For what I have, I need not to repeat, Queen. 'Tis well, that thou hast cause, But thou should'st please me better, would'st thou weep. And never borrow any tear of thee. Enter a Gardiner, and two Servants. They'll talk of State; for every one doth fo, * Against a Change; woe is fore-run with woe. [Queen and Ladies retire. Gard. Go, bind thou up yond dangling Apricots, Which, like unruly children, make their Sire Stoop with oppreffion of their prodigal weight. Against a Change; woe is fore-run with wOE.] But what was there, in the Gardiners' talking of State, for matter of fo much woe? Befides, this is intended for a Sentence, but proves a very fimple one. I fuppofe Shakespeare wrote, woe is fore-run with MOCKS, which has fome meaning in it; and fignifies, that, when great Men are on the decline, their inferiors take advantage of their condition, and treat them without ceremony. And this we find to be the cafe in the following fcene. But the Editors were feeking for a rhime. Tho' had they not been fo impatient they would have found it gingled to what There is no need of any emendation. The poet, according to the common doctrine of prognoftication, fuppofes dejection to forerun calamity, and a kingdom to be filled with rumours of forrow when any great difafter is impending. The fenfe is that, publick evils are always prefig nified by publick penfiveness, and plaintive converfation. The conceit of rhyming mocks with apricocks, which I hope Shakespeare knew better how to fpell, shows that the commentator was refolved not to let his conjecture fall for want of any support that fall he could give it. F 3 Give Give fome fupportance to the bending twigs, Cut off the heads of too-fast-growing sprays, Serv. Why fhould we, in the compass of a pale, Gard. Hold thy peace. He, that hath fuffer'd this disorder'd Spring, Gard. They are, And Bolingbroke hath feiz'd the wasteful King. 5 OUR firm fate?] How could he fay ours when he immediately fubjoins, that it was in firm? We fhould read, WARBURTON. We We lop away, that bearing boughs may live; Gard. Depreft he is already; and depos'd, Queen. Oh, I am preft to death, through want of Thou Adam's likeness, fet to dress this garden, Of Bolingbroke; their fortunes both are weigh'd; Queen. Nimble Mifchance, that art fo light of foot, Doth not thy Embaffage belong to me? And am I laft, that know it? oh, thou think'st Gard'ner, for telling me thefe news of woe, I would, the plants, thou graft'ft, may never grow. [Exeunt Queen and Ladies, Gard. Poor Queen, fo that thy ftate might be no worse, I would my skill were fubject to thy Curfe. [Exeunt Gard. and Serv. IV. SCENE I. ACT IV. In LONDON. Enter, as to the Parliament, Bolingbroke, Aumerle, Northumberland, Percy, Fitzwater, Surry, Bishop of Carlisle, Abbot of Westminster, Herald, Officers, and Bagot. CAL BOLINGBROKE. ALL Bagot forth: now freely fpeak thy mind; What thou dost know of noble Glofter's death; Who wrought it with the King, and who perform'd The bloody office of his timeless end'. 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 it hath once deliver❜d. In that dead time when Glofter's death was plotted, 7 I would, the plants, &c.] This execration of the queen is fomewhat ludicrous, and unfuitable to her condition; the gardener's reflexion is better adapted to the state both of his mind and his fortune, Mr. Pope, who has I heard you fay," Is not my arm of length, "That reacheth from the reftful English Court "As far as Calais to my uncle's head?" Amongst much other talk that very time, I heard you fay, "You rather had refuse "The offer of an hundred thoufand crowns, "Than Bolingbroke return to England; adding, "How bleft this Land would be in this your Coufin's "death." Aum. Princes, and noble Lords, What anfwer fhall I make to this bafe man? Boling. Bagot, forbear; thou shalt not take it up. therefore one whom, according to the rules of chivalry, he was not obliged to fight, as a nobler life was not to be staked in duel against a bafer. Fitzwater then throws down his gage a pledge of battle, and tells him that if he stands upon Sympathies, that is, upon equality of blood, the combat is now offered him by a man of rank not inferiour 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 tranfferred the term to equality of blood. There |