NOTES.

ACT I.

Scene I.

ACCORDING to Holinshed, Shakespeare's authority for the historical facts, the following scene occurred within the castell of Windsore.' Editors place it in London. The quartos and folios have no indication of the place of each scene.

I. John of Gaunt was born at Ghent-whence his surname, corrupted from the French Gand'-in 1340, and the play opens in the year 1398. Shakespeare, however, speaks of him throughout as a very old man.

2. band, used indifferently with 'bond.' See Comedy of Errors, iv. 2. 49:

Tell me, was he arrested on a band?'

་

4. the boisterous late appeal. First made at the parliament held at Shrewsbury about six weeks before. The word ' appeal' is here used in the sense of 'accusation involving a challenge,' as in iv. I. 45. So also the verb ' appeal,' i. 1. 9, and i. 1. 27. In Holinshed, p. 1098, col. 2, margin, The Duke of Hereforde appealeth the duke of Norfolk of treason.' 'Appeal,' according to Cowel (Law Dict. ed. 1727), 'is a lawful declaration of another man's crime before a competent judge, by one that setteth his name to the declaration, and undertakes to prove it upon the penalty that may ensue of the contrary.' 13. apparent, manifest. See King John, iv. 2. 93:

'It is apparent foul play.'

The adverb apparently' is used for 'manifestly,' Numbers xii. 8.

18. High-stomach'd, haughty. ‘Stomach' is used for 'pride' in Henry VIII. iv. 2. 34:

'He was a man

Of an unbounded stomach, ever ranking
Himself with princes.'

It means 'courage' in Henry V. iv. 3. 35:

He which hath no stomach to this fight,
Let him depart.'

20. The line is incomplete. Pope read May many years...'

23. envying, with the accent on the second syllable. Compare Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1.18:

Is it for him you do envy me so.' Spenser uses envy' with the accent on the last syllable.

26. the cause you come, the cause you come on, or come for. The

preposition is frequently omitted thus. See Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 389: That he do record a gift,

i. e. possessed of.

Here in the court, of all he dies possess'd,"

28. The word 'object' is used as a transitive verb, and in a sense stronger than the modern one. See Henry VI. ii. 4. 116:

This blot that they object against your house.'

We find in Holinshed, p. 1099, col. 2, margin, The obiections against the

Duke of Norfolke.'

32. Tendering, cherishing, fondly regarding. See Richard III. i. 1.44: His majesty,

Tendering my person's safety.'

The two senses of the word are played upon in Hamlet, i. 3. 107:
Tender yourself more dearly,

Or-not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Running it thus-you'll tender me a fool.'

38. my divine soul, my immaterial, immortal soul, my soul that after death will be in the hands of God. The word divine' seems to have a similar sense in All's Well that Ends Well, iii. 6. 31, where 'the divine forfeit of his soul' is used in Shakespeare's manner for the forfeit of his divine soul." 43. aggravate the note, intensify or surcharge the mark of disgrace. So Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2. 296:

'Ford's a knave, and I will aggravate his style.'

46. right drawn, drawn in a just cause.

49. eager, sharp, piercing. So Hamlet, i. 4. 2:

It is a nipping and an eager air.'

56. post, travel with all haste: said either of horse or rider. Compare iii. 4. 90, and v. 2. 112.

57. doubled, twofold.

The folios read doubly."

63. tied, bound, obliged. So Winter's Tale, v. 1. 213:

'Where you were tied in duty.'

65. inhabitable, uninhabitable, the ‘in' having a negative force, as inhabitabilis in good Latin. So Ben Jonson, Catiline, v. i. 54:

'Let

Their blood out to be drawn away in clouds,

And pour'd on some inhabitable place,

Where the hot sun and slime breeds nought but monsters."

So 'inhabited' is used for ‘uninhabited by Beaumont and Fletcher, Thierry and Theodoret, iii. I.

67. this, this protest.

72. Except,' says Staunton, is here employed in the old sense of to put a bar to, or stay, action.' But with the ordinary meaning of the word the passage is easily explained. See lines 58, 59, where Mowbray disclaims any thing that might be offensive to the King. Bolingbroke affirms that this disclaimer was due not to real loyalty, but fear.

74. pawn, pledge, the glove which he throws down. Compare iv. 1. 55. The word is used in a somewhat similar sense, King Lear, i. I. 157: 'My life I never held but as a pawn

To wage against thine enemies.'

6

77. worse was omitted in the second quarto. The third and fourth complete the line by reading or what thou canst devise;' the folios, spoken, or thou canst devise,'

80, 81. The general sense of these somewhat obscure lines seems to be: 'I will meet you on any fair terms, or in any form of combat prescribed by the laws of chivalry.'

85. Inherit is here used actively, much in the same way as 'possess' is used, Twelfth Night, ii. 3. 149: Possess us, possess us; tell us something of him.' This is the only passage of Shakespeare in which the verb ' inherit is used in this sense, to put in possession.'

