His brother, archbishop late of Canterbury, 3 Sir Thomas Erpingham, sir John Ramston, Sir John Norbery, sir Robert Warterton, and Francis All these, well furnish'd by the duke of Bretagne, us, a line of a rhyming couplet was passed over by the printer of the first folio: "Ill may'st thou thrive, if thou grant any grace." It has been recovered from the quarto. So also, in K. Henry VI, Part II, the first of the following lines was omitted, as is proved by the old play on which that piece is founded, and (as in the present instance) by the line which followed the omitted line: "[Suf. Jove sometimes went disguis'd, and why not I?] "Cap. But Jove was never slain, as thou shalt be." In Coriolanus, Act II, sc. ult. á line was in like manner omitted, and it has very properly been supplied. The christian name of Sir Thomas Ramston is changed to John, and the two following persons are improperly described as knights in all the copies. These perhaps were likewise mistakes of the press, but are scarcely worth correcting. Malone. 3 archbishop late of Canterbury,] Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, brother to the Earl of Arundel who was beheaded in this reign, had been banished by the parliament, and was afterwards deprived by the Pope of his see, at the request of the King; whence he is here called, late of Canterbury. Steevens. 4 Imp out-] As this expression frequently occurs in our author, it may not be amiss to explain the original meaning of it. When the wing-feathers of a hawk were dropped, or forced out by any accident, it was usual to supply as many as were deficient. This operation was called, to imp a hawk. So, in The Devil's Charter, 1607: "His plumes only imp the muse's wings." Again, in Albumazar, 1605: 66 when we desire "Time's haste, he seems to lose a match with lobsters; Turberville has a whole chapter on The Way and Manner howe to ympe a Hawke's Feather, how-soever it be broken or broosed. Steevens. Redeem from broking pawn the blemish'd crown, Ross. To horse, to horse! urge doubts to them that. fear. Willo. Hold out my horse, and I will first be there. SCENE II. [Exeunt. The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter Queen, BUSHY, and BAGOT. Bushy. Madam, your majesty is too much sad: Queen. To please the king, I did; to please myself, I cannot do it; yet I know no cause Why I should welcome such a guest as grief, 5 gilt,] i. e. gilding, superficial display of gold. So, in Timon of Athens: 6 When thou wast in thy gilt and thy perfume," &c. Steevens. -life-harming heaviness,] Thus the quarto, 1597. The quartos 1608, and 1615—halfe-harming; the folio-self-harming. Steevens. 7 With nothing trembles: at something it grieves,] The following line requires that this should be read just the contrary way: With something trembles, yet at nothing grieves. Warburton. All the old editions read: my inward soul With nothing trembles; at something it grieves. The reading, which Dr. Warburton corrects, is itself an inno vation. His conjectures give indeed a better sense than that of any copy, but copies must not be needlessly forsaken. Johnson More than with parting from my lord the king. Bushy. Each substance of a grief hath twenty shadows, Which show like grief itself, but are not so: For sorrow's eye, glazed with blinding tears, Divides one thing entire to many objects; Like perspectives, which, rightly gaz'd upon, Show nothing but confusion; ey'd awry, Distinguish form:8 so your sweet majesty, I suppose it is the unborn sorrow which she calls nothing, because it is not yet brought into existence. Steevens. Warburton does not appear to have understood this passage, nor Johnson either. Through the whole of this scene, till the arrival of Green, the Queen is describing to Bushy, a certain unaccountable despondency of mind, and a foreboding apprehension which she felt of some unforeseen calamity. She says, "that her inward soul trembles without any apparent cause, and grieves at something more than the King's departure, though she knows not what." He endeavours to persuade her that it is merely the consequence of her sorrow for the King's absence. She says it may be so, but her soul tells her otherwise. He then tells her it is only conceit; but she is not satisfied with that way of accounting for it, as she says that conceit is still derived from some fore-father grief, but what she feels was begot by nothing; that is, had no preceding cause. Conceit is here used in the same sense that it is in Hamlet, when the King says that Ophelia's madness was occasioned by "conceit upon her father." M. Mason. 