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QUEEN. What fport fhall we devife here in this

garden,

To drive away the heavy thought of care?

I LADY. Madam, we'll play at bowls.

QUEEN.

'Twill make me think,

The world is full of rubs, and that my fortune
Runs 'gainst the bias.

I LADY.
Madam, we will dance.
QUEEN. My legs can keep no measure in delight,
When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief:
Therefore, no dancing, girl; fome other sport.
I LADY. Madam, we'll tell tales.

QUEEN.

Of forrow, or of joy?

3 Then I must not fay, no.] "The duke with a high sharpe voyce bade bring forth the kings horfes, and then two little nagges, not worth forty franks, were brought forth; the king was fet on the one, and the earle of Salisburie on the other: and thus the duke brought the king from Flint to Chefter, where he was delivered to the duke of Glocefters fonne and to the earle of Arundels fonne, (that loved him but little, for he had put their fathers to death,) who led him ftraight to the caftle." Stowe, (p. 521, edit. 1605,) from a manufcript account written by a perfon who was prefent. MALONE.

4 Of forrow, or of joy?] All the old copies concur in readingOf forrow, or of grief.

Mr. Pope made the neceffary alteration. STEEVENS.

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I LADY. Of either, madam.

QUEEN. Of neither, girl: For if of joy, being altogether wanting, It doth remember me the more of forrow; Or if of grief, being altogether had, It adds more forrow to my want of joy : For what I have, I need not to repeat; And what I want, it boots not to complain. I LADY. Madam, I'll fing.

QUEEN.

'Tis well, that thou hast cause; But thou fhould'st please me better, would'st thou

weep.

I LADY. I could weep, madam, would it do you good.

QUEEN. And I could weep,' would weeping do me good,

And never borrow any tear of thee.

But stay, here come the gardeners :
Let's step into the fhadow of thefe trees.-

Enter a Gardener, and two Servants.

My wretchedness unto a row of pins,
They'll talk of state; for every one doth fo
Against a change: Woe is forerun with woe.
[Queen and Ladies retire.

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5 And I could weep,] The old copies read-And I could fing.

Mr. Pope made the emendation. MALONE.

STEEVENS.

6 Against a change: Woe is forerun with woe.] The poet, according to the common doctrine of prognoftication, fuppofes dejection to forerun calamity, and a kingdom to be filled with rumours of forrow when any great difafter is impending. The fenfe is, that publick evils are always prefignified by publick penfivenefs, and plaintive converfation. JOHNSON.

GARD. Go, bind thou up yon' dangling apricocks,

Which, like unruly children, make their fire
Stoop with oppreffion of their prodigal weight;
Give fome fupportance to the bending twigs.-
Go thou, and like an executioner,

Cut off the heads of too-faft-growing sprays,
That look too lofty in our commonwealth :
All must be even in our government.-
You thus employ'd, I will go root away
The noifome weeds, that without profit fuck
The foil's fertility from wholesome flowers.

I SERV. Why should we, in the compafs of a pale,

Keep law, and form, and due proportion,
Showing, as in a model, our firm eftate?"
When our fea-walled garden, the whole land,
Is full of weeds; her faireft flowers chok'd up,
Her fruit-trees all unprun'd, her hedges ruin'd,
Her knots diforder'd, and her wholesome herbs
Swarming with caterpillars?

GARD.

Hold thy peace :

6 our firm eftate?] How could he fay ours when he immediately fubjoins, that it was infirm? we should read:

—a firm flate. WARBURTON.

The fervant fays our, meaning the ftate of the garden in which they are at work. The ftate of the metaphorical garden was indeed unfirm, and therefore his reasoning is very naturally induced. Why (fays he) fhould we be careful to preferve order in the narrow cincture of this our ftate, when the great ftate of the kingdom is in diforder? I have replaced the old reading which Dr. Warburton would have difcontinued in favour of his own conjecture. STEEVENS.

7 Her knots diforder'd,] Knots are figures planted in box, the lines of which frequently interfect each other. So, Milton:

"Flowers, worthy Paradife, which not nice art

"In beds and curious knots, but nature boon
"Pour'd forth." STEEVENS.

He that hath suffer'd this disorder'd spring,
Hath now himself met with the fall of leaf:
The weeds, that his broad-spreading leaves did
shelter,

That seem'd, in eating him, to hold him up,
Are pluck'd up, root and all, by Bolingbroke;
I mean, the earl of Wiltshire, Bushy, Green.
I SERV. What, are they dead?

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GARD. They are; and Bolingbroke Hath feiz'd the wafteful king.-Oh! What pity is it, That he had not so trimm'd and drefs'd his land, As we this garden! We at time of year Do wound the bark, the fkin of our fruit-trees; Left, being over-proud with fap and blood, With too much riches it confound itself: Had he done fo to great and growing men, They might have liv'd to bear, and he to tafte Their fruits of duty. All fuperfluous branches' We lop away, that bearing boughs may live: Had he done fo, himself had borne the crown, Which wafte of idle hours hath quite thrown down. I SERV. What, think you then, the king shall be depos'd?

GARD. Deprefs'd he is already; and depos'd, 'Tis doubt, he will be: Letters came last night

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"We lop away;

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The word We is not in the old fome word was omitted at the

render it highly probable that this was the word. MALONE.

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-All fuperfluous branches-] Thus the fecond folio. The firft omits the word-all, and thereby hurts the metre; for superfluous is never accented on the third fyllable. STEEVENS.

2 'Tis doubt, he will be:] We have already had an instance of his uncommon phrafeology in the present play:

To a dear friend of the good duke of York's,
That tell black tidings.

QUEEN.

O, I am prefs'd to death, Through want of speaking!-Thou, old Adam's likeness, [Coming from her concealment.

Set to drefs this garden, how dares

Thy harsh-rude tongue found this unpleafing news?'

"He is our coufin, coufin; but 'tis doubt,

"When time shall call him home," &c.

Doubt is the reading of the quarto, 1597. The folio readsdoubted. I have found reafon to believe that fome alterations even in that valuable copy were made arbitrarily by the editor.

9 O, I am prefs'd to death,

MALONE.

Through want of Speaking!] The poet alludes to the ancient legal punishment called peine forte et dure, which was inflicted on thofe perfons, who, being arraigned, refufed to plead, remaining obftinately filent. They were preffed to death by a heavy weight laid upon their ftomach. MALONE.

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-to dress this garden,] This was the technical language of Shakspeare's time. So, in Holy Writ: "- and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it." Gen. ii. 15. MALONE.

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Thy barfb-rude tongue, &c.] So, in Hamlet:

"What have I done, that thou dar'ft wag thy tongue

"In noise fo rude against me?"

I have quoted this paffage only to juftify the restoration of the word rude, which has been rejected in fome modern editions.

A line in King John may add support to the restoration here made from the old copy:

"To whom he fung in rude harsh-founding rhymes." Some words feem to have been omitted in the firft of these lines. We might read:

Set to drefs out this garden. Say, how dares, &c. It is always fafer to add than to omit.

MALONE.

I would read-Set here to drefs this garden. Mr. Malone's quotation from Genefis ferves to show that " dress out" was not the eftablished phrase.

Neither can I concur with the fame gentleman's opinion that "it is always fafer to add than to omit;" fince, in Dr. Farmer's

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