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CLIF. Ay, and old York, and yet not satisfied, RICH. For God's fake, lords, give signal to the

fight.

WAR. What say'st thou, Henry, wilt thou yield

the crown?

Q. MAR. Why, how now, long-tongu'd Warwick? dare you speak ? When you and I met at Saint Alban's last, Your legs did better service than your hands.3

WAR. Then 'twas my turn to fly, and now 'tis

thine.

CLIF. You faid so much before, and yet you

fled.

WAR. 'Twas not your valour, Clifford, drove me

thence.

*NORTH. No, nor your manhood, that durst

make you stay.

RICH. Northumberland, I hold thee reverently;

Break off the parle; for scarce I can refrain
The execution of my big-fwoln heart
Upon that Clifford, that cruel child-killer.

CLIF. I flew thy father: Call'st thou him a

child?

RICH. Ay, like a dastard, and a treacherous cow-
ard,

As thou didst kill our tender brother Rutland;
But, ere fun-set, I'll make thee curse the deed.

K. HEN. Have done with words, my lords, and
hear me fpeak.

3 Your legs did better service than your hands.] An allufion to the proverb: "One pair of heels is worth two pair of hands." STERVENS.

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Q. MAR. Defy them then, or else hold close thy lips.

K. HEN. I pr'ythee, give no limits to my tongue; I am a king, and privileg'd to speak.

CLIF. My liege, the wound, that bred this meeting here,

Cannot be cur'd by words; therefore be still.

RICH. Then, executioner, unsheath thy sword : By him that made us all, I am resolv'd,4

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That Clifford's manhood lies upon his tongue.

EDW. Say, Henry, shall I have my right, or no ?

A thousand men have broke their fafts to-day,
That ne'er shall dine, unless thou yield the crown.
WAR. If thou deny, their blood upon thy head;
For York in justice puts his armour on.

PRINCE. If that be right, which Warwick says
is right,

There is no wrong, but every thing is right.
RICH. Whoever got thee,5 there thy mother
stands;

For, well I wot, thou hast thy mother's tongue.
Q. MAR. But thou art neither like thy fire, nor
dam;
But like a foul misshapen stigmatick,

6

I am resolv'd,] It is my firm perfuafion; I am no longer

in doubt. JOHNSON.

5 Rich. Whoever got thee, &c.] In the folio this speech is erroneoufly affigned to Warwick. The answer shows that it belongs to Richard, to whom it is attributed in the old play.

6

MALONE.

- misshapen stigmatick,] "A ftigmatic," says J. Bullokar in his English Expofitor, 1616, " is a notorious lewd fellow, which hath been burnt with a hot iron, or beareth other marks about him as a token of his punishment."

Mark'd by the destinies to be avoided,
'As venom toads, or lizards' dreadful stings."
RICH. Iron of Naples, hid with English gilt,
Whose father bears the title of a king,
(As if a channel should be call'd the fea,9)

The word is likewise used in Drayton's Epistle from Q. Margaret to W. de la Poole :

"That foul, ill favour'd, crook-back'd ftigmatick." Again, in Drayton's Epiftle from King John to Matilda : "These for the crook'd, the halt, the stigmatick."

STEEVEN9.

7- lizards' dreadful fiings.] Thus the folio. The quartos have this variation:

"or lizards' fainting looks."

This is the second time that Shakspeare has armed the lizard (which in reality has no such defence) with a fting; but great powers seem to have been imputed to its looks. So, in Noah's Flood, by Drayton:

"The lizard shuts up his sharp-fighted eyes,

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Amongst the ferpents, and there sadly lies."

STEEVENS.

Shakspeare is here answerable for the introduction of the lizard's sting; but in a preceding passage, Vol. XIII. p. 298, the author of the old play has fallen into the fame mistake.

8

-gilt,] Gilt is a fuperficial covering of gold. So, in King Henry V:

"Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd."

MALONE.

STEEVENS.

9 (As if a channel should be call'd the fea,)] A channel, in our author's time, signified what we now call a kennel. So, in Stowe's Chronicle, quarto, 1605, p. 1148: "-fuch a storme of raine happened at London, as the like of long time could not be remembered; where-through, the channels of the citie fuddenly rifing," &c. Again, in King Henry IV. P. II: "-quoit him into the channel." MALONE.

