'Zounds, an I were now by this rafcal, I could brain him with his lady's fan. Is there not my father, my uncle, and myfelf? lord Edmund Mortimer, my lord of York, and Owen Glendower? Is there not, befides, the Douglas? Have I not all their letters, to meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month? and are they not, fome of them, fet forward already? What a pagan rascal is this? an infidel? Ha! you fhall fee now, in very fincerity of fear and cold heart, will he to the king, and lay open all our proceedings. O, I could divide myself, and go to buffets, for moving fuch a difh of fkimm'd milk with fo honourable an action! Hang him! let him tell the king: We are prepared: I will fet forward to-night.

-I could brain him with his lady's fan.] Mr. Edwards obferves in his Canons of Criticifm, "that the ladies in our author's time wore fans made of feathers." See Ben Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour, A&t II. fc. ii:

This feather grew in her fweet fan fometimes, tho' now it be my poor fortune to wear it."

So again, in Cynthia's Revels, A&t III. fc. iv:

for a garter,

"Or the leaft feather in her bounteous fan."

Again, as Mr. Whalley obferves to me, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit at feveral Weapons, A&t V:

Wer't not better

"Your head were broke with the handle of a fan ?"

See the wooden cut in a note on a paffage in The Merry Wives of Windjor, Act II. fc. ii. and the figure of Marguerite de France, Ducheffe de Savoie, in the fifth vol. of Montfaucon's Monarchie de France. Plate XI. STEEVENS.

This paffage ought to be a memento to all commentators, not to be too pofitive about the customs of former ages. Mr. Edwards has laughed unmercifully at Dr. Warburton for fuppofing that Hotspur meant to brain the Earl of March with the handle of his lady's fan, inftead of the feathers of it. The lines quoted by Mr. Whalley fhew that the fuppofition was not fo wild a one as Mr. Edwards fuppofed. MALONE.

Enter Lady PERCY.

How now, Kate? I must leave you within these two hours.

LADY. O my good lord, why are you thus alone? For what offence have I, this fortnight, been A banish'd woman from my Harry's bed? Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee Thy ftomach, pleasure, and thy golden fleep?" Why doft thou bend thine eyes upon the earth; And start so often when thou fit'ft alone? Why haft thou loft the fresh blood in thy cheeks;

5 How now, Kate?] Shakspeare either miftook the name of Hotspur's wife, (which was not Katharine, but Elizabeth,) or elfe defignedly changed it, out of the remarkable fondness he seems to have had for the familiar appellation of Kate, which he is never weary of repeating, when he has once introduced it; as in this fcene, the fcene of Katharine and Petruchio, and the courtship between King Henry V. and the French Princefs. The wife of Hotspur was the Lady Elizabeth Mortimer, fifter to Roger Earl of March, and aunt to Edmund Earl of March, who is introduced in this play by the name of Lord Mortimer. STEEVENS.

The fifter of Roger Earl of March, according to Hall, was called Eleanor: "This Edmonde was fonne to Erle Roger,-which Edmonde at King Richarde's going into Ireland was proclaimed heire apparent to the realme; whofe aunt, called Elinor, this lord Henry Percy had married." Chron. fol. 20. So alfo Holinshed. But both thefe hiftorians were mistaken, for her chriftian name undoubtedly was Elizabeth. MALONE.

6

-golden fleep?] So, in Hall's Chronicle, Richard III: 66 he needed now no more once for that cause eyther to wake, or breake hys golden fleepe." HENDERSON.

The various epithets, borrowed from the qualities of metals, which have been bestowed on fleep, may serve to show how vaguely words are applied in poetry. In the line before us, fleep is called golden, and in K. Richard III. we have " leaden flumber." But in Virgil it is" ferreus fomnus;" while Homer terms sleep brazen, or more ftrictly copper, χαλκεος υπνος. HOLT WHITE.

And given my treasures,' and my rights of thee,
To thick-ey'd mufing, and curs'd melancholy?
In thy faint flumbers, I by thee have watch'd,
And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars:
Speak terms of manage to thy bounding steed;
Cry, Courage !-to the field! And thou haft talk'd
Of fallies, and retires; of trenches, tents,
Of palifadoes, frontiers, parapets;

Of bafilifks, of cannon, culverin;

And gin my treasures,] So, in Othello:

"To pour our treafures into foreign laps." MALONE. Retires are retreats.

