been hard to attain the oracles, and hard to understand them. Theobald altered the first “hardly” to hardily, but obviously without any improvement, and as if he “hardly understood” the sense of the passage.

Note return to page 129 4Queen Margaret,] “With her hawk on her fist,” is the direction of the quarto, “Contention;” showing the particularity with which such matters were sometimes attended to on our old stage, and as an ocular proof to the audience that the royal party were engaged in hawking. The folio, 1623, omits the words; and possibly when the play was acted, as it is there printed, the queen had no “hawk on her fist.”

Note return to page 130 5Cardinal, I am with you.] This is Theobald's judicious distribution of the dialogue: in the folio this and the two preceding speeches are given to Gloster, which introduces confusion, and spoils the effect of the scene.

Note return to page 131 6Enter one, crying, “A Miracle!”] Such is the stage-direction in the quarto and folio editions, and it is needless to modernize it to “Enter an Inhabitant of St. Albans, crying, A Miracle.”

Note return to page 132 7&lblank; and his Brethren;] The quarto stage-direction adds “with music,” omitted in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 133 8Simpcox, come;] The “Contention” gives no names, but calls this impostor “Poor Man” in the prefixes: the folio has Simpc. before what he says, and his real name was Saunder or Alexander Simcox. Here, however, in the folio he speaks of himself as Simon, “Simon, come;” which was probably a mere misprint for “Simcox.” Simon was the reading till the time of Theobald.

Note return to page 134 9&lblank; that cunning to be great,] The folio reads “it cunning to be great,” &c.

Note return to page 135 1A sort of naughty persons, lewdly bent,] i. e. A company of naughty persons wickedly inclined. See Vol. ii. p. 427; iv. 190; and Vol. ii. p. 267; iv. 115.

Note return to page 136 2Your lady is forthcoming yet at London.] i. e. In custody, and ready to be “forthcoming.”

Note return to page 137 3Edward the third's fifth son, son.] So the old copies, and very intelligibly; though modern editors have not scrupled, without notice, to change the place of “son,” putting it before the words “to Edmond Langley.”

Note return to page 138 4&lblank; govern England's realm.] The folio, 1623, reads realm, which may possibly have been an error of the press, as Johnson and all modern editors have treated it by substituting helm; but the change is not at all necessary for the sense, and the folio, 1632, reprints the folio, 1623, as if the original text were right. We have therefore made no alteration. See p. 159 for two lines ending with the same word.

Note return to page 139 5This staff of honour raught:] “Raught” is usually taken as the old preterite of to reach, and so we have seen it used in Vol. ii. p. 326, and Vol. iv. p. 548; but here, as Ritson remarks, it seems to be taken as that part of the verb to reave or bereave, which is usually printed reft and bereft. This mode of employing the word is not unprecedented.

Note return to page 140 6Lords, let him go.] i. e. Dismiss him from your thoughts.

Note return to page 141 7&lblank; here's a cup of charneco.] “Charneco,” or “Charnico,” is a species of wine, named from the place of its manufacture near Lisbon. It is mentioned by many comic writers of the time of Shakespeare.

Note return to page 142 8&lblank; have at thee with a downright blow.] After these words modern editors have introduced “as Bevis of Southampton fell upon Ascapart,” from the quarto of “The First Part of the Contention,” &c. But there are many passages much more important, sometimes to the extent of ten or twelve lines, omitted in the folio, which we should be without excuse for leaving out in our text, if we did not exclude this needless reference to the old romance. The presumption of course is, that Shakespeare himself rejected it.

Note return to page 143 9Uneath may she endure&lblank;] “Uneath” is scarcely, or not easily; from un and eath, easy.

Note return to page 144 1With envious looks laughing at thy shame;] Envy and envious are often used by our old writers for hatred and hateful, or malicious. The editor of the folio, 1632, inserted the word still in the middle of this line; but it is not found either in the folio, 1623, or in the old “Contention,” from which Shakespeare adopted the line without alteration.

Note return to page 145 2&lblank; with verses written upon her back,] This part of the stage-direction is derived from the quarto “Contention.” It is omitted in the folio; and modern editors, by substituting papers for “verses,” have left it doubtful what kind of papers were fixed upon the dress of the duchess. Besides, they tell us that the “papers” were “pinned upon her back,” which may have been the case, but no existing authority states it.

Note return to page 146 3And ban thine enemies,] i. e. And curse thine enemies: to “ban” and to curse were synonymous; from the Sax. abannan. See also p. 175.

Note return to page 147 4Mail'd up in shame,] In “Love's Labour's Lost,” Vol. ii. p. 312, we have had mail or male used for a bag or wallet; and Johnson tells us, that “Mail'd up in shame” means “wrapped up, bundled up in disgrace.” Possibly, however, “mail” is here to be taken in the sense of armour, as if the shame of the duchess inclosed her like a coat of mail.

Note return to page 148 5Entreat her not the worse,] “Entreat” was frequently put for treat, especially when, as here, a syllable was wanted in order to complete the line. See Vol. iv. p. 161.

Note return to page 149 6A Sennet.] The etymology of “sennet” has been disputed, but it certainly meant a sounding of trumpets, and may have been derived from the Fr. sonner, and perhaps ought strictly to have been spelt sonnet, but altered to sennet for the sake of distinction. It is a term constantly used by our early dramatists in their stage-directions, and it is variously spelt by our old printers. In Marlowe's “Edward II.” and in “Jeronymo,” it is given signate, which might lead us to a different derivation of the word. In “Henry VIII.” A. ii. sc. 4, the stage-direction begins, “Trumpets Sennet and Cornets.” In the folio, 1623, the word is printed sennet or senet.

Note return to page 150 7If it be fond,] i. e. foolish or weak. See Vol. ii. p. 37. 92, &c.; and Vol. iii. p. 30. 320. So, farther on in this scene, we have “fond affiance,” used by Queen Margaret for foolish confidence.

Note return to page 151 8Yet, by reputing of his high descent,] The meaning of “reputing” here seems to be valuing himself upon his high descent.

Note return to page 152 9For he's inclin'd as is the ravenous wolf] The old reading is wolves; but we have had “dove,” “raven,” and “lamb,” just above in the singular, and the verb “is,” in the same number, shows that we ought to read “wolf.” Nevertheless, modern editors prefer wolves, and change “is” to are.

Note return to page 153 1But I will remedy this gear ere long,] “Gear” is generally used for matter or affair. See “Merchant of Venice,” Vol. ii. p. 479.

Note return to page 154 2Well, Suffolk, yet thou shalt not see me blush,] So the second folio, to remedy the defective metre. The quarto “Contention” has “Suffolk's duke,” &c., which, as Steevens observes, is perhaps too respectful an address under the circumstances.

Note return to page 155 3My liefest liege&lblank;] i. e. My dearest liege. See p. 110 of this volume.

Note return to page 156 4And all to make away my guiltless life.] This line is omitted in Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell.

Note return to page 157 5The ancient proverb will be well effected,] i. e. well carried into effect: modern editors read affected, which, in the language of the time, meant beloved. In proof that our interpretation is correct, it may be stated that “The First Part of the Contention” reads perform'd for “effected.”

Note return to page 158 6Which mates him first,] To mate is to destroy or confound, and in that sense it is often used by Shakespeare, as well as by Greene, Peele, Drayton, &c. See Vol. ii. p. 142.

Note return to page 159 7It skills not&lblank;] An idiomatic phrase for “it matters not,” or “it does not signify.” See Vol. iii. p. 416.

Note return to page 160 8&lblank; a quick expedient stop!] “Expedient” is constantly used by Shakespeare for expeditious. See Vol. iii. p. 46; and Vol. iv. p. 19. 134.

Note return to page 161 9&lblank; kernes of Ireland] Irish peasants were called “kernes,” but here they mean light-armed foot-soldiers.

Note return to page 162 1&lblank; mad-bred flaw.] “Flaw” is a violent gust of wind. Cotgrave, in his French Dict., translates lis de vent, “a gust or flaw of wind;” and Florio, in his Italian Dict. 1598, renders groppo divento, “a flaw or berrie of wind.” In his second edit. 1611, it is to be remarked that Florio omits the word flaw.

Note return to page 163 2&lblank; like a wild Morisco,] Or, as he was familiarly termed, a Morris-dancer. Moresco is Italian for a Moor, and the Morris-dance has been supposed to be the same as the Tripudium Mauritanicum. Morris-dancing is still kept up in some parts of the country, especially in Warwickshire and Gloucestershire.

Note return to page 164 3Enter certain Murderers, hastily.] The stage-direction in the folio is this: —“Enter two or three running over the stage, from the murder of Duke Humphrey.” According to the quarto “Contention,” the murder was first exhibited in dumb show before the audience. The stage-direction, and what immediately follows it, are there thus given:— “Then the curtaines being drawne, Duke Humphrey is discovered in his bed, and two men lying on his brest, and smothering him in his bed; and then enter the Duke of Suffolke to them. “Suff. How now, sirs! what, have you dispatcht him? “One. Yea, my lord: he is dead, I warrant you. “Suff. Then see the clothes laid smooth about him stil, That when the king comes, he may perceive No other, but that he dide of his owne accord. “2. All things is handsome now, my lord. “Suff. Then draw the curtaines againe, and get you gone, And you shal have your firm reward anon. “[Exeunt Murderers.”

Note return to page 165 4I thank thee, Meg;] In the folio, 1623, where this line is first found, it is printed, “I thank thee, Nell,” &c., which certainly suits the metre, but not the person, the queen's name being Margaret. It seems most likely that Nell was misprinted for Meg., the abbreviation of Margaret; but at the same time it is to be observed, that in the queen's speech in this scene, Eleanor is thrice put for “Margaret,” the same error having run through it by the carelessness of the transcriber; but in those places Eleanor suits the line as well as Margaret. Theobald would read, “I thank thee well,” for “I thank thee, Nell;” but it is so obvious a mistake, that we have had little hesitation in substituting “Meg” for Margaret, the insertion of the name at length spoiling the verse.

Note return to page 166 5Erect his statue, and worship it,] We must recollect that “statue” was sometimes pronounced as three syllables. Modern editors, forgetting this, have all conspired to interpolate then into this line, after “statue,” without the slightest authority or notice. All the old editions are without it.

Note return to page 167 6To sit and witch me, as Ascanius did,] The folio, 1623, has watch; but the misprint is detected (as Theobald pointed out) in the next line but two, “Am I not witch'd like her?” According to Virgil, as every body is aware, Ascanius did not witch Dido, but Cupid in the shape of Ascanius. In “The Tragedie of Dido,” by Marlowe and Nash, Act iii., the scene is represented according to the description given by Virgil, Æneid, lib. i.: Anna there says, speaking of Cupid disguised, “Looke, sister, how Æneas little sonne Playes with your garments, and imbraceth you.” Sign. C. 3. Edit. 1594. It is singular, therefore, that the error in the text of Shakespeare should have been committed, seeing that even in a popular drama of the time the scene was accurately exhibited.

Note return to page 168 7Warwick goes into an inner room,] In the simplicity of our old stage the different apartments were only separated by a curtain; therefore, in the quarto “Contention,” the stage-direction is, “Warwick draws the curtains, and shows Duke Humphrey in his bed.”

Note return to page 169 8&lblank; Warwick and others standing by it.] In the quarto “Contention,” there is here no new stage-direction; but in the folio we have merely “Bed put forth.” Malone and others inform us that the stage-direction in the folio is, “A bed with Gloster's body put forth;” but there is no authority for the words in Italic, one modern editor seeming to have taken the word of another in this instance, without reference even to the folio, 1623. In the quarto edition of the “Contention” it was unnecessary to put forth a bed, because Warwick, by drawing the curtains at the back of the stage, had discovered duke Humphrey's body to the king already.

Note return to page 170 9Exeunt Suffolk and Warwick.] The stage-direction in the quarto “Contention,” is inserted after the line, “Away even now, or I will drag thee hence,” and it is, “Warwick pulls him out.”

Note return to page 171 1Thrice is he arm'd, that hath his quarrel just;] Here again the commentators would make out, that Shakespeare was indebted to what they call “Marlowe's Lust's Dominion,” in the following passage:— “Come, Moor: I'm arm'd with more than complete steel, The justice of my quarrel,”— Had they read “Lust's Dominion” with any attention, they would have seen that it could not have been written at least until five years after Marlowe's death. See Vol. iv. p. 98, note 5. The authors of “Lust's Dominion,” in fact, imitated Shakespeare, if there were any imitation.

Note return to page 172 2A Noise within.] So the folio, 1623; but the quarto “Contention” is more explanatory: “Then all the Commons within cry, Down with Suffolk! down with Suffolk! And then enter again the duke of Suffolk, and Warwick, with their weapons drawn.”

Note return to page 173 3&lblank; whe'r you will or no,] Printed where in the folio. See Vol. ii. p. 149.

Note return to page 174 4Sent from a sort of tinkers&lblank;] i. e. A company, or body of tinkers. See Vol. ii. p. 427, Vol. iv. p. 190.

Note return to page 175 5Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan,] Reed made the following apposite quotation from Bulleine's “Bulwarke of Defence against Sickness,” &c. fol. 1579, p. 41; speaking of Mandragora, he says: “They do affyrme that this herbe cometh of the seede of some convicted dead men: and also without the death of some lyvinge thinge it cannot be drawen out of the earth to man's use. Therefore, they did tye some dogge or other lyving beast unto the roote thereof with a corde, and digged the earth in compasse round about, and in the meane tyme stopped their own eares for feare of the terrible shriek and cry of this Mandrack. In whych cry it doth not only dye itselfe, but the feare thereof kylleth the dogge or beast which pulleth it out of the earth.”

Note return to page 176 6I'll have an Iris&lblank;] i. e. a messenger.

Note return to page 177 7The Cardinal in bed;] The stage-direction in the quarto “First Part of the Contention,” runs thus:—“Enter King and Salisbury; and then the curtaines be drawne, and the Cardinall is discovered in his bed, raving and staring as if he were mad.” The folio only has, “Enter the King, Salisbury, and Warwick, to the Cardinall in bed.”

Note return to page 178 8Then enter from a Boat, a Captain,] In the folio, 1623, he is called only a Lieutenant: in the quarto “Contention,” a “Captain.”

Note return to page 179 9Clip dead men's graves,] i. e. Embrace dead men's graves, in the sense of overshadowing them. See Vol. iii. p. 533; and Vol. iv. p. 85. The word is employed by our oldest writers.

Note return to page 180 1Be counterpois'd with such a petty sum?] This seems to be an interrogation, as much as to ask, “Can the lives,” &c. Malone altered the text to an assertion, that the lives, &c. cannot be counterpois'd. Cannot is not found in any of the folios, nor does it appear to be wanted. The quarto “Contention” has no corresponding passage.

Note return to page 181 2And told me, that by water I should die:] The quarto “Contention,” loses the point by printing Walter instead of “water.” The mistake is corrected in the edition of the same play, 1619. See Act i. sc. 4, for the prophecy to which Suffolk alludes.

Note return to page 182 3Jove sometime went disguis'd, and why not I?] This line, necessary to the congruity of the dialogue, is derived from the quarto “First Part of the Contention,” &c. sign. F. 2.

Note return to page 183 4Obscure and lowly swain, king Henry's blood,] In all the folios, this line is assigned to the captain: it certainly belongs to Suffolk; and the word “lowly” is misprinted lowsy: the quarto “Contention” has the words “lowly swain,” but not as part of this line.

Note return to page 184 5Poole?] This name, and the preceding “Yes, Poole” are from the quarto “Contention,” and are clearly necessary to the sense.

Note return to page 185 6&lblank; are rising&lblank;] The folio, “and rising.” Corrected by Rowe.

Note return to page 186 7&lblank; whose hopeful colours Advance our half-fac'd sun,] ldquo;Edward III.” according to Camden's Remains, “bare for his device the rays of the sun dispersing themselves out of a cloud.”

Note return to page 187 8Than Bargulus the strong Illyrian pirate.] “Bargulus, Illyrius latro, de quo est, apud Theopompum, magnas opes habuit.” Hist. Theopomp. lib. ii. cap. xi. as quoted by Warburton. For “Bargulus” of the folio we have another hero in the quarto “Contention.” The captain, says Suffolk, “Threatens more plagues than mighty Abradas, The great Macedonian pirate.” Abradas is mentioned by Greene, in his “Penelope's Web,” of which the only known edition bears date in 1601, but no doubt it was printed about ten years earlier. This circumstance remotely connects the old play with Greene. See the Introduction to the third part of “Henry VI.”

Note return to page 188 9Thy words move rage, and not remorse, in me:] Malone tells us that in the “original play,” the “First Part of the Contention,” this line is assigned to the captain, and he objects to Shakespeare's judgment in depriving him of it, and giving it to Suffolk: other commentators have remarked upon the same circumstance, without referring to the “original play,” or they would have seen that the line there forms part of Suffolk's speech, as in the folio, 1623. It is difficult to account for Malone's blunder, and the implicit adoption of it by Steevens and Boswell.

Note return to page 189 1Cap. Walter!—— Whit. Come, Suffolk, I must waft thee to thy death.] This passage, in the folio, 1623, stands thus:— “Lieu. Water: W. Come, Suffolk,” &c. The captain or lieutenant calls “Walter,” misprinted Water, and the capital W was intended to mark the commencement of Whitmore's speech.

Note return to page 190 2Penè gelidus timor occupat artus:] “Penè” is misprinted Pine in the folio, 1623; and as the editor of the folio, 1632, could make nothing of the word, he omitted it. The author of this scrap of Latin, which is not in the quarto “Contention,” has not been pointed out: Malone substituted Penè for Pine.

Note return to page 191 3Come, soldiers, show what cruelty ye can,] Although this line is assigned to the lieutenant, there can be no doubt that the prefix has been misplaced, and that it belongs to Suffolk. The sense, which clearly runs on, does not however appear to have detected the error until the time of Sir Thomas Hammer.

Note return to page 192 4&lblank; vile bezonians:] ”Bezonians” are low needy persons. See Vol. iv. p. 451, note 9.

Note return to page 193 5&lblank; and Others in great number.] “With infinite numbers says the folio, very unusually; but we are to suppose it to mean as many as the company could afford to send on as rebels.

Note return to page 194 6—for our enemies shall fall before us,] Alluding to his name, Cade, as if derived from the Latin cado. “A cade of herrings,” mentioned by Dick, the butcher, was a cask, (cadus, Lat.) smaller than a barrel, and containing six hundred herrings.

Note return to page 195 7They use to write it on the top of letters;] i. e. Of letters missive, and similar public acts. It was also not uncommon, in the time of Shakespeare, and earlier, to put the name of the Saviour, or a small cross, at the commencement of private letters.

Note return to page 196 8&lblank; I pass not;] An idiomatic phrase of the time for I care not, or I pay them no regard. It was in frequent use. In the quarto “Contention” the words are “I pass not a pin.”

Note return to page 197 9&lblank; for thereby is England maimed,] The folio has main'd, which may be right, Cade intending to joke upon the name of Maine. The quarto “Contention,” however, reads “maimed,” and it introduces Anjou as well as Maine; so that no such play upon the word was intended there.

Note return to page 198 1Come: march! forward!] In the old “Contention,” Jack Cade makes no speech to his followers, but goes out exclaming “Come, sirs: Saint George for us and Kent.”

Note return to page 199 2The Lent shall be as long again as it is, and thou shalt have a license to kill for a hundred, lacking one.] Malone added a week after “lacking one,” because it is found in the quarto “Contention;” but it rather obscures than explains the meaning, which has reference to the prohibition of butchers to kill flesh-meat during Lent, from which, for his services, Dick was to be exempted. The words of the quarto “Contention” are:—“Thus I will reward thee: the Lent shall be as long again as it was: thou shall have license to kill for four-score and one a week.” This would seem to give Dick a right to kill for four-score and one persons every week.

Note return to page 200 3This monument of the victory will I bear;] Cade must be supposed to put on part of Stafford's armour. Holinshed tells us, “Jack Cade, upon his victory against the Staffords, appareled himself in Sir Humphrey's brigandine, set full of gilt nails, and so in some glory returned again toward London.”

Note return to page 201 4&lblank; be betray'd.] “Be,” accidentally omitted in the first folio, was supplied by the editor of the second folio.

Note return to page 202 5&lblank; and Matthew Gough is slain.] The not very intelligible stage-direction of the folio is, “Alarums. Matthew Gough [spelt Goffe] is slain and all the rest. Then enter Jack Cade with his company.” According to this direction, Gough and his followers were slain before the arrival of Cade and the rebels: the same remark will apply to the stage-direction in the quarto “Contention.”

