G. 44. W.39.-Your army, sir, being muster'd. Read Your army being muster'd. : G. 44. W. 40.-Such arguments. Read: Such argument. G. 46. W.41.-For service of Read: For service to G. 46. W. 40.—What surety both of unity and honour. G. 47. W. 41. Read: Have my services drawn on me Have my services drawn on me i. e. when I am on the verge of the grave, and should spend the short remainder of my life in tranquillity. But Mr. Weber has blundered through the whole of this fine speech, of which he comprehends nothing. G. 51. W.44. may all the happiness My prayers ever sued to, fall upon you— Another extraordinary confusion of sense. My prayers ever sued to fall upon you, G.51. W.44.-Here's entrance Into a certainty of hope.. Read: Here's entrance Into a certainty above a hope. G.51. W.44.-When I traded in remnants. The point and pleasantry of the speech are lost. The speaker is a botcher. G. 52. W. 45.-In good time. Read, shall in time. G. 52. W.45.-No indenture but has its counterpawn. There is, I believe, no such word: read, its counterpane. G. 53. W.46.—Let my skin be pinch'd full of oylet-holes by the bodkin, &c. "Oylet-holes are the eyes of needles." Pinching a skin full of the eyes of needles is every way worthy of the critic. Read Let my skin be punch'd full of oylet-holes, &c. Oylet-holes, as every child knows, are little holes, or "perforations," as Johnson proudly calls them, punched in cloth or linen, for tapes or laces to pass through. G. 53. W.46.-Let me live a bankrupt. r. Let me first live. Mr. Weber did not notice the sarcasm here meant by the poet; Sketon was at this time a bankrupt. G. 54. W.47.-" Carriage, behaviour"! This is about the tenth time Mr. Weber has given us this important information; there is therefore good hope that before we get through these plays, we shall be somewhat familiar with its meaning. G. 57. W.50.-Resolv'd to try your mercy. Nonsense. The prisoners were not resolved to try Henry's mercy; but, as the text has it, Reserv'd, &c. Two thousand rebels had been slain in the field; as many more were preserved by the royal forces for the trial of, or rather in the hope of, the king's clemency. They were, of course, dismissed, with the exception of the leaders. "I have not been able to discover what particular kind of liquor was thus denominated, never having met with the phrase before." Phrase call you it! Mr. Weber's South Sea of discovery, as the reader knows, is the index to Shakspeare; beyond that, all is terra incognita with him. Bonny-clabber is a word exceedingly common; and I could produce, if it were necessary, scores of examples of it, from our poet's contemporaries. It is still in use. Swift translates the lac concretum of Virgil by "bonny-clabber," that is, says he, "thick sour milk." In allusion to this curdled state, it is called by Heath, who has the word in many places, "the Irish tough bonny-clabber." Our old writers usually understand it of stale whey or butter-milk. See Jonson, vol. v. p. 330. G. 62. W.54. Read: the losing of a daughter Admits not any pair like one of these. the losing of a daughter Admits not any pain, &c. G. 65. W.57.-Here are kingly bugs' words! Of these royal creatures I never heard before. Read: Here are kingly bug-words; i. e. high sounding, imperious, &c. G. 68. W.59.-Careful, "i. e. full of cares; see before, p. 30." Well advised. In matters of this doubtful kind, one cannot be too circumspect. G.70. W.61.- Partage, i. e. partition; partage, Fr." G. 71, W.61.—The privacy of his advertisement to us. G. 71. W.61.—His wisdom and your care. Read: His wisdom and our care. Same page for counsel, read council; and for-join in treaty, which is simple nonsense in this place, read, join entreaty with me. G.72. W.62.-Your vow'd beadsman.] "A beadsman, in Catholic countries, is one who prays a certain number of prayers for the welfare of another" -this may be done, I hope, in Protestant countries—“ so called from the beads upon the rosary." He was so called," however, from bede, the Saxon word for prayer. Ridiculously, indeed; but this is the editor's doing, not the poet's: the stop should be placed after piety. "Sufferance is here improperly used for suffering." It is used with strict propriety. Mr. Weber will never acquire a knowledge of the language from his indexes. G. 77. W.66. and the passionate duke Effeminately dolent. "Dolent, in this place, means submitting to reproaches, from the Fr. dolent.” Mr. Weber has read his French vocabulary almost as ill as his English one: it means here, and everywhere else, plaintive, piteous, full of woe. G.78. W.67.-Doth interest this fatal quarrel. Another specimen of a good ear, and a correct eye! G. 82. W.71.—And disavow my blood: Plantagenets! Or disavow my blood Plantagenet's. Mr. Weber did not see the speaker's meaning. G.83. W.72.—If I would appear. Read If I will appear! Warbeck repeats the words of Frion. The force of the retort depends upon them. G. 84, W.73.-" Exeunt Warbeck." The old copy reads Ex. Warbeck. But Mr. Weber sets all even in p. 79, where we have "Exit the king and Dalyell," and in p. 81, where the going out of the characters is omitted altogether. To make three attempts at accuracy, in the same scene, all different in their kind, and to fail in every one of them, argues a felicity of blundering rarely, if ever, attained. G. 85. W. 74.-Give me the hearts of England. Read: Give me the heart of England. Unto our council; we will soon be with you. The critic has a surprising note here on his own sagacity: "The old copy reads― Repair unto our council.'—But the king has been speaking to the ambassadors, and as he immediately dismisses them, he cannot be supposed to ask them to repair to his council. For this reason, the insertion of the word in brackets [we] was rendered absolutely necessary.” Can any thing be clearer than the old reading? The king sends the ambassadors to his Council, and promises speedily to follow them. The insertion of Mr. Weber's "absolutely necessary we," makes nonsense of the whole speech. G. 88. W.77.—We could not have it better. G. 92. IV. 80.-Are in their expectation. A far better expression. G. 93. W.81.-As well as of affection. Read: As true as of affection. G. 101. W.86.--Bodnam and the whole country. |