446. Line 202: Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffer'd love.-Omitted by Qq. 447. Line 213: egally. This is the reading of the first six Q1 and F. 1; the other Ff. and Q. 7, Q. 8 have the more modern form equally. At the beginning of chap. xx. lib. i. of Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie is the following: "In euerie degree and sort of men vertue is commendable, but not egally" (Reprint, 1811, p. 340). In The Merchant of Venice, iii. 4. 13, the reading of F. 1 is: Whose souls do bear an egal yoke of love. 448. Line 214: Yet WHETHER you accept our suit or no. -So Qq.; F. 1 has Yet WHER (the contracted form of whether) 449 Lines 219, 220: Come, citizens: ZOUNDS, I'll entreat no more. Glo. O, do not swear, my lord of Buckingham. So Qq.; Ff. omit zounds and consequently the whole of line 220 The omission was made on account of the act of James L., so often referred to, against the use of the name of God and profane swearing on the stage. But it is a pity to lose such an admirable touch of hypocrisy as Gloster's rebuke of Buckingham. 450. Line 220: Exit Buckingham; the Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens are following him.-We have slightly altered the stage-direction here, and below, in line 224, in order to make it clear that all the citizens do not go off the stage. In fact they scarcely have time to do that. If they were all to go off, and then to return with Buckingham and Catesby after line 226 below, Gloucester would have no one to speak to after Catesby's exit. See lines 224-226. 451. Line 224: I am not made of STONE.-So Pope; Qq. Ff. have the same mistake, stones. 452 Line 247: Farewell, GOOD cousin; farewell, gentle friends-So Qq.; Ff. have " my cousins." ACT IV. SCENE 1. 453-Johnson proposed to include this scene in the third act; an interval would thus be left between the acts sufficient for the coronation to have taken place and for Dorset to have made his escape to Brittany. The scene seems inserted for little purpose except to make known the princes' imprisonment, and as, in this fourth act, their lives are ended, it seems best to leave this scene as the opening one. As Mr. Daniel observes, there is not much consideration of the natural duration of time in any part of this play. 454. Line 1: Duch. Who meets us here?--my NIECE Plantagenet.-Clarence's daughter, the Lady Margaret Plantagenet, was the Duchess of York's granddaughter, VOL. III. and in this sense, as pointed out in the foot-note, the word niece is here used. Compare Othello, i. 1. 112, and Marlowe, Dido Queen of Carthage, act ii. : Venus. Sleep, my sweet nephew, in these cooling shades. where Venus is addressing Æneas' son Ascanius. Niece and nephew were not confined in meaning to one relationship, but were used of several. See Two Gent. of Verona, note 91, King John, note 108, and note 242 supra, on the use of cousin. In the Authorized Version of the Bible nephew always means grandson. 455. Line 4: to greet the tender PRINCES.-We have adopted Theobald's emendation. Ff. read prince, but wrongly, as line 10 shows. 456. Line 39: 0 Dorset, speak not to me, get thee HENCE! -So Qq.; Ff. have gone instead of hence, Dorset was one of those who raised forces in the west of England when the quarrel broke out between Buckingham and Richard. The floods of the Severn prevented a junction between them and the Welshmen; and many fled to Brittany, among them Dorset, and Elizabeth's brother, Edward Woodville (see Hall, p. 393). 457. Lines 55, 56: A COCKATRICE hast thou hatch'd to the world, There are many allusions to the fatal quality of the glance of this legendary serpent, which was called indifferently by the names cockatrice and basilisk. See II. Henry VI. note 185; and compare III. Henry VI. iii. 2. 187; Romeo and Juliet, iii. 2. 47; Lucrece, 540. 458. Line 59: the inclusive VERGE.-Compare Richard II. ii. 1. 102; where John of Gaunt, speaking of the crown, says: And yet, incaged in so small a verge; and for the technical sense of the word verge, see note 120 on that passage. 459. Line 79: EVEN IN so short a SPACE.-So Qq.; Ff. have "Within so short a time. 460. Line 82: Which EVER SINCE hath KEPT mine eyes from rest. We have followed the reading of Qq.; Ff. have "hitherto hath held." 461. Lines 83-85: For never yet one hour in his bed HAVE I ENJOY'D the golden dew of sleep, But HAVE BEEN WAKED BY his timorous dreams. Lines 84, 85 are from Qq. F. 1 reads instead: Did I enjoy the golden deaw of sleepe, But with his timorous dreams was still awak'd. More says that, after the murder of the princes, Richard "neuer hadde quiet in his minde, hee neuer thought himself sure. he toke ill rest a nightes, lay long wakyng and musing, sore weried with care and watch, rather slumbred than slept, troubled wyth fearful dreames," &c. (p. 133, 134). 