To a dear friend of the good duke of York's, QUEEN. O, I am prefs'd to death, Through want of fpeaking!-Thou, old Adam's likeness, [Coming from her concealment. Set to drefs this garden, how dares Thy harsh-rude tongue found this unpleafing news?' "He is our coufin, coufin; but 'tis doubt, " When time shall call him home," &c. Doubt is the reading of the quarto, 1597. The folio readsdoubted. I have found reafon to believe that fome alterations even in that valuable copy were made arbitrarily by the editor. 9 0, I am prefs'd to death, MALONE. Through want of Speaking!] The poet alludes to the ancient legal punishment called peine forte et dure, which was inflicted on thofe perfons, who, being arraigned, refufed to plead, remaining obftinately filent. They were preffed to death by a heavy weight laid upon their ftomach. MALONE. 2to drefs this garden,] This was the technical language of Shakspeare's time. So, in Holy Writ: " the garden of Eden, to drefs it, and to keep it." Thy barfb-rude tongue, &c.] So, in Hamlet: and put him into Gen. ii. 15. MALONE. "What have I done, that thou dar'ft wag thy tongue "In noise fo rude against me?" I have quoted this paffage only to juftify the restoration of the word rude, which has been rejected in fome modern editions. A line in King John may add fupport to the restoration here made from the old copy: "To whom he fung in rude harsh-founding rhymes." Some words feem to have been omitted in the first of these lines. We might read: Set to drefs out this garden. Say, how dares, &c. It is always fafer to add than to omit. MALONE. I would read-Set here to drefs this garden. Mr. Malone's quotation from Genefis ferves to show that "drefs out" was not the eftablished phrase. Neither can I concur with the fame gentleman's opinion that "it is always fafer to add than to omit;" fince, in Dr. Farmer's What Eve, what ferpent hath suggested thee Why doft thou fay, king Richard is depos'd? Dar'ft thou, thou little better thing than earth, Divine his downfal? Say, where, when, and how, Cam'st thou by thefe ill tidings? fpeak, thou wretch. GARD. Pardon me, madam: little joy have I, To breathe this news; yet, what I fay, is true. King Richard, he is in the mighty hold Of Bolingbroke; their fortunes both are weigh'd: QUEEN. Nimble mischance, that art so light of Doth not thy embaffage belong to me, judgement as well as my own, the irregularities of our author's measure are too frequently occafioned by grofs and manifeft interpolations. STEEVENS. 4 I would, the plants, &c.] This execration of the queen is fomewhat ludicrous, and unfuitable to her condition; the gar GARD. Poor queen! so that thy state might be no worse, I would my skill were fubject to thy curse.- [Exeunt. dener's reflection is better adapted to the ftate both of his mind and his fortune. Mr. Pope, who has been throughout this play very diligent to reject what he did not like, has yet, I know not why, fpared the last lines of this act. JOHNSON. I would, the plants thou graft'ft, may never grow.] So, in The Rape of Lucrece: "This baftard graft shall never come to growth." MALONE, ACT IV. SCENE I. London. Westminster Hall. The Lords fpiritual on the right fide of the throne; the Lords temporal on the left; the Commons below. Enter BOLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY," NORTHUMBERLAND, PERCY, FITZWATER, another Lord, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of Westminster, and Attendants. Officers behind, with BAGOT. BOLING. Call forth Bagot: Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind; What thou doft know of noble Glofter's death; Who wrought it with the king, and who perform'd The bloody office of his timeless end. BAGOT. Then fet before my face the lord Aumerle. BOLING. Coufin, stand forth, and look upon that man. BAGOT. My lord Aumerle, I know, your daring tongue Weftminster Hall.] The rebuilding of Westminster Hall, which Richard had begun in 1397, being finished in 1399, the firft meeting of parliament in the new edifice was for the purpose of depofing him. MALONE. 6 Surrey,] Thomas Holland earl of Kent. He was brother to John Holland duke of Exeter, and was created duke of Surrey in the 21st year of King Richard the Second, 1397. The dukes of Surrey and Exeter were half brothers to the king, being fons of his mother Joan, (daughter of Edmond earle of Kent) who after the death of her second husband, Lord Thomas Holland, married Edward the Black Prince. MALONE. Walter. Fitzwater,] The chriftian name of this nobleman was. 8 his timeless end.] Timeless for untimely. WARBURTON. Scorns to unfay what once it hath deliver'd. Amongst much other talk, that very time, AUM. BOLING. Bagot, forbear, thou shalt not take it up. AUM. Excepting one, I would he were the best In all this prefence, that hath mov'd me fo. Firz. If that thy valour ftand on fympathies," 9 my fair ftars,] I rather think it should be fem, being of the royal blood. WARBURTON. I think the prefent reading unexceptionable. The birth is fuppofed to be influenced by the stars, therefore our author, with his ufual license takes ftars for birth. JOHNSON. We learn from Pliny's Natural Hiftory, that the vulgar error affigned the bright and fair stars to the rich and great: "Sidera fingulis attributa nobis, et clara divitibus, minora pauperibus,” &c. Lib. I. cap. viii. ANONYMOUS. If that thy valour stand an fympathies,] Here is a translated |