In forms imaginary, the unguided days, The prince but ftudies his companions, Like a strange tongue: wherein, to gain the language, 'Tis needful, that the most immodeft word Be look'd upon, and learn'd; which once attain'd, By which his grace muft mete the lives of others; K. HEN. 'Tis feldom, when the bee doth leave her comb In the dead carrion.-Who's here? Weftmoreland? 2 — bis affections-] His paffions; his inordinate defires. JOHNSON. 3 But to be known, and hated.] A parallel paffage occurs in Terence: -quo modo adolefcentulus "Meretricum ingenia et mores poffet nofcere, ANONYMOUS. 4 'Tis feldom, when the bee &c.] As the bee having once placed her comb in a carcafe, ftays by her honey, fo he that has once taken pleasure in bad company, will continue to affociate with those that have the art of pleafing him. JOHNSON. Enter WESTMORELAND. WEST. Health to my sovereign! and new happinefs Added to that that I am to deliver! Prince John, your fon, doth kiss your grace's hand: K. HEN. O Weftmoreland, thou art a fummer bird, Which ever in the haunch of winter fings Enter HARCOURT. HAR. From enemies heaven keep your majefty; And, when they stand against you, may they fall As thofe that I am come to tell you of! The earl Northumberland, and the lord Bardolph, 3 in his particular.] We fhould read, I think-in this particular; that is, in this detail, in this account, which is minute and diftinct. JOHNSON. His is ufed for its, very frequently in the old plays. The modern editors have too often made the change; but it should be remembered, (as Dr. Johnfon has elsewhere obferved,) that by repeated changes the hiftory of a language will be loft. STEEVENS. It may certainly have been used so here, as in almoft every other page of our author. Mr. Henley however obferves, that his particular may mean the detail contained in the letter of Prince John. A Particular is yet ufed as a fubftantive, by legal conveyancers, for a minute detail of things fingly enumerated. MALONE. With a great power of English, and of Scots, K. HEN. And wherefore fhould these good news Will fortune never come with both hands full, I fhould rejoice now at this happy news; P. HUMPH. Comfort, your majesty! [Swoons. CLA. look up! WAR. Be patient, princes; you do know, these fits Are with his highness very ordinary. Stand from him, give him air; he'll ftraight be well. CLA. No, no; he cannot long hold out these pangs: The inceffant care and labour of his mind Hath wrought the mure, &c.] i. e. the wall. PoPE. Wrought it thin, is made it thin by gradual detriment. Wrought is the preterite of work. Mure is a word ufed by Heywood in his Brazen Age, 1613: "'Till I have fcal'd thefe mures, invaded Troy." So thin, that life looks through, and will break out. Again, in his Golden Age, 1611: "Girt with a triple mure of fhining brass." Again, in his Iron Age, 2nd Part, 1632: 66 Through mures and counter-mures of men and fteel.” Again, in Dionyfe Settle's Laft Voyage of Capteine Frobisher, 12mo. bl. 1. 1577: the ftreightes feemed to be fhutt up 66 with a long mure of yce." The fame thought occurs in Daniel's Civil Wars, &c. Book IV. Daniel is likewife fpeaking of the fickness of King Henry IV: "As that the walls worn thin, permit the mind "To look out thorow, and his frailtie find." The first edition of Daniel's poem is dated earlier than this play of Shakspeare. Waller has the fame thought: "The foul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd, Lets in the light thro' chinks that time has made." STEEVENS. On this paffage the elegant and learned Bishop of Worcester has the following criticifm: " At times we find him (the imitator) practifing a different art; not merely fpreading as it were and laying open the fame fentiment, but adding to it, and by a new and ftudied device improving upon it. In this cafe we naturally conclude that the refinement had not been made, if the plain and fimple thought had not preceded and given rife to it. You will apprehend my meaning by what follows. Shak fpeare had faid of Henry the Fourth, "The inceffant care and labour of his mind "Hath wrought the mure, that should confine it in, "So thin, that life looks through, and will break out. "You have here the thought in its firft fimplicity. It was not unnatural, after fpeaking of the body as a cafe or tenement of the foul, the mure that confines it, to fay, that as that cafe wears away and grows thin, life looks through, and is ready to break out." After quoting the lines of Daniel, who, (it is obferved,)" by refining on this fentiment, if by nothing elfe, fhews himself to be the copyift," the very learned writer adds," here we fee, not fimply, that life is going to break through the infirm and muchworn habitation, but that the mind looks through, and finds his frailty, that it difcovers that life will foon make his escape.Daniel's improvement then looks like the artfice of a man that would outdo his mafter. Though he fails in the attempt; for his ingenuity betrays him into a falfe thought. The mind, looking through, does not find its own frailty, but the frailty of the building it inhabits." Hurd's Differtation on the Marks of Imitation. P. HUMPH. The people fear me ; for they do obferve Unfather'd heirs, and loathly births of nature: The seasons change their manners,' as the year* Had found fome months afleep, and leap'd them over. This ingenious criticifm, the general principles of which cannot be controverted, fhews, however, how dangerous it is to fuffer the mind to be led too far by an hypothefis:-for after all, there is very good reason to believe that Shakspeare, and not Daniel, was the imitator. "The diffention between the houses of Yorke and Lancaster in verfe, penned by Samuel Daniel," was entered on the Stationers' books by Simon Waterfon, in October, 1594, and four books of his work, were printed in 1595. lines quoted by Mr. Steevens are from the edition of The Civil Wars, in 1609. Daniel made many changes in his poems in every new edition. In the original edition in 1595, the verses run thus; Book III. ft. 116: Wearing the wall fo thin, that now the mind The Might well look thorough, and his frailty find." His is ufed for its, and refers not to mind, (as is fuppofed above,) but to wall. There is no reason to believe that this play was written before 1594, and it is highly probable that Shakspeare had read Daniel's poem before he fat down to compofe these historical dramas. MALONE. " The people fear me;] i. e. make me afraid. WARBURTON. So, in The Merchant of Venice: "Hath fear'd the valiant." STEEVENS. Unfather'd heirs,] That is, equivocal births; animals that had no animal progenitors; productions not brought forth according to the ftated laws of generation. JOHNSON. 9 The feafons change their manners,] This is finely expreffed; alluding to the terms of rough and harsh, mild and foft, applied to weather. WARBURTON. 2 beline: as the year-] i. e. as if the year, &c. So, in Cym "He fpake of her, as Dian had hot dreams, "And he alone were cold." In the fubfequent line our author feems to have been thinking of leap-year. MALONE, I |