Uncle, you fay, the queen is at your house; YORK. A gentleman of mine I have despatch'd With letters of your love to her at large. BOLING. Thanks, gentle uncle.-Come, lords, away; To fight with Glendower and his complices; 4 Thanks, gentle uncle.-Come, lords, away; To fight with Glendower and his complices; [Exeunt. Awhile to work, and, after, holiday.] Though the intermediate. line has taken poffeffion of all the old copies, I have great fufpicion of its being an interpolation; and have therefore ventured to throw it out. The first and third lines rhyme to each other; nor do I imagine this was cafual, but intended by the poet. Were we to acknowledge the line genuine, it muft argue the poet of forgetfulnefs and inattention to hiftory. Bolingbroke is, as it were, but juft arrived; he is now at Bristol, weak in his numbers; has had no meeting with a parliament; nor is fo far affured of the fucceffion, as to think of going to fupprefs infurrections before he is planted in the throne. Befides, we find the oppofition of Glendower begins The First Part of K. Henry IV. and Mortimer's defeat by that hardy Welchman is the tidings of the firft fcene of that play. Again, though Glendower, in the very firft year of K. Henry IV. began to be troublesome, put in for the fupremacy of Wales, and imprisoned Mortimer; yet it was not till the fucceeding year that the King employed any force againft him. THEOBALD. This emendation, which I think is juft, has been followed by Sir T. Hanmer, but is neglected by Dr. Warburton. JOHNSON. It is evident from the preceding fcene, that there was a force in Wales, which Bolingbroke might think it neceffary to fupprefs; and why might not Shakspeare call it Glendower's? When we next fee Bolingbroke, he is in Wales, and mentions his having received intelligence that the Welchmen are dispersed. REED. Mr. Heath obferves, that Bolingbroke marched to Chefter, probably with a view to attack the Welth army headed by Lord Salisbury. He thinks therefore the line is genuine. See fc. iii. p. 283. Stowe exprefsly fays that " Owen Glendower served King Richard at Flint-Castle." MALONE. SCENE II.4 The coaft of Wales. A caftle in view. Flourish: drums and trumpets. Enter King RICHARD, Bishop of Carlisle, AUMERLE, and Soldiers. R. RICH. Barkloughly caftle call you this at hand? AUм. Yea, my lord: How brooks your grace the air, After late toffing on the breaking seas?' K. RICH. Needs muft I like it well; I weep for joy, To ftand upon my kingdom once again.- Plays fondly with her tears, and fmiles in meeting;" ♦ Here may be properly inferted the laft fcene of the second act. JOHNSON. After late toffing, &c.] The old copies redundantly read: After your late toffing, &c. STEEVENS. -Smiles in meeting;] It has been propofed to read-in weeping; and this change the repetition in the next line feems plainly to point out. STEEVENS." As a long parted mother with her child Plays fondly with her tears, and fmiles in meeting;] σε Ως ειπων, αλόχοιο Φίλης εν χερσιν έθηκε σε Παιδια που η δαρα μιας επωδες δεξαιο κολπῶ « ΔΑΚΡΥΘΕΝ ΓΕΛΑΣΑΣΑ.” Hom. Il. Ζ. Perhaps miles is here used as a fubftantive. As a mother plays fondly with her child from whom she has been a long time parted, crying, and at the fame time fmiling, at meeting him. It has been proposed to read-fmiles in weeping; and I once thought the emendation very plaufible. But I am now perfuaded the text is right. If we read weeping, the long parted mother and And do thee favour with my royal hands. BISHOP. Fear not, my lord; that Power, that made you king, Hath power to keep you king, in spite of all. The means that heaven yields must be embrac'd, And not neglected; elfe, if heaven would, her child do not meet, and there is no particular caufe affigned for either her fmiles or her tears. MALONE. From the actual fmiles and tears of the long parted mother, &c. we may, I think, fufficiently infer that she had met with her child. STEEVENS. 7 Guard it, I pray thee,] Guard it, fignifies here, as in many other places, border it. MALONE. 8 This earth fhall have a feeling,] Perhaps Milton had not forgot this paffage, when he wrote, in his Comus 66 dumb things fhall be mov'd to fympathize, "And the brute earth shall lend her nerves, and shake.” STEEVENS. 9 Fear not, my lord; &c.] Of this fpeech, the four laft lines were restored from the first edition by Mr. Pope. They were, I fuppofe, omitted by the players only to fhorten the fcene, for they are worthy of the author and fuitable to the perfonage. JOHNSON, And we will not, heaven's offer we refuse;' AUM. He means, my lord, that we are too remifs; K. RICH. Discomfortable coufin! know'st thou not, That, when the searching eye of heaven is hid Behind the globe, and lights the lower world,* Then thieves and robbers range abroad unseen, In murders, and in outrage, bloody here; But when, from under this terrestrial ball, He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines,' And darts his light through every guilty hole, Then murders, treasons, and detested fins, The cloak of night being pluck'd from off their backs, 9 elfe, if heaven would, And we will not, heaven's offer we refufe;] Thus the quarto 1597, except that the word if is wanting. The quarto 1608, and the late editions, read-And we would not. The word if was fupplied by Mr. Pope. Both the metre and the fenfe show that it was accidentally omitted in the first copy. MALONE. 2 and lights the lower world,] The old copies read-that lights. The emendation was made by Dr. Johnfon. Senfe might be obtained by a flight tranfpofition, without changing the words of the original text: That when the fearching eye of heaven, that lights The lower world, is hid behind the globe;— By the lower world, as the paffage is amended by Dr. Johnson, we muft understand, a world lower than this of ours; I fuppofe, our Antipodes. MALONE. That this is the fenfe of the paffage, is obvious from the King's application of the fimile: "So, when this thief, this traitor Bolingbroke,- The lower world may fignify our world. MALONE. He fires the proud tops of the eastern pines,] It is not eafy to point out an image more ftriking and beautiful than this, in any poet, whether ancient or modern, STEEVENS. Stand bare and naked, trembling at themselves? For every man that Bolingbroke hath press'd, 3 The breath of worldly men, &c.] Here is the doctrine of indefeafible right expreffed in the ftrongest terms; but our poet did not learn it in the reign of K. James, to which it is now the practice of all writers, whofe opinions are regulated by fashion or interest, to impute the original of every tenet which they have been taught to think falfe or foolish. JOHNSON. Far be it from me to palliate the conduct of the wretched James; but the truth is that the inherent rights of the people had been ill understood, or rather were not acknowledged, by his predeceffors. The doctrine of the divine right of kings, and of the paffive obedience of fubjects, have never been carried further in any country than in this island, while the houfe of Tudor fate on the throne. Of this fact, the Homilies, compofed during the reign of young Edward, and appointed in the Thirty-nine Articles to be read in churches, furnish ftriking and abundant proof. Take, as an inftance, the following extract from the Homily against Disobedience and wilful Rebellion: "As the name of the king is very often attri buted and given unto God in holy fcriptures, fo doth God himself in the fame fcriptures fometime vouchfafe to communicate his name with earthly princes, terming them Gods." 1ft part. And in the 4th part, we are directed to "call to remembrance the heavy wrath and dreadful indignation of Almighty God against subjects as do only but inwardly grudge, mutter, and murmur against their governors, though their inward treafon, fo privily hatched in their breafts come not to an open declaration of their doings." HOLT WHITE. VOL. VIII. T |