462. Line 89: No more than FROM my soul 1 mourn for yours. So Qq.; Ff. read with. 463. Line 90: Farewell. thou woeful welcomer of glory! — 129 62 Ff. give this speech to Dorset. In the Cambridge Ed. the note says that Qq. give Qu as the name of the speaker (i.e. Queen Eliz.). But Q. 1 certainly has Dor as the prefix. We follow most editors in giving it to Queen Elizabeth, since the next speech, which is an answer to this, is plainly addressed to her. 464. Line 94: Go thou to sanctuary, good thoughts possess thee!-So Qq. Ff. have Go thou to Sanctuarie, and good thoughts possesse thee. and both Dyce and the Cambridge edd. retain this. But the additional syllable destroys the euphony of the line, and we have accordingly rejected it. 465. Lines 98-104 are omitted in Qq. No doubt they were marked for omission in the theatre copy from which Q. 1, in all probability, was partly printed. ACT IV. SCENE 2. 466. Ff. include Ratcliff and Lovel among the persons present in this scene, and, though they have nothing to say, we have retained them; as it seems likely that they, being the king's favourites, were intended to accompany him. 467. Lines 8, 9: Ah, Buckingham, now do I PLAY the TOUCH, The meaning is "act or play the part of the touchstone." Touch, with this meaning, occurs in Ralph Roister Doister, ii. 2: But yonder cometh forth a wench or a lad: If he have not one Lombard's touch, my luck is bad. -Dodsley, iii. 89. Compare, also, A Warning for Fair Women, 1599, act ii.: now the houre is come To put your love unto the touch, to try If it be current, or but counterfeit. -School of Shakspere, ii. 329. Concerning "the stone, which they call in Latin coticula," Pliny writes (Nat. Hist. bk. xxxiii. ch. 8), "all the sort of them are but small. By means of these touchstones, our cunning and expert mine-masters, if they touch any ore of these mettals, which with a pickax or file they have gotten forth of the veine in the mine, will tell you by and by1 how much gold there is in it, how much silver or brasse," &c. (Holland's Translation, ii. p. 478). The Clarendon Press edition notes, from King's Natural History of Gems (p. 153), the statement that the present touchstone is a black jasper, the best pieces of which come from India. It seems to have been sometimes reckoned among precious stones. 468. Line 27: The king is angry; see, he gnaws his lip.--Hall (p. 421) says, "when he stode musing he woulde byte and chaw besely his nether lippe, as who sayd, that his fyerce nature in his cruell body alwaies chafed, sturred and was neuer vnquiete." The Marquess Dorset 's fled beyond the seas To Richmond, in those parts where he abides. In the old copies this passage is printed in a very confused manner. Q. 1 reads: How now, what neewes with you? Darby. My Lord, I heare the Marques Dorset Is fled to Richmond, in those partes beyond the seas where he abides. F. 1 has: How now, Lord Stanley, what's the newes? Stanley. Know my louing Lord, the Marquesse Dorset As I heare, is fled to Richmond, In the parts where he abides. Various arrangements have been made of these lines. Stanley. My lord, I hear the Marquess Dorset's fied Where he abides. Those who adhere to the reading of F. 1 thus: The Marquess Dorset, as I hear, is filed To Richmond in the parts where he abides. The arrangement in our text is made up partly from Q.1, and partly from F. 1, and has the advantage of avoiding the two broken lines; perhaps, if anything, to make the sense a little clearer. The whole of the rest of this scene is, from a dramatic point of view, one of the most effective portions of the play. It exhibits the wonderfully versatile power of Richard's mind. Though he makes no answer to Stanley, he hears perfectly well the message he has brought; but he takes no ostensible notice of it till he repeats the substance of it to Buckingham, below, in line 84. The course of thought he was before pursuing-namely, how to get rid of all other claimants to the throne, and to make his usurped position sure-he still continues in his mind, putting aside the question of Dorset's escape for after consideration. In the course of the next two or three minutes he has formed his plans by which he proposes to secure his throne, as he thinks, against every possible contingency. The concentration of his mind, which enables him to come to such a rapid decision, is craftily concealed under the guise of an abstraction which the unwary might mistake for inattention or indifference. 470. Line 49: Come hither, Catesby. [Stanley retires.]Rumour it abroad.