lodgers." MALONE.] Doll Tearsheet was so little the favourite of Pistol, that he offered her in contempt to Nym. Nor would her death have cut of his rendezvous; that is, deprived him of a home. Perhaps the poet forgot his plan. JOHNSON.

P. 105, 1. 18. The comic scenes of The History of Henry the Fourth and Fifth are now at an end, and all the comic personages are now dismissed. Falstaff and Mrs. Quickly are dead; Nym and Bardolph are hanged; Gadshill was lost immediately after the, robbery; Poins and Peto have vanished since, one knows not how; and Pistol is now beaten into obscurity. I believe every reader regrets their departure. JOHNSON.

P. 105, 1. 20. Troyes in Champagne.] Henry some time before his marriage with Katharine, accompanied by his brothers, uncles, &c. had a conference with her, the French King and Queen, the Duke of Burgundy, &c. in a field near MeJun, where two pavilions were erected for the royal families, and a third between' them for the council to assemble in and deliberate on the articles of peace. "The Frenchmen, (says the Chronicle,) ditched, trenched, and paled their lodgings for fear of after-clappes; but the Englishmen had their parte of the field only barred and parted.' But the treaty was then broken off. Sometime afterwards they again met in St Peter's church at Troyes in Champagne, where Katharine was affianced to Henry, and the articles of peace between France and England finally concluded. → Shakspeare, having mentioned in the course of this scene, a bar and royal interview," seems to have had the former place of meeting in his thoughts; the description of the field near Melun in the Chronicle somewhat corresponding to that

of a bar or harriers. But the place of the present ene is certainly Troyes in Champagne. However, as St. Peter's church would not admit of the French King and Queen, &c. retiring, and then appearing again on the scene, I have supposed, with the foriner editors, the interview to take place in a palace.

MALONE.

P. 105, 1. 28. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are met!].

P

Peace, for which we are here met, be to this meeting.

Here, after the chorus, the fifth Act seems naturally to begin. JOHNSON.

P. 106, 1. 50.

Unto this bar -]

To this bar

rier, to this place of congress. JOHNSON. P. 107, I. 9. 10. Her vine,

the inerry

of the heart,

cheerer

Unpruned dies] We must read, lies; for neglect of pruning does not kill the vine, but causes it to ramify immoderately, and grow wild; by which the requisite nourishment is withdrawn from its fruit. WARBURTON.

This emendation is physically right, but poetically the vine may be well enough said to die, which ceases to bear fruit. JOHNSON,

P. 107, 1. 10-12. her hedges evenpleach'd,

Like prisoners wildly over-grown with hair, Put forth disorder'd twigs:] This image of prisoners is oddly introduced. A hedge evenpleach'd is more properly imprisoned than when it luxuriates in unpruned exuberance. JOHNSON. Johnson's criticisin on this passage has no just foundation. The King compares the disorderly shoots of an unclipped hedge, to the hair and beard of a prisoner, which he has neglected to

trim; a neglect natural to a person who lives alone, and in a dejected state of mind.

M. MASON.

The learned commentator (Dr. Johnson) misapprehended, I believe, our author's sentiment. He ges are pleached, that is, their long branches, being cut off, are twisted and woven through the lower part of the hedge, in order to thicken and strengthen the feuce. The following year, when the hedge shoots out, it is customary in many places to clip the shoots, so as to render them even The Duke of Burgundy therefore, among other instances of the neglect of husbandry, mentions this; that the hedges, which were evenpleached, for want of trimming put forth irregular twigs; like prisoners, who in their confinement have neglected the use of the razor, and in consequence are wildly overgrown with hair. The hedge in its cultivated state, when it is evenpleached, is compared to the prisoner: in its "wild exuberance," it resembles the prisoner "overgrown with hair."

As a hedge, however, that is even-pleached or woven-together, and one that is clipt, are alike reduced to an even surface, our author with his usual licence might have meant only by evenpleached, our hedges which were heretofore clipp'd smooth and even."

The line "Like prisoners" &c. it should be observed, relates to the one which follows, and not to that which precedes it. The construction

is, Her even-pleached hedges put forth disordered twigs, resembling persons in prison, whose faces are from neglect over-grown with hair.

MALONE.

P. 107, 1. 15. To deracinate is to force up by the roots. STEEVENS.

P. 107, 1. 22-24. And as our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges,

Defective in their natures, grow to wildness;] Nature had been changed by some of the editors into nurture; but, as Mr. Upton observes, unnecessarily. Sua deficiuntur natura. They were not defective in their crescive nature, for they grew to wildness; but they were defective in their proper and favourable nature, which was to bring forth food for man. STEEVENS.

P. 107, 1. 30. diffus'd attire,] Diffus'd,

for extravagant. The military habit of those ti mes was extremely so. Act III. Gower says, And what a beard of the general's cut, and a horrid suit of the camp, will do amongst, &c. is wonderful to be thought on. WARBURTON.

Diffus'd is so much used by our author for wild, irregular, and strange, that in The Merry Wives of Windsor he applies it to a song supposed to be sung by fairies. JOHNSON.

-

P. 107, I. 32. former favour,] i. e. former appearance. JOHNSON.

P. 108, l. 17. 18. — we will, suddenly,

Pass our accept, and peremptory answer. 1 As the French King desires more time to consider deliberately of the articles, 'tis odd and absurd for him to say absolutely, that he would accept them all. He certainly must mean, that he would at once wave and decline what he dislik'd, and consign to such as he approved of. Our author uses pass in this manner in other places; as in King John:

"But if you fondly pass our proffer'd love." WARBURTON. If any change were to be made, I would rather read, "Pass or except," &c. i. e., agree to, or except against the articles, as I should either approve or dislike them, MALONE.

Pass our accept, and peremptory_answer.] i. e. we will pass our acceptance of what we approve, and we will pass a peremptory answer to the rest. Politeness might forbid his saying, we will pass a denial, but his own diguity required more time for deliberation. Besides, if we read pass or accept, is not peremptory answer superfluous, and plainly implied in the former words? TOLLET,

P. 108, 1. 21. 23. Neither Clarence nor Huntington, whom the King here addresses, has been enumerated in the Dramatis Personae, as neither of them speaks a word. Huntington was John Holland, Earl of Huntington, who afterwards married the widow of Edmond Mortimer, Earl of March. MALONE.

P. 109, 1. 31. dat is de Princess.] Surely this should be "Dat says de Princess. This is in answer to the King, who asks, "What says she, fair one?" M. MASON.

P. 109, last 1. and fol. — thou wouldst find me such a plain King,] I know not why Shakspeare now gives the King nearly such a character as he made him formerly ridicule in Percy. This military grossness and unskilfulness in all the softer arts does not suit very well with the gaieties of his youth, with the general knowledge ascribed to him ad his accession, or with the contemptuous message sent him by the dauphin, who represeats him as fitter for a ball-room than the