88. eight thousand nobles. A noble was 6s. 8d. This money should have gone to pay the garrison of Calais, according to Holinshed. The term 'lendings' is used because it was paid to Mowbray not for his own use, but to be transferred to others. So Lear says, 'Off, off, you lendings!' (iii. 4. 115) when he flings his clothes away as superfluities.

90. lewd, mean, base. See I Henry IV. iii. 2. 13:

'Such poor, such bare, such lewd, such mean attempts,'

and Acts of the Apostles, xvii. 5: where the Greek has wovηpoús.

Certain lewd fellows of the baser sort,' The word comes from the Anglo-Saxon

leóde, connected with the German leute, people.

91. injurious implies insolence in wrong-doing, and is used in the New Testament as the translation of ißpioτns; in the Vulgate contumeliosus. So in Coriolanus, iii. 3. 69: Thou injurious tribune!'

95. eighteen years, i. e. since the great rising of the commons in 1381. 96. Complotted, plotted. See i. 3.189. Comploter. To complot, conspire, combine or pack together.' Cotgrave, Fr. Dict.

100. The Duke of Gloucester was Thomas of Woodstock, sixth, or, according to some, seventh son of Edward III. See note on i. 2. 11. He was charged by the Duke of Norfolk, then Earl of Nottingham and Lord Deputy of Calais, with having conspired, along with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Abbot of St. Alban's, and others, against the king, and was put to death at Calais in 1397. (See Holinshed, pp. 1091, 1092.)

IOI. suggest, prompt secretly. It is used with the accusative of the person, All's Well that Ends Well, iv. 5. 47: To suggest thee from thy master.' 102. consequently, as a result of the prompting. See King John, iv. 2.240: 'Yea, without stop, didst let thy heart consent,

And consequently thy rude hand to act.'

104. Genesis iv. 10: The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.'

106. To me, i. e. as the nephew of the murdered Duke.

107. worth, nobility, dignity. See Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 2. 44: 'An office of great worth;' and As You Like It, v. 4. 161: Men of great worth.' 109. pitch is here used as a cognate accusative. It was a familiar term of falconry. See 1 Henry VI. ii. 4. II:

'Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch,'

and Titus Andronicus, ii. I. 14: And mount her pitch.'

113. slander of his blood, reproach to his kindred.

119. neighbour, used as an adjective in Love's Labour's Lost, v. 2. 94: 'I stole into a neighbour thicket by.'

preposition is frequently omitted thus. See Merchant of Venice, iv. 1. 389: That he do record a gift,

i. e.

e. possessed of.

Here in the court, of all he dies possess'd,"

28. The word 'object' is used as a transitive verb, and in a sense stronger than the modern one. See Henry VI. ii. 4. 116:

This blot that they object against your house.'

We find in Holinshed, p. 1099, col. 2, margin, The obiections against the Duke of Norfolke.'

32. Tendering, cherishing, fondly regarding. See Richard III. i. 1. 44: His majesty,

Tendering my person's safety.'

The two senses of the word are played upon in Hamlet, i. 3. 107:
Tender yourself more dearly,

6

Or-not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,

Running it thus-you'll tender me a fool.'

38. my divine soul, my immaterial, immortal soul, my soul that after Ideath will be in the hands of God. The word divine' seems to have a similar sense in All's Well that Ends Well, iii. 6. 31, where the divine forfeit of his soul' is used in Shakespeare's manner for the forfeit of his divine soul." 43. aggravate the note, intensify or surcharge the mark of disgrace. So Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 2. 296:

Ford's a knave, and I will aggravate his style.'

46. right drawn, drawn in a just cause.

49. eager, sharp, piercing. So Hamlet, i. 4. 2:

It is a nipping and an eager air.'

56. post, travel with all haste: said either of horse or rider. Compare iii. 4. 90, and v. 2. 112.

The folios read doubly.'

63. tied, bound, obliged. So Winter's Tale, v. 1. 213:

'Where you were tied in duty.'

65. inhabitable, uninhabitable, the 'in' having a negative force, as inhabitabilis in good Latin. So Ben Jonson, Catiline, v. i. 54:

'Let

Their blood out to be drawn away in clouds,

And pour'd on some inhabitable place,

Where the hot sun and slime breeds nought but monsters."

So inhabited' is used for uninhabited' by Beaumont and Fletcher, Thierry and Theodoret, iii. I.

67. this, this protest.

72. 'Except,' says Staunton, is here employed in the old sense of to put a bar to, or stay, action.' But with the ordinary meaning of the word the passage is easily explained. See lines 58, 59, where Mowbray disclaims anything that might be offensive to the King. Bolingbroke affirms that this disclaimer was due not to real loyalty, but fear.

74. pawn, pledge, the glove which he throws down. Compare iv. 1. 55. The word is used in a somewhat similar sense, King Lear, i. I. 157: 'My life I never held but as a pawn

To wage against thine enemies."