Note return to page 203 6&lblank; one and twenty fifteens,] The following is from Holinshed:—“This capteine (Cade) assured them, that if either by force or policy they might get the king and queene into their hands, he would cause them to be honourably used, and take such order for the punishing and reforming of the misdemeanours of their bad councellours, that neither fifteens should hereafter be demanded, nor anie impositions or taxes be spoken of.” This reference to “fifteens” is not in the quarto “Contention.”

Note return to page 204 7&lblank; thou hast caused printing to be used;] “Printing” was not “used” in this country until about the year 1470. It was only an anachronism of twenty years.

Note return to page 205 8Thou dost ride in a foot-cloth,] A “foot-cloth” was a kind of housing which covered the body of the horse, and almost reached to the ground.

Note return to page 206 9Is term'd the civil'st place of all this isle:] Cæsar's Comment. b. v.: “Ex his omnibus sunt humanissimi qui Cantium incolunt.” The passage is thus translated by Arthur Golding in 1565 (not 1590, as the date is given by Steevens): “Of all the inhabitants of this isle, the civilest are the Kentishfolke.” In Lily's “Euphues and his England,” 1580, we read “Of all the inhabitants of this isle the Kentish-men are the civilest.”

Note return to page 207 1When have I aught exacted at your hands, Kent, to maintain the king, the realm, and you?] We cannot perceive the difficulty in this passage which some of the commentators have found. Lord Say is addressing a multitude from Kent, and he asks them, speaking of them collectively as Kent, when he had exacted aught for the maintenance of the king, &c. Johnson recommended the substitution of But for “Kent;” but the question is, when Say had exacted anything, even to maintain the king, &c. If he had asked, “When have I aught exacted at your hands, But to maintain the king,” &c. it would have been an acknowledgment that he had been guilty of exaction, which would have exposed him to the fury of the rebels.

Note return to page 208 2Ye shall have a hempen caudle, then, and the help of hatchet.] In “Love's Labour's Lost,” Vol. ii. p. 338, “caudle” is misprinted candle, and the same error occurs here, from the turning of the letter u, in the folio, 1623: “a hempen candle” can have no meaning. The words “help of hatchet” have been disputed, and Dr. Farmer contended that they ought to be “pap of a hatchet:” Steevens and various modern editors have adopted his opinion, on the ground that “pap with a hatchet” was a phrase of the time, and had been employed by Lily, in the title to a tract he published about 1589. But the phrase was “pap with a hatchet,” and not “pap of a hatchet.” The “help of hatchet” is quite intelligible, and is the reading of all the old copies. We feel therefore bound to retain it in the text.

Note return to page 209 3Of Gallowglasses, &c.] “The galloglasse,” says Stanihurst, in his “Description of Ireland,” as quoted by Bowle, “useth a kind of pollax for his weapon. These men are grim of countenance, tall of stature, big of limme, and lusty of body, wel and strongly timbered. The kerne is an ordinary souldier, using for weapon his sword and target, and sometimes his peece, being commonly good markmen. Kerne signifieth a shower of hell, because they are taken for no better than for rake-hells, or the devils blacke garde.”

Note return to page 210 4I pray thee, Buckingham, go and meet him,] Modern editors have interpolated forth into this line, without warrant from any old authority.

Note return to page 211 5Fie on ambition!] The folio, 1623, has ambitions. Instead of the soliloquy with which the present scene begins in the folio, the quarto “Contention” has only this stage-direction: “Enter Jack Cade at one door, and at the other Master Alexander Eyden and his men; and Jack Cade lies down picking of herbs, and eating them.”

Note return to page 212 6&lblank; this word sallet was born to do me good:] Cade puns upon the word “sallet,” which meant a helmet as well as a composition of herbs. The same joke occurs in the Interlude of “Thersites,” written in 1537. The hero applies to Mulciber for a suit of armour, and among other things mentions a “sallet:” Mulciber pretends to misunderstand Thersites:— “Thersites. Nowe, I pray Jupiter that thou dye a cuckold: I mean a sallet with which men do fyght. “Mulciber. It is a small tastinge of a mannes might, That he should for any matter Fyght with a fewe herbes in a platter.” The same play upon the word “sallet” forms the point of a jest in the “Sackfull of News,” mentioned by Laneham, in his Letter from Kenilworth, 1575, although no copy of the “Sackfull of News” earlier than 1673 has yet been discovered. It contains several stories, highly characteristic of the age when they were written, more than a century before the date of the copy to which we refer.

Note return to page 213 7&lblank; by others' waning;] The old copies have “others' warning,” corrected by Pope. In the preceding line, is must be understood: to insert it, with Rowe, spoils the metre.

Note return to page 214 8I beseech Jove on my knees,] So the folio, which in this play is of course to be followed, in preference to any of the imperfect quarto copies of the “Contention:” in the editions of 1594 and 1600, it stands, “I beseech God;” and in the later impression, merely, “I would thou might'st,” &c.

Note return to page 215 9&lblank; his Forces at some distance.] The old stage-direction of the folio is “Enter York and his army of Irish, with drum and colours.”

Note return to page 216 1O Buckingham,] “O,” which is not in the folio, 1623, was added by the editor of the folio, 1632. We may presume, perhaps, that it had dropped out in the press at the beginning of the line.

Note return to page 217 2&lblank; first let me ask of thee, If they can brook I bow a knee to man?] Thus all the old copies, and the sense seems to be, “first let me ask of thee, Somerset, if they (i. e. his sons, mentioned in the next line) can brook that I should bow a knee to man?” Theobald substituted these for “thee,” and modern editors have followed him, some with and some without notice that it was a variation from the authentic text. To Mr. Amyot I owe the suggestion that no alteration is required.

Note return to page 218 3As crooked in thy manners as thy shape!] In the stage-direction of the quarto “Contention,” he is called “crook-back Richard” on his entrance.

Note return to page 219 4&lblank; for death, or dignity.] The folio reads, “and dignity.” The necessary emendation was made by Pope.

Note return to page 220 5Might I but know thee by thy household badge.] These four lines are exactly the same in the folio as in the quarto, excepting that the former has housed for “household” of the latter. “Household” is of course right, and housed a misprint. The editor of the second folio substituted house's for housed of the first folio.

Note return to page 221 6Foul stigmatic,] “A stigmatic (says Steevens) is one on whom nature has set a mark of deformity, a stigma.” “Stigmatic” also signified a person who has been branded with a hot iron for some crime. Richard is again called “stigmatic” in “Henry VI.” part iii. Act ii. sc. 2.

Note return to page 222 7Hath made the wizard famous in his death.] Referring to the prophecy in Act i. sc. 4, of this play, “Let him shun castles.”

Note return to page 223 8Well, lords, we have not got that which we have:] i. e. as Malone explains it, we have not secure possession of that which we have acquired.

Note return to page 224 9Being opposites of such repairing nature.] i. e. Being adversaries so able to repair the loss they have sustained. See Vol. ii. p. 63; Vol. iv. p. 409, &c.

Note return to page 225 1Now, by my hand, lords, 'twas a glorious day:] Malone substitutes faith for “hand,” as it stands in the folio, 1623, on the ground that the player-editors changed the word in order to avoid the penalties of 3 Jac. I. c. 21. If so, why did they not omit the name of the Creator, and alter “by the mass” in the speech of Salisbury, almost immediately preceding? It is true that the quarto “Contention” has “by my faith;” but by the same rule Malone ought to have made innumerable other changes. “By my hand” was a very usual asseveration, and is more appropriate in a soldier than “by my faith.” This might be Shakespeare's reason for changing it.

Note return to page 226 “The third Part of Henry the Sixt, with the death of the Duke of Yorke,” was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies twenty-six pages, in the division of “Histories,” viz. from p. 147 to p. 172, inclusive, pages 165 and 166 being misprinted 167 and 168, so that these numbers are twice inserted. The error is corrected in the folio, 1632. The play is also contained in the folios of 1664 and 1685.

Note return to page 227 1Chettle acknowledges the important share he had in the publication of “The Groatsworth of Wit,” in his “Kind-heart's Dream,” which was printed at the close of 1592, or in the beginning of 1593. See the excellent reprint of this very curious and interesting tract made for the Percy Society, under the editorial care of Mr. Rimbault. In his address “to the Gentlemen Readers,” Chettle apologizes to Shakespeare (not by name) for having been instrumental in the publication of Greene's attack upon him.

Note return to page 228 2There is a trifling fact connected with “Henry VI.” part i, a notice of which ought not to be omitted, when considering the question of the authorship of some yet undiscovered original, upon which that play might be founded. In Act v. sc. 3, these two lines occur:— “She's beautiful, and therefore to be woo'd; She is a woman, therefore to be won.” The last of these lines is inserted in Greene's “Planetomachia,” printed as early as 1585. In “The First Part of the Contention” a pirate is mentioned, who is introduced into another of Greene's productions.

Note return to page 229 1The proudest he that holds up Lancaster,] So the folio, which is of course to be followed: the “True Tragedy,” 1595, and the two other quartos of the same play in 1600, and 1619, read “The proudest bird,” which better preserves the figure derived from falconry.

Note return to page 230 2But when the duke is slain, they'll quickly fly.] The prefix of Exeter to this line is adopted from “The True Tragedy,” 1595: in the folio, 1623, it is given to Westmoreland; but the king answers Exeter, and there is little doubt that it was an error of the press.

Note return to page 231 3I am thine.] This is the reading of the folio: “The True Tragedy” places “Thou art deceived” before the words “I am thine;” but they are not necessary, lessen the force of the passage, and do not amend the metre. Why Malone inserted them in the text is nowhere explained. In the next line but one, “The True Tragedy” has kingdom for “earldom:” on some accounts, kingdom seems preferable, but “earldom” could hardly be mistaken for it by the compositor, and we do not feel warranted in varying from the folio, 1623, which may be supposed to exhibit the text nearly as it was left by Shakespeare: at all events we have no other authority to consult upon the point. The “earldom” must refer to the earldom of March, which York inherited from his mother.

Note return to page 232 4Thy father was, as thou art, duke of York;] The folio, by mistake, has My for “Thy,” as is shown by “The True Tragedy,” 1595. As Malone states, the line contains a historical error, the father of York having been earl of Cambridge, and never duke of York, though he would have inherited the title had he outlived his elder brother.

Note return to page 233 5When I return with victory from the field,] The folio, by a misprint, has to for “from,” which is the reading of “The True Tragedy,” 1595, as well as of the latter impression of 1600, and of the undated edition, published about 1619.

Note return to page 234 6Tire on the flesh of me,] To “tire on” is to peck at. See Vol. iii. p. 465, note 10. It is from the Sax. tiran, and is generally used in the sense of ravenously devouring: no word is more common in our old writers, when they wish to express the manner in which a bird of prey tears and consumes its food.

Note return to page 235 7&lblank; a slight contention.] The quarto “True Tragedy,” 1595, reads sweet for “slight;” and some editors have placed it in the text, as if the folio, 1623, were not the best authority for Shakespeare's language. The one word could not have been misprinted for the other.

Note return to page 236 8Enter a Messenger.] In the folio, 1623, it is “Enter Gabriel,” which probably was the Christian name of the actor of the part. There was a player of the name of Gabriel Spencer in Henslowe's company in 1598, who was killed by Ben Jonson in September of that year. See “Memoirs of Edward Alleyn,” published by the Shakespeare Society, p. 51. Possibly he was one of the Lord Chamberlain's servants at an earlier date, when the third part of “Henry VI.” was played; and, as the actor of the part of the Messenger, his name might be inserted in the manuscript used for the Globe or Blackfriars theatre. A slight circumstance like this tends to show that it was from a play-house copy that the “history” was printed in the folio, 1623. “The True Tragedy,” 1595, has it, “Enter a Messenger.”

Note return to page 237 9So looks the pent-up lion o'er the wretch] The “True Tragedy” reads on the lamb. Shakespeare seems to refer to the practice of confining and starving lions, that they might devour criminals.

Note return to page 238 1Dii faciant, laudis summa sit ista tuæ!] This is one of the very few scraps of Latin (from Ovid's Epist. Phyllis to Demophoon) in the folio 1623, which is correctly printed. It is not found in “The True Tragedy,” 1595, and was therefore probably introduced by Shakespeare.

Note return to page 239 2We bodg'd again;] Probably for “we botch'd again,” as Nash, in his “Pierce Penniless,” 1592, (not 1593, as quoted by Malone,) has bodgery for botchery. Johnson doubted if the reading ought not to be “we budg'd again,” meaning, we ran away again; but this is not probable. Shakespeare uses “botch'd” in “Twelfth Night,” Vol. iii. p. 400; in “Timon of Athens,” Act iv. sc. 3, &c.

Note return to page 240 3&lblank; at the noontide prick.] i. e. At the point or prick of noon.

Note return to page 241 4Wrath makes him deaf:] So the folio, and so the quarto “True Tragedy,” 1600: the edition of the same play in 1595 reads death for “deaf.”

Note return to page 242 5So true men yield, with robbers so o'er-match'd.] Another instance in which true men and thieves are put in opposition. See Vol. iv. p. 251.

Note return to page 243 6That raught at mountains&lblank;] i. e. reached at mountains. See Vol. iv. p. 548.

Note return to page 244 7Stamp, rave, and fret, that I may sing and dance.] This line, in Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, is misplaced four lines too early, so that the text in both places is rendered unintelligible.

Note return to page 245 8And will you pale your head in Henry's glory,] So the folio, using “pale” for impale, which is the word in “The True Tragedy,” 1595.

Note return to page 246 9Methinks, 'tis prize enough to be his son.] So the folio, and Malone justly explains it by a previous line, (p. 246.) “It is war's prize to take all vantages,” i. e. war's privilege. The quarto “True Tragedy,” 1595, reads pride for “prize.”

Note return to page 247 1Each one already blazing by our meeds,] i. e. By our deserts or merits; a sense which the word bears again in a subsequent scene of this play, Act iv. sc. 8, where king Henry says, “That's not my fear; my meed hath got me fame.”

Note return to page 248 2Enter a Messenger.] “Enter one blowing” is the simple stage-direction of the folio: the quarto copies do not mark the arrival of the messenger, otherwise than by the prefix to what he says.

Note return to page 249 3&lblank; with their Army.] We prefer the old stage-directions when they can be used, because they are such as, very possibly, Shakespeare inserted: there seems no reason for substituting, as modern editors have done, “with Forces” for “with their Army,” which is just as intelligible. In the same way, and for the same reason, we have preferred, at the opening of this scene, “with their Power” to “with their Forces.”

Note return to page 250 4Muster'd my soldiers, gather'd flocks of friends,] After this line, modern editors have added another, from “The True Tragedy:”— “And very well appointed, as I thought,” which is not at all necessary to the sense. If we were to adopt this line into the text, we should have no excuse for not inserting many more from the old 4to., not found in the folio, 1623, which we may presume were rejected by Shakespeare, when he made his alterations in, and additions to “The True Tragedy.”

Note return to page 251 5&lblank; of their heated spleen,] So all the old copies, including “The True Tragedy,” where the line is found. Modern editors seem to have thought hated a better epithet than “heated.” Shakespeare was of a different opinion.

Note return to page 252 6Who thunders to his captives blood and death,] “The True Tragedy,” has captains for “captives.” We, of course, adhere to the text of the folio. Lower down, the quarto has idle thrasher for “lazy thrasher,” which certainly avoids an awkward repetition of the same word.

Note return to page 253 7Why, Via! to London will we march amain,] “Amain” is derived from “The True Tragedy,” 1595, though none of the modern editors notice it. The line is incomplete without “amain,” and the quarto and folio in other respects so nearly correspond, in this part of the scene, that we may conclude the word dropped out in the press at the end of the line.

Note return to page 254 8And when thou fail'st,] So the folio, 1623, and the other folios: the quarto “True Tragedy,” faint'st. Malone reads fall'st.

Note return to page 255 9Why then it sorts:] i. e. It turns out as we desire, or it agrees or assorts with our wishes. The use of the word in this sense is frequent in writers of the time, and afterwards.

Note return to page 256 1My careless father fondly gave away.] Another of the innumerable instances in which “fondly” is used for foolishly. See Vol. ii. p. 37. 92. 437. 530; Vol. iii. p. 30. 220; Vol. iv. p. 201.

Note return to page 257 2Darraign your battle,] To “darraign battle” is a common phrase in our old writers, and it means generally to prepare for battle. Johnson derives “darraign” from the Fr. arranger; but it seems more probably to come from the Norman Fr. dareigner, to make proof or trial of. Chaucer and Spenser use the expression, “and battle to darraign,” when two champions only are engaged, and when there could be no army to be arranged. In conformity with our notion of the etymology and meaning of the word, “The True Tragedy,” in its three editions, has “Prepare your battles,” for “Darraign your battle” of the folio.

Note return to page 258 3To blot out me, and put his own son in.] In “The True Tragedy,” and in the folio, this speech is assigned to Clarence, but the expression, “to blot out me,” shows that it is a continuation of what Edward says. This error is cured in “The True Tragedy” by reading, “to blot our brother out.” The smallest change seems to be, to erase the prefix of Cla., and to give the whole, from “I am his king” down to “his own son in,” to Edward; and this is the only alteration necessary.

Note return to page 259 4Break off the parley; for scarce I can refrain] So all the old copies, quarto and folio, but modern editors have thought fit to alter “parley” into parle, because it reduces the line to ten syllables: they forget how innumerable are the instances in which Shakespeare has chosen, for the sake of variety probably, to introduce lines of eleven syllables, two syllables being pronounced, as in “parley,” in the time of one. Only in the next line but one we have an instance of the kind, “Upon that Clifford, that cruel child-killer,” where “Clifford” is to be pronounced in the time of a monosyllable.

Note return to page 260 5&lblank; I am resolv'd,] I am convinced: any doubt I felt is at an end.

Note return to page 261 6Rich. Whoever got thee, &c.] In the folio, this speech is assigned to Warwick. The queen's answer shows that it belongs to Richard, to whom it is given in “The True Tragedy.”

Note return to page 262 7But like a foul mis-shapen stigmatic,] A stigmatic was a person infamously branded, or marked. See this Vol. p. 216, note 6.

Note return to page 263 8&lblank; whence thou art extraught,] i. e. extracted. “The True Tragedy,” 1595, has deriv'd.

Note return to page 264 9To let thy tongue detect&lblank;] i. e. display or discover, taking “detect” in its etymological sense.

Note return to page 265 1To make this shameless callat know herself.] “Callat” was a term of contempt in frequent use, and we have met with it in “The Winter's Tale,” Vol. iii. p. 466. The “wisp of straw,” of the preceding line, was employed in the punishment of scolds, probably by compelling them to wear it, as an indication of their propensity. How it came to be so used we have no precise information.

Note return to page 266 2Foreslow no longer;] i. e. Delay no longer. “Foreslow” is a word which occurs in Peele's “Battle of Alcazar.” Vide Peele's Works, by Dyce, 2nd edit. vol. ii. p. 132. It is also used in the same sense by Whetstone, Marlow, and other earlier writers of the time.

Note return to page 267 3Excursions. Enter Richard and Clifford.] Although the scene was supposed to represent a field of battle, the old stage-direction in “The True Tragedy” is, “Alarums, and then enter Richard at one door, and Clifford at another.” The scene there thus opens:— “Rich. A Clifford! a Clifford! “Clif. A Richard! a Richard! “Rich. Now Clifford, for York and young Rutland's death,” &c.

Note return to page 268 4&lblank; this wolf to death.] Two very similar lines occur in “Henry VI.” part ii.; see this Vol. p. 217. “Hold, Warwick, seek thee out some other chase; For I myself must hunt this deer to death.” In “The True Tragedy” no corresponding lines are found; and the stage-direction there is, “Alarums: they fight; then enters Warwick and rescues Richard, and then exeunt omnes.”

Note return to page 269 5So minutes, hours, days, months and years,] This is the reading of the folio; but Rowe added weeks after days, without any authority. As Mr. Barron Field observes to me, if any change were necessary, we ought to alter “months” into weeks, “months” not having been before mentioned.

Note return to page 270 6&lblank; with the dead Body.] According to the stage-direction of the folio, the son with the dead body of his father, and the father with the dead body of his son, enter at the same time:—“Enter a Son that hath killed his Father at one door; and a Father that hath killed his Son at another door.” However, the latter does not enter until afterwards, and we have then a new stage-direction in these words:—“Enter Father, bearing of his Son.” In the quarto “True Tragedy,” 1595, the direction is, “Enter a Soldier with a dead man in his arms.” The modern stage-direction has been, “Enter a Son, &c. dragging in the dead Body:” he most likely carried it.