Kennel is still pronounced channel in the North. So, in Marlowe's Edward II:

"Throw off his golden mitre, rend his stole,
"And in the channel christen him anew."

'Sham'st thou not, knowing whence thou art ex

traught,

To let thy tongue detect1 thy base-born heart?

EDW. A wifp of straw were worth a thousand

crowns,

Again:

Again:

"Here's channel water, as our charge is given."
"To which the channels of the castle run." RITSON.

To let thy tongue detect-] To show thy meanness of birth by the indecency of language with which thou railest at my deformity. JOHNSON.

To let thy tongue detect thy base-born heart?] So the folio. The quartos:

"To parly thus with England's lawful heirs."

STBEVENS.

A wisp of straw -) I suppose, for an instrument of correction that might disgrace, but not hurt her. JOHNSON.

I believe that a wisp fignified fome instrument of correction used in the time of Shakspeare. The following instance seems to favour the fuppofition. See A Woman never Vexed, a comedy by Rowley, 1632:

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Nay, worfe; I'll ftain thy ruff; nay, worse than that, [Holds up a wisp.

"I'll do thus

- doft wisp me thou tatterdemallion ?" Again, in Marston's Dutch Courtezan, 1604:

"Thou little more than a dwarf, and something less than a

woman!

"Crif. A wifpe! a wispe! a wifpe!"

Barrett, in his Alvearie, or Quadruple Dictionary, 1580, interprets the word wispe by peniculus or σπονγος, which fignify any thing to wipe or cleanse with; a cook's linen apron, &c. Pewter is still scoured by a wispe of straw, or hay. Perhaps Edward means one of these wisps, as the denotement of a menial servant. Barrett adds, that, like a wase, it fignifies " a wreath to be laied under the veffel that is borne upon the head, as women ufe." If this be its true sense, the Prince may think that such a wisp would better become the head of Margaret, than a crown.

It appears, however, from the following passage in Thomas Drant's tranflation of the seventh fatire of Horace, 1567, that a wispe was the punishment of a fcold:

To make this shameless callet know herself.3
* Helen of Greece was fairer far than thou,
* Although thy husband may be Menelaus ;4
* And ne'er was Agamemnon's brother wrong'd

"So perfyte and exacte a scoulde that women mighte "Whose tatling tongues had won a wispe," &c.

geve place

STEEVENS.

See also, Nashe's Apology of Pierce Pennilesse, 1593 : "Why, thou errant butter-whore, thou cotquean and ferattop of scolds, wilt thou never leave afflicting a dead carcaffe? continually read the rhetorick lecture of Ramme-Alley? a wispe, a wispe, you kitchen-ftuffe wrangler." Again, in A Dialogue between John and Jone, Striving who shall wear the Breeches, PLEASURES OF POETRY, bl. 1. no date:

"Good gentle Jone, with-holde thy hands,
"This once let me entreat thee,
"And make me promise, never more
"That thou shalt mind to beat me;

"For feare thou weare the wispe, good wife,

" And make our neighbours ride-." MALONE.

3 To make this shameless callet know herself.] Shakspeare ufes the word callet likewise in The Winter's Tale, A& II. fc. in :

"A callat

"Of boundless tongue; who late hath beat her husband, "And now baits me."

Callet, a lewd woman, a drab, perhaps so called from the French calote, which was a fort of head-dress worn by country girls. See Gloffary to Urry's Chaucer. So, in Chaucer's Remedy of Love, v. 307:

" A cold old knave cuckolde himself wenyng,
"And of calot of lewd demenyng."

So, Skelton, in his Elinour Rumming, Works, p. 133:

" Then Elinour faid, ye callettes,
" I shall break your palettes."

Again, in Ben Jonfon's Volpone :

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Why the callet you told me of here,

" I have tane disguis'd." GREY.

* Menelaus;] i. e. a cuckold. So, in Troilus and Creffida, Therfites, speaking of Menelaus, calls him " -the goodly transformation of Jupiter there, -the primitive statue and oblique me

morial of cuckolds." STEEVENS.

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