f WOR. He apprehends a world of figures here," But not the form of what he should attend.— Good coufin, give me audience for a while. Hor. I cry you mercy. That are your prifoners, Hor. Those fame noble Scots, I'll keep them all; By heaven, he shall not have a Scot of them: WOR. Hor. But then, it will be faid, "what becomes of fellowship? Where is the fellowship in a fingle face in profile? The allufion must be to the coins of Philip and Mary, where two faces were in part exhibited." This fquaring of our author's comparifons, and making them correfpond precifely on every fide, is in my apprehenfion the fource of endless miftakes. See p. 412, n. 9. Fellowship relates to Hotfpur's" corrival" and himself, and I think to nothing more. I find the epithet here applied to it, in Nafhe's Apologie of Pierce Pennileffe, 1593: " with all other odd ends of your half-faced English." Again, in Hiftriomaftix, 1610: "Whilst I behold yon half-fac'd minion,-." MALONE. 6 a world of figures here,] Figure is here ufed equivocally. As it is applied to Hotspur's fpeech it is a rhetorical mode; as oppofed to form, it means appearance or fhape. JOHNSON. Figures mean fhapes created by Hotspur's imagination; but not the form of what he should attend, viz. of what his uncle had to propofe. EDWARDS. 7 He faid, he would not ranfom Mortimer ; But I will find him when he lies afleep, And in his ear I'll bolla-Mortimer!] So Marlowe, in his King Edward II: e Nay, I'll have a starling fhall be taught to speak WOR. Coufin; a word. Hear you, 8 Hor. All ftudies here I folemnly defy, But that I think his father loves him not, And would be glad he met with some mischance, 8 I folemnly defy,] One of the ancient fenfes of the verb, to defy, was to refufe. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "I do defy thy commiferation." STEEVENS. 9 And that fame fword-and-buckler prince of Wales,] A royster or turbulent fellow, that fought in taverns, or raised disorders in the streets, was called a Swash-buckler. In this sense fword-andbuckler is here ufed. JOHNSON. Stowe will keep us to the precife meaning of the epithet here given to the prince.-" This field, commonly called Weft-Smithfield, was for many years called Ruffians Hall, by reafon it was the ufual place of frayes and common fighting, during the time that fword and bucklers were in ufe. When every ferving-man, from the base to the best, carried a buckler at his back, which hung by the hilt or pomel of his word." HENLEY. I have now before me (to confirm the juftice of this remark) a poem entitled "Sword and Buckler, or Serving Man's Defence." By William Bas, 1602. STEEVENS. "What weapons bear they?-Some fword and dagger, fome fword and buckler.-What weapon is that buckler?-A clownith daftardly weapon, and not fit for a gentleman." Florio's First Fruites, 1578. MALONE. 2 -poifon'd with a pot of ale.] Dr. Grey fuppofes this to be faid in allufion to Caxton's Account of King John's Death; (fee Caxton's Fructus Temporum, 1515, fol. 62.) but I rather think it WOR. Farewell, kinfman! I will talk to you, fool 3 has reference to the low company (drinkers of ale) with whom the prince spent so much of his time in the meaneft taverns. STEEVENS. 3 Why, what a wafp-ftung and impatient fool-] Thus the quarto, 1598; and furely it affords a more obvious meaning than the folio, which reads: -wap-tongued. That Shakspeare knew the fting of a wasp was not fituated in its mouth, may be learned from the following paffage in The Winter's Tale, Á& I. sc. ii: -is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wafps." STEEVENS. This reading is confirmed by Hotspur's reply: 66 66 Why look you, I am whipp'd and fcourg'd with rods, "Nettled and flung with pifmires, when I hear "Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke." M. MASON. The first quarto copies of feveral of these plays are in many refpects much preferable to the folio, and in general I have paid the utmost attention to them. In the present inftance, however, I think the transcriber's ear deceived him, and that the true reading is that of the fecond quarto, 1599, wafp-tongue, which I have adopted, not on the authority of that copy, (for it has none,) but because I believe it to have been the word used by the author. The folio was apparently printed from a later quarto; and the editor from ignorance of our author's phrafeology changed wafp-tongue to walptongued. There are other inftances of the fame unwarrantable alterations even in that valuable copy of our author's