Note return to page 271 7Man, for the loss of thee,] The folio, 1623, reads, by a misprint, “Men for the loss of thee.” The father is addressing his dead son. Rowe substituted Sad. “Obsequious,” in the preceding line, refers to funeral obsequies.

Note return to page 272 8Enter Clifford, wounded.] “The True Tragedy,” 1595, adds, “with an arrow in his neck;” the circumstance being taken from Holinshed.

Note return to page 273 9The common people swarm like summer flies;] This line, obviously necessary to the sense, was inserted in the text by Theobald, who found it in “The True Tragedy.” How it became omitted in the folio, it is vain at this time of day to conjecture. It is to be remarked, that the line lower down, “They never, then, had sprung like summer flies,” clearly referring to the preceding, is omitted in “The True Tragedy,” and seems rather awkwardly introduced in the folio, the sense of the whole passage running better without it than with it. It seems necessary in the first instance, and not in the second; but as it is found in the folio, 1623, we feel, of course, bound to insert it.

Note return to page 274 1Command an argosy&lblank;] See “Merchant of Venice,” Vol. iii. p. 475, note 1.

Note return to page 275 2If friend, or foe, let him be gently used.] Our text is that of the folio, 1623, and the subsequent folios, which there is no reason for changing, excepting that “The True Tragedy,” which in a case of this kind can be no authority, distributes the dialogue otherwise. Malone followed the regulation of the quarto very unnecessarily, but with due notice; while other modern editors, who profess to adhere rigidly to the folio, 1623, have made the alteration without scruple, and without any information that they had done so. How needless any change is, may be seen from what follows from “The True Tragedy.” “War. No, 'tis impossible he should escape; For though before his face I speak the words, Your brother, Richard, mark'd him for the grave, And wheresoe'er he be, I warrant him dead. [Clifford groans and then dies. “Edw. Hark! what soul is this that takes his heavy leave? “Rich. A deadly groan, like life and death's departure. “Edw. See who it is, and now the battle's ended, Friend or foe, let him be friendly used.” Here Shakespeare thought it proper, as the folio establishes, to introduce other changes besides the difference in the distribution of the dialogue. In the stage-direction of the folio we are not informed that Clifford dies; but it is to be understood.

Note return to page 276 3&lblank; eager words.] i. e. says Johnson, sour words; words of asperity.

Note return to page 277 4&lblank; too ominous.] Alluding, perhaps, (says Steevens,) to the deaths of Thomas of Woodstock, and Humphrey, Dukes of Gloster.

Note return to page 278 5Enter two keepers,] So called in “The True Tragedy,” 1595, but in the folio, 1623, they are called Sinklo and Humphrey. Malone supposes them to have been the names of the players of the parts, and such was probably the case; but when he adds that Humphrey meant Humphrey Jeffes, he is perhaps mistaken, as Jeffes and his brother belonged to Henslowe's company. However, it is possible that Humphrey Jeffes joined the Lord Chamberlain's players afterwards, or had belonged to that body originally. We have had Sincklo mentioned in “The Taming of the Shrew,” Vol. iii. p. 111, as the performer of a character called Soto.

Note return to page 279 6Let me embrace the sour adversaries;] So the folio, and very intelligibly, without altering the text to these sour adversities, as was done originally by Pope, and by some modern editors without notice, though professing to adhere to the text of the folio. Of old, “adversary” was sometimes accented like adversity, and thus the line is rendered more rhythmical.

Note return to page 280 7&lblank; sir John Grey, was slain,] Sir Richard Grey in the folio and quarto. Hall calls him sir John Grey.

Note return to page 281 8&lblank; the sadness of my suit;] i. e. the gravity or seriousness of my suit. See Vol. ii. p. 221. 449; Vol. iii. p. 384. 504.

Note return to page 282 9Enter a Nobleman.] He is called a “Messenger” in “The True Tragedy,” 1595; a “Nobleman” in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 283 1&lblank; Lords, use her honourably.] The folio has honourable; “The True Tragedy” has the adverb “honourably;” and it should seem from the first line of Gloster's speech, that “honourably” was Shakespeare's word: we have therefore remedied this slight grammatical, or typographical error. In general, trifles of this sort may be passed over without notice.

Note return to page 284 2And set the murderous Machiavel to school.] In the time of Shakespeare, the name of Machiavel had become almost synonymous with a wily unscrupulous politician. Notwithstanding the anachronism, he therefore substituted “murderous Machiavel” for “aspiring Cataline,” as it stands in “The True Tragedy,” 1595, because he thought the allusion would be better understood. Shakespeare much lengthened this soliloquy by very important characteristic additions.

Note return to page 285 3&lblank; and the Earl of Oxford.] The old stage-direction of the folio adds, “Lewis sits and riseth up again,” meaning that he rises on the entrance of Queen Margaret, in order to receive her with due courtesy.

Note return to page 286 4&lblank; an eternal plant;] The folio, 1623, reads external, and “The True Tragedy,” “eternal.” There cannot be a moment's doubt that it was an error of the press, though it runs through all the folios.

Note return to page 287 5Thy sly conveyance,] i. e. Thy cunning artifice, or fraud. In the same sense Richard II. (Vol. iv. p. 193) says, “O, good! convey? conveyers are you all.”

Note return to page 288 6A horn sounded within.] The direction in “The True Tragedy” is, “Sound for a post within;” and in the folio, “Post blowing a horn within.” It may be remarked, that in this part of the play, in the folio, the stage-directions are unusually numerous and minute, more so than are in fact necessary; thus on the entrance of the Post we read as follows:— “My lord Ambassador, these letters are for you, [Speaks to Warwick. Sent from your brother, Marquess Montague. These from our king unto your majesty. [To Lewis. And, madam, these to you; from whom I know not. [To Margaret. [They all read their letters.” In general, these distinctions of the persons addressed are wanting.

Note return to page 289 7And am I guerdon'd&lblank;] i. e. rewarded. See Vol. ii. p. 271 and 316. “Guerdon,” whether as verb or substantive, is a very common word.

Note return to page 290 8&lblank; go fear thy king withal.] To “fear” is here used in an active sense, as in “Henry IV.” part ii. Vol. iv. p. 430, “The people fear me,” i. e. alarm or frighten me. It is again used in the same way on p. 325 of this play. The contemporaries of Shakespeare employed the verb in the same manner.

Note return to page 291 9Had he none else to make a stale but me?] “Stale” is derived from the Sax. stælan, to steal, and is generally used in English for any pretence, but particularly for a stalking horse, or artificial animal, behind which sportsmen of old stole upon their game. It sometimes meant a decoy, as in a passage in Sidney, quoted by Todd, “one bird caught served as a stale to bring in more;” and Warwick in the passage above seems to employ it in that sense: he had been sent by Edward as a decoy to procure the lady Bona for him. The word “stale” in “The Comedy of Errors,” quoted by the commentators, is to be taken in a somewhat different sense. See Vol. ii. p. 126.

Note return to page 292 1Stafford and Hastings.] We have before mentioned the particularity of the stage-directions in this part of the play, as printed in the folio, 1623. Here we have a remarkable instance of it, in the addition of words which show how the principal characters were to be ranged on the stage: “four stand on one side and four on the other.” The attendants were probably to retire to the back of the scene, and were supposed to be out of hearing: there were nine principal persons present, viz. the king, the queen, Gloster, Clarence, Somerset, Montague, Pembroke, Stafford, and Hastings. The king was therefore to stand in the middle, with “four on one side and four on the other.”

Note return to page 293 2And you shall have your will,] “You” is omitted in the four folio editions. It seems necessary to the sense, and was added by Rowe.

Note return to page 294 3&lblank; thy supposed king,] The folio has the for “thy,” but “thy” is the word used by Lewis. See p. 294.

Note return to page 295 4Enter Warwick and Oxford, &c.] The old copies seldom state the change of the place of action, but here we have it in the stage direction of the folio: “Enter Warwick and Oxford, in England, with French soldiers.”

Note return to page 296 5His soldiers lurking in the towns about,] The folio, 1623, has town, in the singular; but the question of the 3d Watchman in the next scene, as well as the sense, show that we ought to read “towns:” &lblank; “But why commands the king That his chief followers lodge in towns about him?”

Note return to page 297 6While he himself keeps in the cold field?] So all the old editions. Malone and other modern editors change “keeps” to keepeth.

Note return to page 298 7&lblank; and Forces.] The old stage-direction adds, Silent all, in the same way that in “The Winter's Tale,” Vol. iii. p. 471, Silence is given as a stage-direction, to indicate suspense on the entrance of Hermione to her trial.

Note return to page 299 8The duke! why, Warwick, when we parted last,] The word “last” is not in the folio, but as the line is exactly the same in “The True Tragedy,” excepting that “last” is added at the close of it, we may presume that it dropped out in the press. We have had other instances of the same kind with short words at the beginnings and ends of lines, which might more easily accidentally escape from those situations than from any other.

Note return to page 300 9Is new committed to the bishop of York,] The copies of “The True Tragedy” sometimes differ from each other, though not materially. In this scene, in the quarto, 1595, the queen says, “And led away as prisoner into York,” while the quarto, 1600, has prison for “prisoner.” In a scene shortly subsequent, Sir John Montgomery says, according to the quarto, 1595, “Ay, now my sovereign speaketh like himself;” which line the quarto, 1600, injures, by substituting speaks for “speaketh,” and the edition without date, but printed about 1619, has it “speaketh,” but omits “like,” and thus destroys the sense of the passage. The variations between the copies of 1595 and 1600 are generally errors of the press.

Note return to page 301 1And all his lands and goods confiscated.] The reading of the folio is confiscate, which may be right, though the line reads defectively; but the addition of a single letter, which very likely dropped out in the press, restores the measure, without inserting be, with Malone, before confiscate. In these cases, the smallest alteration is generally the best; and the second folio, which is the next best authority in questions of the kind, warrants the insertion of “confiscated” in our text.

Note return to page 302 2Enter a Messenger.] “Enter one with a letter to Warwick” is the stage-direction of “The True Tragedy,” 1595; “Enter a Post,” that of the folio, 1623. Malone makes king Henry put the question to him, “What news, my friend?” and not Warwick, as in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 303 3Why shall we fight,] Malone and modern editors, against all authority, and quite unnecessarily, read, “Why should we fight.” The difference may be slight, but why vary at all from Shakespeare's text?

Note return to page 304 4The bruit thereof &lblank;] i. e. the noise or report; from the Fr. bruit: it is a word of constant occurrence in old writers. In Jeremiah x. 22, we read, “Behold, the noise of the bruit is come.

Note return to page 305 5Exeter and Oxford.] For “Exeter” the folio has, by mistake, Somerset. In “The True Tragedy” scene 7 precedes scene 6, an arrangement which, on some accounts, may seem preferable.

Note return to page 306 6Let's levy men, and beat him back again.] This line is assigned in all the folios to king Henry, from whom it has needlessly been taken by all modern editors, some so unscrupulously as to give no notice whatever of the change. It is not at all inconsistent with the other speeches of the king in this scene, who seems by the intelligence to have been roused, at least in the commencement, to the display of an unusual degree of energy.

Note return to page 307 7That's not my fear; my meed hath got me fame.] “Meed” is here, as on p. 251, used for merit or desert.

Note return to page 308 8Shout within. A Lancaster! A Lancaster!] Unless we suppose the shouts to have proceeded from some of the troops in the pay of Henry, the more proper stage-direction on the arrival of Edward would be, as Johnson observed, “A York! A York!” In “The True Tragedy” there is no stage-direction, and the whole of the preceding speech by Henry is wanting.

Note return to page 309 9&lblank; from the deck!] i. e. From the pack: a pack of cards was of old called a “deck,” as many authorities might be produced to show. The word, as Ritson observed, continued in use even as late as 1788, being found in the Sessions Paper of that year. Possibly it is derived from the Sax. decan, to cover, because one card in a pack covers the other: the origin is most likely, as lexicographers suggest, the Latin tego.

Note return to page 310 1With whom an upright zeal &lblank;] The folio misprints in for “an.”

Note return to page 311 2Taking the red Rose out of his Hat.] There is here no stage-direction in the folio, and what was done by Clarence could only be guessed, if “The True Tragedy” had not supplied the deficiency: we there read, “Richard and Clarence whisper together, and then Clarence takes his red rose out of his hat, and throws it at Warwick.”

Note return to page 312 3March. Exeunt.] The folio adds, as a stage-direction, “Warwick and his company follow;” meaning, probably, that they quitted the walls of Coventry; but it may mean that Edward and his forces having gone out, they were followed across the stage by Warwick and his company, who left the city for the field of Barnet.

Note return to page 313 4For Warwick was a bug, that fear'd us all.] i. e. Warwick was a bugbear, which alarmed or frightened us all. The word “bug” not unfrequently occurs in this sense. Respecting the use of “feared” in an active sense, see a preceding note in this play, p. 294.

Note return to page 314 5And more he would have said; and more he spoke,] In “The True Tragedy,” 1600, this line stands, “And more he would have said; and more he said;” but in the edition of the same play in 1595, it runs thus:— “And more he would have spoke; and more he said.” It will be observed that Shakespeare's text differs triflingly from both copies of the old play.

Note return to page 315 6Sweet rest his soul! Fly, lords, and save yourselves, For Warwick bids you all farewell, to meet in heaven.] This is the reading of the folio, and the old regulation of the verse, excepting that the first line is improperly divided into two hemistichs. Our text also exactly accords with the editions of “The True Tragedy” in 1595 and 1600, but modern editors (without notice) interpolated to in the first line, “Sweet rest to his soul!” and Steevens thought fit (with notice) to insert again in the second line. These alterations of the text of Shakespeare are unpardonable.

Note return to page 316 7&lblank; the likeness of this railer here.] “This railer” is queen Margaret, whom prince Edward resembled.

Note return to page 317 8Enter Gloster.] According to the folio, this scene takes place “on the walls” of the Tower: according to “The True Tragedy,” 1595, “in the Tower.”

Note return to page 318 9&lblank; what a peevish fool&lblank;] i. e. silly fool; a sense in which the word “peevish” has already frequently occured. See Vol. ii. p. 150. 162; Vol. iii. p. 348; Vol. iv. p. 286. 523.

Note return to page 319 1&lblank; that ever thou wast born.] We follow, in this passage, the reading of the first folio, which is quite intelligible, and more forcible than with the words fate and and, which the editor of the second folio thought fit to insert in the two preceding lines. Malone adopted both, and other modern editors have capriciously rejected one and introduced the other.

Note return to page 320 2The raven rook'd her&lblank;] To rook or ruck, meaning to squat down, roost, or lodge, was a word in common employment, and instances of its use might be quoted from Chaucer, Gower, J. Heywood, Stanihurst, Golding, Warner, &c. In “The Fardle of Fashions,” 1555, we meet with this expression:—“After a mooste comely sorte she rucketh downe upon the grounde, not muche unlike the sitting of our gentlewomen oftetimes here in Englande.”

Note return to page 321 3To wit, an indigested and deformed lump,] This is only one of Shakespeare's numerous twelve-syllable lines, which modern editors would reduce to ten, by reading indigest and omitting the conjunction. Our text, as usual, is that of the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 322 4Down, down to hell; and say I sent thee thither,] Respecting this and the preceding line, see the Introduction. A similar coincidence may be pointed out in the old novel, “The Historie of Hamblet,” 1608. “And when thou commest in hell, see thou forget not to tell thy brother . . . that it was his son that sent thee thither.” Shakespeare's Library, Part iv. p. 161.

Note return to page 323 5But I will sort a pitchy day for thee:] i. e. I will sort out or select an hour whose gloom shall be fatal to you.

Note return to page 324 6&lblank; and that shall execute.] The folio of Lord F. Egerton reads, by a misprint, “add that shalt.” “That” refers to Richard's “shoulder,” before mentioned; and “work thou the way” to his head, which we must suppose him to touch in his speech aside. This seems the evident meaning of the line, without any necessity for altering “that” to thou. The only change required is the trifling one of shalt to “shall.” The folio, 1623, belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, corrects one error, add into “and,” but leaves the other.

Note return to page 325 7And kiss your princely nephew,] Here again the two copies of the folio, 1623, belonging to the Duke of Devonshire and Lord Francis Egerton, differ: the former has “kiss,” the correct reading according to “The True Tragedy,” and the latter 'tis. The first folio, belonging to my friend Mr. Amyot, and three others which I have had an opportunity of inspecting, agree with that of the Duke of Devonshire.

Note return to page 326 8Thanks, noble Clarence; worthy brother, thanks.] The folios, 1623 and 1632, assign this line to Clarence; but in the folio, 1664, it is correctly given to the king, and not to the queen, as it stands in “The True Tragedy.”

Note return to page 327 “The Tragedy of King Richard the third. Containing, His treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence: the pittiefull murther of his innocent nephewes: his tyrannicall vsurpation: with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued death. As it hath beene lately Acted by the Right honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. At London, Printed by Valentine Sims, for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Angell. 1597.” 4to. 47 leaves. “The Tragedie of King Richard the third. Conteining his treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence: the pitiful murther of his innocent Nephewes: his tyrannicall vsurpation: with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued death. As it hath beene lately Acted by the Right honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. By William Shake-speare. London Printed by Thomas Creede, for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Angell. 1598.” 4to. 47 leaves. “The Tragedie of King Richard the third. Conteining his treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence: the pittifull murther of his innocent Nephewes: his tyrannicall vsurpation: with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued death. As it hath bene lately Acted by the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Newly augmented, By William Shakespeare. London Printed by Thomas Creede, for Andrew Wise, dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Angell. 1602.” 4to. 46 leaves. “The Tragedie of King Richard the third. Conteining his treacherous Plots against his brother Clarence: the pittifull murther of his innocent Nephewes: his tyrannicall vsurpation: with the whole course of his detested life, and most deserued death. As it hath bin lately Acted by the Right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Newly augmented, by William Shake-speare. London, Printed by Thomas Creede, and are to be sold by Matthew Lawe, dwelling in Paules Church-yard, at the signe of the Foxe, near S. Austins gate, 1605.” 4to. 46 leaves. In the folio of 1623, “The Tragedy of Richard the Third: with the Landing of the Earle of Richmond, and the Battell at Bosworth Field,” occupies thirty-two pages; viz. from p. 173 to p. 204 inclusive. There is no material variation in the later folios.

Note return to page 328 1By the title-pages of the four earliest editions on the opposite leaf, it will be seen, that it was professed by Andrew Wise, that the play, in 1602, had been “newly augmented,” although it was in fact only a reprint of the previous impressions of 1597 and 1598, for the same bookseller. It is possible that the augmentations observable in the folio of 1623 were made shortly before 1602, and that Wise wished it to be thought, that his edition of that year contained them. The quarto reprints, subsequent to that of 1602, all purport to have been “newly augmented.”

Note return to page 329 2Malone gives the date 1612, and in his copy at Oxford the last figure is blurred. The title-page in no respect differs from that of 1605, excepting that the play is said to have been “acted by the King's Majesty's servants.” They were not so called, until after May, 1603.

Note return to page 330 3An impression in 1622 is mentioned in some lists, but the existence of a copy of that date is doubtful.

Note return to page 331 4Steevens calls it “The Actors' Vindication,” as indeed it was entitled when it was republished (with alterations and insertions) by Cartwright the comedian, without date, but during the Civil Wars. See the reprint of this tract by the Shakespeare Society, the text being taken from the first impression.

Note return to page 332 5It is as follows, being rather unusually particular:— Tho. Creede] An Enterlude entitled the Tragedie of Richard the Third, wherein is showen the Death of Edward the Fourthe, with the Smotheringe of the twoo Princes in the Tower, with a lamentable End of Shores wife, and the conjunction of the twoo Houses of Lancaster and York.

Note return to page 333 P. 345.&lblank; where Richard strangely takes a page into his confidence, &c.] It ought, perhaps, to have been added, that this portion of both plays is founded upon the history as written by Sir Thomas More.

Note return to page 334 6This new fact in the history of our early drama and theatres, we owe to Mr. Peter Cunningham, who establishes it beyond contradiction, in his interesting and important volume of “Extracts from the Accounts of the Revels at Court,” printed for the Shakespeare Society. Introd. p. xxxii.

Note return to page 335 1&lblank; by this sun of York;] In all the old copies “sun” is spelt son or sonne, as if a double meaning were intended.

Note return to page 336 2&lblank; of a lute.] All the quartos, from that of 1597 to 1631, have love for “lute,” the last being the reading of the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 337 3Unless to see &lblank;] All the quartos read “Unless to spy.”