8 Like perspectives, which, rightly gaz'd upon, Show nothing but confusion; ey'd awry, Distinguish form:] This is a fine similitude, and the thing meant is this. Amongst mathematical recreations, there is one in optics, in which a figure is drawn, wherein all the rules of perspective are inverted: so that, if held in the same position with those pictures which are drawn according to the rules of perspective, it can present nothing but confusion: and to be seen in form, and under a regular appearance, it must be looked upon from a contrary station; or, as Shakspeare says, ey'd awry. Warburton. Dr. Plot's History of Staffordshire, p. 391, explains this perspective, or odd kind of "pictures upon an indented board, which, if beheld directly, you only perceive a confused piece of work; but, if obliquely, you see the intended person's picture: which, he was told, was made thus: "The board being indented, [or furrowed with a plough-plane] the print or painting was cut into parallel pieces equal to the depth and number of the indentures on the board, and they were pasted on the flats that strike the eye holding it obliquely, so that the edges of the parallel pieces of the print or painting exactly joining on the edges of the indentures, the work was done." Tollet. Looking awry upon your lord's departure, seen: Or if it be, 'tis with false sorrow's eye, Which, for things true, weeps things imaginary. The following short poem would almost persuade one that the words rightly and awry [perhaps originally written aright and wryly] had exchanged places in the text of our author: Lines prefixed to "Melancholike Humours, in Verses of Diverse "Thou that wouldst finde the habit of true passion, "Wants facultie to make a censure true: "Which, being eyed directly, I divine, "His proofe their praise will meete, as in this line." Ben Jonson. Steevens. So, in Hentzner, 1598, Royal Palace, Whitehall: “Edwardi VI. Angliæ regis effigies, primo intuitu monstrosum quid repræsentans, sed si quis effigiem rectâ intueatur, tum vera depræhenditur." Farmer. The perspectives here mentioned, were not pictures, but round chrystal glasses, the convex surface of which was cut into faces, like those of the rose-diamond; the concave left uniformly smooth. These chrystals-which were sometimes mounted on tortoise-shell box-lids, and sometimes fixed into ivory cases-if placed as here represented, would exhibit the different appearances described by the poet. The word shadows is here used, in opposition to substance, for reflected images, and not as the dark forms of bodies, occasioned by their interception of the light that falls upon them. Henley. As, though, in thinking, on no thought I think,"Makes me with heavy nothing faint and shrink. Bushy. 'Tis nothing but conceit,' my gracious lady. Queen. 'Tis nothing less: conceit is still deriv'd From some fore-father grief; mine is not so; For nothing hath begot my something grief; Or something hath the nothing that I grieve:2 'Tis in reversion that I do possess ; But what it is, that is not yet known;3 what 9 As, though, in thinking, on no thought I think,] Old copy-or thinking; but we should read-As though in thinking; that is, though, musing, I have no distinct idea of calamity. The involuntary and unaccountable depression of the mind, which every one has sometime felt, is here very forcibly described. Johnson. 1'Tis nothing but conceit,] Conceit is here, as in King Henry VIII, and many other places, used for a fanciful conception. 2 For nothing hath begot my something grief; Malone. Or something hath the nothing that I grieve:] With these lines I know not well what can be done. The Queen's reasoning as it now stands, is this: my trouble is not conceit, for conceit is still derived from some antecedent cause, some fore-father grief; but with me the case is, that either my real grief hath no real cause, or some real cause has produced a fancied grief. That is, my grief is not conceit, because it either has not a cause like conceit, or it has a cause like conceit. This can hardly stand. Let us try again, and read thus: For nothing hath begot my something grief; Not something hath the nothing that I grieve: That is, my grief is not conceit; conceit is an imaginary uneasiness from some past occurrence. But, on the contrary, here is real grief without a real cause; not a real cause with a fanciful sorrow. This, I thing, must be the meaning; harsh at the best, yet better than contradiction or absurdity. Johnson. 3'Tis in reversion that I do possess ; But what it is, that is not yet known; &c.] I am about to propose an interpretation which many will think harsh, and which I do not offer for certain. To possess a man, in Shakspeare, is to inform him fully, to make him comprehend. To be possessed, is to be fully informed. Of this sense the examples are numerous: "I have possess'd him my most stay can be but short." Measure for Measure. Is he yet possess'd "What sum you would?" Merchant of Venice. I therefore imagine the Queen says thus: 'Tis in reversion- -that I do possess ;· The event is yet in futurity- -that I know with full convictionbut what it is, that is not yet known. In any other interpretation |