When I should mount with wings of victory: Look on my forces with a gracious eye; Ghost. Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow!6 3— bruising irons —] The allusion is to the ancient mace. Henley. 4 Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes;] So, in Romeo and Ju liet: 5 The Ghost &c.] This circumstance is likewise found in Nichols's Legend of King Richard III, (inserted in The Mirror for Magistrates, edit. 1610,) and was apparently imitated from Shak speare: "As in my tent on slumbring bed I lie, "Horrid aspects appear'd unto mine eye: "I thought that all those murder'd ghosts, whom I "By death had sent to their untimely grave, "With baleful noise about my tent did crye, "And of the heavens, with sad complaint, did crave "That they on guilty wretch might vengeance have." His terror on waking is likewise very forcibly described. Drayton, in the 22d Song of his Polyolbion, may likewise have. borrowed from our author: “Where to the guilty king, the black forerunning night, Appear the dreadful ghosts of Henry and his son, "Of his own brother George and his two nephews, done rend "Him piece-meal; at which oft he roareth in his sleep." Steevens. The account given by Polydore Virgil, which was copied by Think, how thou stab'dst me in my prime of youth The Ghost of King HENRY the Sixth rises. Ghost. When I was mortal, my anointed body [To K. RICH. By thee was punched full of deadly holes:7 8 Virtuous and holy, be thou conqueror! [TO RICHM. Harry, that prophecy'd thou should'st be king, Doth comfort thee in thy sleep; Live, and flourish!" The Ghost of CLARENCE rises. Ghost. Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow! [To K. RICH. Hall and Holinshed, is as follows: "The fame went, that he had the same night (the night before the battle of Bosworth] a dreadful and a terrible dream; for it seemed to him being aslepe, that he saw diverse ymages lyke terrible devilles, which pulled and haled him, not sufferynge him to take any quiet or reste. The which straunge vision not so sodaynly strake his heart with a sodayne feare, but it stuffed his head and troubled his mind with many busy and dreadful imaginations. And least that it might be suspected that he was abashed for fear of his enemies, and for that cause looked so piteously, he recited and declared to his familiar friends, of the morning, his wonderfull vysion, and fearfull dreame." I quote from Holinshed, because he was Shakspeare's authority. Polydore Virgil, as I have already observed, began to write his history about twenty years after Richard's death. Malone.. See p. 125, n. 5. Steevens. Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow!] So, in King Richard II: "Be Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom." Steevens. 7 By thee was punched full of deadly holes:] The word punched, which sounds but meanly to our ears, is also employed by Chap man in his version of the sixth Iliad: 66 with a goad he punch'd each furious dame." Steevens. 8 Harry that prophecy'd thou should'st be king,] The prophecy, to which this allusion is made, was uttered in one of the parts Henry the Sixth. Johnson. See Vol. X, p. 393, n. 3. Malone. of 9 Doth comfort thee in thy sleep; Live, and flourish !] Surely, we should read with Sir Thomas Hanmer: Doth comfort thee in sleep; Live thou and flourish! Steevens I, that was wash'd to death with fulsome wine,1 [TO RICHM The wronged heirs of York do pray for thee; Good angels guard thy battle! Live, and flourish! The Ghosts of RIVERS, GREY, and VAUGHAN, rise. Riv. Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow, [To K. RICH. Rivers, that died at Pomfret! Despair, and die! Grey. Think upon Grey, and let thy soul despair! [To K. RICH. Vaugh. Think upon Vaughan; and, with guilty fear, Let fall thy lance! Despair, and die!— [To K. RICH. All. Awake! and think, our wrongs in Richard's bo[To RICHM. som Will conquer him;-awake, and win the day! The Ghost of HASTINGS rises. Ghost. Bloody and guilty, guiitily awake; [To K. RICH. And in a bloody battle end thy days! The Ghosts of the Two young Princes rise. Ghosts. Dream on thy cousins smother'd in the Tower; Let us be lead within thy bosom, Richard,3 1 with fulsome wine,] Fulsome, was sometimes used, I think, in the sense of unctuous. The wine in which the body of Clarence was thrown, was Malmsey. Malone. If Clarence had been choked by this wine, he might fairly enough have employed the epithet fulsome in its vulgar and accepted sense-Shakspeare, however, seems to have forgot himself. The Duke (as appears from Act I, sc. ult.) was killed before he was thrown into the Malmsey butt, and consequently could not be washed to death. Steevens. 