Note return to page 338 4That tempts him to this harsh extremity.] So the folio: the quartos, “That tempers him to this extremity.” Lower down, in the last line of Clarence's next speech, the folio misreads, “Lord Hastings was for her delivery.”

Note return to page 339 5&lblank; lie for you:] To “lie for you,” is to lie in prison in your stead.

Note return to page 340 6&lblank; prey at liberty.] The folio, less forcibly, “play at liberty.” Lower down, for “Where is he? in his bed?” of the folio, the quarto has “What! is he in his bed?”

Note return to page 341 7Now, by St. Paul,] So all the quarto editions. The folio reads, “Now, by St. John.” Gloster habitually swears by St. Paul.

Note return to page 342 8Set down, set down your honourable load,] Every quarto edition has lord for “load,” excepting that of 1597, where the letter l merely stands for the whole word, the rest having perhaps dropped out. Hence the substitution of lord for “load,” which last is the reading of the folio, and is doubtless right. Lady Anne addresses herself to the bearers of the coffin, and she afterwards calls the body their “holy load.”

Note return to page 343 9&lblank; obsequiously lament] i. e. Lament as at the obsequies of a dead person. See p. 270, of this volume, where the word “obsequious” is used exactly in the same way, as well as in “Hamlet,” A. ii. sc. 2.

Note return to page 344 1&lblank; that made these wounds!] The folio alone has “wounds,” and all the quartos holes, a word to be avoided, if on no other ground, because it occurs just below.

Note return to page 345 2&lblank; that had the heart to do it!] All the quartos give the two last lines thus:— “Curst be the hand that made these fatal holes, Curst be the heart, that had the heart to do it.” The next line is omitted in every quarto edition.

Note return to page 346 3Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,] The folio has wolves for “adders,” but the next line shows that the reading of every quarto is right, for wolves cannot be said to be “creeping venom'd things.”

Note return to page 347 4And that be heir to his unhappiness!] This line is wanting in every quarto.

Note return to page 348 5More miserable&lblank;] The quartos have As for “More,” in this line, and for “Than” at the commencement of the next. The reading of the folio is certainly preferable.

Note return to page 349 6&lblank; stand thou when I command:] So the quarto editions, with the exception of that of 1634, which has stand'st, with the folio, 1623; although the quarto, 1634, was evidently not printed from the folio, 1623: the folio, 1632, corrects the obvious error.

Note return to page 350 7&lblank; and bleed afresh!] Innumerable proofs might be quoted from our old writers to show the prevalence of the superstition, that the wounds of a person murdered bled afresh at the appearance of the murderer.

Note return to page 351 8Of these supposed evils &lblank;] So the quartos: the folio, crimes; but Lady Anne, reiterating Gloster's words, repeats “evils.”

Note return to page 352 9Then say they were not slain.] We give the reading of the folio, which better preserves the antithesis than “Why, then, they are not dead” of the quarto impressions.

Note return to page 353 1Thy murderous falchion&lblank;] Thus the folio: every quarto has “bloody falchion.” Steevens read the preceding line, “In thy soul's throat,” against every authority.

Note return to page 354 2The fitter&lblank;] The folio reads, “the better;” but Gloster, just afterwards, uses “fitter” exactly in the same manner.

Note return to page 355 2And fall something&lblank;] The quarto editions read somewhat.

Note return to page 356 3Thou wast the cause,] The question of Gloster is in the present tense, and the quartos make Lady Anne answer in the present tense also, “Thou art the cause.” Gloster's reply shows that of the folio to be the right reading.

Note return to page 357 4So I might live&lblank;] The quartos have rest for “live.” In Gloster's next speech the quartos have, “These eyes could never endure sweet beauty's wreck,” for the line in our text, which is from the folio.

Note return to page 358 5That kill'd my husband.] The quartos read, slew.

Note return to page 359 6He lives&lblank;] The quarto editions, to the injury of the regularity of the measure, insert “Go to” before “he lives.”

Note return to page 360 7Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.] This and the eleven preceding lines are not in any of the quarto impressions, not even in that of 1634, printed two years after the second folio. The differences between the quartos are seldom caused by anything but errors of the press.

Note return to page 361 8&lblank; sweet smoothing word;] In sc. 3, Gloster uses the verb to smooth. The quartos read, “sweet soothing words.” In the next line but two, the quartos have lips for “lip,” and four lines lower, bosom for “breast.”

Note return to page 362 9But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on.] This and the three preceding lines stand thus in all the quarto impressions:— “Nay, do not pause; 'twas I that kill'd your husband, But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me: Nay, now dispatch; 'twas I that kill'd king Henry, But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on.”

Note return to page 363 1To take, is not to give.] This answer by lady Anne is from the quarto, 1597, followed by all the other reprints in the same form. In the folio, “Vouchsafe to wear this ring,” by a blunder, is made part of what lady Anne says. In the next line, the quartos have “this ring,” instead of “my ring.” Lower down, the folio reads “servant,” and the quartos suppliant. We, of course, adhere to the folio in all cases where the matter is indifferent. All the quartos, excepting the earliest, omit “devoted.”

Note return to page 364 2To him that hath most cause&lblank;] So the folio: the quartos, more.

Note return to page 365 3&lblank; repair to Crosby-place:] The folio has Crosby-house, but Richard himself in the folio afterwards calls it Crosby-place, and it is as well to be consistent. See sc. 3 of this Act.

Note return to page 366 4I will with all expedient duty see you:] Another instance in which “expedient” is used by Shakespeare for expeditious. See Vol. iii. p. 46; Vol. iv. p. 19. 134.

Note return to page 367 5Towards Chertsey, noble lord?] Before this question, we have in the quartos, “Sirs, take up the corse,” given to Gloster; and modern editors, perverting it to “Take up the corse, sirs,” have inserted it as part of the text. We follow the reading of the folio.

Note return to page 368 6The bleeding witness of my hatred by,] So the folio, and correctly: the quartos and modern editors have “her hatred;” but the corse of Henry VI. was “the bleeding witness” of Gloster's hatred.

Note return to page 369 7And I no friends to back my suit withal,] The quartos read, “And I nothing to back my suit at all.”

Note return to page 370 8&lblank; abase her eyes&lblank;] So the folio: the quartos, debase.

Note return to page 371 9&lblank; a beggarly denier,] A “denier,” says Steevens, is the twelfth part of a French sous.

Note return to page 372 1&lblank; with quick and merry words.] The folio has eyes for “words,” which may be right; but all the quartos have “words,” which seems best to suit the sense. Modern editors have substituted “words” for eyes without any notice that such was not the reading of the first folio.

Note return to page 373 2Enter Buckingham and Stanley.] Derby in all the old copies, quarto and folio, but lord Stanley, as Theobald observes, was not created earl of Derby until after Henry VII. came to the throne. It may be doubted whether we ought not to allow the old text to stand, especially as Stanley is spoken to and of as Derby by the characters, and the inadvertence was probably committed by Shakespeare.

Note return to page 374 3Are come&lblank;] The quartos read came; and in the next line, With for “What.” Lower down, for “Ay, madam,” the quartos have “Madam, we did.”

Note return to page 375 4&lblank; he desires to make atonement] i. e. reconcilement or agreement. In Vol. iii. p. 96, and Vol. iv. 118, we have had the verb to “atone,” or at one.

Note return to page 376 5&lblank; at the height.] The quartos read, “at the highest.”

Note return to page 377 6Who are they,] The folio, erroneously, “Who is it,” &c.

Note return to page 378 7&lblank; with lewd complaints.] i. e. With wicked complaints. Here again Steevens would show that “lewd” meant merely ignorant. Ignorant was certainly one of its senses, from the Sax. leod, the people, who were ignorant. See Vol. ii. p. 267, and Vol. iv. p. 115, where, as in this place, the meaning is wicked or vicious.

Note return to page 379 8The ground of your ill will, and so remove it.] Resort to the quartos (where this line stands as we have given it) is necessary in this instance, as the sense of the passage is hardly complete in the folio, which concludes the speech of the queen thus:— “Makes, him to send, that he may learn the ground”—

Note return to page 380 9That wrens make prey&lblank;] This is the intelligible reading of the folio, and of the quartos of 1597 and 1598; but the later quartos, beginning with that of 1602, read, “wrens may prey.”

Note return to page 381 1&lblank; while many great promotions&lblank;] The folio, “great promotions;” the quartos “fair promotions.” In the first line of this speech the quartos have “we have need of you,” for “I have need of you,” of the folio. Self is uppermost in Gloster's thoughts, though he afterwards refers to others.

Note return to page 382 2&lblank; you were not the mean &lblank;] The quartos, “You were not the cause.”

Note return to page 383 3To be thus taunted, scorn'd, and baited at:] Every quarto has the line as we have printed it: the folio reads, “To be so baited, scorn'd and stormed at.” The quarto reading seems preferable, in consequence of the cacophony of scorn'd and stormed; and because “baited” is necessarily a word of two syllables, which is required by the measure.

Note return to page 384 4I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower.] This line is only in the folio, while a preceding line, “Tell him, and spare not: look, what I have said,” is only in the quarto editions, though necessary to the sense. Three lines lower, the folio has “kill'dst,” and the quartos, slewest.

Note return to page 385 5&lblank; our sovereign king;] So the folio: the quarto, “lawful king.”

Note return to page 386 6&lblank; I being queen,] So the quartos: the folio, less intelligibly, “I am queen.”

Note return to page 387 7Than death can yield me here by my abode.] Gloster's question and queen Margaret's reply, thus far, are only in the folio.

Note return to page 388 8&lblank; to wail thy children's death;] So the folio: the quartos, loss, which seems less forcible. Above, the quartos have “my son” for “our son.”

Note return to page 389 9Thou rag of honour! thou detested——] In all the quarto copies, “&c.” follows “detested,” rather needlessly, to show that the sentence was incomplete. The folio prints it as in our text.

Note return to page 390 1As it was won &lblank;] The folio, less correctly, “As it is won.”

Note return to page 391 2I will not think&lblank;] The quartos have, “I'll not believe.”

Note return to page 392 3&lblank; will rankle to the death:] The quarto, 1597, has, “will rackle thee to death,” &c.; the later quartos, “will rankle thee to death.” That of the folio is doubtless the true reading.

Note return to page 393 4I muse, why she's at liberty.] The quartos have, “I wonder she's at liberty.”

Note return to page 394 5&lblank; that I have done to her.] The quarto editions omit “to her.”

Note return to page 395 6He is frank'd up to fatting&lblank;] i. e. He is styed: a “frank” is a sty. See Vol. iv. p. 375.

Note return to page 396 7So do I ever, being well advis'd; For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myself.] This is one of the rare instances in the folio where a speech aside is so marked: the direction is, “Speaks to himself.”

Note return to page 397 8And for your grace, and you, my noble lords.] So the quartos, 1597 and 1598, excepting that “Lo.” is put for “lords.” The quarto, 1602, has it, “And for your noble grace, and you my noble lord.” The folio, “And for your grace, and yours my gracious lord.” The text of the earliest quarto is here to be preferred, and that we have followed.

Note return to page 398 9Catesby, I come.—Lords, will you go with me?] “Catesby, we come. Lords, will you go with us,” in the quarto editions. The quartos also, instead of “We wait upon your grace” of the folio, have “Madam, we will attend your grace.” No copy has it, “Madam, we will attend upon your grace,” as some editors have asserted: if it were so, the line would be complete: as it is, in both the quartos and folios, syllables are wanting, if we measure the line in the usual manner, a manner to which innumerable instances establish that Shakespeare did not confine himself.

Note return to page 399 1&lblank; on Rivers, Vaughan, and Grey:] The folio, erroneously, has Dorset for “Vaughan,” the name in the quarto impressions.

Note return to page 400 2&lblank; to dispatch this thing?] The quartos have deed for “thing.”

Note return to page 401 3Your eyes drop mill-stones, when fools' eyes fall tears:] “Drop tears” in the quartos. The expression is proverbial, and it is used (as Steevens pointed out) in the tragedy of “Cæsar and Pompey,” 1607: “Men's eyes must mill-stones drop, when fools shed tears.”

Note return to page 402 4We will, my noble lord.] In the quartos, the scene ends with the words, “about your business,” omitting what follows in the folio.

Note return to page 403 5So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,] The quarto, 1597, and other editions in the same form, give this line as follows:— “So full of ugly sights, of ghastly dreams.”

Note return to page 404 6&lblank; my lord? I pray you, tell me.] The quartos, “I long to hear you tell it:” and in the next line, “Me thought I was embark'd for Burgundy.”

Note return to page 405 7&lblank; and, in falling,] The quartos, “and, in stumbling.”

Note return to page 406 8What sights of ugly death&lblank;] The quartos give the epithet “ugly” to “sights.”

Note return to page 407 9All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea:] This line is not in the quartos.

Note return to page 408 1&lblank; and often did I strive To yield the ghost;] Not in the quartos.

Note return to page 409 2Stopt in my soul,] The quartos have “Kept in my soul.”

Note return to page 410 3To find&lblank;] The quartos, 1597 and 1598, seek. The quartos, 1602 and 1634, have keep, and the folio, 1623, find.

Note return to page 411 4&lblank; in this sore agony?] Every quarto has with: the folio, in.

Note return to page 412 5With that sour ferryman&lblank;] The folio has sour for “grim,” of the quartos.

Note return to page 413 6Who cried aloud,] The folio, with an obvious loss of force, reads, “Who spake aloud.” We, therefore, prefer the quartos.

Note return to page 414 7&lblank; and he shriek'd out aloud,] The quarto, 1597, squak'd; the other quartos, squeak'd.

Note return to page 415 8unto torment!] So the folio: the quartos, “to your torments.”

Note return to page 416 9Environ'd me,] The quartos add about, to the injury of the metre.

Note return to page 417 1&lblank; made my dream.] The quartos, “made the dream.”

Note return to page 418 2I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.] The quartos, “I promise you I am afraid,” &c. In the next line they read, “O, Brakenbury!”

Note return to page 419 3That now give evidence&lblank;] The quartos have, “bear evidence.”

Note return to page 420 4O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children!] This and the three preceding lines are not found in any of the quarto impressions.

Note return to page 421 5Keeper, I pr'ythee, sit by me awhile;] So the folio: the quartos, “I pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me.”

Note return to page 422 6Clarence reposes himself on a Chair.] Here the folio, 1623, very strangely adds, as a stage-direction, “Enter Brakenbury the Lieutenant,” when in fact he had been with Clarence from the beginning of the scene, though only called Keeper in the prefixes. In the prefixes of the quartos he is uniformly spoken of as Brakenbury.

Note return to page 423 7&lblank; and how cam'st thou hither?] The quartos omit, “Ho! who's here?” and give Brakenbury's exclamation thus:—“In God's name, what are you, and how came you hither?”

Note return to page 424 8What! so brief?] The quartos, “What! are you so brief?” The two next lines immaterially vary in the quartos and folio.

Note return to page 425 9There lies the duke asleep, and there the keys:] The line in the quartos stands thus:—“Here are the keys; there sits the duke asleep.” In the next line, the quartos have, “and certify his grace,” for, “and signify to him,” of the folio.

Note return to page 426 1So I am, to let him live.] This reply, and the preceding observation by the 1 Murderer, are not found in the quarto impressions. There are verbal variations in this part of the scene not requiring separate notice.

Note return to page 427 2&lblank; this passionate humour of mine&lblank;] So the folio: the quartos, “my holy humour.”

Note return to page 428 3&lblank; it is a dangerous thing,] These words are from the quarto, 1597, and they are inserted in all the other quarto editions: as they are consistent with what the 2 Murderer says afterwards to the same effect, we have thought it right to insert them.

Note return to page 429 4I am strong-fram'd,] This is the reading of the folio, and it is probably right, as the 2 Murderer, in the next speech, calls his companion “a tall man,” meaning a bold fearless man. See Vol. iii. p. 330. 401. 436, and Vol. iv. p. 484. The quartos have, “I am strong in fraud.”

Note return to page 430 5Come, shall we fall to work?] In the quartos it is, “Come, shall we to this gear?”

Note return to page 431 6Your eyes do menace me: why look you pale?] This line is not found in any of the quartos, and the next line differs,— “Tell me who are you? Wherefore come you hither?”

Note return to page 432 7Are you drawn forth among a world of men,] The quartos read, “Are you call'd forth from out a world of men.” Johnson suggested that the true reading perhaps was “cull'd forth.”

Note return to page 433 8&lblank; to have redemption] The folio very poorly substitutes “for any goodness,” and omits the next line, probably on account of the statute 3 Jac. I. c. 21. We ought not on such an account to lose a line that proceeded from Shakespeare's pen, written by him long before the statute was passed. All the quarto editions contain the line, which was no doubt erased by the Master of the Revels, who, in this play as in others, discharged his duty very capriciously.

Note return to page 434 9Thou didst receive, &c.] These two lines run as follows in all the quarto editions:— “Thou didst receive the holy sacrament To fight in quarrel of the house of Lancaster.”

Note return to page 435 1O! know you yet, he doth it publicly;] This line is only in the folio.

Note return to page 436 2&lblank; our duty,] “The devil,” in the quarto impressions; and in the next line, “Have brought us,” instead of “Provoke us.”

Note return to page 437 3And charg'd us from his soul to love each other,] This almost necessary line is omitted in the folio.

Note return to page 438 4'Tis he that sends us to destroy you here.] So the folio: the quartos, “'Tis he hath sent us hither now to slaughter thee.” In the next line, for “he bewept my fortune,” in the folio, the quartos read, “when I parted from him.”

Note return to page 439 5To do this deed, will hate you for the deed.] In the quartos, the first four lines of the speech are as if addressed by Clarence to only one murderer, “Hast thou that holy feeling in thy soul,” &c., whereas, he ought to address both, and so it stands correctly and consistently in the folio.

Note return to page 440 6Were you in my distress?] The five lines ending with these words are not in the quarto editions. We have adhered to the distribution of the dialogue of the folio, which not a single modern editor, however scrupulous he may have professed to be, has followed. Some have inserted the passage in one place, and some in another, but in no place rightly.

Note return to page 441 7Of this most grievous guilty murder done!] So the line stands complete in the quartos: the folio has merely, “Of this most grievous murder.” There are other variations of less importance in this part of the scene. According to the quartos it does not appear that one of the murderers made his exit and returned; and in the folio we are left to infer that the body of Clarence was carried out by one of them.

Note return to page 442 8And more to peace&lblank;] This is the reading of the folio: that of the quartos, “And now in peace my soul shall part from heaven.” At all events, “from heaven” is a misprint, and probably “more to peace” is the correct text.

Note return to page 443 9Rivers, and Hastings,] So the quartos, correctly: the folio, “Dorset and Rivers.”

Note return to page 444 1By heaven, my soul&lblank;] The quartos have heart, for “soul” in the folio.

Note return to page 445 2Upon your grace,] “On you and yours” is the quarto reading.

Note return to page 446 3&lblank; cold in love,] “Cold in zeal,” quartos.

Note return to page 447 4&lblank; the blessed period&lblank;] “Perfect period,” quartos.

Note return to page 448 5And, in good time, here comes the noble duke.] So the quartos, correctly; but the folio reads, &lblank; “And in good time Here comes Sir Richard Ratcliffe and the duke.” The stage-direction which follows in the folio is consistently, “Enter Ratcliffe and Gloster,” but Gloster only appears to have entered. It is not easy to account for this discordance between the quartos and folio.

Note return to page 449 6If I unwittingly, or in my rage,] The folio, by an easy misprint, has unwillingly, but all the quarto copies are right.

Note return to page 450 7To any in this presence,] Prepositions, in the time of Shakespeare, were used with great licence; as in this instance, the quartos read “By any,” &c. and the folios, “To any,” &c.

Note return to page 451 8Of you, lord Woodville, and lord Scales, of you;] This line is only found in the folio.

Note return to page 452 9To be so flouted&lblank;] “To be so scorned,” quartos.

Note return to page 453 1But he, poor man,] “Poor soul,” is the reading of the quartos.

Note return to page 454 2&lblank; what is it thou request'st.] The reading of the quartos is, “Then speak what is it thou demand'st.”

Note return to page 455 3The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant's life;] i. e. Grant me my servant's life, which has become forfeit.

Note return to page 456 4And shall that tongue&lblank;] “And shall the same,” in the quartos.

Note return to page 457 5&lblank; was bitter death.] “Cruel death,” quartos. In the next line, the folio has, “in my wrath,” and the quartos, “in my rage.”

Note return to page 458 6&lblank; once beg for his life.] So the folio: the quartos have plead for “beg.”

Note return to page 459 7Come, lords; will you go,] “But come, let's in,” is the reading of the quartos, which leaves the measure incomplete. Buckingham's reply, “We wait upon your grace,” is wanting in the quartos.

