Vol. X. Ż_337. Laway away within these two hours; and fo come in when [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 MORT. With all my heart. [Exeunt. One instance may fuffice, to fhew that next has been rightly inter- This paffage has been interpreted as if the latter member of the 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 Must have some conference: But be near at hand,' [Exeunt Lords. I know not whether God will have it so, Make me believe, that thou art only mark'd Such poor, fuch bare, fuch lewd, fuch mean at- 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. 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, And hold their level with thy princely heart? P. HEN. So please your majefty, I would, I could As, in reproof of many tales devis'd,— Find pardon on my true fubmission. K. HEN. God pardon thee!-yet let me wonder, At thy affections, which do hold a wing 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 "He spared nether Cew de nor clerke." 1 Which by thy younger brother is fupplied; 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,' "A prince in expectation, when he liv'd here, 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: |