-The Cambridge edd. were the first to insert in the text a stage-direction [Stands apart] after Stanley's speech, which renders it easier for the reader to understand how it is Richard can convey his secret instructions to Catesby and to Tyrrel without any fear of being overheard. We have placed a similar stage-direction a little further on, as in the text, because it is probable that Stanley would not retire at once after delivering his message; but he would do so, naturally, when he saw the king call Catesby to him, as if wishing to speak to him apart. Our text, as usual, follows F. 1. Q. 1 reads: King, Catesby. Cat. My Lord. King. Rumor it abroad That Anne my wife &c. 471. Line 54: The boy is foolish, and I fear not him. -The boy is Edward Plantagenet, Clarence's son, born in 1470 (see note 4). Richard kept him as a prisoner in "the maner of Sheryhutton in the countie of York" (Hall, p. 422) Henry VII. transferred him to the Tower, where he lay almost frō his tender age, that is to saye, frō [the] first yere of the kyng [Henry VII.] to thys. xv. yere, out of al còpany of mẽ & sight of beastes, i so much that he could not discerne a Goose from a Capon" (ut supra, p. 490; copied from Polydore Virgil). 472 Line 57: it STANDS me much UPON. - Compare Comedy of Errors, iv. 1. 68: Consider how it stands upon my credit. Th' earldom of Hereford, and the moveables, Compare iii. 1. 194-196, and note 10 supra. The last Earl of Hereford was Humphrey de Bohun, father-in-law of Thomas of Woodstock and Henry IV., earl of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton (see Richard II. notes 4 and 25, and note 7 supra), who died in 1377. After the death of his widow (daughter of the Earl of Arundel) a claim was made by Woodstock's daughter Anne, widow of Edmund Stafford, fifth Earl of Stafford, for a share of her grandmother's estate; and Henry V. gave the earldoms of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton, with the dukedom of Buckingham, to her and her son Humphrey Stafford, Buckingham's grandfather (Richard II. note 25, and II. Henry VI note 8). The grant was confirmed, with certain limitations, by Henry VI., but, after the accession of Edward IV., the earldom of Hereford was vested in the crown by act of parliament. It was to this that Buckingham now laid claim, as the next in blood (Hall, p. 387) Hereford is printed Herford in More and in Qq., and was pronounced as a dissyllable. (See Richard II. note 29) F. wrongly have Hertford. In iii. 1. 195 both Q. 1. and F. 1. print Hereford. 477. Lines 99-115.-This passage is omitted in Ff. It was doubtless "cut" in the theatre copy from which F. 1. was printed; but its omission would deprive the representative of Richard of a very effective bit of acting. In most of the instances of a passage struck out, it is in Qq. that the omission occurs. 478. Lines 99, 100: How chance the prophet could not at that time Have told me, I BEING BY, that I should kill him? This is one of the many discrepancies between the present play and II. and III. Henry VI. Richard is not one of the persons present in the scene (iv. 6) in III. Henry VI., nor indeed was he at court at the time of Henry's restoration. 479. Lines 102-106: When last I was at Exeter, The mayor in courtesy show'd me the castle, I should not live long after I saw Richmond. This story is thus related by Abraham Fleming in Holinshed's second edition, on the authority of John Hooker, alias Vowel: " King Richard (saith he) came this yeare [1483] to the citie [of Exeter], but in verie secret maner, whom the mayor & his brethren in the best maner they could did receiue. And during his abode here he went about the citie, & viewed the seat of the same, & at length he came to the castell: and when he vnderstood that it was called Rugemont, suddenlie he fell into a dumpe, and (as one astonied) said; 'Well, I sée my daies be not long.' He spake this of a prophesie told him, that when he came once to Richmond he should not long live after" (p. 421). We have here an illustration of the fact remarked upon in note 649 infra, that the second edition of Holinshed was the one used by Shakespeare. The bard of Ireland seems to be Shakespeare's own invention. 480. Lines 113, 114: Because that, like a JACK, thou keep'st the stroke The Jack, or Jack o' the clock, was a mechanical figure which struck the bell of the clock. Compare Richard II. note 321. The sentence is not plain. Probably the meaning is, "You keep on with the noisy interruption of your requests upon my meditative humour, just as the striking is kept up between the Jack's hammer and the bell." 481. Line 116: Why, then resolve me whether you will or no. So Qq. F. 1, having omitted the previous eighteen lines, alter this to May it please you to resolve me in my suit. 482. Lines 118, 119: Is it even so? rewards he my true service So Qq., excepting that they insert deepe before contempt. And is it thus? repayes he my deepe seruice 483. Lines 120, 121: O, let me think on Hastings, and be gone To BRECKNOCK, while my fearful head is on! Brecknock Castle, in South Wales, built by Bernard of Newmarch, was enlarged in the thirteenth century by Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford, who had married Eleanor de Breos (or Bruce), heiress of the lordship of Brecknock. Buckingham's grandfather acquired the lordship, along with other portions of the de Bohun inheritance, in Henry V.'s time. (See note 476 supra.) It was to this place that the Bishop of Ely was sent after the council at the Tower, and the keep, which is now the most con siderable remnant of the castle, was called, after him, Ely Tower. ACT IV. SCENE 3. 