Note return to page 460 8Why do you weep so oft?] The quartos have, “Why do you wring your hands?”

Note return to page 461 9&lblank; you mistake me both,] “You mistake me much,” quartos.

Note return to page 462 1It were lost sorrow to wail one that's lost.] The quartos give this line, “It were lost labour to weep for one that's lost.”

Note return to page 463 2And when my uncle told me so, he wept, And pitied me,and kindly kiss'd my cheek;] The quartos thus imperfectly represent these two lines:— “And when he told me so, he wept, And hugg'd me in his arm, and kindly kiss'd my cheek.”

Note return to page 464 3&lblank; hide deep vice!] “Deep guile” is the reading of the quartos.

Note return to page 465 4Enter Queen Elizabeth, distractedly;] “With her hair about her ears,” is the stage-direction in the folio: “Enter the Queen” in the quartos, where the stage-directions are generally more brief.

Note return to page 466 5&lblank; when the root is gone?] “Now the root is wither'd,” quartos.

Note return to page 467 6&lblank; that want their sap?] “The sap being gone,” quartos.

Note return to page 468 7&lblank; of ne'er-changing night.] “Of perpetual rest,” quartos.

Note return to page 469 8&lblank; thy children left:] The quartos add thee at the end of this line.

Note return to page 470 9&lblank; my husband&lblank;] Children, in the quartos.

Note return to page 471 1&lblank; a moiety of my moan,] All the quartos, excepting that of 1634, have grief for “moan:” the quarto of 1634 gives the line, “Then, being but a moiety of myself.” In the next line, the quartos read plaints for “woes.”

Note return to page 472 2&lblank; to bring forth complaints:] Laments in the quartos.

Note return to page 473 3&lblank; for my dear lord, Edward!] So the folio: the quarto, 1597, has “eire lord Edward;” that of 1598, “eyre lord Edward;” and the other later quartos, “heire lord Edward.”

Note return to page 474 4&lblank; mother of these griefs;] “Mother of these moans,” quartos.

Note return to page 475 5These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I: I for an Edward weep, so do not they:] The last line is omitted in the folio, and in the first line, “so do not they” is printed for “and so do I.” The omission is supplied, and the error corrected from the quarto, 1597.

Note return to page 476 6And plant your joys in living Edward's throne,] This and the eleven preceding lines are first found in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 477 7Sister, have comfort:] “Madam, have comfort,” quartos.

Note return to page 478 8&lblank; can help our harms&lblank;] “Can cure their harms,” quartos.

Note return to page 479 9&lblank; in thy breast,] “In thy mind,” quartos.

Note return to page 480 1&lblank; that her grace&lblank;] “Why her grace,” quartos.

Note return to page 481 2&lblank; your high-swoln hates,] The quartos have hearts for “hates.”

Note return to page 482 3And so say I.] This and the seventeen lines preceding form one of the additions in the folio, 1623. They are in none of the quarto impressions.

Note return to page 483 4&lblank; post to Ludlow.] So the quartos, correctly, both here and afterwards: the folio, London, in both places. In the next line, the folio has “sister,” and the quartos, mother.

Note return to page 484 5To give your censures in this business?] Here, as in many other places, “censure” is only used for opinion or judgment. See this Vol. p. 125. Modern editors have injured this line, by inserting weighty before “business,” from the quartos.

Note return to page 485 6&lblank; I'll sort occasion,] I will select or sort out an opportunity.

Note return to page 486 7As index to the story&lblank;] i. e. As introduction or commencement. Shakespeare not unfrequently employs the word “index” in this sense: thus, later in this play, (Act iv. sc. 4,) we have, “The flattering index of a direful pageant;” and in “Othello,” Act ii. sc. 1, “An index and obscure prologue to the history.” This use of the word seems to have arisen out of the fact, that the index of a book was formerly placed at the beginning.

Note return to page 487 8&lblank; a giddy world.] So the folio: the quarto, 1597, troublous: the quartos, 1598, 1602, and the later editions in the same form, have troublesome. There are other minor variations in this scene, which it is not necessary to mark, as they do not at all change the sense. Our text is that of the folio.

Note return to page 488 9&lblank; men's minds mistrust Pursuing danger;] So the folio; from which there is no reason to vary, since the meaning is quite as evident, as if the usually substituted word ensuing were the text.

Note return to page 489 1Last night, I heard, they lay at Stony-Stratford; And at Northampton they do rest to-night.] This seems to be historically correct, according to Hall's Chronicle. The quartos reverse the order of places: “Last night, I hear, they lay at Northampton; At Stony-Stratford will they be to-night.”

Note return to page 490 2And so, no doubt, he is, my gracious madam.] This line is assigned to the young duke of York in the folio; but modern editors, without giving any notice, have transferred it to the Archbishop, to whom, however, it probably belongs, as the corresponding speech in the quartos is given to the Cardinal.

Note return to page 491 3A parlous boy.] “Parlous” means perilous, from which, as Ritson says, it was probably corrupted; but it sometimes seems to be used in the sense of satirically talkative. See Vol. ii. p. 419; and Vol. iii. p. 48. The word occurs again in Act iii. sc. 1, of this play, and there it is spelt perilous in all the old copies, quarto and folio.

Note return to page 492 4Enter a Messenger.] In the quarto editions, the Marquess of Dorset is made the messenger. “Enter Dorset” is the stage-direction, followed by “Here comes your son, Lo. M. Dorset.—What news, Lord Marquess?”

Note return to page 493 5&lblank; as grieves me to report.] The quartos have “to unfold.”

Note return to page 494 6Insulting tyranny begins to jet] To “jet” is to strut. See Vol iii. p. 366. The quartos all have “jet,” and the folio, jut, which, no doubt, was meant for the same word.

Note return to page 495 7Upon the innocent and awless throne:] i. e. The throne deprived of awe or reverence: the quartos read lawless. In the next line, the quartos have death for “blood.”

Note return to page 496 8Make war upon themselves; brother to brother, Blood to blood, self against self:] The quarto here reads, imperfectly, “Make war upon themselves, blood against blood, Self against self.”

Note return to page 497 9And frantic outrage,] So every old edition, in quarto and folio. Malone substituted courage, much to the detriment of the sense. It may have been a misprint, but Boswell has a note upon it, stating that the quarto, 1597, has “outrage.” He was, therefore, aware of it, and passed it over.

Note return to page 498 1Or let me die, to look on death no more.] The folio has “on earth” for “on death,” which is the reading of every old quarto. It is a mistake to assert, as some modern editors have unhesitatingly done, that any of the quartos countenance “on earth.” The duchess of course refers to the scenes of slaughter to which her eyes had been witness. Other slight changes in the folio, at the close of this scene, are not worth remark, as they do not at all affect the poet's meaning.

Note return to page 499 2&lblank; to London, to your chamber.] i. e. Camera Regis, as London was called from nearly the time of the Conquest downwards.

Note return to page 500 3&lblank; God in heaven forbid] So the quartos, 1597 and 1598: the later quartos, as well as the folio, omit “in heaven.”

Note return to page 501 4&lblank; of so great a sin.] The quartos, 1597 and 1598 have deep for “great,” which last is the reading of the folio and of the later quartos.

Note return to page 502 5Where it seems best&lblank;] The folio reads, “Where it think'st best,” in which it follows the quarto of 1602: the earlier quartos have it as in our text.

Note return to page 503 6He did, my gracious lord, &c.] All the old editions, quarto and folio, give this reply to Buckingham, whom no doubt the prince addressed, turning from Gloster in some disgust at the mention of the Tower. Modern editors have conspired (against all authority, and without any information that they had deviated from the ancient distribution) to give the answer to Gloster, although they allow Buckingham to continue the subject afterwards, with “Upon record, my gracious lord.” Gloster was an attentive listener, as appears by what he says subsequently.

Note return to page 504 7&lblank; all-ending day.] This compound is from the quarto, 1597: the other quartos and the folio omit all.

Note return to page 505 8Thus, like the formal Vice, Iniquity,] The Vice or Jester in some of the old Moralities, was called Iniquity. In “King Darius,” 1565, he bears that name, and he is mentioned by it in Ben Jonson's Staple of News, &c. He was also known by various other appellations, such as Courage in “Tide tarryeth no Man,” 1576; Conditions in “Common Conditions,” &c. The Vice figures in some of the later religious plays as well as in Moralities. See Hist. of Engl. Dram. Poetry and the Stage, Vol. ii. p. 265.

Note return to page 506 9&lblank; lightly&lblank;] i. e. Commonly or usually. In the next page, we have “lightly” used in a different sense—“I weigh it lightly, were it heavier;” meaning, “I should consider it a trifle, were it heavier.”

Note return to page 507 1Well, my dread lord;] So the quartos, 1597 and 1598. The quarto, 1602, first introduced dear for dread, and the folio, 1623, copied it.

Note return to page 508 2My lord protector needs will have it so.] Every copy of this play, quarto and folio, excepting the quarto of 1597, omits needs in this line, which is necessary to the measure, if not to the sense. We have therefore had no difficulty in restoring it to the text.

Note return to page 509 3But come, my lord; and, with a heavy heart,] “And,” required by the metre, is first found in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 510 4To sit about the coronation.] This and the preceding line are not in any of the quarto impressions. For the next line in the quartos we have only, “If he be willing.”

Note return to page 511 5&lblank; divided councils,] That is, (says Johnson,) a private consultation, separate from the known and public council. This interpretation is warranted by the historical evidence of Hall and Holinshed.

Note return to page 512 6Good Catesby, go;] The quartos omit “go.” In the next line, the quartos have may for “can.”

Note return to page 513 7At Crosby-place,] The quartos Crosby-place; the folio Crosby-house.

Note return to page 514 8Chop off his head, man;—somewhat we will do.] So every quarto edition: the folio, much less characteristically, reads, “Chop off his head; something we will determine.” This is one of the injurious changes which Malone would have attributed to the players.

Note return to page 515 9&lblank; with all kindness.] “With all willingness,” in the quartos. The reason for the alteration here is obvious.

Note return to page 516 1Who knocks?] “At the door,” add the quartos; and the answer there is, “A messenger from the lord Stanley.”

Note return to page 517 2Cannot my lord Stanley&lblank;] The quartos, “Cannot thy master.” The quartos subsequent to that of 1597 read, “the tedious nights.”

Note return to page 518 3So it appears&lblank;] The quarto, “So it should seem.” In the next line we have lordship in the quartos, for “self” in the folio.

Note return to page 519 4Then certifies your lordship, that this night He dreamt the boar had rased off his helm:] The quarto gives the passage thus:— “And then he sends you word, He dreamt to-night the boar had ras'd his helm.” There are other minor variations in this part of the scene, but the text of the folio is the whole to be preferred. In the quartos, we have held for “kept,” servant for “good friend,” wanting for “without,” &c.

Note return to page 520 5I wonder he's so simple] “I wonder he is so fond,” in the quartos: the old meaning of the word fond was what it is represented to be in the text of the folio. See Vol. ii. p. 37; iii. p. 30; iv. p. 201; and this Vol. p. 152.

Note return to page 521 6I'll go, my lord, and tell him what you say.] The quartos, “My gracious lord, I'll tell him,” &c.

Note return to page 522 7Before I'll see&lblank;] “Ere I will see,” quartos.

Note return to page 523 8Ay, on my life;] “Upon my life, my lord,” quartos.

Note return to page 524 9&lblank; still my adversaries;] “Still mine enemies,” in the quartos.

Note return to page 525 1Well, Catesby, ere a fortnight make me older,] In the quarto editions the dialogue runs thus:— “I tell thee, Catesby— “Cat. What, my lord? “Hast. Ere a fortnight makes me older.”

Note return to page 526 2Come on, come on;] “What, my lord!” in the quartos.

Note return to page 527 3&lblank; as dear as yours;] i. e. “As dear as you do yours,” which in fact is the reading of the quarto editions. In the next line, the quartos have life for “days.”

Note return to page 528 4Was it so precious to me as 'tis now.] The quartos read, “Was it more precious to me than 'tis now.”

Note return to page 529 5This sudden stab&lblank;] The quartos misprint it scab.

Note return to page 530 6What, shall we toward the Tower? the day is spent.] The quartos give this line, “But come, my lord; shall we to the Tower?” The reply of Hastings, according to the same authority, is, “I go; but stay: hear you not the news? This day those men you talk'd of are beheaded.” Other variations may be pointed out in this part of the scene: for instance, Hastings, in the quartos, calls the Pursuivant “Hastings,” instead of “sirrah;” and says, “I tell thee, fellow,” instead of “I tell thee, man.”

Note return to page 531 7I thank thee, good sir John,] The title of sir was often given to the clergy. See Vol. iii. p. 393; and this Vol. p. 119.

Note return to page 532 8I am in your debt for your last exercise;] i. e. Religious instruction. In the quarto the line runs, “I am beholding to you for your last day's exercise:” “I'll wait upon your lordship” is in the folio only. When Buckingham enters, he says, in the quarto, “How now, lord chamberlain!” &c.

Note return to page 533 9I'll wait upon your lordship.] These words are not in the quarto editions, the two noblemen going out with “Come, shall we go along?” spoken by Buckingham. We have just before had the same form of expression in the folio, “I'll wait upon your lordship,” not found in the quarto editions.

Note return to page 534 1Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this:] This line, in the quartos, is preceded by, “Come, bring forth the prisoners,” spoken by Ratcliff to the guard.

Note return to page 535 2God bless the prince&lblank;] So the folio: the quartos have keep for “bless.”

Note return to page 536 3Despatch: the limit of your lives is out.] This and the preceding line are not in the quartos.

Note return to page 537 4&lblank; thy dismal seat,] Soul, in the quartos.

Note return to page 538 5When she exclaim'd on Hastings, you, and I,] This line is only in the folio impressions.

Note return to page 539 6Then curs'd she Hastings:] The quartos have Richard for Hastings, and the reverse in the preceding line.

Note return to page 540 7Make haste: the hour of death is expiate.] For this line we have in the quartos a line previously omitted, “Come, come, despatch: the limit of your lives is out.” The editor of the folio, 1632, altered “expiate” into is now expir'd, not understanding expiate in the peculiar sense in which it seems used here, viz. that of completed or ended.

Note return to page 541 8Who is most inward&lblank;] “Inward” is intimate. See Vol. ii. p. 62. In the commencement of this scene there are some unimportant diversities between the text of the folio and that of the quartos. They do not at all affect the sense: thus, instead of “To-morrow, then, I judge a happy day,” the quartos have guess for “judge.”

Note return to page 542 9We know each other's faces:] This is preceded in the quartos by the inquiry by Buckingham, “Who? I, my lord?”

Note return to page 543 1But you, my honourable lords,] In the quartos we have “noble lords.”

Note return to page 544 2Had you not come upon your cue,] This expression is taken from the theatre. The cue, queue, or tail of a speech, consists of the last words.

Note return to page 545 3&lblank; and loves me well.] To this speech the quartos add as follows:— “Hast. I thank your grace. “Glo. My lord of Ely,— “Ely. My lord. “Glo. When I was last in Holborn,” &c.

Note return to page 546 4Withdraw yourself awhile; I'll go with you.] The differences between the folio and quarto copies are here of little consequence: instead of this line from the folio, Buckingham says, in the quartos, “Withdraw you hence, my lord: I'll follow you.”

Note return to page 547 5&lblank; in my judgment,] “In mine opinion,” quartos.

Note return to page 548 6&lblank; this morning;] “To-day,” in the quartos.

Note return to page 549 7By any livelihood&lblank;] This is a variation of some value: we prefer the reading of the folio to that of the quartos, which all have likelihood for “livelihood:” Stanley refers to the vivacity of the expression of Gloster's countenance. “Livelihood” is used exactly in the same way in Vol. iii. p. 209.

Note return to page 550 8For, were he, he had shown it in his looks.] After this line, the quartos give the following words to Stanley, “I pray God he be not, I say.”

Note return to page 551 9&lblank; whosoe'er they be,] The quartos read, whatsoever.

Note return to page 552 1Consorted with that harlot,] i. e. Associated with, or in company with. See Vol. ii. p. 119.

Note return to page 553 2If they have done this deed, my noble lord,&lblank;] We give the following, as a specimen of the unimportant variations in the quartos, which read, “If they have done this thing, my gracious lord.” Above we have had “princely presence” in the folio, and “noble presence” in the quartos.

Note return to page 554 3Lovel, and Ratcliff, look, that it be done;] “Some see it done” only in the quartos. We must suppose Ratcliff to have arrived in London from Pomfret, where he had superintended the execution of the nobles.

Note return to page 555 4&lblank; rise, and follow me.] “Come, and follow me,” in the quartos.

Note return to page 556 5&lblank; the boar did rase his helm;] So the quartos, consistently with the former scene, p. 411. The folio misprints rowse for “rase.”

Note return to page 557 6And I did scorn it, and disdain'd to fly.] So the folio: the quartos, “But I disdain'd it, and did scorn to fly.” Below we have “I need the priest,” in the folio, and “I want the priest,” in the quarto.

Note return to page 558 7As too triumphing, how mine enemies, To-day at Pomfret bloodily were butcher'd,] The quartos give this passage as follows:— “As 'twere triumphing at mine enemies, How they at Pomfret bloodily were butcher'd.”

Note return to page 559 8Come, come; despatch,] So the folio, unceremoniously and characteristically. The quartos make Catesby (to whom the speech is there assigned) give Hastings his rank:—“Despatch, my lord.” Four lines lower, the quartos have “fair looks” for “good looks” of the folio.

Note return to page 560 9That ever wretched age hath look'd upon.] This and the three preceding lines are only in the folio.

Note return to page 561 1in rusty armour,] “In rotten armour, marvellous ill-favoured,” is the stage-direction of the folio: the quartos only have “in armour.” Holinshed tells us that “the protector immediately after dinner, intending to set some colour upon the matter, sent in all haste for many substantial men out of the citie unto the Tower; and at their coming, himselfe, with the duke of Buckingham, stood harnessed in old ill-faring briganders, such as no man should weene that they would vouchsafe to have put upon their backes, except that some sudden necessitie had constrained them.” Shakespeare, as usual, has very closely followed Holinshed.

Note return to page 562 2Tut!] After this interjection, the quartos add, “fear not me.”

Note return to page 563 3Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,] This line not found in any of the quartos.

Note return to page 564 4Intending deep suspicion:] To “intend” was often of old used for to pretend. So in “The Taming of the Shrew,” Act iv. sc. 1, “I intend that all this is done in reverend care of her.” Many other instances might be pointed out in Shakespeare: so, in sc. 7 of this Act, p. 429, Buckingham tells Gloster to “intend some fear.”

Note return to page 565 5Lord Mayor, &lblank;] This part of the dialogue is thus given in the quartos: our text is, of course, that of the folio:— “And both are ready in their offices To grace my stratagems. Enter Mayor. “Glo. Here comes the Mayor. “Buck. Let me alone to entertain him. Lord Mayor— “Glo. Look to the drawbridge, there!”

Note return to page 566 6Hark! a drum.] Not in the quartos.

Note return to page 567 7Be patient, they are friends; Ratcliff, and Lovel.] In the quartos, the stage-direction preceding this line (which there only stands, “O! O! be quiet: it is Catesby”) is, “Enter Catesby with Hast. head:” but Lovel and Ratcliff had been told by Gloster to look to the execution of Hastings, according to the folio, and they, therefore, bring the head.

Note return to page 568 8That breath'd upon the earth a Christian;] After this line, the quarto adds, “Look ye, my lord Mayor;” but the words are not in the folio, and we may suppose Gloster to turn to him without attracting his attention by this particular address.

Note return to page 569 9He liv'd &lblank;] By an error of the press all the quartos have “He laid,” &c.

Note return to page 570 1Buck. I never look'd for better at his hands,] This and the following line in the folio form the commencement of Buckingham's speech, and such, no doubt, is the correct distribution of the dialogue. Modern editors have taken it from him without attempting to assign any reason. The only excuse is, that an oversight in this respect is committed in the quartos, which are not to be taken as the text of this play, and where the two lines are made the conclusion of the speech of the Lord Mayor.

Note return to page 571 2&lblank; to see his end;] “To see his death;” quartos. In the next line they have longing for “loving.”

Note return to page 572 3But since you come &lblank;] So the quartos: the folio “Which since”—clearly wrong. In the preceding line in the quartos the epithet “carping” is applied to “censures” and not to “world.”

Note return to page 573 4&lblank; we bid farewell.] This and the preceding line are put into one in the quartos, “Yet witness what we did intend; and so, my lord, adieu.”

