Vol. X. Ż_337.

Laway

away within these two hours; and fo come in when
ye will.

[Exit.

GLEND. Come, come, lord Mortimer; you are as

flow,

As hot lord Percy is on fire to go.

By this our book 's drawn ; we'll but feal, and then
To horfe immediately.

MORT.

With all my heart.

[Exeunt.

One instance may fuffice, to fhew that next has been rightly inter-
preted:
and when mattens was done, the erles and the
lordes went the next way to the deane's place to breckfast." Ives's
Select Papers, 4to. 1773, p. 165.

This paffage has been interpreted as if the latter member of the
fentence were explanatory of the former; but furely they are entirely
diftinct. The plain meaning is, that he who makes a common
practice of finging, reduces himself to the condition either of a
tailor, or a teacher of mufick to birds. That tailors were remark-
able for finging in our author's time, he has himself informed us
elsewhere. "Do you make an alehouse of my lady's houfe, (fays
Malvolio in Twelfth Night,) that ye fqueak out your coziers'
catches, without any mitigation or remorfe of voice?"

MALONE.

9 our book's drawn;] i. e. our articles. Every compofition, whether play, ballad, or hiftory, was called a book, on the registers of ancient publication. STEEVENS.

SCENE II.

London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter King HENRY, Prince of Wales, and Lords.

K. HEN. Lords, give us leave; the prince of
Wales and I,

Must have some conference: But be near at hand,'
For we shall presently have need of you.-

[Exeunt Lords.

I know not whether God will have it so,
For fome displeasing service I have done,
That, in his fecret doom, out of my blood
He'll breed revengement and a fcourge for me;
But thou doft, in thy paffages of life,

Make me believe, that thou art only mark'd
For the hot vengeance and the rod of heaven,
To punish my mistreadings. Tell me elfe,
Could fuch inordinate, and low defires,

Such poor, fuch bare, fuch lewd, fuch mean at-
tempts,

3 Muft have fome conference: But be near at hand,] The old copies redundantly read-fome private conference; but, as the lords were difmiffed on this occafion, they would naturally infer that privacy was the King's object. STEEVENS.

4 For fome difpleafing fervice-] Service for action, fimply.

WARBURTON.

in thy paffages of life,] i. e. in the paffages of thy life.
STEEVENS.

6 fuch lewd, fuch mean attempts,] Mean attempts, are mean, unworthy undertakings. Lewd does not in this place barely

fignify wanton, but licentious. So, B. Jonfon, in his Poetafter: idle, ignorant,

great actions may be fu'd

"'Gainst such as wrong men's fames with verses lewd.”

or an

Such barren pleasures, rude fociety,

As thou art match'd withal, and grafted to,
Accompany the greatness of thy blood,

And hold their level with thy princely heart?

P. HEN. So please your majefty, I would, I could
Quit all offences with as clear excuse,
As well as, I am doubtless, I can purge
Myfelf of many I am charg'd withal:
Yet fuch extenuation let me beg,"

As, in reproof of many tales devis'd,—
Which oft the ear of greatnefs needs muft hear,-
By fmiling pick-thanks and bafe newsmongers,
I may, for fome things true, wherein my youth
Hath faulty wander'd and irregular,

Find pardon on my true fubmission.

K. HEN. God pardon thee!-yet let me wonder,
Harry,

At thy affections, which do hold a wing
Quite from the flight of all thy ancestors.
Thy place in council thou haft rudely loft,'

And again, in Volpone:

66

they are moft led impoftors,

"Made all of terms and fhreds." STEEVENS. The word is thus ufed in many of our ancient ftatutes.

MALONE.

7 Yet fuch extenuation let me beg, &c.] The conftruction is somewhat obfcure. Let me beg fo much extenuation, that, upon confutation of many falfe charges, I may be pardoned fome that are true. I fhould read on reproof, inftead of in reproof; but concerning Shakspeare's particles there is no certainty. JOHNSON.

