Page images
PDF
EPUB

or prostrate state of the body, with the face upward.

HENLEY.

531. -a gracious creature born.] Gracious, i. e. graceful.

STEEVENS.

543. Grief fills the room up of my absent child,] "Perfruitur lachrymis, et amat pro conjuge luctum." Lucan, lib. ix.

A French poet, Maynard, has the same thought: "Men deuil me plaît et me doit toujours plaire, "Il me tient lieu de celle que je plains." MALONE. 549. -had you such a loss as I,

I could give better comfort- -] This is a sentiment which great sorrow always dictates. Whoever cannot help himself, casts his eyes on others for assistance, and often mistakes their inability for coldJOHNSON.

ness.

557. There's nothing in this, &c.] The young prince feels his defeat with more sensibility than his father. Shame operates most strongly in the earlier years; and when can disgrace be less welcome than when a man is going to his bride? JOHNSON. 595 How green, &c.] Hall, in his Chronicle of Richard III. says, "what neede in that grene worlde the protector had," &c. HENDERSON.

597. true blood,] The blood of him that has the

just claim.

JOHNSON. The expression seems to mean no more than innocent blood in general.

REMARKS.

604. No scape of nature,-] The old copy reads: -No scope, &c.

STEEVENS.
The

The word abortives, in the latter part of this speech, referring apparently to these scapes of nature, confirms the emendation of the old copy that has been made. MALONE,

624. they would be as a call] The image is taken from the manner in which birds are caught; one being placed for the purpose of drawing others to the net, by his note or call. MALONE.

626. Or, as a little snow,] Bacon, in his History of Henry VII. speaking of Simnel's march, observes, that "their snow-ball did not gather as it went.”

JOHNSON. 632. strong actions :-] The oldest copy reads -strange actions: the folio 1632-strong. STEEVENS.

ACT IV.

Line 17. YOUNG gentlemen, &c.] It should seem

that this affectation had found its way into England, as it is ridiculed by Ben Jonson in the character of Master Stephen in Every Man in his Humour. Again, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Queen of Corinth, Onos says:

"Come let's be melancholy."

Again, in Lilly's Midas, 1592: “Melancholy! is melancholy a word for a Barber's mouth? Thou should'st

say,

say, heavy, dull, and doltish: melancholy is the crest of courtiers, and now every base companion, &c. says he is melancholy." Again, in the Life and Death of the Lord Cromwell, 1613:

"My nobility is wonderful melancholy.

"Is it not most gentleman-like to be melancholy ?”

STEEVENS.

Lilly, in his Midas, ridicules the affectation of melancholy, "Now every base companion, being in his muble fubles, says, he is melancholy.-Thou should'st say thou art lumpish. If thou encroach on our courtly terms, weele trounce thee." FARMER.

68. would drink my tears,

And quench this fiery indignation,] These last words are taken from the Bible. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, we read-" a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation." ch. x. ver. 27.

WHALLEY.

108. Or, Hubert, if you will, cut out my tongue,] We imagine no evil so JOHNSON.

This is according to nature. great as that which is near us.

114. No, in good sooth, &c.] The sense is: the fire, being created not to hurt, but to comfort, is dead with grief for finding itself used in acts of cruelty, which, being innocent, I have not deserved. JOHNSON. 117. There is no malice in this burning coal;] Dr. Grey says, “that no malice in a burning coal is certainly absurd, and that we should read:

"There is no malice burning in this coal.”

STEEVENS.

143. Go closely in with me;] i. e. secretly, privately. So, in Albumazar, 1610, act iii. sc. 1.

"I'll entertain him here, mean while, steal you Closely into the room," &c.

[ocr errors]

Again, in The Atheist's Tragedy, 1612, act iv. sc. 1. "Enter Frisco closely."

147. This once again-was once superfluous:] This one time more was one time more than enough.

JOHNSON. It should be remembered that king John was at present crowned for the fourth time. STEEVENS. 154. To guard a title that was rich before,] To guard, is to fringe. JOHNSON. 173. They do confound their skill in covetousness:] i. e. Not by their avarice, but in an eager emulation, an intense desire of excelling; as in Henry V.

"But if it be a sin to covet honour,

"I am the most offending soul alive."

177.

-in hiding of the fault,

THEOBALD.

Than did the fault- -] Fault means ble

STEEVENS.

mish.
184. Some reasons of this double coronation

I have possess'd you with, and think them strong; And more, more strong (when lesser is my fear) I shall endue you with:- -] I have told you some reasons, in my opinion strong, and shall tell more yet stronger; for the stronger my reasons are, the less is my fear of your disapprobation. This seems to be the meaning.

JOHNSON,

192. To sound the purposes] To declare, to

publish the desires of all those.

199. If, what in rest you have,

JOHNSON. -] The argument,

I think, requires that we should read,

If what in rest you have, in right you hold not.— The word not might have dropped out at the press. If this was not the case, and the old reading be the true one, there ought to be a note of interrogation after the word exercise, at the end of the sentence; so that the meaning might be-If you are entitled to what you now quietly possess, why then should your fears move MALONE. you, &c.

Perhaps we should read,

If what in wrest you have, in right you hold.~ i. e. if what you possess by an act of seizure or violence, &c.

So again in this play

The imminent decay of wrested pomp.

Wrest is a substantive used by Spenser, and by our author in Troilus and Cressida. STEEVENS.

The emendation proposed by Mr. Steevens is its own voucher. If then and should change places, and a mark of interrogation be placed after exercise, the full sense of the passage will be restored:

"If, what in wrest you have, in right you hold,
"Why should your fears (which as they say attend
"The steps of wrong) then move you to mew up
"Your tender kinsman, and to choak his days
"With barbarous ignorance, and deny his youth
"The rich advantage of good exercise ?”—

HENLEY.

« PreviousContinue »