Note return to page 574 5&lblank; lusted to make a prey.] The quartos have “listed to make his prey,” and in the preceding line lustful for “raging.”

Note return to page 575 6And by true computation &lblank;] The quartos have “just computation.” Such differences are scarcely worth notice.

Note return to page 576 7&lblank; and so, my lord, adieu.] This conclusion of the line is only in the folio. The commencement of the speech in the quarto is, “Fear not, my lord.”

Note return to page 577 8Meet me, within this hour, at Baynard's castle.] Dr. Shaw and Penker, or Pinker, were popular preachers of the time; and Speed (as quoted by Steevens) informs us that the latter was Provincial of the Augustine friars. Dr. Shaw was brother to the Lord Mayor. The three lines referring to them are only in the folio.

Note return to page 578 9Now will I go,] “Now will I in,” quartos. Two lines lower the quartos have notice for “order,” and no manner of person for “no manner person,” which was an idiom of the time. One or two other minor variations, towards the end of this scene, do not require remark.

Note return to page 579 1Enter a Scrivener.] “With a paper in his hand” adds the stage-direction in the quarto, 1597.

Note return to page 580 2&lblank; was it sent me.] “Brought me,” in the quartos.

Note return to page 581 3Yet who so bold,] “Who's so blind,” quartos.

Note return to page 582 4When such ill dealing must be seen in thought.] i. e. seen in silence. The quartos read bad for “ill” of the folios.

Note return to page 583 5&lblank; say not a word.] “And spake not a word” in the quartos. In the quartos Gloster meets Buckingham with “How now, my lord!” not with the impatient and eager “How now, how now!”

Note return to page 584 6And his contract by deputy in France:] This and the preceding line are wanting in the quartos, as well as the next line but one.

Note return to page 585 7And his resemblance, being not like the duke.] This line also is only in the folio.

Note return to page 586 8&lblank; they spake not a word;] Not in any of the quartos.

Note return to page 587 9But, like dumb statues, or breathing stones,] Here we have an instance, as in “Henry VI.” pt. 2, Act iii. sc. 2, of statue having been pronounced as a trisyllable. Other proofs of the same kind may be pointed out in Julius Cæsar, Act ii. sc. 2, &c. Rowe, not attending to this circumstance, and mistaking the poet's meaning, read unbreathing for “breathing.” Some modern editors have printed “statue” statua, but quite needlessly, and without warrant from the old copies in quarto or folio. In the next line the quartos read gaz'd and the folio “star'd.”

Note return to page 588 1&lblank; were not us'd] So the folio: the quartos wont.

Note return to page 589 2And thus I took the vantage of those few,&lblank;] A line not in the quartos. In the next line for “gentle” the quartos have loving, and in the line following for “cheerful shout” they have “loving shout,” so that the same epithet is almost immediately repeated in the most ancient authorities.

Note return to page 590 3&lblank; would they not speak?] In the quartos only this question is followed by “Buck. No, by my troth, my lord.”

Note return to page 591 4For on that ground I'll make a holy descant:] “Ground” and “descant” are both terms of art in music. The quartos read build for “make,” a verb which is inconsistent with the figure employed by Buckingham. Other variations in this part of the scene are comparatively trivial.

Note return to page 592 5Now Catesby! what says your lord to my request?] In the quartos the line is, “Here comes his servant.—How now, Catesby! what says he?”

Note return to page 593 6&lblank; to the gracious duke;] “To thy lord again” in the quartos.

Note return to page 594 7&lblank; and aldermen,] “And citizens,” quartos.

Note return to page 595 8I'll signify so much unto him straight.] The quartos read, prosaically, “I'll tell him what you say, my lord.” Two lines lower the quartos have day-bed for “love-bed;” and further on gracious for “virtuous prince.”

Note return to page 596 9Take on his grace&lblank;] The quartos, “Take on himself.”

Note return to page 597 1Marry, God defend&lblank;] The quartos, “Marry, God forbid,” which, if any explanation were needed, explains this sense of “defend.” The quartos afterwards have “God defend.”

Note return to page 598 2&lblank; to come to him:] The quartos, “to speak with him.”

Note return to page 599 3&lblank; in a Gallery above,] The old simple stage-direction in the quartos and folio is aloft, (misprinted a loste in the quarto, 1597) meaning of course in the balcony at the back of the old stage.

Note return to page 600 4True ornaments to know a holy man.] This and the preceding line are only in the folio.

Note return to page 601 5I do beseech your grace to pardon me,] The quartos read, “I rather do beseech you pardon me;” and in the next line but one the quartos have neglect for “deferr'd.”

Note return to page 602 6Your state of fortune, and your due of birth,] This line is wanting in the quartos.

Note return to page 603 7This noble isle doth want her proper limbs;] So the quartos; a reading preferable to that of the folio, “The noble isle doth want his proper limbs:” his for “her” is an error repeated in the two next lines, the last of which is not contained in the quartos. As her was formerly often spelt hir, the misprint was a very easy one.

Note return to page 604 8Of dark forgetfulness and deep oblivion.] The quartos read, “Of blind forgetfulness and dark oblivion.”

Note return to page 605 9And kingly government of this your land:] The quartos (no doubt corruptly) run this and the preceding line prosaically into one, “Your gracious self to take on you the sovereignty thereof.”

Note return to page 606 1In this just cause &lblank;] “In this just suit,” quartos. In the next line the quartos have I know not whether for “I cannot tell if” of the folio.

Note return to page 607 2Definitively thus I answer you.] This and the preceding nine lines are only in the folio.

Note return to page 608 3As the ripe revenue and due of birth;] The quartos give this line thus:— “As my ripe revenue and due by birth.”

Note return to page 609 4&lblank; were there need;] The quartos “if need were.”

Note return to page 610 5&lblank; are nice and trivial,] “Trivial” here explains the sense in which Shakespeare uses “nice.” See also Vol. iv. p. 348.

Note return to page 611 6&lblank; mother to a many sons,] “Mother of a many children” in the quarto, 1597. All the later quartos omit a, to the injury of the verse.

Note return to page 612 7Made prize and purchase&lblank;] Here, as in many other places, “purchase” means booty. See Vol. iv. pp. 251 and 437.

Note return to page 613 8&lblank; height of his degree] So the folio: the quartos, “height of all his thoughts.”

Note return to page 614 9Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry] The quartos for this line read, “Yet to draw out your royal stock.”

Note return to page 615 1Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffer'd love.] This line is only in the folio.

Note return to page 616 2&lblank; for state and majesty:&lblank;] Dignity in the quartos.

Note return to page 617 3&lblank; to your kindred,] Kin in the quartos.

Note return to page 618 4Come, citizens, we will entreat no more.] The quartos add, very characteristically, what was perhaps afterwards omitted in consequence of the statute, 3 Jac. I. c. 21. Buckingham says, according to the quartos, “Come, citizens: zounds! I'll entreat no more;” and Gloster, standing between the two clergymen, thus reproves him:— “O! do not swear, my lord of Buckingham.” There can be little doubt that this proceeded from Shakespeare's pen, on whatever account the text might afterwards be altered.

Note return to page 619 5If you deny them, all the land will rue it.] The quartos, with some immaterial literal variation from the folio, attribute this line to “Another” attendant on Gloster, and the line before it only to Catesby. The multiplication of characters was necessarily avoided on our old stage. In the first line of Gloster's reply the quartos have would for “will.”

Note return to page 620 6&lblank; I am not made of stone,] “Of stones,” all the old copies, but probably a misprint. In the next line the quartos read, “but penetrable to kind entreats,” for “entreaties.”

Note return to page 621 7For God doth know,] “For God he knows,” quartos.

Note return to page 622 8&lblank; with this royal title,—] “Kingly title,” in the quartos.

Note return to page 623 9&lblank; our holy work again:&lblank;] “Our holy task again” in the quartos. It is to be recollected that, according to the old arrangement of this scene, Gloster, with the two bishops, stood in the balcony at the back of the stage, while he was addressed by Buckingham, &c. from the boards. In the preceding lines we have “will” for “may,” and “will” for “please,” in the quartos.

Note return to page 624 1As much to you, good sister: whither away?] The quartos, instead of the preceding lines in the folio, have only the following:— “Duch. Who meets us here? my niece Plantagenet? “Qu. Sister, well met: whither away so fast?”

Note return to page 625 2&lblank; the gentle princes there.] The quartos have tender for “gentle.”

Note return to page 626 3How doth the prince, and my young son of York?] For this line the quartos only have, “How fares the prince?” Brakenbury's reply is, “Well, madam, and in health; but by your leave,” &c. Lower down, he precedes his answer of “I mean the lord protector” by “I cry you mercy.”

Note return to page 627 4&lblank; who shall bar me&lblank;] “Who should keep me,” quartos.

Note return to page 628 5Then bring me to their sights;] “Then fear not thou,” quartos.

Note return to page 629 6No, madam, no; I may not leave it so;] “I do beseech your graces all to pardon me,” in the quartos.

Note return to page 630 7Despiteful tidings! O, unpleasing news!] This line is only in the folio: in the quartos Dorset says, “Madam, have comfort: how fares your grace?”

Note return to page 631 8&lblank; of the hours;] “Of the time,” quartos. The next line but one in the quartos is, “To meet you on the way and welcome you.”

Note return to page 632 9&lblank; with deadly venom;] “With deadly poison,” quartos.

Note return to page 633 1And that dear saint&lblank;] “Dead saint” in the quartos; but the duchess would, perhaps, hardly call a “saint” dead.

Note return to page 634 2&lblank; by the life of thee,] The quartos read “by the death of thee,” which corresponds with Anne's words in A. i. sc. 2.

Note return to page 635 3Within so small a time,] “Even, in so short a space,” quartos.

Note return to page 636 4Poor heart, adieu; I pity thy complaining.] In the quartos, “Alas! poor soul, I pity thy complaints.” Three lines earlier the quartos have “But have been waked by his timorous dreams.”

Note return to page 637 5&lblank; and good angels tend thee!—] “Guard thee” in the quartos.

Note return to page 638 6&lblank; a week of teen.] i. e. a week of sorrow. A rather favourite word with Shakespeare. We have had it in “Love's Labour's Lost,” A. iv. sc. 3, and it occurs again in “Romeo and Juliet” (Act i. sc. 3), and in “The Tempest” (Act i. sc. 2). It is found in many old writers; and by Chaucer it is used both as a verb and substantive. It is derived, according to Todd, from the Saxon teonan, injuries. It is still in use in some of our North-eastern counties. See Holloway's General Provincial Dictionary.

Note return to page 639 7So foolish sorrow bids your stones farewell.] The folio, in which alone this speech is found, has “sorrow” in the plural, and “bids” in the singular. Rowe made the correction. It may be doubted, whether we ought to read sorrow bids or sorrows bid.

Note return to page 640 8Richard, as King, upon his Throne;] We have before remarked that there were probably no “discoveries” (as they are now called) in our old theatre, but that the characters entered. Such was the case here; for the old quartos inform us, in a direction, after Richard has come upon the stage, “Here he ascendeth the throne.” In the folio the trumpets were directed to “sound,” when Richard said to Buckingham, “Give me thy hand.” In the quartos there is no reply by Buckingham, “My gracious sovereign,” after Richard has called him.

Note return to page 641 9&lblank; these glories for a day?] The quartos, honours.

Note return to page 642 1&lblank; now do I play the touch,] “Touch” was of old more frequently used than touchstone, though Whetstone, in 1584, wrote a tract called “A Touchstone for the Time,” and the words were sometimes indifferently employed. There are several unimportant variations between the quarto and folio copies in the opening of this scene. Thus, in the quartos, Richard says, “Think now what I would say,” and Buckingham replies, “Say on, my gracious sovereign.”

Note return to page 643 2I will resolve you herein presently.] So in the folio: “presently” in Shakespeare means immediately, as it stands in the quartos, “I will resolve your grace immediately.”

Note return to page 644 3&lblank; see, he gnaws his lip.] “Bites the lip,” quartos.

Note return to page 645 4Will tempt&lblank;] The quartos, “Would tempt,” and so the modern editors. In the quartos, Richard calls the “boy” before he exclaims against “high reaching Buckingham.” Two lines lower the quartos have mind for “spirit” of the folio.

Note return to page 646 5I partly know the man: go, call him hither, boy.] In the quartos, “Go, call him hither presently.”

Note return to page 647 6&lblank; in the parts where he abides.] The quartos, “in those parts beyond the seas where he abides.”

Note return to page 648 7Come hither, Catesby;] In the quartos, the dialogue is more broken:— “K. Rich. Catesby. “Cate. My lord. “K. Rich. Rumour is abroad,” &c. The next line in the quartos runs, “That Anne, my wife, is sick, and like to die.”

Note return to page 649 8&lblank; some mean poor gentleman,] “Some mean-born gentleman,” quartos.

Note return to page 650 9&lblank; my gracious lord.] “My gracious sovereign,” quartos.

Note return to page 651 1Please you;] “Ay, my lord,” in the quartos.

Note return to page 652 2&lblank; and prefer thee for it.] The quartos, “and prefer thee, too.” After these words the quartos add, “Tyr. 'Tis done, my gracious lord. “K. Rich. Shall we hear from thee, ere we sleep? “Tyr. Ye shall, my lord.” The same question had been put to Catesby by Richard, at the end of Sc. 1. Act iii. It was therefore, perhaps, omitted here in the folio.

Note return to page 653 3&lblank; my just request?] “My just demand,” in the quartos.

Note return to page 654 4Buck. My lord,&lblank;] From this speech down to the line, “I am not in the giving vein to-day,” is only in the quarto impressions, but they all contain it; and it is difficult in any way to account for the omission of a portion of the play so strikingly characteristic. We have not scrupled to insert it in our text.

Note return to page 655 5Because that, like a Jack,] The figure in old clocks, which used to strike the chimes or hours, was called a “Jack,” or Jack of the Clock.

Note return to page 656 6Why, then resolve me whether you will, or no.] The folio, which, as has been remarked, omits what immediately precedes, gives this line as follows:— “May it please you to resolve me in my suit.” The quartos place the interjections, “Tut, tut!” before Richard's answer.

Note return to page 657 7And is it thus? repays he my deep service With such contempt?] The quartos give this passage thus:— “Is it even so? rewards he my true service With such deep contempt?”

Note return to page 658 8Enter Tyrrel.] The quartos, without exception, here call him, “Sir Francis Tyrrell,” although they had not long before made him tell Gloster that his name was James,—“James Tyrrell, and your most obedient subject.”

Note return to page 659 9&lblank; All health, my sovereign lord!] “All hail, my sovereign liege!” quartos. There are some variations between the quartos and folio in this speech by Tyrrel, one only of which it is necessary to point out. The quartos read in the fifth line, “To do this ruthless piece of butchery,” and the folio, “To do this piece of ruthful butchery,” which epithet modern editors have needlessly, and without notice, changed to ruthless. Shakespeare often uses “ruthful” in this way. In “Henry VI.” pt. 3, A. ii. sc. 5, we have, “O! that my death would stay these ruthful deeds;” and in “Troilus and Cressida,” A. v. sc. 3, “Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth.” Various other instances to the same effect might be quoted from him and other authors.

Note return to page 660 1But where, to say the truth, I do not know.] In the quartos the line is, “But how, or in what place, I do not know.” In the next line the quartos have, “soon, at after supper.”

Note return to page 661 2I humbly take my leave.] In the quartos, Tyrrel merely makes his exit without any observation, after Richard has said, not “Farewell till then,” as in the folio, but “Farewell till soon.”

Note return to page 662 3looks proudly on the crown,] The quartos read “looks proudly o'er the crown.”

Note return to page 663 4&lblank; Morton is fled to Richmond;] In the quartos he is called Ely, of which see he was bishop. Richard afterwards calls him Ely in the folio, as well as in the quartos.

Note return to page 664 5&lblank; rash-levied strength.] “Rash-levied army” in the quartos, and in the next line the quartos read heard for “learn'd.”

Note return to page 665 6To watch the waning of mine enemies.] “Mine adversaries” in the quartos.

Note return to page 666 7My unblown flowers,] So the quartos: the folio, 1623, has unblowed.

Note return to page 667 8Edward for Edward pays a dying debt.] This and the preceding four lines are only in the folio.

Note return to page 668 9When didst thou sleep,] So every old edition until the folio, 1632, which needlessly substituted why for “when.” “When didst thou sleep, when such a deed was done?” means, when before this time didst thou sleep, &c. Queen Margaret's reply makes it quite clear that such is the sense of the line, which, however, was not understood by the editor of the second folio.

Note return to page 669 1Brief abstract and record of tedious days,] This line is not in the quartos, which, in the opening of this speech, read, “Blind sight, dead life,” &c.

Note return to page 670 2And let my griefs&lblank;] Woes in the quartos.

Note return to page 671 3Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine:—] This line is from the quartos, having been, probably, accidentally omitted in the folio, as the sense, though not absolutely incomplete, can hardly be called perfect without it. In the next line but one the quartos have Richard (which is evidently wrong) for “husband” of the folio. Lower down, the folio has “hop'st to kill him” for “holp'st to kill him.” The error is committed in the quartos, 1597 and 1598, and corrected in that of 1602.

Note return to page 672 4That excellent grand tyrant of the earth,] This and the preceding line are only in the folio.

Note return to page 673 5And makes her pew-fellow &lblank;] i. e. companion. The word is frequently met with in this sense in our old dramatists.

Note return to page 674 6Young York he is but boot,] i. e. something thrown in—given to boot. Two lines earlier, the quartos have stabb'd for “kill'd” of the folio, and vice versâ two lines below.

Note return to page 675 7&lblank; this frantic play,] The quartos “tragic play.”

Note return to page 676 8&lblank; convey'd from hence.] “Convey'd away” in the quartos.

Note return to page 677 9A dream of what thou wast; a garish flag,] The quartos give the passage as follows:— “A dream of which thou wert a breath, a bubble, A sign of dignity, a garish flag,” &c.

Note return to page 678 1Where be thy two sons?] The quartos read, “Where are thy children?”

Note return to page 679 2For one commanding all, obey'd of none.] Boswell erroneously informs us that this line is not found in the quartos; and other modern editors have taken his word for it without turning to any of the quarto impressions, in all of which it is, in fact, inserted. It is the preceding line, “For one being fear'd of all, now fearing one,” that is not in the quartos. The folio has “For she” in two places where the quartos have “For one;” which, consistently with the line in the folio, “For one being sued to, one that humbly sues,” is no doubt the correct reading. There are one or two transpositions here in the quartos which do not alter the sense.

Note return to page 680 3&lblank; course of justice whirl'd about,] The quartos have “wheel'd about.”

Note return to page 681 4Forbear to sleep the night and fast the day;] The quartos, previous to that of 1602, read nights and days.

Note return to page 682 5Think that thy babes were fairer than they were,] The folio has sweeter, which does not support the antithesis of fouler in the next line: we therefore here adopt the word in all the quartos.

Note return to page 683 6Help nothing else, yet do they ease the heart.] We vary from the folio, 1623, in two places in this speech; and modern editors, who profess to adhere to the folio, have done the same, only without notice. The folio has intestine for “intestate” of the quarto; and “will impart” for “do impart.” These changes seem necessary; but we read with the folio “their client woes,” instead of “your client woes” of the quartos; and, “Help nothing else” of the folio, instead of “Help not at all” of the quartos.

Note return to page 684 7The trumpet sounds.] In the quarto, “I hear his drum.” The mode of introducing Richard had been varied in the interval between 1597 and 1623.

Note return to page 685 8Who intercepts me in my expedition?] The quartos omit “me in.”

Note return to page 686 9Where should be branded,] So the folio: the quarto, poorly, graven: the folio, however, by a clear error, reads, “Where't should be branded.” “That ow'd that crown,” in the next line, is, of course, “that own'd that crown.”

Note return to page 687 1Where is kind Hastings?] In the quartos these two speeches are made one and given to the queen, “Where is kind Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Grey.”

Note return to page 688 2Do, then; but I'll not hear.] This and the preceding speech are not in any of the quartos. In the next line for “words” of the folio, the quartos have speech.

Note return to page 689 3&lblank; in torment and in agony.] In the quartos, it stands “in anguish, pain, and agony.”

Note return to page 690 4&lblank; subtle, sly, and bloody,] “Subtle, bloody, treacherous,” quartos. The next line is wanting in the quartos.

Note return to page 691 5'Faith, none, but Humphrey Hour, that call'd your grace To break fast once forth of my company.] We agree with Malone that “Humphrey Hour” is here only used for hour, as Tom Troth is used for troth or truth. He and other editors probably commit an error in printing “break fast” as one word: the allusion is not to a particular meal, but to breaking the fast or eating at any time. Richard tells his mother that the only comfortable hour he had grac'd her with was upon one occasion, when she ate out of his company.