484. No new scene is marked here in Ff., though Qq. seem to imply one, and the division is certainly necessary. Even if we are to include the succeeding events in the same day with the foregoing, the time is different, for in sc. 2. line 111, it is morning, whereas line 31 infra shows the time now to be evening. But it seems better to suppose an interval between this and the foregoing scene. More's account of the murder is as follows: "On the morrow he sent him [i.e. Tyrrell] to Brakenbury with a letter, by which he was commanded to deliver sir James all the kayes of the Tower for one nyght. . . . For sir James Tirel deuised that thei shold be murthered in their beddes. To the execucion wherof, he appointed Miles Forest one of the foure that kept them, a felowe fleshed in murther before time. To him he ioyned one John Dighton his own horsekeper, a bigbrode square strong knaue. Then al the other being remoued from them, thys Miles Forest and John Dighton, about midnight (the sely children lying in their beddes) came into the chamber, and sodainly lapped them vp among the clothes so bewrapped them and entangled them keeping down by force the fetherbed and pillowes hard vnto their mouthes, that within a while smored and stifled, theyr breath failing, the gaue vp to god their innocent soules" (pp. 129-131). See note 2 supra. 485. Line 5: To do this RUTHLESS piece of butchery.So Q. 1, Q. 2. Q. 3. reads: To do this ruthfull piece of butchery, To do this piece of ruthfull butchery. 486. Line 8: Wept like Two children.—So Qq. Ff. have "Wept like to children." 487. Line 13: WHICH in their summer beauty kiss'd each other. So Qq. Ff. read and instead of which. 488. Line 31: Come to me, Tyrrel, soon at AFTER-SUPPER. -So Qq. Ff. have and instead of at. This looks rather like an alteration by someone who had misunderstood the text. For an explanation of after-supper, see A Midsummer Night's Dream, note 249. 489. Line 32: the PROCESS of their death.-Compare iv. 4. 253, below. Also Hamlet, i. 5. 37, 38: Is by a forged process of my death 490. Lines 36: The son of Clarence have I pent up close; His daughter meanly have I match'd in marriage. On these and the next two lines compare lines 52-55 of the preceding scene. Mr. Daniel points out that the dramatist has crowded all these incidents into an impossibly short space of time, as is his usual habit throughout this play. 491. Line 40: the Breton Richmond.-Richmond had taken refuge at the court of the Duke of Brittany when a mere child (see above, note 6); which explains the name Richard here, contemptuously, gives him. 492. Line 43: Enter CATESBY.-So. Qq. Ff. have " Enter RATCLIFFE." A similar variety occurs at iii. 4. 80 supra. 493. Line 46: ELY is fled to Richmond.--So Qq. Ff. read Mourton for Ely. It was in October, 1483, when Buckingham, having been deserted by his Welsh forces, became a fugitive, that the Bishop of Ely escaped, first to his see of Ely, and thence to Flanders. WHEN didst thou sleep, WHEN such a deed was done? Q. Mar. When holy Harry died, and my sweet son. Line 25 shows that the two whens in the foregoing line stand in no need of alteration. F. 2. reads "Why dost thou sleep" and Lettsom proposed to alter the second when in line 24 to while. 497. Line 26: poor MORTAL LIVING ghost.—Compare v. 3 90 infra, and Merchant of Venice, ii. 7. 40: To kiss this shrine, this mortal breathing saint. 498. Line 34: Ah, who hath any cause to mourn but I?— So Qq. Ff. have we instead of I. 499. Line 39: Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine -So Qq. Ff. omit this line. 500. Line 41: I had a HARRY, till a Richard kill'd him -Qq. read "I had a Richard," and Ff. "I had a husband.” Capell in his second edition suggested Henry. We have adopted the reading proposed by the Cambridge editors. which is no doubt right. Compare line 59 infra. 501. Line 45: thou HOLP'ST to kill him.-There are other examples in Shakespeare of this form of the preterite tense of the verb help, which was anciently inflected as a "strong" verb, like tread, &c. The past participle holpen (formed from help, like molten from melt, &c.) has been preserved in the prayer-book, in the Benedictus. Q. 1, Q. 2, and F. 1 read hop'st, which was corrected to holp'st in Q. 3 and F. 2. 