He would himself have been a foldier. And, I beseech you, let not his report Betwixt my love and your high majefty. BLUNT. The circumftance confider'd, good my lord, Whatever Harry Percy then had said, K. HEN. Why, yet he doth deny his prifoners; But with provifo, and exception, That we, at our own charge, fhall ransom straight His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;' • To do bim wrong, or any way impeach; What then he said, fo he unfay it now.] Let what he then faid never rife to impeach him, fo he unfay it now. JOHNSON. 5 His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer;] Shakspeare has fallen into fome contradictions with regard to this Lord Mortimer. Before he makes his perfonal appearance in the play, he is repeatedly fpoken of as Hotspur's brother-in-law. In A&t II. Lady Percy exprefsly calls him her brother Mortimer. And yet when he enters in the third act, he calls Lady Percy his aunt, which in fact fhe was, and not his fifter. This inconfiftence may be accounted for as follows. It appears both from Dugdale's and Sandford's account of the Mortimer family, that there were two of them taken prifoners at different times by Glendower, each of them bearing the name of Edmund; one being Edmund Earl of March, nephew to Lady Percy, and the proper Mortimer of this play; the other, Sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle to the former, and brother to Lady Percy. Shakspeare confounds the two perfons. STEEVENS. Another cause alfo may be affigned for this confufion. Henry Percy, according to the accounts of our old hiftorians, married Eleanor, the fifter of Roger Earl of March, who was the father of the Edmund Earl of March that appears in the prefent play. But Who, on my foul, hath wilfully betray'd this Edmund had a fifter likewife named Eleanor. Shakspeare might therefore have at different times confounded these two Eleanors. In fact, however, the fifter of Roger Earl of March, whom young Percy married, was called Elizabeth. MALONE. See my note on Act II. fc. iii. where this Lady is called-Kate. STEEVENS. 6 and indent with fears,] The reason why he says, bargain and article with fears, meaning with Mortimer, is, because he fuppofed Mortimer had wilfully betrayed his own forces to Glendower out of fear, as appears from his next fpeech. WARBURTON. The difficulty feems to me to arife from this, that the king is not defired to article or contract with Mortimer, but with another for Mortimer. Perhaps we may read: Shall we buy treafon? and indent with peers, Shall we purchafe back a traitor? Shall we defcend to a compofition with Worcester, Northumberland, and young Percy, who by disobedience have loft and forfeited their honours and themselves? JOHNSON. Shall we buy treafon? and indent with fears,] This verb is used by Harrington in his tranflation of Ariofto. Book XVI. ft. 35: "And with the Irish bands he first indents, "To fpoil their lodgings and to burn their tents." Again, in The Cruel Brother, by Sir W. D'Avenant, 1630: Doft thou indent 66 "With my acceptance, make choice of fervices?" Fears may be used in the active fenfe for terrors. So, in the fecond part of this play: all those bold fears "Thou feeft with peril I have answered." These lords, however, had, as yet, neither forfeited or loft any thing, fo that Dr. Johnfon's conjecture is inadmiffible. After all, I am inclined to regard Mortimer (though the King affects to speak of him in the plural number) as the Fear, or timid object, which had loft or forfeited itself. Henry afterwards says: he durft as well have met the devil alone, "As Owen Glendower for an enemy." When they have loft and forfeited themselves? Hor. Revolted Mortimer! He never did fall off, my fovereign liege, wrongs Indent with fears, may therefore mean, fign an indenture or compaЯ with daftards. Fears may be fubftituted for fearful people, as has been used for wrongers in K. Richard II: "He fhould have found his uncle Gaunt a father, "To roufe his wrongs, and chafe them to a bay." "Near Cæfar's angel (fays the Soothfayer to Antony) thy own becomes a fear," i. e. a fpirit of cowardice; and Sir Richard Vernon, in the play before us, ufes an expreffion that nearly refembles indenting with fears: "I hold as little counfel with weak fear, "As you, my lord." The King, by buying treafon, and indenting with fears, may therefore covertly repeat both his pretended charges against Mortimer; firft, that he had treafonably betrayed his party to Glendower; and, fecondly, that he would have been afraid to encounter with fo brave an adverfary. STEEVENS. 