2 And fall thy edgeless sword;] Fall, in the present instance, is a verb active, signifying to drop, or let fall. So, in Othello: "If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, "Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile " Steevens. 3 Let us be lead within thy bosom, Richard,] [The first folio &c And weigh thee down to ruin, shame, and death! The Ghost of Queen ANNE rises. Ghost. Richard, thy wife, that wretched Anne thy wife, And fall thy edgeless sword; Despair, and die!— Dream of success and happy victory; Thy adversary's wife doth pray for thee. [To RICHM The Ghost of BUCKINGHAM rises. Ghost. The first was I, that help'd thee to the crown; The last was I, that felt thy tyranny: [To K. RICH. -laid] This is a poor feeble reading. I have restored from the elder quarto, published in 1597, which Mr. Pope does not pretend to have seen: "Let us be lead within thy bosom, Richard." This corresponds with what is said in the line immediately following: "And weigh thee down to ruin, shame, and death!" Theobald. That never slept a quiet hour with thee,] Shakspeare was probably here thinking of Sir Thomas More's animated description of Richard, which Holinshed transcribed: "I have heard (says Sir Thomas) by creditable report of such as were secret with his chamberlaine, that after this abominable deed done [the murder of his nephews] he never had quiet in his mind. He never thought himself sure where he went abroad; his eyes whirled about; his body privily fenced; his hand ever upon his dagger; his countenance and manner like one always readie to strike againe. He tooke ill rest a-nights; lay long waking and musing, sore wearied with care and watch; rather slumbered than slept, troubled with fearfull dreames; sodainely sometime start up, leapt our of bed, and ran about the chamber; so was his restless heart continually tost and tumbled with the tedious impression and stormy remembrances of his abominable deede." With such a companion well might Anne say, that she never slept one quiet hour. Malone. And die in terror of thy guiltiness! Dream on, dream on, of bloody deeds and death; [To RICHM. 5 I died for hope,] i. e. I died for wishing well to you. But Mr. Theobald, with great sagacity, conjectured holpe or aid; which gave the line this fine sense, I died for giving thee aid before I could give thee aid. Warburton. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads: I died forsook, and supports his conjecture, as follows: "This, as appears from history, was the case of the Duke of Buckingham: that being stopped with his army upon the banks of Severn by great deluges of rain, he was deserted by his soldiers, who, being in great distress, half famished for want of victuals, and destitute of pay, disbanded themselves and fied." Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation is very plausible; but may not the meaning of the expression be, I died for only having hoped to give you that assistance, which I never had it in my power to afford you in reality? It may, however, be observed, that fore, or for, when joined to a verb, had anciently a negative signification. So, in Macbeth: He shall live a man forbid." 66 As to bid was to pray, so to forbid had the meaning directly opposite, i. e. to curse. In Antony and Cleopatra, to forspeak is to speak against. In Hamlet, and The Midsummer Night's Dream, to fordo is the very reverse of to do. Holpen or holp is the old participle passive of help, and is used in Macbeth: his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him "To his home before us." Instead of for hope, we may therefore read forholpe, which would mean unaided, abandoned, deserted, unhelped, which was the real misfortune of the Duke of Buckingham. The word holp has occurred likewise in this play: "Let him thank me that holp to send him thither." Again, in Coriolanus: "Have holp to make this rescue." Perhaps we should read: I died fore-done, &c. So, in Hamlet, Act V: "Fore-do its own life." Tyrwhitt. Steevens. * I died for hope,] This passage is involved in an obscurity, which the commentators, however ingenious, vainly endeavour to elucidate: on so intricate a point, I may be excused in hazarding an opinion. The word for, is frequently used by our author for of In the present instance-" I died for hope," appears to be used in the same manner, as "I died for Love,"-"I died for Fear," &c. The personification is frequently introduced with. |