Brooks no divifion: It will be thought And breed a kind of question in our caufe: fomething is against the hair, as against the grain, that is, against the natural tendency. JOHNSON. In an old comedy called The Family of Love, I meet with an expreffion which very well fupports Dr. Johnfon's explanation: They fay I am of the right hair, and indeed they may ftand to't." "An afs against the hair." STEEVENS. This word is used in the fame fenfe in the old interlude of Tom Tyler and his Wife, 1598: "But I bridled a colt of a contrarie baire." MALONE. 3 we of the offering fide-] Ali the latter editions read offending, but all the older copies which I have feen, from the first quarto to the edition of Rowe, read-we of the off'ring fide. Of this reading the fenfe is obfcure, and therefore the change has been made; but fince neither offering nor offending are words likely to be mistaken, I cannot but fufpect that offering is right, efpecially as it is read in the copy of 1599, which is more correctly printed than any fingle edition, that I have yet feen, of a play written by Shakspeare. The offering fide may fignify that party, which, acting in oppofition to the law, ftrengthens itfelf only by offers; increases its numbers only by promifes. The king can raife an army, and continue it by threats of punishment; but thofe, whom no man is under any obligation to obey, can gather forces only by offers of advantage: and it is truly remarked, that they, whofe influence arifes from offers, muft keep danger out of fight. The offering fide may mean fimply the affailant, in oppofition to the defendant; and it is likewife true of him that offers war, or makes an invafion, that his cause ought to be kept clear from all objections. JOHNSON. Johnfon's laft explanation of the word offering, appears to be right. His firft is far-fetched and unnatural. M. MASON. Must keep aloof from strict arbitrement; Hor. You ftrain too far. I, rather, of his absence make this use ;- Than if the earl were here: for men must think, Spoke of in Scotland, as this term of fear." Enter Sir RICHARD VERNON. Hor. My coufin Vernon! welcome, by my foul. VER. Pray God, my news be worth a welcome, lord. The earl of Weftmoreland, seven thousand strong, Is marching hitherwards; with him, prince John. Hor. No harm: What more? 4 This abfence of your father's draws a curtain, That shows the ignorant a kind of fear &c.] To draw a curtain had anciently the fame meaning, as to undraw one has at prefent. So, (fays Mr. Malone,) in a ftage direction in King Henry VI. P. II. (quarto, 1600,) "Then the curtaines being drawne, Duke Humphrey is difcovered in his bed." Fear, in the prefent inftance, fignifies a terrifick object. STEEVENS, term of fear.] Folio-dream of fear. MALONE, VER. And further, I have learn'd, The king himself in perfon is fet forth, Or hitherwards intended fpeedily, With strong and mighty preparation. Hor. He fhall be welcome too. Where is his fon, The nimble-footed mad-cap prince of Wales," And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside, And bid it pafs? VER. All furnish'd, all in arms, All plum'd like estridges, that wing the wind; Bated like eagles having lately bath'd;' The nimble-footed mad-cap prince of Wales,] Shakspeare rarely bestows his epithets at random. Stowe fays of the Prince: "He was paffing fwift in running, infomuch that he with two other of his lords, without hounds, bow, or other engine, would take a wild buck, or doe, in a large park." STEEVENS. ↑ All furnish'd, all in arms, All plum'd like eftridges, that wing the wind; Bated like eagles &c.] The old copies-that with the wind. For the fake of affording the reader a text eafily intelligible, I have followed the example of Mr. Malone, by adopting Dr. Johnson's emendation. See the following notes. STEEVENS. What is the meaning of eftridges, that bated with the wind like eagles? for the relative that, in the usual construction, must relate to eftridges. Sir T. Hanmer reads: All plum'd like eftridges, and with the wind Bating like eagles. By which he has escaped part of the difficulty, but has yet leftimpropriety fufficient to make his reading queftionable. I read: All furnish'd, all in arms, All plum'd like eftridges that wing the wind This gives a ftrong image. They were not only plumed like eftridges, but their plumes fluttered like thofe of an eilridge beating the wind with his wings. A more lively reprefentation of young men ardent for enterprize, perhaps no writer has ever given. JOHNSON. Glittering in golden coats, like images;" I believe eftridges never mount at all, but only run before the wind, opening