That raught at mountain,-] The undated quarto reads: That aim'd at mountains. MALONE. 483. this napkin—] A napkin is a hand kerchief. JOHNSON. 499. Putting a Paper Crown on his head.] Shakspere has on this occasion deviated from history. The paper crown was not placed on the duke of York's head 'till after it had been cut off. Rutland likewise was not killed by Clifford 'till after his father's death. STEEVENS. The ingenious commentator is most certainly mistaken. Shakspere, so far from having deviated from history, has followed it with the utmost precision. Whethamstede expressly tells us, that the Lancastrians, in direct breach of a mutual agreement, and before the day appointed for the battle, fell suddenly upon the Duke's army, and took him and the earl of Salisbury prisoners; treating both, but especially the Duke, in the most shameful manner. Nam, says he, statuentes cum super unum parvum formicarium colliculum, et quoddam sertum vile, ex palustri gramine confectum, imponentes, per modum coronæ, super caput suum, non aliter quam Judæi, coram Domino incurvaverunt genua sua coram ipso, dicentes illusoriè: Ave rex, sine regimine; ave rex, absque hereditate: Ave dux et princeps, absque omni populo penitus et possessione. Et his una cum aliis variis, in eum probrosè opprobriosèque dictis, coëgerunt ipsum demum per capitis abscisionem clameum relin quere quere suæ justicia vindicationis, p. 489. Not a single circumstance is omitted, or varied in the scene. It is not, however, imagined that Shakspere had ever consulted Whethamstede: he found the same story no doubt in some old black letter chronicle, which it has not been the writer's fortune to meet with, or he might possibly have it from popular tradition. 519. Upon their woes,quarto reads Upon his woes. REMARKS. -] So the folio. The STEEVENS. 536. 'Tis government, that makes them seem divine ;] Government, in the language of that time, signified evenness of temper, and decency of manners. JOHNSON. 547. thy wish:] So, the folio. The quarto reads thy will. STEEVENS. 549. For raging wind blows up incessant showers,] Thus the folio. The quartos read: For raging winds blow up a storm of tears. 552. STEEVENS. And every drop cries vengeance for his death-] So the folio. The quarto thus: And every drop begs vengeance as it falls On thee, &c. STEEVENS. 557. -the racking clouds,] See notes on the Tempest, act IV. line 170. STEEVENS. Rack is used as a verb by Beaumont and Fletcher: "Stay, clouds, ye rack too fast :” of Hyrcania.] So the folio. 559. tos read of Arcadia. HENLEY. The quar STEEVENS. 574. I should not for my life but weep with him, To see how inly sorrow gripes his soul.] So the folio. The quartos as follows: I could not choose but weep with him, to see How inward anger gripes his heart. STEEVENS. 580. And here's to right our gentle-hearted king.] Thus the folio. The quarto thus: And there's to right our gentle-harted kind. Of this kind of variations there are many, but it is useless labour to enumerate them all. STEEVENS. ACT II. Line 8. How fares our brother ?- -] This scene, in the old quartos, begins thus: After this dangerous fight and hapless war, How doth my noble brother Richard fare? Had the author taken the trouble to revise his play, he hardly would have begun the First Act and the Second with almost the same exclamation, express'd in almost the same words. Warwick opens the scene with "I wonder, how the king escap'd our hands." STEEVENS. 20. Methinks, 'tis prize enough to be his son.] The old quarto quarto reads pride, which is right, for ambition, i. e. We need not aim at any higher glory than this. WARBURTON. I believe prize is the right word. Richard's sense is, though we have missed the prize for which we fought, we have yet an honour left that may content JOHNSON. Prize, I believe, here means privilege. So, in the us. former act: "It is war's prize to take all 'vantages ?" MALONE. 22. And takes her farewel of the glorious sun!] Aurora takes for a time her farewel of the sun, when she dismisses him to his diurnal course. JOHNSON. -blazing by our meeds,] Meed here means 36. merit. So in the 4th act the king says: "My meed hath got me fame." And in Timon the word is used in the same sense: "No meed but he repays "Sevenfold above itself." MONCK MASON. 48. Oh, speak no more!] The generous tenderness of Edward, and the savage fortitude of Richard, are well distinguished by their different reception of their father's death. JOHNSON. for I have heard too much.] So the folio. The -for I can hear no more. quartos thus: Rich. Tell on thy tale, &c. STEEVENS. 90. His dukedom and his chair with me is left.] So the folio. The quarto thus: His chair, and dukedom, that remains for me. STEEVENS. 92. Shew thy descent by gazing 'gainst the sun :] So, in Spenser's Hymn of Heavenly Beauty: -like the native brood of eagle's kind, "On that bright sun of glory fix thine eyes." Again, in Solyman and Perseda, 1599: "As air-bred eagles, if they once perceive sun, "They straitway seize upon him with their talons, "That on the earth it may untimely die, "For looking but askew at Heav'ns bright eye." STEEVENS. 103. Is by the stern lord Clifford done to death.] Done to death for killed, was a common expression long before Shakspere's time. Thus Chaucer : "And seide, that if ye done us both to dien.” Spenser mentions a plague, "Which many did to dye," So, in the Battle of Alcazar, 1594: GREY. JOHNSON. "We understand that he was done to death." Again, ibid. K -done to death with many a mortal wound." |