To which is fixed, as an aim or butt', Obedience:] Neither the sense nor the con struction of this passage is very obvious. The construction is, endeavour, as an aim or butt to which endeavour, obedience is fixed. The sense is, that all endeavour is to terminate in obedience, to be subordinate to the publick 4 good and general design of government, JOHNSON. P. 15, 1. 8. 9. Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach

The act of order to a peopled Kingdom.] Act here means law, or statute; as appears from the old quarto, where the words are Creatures that by awe ordain an act of order to a peopled Kingdom."

66

Mr. Pope changed act to art, and was followed by all the subsequent editors. MALONE.

P. 15, 1. 10. Officers of sorts means officers of different degrees. In a London haberdasher's bill to his customer in the country, I lately saw the following charge: "To thread of sorts; i, e.i of different kinds. STEEVENS.

In confirmation of Mr. Steeven's opinion it may be observed, that in Atrue Relation of the admirable Voyage and Travel of William Bush, &c. 4to. 1607, we have drumines and sortes of musicke." REED.

P. 15, 1. 12, To venture trade is a phrase of the same import and structure as to hazard battle. JoHNSON. ༢(T)", ༠༡༨་་་

P. 15, 1.19. The singing masons building &c.] Our author probably had here two images in his thoughts. The hum of a bee is obvious. I be lieve he was also thinking of a common practice among masons, who, like many other artificers,

frequently sing while at work: a practice that escaped his observation.

could not have

P. 15, l. 20,

MALONE.

P. 15, 1. 20. To knead the honey gives an easy sense though not physically true. The bees do in sact knead the wax more than the honey, but that Shakpeare perhaps did not know.

JOHNSON. P. 15, l. 24. Executors is here used for executioners. MALONE.

P. 16, t. 15. in large and ample empery,} This word, which signifies dominion, is now obsolete, though formerly in general use.

STEEVENS.. P. 16, 1. 24. Not worship'd with a waxen epitaph,] The quarto

1608 reads,

with a paper epitaph.

Either a waxen or a paper epitaph is an epitaph easily obliterated or destroyed; one which can confer no lasting honour on the dead.

waxen

To the ancient practice of writing on tablets Shakspeare again alludes in the first scene of Timon of Athens:

but moves itself

"In a wide sea of wax."

STEEVENS.

The second reading is more unintelligible, to me at least, than the other: a grave not dignified with the slightest memorial. JOHNSON.

I think this passage has been misunderstood. Henry says, "he will either rule with full domi-" nion in France, or die in the attempt, and lay his bones in a paltry urn, without a tomb, or any remembrance over him.". With a view to the alternative that he has just stated, he adds,

either

by way of opposition and illustration, the English Chronicles shall speak, trumpettongued, to the world, of my victories in France,

or,

being defeated there, my death shall scarcely be mentioned in history; shall not be honoured by the best epitaph a Prince can have, the written account of his achievements." A paper epitaph, therefore, or, in other words, an historical eulogy, instead of a slight token of respect, is mentioned by Henry as the most honourable memorial; and Dr. Johnson's objection, sounded on the incongruity of saying that his grave shall not be dignified by the slightest memorial, falls to the ground.

The misrepresentation, I conceive, arose from understanding a figurative expression literally, and supposing that a paper epitaph meant an epitaph written on a paper, to be affixed to a tomb.

Waxen, the reading of the folio, when it is used by Shakspeare metaphorically, signifies, soft, yielding, taking an impression easily.

MALONE. P. 17, 1. 19. A galliard was an ancient dance, now obsolete. STEEVENS.

P. 17, 1. 26. Tennis-balls,] In the old play of King Henry V. already mentioned, this present consists of a gilded tun of tennis-balls and a carpet. STEEVENS.

P. 18, 1. 2. Chace is a term at tennis.

JOHNSON.

The hazard is a place in the tennis-court into which the ball is sometimes struck. STEEVENS.

P. 18, 1. 5. By the seat of England, the King, I believe, means, the throne. So, Othello boasts that he is descended "from men of royal

siege." Henry afterwards says, he will rouse him in his throne of France. The words below, "I will keep my state" likewise confirin this interpretation. MALONE.

P. 18. l. 6. living hence, This expression has strength and energy: he never valued England, and therefore lived hence, i. e, as if absent from it. But the Oxford editor alters hence to here WARBURTON.

Living hence means, I believe, withdrawing from the court, the place in which he is now speaking.

Perhaps Prospero, in The Tempest, has more clearly expressed the same idea, when he says: "The government I cast upon my brother, "And to my state grew stranger."

STEEVENS. In King Richard II. Act V. sc. ii. King Henry IV. complains that he had not seen his 'son for three months, and desires that he may be enquired for among the taverns, where, he daily frequents;

With unrestrain'd and loose companions." MALONE. P. 18, 1. 13. For that I have laid by my majesty,] To qualify myself for this undertaking, I have descended from my station, and studied the arts of life in a lower character. JOHNSON.

P. 18, 1. 19. Hath turn'd his balls to gunstones;] When ordnance was first used, they discharged balls, not of iron, but of stone. JOHNSON. eos to eval

So, Holinshed, p. 947 "About seaven of the clovke marched forward the light pieces of ordinance, with stone and powden STREVENS.

P. 19, 1. 22. I think Mr. Pope mistaken in transposing this chorus, [to the end of the first scene of the second act,] and Mr. Theobald in concluding the [first] act with it. The chorus evidently introduces that which follows, not comments on that which precedes, and therefore rather begins than ends the act; and so I have printed it. JOHNSON.

P. 20, 1. 1-3. For now sits Expectation in

the air;

And hides a sword, from hilts unto the

point,

With crowns imperial, crowns,

and co

ronets,] The imagery is wonderfully fine, and the thought exquisite. Expectation sitting in the air designs the height of their ambition; and the sword hid from the hilt to the point with crowns and coronets, that all sentiments of danger were lost in the thoughts of glory. WARBUrton.

The idea is taken from the ancient representations of trophies in tapestry or painting. Among these it is very common to see swords encircled with naval or mural crowns.

STEEVENS

In the Horse Armoury in the Tower of London, Edward III. is represented with two crowns on his sword, alluding to the two Kingdoms, France and England, of both of which he was crowned heir. Perhaps the poet took the thought from a similar representation. TOLLET.

This image, it has been observed by Mr. Henley, is borrowed from a worden cut in the first edition of Holiushed's Chronicle. MALOne.