their wings to receive its affiftance in urging them forward. They are generally hunted on horfeback, and the art of the hunter is to turn them from the gale, by the help of which they are too fleet for the fwifteft horfe to keep up with them. I fhould have fufpected a line to have been omitted, had not all the copies concurred in the fame reading. In the 22d Song of Drayton's Polyolbion is the fame thought: "Prince Edward all in gold, as he great Jove had been: "The Mountfords all in plumes, like eftridges, were seen.” STEEVENS. I have little doubt that inftead of with, fome verb ought to be fubftituted here. Perhaps it fhould be whisk. The word is used by a writer of Shakspeare's age. England's Helicon, fign. Q: "This faid, he whisk'd his particoloured wings." TYRWHITT. This is one of thofe paffages, in which, in my apprehension, there can be no doubt that there is fome corruption, either by the omiffion of an entire line, or by one word being printed inftead of another. The first quarto, which is followed by all the other ancient copies, reads: All plum'd like eftridges, that with the wind, Bated like eagles having lately bath'd. From the context it appears to me evident that two distinct comparisons were here intended, that two objects were mentioned, to each of which the Prince's troops were compared; and that our author could never mean to compare eftridges to eagles, a conftruction which the word with forces us to. In each of the fubsequent lines a diftinct image is given.-Befides, as Dr. Johnson has remarked, "What is the meaning of eftridges that bated with the wind like eagles? for the relative that in the usual conftruction must relate to eftridges." Mr. Tyrwhitt concurs with me in thinking the old text corrupt. I have therefore adopted the flight alteration propofed by Dr. Johnfon-that wing the wind; which gives an eafy fenfe.-The Spirit and ardour of the troops are marked by their being compared to eagles in the next line; but the eftridges appear to be introduced here, as in the paffage quoted above from Drayton, by Mr. Steevens, folely on account of the foldiers plumes; and the manner in which thofe birds are faid to move, fufficiently explains the meaning of the words that wing the wind. If this emendation be not just, and with be the true reading, a line must have been loft, in which the particular movement of the eftridge was described. The concurrence of the copies (mentioned by Mr. Steevens in a foregoing And gorgeous as the fun at midsummer; note) militates but little in my mind against the probability of fuch an omiffion; for in general, I have obferved, that whenever there is a corruption in one copy, it is continued in every fubfequent one. Omiffion is one of the most frequent errors of the prefs, and we have undoubted proofs that fome lines were omitted in the early editions of these plays. See Vol. IV. p. 181, n. 4; Vol. VIII. p. 243, n. 4; and Romeo and Juliet, Act III. fc. iv. See alfo King Henry VI. Part II. Act III. fc. iv. where the following line is omitted in the folio, 1623: Jove fometimes went difguis'd, and why not I?" There is still another objection to the old reading, that I had nearly forgotten. Suppofing the expreffion-" that with the wind bated like eagles"-was defenfible, and that these estridges were intended to be compared to eagles, why fhould the comparison be in the past time? Would it not be more natural to fay,--The troops were all plumed like eftridges, that, like eagles, bate with the wind, &c. On the whole, I think it most probable that a line in which the motion of eftridges was defcribed, was inadvertently paffed over by the tranfcriber or compofitor, when the earlieft copy was printed; an error which has indifputably happened in other places in thefe plays. It is obfervable, that in this paffage, as it ftands in the old copy, there is no verb: nothing is predicated concerning the troops. In the loft line it was very probably faid, that they were then advancing. Rather, however, than print the paffage with afterisks as imperfect, I have, as the leffer evil, adopted Dr. Johnfon's emendation. Mr. Steevens's notes perfectly explain the text as now regulated. I have faid that nothing is predicated of these plumed troops, and this is a very strong circumftance to fhow that a line was omitted, in which they probably were at once defcribed as in motion, and compared (for the fake of their plumage) to oftridges. The omitted line might have been of this import: All furnijb'd, all in arms, All plum'd like eftridges, that with the wind Wanton as youthful goats, wild as young bulls. MALONE. N'n |