A When they have loft and forfeited themselves? Hor. Revolted Mortimer! He never did fall off, my fovereign liege, Indent with fears, may therefore mean, fign an indenture or compact "To roufe his wrongs, and chafe them to a bay." "I hold as little counfel with weak fear, "As you, my lord The King, by buying treafon, and indenting with fears, may therefore covertly repeat both his pretended charges against Mortimer; firft, that he had treasonably betrayed his party to Glendower; and, fecondly, that he would have been afraid to encounter with fo brave an adversary. STEEVENS. 6 He never did fall off, my fovereign liege, that But by the chance of war;] The meaning is, he came not into the enemy's power but by the chance of war. The King charged Mortimer, that he wilfully betrayed his army, and, as he was then with the enemy, calls him revolted Mortimer. Hotfpur replies, he never fell off, that is, fell into Glendower's hands, but by the chance of war. I fhould not have explained thus tediously a paffage fo hard to be mistaken, but that two editors have already mistaken it. JOHNSON. 7 To prove that true, Needs no more but one tongue for all thofe wounds, &c.] Hotfpur calls Mortimer's wounds mouthed, from their gaping like a mouth; and fays, that to prove his loyalty, but one tongue was neceflary for all thefe mouths. This may be harfh; but the fame idea occurs in Coriolanus, where one of the populace fays: "For if he shows When on the gentle Severn's fedgy bank, He did confound the best part of an hour 8 In changing hardiment with great Glendower: Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink," Upon agreement, of fwift Severn's flood; Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks, us his wounds, we are to put our tongues into these wounds, and Speak for them." And again, in Julius Cæfar, Antony says: there were an Antony, "Would ruffle up your fpirits, and put a tongue M. MASON. 8 bardiment-] An obfolete word, fignifying hardinefs, bravery, ftoutness. Spenfer is frequent in his use of it. STEEVENS. -three times did they drink,] It is the property of wounds to excite the most impatient thirft. The poet therefore hath with exquifite propriety introduced this circumftance, which may ferve to place in its proper light the dying kindnefs of Sir Philip Sydney; who, though fuffering the extremity of thirft from the agony of his own wounds, yet, notwithstanding, gave up his own draught of water to a wounded foldier. HENLEY. 2 Who then, affrighted &c.] This paffage has been cenfured as founding nonfenfe, which reprefents à ftream of water as capable of fear. It is misunderstood. Severn is here not the flood, but the tutelary power of the flood, who was affrighted, and hid his head in the hollow bank. JOHNSON. 3 his crifp head-] Crifp is curled. So, Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Maid of the Mill: 66 methinks the river, "As he fteals by, curls up his head to view you." Again, in Kyd's Cornelia, 1595: "O beauteous Tiber, with thine easy ftreams, Blood-ftained with thefe valiant combatants. Colour her working with fuch deadly wounds; Then let him not be flander'd with revolt. K. HEN. Thou doft belie him, Percy, thou doft belie him, He never did encounter with Glendower; I tell thee, He durft as well have met the devil alone, Perhaps Shakspeare has bestowed an epithet, applicable only to the stream of water, on the genius of the stream. The following paffage, however, in the fixth Song of Drayton's Polyolbion, may feem to justify its propriety: Your corfes were diffolv'd into that chrystal stream; "Your curls to curled waves, which plainly ftill appear "The fame in water now that once in locks they were." Beaumont and Fletcher have the fame image with Shakspeare in The Loyal Subject: -the Volga trembled at his terror, "And hid his feven curl'd heads." Again, in one of Ben Jonfon's Mafques: 66 Only their heads are crifped by his stroke." See Vol. VI. (Whalley's edit.) p. 26. STEEVENS. 4 Never did bare and rotten policy-] All the quartos which I have feen read bare in this place. The firft folio, and all the fubfequent editions, have bafe. I believe bare is right: "Never did policy, lying open to detection, fo colour its workings. JOHNSON. The first quarto, 1598, reads bare; which means fo thinly covered by art as to be eafily feen through. So, in Venus and Adonis: "What bare excuses mak'st thou to be gone!" MALONE. Since there is fuch good authority as Johnfon informs us, for reading bafe, in this paffage, instead of bare, the former word fhould certainly be adopted. Bare policy, that is, policy lying open to detection, is in truth no policy at all. The epithet bafe, also beft agrees with rotten. M. MASON. Art not ashamed? But, firrah, henceforth [Exeunt King HENRY, BLUNT, and Train. NORTH. What, drunk with choler? stay, and Here comes your uncle. Hor. Re-enter WORCESTER. Speak of Mortimer? 'Zounds, I will speak of him; and let my foul NORTH. Brother, the king hath made your ne- phew mad. WOR. Who ftruck this heat up after I was gone? Hor. He will, forfooth, have all my prifoners; • Art not-] Old copies-Art thou not. STERVENS. 1 Vol. XI. 225. Q بع And on my face he turn'd an eye of death,' By Richard that dead is, the next of blood?" NORTH. He was; I heard the proclamation: And then it was, when the unhappy king (Whose wrongs in us God pardon!) did fet forth 5 —an eye of death,] That is, an eye menacing death. Hotfpur feems to defcribe the king as trembling with rage rather than fear. JOHNSON. So, in Marlowe's Tamburlaine, 1590: "And wrapt in filence of his angry foul, Upon his browes was pourtraid ugly death, "And in his eyes the furies of his heart." STEEVENS. Johnfon and Steevens feem to think that Hotspur meant to defcribe the King as trembling not with fear, but rage; but furely they are mistaken. The king had no reafon to be enraged at Mortimer, who had been taken prifoner in fighting against his enemy; but he had much reafon to fear the man who had a better title to the crown than himself, which had been proclaimed by Richard II; and accordingly, when Hotspur is informed of that circumftance, he says, Nay, then I cannot blame his coufin king "That wifh'd him on the barren mountains ftarv'd.” And Worcester, in the very next line, fays: "He cannot blame him for trembling at the name of Mortimer, fince Richard had proclaimed him next of blood." M. MASON. Mr. M. Mafon's remark is, I think, in general juft; but the King, as appears from this fcene, had fome reafon to be enraged alfo at Mortimer, becaufe he thought that Mortimer had not been taken prifoner by the efforts of his enemies, but had himself revolted. MALONE. 6 Was he not proclaim'd, By Richard that dead is, the next of blood?] Roger Mortimer, earl of March, who was born in 1371, was declared heir apparent to the crown in the 9th year of King Richard II. (1385). See Grafton. p. 347. But he was killed in Ireland in 1398. The perfon who was proclaimed by Richard heir apparent to the crown, previous to his laft voyage to Ireland, was Edmund Mortimer, (the fon of Roger,) who was then but seven years old; but he was not Percy's wife's brother, but her nephew. MALONE. |