Note return to page 692 6&lblank; in your eye,] The quartos “in your sight.”

Note return to page 693 7Either thou wilt die,] The preceding part of the dialogue, as we find it in the folio, runs thus in the quartos:— “Let me march on, and not offend your grace. “Duch. O! hear me speak, for I shall never see thee more. “K. Rich. Come, come, you are too bitter. “Duch. Either thou wilt die,” &c.

Note return to page 694 8And never look upon thy face again.] So the quartos; and the reading is clearly preferable to that of the folio, “And never more behold thy face again.” In the next line the folio has “grievous,” and the quarto more tamely, “heavy curse.” Lower down the quartos have speak for “talk.”

Note return to page 695 9For thee to slaughter:] The quartos read, “For thee to murder.”

Note return to page 696 1&lblank; she is a royal princess.] So the folio: the quartos read, “she is of royal blood.”

Note return to page 697 2All unavoided is the doom of destiny.] “Unavoided” is used here for unavoidable; and Malone refers to a previous line in this play where Shakespeare is speaking of the basilisk, “Whose unavoided eye is dangerous:” but the meaning there may possibly be, that the eye of the basilisk is dangerous, if it cannot be avoided.

Note return to page 698 3Rush all to pieces on thy rocky bosom.] This speech, and the introductory observation of Richard, “You speak, as if that I had slain my cousins,” are only in the folio.

Note return to page 699 4And dangerous success of bloody wars,] This and the preceding line stand thus prosaically in the quartos. “Madam, so thrive I in my dangerous attempt of hostile arms.” At the end of the speech we have wrong'd in the quartos for “harm'd” in the folio.

Note return to page 700 5&lblank; gentle lady.] “Mighty lady” in the quartos.

Note return to page 701 6Unto the dignity and height of honour,] The folio has fortune for “honour” of the quartos; but “honour” seems to be the true word, from the subsequent repetition of it by the queen: “Tell me what state, what dignity, what honour,” &c. We therefore prefer it.

Note return to page 702 7And do intend&lblank;] “And mean,” in the quartos. In the next line the quartos read, “Say then,” &c.

Note return to page 703 8Even so: how think you of it?] So the folio, completing the line commenced by “What! thou?” The quartos read, “I, even I: what think you of it, madam?”

Note return to page 704 9&lblank; which, say to her, did drain The purple sap from her sweet brother's body,] This passage is wanting in the quartos. The speech is evidently corrupt in the quartos, and is defective in other places, besides that here pointed out.

Note return to page 705 10Send her a letter of thy noble deeds;] The quartos, “Send her a story of thy noble acts.”

Note return to page 706 1Endur'd of her, for whom you bid like sorrow.] i. e. Endur'd by her, for whom you did abide like sorrow. “Bid,” as Johnson truly observes, is the past tense from bide.

Note return to page 707 2Advantaging their loan with interest] Misprinted loue in the folio; the letter n (as is frequently the case) having been accidentally turned. Theobald made the alteration.

Note return to page 708 3Can make seem pleasing to her tender years?] This and the fifty-four preceding lines are only in the folio.

Note return to page 709 4To wail the title,] So the quarto, 1597, and subsequent editions in the same form: all the folios misprint vail, for “wail.” But for the quartos, we might have supposed that vail, in the sense of lower or submit, was the true word.

Note return to page 710 5&lblank; am her subject low.] So the folio, 1623: the quartos, “subject love.”

Note return to page 711 6Then plainly to her tell my loving tale.] The quartos have this line, “Then, in plain terms tell her my loving tale.

Note return to page 712 7Harp on it still shall I, till heart-strings break.] In all the old copies, excepting the quarto, 1597, there is some confusion respecting this and the preceding line. The quarto, 1598, gives, “Harp on it still shall I,” &c. to Richard, and omits Richard's observation introducing it: the quarto, 1602, makes it part of the queen's preceding speech; and such is the case in the folio, 1623, where Richard's speech, “Harp not on that string, madam; it is past,” is made to come last.

Note return to page 713 8&lblank; hath lost his lordly honour;] So the folio: the quartos, “holy honour.”

Note return to page 714 9Then, by myself,] Our arrangement of these speeches is that of the first and other quartos. The folio makes Richard first swear by himself, next by the world, and thirdly by his father's death; evidently wrong. In the quartos, when Richard proposes to swear by himself, the queen answers, “Thy self thyself misusest.”

Note return to page 715 1God's wrong is most of all.] The folio substitutes heaven in both these places: Malone read heaven in the first instance, and God's in the second. Our reading is that of the quartos which were published before the passing of the statute 3 Jac. 1. ch. 21.

Note return to page 716 2&lblank; an oath by him.] So the quartos: the folio reads, “If thou didst fear to break an oath with him,” in this instance, although below it adopts the reading of the quarto, both as regards the verb and the preposition.

Note return to page 717 3The unity, the king my husband made, Thou hadst not broken nor my brothers died.] So the folio: the quarto misprints “my brother” in the first line, and gives the second line thus:— “Had not been broken, nor my brother slain.”

Note return to page 718 4What canst thou swear by now?] This question is not in the quartos, but it seems necessary. In the preceding part of the queen's speech, the quartos have brow for “head,” and “play-fellows” for “bed-fellows.” The other variations are trifling.

Note return to page 719 5Hereafter time, for time past wrong'd by thee.] So the folio: the quartos, unintelligibly, “Hereafter time for time by the past wrong'd.” In the next line, the quartos have parents for “fathers” of the folio.

Note return to page 720 6&lblank; by times ill-us'd o'er-past.] The folio has re-past, for “o'er-past” of the quartos. In the next line but one, the quartos have “attempt,” for affairs in the folio: “affairs of hostile arms” is an unusual expression. Near the beginning of this interview, we have had the same expression in the quarto altered in the folio.

Note return to page 721 7Heaven and fortune bar me happy hours!] This line is found only in the folio.

Note return to page 722 8&lblank; if with pure heart's love,] In the folio, “dear heart's love:” the rest of the sentence is in favour of the reading of the quartos.

Note return to page 723 9Death, desolation, ruin, and decay:] The passage runs thus in the quartos:— “Without her, follows to this land and me, To thee, herself, and many a Christian soul, Sad desolation, ruin and decay.”

Note return to page 724 10And be not peevish found in great designs.] “Peevish” is of course silly, as we have often before seen it used: the quartos have, “be not peevish, fond,” which is merely saying the same thing by two different words, fond being also silly or foolish. Of this old sense of fond we have had many examples in preceding plays: “And be not peevish found,” the reading of the folio, seems on all accounts preferable.

Note return to page 725 1And you shall understand from me her mind.] A line only in the folio.

Note return to page 726 2How now! what news?] These words are not in the quartos, which, in the speeches immediately preceding, have one or two unimportant variations. Ratcliff's speech begins in the quartos, “My gracious sovereign;” but he just afterwards calls Richard “mighty sovereign.”

Note return to page 727 3I will, my lord, with all convenient haste.] This line is not in the quartos, nor the next words of Richard, “Ratcliff, come hither.” The folio, by an obvious error, has Catesby for Ratcliff.

Note return to page 728 4My mind is chang'd.] The quarto reads, characteristically, “My mind is chang'd, sir; my mind is chang'd;” though to the detriment of the verse.

Note return to page 729 5&lblank; but well may be reported.] The quartos, “but it may well be told.” Three lines lower the quartos have “a nearer way.”

Note return to page 730 6Well, as you guess?] Here again the quartos repeat the words, “Well, sir, as you guess, as you guess.”

Note return to page 731 7&lblank; what makes he upon the seas?] “What doth he upon the sea?” quartos. The use of the verb “to make” in this Saxon sense is not uncommon.

Note return to page 732 8Cold friends to me:] “Cold friends to Richard,” quartos. Above, Stanley in the quarto calls the king “mighty liege,” and in the folio as in our text.

Note return to page 733 9But I'll not trust thee.] The quartos, “I will not trust you, sir.”

Note return to page 734 1But leave behind] The quartos, “But, hear you, leave behind.”

Note return to page 735 2&lblank; Look your heart be firm,] The quartos read, “Look your faith be firm.”

Note return to page 736 3&lblank; his elder brother,] The quartos, “his brother there.”

Note return to page 737 4Flock to the rebels, and their power grows strong.] This is the reading of the folio: the quartos have, “Flock to their aid, and still their power increaseth.”

Note return to page 738 5The news I have, &c.] So the folio. The quarto reads:— “Your grace mistakes; the news I bring is good: My news is, that, by sudden flood and fall of water, The duke of Buckingham's army is dispers'd and scatter'd; And he himself fled, no man knows whither.”

Note return to page 739 6There is my purse,] According to the quartos, the king says, “O! I cry you mercy, I did mistake,” and does not condescend to recompense the messenger himself; his words are, “Ratcliff, reward him for the blow I gave him.”

Note return to page 740 7Is colder news,] Tidings, in the quartos.

Note return to page 741 8&lblank; Sir Christopher Urswick.] He was chaplain to the countess of Richmond, and afterwards almoner to Henry VII. As to the style of knighthood of old given to the clergy, see Vol. iii. p. 393, and this Vol. p. 119, &c.

Note return to page 742 P. 472.—Christopher Urswick was buried at Hackney in 1521, and a monument was erected to him in the old church, which some years ago was carefully removed to the new one. The Rev. Mr. Goodchild, the rector, has favoured us with the following inscription to his memory, copied from his tomb:— “Christopherus Urswicus, Regis Henrici septimi Eleemosinarius, vir, suâ ætate, summatibus atque infimatibus juxta clarus: ad exteros reges undecies pro Patriâ Legatus, Deconatum Eboracensem, Archidiaconatum Richmundie, Deconatum Windesorie habitos vivens reliquit: Episcopatum Norwicensem oblatum recusavit: Magnos honores totâ vitâ sprevit: frugali vitâ contentus hic vivere, hic mori maluit: plenus annis obiit ab omnibus desideratus; funeris pompam etiam Testamento vetuit: hic sepultus carnis resurrectionem in adventum Xti expectat: Obiit anno Domini 1521, 24 Octobr.”

Note return to page 743 9The fear of that holds off my present aid.] The quartos read withholds for “holds off,” and the folio adds the three next lines, which in the quartos are made part of the concluding speech of Stanley.

Note return to page 744 1And many other of great name&lblank;] The quartos, “With many more of noble fame.” Malone also reads fame for “name” as the text is given in the folio.

Note return to page 745 2No, my good lord;] The quartos omit “good,” and lower down the sheriff, according to the quartos, answers, “It is, my lord.”

Note return to page 746 3&lblank; of him whom most I trusted;] The quartos, “of him I trusted most.”

Note return to page 747 4Thus Margaret's curse falls heavy on my neck,] The quartos give this line, “Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon my head.”

Note return to page 748 5Come, lead me, officers&lblank;] “Come, sirs, convey me,” in the quartos.

Note return to page 749 6Is now&lblank;] “Lies now” in the quartos.

Note return to page 750 7&lblank; a thousand men,] “A thousand swords” in the quartos. In the next line the quartos read that bloody instead of “this guilty.”

Note return to page 751 8Which in his dearest need will fly from him.] In the quartos the line stands, “Which in his greatest need will shrink from him.”

Note return to page 752 9My lord of Surrey, why look you so sad?] In the quartos this question is addressed to Catesby, “Why, how now Catesby!” &c., and the answer is consistently given by Catesby.

Note return to page 753 1&lblank; the number of the traitors?] The quartos less forcibly read foe for “traitors,” and in the next line for “utmost power” the quartos have greatest number.

Note return to page 754 2Let's lack no discipline,] The quartos, “Let's want no discipline.” There are some other minor variations in this speech, which do not require particular notice.

Note return to page 755 3Give me some ink and paper in my tent:] The quarto editions place this line, and three others, in Richmond's last speech, before he and his officers withdraw into the tent. We adhere to the arrangement of the folio; but Pope thought it more natural that these directions should come later.

Note return to page 756 4And you, sir Walter Herbert, stay with me.] This and the preceding line are only in the folio.

Note return to page 757 5Sweet Blunt, make some good means to speak with him,] So the folio: the quartos, “Good captain Blunt, bear my good night to him,” which is exactly a repetition of a preceding line: in the next line, the quartos have scroll for “note” of the folio.

Note return to page 758 6And so, God give you quiet rest to-night!] This line is not in the quartos.

Note return to page 759 7&lblank; the dew is raw and cold.] The quartos have air for “dew.”

Note return to page 760 8It's supper time, my lord; it's nine o'clock.] The quartos, “It is six o'clock, full supper time.”

Note return to page 761 9Ratcliff!&lblank;] In the quartos Richard calls Catesby. According to the folio Richard calls Ratcliff twice, here, and at the end of his speech.

Note return to page 762 10&lblank; Give me a watch:&lblank;] i. e. probably, a light, then called a watch-light; but Richard may only mean, let me have a guard, and he afterwards orders that his guard should watch. Modern editors have addressed “Give me a watch” to Catesby, but there is no such stage-direction in any of the old copies.

Note return to page 763 1&lblank; our loving mother?] So the quartos: the folio has “our noble mother,” but noble has occurred in the preceding line.

Note return to page 764 2I'll strive, with troubled thoughts, to take a nap;] “Thoughts” is from the quarto, which is much preferable to noise, the reading of the folio. To peise down, in the next line, is to weigh down. See Vol. ii. p. 520, and Vol. iv. p. 37. The word was common to Shakespeare, and to nearly all the writers of his time.

Note return to page 765 3The Ghost, &c., rises between the two Tents.] In the old copies, quarto and folio, the ghosts are said to “enter;” but at that date there were trap-doors in the stage by which spirits and fiends sometimes ascended. Such may have been the case here.

Note return to page 766 4By thee was punched full of deadly holes.] The epithet “deadly,” introduced by modern editors without notice, is not in the folio: it is, however, necessary to the verse, and is warranted by the quarto editions.

Note return to page 767 5Doth comfort thee in sleep:] Malone inserted thy before sleep from the quarto; but needlessly, and it is not in the folio.

Note return to page 768 6Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow.] By a misprint in the quartos of 1597 and 1598, this line has the prefix King: the error was corrected in the quarto, 1602, and consequently in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 769 7The Ghost of Hastings rises.] In the quartos the ghosts of the two young princes “enter” before the ghost of Hastings.

Note return to page 770 8Think on lord Hastings. Despair, and die.—] Modern editors have thrust and into this line without the slightest authority; as if to amend Shakespeare's verse, when “Think on lord Hastings; and despair, and die,” is infinitely less forcible than our text, which corresponds exactly with the conclusions of previous speeches.

Note return to page 771 9Let us be lead within thy bosom, Richard,] The folio and the later quartos read, “Let us be laid,” &c.: considering the next line, we should have been disposed to think it a misprint for lead, and so it appears to have been by the quarto, 1597, which has “lead” for “laid.” It is the only quarto in which the line is correctly given, and another proof of its value is thus afforded.

Note return to page 772 1&lblank; It is now dead midnight.] The quartos after that of 1597 have, “It is not dead midnight,” but the earliest edition again gives us the true reading. The folio adopts the error of the quarto, 1598, and Malone committed a mistake when he asserted that it there stands, “Is it not dead midnight?”

Note return to page 773 2&lblank; that is, I am I.] The quarto, 1597, has it, “that is, I and I,” an error corrected in the quarto, 1598, and in the folio.

Note return to page 774 3Perjury, perjury,] The second “perjury” is derived from all the quartos, and is not in the folio.

Note return to page 775 4Who's there?] The quartos, “Zounds! who is there?”

Note return to page 776 5No doubt, my lord.] This answer by Ratcliff, and the preceding speech by Richard, are wanting in the folio; and as the sense is evidently incomplete without some mention of Richard's dream, they are introduced into our text.

Note return to page 777 6&lblank; my heart is very jocund] The quartos have soul for “heart.”

Note return to page 778 7He advances to the Troops.] “His oration to his soldiers” is placed, as a sort of title, before this speech in the old copies, quarto and folio.

Note return to page 779 8If you do sweat to put a tyrant down,] So the quartos of 1597 and 1598: that of 1602 first misprinted swear instead of “sweat,” and it stands “swear” in the subsequent impressions in quarto and folio.

Note return to page 780 9Your children's children quit it in your age.] i. e. quite or requite it, a form of the word in very frequent use.

Note return to page 781 1&lblank; drawn out all in length,] So the quarto, 1597: the other quartos and the folio, to the injury of the sense as well as of the measure, omit “out all.” We have, therefore, restored the words accidentally omitted.

Note return to page 782 2&lblank; be not too bold,] The early copies, including the folio, 1623, have, “be not so bold;” but the quarto of 1634 reads, “be not too bold,” which is consistent with the words in Hall and Holinshed. We have therefore adopted it.

Note return to page 783 3For conscience is a word &lblank;] The quartos, “Conscience is but a word.”

Note return to page 784 4What shall I say more than I have inferr'd?] In the quartos this line is preceded by a head, “His oration to his army.”

Note return to page 785 5Fight, gentlemen of England! fight, bold yeomen!] So the quarto, 1597, which we ought here to follow: the folio reads, evidently corruptly, “Right, gentlemen of England! fight boldly, yeomen.” It adopted the line, with its errors, from the quarto, 1602.

Note return to page 786 6Victory sits on our helms.] Here again the folio, 1623, adopted a corruption from the quarto, 1602, by printing helps for “helms.” The quartos of 1597 and 1598 have “helms.”

Note return to page 787 7and exeunt, fighting] According to the old stage-direction Richard was killed before the audience. “Enter Richard and Richmond: they fight; Richard is slain.”

Note return to page 788 8&lblank; this long-usurped royalty,] So the quarto, 1597; the folio reads “these long-usurped royalties,” and the later quartos, “this long-usurped royalties.” The conclusion of the speech seems to shew that we ought to read “royalty” in the singular.

Note return to page 789 9Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it.] So the two earliest quartos: that of 1602 omits “enjoy it,” and in this blunder is followed by the folio.

Note return to page 790 1Whither, if you please, we may withdraw us.] The quartos read, “Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us.”

Note return to page 791 2And let their heirs,] So the quartos, 1597 and 1598; but the quarto, 1602, substituted thy for “their,” and the error was adopted in the folio, 1623.

Note return to page 792 “The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eight,” was first printed in the folio of 1623, where it occupies twenty-eight pages; viz. from p. 205 to p. 232, inclusive. It is the last play in the division of “Histories.” It fills the same place in the later impressions in the same form.

Note return to page 793 1First printed by Rowe.

Note return to page 794 1In a long motley coat, guarded with yellow,] The variegated dress of a professed fool of old was called “motley.” “Guarded” means protected or ornamented. See Vol. ii. p. 51. 196. 498; and Vol. iv. p. 67. 289.

Note return to page 795 1That Bevis was believ'd.] The story of the old romance of Bevis of Southampton. Bevis was a Saxon, and was for his prowess created by William the Conqueror Earl of Southampton.

Note return to page 796 2Distinctly his full function.] In the folio there is an error here in the distribution of the dialogue. From “All was royal” down to “Distinctly his full function,” is made the commencement of Buckingham's speech, who knew nothing about the matter beyond the information he received from Norfolk. Theobald, therefore, very properly made it a continuation of Norfolk's speech, letting Buckingham begin with the question, “Who did guide,” &c.

Note return to page 797 3&lblank; as you guess?] These words in the folio are made the beginning of Norfolk's reply, instead of the end of Buckingham's inquiry.

Note return to page 798 4&lblank; element] No initiation (says Johnson), no previous practice. Elements are the first principles of things, or rudiments of knowledge.

Note return to page 799 5That such a keech&lblank;] A “keech” is a mass of fat, such as is rolled up by butchers. See note to “The First Part of Henry IV.” Vol. iv. p. 268. As Steevens remarks, it was appropriately and contemptuously applied by Buckingham to Wolsey, who was a butcher's son.

Note return to page 800 6Out of his self drawing web, he gives us note,] The line in the first folio stands exactly thus:—“Out of his self-drawing web. O gives us note;” and it is repeated in the same form in the later folios, excepting that a mark of admiration is placed after “O” in the second folio. Steevens corrected “O” to “he.” The MS. from which the first folio was printed, perhaps, had “'a gives us note,” “he” being often expressed by “'a” in familiar dialogue by Shakespeare: the compositor mistook a for o, and thinking it an interjection, (without attending to the sense, which is a little obscure,) he inserted a period, and made use of a capital O: hence the difficulty. The meaning seems to be, that Wolsey “gives us note, or information, that the force of his own merit was the cause of his advancement.”

