To Oxford, or where'er these traitors are: thee new. Enter EXTON, and a Servant. EXTON. Didft thou not mark the king, what words he spake? Have I no friend will rid me of this living fear? SERV. Those were his very words. EXTON. Have I no friend? quoth he: he spake it twice, And urg'd it twice together; did he not? SERV. He did. EXTON. And, fpeaking it, he wiftly look'd on me; As who fhould fay,-I would, thou wert the man That would divorce this terror from my heart; Meaning, the king at Pomfret. Come, let's go; I am the king's friend, and will rid his foe. [Exeunt. 7 coufin too, adieu :] Too, which is not in the old copy, was added by Mr. Theobald, for the fake of the metre. MALONE. SCENE V. Pomfret. The Dungeon of the Caftle. Enter King RICHARD. - K. RICH. I have been studying how I may compare As thus, Come, little ones; and then again,— To thread the postern of a needle's eye. 5 people this little world;] i. e. his own frame; "the ftate of man;" which in our author's Julius Cæfar is faid to be "like to a little kingdom." So alfo, in his Lover's Complaint: Storming my world with forrow's wind and rain." Again, in King Lear: 6 "Strives in this little world of man to out-fcorn "The to-and-fro-conflicting wind and rain." MALONE. the word itself Against the word:] By the word, I fuppofe, is meant the holy word. The folio reads: the faith itself Against the faith. STEEVENS. The reading of the text is that of the first quarto, 1597: MALONE. Unlikely wonders: how thefe vain weak nails With nothing fhall be pleas'd, till he be eas'd And here have I the daintiness of ear, To check time broke in a disorder'd ftring; 7 Thus play I, in one perfon,] Alluding, perhaps, to the neceffities of our early theatres. The title-pages of fome of our Moralities fhow, that three or four characters were frequently represented by one perfon. STEEVENS. Thus the first quarto, 1597. All the fubfequent old copies have-prifon. MALONE. 8 To check-] Thus the first quarto, 1597. The folio reads— To hear. Of this play the firft quarto copy is much more valuable than that of the folio. MALONE. But, for the concord of my state and time, 9 For now hath time made me his numb’ring clock: My thoughts are minutes; and, with fighs, they jar Their watches on to mine eyes, the outward watch, &c.] I think this paffage must be corrupt, but I know not well how to make it better. The firft quarto reads: My thoughts are minutes; and with fighs they jar, Their watches on unto mine eyes the outward watch. The quarto 1615: My thoughts are minutes, and with fighs they jar, There watches on unto mine eyes the outward watch. The firft folio agrees with the fecond quarto. Perhaps out of thefe two readings the right may be made. Watch feems to be used in a double sense, for a quantity of time, and for the inftrument that measures time. I read, but with no great confidence, thus: My thoughts are minutes, and with fighs they jar I am unable to throw any certain light on this paffage. A few hints, however, which may tend to its illuftration, are left for the fervice of future commentators. The outward watch, as I am informed, was the moveable figure of a man habited like a watchman, with a pole and lantern in his hand. The figure had the word-watch written on its forehead; and was placed above the dial-plate. This information was derived from an artist after the operation of a fecond cup: therefore neither Mr. Tollet, who communicated it, or myfelf, can vouch for its authenticity, or with any degree of confidence apply it to the paffage before us. Such a figure, however, appears to have been alluded to in Ben Jonfon's Every Man out of his Hu- he looks like one of thefe motions in a great antique clock," &c. A motion anciently fignified a puppet. Again, in his Sejanus: mour: 66 "Obferve him, as his watch obferves his clock." Again, in Churchyard's Charitie, 1595: "The clocke will strike in hafte, I heare the watch Whereto my finger, like a dial's point, Is pointing ftill, in cleanfing them from tears. Now, fir, the found, that tells what hour it is,2 Are clamorous groans, that ftrike upon my heart, Which is the bell: So fighs, and tears, and groans, Show minutes, times, and hours :-but my time Runs posting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy, While I stand fooling here, his Jack o'the clock.❜ The fame thought alfo occurs in Greene's Perimedes, 1588: 66 -I love thee not a jar o' the clock behind," &c. Again, in The Spanish Tragedy: 66 the minutes jarring, the clock ftriking." STEEVENS, There appears to be no reason for fuppofing with Dr. Johnson, that this paffage is corrupt. It fhould be recollected, that there are three ways in which a clock notices the progrefs of time; viz. by the libration of the pendulum, the index on the dial, and the ftriking of the hour. To thefe, the king, in his comparison, feverally alludes; his fighs correfponding to the jarring of the pendulum, which, at the fame time that it watches or numbers the feconds, marks alfo their progrefs in minutes on the dial or outward watch, to which the king compares his eyes; and their want of figures is fupplied by a fucceffion of tears, or (to use an expreffion of Milton) minute drops: his finger, by as regularly wiping thefe away, performs the office of the dial's point:-his clamorous groans are the founds that tell the hour. In K. Henry IV. Part II. Tears are used in a fimilar manner: "But Harry lives, that fhall convert those tears, By number, into hours of happiness." HENLEY. 2 Now, fir, &c.] Should we not read thus: Now, fir, the founds that tell what hour it is, Are clamorous groans," &c. RITSON. 3 his Jack o' the clock.] That is, I ftrike for him. One of thefe automatons is alluded to in K. Richard III. A&t IV. fc. iii: "Becaufe that, like a Jack, thou keep'ft the ftroke, |