Thy harsh rude tongue found this unpleafing news? Why doft thou fay, king Richard is depos'd? Of Bolingbroke; their fortunes both are weigh'd: Queen. Nimble mifchance, that art fo light of foot, And am I laft that knows it? O, thou think'ft I would, the plants thou graft'ft, may never grow 5. "What have I done, that thou dar'ft wag thy tongue "In noife fo rude against me?" Here I have quoted this paffage only to justify the restoration of the word rude, which has been rejected in fome modern editions. Some words feem to have been omitted in the first of these lines. We might read: Set to dress out this garden. Say, how dares, &c. It is always fafer to add than to omit. MALONE. 5 I would, the plants thou graft'ft, may never grow.] This execration of the queen is fomewhat ludicrous, and unfuitable to her condition; the gardener's reflection is better adapted to the ftate both of his mind and his fortune. JOHNSON. Ал Here did the drop a tear; here, in this place, [Exeunt. The Lords Spiritual on the right fide of the throne; the Lords temporal on the left; the Commons below. Enter BoLINGBROKE, AUMERLE, SURREY, NORTHUMBER LAND, PERCY, FITZWATER', another Lord, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of Westminster, and Attendants. Officers behind, with BAGOT. Boling. Call forth Bagot: Now, Bagot, freely fpeak thy mind; What thou dost know of noble Glofter's death; Bagot. Then fet before my face the lord Aumerle. Boling. Coufin, ftand forth, and look upon that man. Bagot. My lord Aumerle, I know, your daring tongue Scorns to unfay what once it hath deliver'd. In that dead time when Glofter's death was plotted, An anonymous writer fuggefts, that the queen perhaps meant to with him childless. The gardener's anfwer ("I would my skill &c.") fhews that this was not the author's meaning. MALONE. * The rebuilding of Weftminiter-Hall, which Richard had begun in 1597, being finished in 1599, the first meeting of parliament in the new edifice was for the purpose of depofing him. MALONE. Fitzwater,] The chriftian name of this nobleman was Walter. 2- bis timeless end.] Timeless for untimely. WARBURTON. In this your coufin's death. Aum. Princes, and noble lords, Boling. Bagot, forbear, thou shalt not take it up. Fitz. If that thy valour stand on sympathies, 3 Aum. my fair stars,] The birth is fuppofed to be influenced by the ftars; therefore our author, with his ufual licence, takes fars for birth. JOHNSON. We learn from Pliny's Nat. Hift. that the vulgar error affigned the bright and fair stars to the rich and great. "Sidera fingulis attribute nobis, et clara divitibus, minora pauperibus, &c." Lib. I. cap. 8. ANONYMOUS. 4 If that thy valour ftand on fympathies,] Here is a tranflated fenfe much harsher than that of stars explained in the foregoing note. Aumerle has challenged Bagot with some hesitation, as not being his equal, and therefore one whom, according to the rules of chivalry, he was not obliged to fight, as a nobler life was not to be ftaked in a duel against a bafer. Fitzwater then throws down his gage, a pledge of battle; and tells him that if he ftands upon fympathies, that is, upon equality of blood, the combat is now offered him by a man of rank not inferior to his own. Sympathy is an affection incident at once to two fubjects. This community of affection implies a likeness or equality of nature, and thence our poet transferred the term to equality of blood. JoHNS. 5 my rapier's point.] Shakspeare deferts the manners of the age ia Aum. Thou dar'ft not, coward, live to fee that day. And, that thou art fo, there I throw my gage, Over the glittering helmet of my foe! Lord. I talk the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle ; And fpur thee on with full as many lies As may be holla'd in thy treacherous ear From fun to fun': there is my honour's pawn; Engage in which his drama is placed, very often without neceffity or advantage. The edge of a fword had ferved his purpofe as well as the point of a rapier, and he had then escaped the impropriety of giving the English nobles a weapon which was not feen in England till two centuries afterwards. JoHNSON. See Vol. I. p. 228, n. 8. MALONE. 6 I talk the earth to the like,-] This fpeech, which is not in the folio, was restored from the quarto by Dr. Johnfon. Task is the reading of the first and best quarto in 1597 In that printed in the following year the word was changed to take; but all the alterations made in the feveral editions of our author's plays in quarto, after the first, appear to have been made either arbitrarily or by negligence. (I do not mean to include copies containing new and additional matter.) I confess I am unable to explain either reading; but I adhere to the elder, as more likely to be the true one. Dr. Johnson would read—I take thy cath, and Mr. Steevens obferves that there is a fimilar corruption in Troilus and Creffida, quarto, 1609, where we have untraded earth, for untraded oath. The following line is quoted from Warner's Albions England by the editor last mentioned, as tending to throw fome light on the text : "Lo,here my gage, (he terr'd his glove) thou know'ft the victor's meed." To terre the glove, be fuppofes, was, to dash it on the earth. MALONE. We might read, only changing the place of one letter, and altering another, I task thy beart to the like, i. e. I put thy valour to the fame trial. So, in K. Henry IV. A&t. IV. fc. ii. "How fhew'd his tafking feem'd it in contempt? STEEVENS. 7 From fun to fun :] i. e. as I think, from fun-rife to fun-fet. The quartos read-From jin to fin. The emendation, which in my apprehenfion requires no enforcement or fupport, was propofed by Mr. Steevens, Engage it to the trial, if thou dar'ft. Aum. Who fets me elfe? by heaven, I'll throw at all: I have a thousand spirits in one breast, To answer twenty thousand fuch as you. Surrey. My lord Fitzwater, I do remember well The very time Aumerle and you did talk. Fitz. 'Tis very true: you were in prefence then; And you can witness with me, this is true. Surrey. As falle, by heaven, as heaven itself is true. Surrey. Dishonourable boy! That lie fhall lye fo heavy on my sword, In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn; Fitz. How fondly doft thou fpur a forward horse? And fpit upon him, whilst I fay, he lies, As I intend to thrive in this new world, Aum. Some honeft Chriftian truft me with a gage, If he may be repeal'd to try his honour. Steevens, who explains these words differently. He is of opinion that they mean, from one day to another. MALONE. 8 I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,] I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him. So, in Macbeth: 9 I - or be alive again, "And dare me to the defert with thy fword." JOHNSON. in this new world,] In this world where I have juft begun to be an actor. Surrey has, a few lines above, called him boy. JOHNSON. bere do I throw down this,] Holinfhed fays, that on this occafion," he threw down a bood that he had borrowed." STEEVENS. He had before thrown down his own hood, when accufed by Bagot, MALONE. Boling. |