Note return to page 801 7&lblank; and his own letter, The honourable board of council out, Must fetch him in he papers.] The meaning, though obscurely expressed, seems to be, that Wolsey's letter, leaving out the approbation of the council, must fetch in the persons whom he put down upon paper.

Note return to page 802 8&lblank; both full of disdain.] This is the old explanatory stage-direction.

Note return to page 803 9&lblank; suggests the king, our master.] i. e. Tempts or incites the king. Shakespeare often uses “suggest” in this sense. See Vol. ii. p. 288; Vol. iii. p. 264. 296; Vol. iv. p. 115. 427.

Note return to page 804 1Did break i' the rinsing.] In the three earlier folios the word is spelt wrenching, which the printer of the fourth folio, not understanding, altered to drenching. To rinse has been derived from the Germ. rein, clean.

Note return to page 805 P. 507.&lblank; Did break in the rinsing.] It is rather singular that the old printer should have mistaken rence, or rince, for wrench. Nash, in his “Pierce Penniless,” sign. E 2, (Shakespeare Society's reprint, p. 33) uses the word “rence,” and it is by no means of uncommon occurrence:—“and rence out galley-foysts with salt water, that stanke like fustie barrells,” &c.

Note return to page 806 [2] He privily] “He,” wanting both to the sense and metre in the folio, 1623, was inserted in the folio, 1632.

Note return to page 807 [3] O! Nicholas Hopkins.] Such was the name, according to history, but misprinted Michael Hopkins. Just above, Gilbert Peck is called, by an error of the press, counsellor, instead of “chancellor:” both these mistakes are afterwards set right in the old copies, but they here run through all the folios.

Note return to page 808 [4] I am the shadow of poor Buckingham; Whose figure even this instant cloud puts on, By darkening my clear sun.] The meaning seems to be merely this, though it has somewhat puzzled the commentators, “I am now only the shadow of poor Buckingham, whose figure, formerly unobscured, this instant puts on a cloud, which shadows my clear sun.”

Note return to page 809 [5] &lblank; leaning on the Cardinal's Shoulder.] The old stage-direction here adds, “the Cardinal places himself under the King's feet on his right side.” It seems to come more properly afterwards.

Note return to page 810 6There is no primer baseness.] So all the old copies. Warburton changed “baseness” to business, for which it was certainly an easy misprint. In the copy of the fourth folio, formerly belonging to Southern, and now in the possession of Mr. Holgate, I find that that poet in MS. substituted business for “baseness.” Nevertheless, as all the folios agree, and as the meaning, adhering to “baseness,” is evident, we are not warranted in making the change.

Note return to page 811 [7] By sick interpreters (once weak ones)] i. e. By sick interpreters, who are sometimes weak ones. This mode of employing “once” was not peculiar to Shakespeare. The parenthesis is in the folio.

Note return to page 812 [8] &lblank; he'd carry it so] Old copy, he'll. Corrected by Rowe.

Note return to page 813 [9] By a vain prophecy of Nicholas Hopkins.] Here, in the old copy, we have the Christian name right, Nicholas; and the surname wrong, Henton: Hopkins was, however, sometimes called Nicholas Henton, from the place where the convent to which he belonged was situated, viz. Henton, near Bristol.

Note return to page 814 1&lblank; the confession's seal,] The old copies, from the misprint of the first folio, read “commission's seal,” for “confession's seal.” Theobald made the correction, which is supported in terms by Holinshed, Shakespeare's usual authority.

Note return to page 815 2To gain the love&lblank;] The first, second, and third folios read, &lblank; “bid him strive To the love,” &c. The word “gain,” supplied in the fourth folio, had evidently dropped out in the original impression of this play.

Note return to page 816 3&lblank; 'twas dangerous for him,] The folios read, “'twas dangerous for this,” which Rowe properly corrected to our text.

Note return to page 817 4&lblank; after such a pagan cut too,] The fourth folio first read “too;” the first and second folios, too't, perhaps meant for to't or to it.

Note return to page 818 4As first good company,] This has been understood by some of the commentators to mean, what we should now familiarly call “first-rate company.” It may be, that sir Henry Guildford intended to mention “good company” first, and “good wine” and “good welcome,” as second and third, but omitted the enumeration. It would not be easy to point out an instance where “first good” is thus used in the sense of the best.

Note return to page 819 6&lblank; Chambers discharged.] “Chambers” were small pieces of ordnance, used on joyous occasions. See Vol. iv. p. 381. 501.

Note return to page 820 7&lblank; and gracefully salute him.] These are the words of the old stage-direction. Modern editors say “twelve maskers,” and “sixteen torch-bearers,” but there is nothing of the kind in the old copies.

Note return to page 821 8Let the music knock it.] i. e. Let the music play: “knock it” seems to have been derived from beating time, or perhaps from beating the drum. [Subnote: P. 526.—Add to note 8: Huntsmen and their songs often mention “the music of the hounds,” and “knock it” seems from this cause to have been applied to their cry. Thus, in T. Ravenscroft's “Briefe Discourse,” &c. 1614, we are told, in a song called “The Hunting of the Hare,” that “The hounds do knock it lustily.”]

Note return to page 822 9To have brought,] The folios, 1623, 1632, and 1664, read, “To him brought.” The error was not corrected until the folio, 1685, was printed.

Note return to page 823 1Sir William Sands,] So Holinshed, from whom Shakespeare adopted nearly all such particulars. In the old copies it is sir Walter Sands.

Note return to page 824 2&lblank; and, till my soul forsake,] So the old editions: Rowe inserted me after “forsake,” but without necessity.

Note return to page 825 3Be sure, you be not loose;] i. e. That you are not too little under restraint in your conversation.

Note return to page 826 4The king is discovered sitting, and reading pensively.] The old stage-direction shows the simplicity of contrivance in our old theatres; for according to it, the lord Chamberlain having gone out, the king himself drew the traverse curtain across the back of the stage, and exhibited himself to Norfolk and Suffolk, sitting, and reading pensively. The words are, “Exit Lord Chamberlain, and the King draws the curtain, and sits reading pensively.”

Note return to page 827 5Have their free voices:] Malone contends that the word “sent,” found in the next line, is understood after “have” in this passage; but surely such violence of construction is not necessary. To say that all the learned clerks “have their free voices” is sufficiently intelligible; and in the folio, 1623, “voices” is followed by a period, the sense being complete. For this restoration of the old reading, and its true meaning, I am indebted to Mr. Amyot.

Note return to page 828 6Yet, if that quarrel, fortune, do divorce] This is the old reading: Hanmer substituted quarreller, which does not seem to improve the meaning. Warburton was probably right, when he understood “quarrel” as an arrow, (a name it sometimes bore) and interpreted the passage figuratively. Shakespeare, however, does not elsewhere use “quarrel” and arrow synonymously.

Note return to page 829 7And wear a golden sorrow.] In Greene's “James the Fourth,” not printed until 1598, but produced perhaps ten years earlier, is a scene, commencing A. ii., of a character somewhat similar to the present.

Note return to page 830 8Of your soft cheveril conscience&lblank;] To apply the epithet “cheveril” to the conscience was not unusual. “Cheveril” is leather made of kid-skin, and easily stretched. See Vol. iii. p. 373.

Note return to page 831 9&lblank; Pluck off a little:] Johnson would read, “pluck up a little;” but the explanation of Steevens seems the true one, viz. descend a little. Anne declares she would not be a queen, nor a duchess; and the old lady then proceeds to “pluck off a little” from rank, and to assert that Anne would consent to be a countess, if she had the opportunity.

Note return to page 832 10You'd venture an emballing:] The word “emballing” has occasioned some dispute: Steevens would read empalling, and Whalley embalming, in reference to the balm or oil of consecration. “Emballing” seems, as Johnson suggested, to have reference to the ball, one of the ensigns of royalty.

Note return to page 833 1&lblank; in convenient order about the stage.] The whole of this minutely explanatory stage-direction is from the folio.

Note return to page 834 2&lblank; goes about the court,] “Because (says Cavendish in his Life of Wolsey) she could not come to the king directly, for the distance severed between them.” What we have given in the text is precisely the old stage-direction.

Note return to page 835 3You sign your place and calling &lblank;] “Sign” is here to be taken in the sense of denote or mark.

Note return to page 836 4Madam, you are call'd back.] This speech is given to a “Gentleman Usher” in the folio. Modern editors, without notice, have assigned it to Griffith, who was probably one of the attendants of Queen Katherine, though not named either at the beginning or in the course of this scene. The “Gentleman Usher” may have been merely an officer.

Note return to page 837 5&lblank; on the debating, A marriage &lblank;] The folios read, “on the debating and marriage,” but Mary was not married to the Duke of Orleans. Pope altered the passage.

Note return to page 838 6&lblank; with a splitting power,] “Splitting” is evidently right, and so it stands in the folio, 1632, and in the subsequent impressions; but the folio, 1623, has “spitting power.”

Note return to page 839 7&lblank; Thus hulling in The wild sea of my conscience,] To “hull” is to be driven to and fro by the waves. See “Twelfth Night,” Vol. iii. p. 344.

Note return to page 840 8&lblank; Cranmer! Pr'ythee, return:] Cranmer being at this time absent on an embassy, the king apostrophises him.

Note return to page 841 9And comforts to your cause.] The first folio has “our cause:” the error was corrected in the second folio.

Note return to page 842 1More than mine own: that am, have, and will be&lblank;] In this place we can do no more than reprint exactly the old text, with the old punctuation; as if Wolsey, following “that am, have, and will be” by a long parenthesis, had forgotten how he commenced his sentence. Something may have been lost, which would have completed the meaning; and the instances have not been unfrequent where lines, necessary to the sense, have been recovered from the quarto impressions. Here we have no quarto impressions to resort to, and the later folios afford us no assistance, as they reprint the passage as it stands in the folio 1623, excepting that the two latest end the parenthesis at “break.”

Note return to page 843 2To Asher-house,] “Asher” was the old and correct name of what we now call Esher. The bishops of Winchester had a palace there, and Wolsey at this time held the bishopric of Winchester in commendam.

Note return to page 844 3And dare us with his cap, like larks.] “It is well known,” says Steevens, “that the hat of a cardinal is scarlet; and that one of the methods of daring larks was by small mirrors fastened on scarlet cloth, which engaged the attention of these birds while the fowler drew his net over them.” This practice of daring larks by mirrors is still pursued, in order to attract them to the gun.

Note return to page 845 4Worse than the sacring bell,] The “sacring” bell in the Roman Catholic church, is the small bell sounded on the elevation, or at the approach, of the host, and during other ceremonies.

Note return to page 846 5Chattels, and whatsoever,] In the folio, the reading is castles, for “chattels:” there can be little doubt that it is an error of the press: the word was of old sometimes spelt cattels, and so we find it in Holinshed, in the passage from which Shakespeare seems to have taken this part of his play—“his landes, tenements, goods, and cattels:”—cattels, in MS. of the time, might be easily misread castels. Theobald made the alteration.

Note return to page 847 6Enter Cromwell, amazedly.] “Standing amazed,” is the old stage-direction.

Note return to page 848 7&lblank; tears wept on 'em!] i. e. On his bones. The folio, by a slight misprint, has him, for “'em,” a form of them often used in this play.

Note return to page 849 8&lblank; make use now,] i. e. Make interest now: “use” and usance were the old words for interest.

Note return to page 850 9I should have been beholding&lblank;] Respecting this word, which so frequently occurs in this form in the folio, 1623, and indeed in all the quarto editions of Shakespeare's plays, Boswell made the following very apposite quotation from Butler's English Grammar, 1633:—“Beholding to one, of to behold or regard: which by a synecdoche generis, signifyeth to respect and behold, or look upon with love and thanks for a benefit received, &c. yet some now adays had rather write it—beholden, i. e. obliged, answering to that teneri et firmiter obligari: which conceipt would seem the more probable, if to behold did signify to hold; as to bedeck, to deck; to besprinkle, to sprinkle. But indeed neither is beholden English; neither are behold and hold any more all one, than become and come, or beseem and seem.” It is singular, therefore, that Boswell did not restore the ancient and grammatical form of the word.

Note return to page 851 1The order of the coronation.] Such is the heading of the original, although in fact queen Anne was returning from her coronation.

Note return to page 852 2Exit Procession, with a great flourish of Trumpets.] The stage-direction, respecting the exit of the procession, in the old copy immediately follows the description of the procession itself; but it is clear that it passes over the stage while the two gentlemen are conversing about it: in the folio it runs thus:— “Exeunt, first passing over the stage in order and state, and then a great flourish of trumpets.”

Note return to page 853 3I think,] Folio, 1623, I thank. Corrected in the second folio.

Note return to page 854 4Of an unbounded stomach,] “Stomach” is used here for pride or haughtiness. We may quote the following character of Wolsey from Holinshed, to show how nearly Shakespeare followed the very words of his original:—“This cardinal was of a great stomach, for he computed himself equal with princes, and by craftie suggestions got into his hands innumerable treasure: he forced little on simonie, and was not pitiful, and stood affectionate in his own opinion: in open presence he would lie and saie untruth, and was double both in speech and meaning: he would promise much and perform little: he was vicious of his body, and gave the clergie evil example.”

Note return to page 855 5Was fashion'd to much honour from his cradle.] The old copies introduce a period after “honour,” which cannot be right, according to the obvious meaning of the passage: Wolsey could not have been a ripe scholar “from his cradle.” Besides, as Malone remarks, though he does not follow his own conviction, the words of Holinshed (or rather those of Edmund Campion, whom he quotes) support the modern punctuation:—“This cardinal was a man undoubtedly born to honour.”

Note return to page 856 6The Vision.] This vision is here described exactly in the terms of the original edition.

Note return to page 857 7&lblank; and left him at primero] “Primero” was a game at cards, frequently mentioned by old writers.

Note return to page 858 8&lblank; he's made master] In the folio, “is made master:” the correction was not introduced until the time of Theobald.

Note return to page 859 9With which the time will load him.] In the first folio, lime stands for “time:” and it is singular that so obvious an error was not corrected until the fourth folio of 1685.

Note return to page 860 1&lblank; hath commanded,] i. e. He hath commanded; the pronoun (which some modern editors have inserted without notice in the text) being understood.

Note return to page 861 2&lblank; You a brother of us, &c.] You (says Johnson) being one of the council, it is necessary to imprison you, that the witnesses against you may not be deterred.

Note return to page 862 3Without indurance,] i. e. Durance or confinement.

Note return to page 863 4&lblank; and not ever] i. e. Not always.

Note return to page 864 5Re-enter Lovell.] We must suppose, with Steevens, Lovell to return when he is called: he had been commanded to quit the gallery before the king's interview with Cranmer, and he had done so. His re-entrance is not marked in the old copies.

Note return to page 865 6Enter the King and Butts, at a window above.] i. e. An interior window, looking into the lobby of the council chamber. Probably the balcony at the back of the stage was here made to answer the purpose of a window. It was furnished with curtains, and these are afterwards drawn by Butts, at the command of the king.

Note return to page 866 7The Council-chamber.] This is not to be considered a new scene, but the continuation of scene 2; and in order that the place might represent the council-chamber, we are informed in the old stage-direction that “A Council-table is brought in with chairs and stools.”

Note return to page 867 8In our own natures frail, and capable Of our flesh; few are angels:] This is the old reading; and the meaning is, that men are frail, and liable to or capable of the weaknesses belonging to flesh and blood. Malone read, “In our own natures frail, incapable; Of our flesh, few are angels.” The Rev. H. Barry strongly recommends the restoration of the ancient text, which we have no difficulty in doing, because the sense seems clearer without than with the alteration.

Note return to page 868 9This is too much;] This and some subsequent speeches have the prefix of Cham. to them, as if spoken by the lord Chamberlain; but from the tenor of them, and the part the lord Chancellor has already taken in the scene, they would seem to belong to him.

Note return to page 869 1This is the king's ring.] This speech, and another below it, are also given to the lord Chamberlain in the old copies; and as he may be supposed to be especially acquainted with the king's ring, there is reason for adhering in this place to the old distribution of the dialogue.

Note return to page 870 2They are too thin and base&lblank;] i. e. The “sudden commendations,” just above mentioned. Malone would read, “thin and bare.”

Note return to page 871 3Thus far,] Here, according to the folio, the lord Chancellor speaks again as the mouth-piece of the council.

Note return to page 872 4&lblank; you'd spare your spoons.] “It was the custom,” says Steevens, “long before the time of Shakespeare, for the sponsors at christenings to offer spoons as a present to the child. These spoons were called apostle spoons, because the figures of the apostles were carved on the tops of the handles. Such as were at once opulent and generous, gave the whole twelve; those who were either more moderately rich or liberal, escaped at the expense of the four evangelists; or even sometimes contented themselves with presenting one spoon only, which exhibited the figure of any saint, in honour of whom the child received its name.” See Mr. Thoms's “Anecdotes and Traditions,” (published by the Camden Society,) p. 2, for a story respecting spoons promised by Shakespeare to a child of Ben Jonson's. Steevens, in Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, xix. 481, is made to quote from the books of the Stationers' Company in 1500, respecting an “apostle spoon.” It is probably a misprint for 1560, as the Stationers' Company was not chartered until more than half a century after 1500. “Apostle spoons,” as gifts at christenings, are mentioned by many writers of the time of Shakespeare, as well as before and afterwards.

Note return to page 873 5Do you take the court for Paris-garden?] “Paris-garden,” on the Bankside, was the place where bears, bulls, and horses were baited. See an account of its origin, and employment sometimes as a theatre, in Hist. of English Dram. Poetry and the Stage, vol. iii. p. 278.

Note return to page 874 6And that I would not for a cow, God save her.] We have printed this and a preceding speech, by a person with the prefix of “Man,” in the old copies, just as it stands there. Whether it was meant for verse or for prose, the reader must determine. The whole of the first speech; and some portion of the last, run metrically.

Note return to page 875 7That fire-drake &lblank; A “fire-drake” was a species of serpent, and also an artificial fire-work, which we still call a serpent. The term, as applied to a reptile, is not yet, as we are informed, entirely out of use in some parts of the country.

Note return to page 876 8&lblank; her pink'd porringer &lblank;] i. e. Her pink'd cap. As Malone observed, in “The Taming of the Shrew,” A. iv. sc. 3, (Vol. iii. p. 178,) Petruchio complains of a cap brought for Katherine, that it looked as if it had been “moulded on a porringer.”

Note return to page 877 9&lblank; who cried out, Clubs!] The cry when the apprentices of London were to be called upon for assistance. See this Vol. p. 23.

Note return to page 878 1&lblank; the Tribulation of Tower-hill, or the limbs of Limehouse,] Johnson supposed that “the Tribulation” of Tower-hill was some fanatical meeting-house. Possibly, for “limbs of Limehouse,” we ought to read, “lambs of Limehouse;” as the “lambs of Nottingham” still mean the riotous and violent mob of that town. However, “limbs of Limehouse” is a very intelligible expression, referring to the species of population in that vicinity.

Note return to page 879 2&lblank; Limbo Patrum,] “Limbo Patrum” was the term for the place where the Patriarchs, &c. await the resurrection: but “limbo” was then, and is still, the cant name for any place of confinement.

Note return to page 880 3&lblank; baiting of bombards,] “Bombards” were large leathern vessels, for holding liquor (see Vol. iv. p. 276): “baiting of bombards” is a figurative expression requiring no explanation.

Note return to page 881 4I'll peck you o'er the pales else.] So the old copies. Malone understands “peck” as pick or pitch; but the word has a very intelligible meaning without alteration. In the folios, after the entrance of the lord Chamberlain, all is printed as verse, and we have not felt authorized in making any change in the regulation. We have observed the divisions of the lines (if such they may be called) as they have come down to us.

Note return to page 882 5&lblank; the perfect ways of honour,] The old copies have, “way of honour;” but the next line shows, as Monck Mason observed, that we ought to read “ways.”

Note return to page 883 6Thou speakest wonders.] Here Malone and others would terminate what they look upon as an insertion in the play, subsequent to its first production. They “suspected” that the lines were added by a different hand in 1613. The commencement of this imagined interpolation they fixed at the line, “Nor shall this peace sleep with her,” &c.

Note return to page 884 7He has business at his house,] For the sake of the verse, the folio, 1623, here presents us with a contraction: “He has” is expressed by 'Has; but it is unnecessary to adopt it, if “He has” be read in the time of one syllable. Sometimes in the folio, 1623, he has is abbreviated thus—h' as; and in the next page we meet with W' have for “We have.” There is, perhaps, no play in the volume in which the arbitrary contractions are more frequent.

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