And make us wade even in our kindred's blood;-
Therefore, we banish you our territories:

You, coufin Hereford, upon pain of death,
Till twice five fummers have enrich'd our fields,
Shall not regreet our fair dominions,

But tread the stranger paths of banishment.

by transcribers. But his business is to alter as his fancy leads him, not to reform errors, as the text and rules of criticifm direct. In a word then, the true original of the blunder was this: the editors, before Mr. Pope, had taken their editions from the folios, in which the text ftood thus:

-fright fair peace.

This is fenfe. But Mr. Pope, who carefully examined the firft printed plays in quarto (very much to the advantage of his edition) coming to this place, found five lines, in the firit edition of this play printed in 1598, omitted in the firft general collection of the poet's works; and, not enough attending to their agreement with the common text, put them into their place. Whereas, in truth, the five lines were omitted by Shakspeare himself, as not agreeing to the reft of the context; which, on revife, he thought fit to alter. On this account I have put them into hooks, not as fpurious, but as rejected on the author's revife; and, indeed, with great judgement; for,

To wake our peace, which in our country's cradle

Draws the feet infant breath of gentle fleep,

as pretty as it is in the image, is abfurd in the fense: for peace awake is ftill peace, as well as when afleep. The difference is, that peace afleep gives one the notion of a happy people funk in floth and luxury, which is not the idea the fpeaker would raise, and from which state the fooner it was awaked the better.

WARBURTON,

To this note, written with fuch an appearance of taste and judgement, I am afraid every reader will not fubfcribe. It is true, that peace awake is ftill peace, as well as when afleep; but peace awakened by the tumults of thefe jarring nobles, and peace indulging in profound tranquillity, convey images fufficiently oppofed to each other for the poet's purpofe. To wake peace is to introduce difcord. Peace afleep, is peace exerting its natural influence, from which it would be frighted by the clamours of war.

STEEVENS,

J

BOLING. Your will be done: This must my com-
fort be,-

That fun, that warms you here, fhall fhine on me;
And those his golden beams, to you here lent,
Shall point on me, and gild my banishment.

K. RICH. Norfolk, for thee remains a heavier
doom,

Which I with fome unwillingness pronounce:
The fly-flow hours' fhall not determinate
The datelefs limit of thy dear exile ;-
The hopeless word of-never to return
Breathe I against thee, upon pain of life.

NOR. A heavy fentence, my most fovereign
liege,

And all unlook'd for from your highness' mouth:
A dearer merit, not fo deep a maim

As to be caft forth in the common air,

Have I deferved at your highness' hand.

The fly-flow hours-] The old copies read-The fly-flow bours. Mr. Pope made the change; whether it was necessary or not, let the poetical reader determine. STEEVENS. Λ

The latter word appears to mé more intelligible:-" the thievish minutes as they pafs." MALONE.

9 A dearer merit, not fo deep a maim

Have I deferved-] To deferve a merit is a phrase of which
I know not any example. I wish fome
copy would exhibit:
A dearer meed, and not so deep a maim.

To deferve a meed or reward, is regular and easy. JOHNSON.

As Shakspeare ufes merit in this place, in the sense of reward, he frequently ufes the word meed, which properly fignifies reward, to exprefs merit. So, in Timon of Athens, Lucullus fays

repays

no meed but he
"Seven fold above itself."

And in the Third Part of Henry VI. Prince Edward fays—
"We are the fons of brave Plantagenet,
"Each one already blazing by our meeds."

And again, in the fame play, King Henry fays-

"That's not my fear, my meed hath got me fame."

M. MASON.

The language I have learn'd these forty years,
My native English, now I must forego:
And now my tongue's use is to me no more,
Than an unftringed viol, or a harp;
Or like a cunning inftrument cas'd up,
Or, being open, put into his hands

That knows no touch to tune the harmony.
Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue,
Doubly portcullis'd, with my teeth, and lips;
And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance

Is made my gaoler to attend on me.
I am too old to fawn upon a nurse,
Too far in years to be a pupil now;

What is thy fentence then, but speechlefs death, Which robs my tongue from breathing native breath?

K. RICH. It boots thee not to be compaffionate; After our fentence plaining comes too late.

2

NOR. Then thus I turn me from my country's

light,

To dwell in folemn fhades of endless night.