8 As in reproof of many tales devis'd,] Reproof here means difproof. M. MASON.

9

pick-thanks-] i. e. officious parafites. So, in the tragedy of Mariam, 1613:

Bafe pick-thank devil ———.”

STEEVENS.

Again, in Euphues, 1587: "I fhould feeme either to picke a thanke with men, or a quarrel with women." HENDERSON.

2 Thy place in council thou haft rudely loft,] The Prince was re

This epithet is like employed to

ignorant character, as in the
followin

"He spared nether Cew de nor clerke."
Romance of the Sordon &c. Ms.

1

Which by thy younger brother is fupplied;
And art almoft an alien to the hearts
Of all the court and princes of my blood:
The hope and expectation of thy time
Is ruin'd; and the foul of every man
Prophetically does forethink thy fall.
Had I fo lavish of my prefence been,
So common-hackney'd in the eyes of men,
So ftale and cheap to vulgar company;
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had ftill kept loyal to poffeffion; 3
And left me in reputelefs banishment,
A fellow of no mark, nor likelihood.
By being feldom feen, I could not stir,
But, like a comet, I was wonder'd at:
That men would tell their children, This is be;
Others would fay,-Where? which is Bolingbroke?
And then I ftole all courtesy from heaven,*

moved from being prefident of the council, immediately after he ftruck the judge. STEEVENS.

Our author has, I believe, here been guilty of an anachronism. The prince's removal from council in confequence of his ftriking the Lord Chief Juftice Gafcoigne, was fome years after the battle of Shrewsbury (1403). His brother, Thomas Duke of Clarence, was appointed Prefident of the Council in his room, and he was not created a duke till the 13th year of K. Henry IV. (1411).

MALONE.

3 loyal to poffeffion;] True to him that had then poffeffion of the crown. JOHNSON.

And then I ftole all courtesy from beaven,] This is an allufion to the story of Prometheus's theft, who ftole fire from thence; and as with this he made a man, fo with that Bolingbroke made a king. As the gods were fuppofed jealous in appropriating reafon to themfelves, the getting fire from thence, which lighted it up in the mind, was called a theft; and as power is their prerogative, the getting courtely from thence, by which power is beft procured, is Called a theft. The thought is exquifitely great and beautiful. WARBURTON. Maffinger has adopted this expreffion in The great Duke of Flo

rence:

And drefs'd myself in fuch humility,

That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,'
Loud fhouts and falutations from their mouths,
Even in the presence of the crowned king.
Thus did I keep my perfon fresh, and new;

"A prince in expectation, when he liv'd here,
"Stole courtesy from heaven; and would not to
"The meaneft fervant in my father's house
"Have kept such distance." STEEVENS.

Dr. Warburton's explanation of this paffage appears to me very queftionable. The poet had not, I believe, a thought of Prometheus or the heathen gods, nor indeed was courtesy (even underftanding it to fignify affability) the characteristick attribute of those deities. The meaning, I apprehend, is,-I was fo affable and popular, that I engrossed the devotion and reverence of all men to myfelf, and thus defrauded Heaven of its worshippers.

Courtefy may be here used for the respect and obeisance paid by an inferior to a fuperior. So, in this play:

"To dog his heels and court'fy at his frowns." In Act V. it is ufed for a refpectful falute, in which fense it was applied formerly to men as well as women:

"I will embrace him with a foldier's arm,

"That he shall fhrink under my courtesy." Again, in the Hiftory of Edward IV. annexed to Hardynge's Chronicle, 1543" which thyng if I could have forfene,-I would never have wonne the courtifies of men's knees with the lofs of fo many heades."

This interpretation is ftrengthened by the two fubfequent lines, which contain a kindred thought:

"And drefs'd myfelf in fuch humility,

"That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts." Henry, I think, means to fay, that he robbed heaven of its wor ship, and the king of the allegiance of his fubjects. MALONE.

5 That I did pluck allegiance from men's hearts,] Apparently copied from Marlowe's Luft's Dominion, written before 1593: "The pope fhall fend his bulls through all thy realm, And pull obedience from thy fubjects' hearts." In another place in the fame play, we meet with the phrase used

here: