299. lish Courtier and Country Gentleman, 4to. bl. let. 1586, -as the proverb sayth, seldome coms the better. Vall. That proverb in deed is auncient, and for the most part true," &c. REED. 307. Woe to that land, that's govern'd by a child!] "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child" Ecclesiastes, ch. x. STEEVENS. -seldom comès a better:] So, in The Eng 337. Before the days of change, &c.] This is from Holinshed's Chronicle, Vol. III. p. 721. "Before such great things, men's hearts, of a secret instinct of nature, misgive them; as the sea without wind swelleth of himself some time before a tempest." TOLLET. It is evident in this passage, that both Holinshed and Shakspere allude to St. Luke. See ch. xxi. 25, &c. 361. -the wretched'st thing, HENLEY. -] Wretched is here used in a sense yet retained in familiar language, for paltry, pitiful, being below expectation. JOHNSON. 366. -been remember'd,] To be remembered is, in Shakspere, to have one's memory quick, to have one's thoughts about one. JOHNSON. 378. A parlous boy;] Parlous is keen, shrewd. So, in Law Tricks, &c. 1608: "A parlous youth, sharp and satirical.” STEEVENS. It is a corruption of perilous, dangerous; the sense it has here. The queen evidently means to chide him. REMARKS. 381. Enter a Messenger.] The quarto reads-Enter Dorset. STEEVENS. 396. The tyger now hath seiz'd the gentle hind;] So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece: 66 -While she, the picture of pure piety, claws.-" 398.awlessreverenced. To jut upon is to encroach. -] Not producing awe, not JOHNSON. 411. Or let me die, to look on earth no more!] This is the reading of all the copies, from the first edition put out by the players, downwards. But I have restored the reading of the old quarto in 1597, which is copied by all the other authentick quartos, by which the thought is finely and properly improved. Or let me die, to look on death no more. THEOBALD. This quarto, printed in 1597, I have never seen, neither was it in Theobald's collection of the old copies, which the late Mr. Tonson possessed entire, So, in Heywood's If you know not me you know Nobody, 1633, 2d Part : "This city, our great chamber." STEEVENS. This title it began to have immediately after the Norman conquest. See Coke's 4 Inst. 243, where it is styled Camera Regis; Camden's Britannia, 374. 11. REED. -jumpeth with the heart.] So, in Soliman and Perseda: "Wert thou my friend, thy mind would jump STEEVENS. with mine." 24. in good time,] As the French say, à-propos. STEEVENS. 45. Too ceremonious, and traditional :] Ceremonious for superstitious; traditional for adherent to old cusWARBURTON. toms. 46. Weigh it but with the grossness of this age, You break not sanctuary] That is, compare the act of seizing him with the gross and licentious practices of these times, it will not be considered as a violation of sanctuary, for you may give such reasons as men are now used to admit. JOHNSON. 55. Oft have I heard of sanctuary men, &c.] These arguments H arguments against the privilege of sanctuary are taken from Hall's Chron. p. 10. " -And verily, I have harde of sanctuarye menne, but I never hearde before of sanctuarye children," &c. STEEVENS. 77. As 'twere retail'd to all posterity,] Retailed may signify diffused, dispersed. JOHNSON. Retailed is here used in reference to its signification in trade, and means transferred, handed down from one to another. HENLEY. 79. So wise, &c.] Is cadit ante senem, qui sapit ante diem, a proverbial line. STEEVENS. 82. Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity, I moralize-two meanings in one word.] By vice, the author means not a quality, but a person. There was hardly an old play, till the period of the Reformation, which had not in it a devil, and a droll character, a jester (who was to play upon the devil); and this buffoon went by the name of a Vice. This buffoon was at first accoutred with a long jerkin, a cap with a pair of ass's ears, and a wooden dagger, with which (like another Harlequin) he was to make sport in belabouring the devil. This was the constant entertainment in the times of popery, whilst spirits, and witchcraft, and exorcising held their own. When the Reformation took place, the stage shook off some grossities, and increased in refinements. The masterdevil then was soon dismissed from the scene; and this buffoon was changed into a subordinate fiend, whose business was to range on earth, and seduce poor mortals into that personated vicious quality, which he occasionally Diij casionally supported; as, iniquity in general, hypocrisy, usury, vanity, prodigality, gluttony, &c. Now, as the fiend (or vice) who personated Iniquity (or Hypocrisy, for instance) could never hope to play his game to the purpose but by hiding his cloven foot, and assuming a semblance quite different from his real character, he must certainly put on a formal demeanour, moralize and prevaricate in his words, and pretend a meaning directly opposite to his genuine and primitive intention. If this does not explain the passage in question, it is all that I can at present suggest upon it. THEOBALD. See the dissertation on the old Vice at the end of these notes. A question may be added-To what equivocation Richard refers? The position immediately preceding, that fame lives long without characters, that is, without the help of letters, seems to have no ambiguity. He must allude to the former line: So young so wise, they say, did ne'er live long, in which he conceals, under a proverb, his design of hastening the prince's death. JOHNSON. 94. lightly-] Commonly, in ordinary course. JOHNSON. So, in the old proverb: "There's lightning lightly before thunder." See Ray's Prov. p. 130. edit. 3d. Again, in Penny wise and Pound foolish, &c."Misfortunes seldome walke alone, and so when blessings doe knocke at a man's dore, they lightly are not without followers and fellowes." Holinshed, p. 725, concerning one of Edward's concubines 66 : -one whom no one could get out of |