plays. The change, I fay, was made from ignorance of Shakspeare's phrafeology; for in King Richard III. we have-his venom-tooth, not venom'dtooth; your widow-dolour, not widow'd-dolour; and in another play, parted with fugar-breath, not fugar'd-breath; and many more inftances of the fame kind may be found. Thus, in this play, -fmooth-tongue, not fmooth-tongued. Again: "-ftolen from my hoft at St. Alban's, or the red-nofe innkeeper of Daintry." [not red-nofed.] Again, in King Richard III: "Some light-foot friend poft to the Duke of Norfolk." not light-footed. So alfo, in The Black Book, 4to. 1604: 66 fpyder, which fhowed like great leachers with little legs, went The Spindle-fhanke ftealing over his head," &c. In the last act of The Second Part of King Henry IV. " blew-bottle rogue" (the reading of the quarto) is changed by the editor of the folio to "blew-bottled rogue," as he here fubftituted wafp-tongued for wasp-tongue. Art thou, to break into this woman's mood; Shakspeare certainly knew, as Mr. Steevens has observed, that the fting of a wafp lay in his tail; nor is there in my apprehenfion any thing couched under the epithet wafp-tongue, inconfiftent with that knowledge. It means only, having a tongue as peevish and mischievous (if fuch terms may be applied to that inftrument of the mind) as a wafp. Thus, in As you Like it, wafpifh is used without any particular reference to any action of a wafp, but merely as fynonymous to peevish or fretful: "By the ftern brow and wafpish action "Which she did ufe as fhe was writing of it, In The Tempest, when Iris fpeaking of Venus, fays, "Her wafpish-beaded fon has broke his arrows," the meaning is perfectly clear; yet the objection that Shakspeare knew the fting of a wafp was in his tail, not in his head, might, I conceive, be made with equal force, there, as on the prefent occafion. Though this note has run out to an unreasonable length, I must add a paffage in The Taming of the Shrew; which, while it shows that our author knew the fting of a wafp was really fituated in its tail, proves at the fame time that he thought it might with propriety be applied metaphorically to the tongue : "Pet. Come, come, you wafp; i'faith you are too angry. "Cath. If I be wafpifh, beft beware my fting. "Pet. My remedy is then to pluck it out. "Cath. Ay, if the fool could find out where it lies. "Pet. Who knows not where a wafp does wear his fting? "In his tail. "Cath. In his tongue, "Pet. Whofe tongue? "Cath. Yours, if you talk of tails," &c. This paffage appears to me fully to juftify the reading that I have chofen. Independent however of all authority, or reference to other paffages, it is fupported by the context here. A perfon ftung by a wafp would not be very likely to claim all the talk to himfelf, as Hotfpur is defcribed to do, but rather in the agony of pain to implore the affiftance of thofe about him; whereas the wafp-tongue fool" may well be fuppofed to " break into a woman's mood," and to liften" to no tongue but his own.” Mr. M. Mason thinks that the words afterwards used by Hotspur are decifively in favour of wafp-ftung," Nettled and flung with pifmires;" but Hotspur ufes that expreffion to mark the poignancy Hor. Why, look you, I am whipp'd and scourg'd with rods, Nettled, and stung with pifmires, when I hear In Richard's time,-What do you call the place?- Hor. You fay true: Why, what a candy deal of courtesy This fawning greyhound then did proffer me! Good uncle, tell your tale, for I have done. of his own feelings; Northumberland ufes the term wafp-tongue to denote the irritability of his fon's temper, and the petulance of his language. MALONE. I may feem to be overlaid by the foregoing note, but do not think myself defeated. The reader's patience, however, fhall be no further exercised on the present occafion. STEEVENS. what a candy deal of courtesy-] i. e. what a deal of candy courtesy. Mr. Pope and the fubfequent editors read-candy'd, without neceffity. See alfo K. Richard III: Grofsly grew captive to his honey words." not honey'd words. See the laft note. MALONE. infant fortune came to age,] Alluding to what passed in King Richard, A&t II. fc. iii. JOHNSON. 6 the devil take fuch cozeners!] The fame jingle occurs in Two Tragedies in One, &c. 1601: "Come pretty coufin, cozened by grim death." Again, in Monfieur Thomas, by Beaumont and Fletcher: coufin, "Cozen thyfelf no more. Again, in The Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1601: "To fee my confin cozen'd in this fort." STEEVENS. |