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her choicest youth, is a fine and noble expression: Pericles, by a similar thought, said "that the destruction of the Athenian youth was a fatality like cutting off the spring from the year."

WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton reads light in peace, but live in peace is more suitable to Richard's intention, which is to tell him, that though he should get the crown by rebellion, it will be long before it will live in peace, be so settled as to be firm. The flower of England's face, is very happily explained. JOHNSON.

The flower of England's face, I believe, means England's flowery face, the flowery surface of England's soil. STEEVENS.

P. 162, last 1. And by the buried hand of warlike Gaunt ;] Dr. Warburton would read

And by the warlike hand of buried Gaunt ; and this, no doubt, was Shakspeare's meaning, though he has affectedly misplaced the epithet. RITSON

P. 163, 1.7.- he will commend to rust,] i. e. commit. See Minsheu's dict. in v. MALONE.

P. 165, 1. 32. Sooth is sweet as well as true: In this place sooth means sweetness or softness, a signification yet retained in the verb to sooth! JOHNSON.

P. 164, 1. 13. My gay apparel,] Dr. Grey observes, “that King Richard's expence in regard to dress, was very extraordinary." Holinshed has the same remark; and adds, that he had "one cote which he caused to be made for him of gold and stone, valued at 30,000 marks. STEEVENS.

Stowe, in his Survey, says, "to the value of three thousand markes." So also, in Vita

Richardi Secundi, published by T. Hearne, p. 156. MALONE.

P. 164, 1. 20. Some way of common trade,] The phrase is still used by common people. When they speak of a road much frequented, they say, “it is a road of much traffic."

P. 164, 1. 20. 21.

STEEVENS. where subjects' feet

May hourly trample on their sovereign's head:] Shakspeare is very apt to deviate from the pathetic to the ridiculous. Had the specch of Richard ended at this line, it had exhibited the natural language of submissive misery, conforming its intention to the present fortune, and calmly ending its purposes in death. JOHNSON.

P. 165. 1. 4. 5. Give Richard leave to live till Richard die?

You make a leg, and Bolingbroke says ay. Here is another instance of injury done to the poet's metre by changing his orthography. I, which was Shakspeare's word, rhymed very well with die; but ay has quite a different sound. TYRWHITT.

In some counties ay is at this day pronounced with a sound very little differing from that of I. MALONE.

P. 165, 1, 6.- base court -1 Basse court, Fr. So, in Hinde's Eliosto Libidinoso, 1606: - they were, for a public observation, brought into the base court of the palace." STEEVENS. P. 166, 1. 21-23. Set on towards London:

&c.] "The Duke with a high sharpe voyce bade bring forth the Kings horses, and then two little nagges, not worth forty franks, were brought forth; the King was

set on the one, and the Earle of Salisburie on the other and thus the Duke brought the King from Flint to Chester, where he was delivered to the Duke of Glocesters sonne and to the Earle of Arundels sonne, (that loved him but little, for he had put their fathers to death,) who led him straight to the castle." Stowe, (p. 521, edit. 1605,) from a manuscript account written by a person who was present. MALONE.

P. 167, last lines. My wretchedness unto a row of pins,

They'll talk of state; for every one doth so Against a change: Woe is forerun with woe.] The poet, according to the common doctrine of prognostication, supposes dejection to forerun calamity, and a kingdom to be filled with rumours of sorrow when any great disaster is impending. The sense is, that publick evils are always presignified by publick pensiveness, and plaintive conversation.

JOHNSON.

P. 168, 1. 16. Showing, as in a model, our firm estate ?] How could he say ours when he immediately subjoins, that it was infirm? we should read:

a firm state. WARBURTON.

The servant says our, meaning the state of the garden in which they are at work. The state of the metaphorical garden was indeed unfirm, and therefore his reasoning is very naturally induced. Why (says he) should we be careful to preserve order in the narrow cincture of this our state, when the great state of the kingdom is in disorder? I have replaced the old-reading which Dr. Warburton would have discontinued in favour of his own conjecture. STEEVENS.

P. 168, 1. 20. Knots are figures planted in box, the lines of which frequently intersect each other. STEEVENS.

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P. 169, 1. 17. 18. i am press'd to death, Through want of speaking!] The poet alludes to the ancient legal punishment called peine, forte et dure, which was inflicted on those persons, who, being arraigned, refused to plead, remaining obstinately silent. They were pressed to death by a heavy weight laid upon their stomach. MALONE.

P. 169, 1. 21. to dress this garden,] This was the technical language of Shakspeare's time. So, in Holy Writ: " and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it." Gen. ii. 15. MALONE.

P. 170, l. 16. I would, the plants thou graft'st, may never grow.] This exccration of the Queen is somewhat ludicrous, and unsuitable to her condition; the gardener's reflection is better adapted to the state both of his mind and his fortune. Mr. Pope, who has been throughout this play very diligent to reject what he did not like, has yet, I know not why, spared the last lines of this act. JOHNSON.

P. 171, 1. 2. Westminster Hall.] The rebuilding of Westminster Hall, which Richard had ̧begun in 1397, being finished in 1399, the first melting of parliament in the new edifice was for the purpose of deposing him. MALONE.

P. 171, 1. 6. SURREY,] Thomas Holland Earl of Kent. He was brother to John Holland Duke of Exeter, and was created Duke of Surrey in the 21st year of King Richard the Second, 1397. The Dukes of Surrey and Exeter were half brotherso the King, being sous of his mother Joa

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(daughter of Edmond Earle of Kent) who after the death of her second husband, Lord Thomas Holland, married Edward the Black Prince. MALONE. P. 171, 1. 7. FITZWATER,] The christian name of this nobleman was Walter. WALPOLE. P. 171, 1. 15. Timeless for untimely.

WARBURTON P. 172 1. 6. Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars,] I rather think it should be stem, being of the royal blood. WARBURTON.

I think the present reading unexceptionable. The birth is supposed to be influenced by the stars, therefore our author, with his usual license takes stars for birth. JOHNSON.

We learn from Pliny's Natural History, that the vulgar error assigned the bright and fair stars to the rich and great: "Sidera singulis attributa nobis, et clara divitibus, minoră pauperibus," &c. Lib. I. cap. viii. ANONYMOUS.

P. 172. 1. 19. 20. If that thy valour stand on sympathies,

There is my gage, Aumerle, in gage to thine:] Here is a translated sense 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 staked in a duel against a baser. 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 inferior to his own. Sympathy is an affection incident at once to two subjects. VOL. VIII.

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