"Appear the dreadful ghosts of Henry and his

son,

"Of his own brother George, and his two nephews,

done

"Most cruelly to death; and of his wife, and friend

"Lord Hastings, with pale hands prepar'd as they would rend

"Him piece-meal; at which oft he roareth in his sleep."

It is not unpleasant to trace the progress of a poetical idea. Some of our oldest historians had informed us that king Richard was much disturbed in his dreams. The author of a metrical legend, who follows next in succession, proceeds to tell us the quality of these ominous visions. A poet who takes up the story goes further, and acquaints us with the names of those who are supposed to have appeared in them; and last of all comes the dramatick writer, who brings the phantoms, speaking in their particular characters, on the stage. STEEVENS.

The account given by Hall, in his Chronicle, of Richard's dream, the night before the battle of Bosworth (which is translated literally from Polydore Virgil) is as follows: "The fame went, that he had, the same night, a dreadful and a terrible dreame : for it seemed to hym beynge aslepe, that he saw diverse ymages lyke terrible develles, whyche pulled and haled hym, not sufferynge hym to take any quyet or reste."

The

The same words are also repeated in Holinshed's Chronicle. MALONE 183. punched-] I wish to read puncted; punched is ludicrous, and the former is justified by Hall's Chronicle, Richard III. "Her breste she puncled."

HENDERSON.

187. Harry, that prophesy'd thou should'st be king,] This prophecy, to which this allusion is made, was uttered in one of the parts of Henry the Sixth.

JOHNSON. 190. with fulsome wine,] Fulsome signifies here, as in many other places, rich, unctuous. The wine in which the body of Clarence was thrown, was Malmsey. MALONE.

210. Let us be laid within thy bosom, Richard,] This is a poor feeble reading. I have restored from the elder quarto, published in 1597, which Mr. Pope doth 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.

231. I dy'd for hope,-] i. e. I died for only having hoped to give you that assistance, which I never had it in my power to afford you in reality. STEEVENS.

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."

As to bid was to pray, so to forbid had the meaning directly opposite, i. e. to curse. In Antony and Cleopatra, to forespeak 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 pas. sive 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, abandon'd, deserted, unhelp'd, 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 dy'd fore done, &c,

So in Hamlet, act v.

Fore do its own life.

235. Give me another horse

STEEVENS,

TYRWHITT.

-] There is in this,

as in many of our author's speeches of passion, something very trifling, and something very striking. Richard's debate, whether he should quarrel with himself, is too long continued, but the subsequent exaggeration of his crimes is truly tragical.

JOHNSON.

237. O coward conscience,-] This is extremely fine. The speaker had entirely got the better of his conscience, and banished it from all his waking thoughts. But it takes advantage of his sleep, and frights him in his dreams. With greater elegance therefore he is made to call it coward conscience, which dares not encounter him while he is himself awake, and his faculties entire; but takes advantage of reason being off its guard, and the powers of the soul dissolved in sleep. But the players, amongst their other innumerable absurdities in the representation of this tragedy, make Richard say, instead of O coward conscience, O tyrant conscience! whereby not only a great beauty is lost, but a great blunder committed. For Richard had entirely got the better of his conscience; which could, on no account, therefore, be said to play the tyrant with him. WARBURTON.

238. The lights burn blue. -] So, in Lilly's Galathea, 1592: "I thought there was some spirit in it because it burnt so blue; for my mother would often tell me when the candle burnt blue, there was some ill spirit in the house." It was anciently supposed that fire was a preservative against evil spirits; "because,” says Nash (in Pierce Penniless's Supplications to the Devil, 1595), "when any spirit appeareth, the lights by little and little goe out as it were of their own accord, and the takers are by degrees extinguished." The takers are the spirits who blast or take. So, in King Lear:

"-strike

-strike her young bones,

"Ye taking airs, with lameness!"

STEEVENS.

245. I love myself.-] The old copies read— Alack, I love, &c. STEEVENS.

262. Methought, the souls, &c.] These lines stand with so little propriety at the end of this speech, that I cannot but suspect them to be misplaced. Where then shall they be inserted? Perhaps after these words:

Fool, do not flatter.

JOHNSON.

307. One that made means- -] To make means was, in Shakspere's time, always used in an unfavourable sense, and signified-to come at any thing by indirect practices. STEEVENS.

309.

by the foil

Of England's chair,

-] Nothing has

been, or is still more common, than to put a brightcoloured foil under a cloudy or low-prized stone. The same allusion is common to many writers. So, in a Song published in England's Helicon, 1614 :

"False stones by foiles have many one abus'd." STEEVENS.

324.

-the ransom of my bold attempt] The fine paid by me, in atonement for my rashness, shall be my dead corpse. JOHNSON. 329. God, and saint George!—] Saint George was the common cry of the English soldiers when they charged the enemy. The author of the old Arte of Warre, printed in the latter-end of queen Elizabeth's