-and retires;] Polyolbion, fong 10: " Holinfhed, p. 960: "

So, in Drayton's their fecret fafe retire." Again, in the Frenchmen's flight, (for manie fo termed their fudden retire,)" &c. STEEVENS.

9 frontiers,] For frontiers, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read very plaufibly-fortins. JOHNSON.

Plaufible as this is, it is apparently erroneous, and therefore unneceffary. Frontiers formerly meant not only the bounds of different territories, but alfo the forts built along, or near those limits. In Ives's Practice of Fortification, printed in 1589, p. 1, it is faid: "A forte not placed where it were needful, might fkantly be accounted for frontier." Again, p. 21: "In the frontiers made by the late emperor Charles the Fifth, divers of their walles having given way," &c. P. 34: "It fhall not be necessary to make the Bulwarkes in townes fo great as thofe in royall frontiers. P. 40: "When as any open towne or other inhabited place is to be fortified, whether the fame be to be made a royal frontier, or to be meanly defended," &c. This account of the word will, I hope, be thought fufficient. STEEVENS.

So, in Notes from Blackfryers, by H. Fitzgeoffery, 1617: "He'll tell of bafilifks, trenches, and retires,

"Of palifadoes, parapets, frontiers." MALONE.

Of bafilifks,] A bafilifk is a cannon of a particular kind. So, in Ram Alley, 1611:

"My cannons, demi-cannons, bafilifks," &c.

Again, in The Devil's Charter, 1607:

66

are thofe two bafilifks

"Already mounted on their carriages?"

Again, in Holinfhed, p. 816: "fetting his bafilifkes and other cannon in the mouth of the baie."

See likewise Halinfhed's

Defcription of England, p. 198, 199. STEEVENS.

Of prisoners' ransom, and of foldiers flain,
And all the 'currents' of a heady fight.
Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war,
And thus hath fo beftir'd thee in thy fleep,
That beads of fweat have ftood upon thy brow,
Like bubbles in a late-difturbed ftream:

And in thy face ftrange motions have appear'd,
Such as we fee when men reftrain their breath.
On fome great fudden hafte.' O, what portents are

these?

Some heavy business hath my lord in hand,
And I must know it, elfe he loves me not.
Hor. What, ho! is Gilliams with the packet
gone?

Enter Servant.

SERV. He is, my lord, an hour ago."

Hor. Hath Butler brought those horses from the fheriff?

SERV. One horse, my lord, he brought even now. Hor. What horfe? a roan, a crop-ear, is it not?

3 And all the 'currents] i. e. the occurrences. In old language occurrent was used instead of occurrence. MALONE.

4 That beads of fweat-] So, in Julius Cæfar:

66

mine eyes,

Seeing those beads of forrow ftand in thine,
Began to water." MALONE.

5 On fome great fudden hafte.] The epithet-fudden, which overloads the verfe, may be justly suspected as an interpolation.

STEEVENS,

6 He is, my lord, an hour ago.] I fuppofe, our author wrote:

He is, my lord, above an hour ago.

The verfe is otherwife defective: as is the Servant's next reply, which originally might have run thus:

One horfe, my lord, he brought but even now.”

STEEVENS.

SERV. It is, my lord.

Hor.

That roan fhall be my throne.

Well, I will back him ftraight: O efperance !9Bid Butler lead him forth into the park.

LADY.

Out, you mad-headed ape!
A weasel hath not fuch a deal of spleen,
As you are tofs'd with. In faith,

I'll know your business, Harry, that I will.
I fear, my brother Mortimer doth ftir
About his title; and hath fent for you,
To line his enterprize: But if you go
Hor. So far afoot, I fhall be weary, love.

LADY. Come, come, you paraquito, answer me Directly to this queftion that I afk.

In faith, I'll break thy little finger, Harry,'
An if thou wilt not tell me all things true.

efperance!] This was the motto of the Percy family.

MALONE.

What fay'ft, my lady?] Old copies-What say'st thou, my lady? STEEVENS.

3 My horfe,] Old copies-Why, my horfe. STEEVENS. 4 To line his enterprize:] So, in Macbeth:

66

did line the rebel

"With hidden help and vantage." STEEVENS.

5 I'll break thy little finger, Harry,] This token of amorous dalliance appeareth to be of a very ancient date; being mentioned in Fenton's Tragical Difcourfes, 1579: "Whereupon, I think, no fort of kyffes or follyes in love were forgotten, no kynd of crampe, nor pinching by the little finger." AMNER.