6 He never did fall off, my fovereign liege, But by the chance of war;] The meaning is, he came not into the enemy's power but by the chance of war. The King charged Mortimer, that he wilfully betrayed his army, and, as he was then with the enemy, calls him revolted Mortimer. Hotfpur replies, that he never fell off, that is, fell into Glendower's hands, but by the chance of war. I fhould not have explained thus tediously a paffage fo hard to be mistaken, but that two editors have already miftaken it. JOHNSON. 7- To prove that true, Needs no more but one tongue for all thofe wounds, &c.] Hotspur calls Mortimer's wounds mouthed, from their gaping like a mouth; and fays, that to prove his loyalty, but one tongue was necessary for all thefe mouths. This may be harth; but the fame idea occurs in Coriolanus, where one of the populace fays: "For if he shows When on the gentle Severn's fedgy bank, He did confound the best part of an hour 8 In changing hardiment with great Glendower: Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink," Upon agreement, of fwift Severn's flood; 2 Who then, affrighted with their bloody looks, us his wounds, we are to put our tongues into these wounds, and fpeak for them." And again, in Julius Cæfar, Antony fays: 66 there were an Antony, "Would ruffle up your fpirits, and put a tongue "In every wound of Cæfar, that should move," &c. M. MASON. shardiment-] An obfolete word, fignifying hardiness, bravery, ftoutness. Spenfer is frequent in his use of it. STEEVENS. 9 three times did they drink,] It is the property of wounds to excite the most impatient thirft. The poet therefore hath with exquifite propriety introduced this circumitance, which may ferve to place in its proper light the dying kindnefs of Sir Philip Sydney; who, though fuffering the extremity of thirft from the agony of his own wounds, yet, notwithstanding, gave up his own draught of water to a wounded foldier. HENLEY. Who then, affrighted &c.] This paffage has been cenfured as founding nonfenfe, which reprefents à ftream of water as capable of fear. It is mifunderstood. Severn is here not the flood, but the tutelary power of the flood, who was affrighted, and hid his head in the hollow bank. JOHNSON. 3 - his crifp head-] Crifp is curled. So, Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Maid of the Mill: inethinks the river, "As he steals by, curls up his head to view you." Again, in Kyd's Cornelia, 1595: "O beauteous Tiber, with thine easy ftreams, Back to thy grafo-green banks to welcome us?" Blood-ftained with thefe valiant combatants. Colour her working with fuch deadly wounds; Then let him not be flander'd with revolt. K. HEN. Thou doft belie him, Percy, thou doft belie him, He never did encounter with Glendower; I tell thee, He durft as well have met the devil alone, Perhaps Shakspeare has bestowed an epithet, applicable only to the ftream of water, on the genius of the ftream. The following paffage, however, in the fixth Song of Drayton's Polyolbion, may feem to justify its propriety: "Your corfes were diffolv'd into that chrystal stream; "Your curls to curled waves, which plainly ftill appear "The fame in water now that once in locks they were.' Beaumont and Fletcher have the fame image with Shakspeare in The Loyal Subject: 66 the Volga trembled at his terror, "And hid his feven curl'd heads." Again, in one of Ben Jonfon's Mafques: 66 Only their heads are crifped by his stroke." See Vol. VI. (Whalley's edit.) p. 26. STEEVENS. 4 Never did bare and rotten policy-] All the quartos which I have feen read bare in this place. The firft folio, and all the fubfequent editions, have bafe. I believe bare is right: "Never did policy, lying open to detection, fo colour its workings. JOHNSON. The first quarto, 1598, reads bare; which means fo thinly covered by art as to be easily feen through. So, in Venus and Adonis: "What bare excuses mak'st thou to be gone!" MALONE. Since there is fuch good authority as Johnfon informs us, for reading bafe, in this paffage, inftead of bare, the former word fhould certainly be adopted. Bare policy, that is, policy lying open to detection, is in truth no policy at all. The epithet base, alfo beft agrees with rotten. M. MASON. |