O, ten times more,-than tigers of Hyrcania.5 Keep thou the napkin, and go boast of this: [He gives back the Handkerchief. And, if thou tell'ft the heavy story right, And, in thy need, fuch comfort come to thee, Hard-hearted Clifford, take me from the world; kin, I fhould not for my life but weep with him, To fee how inly forrow gripes his foul.8 of Hyrcania.] So the folio. The quartos read-of Arcadia. STEEVENS. 6 And, if thou tell ft the heavy flory right, Upon my foul, the hearers will Jhed tears.] So, in King Richard II: "Tell thou the lamentable tale of me, "And fend the hearers weeping to their beds." STEEVENS. 7 There, take the crown, and, with the crown, my curfe;] Rowe has transferred this execration to his dying Hengift in The Royal Convert: "Take it, and be as curs'd with it as I was." STEEVENS. I fhould not for my life but weep with him, To fee how inly forrow gripes his foul.] So the folio. The quartos as follows: "I could not choose but weep with him, to fee "How inward anger gripes his heart." STEEVENS. Q. MAR. What, weeping-ripe, my lord Northumberland ? Think but upon the wrong he did us all, And that will quickly dry thy melting tears. CLIF. Here's for my oath, here's for my father's death. [Stabbing him. Q. MAR. And here's to right our gentle-hearted king.9 [Stabbing him. YORK. Open thy gate of mercy, gracious God! • My foul flies through thefe wounds to feek out thee. [Dies. Q. MAR. Off with his head, and fet it on York gates; So York may overlook the town of York.' [Exeunt. And here's to right our gentle-hearted king.] So the folio. The quarto thus: "And there's to right our gentle harted kind." Of these variations there are many, but it is useless labour to enumerate them all. STEEVENS. So York may overlook &c.] This gallant nobleman fell by his own imprudence, in confequence of leading an army of only five thousand men to engage with twenty thousand, and not waiting for the arrival of his fon the Earl of March, with a large body of Welfhmen. He and Cicely his wife, with his fon Edmond Earl of Rutland, were originally buried in the chancel of Foderingay church; and (as Peacham informs us in his Complete Gentleman, 4to. 1627,) "when the chancel in that furie of knocking churches and facred monuments in the head, was also felled to the ground," they were removed into the churchyard; and afterwards" lapped in lead they were buried in the church by the commandment of Queen Elizabeth; and a mean monument of plaifter wrought with the trowel erected over them, very homely, and far unfitting fo noble princes." "I remember, (adds the fame writer,) Mafter Creuse, a gentleman and my worthy friend, who dwelt in the college at the, fame time, told me, that their coffins being opened, their bodies appeared very plainly to be difcerned, and withal that the dutchefs ACT II. SCENE I. A Plain near Mortimer's Crofs in Herefordshire. Drums. Enter EDWARD, and RICHARD, with their Forces, marching. * EDW. I wonder, how our princely father 'fcap'd; * Or whether he be 'fcap'd away, or no, *From Clifford's and Northumberland's pursuit ; * Had he been ta'en, we fhould have heard the news; Had he been flain, we should have heard the news; *Or, had he fcap'd, methinks, we fhould have heard The happy tidings of his good escape.- Cicely had about her necke, hanging in a filke ribband, a pardon from Rome, which, penned in a very fine Roman hand, was as faire and fresh to be read, as it had been written yesterday." This pardon was probably a difpenfation which the Duke procured, from the oath of allegiance that he had fworn to Henry in St. Paul's church on the 10th of March, 1452. MALONE. How fares my brother?] This fcene, in the old quartos begins thus: "After this dangerous fight and hapless war, "How doth my noble brother Richard fare?" Had the author taken the trouble to revife his play, he hardly would have begun the first A&t and the fecond with almoft the fame exclamation, expreffed in almost the fame words. Warwick opens the scene with "I wonder, how the king escap'd our hands." STEEVENS. I faw him in the battle range about; And watch'd him, how he fingled Clifford forth. 'Methought, he bore him3 in the thickest troop, As doth a lion in a herd of neat : * Or as a bear, encompass'd round with dogs; * Who having pinch'd a few, and made them cry, * The reft ftand all aloof, and bark at him. * So far'd our father with his enemies; 'So fled his enemies my warlike father; 'Methinks, 'tis prize enough to be his fon.4 See, how the morning opes her golden gates, And takes her farewell of the glorious fun !5 *How well resembles it the prime of youth, * Trimm'd like a younker, prancing to his love! EDW. Dazzle mine eyes, or do I fee three funs?6 RICH. Three glorious funs, each one a perfect fun; 3 Methought, he bore him-] i. e. he demeaned himself. So, in Measure for Measure: "How I may formally in perfon bear me." MALONE. Methinks, 'tis prize enough to be his fon.] The old quarto reads-pride, which is right, for ambition, i. e. aim at any higher glory than this. WARBURTON. We need not I believe prize is the right word. Richard's fenfe is, though. we have miffed the prize for which we fought, we have yet an honour left that may content us. JOHNSON. Prize, if it be the true reading, I believe, here means privilege. So, in the former A& : "It is war's prize to take all 'vantages?" MALONE. 5 And takes her farewell of the glorious fun!] Aurora takes for a time her farewell of the fun, when the difmiffes him to his diurnal course. JOHNSON. do 1 fee three funs?] This circumftance is mentioned both by Hall and Holinfhed: " at which tyme the fon (as fome write) appeared to the earle of March like three funnes, and fodainely joyned altogither in one, uppon whiche fight hee tooke fuch courage, that he fiercely fetting on his enemyes put them to flight; and for this caufe menne ymagined that he gave the fun in his full bryghtneife for his badge or cognisance." These are the words of Holinfhed. MALONE, Not separated with the racking clouds," See, fee! they join, embrace, and feem to kifs, Now are they but one lamp, one light, one fun. * EDW. "Tis wondrous ftrange, the like yet never heard of. I think, it cites us, brother, to the field; That we, the fons of brave Plantagenet, 6 Each one already blazing by our meeds, Should, notwithstanding, join our lights together, 'And over-fhine the earth, as this the world. 'Whate'er it bodes, henceforward will I bear Upon my target three fair fhining funs. * RICH. Nay, bear three daughters;-by your leave I fpeak it, * You love the breeder better than the male. 7the racking clouds,] i. e. the clouds in rapid, tumultuary motion. So, in The Raigne of King Edward III. 1596 : like inconftant clouds 66 "That, rack'd upon the carriage of the winds, Again, in our author's 32d Sonnet : "Anon permit the bafeft clouds to ride "With ugly rack on his celestial face." MALONE. - blazing by our meeds,] Illuftrious and fhining by the armorial enfigns granted us as meeds of our great exploits. Meed likewife is Merit. It might be plausibly read: -blazing by our deeds. JOHNSON. Johnson's first explanation of this paffage is not right. Meed here means merit. So, in the fourth A&t, the King says: "My meed hath got me fame." And in Timon of Athens the word is used in the same sense : No meed but he repays "Sevenfold above itself." M. MASON. |