ANNOTATIONS UPON SECOND PART OF KING HENRY VI. 1 —alder-liefest—] THIS term of respect is not uncommon amongst our old English authors. It is of Teutonic extraction, and signifies dearest of all. 2 Stands on a tickle point-] Tickle is frequently used for ticklish by poets contemporary with Shakspeare. Duch. It is enough; &c.] This speech stands thus in the old quarto : "Elean. Thanks, good sir John, "Some two days hence, I guess, will fit our time; "Then see that they be here. "For now the king is riding to St. Albans, "And all the dukes and earls along with him. "When they be gone, then safely may they come, "And on the backside of mine orchard here "There cast their spells in silence of the night, "And so resolve us of the thing we wish "Till when, drink that for my sake, and so farewell." 5 STEEVENS. this late complaint-] That is, the complaint of Peter the armourer's man against his master, for saying that York was the rightful king. JOHNSON. -bandogs-] i. e. band-dog, or, a dog chained up. See the Supplement to Gentleman's Mag. for 1789. "Shakspeare's bandog is simply a village-dog or mastiff, which was formerly called a band-dog, per syncopen, bandog." 6 for flying at the brook,] To fly at the brook, is the sporting term for flying the hawk at water fowl. Most likely here it signifies at the heron, which was royal game. 7 And, ten to one, old Joan had not gone out.] I am told by a gentleman, better acquainted with falconry than myself, that the meaning, however expressed, is, that the wind being high, it was ten to one that the old hawk had flown quite away; a trick which hawks often play their masters in windy weather. JOHNSON. had I am rather of Dr. Percy's opinion, who says, not gone out, means, had not flown at the game. 8-lewdly-bent-] Lewdly means here wickedly, not wantonly. 9raught-] Was the ancient perfectum of the verb to reach. 10 staff with a sand-bag fastened to it ;] As, according to the old laws of duels, knights were to fight with the lance and sword; so those of inferior rank fought with an ebon staff or battoon, to the farther end of which was fixed a bag cramm'd hard with sand. To this custom Hudibras has alluded in these humourous lines: 11 66 Engag'd with money-bags, as bold "As men with sand-bags did of old. WARBURTON. -a cup of charneco.] A common name for a sort of sweet wine, as appears from a passage in a pamphlet intitled, The Discovery of a London Monster, called the Black Dog of Newgate, printed 1612: "Some drinking the neat wine of Orleance, some the Gascony, some the Bourdeaux. There wanted neither sherry, sack, nor charneco, maligo, nor amber-colour'd Candy, nor liquorish ipocras, brown beloved bastard, fat Aligant, or any quick-spirited liquor." And as charneca is, in Spanish, the name of a kind of turpentine-tree, I imagine the growth of it was in some district abounding with that tree; or that it had its name from a certain flavour resembling it. WARBURTON. 12 as Bevis of Southampton fell upon Ascapart.] Ascapart-the giant of the story-a name familiar to our ancestors, is mentioned by Dr. Donne : "Those Ascaparts, men big enough to throw "Chairing-cross for a bar," &c. JOHNSON. The figures of these combatants are still preserved on the gates of Southampton. STEEVENS. 13 Uneath-] Ease was formerly spelt eath. Uneath is, therefore, not easily, or scarcely. · 14 I long to see my prison.] This impatience of a high spirit is very natural. It is not so dreadful to be imprisoned, as it is desirable in a state of disgrace to be sheltered from the scorn of gazers. JOHNSON. 15 this gear-] Gear anciently meant things or matters. 16 No; let him die, in that he is a fox, By nature prov'd an enemy to the flock, As Humphrey, prov'd by reasons, to my liege.] The meaning of the speaker is not hard to be discovered, but his expression is very much perplexed. He means that the fox may be lawfully killed, as being known to be by nature an enemy to sheep, even before he has actually killed them; so Humphrey may be properly destroyed, as being proved by arguments to be the king's enemy, before he has committed any actual crime. Some may be tempted to read treasons for reasons, but the drift of the argument is to show that there my be reason to kill him before any treason has broken out. 17 JOHNSON. -I will be his priest.] I will be the attendant on his last scene; I will be the last man whom he will see. JOHNSON. 18 A troop of kernes] A sort of foot soldiers in Ire land. 19 To sit and witch me, as Ascanius did, When he to madding Dido, would unfold His father's acts, commenc'd in burning Troy?] Old copy-To sit and watch me, &c. STEEVENS. The poet here is unquestionably alluding to Virgil (Eneid I.) but he strangely blends fact with fiction. In the first place, it was Cupid in the semblance of Ascanius, who sat in Dido's lap, and was fondled by her. But then it was not Cupid who related to her the process of Troy's destruction; but it was Æneas himself who related this history. Again, how did the supposed Ascanius sit and watch her? Cupid was ordered, while Dido mistakenly caressed him, to bewitch and infect her with love. To this circumstance the poet certainly alludes; and, unless he had wrote, as I have restored to the text, To sit and witch me, why should the queen immediately draw this infer ence, Am I not witch'd like her? THEOBALD. 20 Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost, &c.] All that is true of the body of a dead man is here said by Warwick of the soul. I would read: Oft have I seen a timely-parted corse. But of two common words how or why was one changed for the other? I believe the transcriber thought that the epithet timely-parted could not be used of the body, but that, as in Hamlet there is mention of peace-parted souls, so here timely-parted must have the same substantive. He removed one |