[Retiring.

K. RICH. Return again, and take an oath with

thee.

Lay on our royal fword your banish'd hands;
Swear by the duty that you owe to heaven,
(Our part therein we banish with yourselves,)'
To keep the oath that we adminifter:-

2

compaffionate;] for plaintive. WARBURTON.

? (Our part, &c.] It is a queftion much debated amongst the writers of the law of nations, whether a banished man may be ftill tied in his allegiance to the ftate which fent him into exile. Tully and Lord Chancellor Clarendon declare for the affirmative; Hobbes and Puffendorf hold the negative. Our author, by this line, feems to be of the fame opinion. WARBURTON.

You never fhall (fo help you truth and heaven!)
Embrace each other's love in banishment;

Nor never look upon each other's face;
Nor never write, regreet, nor reconcile
This lowering tempeft of your home-bred hate;
Nor never by advised3 purpose meet,

To plot, contrive, or complot any ill,
'Gainft us, our ftate, our fubjects, or our land.
BOLING. I fwear.

NOR. And I, to keep all this.

BOLING. Norfolk, fo far as to mine enemy ;By this time, had the king permitted us, One of our fouls had wander'd in the air,

3

advifed-] i. e. concerted, deliberated. So, in The Merchant of Venice:

66

with more advised watch." STEEVENS.

4 Norfolk, fo far, &c.] I do not clearly fee what is the sense of this abrupt line; but fuppofe the meaning to be this. Hereford immediately after his oath of perpetual enmity addreffes Norfolk, and, fearing fome mifconftruction, turns to the king and fays-fo far as to mine enemy- -that is, I fhould fay nothing to him but what enemies may say to each other.

Reviewing this paffage, I rather think it fhould be understood thus. Norfolk, fo far I have addreffed myself to thee as to mine enemy, I now utter my last words with kindness and tenderness, Confefs thy treafons. JOHNSON.

-fo fare, as to mine enemy;] i. e. he only wishes him to fare like his enemy, and he difdains to say fare well as Aumerle does in the next scene. TOLLET.

The firft folio reads fare; the fecond farre. Bolingbroke only ufes the phrafe by way of caution, left Mowbray fhould think he was about to addrefs him as a friend. Norfolk, fays he, fo far as a man may speak to his enemy, &c. RITSON.

Surely fare was a mifprint for farre, the old fpelling of the word now placed in the text.-Perhaps the author intended that Hereford in fpeaking this line should fhow fome courtesy to Mowbray; and the meaning may be, So much civility as an enemy has a right to, I am willing to offer to thee. MALONE.

Sir T. Hanmer's marginal direction is-In falutation. STEEVENS.

Banish'd this frail fepúlcher of our flesh,s
As now our flesh is banish'd from this land:
Confefs thy treasons, ere thou fly the realm;
Since thou haft far to go, bear not along
The clogging burden of a guilty soul.

NOR. No, Bolingbroke; if ever I were traitor,
My name be blotted from the book of life,
And I from heaven banish'd, as from hence!
But what thou art, heaven, thou, and I do know;
And all too foon, I fear, the king fhall rue.-
Farewell, my liege:-Now no way can I stray;
Save back to England, all the world's my way.
[Exit.
XI. K.RICH. Uncle, even in the glaffes of thine eyes
I fee thy grieved heart: thy fad afpéct
Hath from the number of his banish'd years
Pluck'd four away;-Six frozen winters spent,
Return [To BOLING.] with welcome home from ba-
nishment.

33.

BOLING. How long a time lies in one little word!

5 this frail fepulcher of our flesh,] So afterwards:

66

thou King Richard's tomb,

"And not King Richard.

And Milton, in Samfon Agonistes:

Myfelf my fepulchre, a moving grave.” HENLEY.
6—all the world's my way.] Perhaps Milton had this in his
mind when he wrote thefe lines:

"The world was all before them, where to choose
"Their place of reft, and Providence their guide.".

JOHNSON.

The Duke of Norfolk after his banishment went to Venice, where, fays Holinfhed," for thought and melancholy he deceased."

I fhould point the paffage thus:

Now no way can I ftray,

MALONE.

Save back to England:-all the world's my way. There's no way for me to go wrong, except back to England.

M. MASON.