To roufe his wrongs, and chase them to the bay." And yet my letters-patent give me leave: NORTH. The noble duke hath been too much Ross. It ftands your grace upon, to do him WILLO. Bafe men by his endowments are made YORK. My lords of England, let me tell you I have had feeling of my coufin's wrongs, To roufe his wrongs, and chafe them to the bay.] By his wrongs are meant the perfons who wrong him.M. MASON. 2 -to fue my livery here,] A law phrafe belonging to the feudal tenures. See notes on K. Henry IV. P. I. Act IV. fc. iii. STEEVENS. 3 It stands your grace upon, to do him right.] i. e. it is your intereft, it is matter of confequence to you. So, in K. Richard III: -it ftands me much upon, "To ftop all hopes whofe growth may danger me." Again, in Antony and Cleopatra: It only ftands "Our lives upon, to use our ftrongeft hands." STEEVENS, S4 This explanation is supported by a passage in ther's Double Marriage, where Juliana, with all my youth and pleasure I'lllem's 'll embrace you, Make Byranny and death stand still, affrighted, and, at our meeting souls, amaze our mischiefs. Vol. XI. G_81. NORTH. The noble duke hath fworn, his coming is But for his own: and, for the right of that, YORK. Well, well, I fee the iffue of thefe arms; BOLING. An offer, uncle, that we will accept. YORK. It may be, I will go with you :—but yet 2 For I am loath to break our country's laws. It may be, I will go with you:-but yet I'll paufe ;] I fufpect, the words with you, which spoil the metre, to be another interpolation. STEEVENS. 3 Things paft redress, are now with me past care.] So, in Macbeth: Things without remedy, "Should be without regard." STEEVENS. CAP. My lord of Salisbury, we have ftaid ten And hardly kept our countrymen together, SAL. Stay yet another day, thou trusty Welsh man; The king repofeth all his confidence In thee. CAP. 'Tis thought, the king is dead; we will not stay. The bay-trees in our country are all wither'd, 4 Here is a scene fo unartfully and irregularly thrust into an improper place, that I cannot but fufpect it accidentally tranfpofed; which, when the fcenes were written on fingle pages, might eafily happen in the wildnefs of Shakspeare's drama. This dialogue was, in the author's draught, probably the fecond scene in the enfuing act, and there I would advife the reader to infert it, though I have not ventured on fo bold a change. My conjecture is not fo prefumptuous as may be thought. The play was not, in Shakspeare's time, broken into acts; the editions published before his death, exhibit only a fequence of fcenes from the beginning to the end, without any hint of a paufe of action. In a drama fo defultory and erratic, left in such a state, tranfpofitions might easily be made. JOHNSON. 5 Salisbury,] was John Montacute, Earl of Salisbury. WALPOLE. The bay-trees, &c.] This enumeration of prodigies is in the highest degree poetical and striking. JOHNSON. And meteors fright the fixed ftars of heaven; [Exit. SAL. Ah, Richard! with the eyes of heavy mind, I fee thy glory, like a fhooting ftar, Fall to the base earth from the firmament! Thy fun fets weeping in the lowly weft, Witneffing ftorms to come, woe, and unreft: Thy friends are fled, to wait upon thy foes; And crossly to thy good all fortune goes. [Exit. Some of these prodigies are found in Holinfhed: "In this yeare in a manner throughout all the realme of England, old baie trees withered," &c. This was esteemed a bad omen; for, as I learn from Thomas Lupton's Syxt Booke of Notable Thinges, 4to. bl. 1: "Neyther falling fycknes, neyther devyll, wyll infeft or hurt one in that place whereas a Bay tree is. The Romaynes calles it the plant of the good angell," &c. STEEVENS. Bolingbroke's Camp at Bristol. Enter BOLINGBROKE, YORK, NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, WILLOUGHBY, Ross: Officers behind with BUSHY and GREEN, prisoners. BOLING. Bring forth these men. Bushy, and Green, I will not vex your fouls And ftain'd the beauty of a fair queen's cheeks wrongs. Myfelf-a prince, by fortune of my birth; 7 -clean.] i. e. quite, completely. REED. So, in our author's 75th Sonnet: "And by and by, clean ftarved for a look." MALONE. You have, in manner, with your finful hours, Made a divorce betwixt his queen and him; Broke the poffeffion of a royal bed,] There is, I believe, no authority for this. Ifabel, the queen of the prefent play, was but nine years old. Richard's firft queen, Anne, died in 1392, and the king was extremely fond of her. MALONE. |