502. Lines 52, 53: That excellent grand tyrant of the earth, That reigns in galled eyes of weeping souls. These two lines, which are omitted in Qq., are reversed in order in Ff. Capell arranged them as in our text. The description of the reign must plainly follow the mention of the "grand tyrant"-a name perhaps suggested by that of the Grand Turk. The meaning of line 53 is: "the signs of whose reign are weeping and mourning.” 503. Lines 56, 57: this CARNAL cur Preys on the issue of his mother's body. Carnal means "fleshly, carnivorous, cannibal"-a sense of the word which is not found elsewhere in Shakespeare. 504 Line 58: And makes her PEW-FELLOW with others' mean.—The curious word pew-fellow is used originally of one who sits in the same pew with another at church, as in Westward for Smelts: "Being one day at church, she made mone to her pew-fellow" (Percy Society Reprint, p. 38). So in The Man in the Moon: Hee hath not seene the insides of a church these seven yeares, unlesse with devotion to pick a pocket, or pervert some honest man's wife he would on purpose be pued withall" (Character of the Retainer; Percy Soc. Reprint, p. 25). Hence the word comes to mean partner, companion, as in Dekker and Webster, Northward Hoe: "If he should come before a church-warden, he wud make him pue-fellow with a lord's steward at least" (Dekker's Works, vol. iii. p. 19). Dyce quotes from Wilson, The Coblers Prophecie, 1594, the following passage: "[Enter Raph and other prisoners with weapons] . . . Sat: . . . what are these? Raph: Faith certaine pu-fellowes of mine, that have bin mued vp" (sig. F 4). 505. Line 64: THY other Edward.-So Qq. Ff. have The. 506. Lines 65, 66: Young York he is but BOOT, because both they So Qq. Ff. read matcht instead of match. The following explanation of the word boot is from Skene's Exposition of Difficill Words sub voce: "Bote. . . signifies compensation or satisfaction. . . and in all excambion, or crossing of lands or geare moveable, the ane1 part that gettis the better, givis ane Bote, or compensation to the uther' (ed. 1641, p. 24). Compare Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 690; and Heywood, I. Edward IV. iii. 1: "If I were so mad to score, what boote wouldst thou give me?" (Works, i. 44). The original meaning of the word is "good,” “advantage," as in the phrase to boot. See note 644 infra. 507. Line 68: And the beholders of this TRAGIC play.— So Qq. Ff. have franticke. 508. Lines 71-73: Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer; Only reserv'd THEIR factor, to buy souls, And send them thither, 1 One. Their, the plural possessive, is here used with reference to hell, that word being given the sense of powers of hell." In a similar way we often find heaven treated as a plural, e.g. v. 5. 21 infra; and see Richard II. note 50. 509. Line 78: That I may live to say.—So Qq. Ff. have and instead of to. 510. Line 84. The presentation of but what I was.-I suspect we should read: The presentation but of what I was. i.e. "merely the semblance of what I formerly was.' The reference in this place is to i. 3. 241-246. 511. Line 85: The flattering INDEX of a direful pageant. ---Index, in Shakespeare's time, meant the table of contents usually prefixed to a book. Steevens says that, at the pageants displayed on public occasions, a brief scheme or index of the order and significance of the characters was often distributed among the spectators, so that they might understand the meaning of what was, usually, an allegorical representation. In Hamlet, iii. 4. 52, What act That roars so loud and thunders in the index, the word plainly means "prologue;" and this may perhaps be the meaning here, namely, that the prologue flattered the hearers with false promises of a happy conclusion. 512. Lines 88-90: A dream of what thou WERT; a breath, a bubble; To be the aim of every dangerous shot. Ff. read as follows: A dreame of what thou wast, a garish Flagge To be the ayme of every dangerous Shot; A sign of Dignity, a Breath, a Bubble; The arrangement in the text is that of Qq.; from which we also take the form wert, in line 88, instead of wast, the reading of Ff. here and also in line 107 infra. 513. Line 97: DECLINE all this.-Declinare apud grammaticos, says Minsheu, est aliquid per casus variare (Guide into Tongues, sub voce). The word is used, in the text, in the sense which it has in grammar, of going through the variations of a subject, as Margaret does in the lines that follow. Compare Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3. 55: "I'll decline the whole question." 514. Lines 98-104: Q. 1 prints this passage thus: For happie wife, a most distressed widow, F. 1 prints it thus: For happy Wife, a most distressed Widdow: It is evident that some confusion has arisen in transcrib |