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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. Fitzwalter then throws down his gage, a pledge of battle; and tells him that if he stands upon sympathics, 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. This community of affection implies a likeness or equality of nature, and thence our poet transferred the term to equality of blood. JOHNSON.

Line 42. my rapier's point.] Shakspeare deserts the manners of the age in which his drama is placed very often, without necessity or advantage. The edge of a sword had served his pur→ pose as well as the point of a rapier, and he had then escaped the impropriety of giving the English nobles a weapon which was not seen in England till two centuries afterwards. JOHNSON.

Line 54. I take the earth to the like, &c.] This speech I have restored from the first edition in humble imitation of former editors, though, I believe, against the mind of the author. For the earth I suppose we should read, thy oath. JOHNSON.

Line 80. I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,] I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him. So in Macbeth,

"O be alive again,

"And dare me to the desert with thy sword."

Line 84.

JOHNSON.

-in this new world,] In this world where I have just begun to be an actor. Surrey has, a few lines above, called him boy.

JOHNSON.

Line 134. And shall the figure, &c.] Here is another proof that our author did not learn in king James's court his elevated notions of the right of kings. I know not any flatterer of the Stuarts, who has expressed this doctrine in much stronger terms. It must be observed that the poet intends, from the beginning to the end, to exhibit this bishop as brave, pious, and venerable.

JOHNSON.

Line 163. His day of trial.] After this line, whatever follows, almost to the end of the act, containing the whole process of dethroning and debasing king Richard, was added after the first edition of 1598, and before the second of 1615. Part of the

addition is proper, and part might have been forborn without much loss. The author, I suppose, intended to make a very moving scene. JOHNSON. Line 180. The favours, &c.] The countenances; the features.

JOHNSON.

199. The emptier ever dancing—] This is a comparison not easily accommodated to the subject, nor very naturally introduced. The best part is this line, in which he makes the usurper the empty bucket. JOHNSON.

Line 212. My care is-loss of care, by old care done ;] Shakspeare often obscures his meaning by playing with sounds. Richard seems to say here, that his cares are not made less by the increase of Bolingbroke's cares; for this reason, that his care is the loss of care, his grief is, that his regal cares are at an end, by the cessation of the care to which he had been accustomed. JOHNSON.

Line 224.

-my balm,] The oil of consecration. He has

JOHNSON.

mentioned it before. Line 250. If thou would'st,] That is, if thou would'st read over a list of thy own deeds.

JOHNSON.

Line 265. —a sort-] A pack, a company. WARBURTON. The last who used the word sort in this sense was, perhaps, Waller.

A sort of lusty shepherds strive.

JOHNSON.

Line 276. No, not that name was given me at the font,] How that name which was given him at the font could be usurped, I do not understand. Perhaps Shakspeare meant to shew that imagina. tion, dwelling long on its own misfortunes, represents them as greater than they really are. ANONYMOUS.

Line 308. Did keep ten thousand men ?] Shakspeare is here not quite accurate. Our old Chroniclers only say that to his household came every day, to meate, ten thousand men. MALONE.

Line 348. —conveyers are you all,] To convey is a term often used in an ill sense, and so Richard understands it here. Pistol says of stealing, convey the wise it call; and to convey is the word. for slight of hand, which seems to be alluded to here. Ye are all, says the deposed prince, jugglers, who rise with this nimble dexterity by the fall of a good king. JOHNSON.

Line 355.

-as sharp to them as thorn.] This pathetic denun

ciation shews that Shakspeare intended to impress his auditors with dislike of the deposal of Richard. JOHNSON.

Line 360. To bury-] To conceal, to keep secret. JOHNS. Enter Richard.] In the first edition there is no personal appearance of king Richard, so that all to the line at which he leaves the stage was inserted afterwards. JOHNSON.

ACT V. SCENE I.

Line 2. To Julius Cæsar's ill-erected tower,] The Tower of London is traditionally said to have been the work of Julius Cæsar. JOHNSON.

Line 5. Here let us rest, &c.] So Milton. Here rest, if any rest can harbour here.

Line 11. Ah, thou, the model where old Troy did stand;] The queen uses comparative terms absolutely. Instead of saying, Thou who appearest as the ground on which the magnificence of Troy was once erected, she says,

O thou, the model, &c.

Thou map of honour. Thou picture of greatness. JOHNS. Line 16. Join not with grief,] Do not thou unite with grief against me; do not, by thy additional sorrows, enable grief to strike me down at once. My own part of sorrow I can bear, but thy affliction will immediately destroy me. JOHNSON.

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JOHNSON.

To grim necessity,] I have reconciled myself to necessity, I am in a state of amity with the constraint which I have sustained. Line 46. stories.

Line 49.

-to quit their grief,] To retaliate their mournful

JOHNSON. -For why,] The poet should have ended this speech with the foregoing line, and have spared his childish prattle about the fire.

Line 85.

JOHNSON.

-Hallowmas,] i. e. November the first.

-95. Better fur off, than-near, be ne'er the near.] To be never the nigher, or, as it is commonly spoken in the midlandcounties, ne'er the ne-er, is, to make no advance towards the good desired. JOHNSON.

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Line 143. Are idly bent- -] That is carelessly turned, thrown without attention. This the poet learned by his attendance and practice on the stage. JOHNSON,

Line 171. bear you well-] That is, conduct yourself with prudence. JOHNSON. Line 179. What seal is that, that hangs without thy bosom?] The seals of deeds were formerly impressed on slips or labels of parchment appendant to them. MALONE.

Line 181. Yea, looks't thou pale? let me see the writing.] Such harsh and defective lines as this are probably corrupt, and might be easily supplied, but that it would be dangerous to let conjecture loose on such slight occasions. JOHNSON.

ACT V. SCENE III.

Line 261. Inquire at London, &c.] This is a very proper introduction to the future character of Henry the Fifth, to his debaucheries in his youth, and his greatness in his manhood. JOHNS, Line 329. Thou sheer, immaculate, &c.] Sheer is pure, transparent. STEEVENS.

Line 352. the Beggar and the King.] The King and Beggar seems to have been an interlude well known in the time of our author, who has alluded to it more than once. I cannot now find that any copy of it is left. JOHNSON.

The King and Beggar was perhaps once an interlude; it was certainly a song. The reader will find it in the first volume of Dr. Percy's collection. It is there intitled, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid. STEEVENS.

Line 397.

JOHNSON.

-Pardonnez moy.] That is, excuse me, a phrase used when any thing is civilly denied. The whole passage is such as I could well wish away. Line 421. But for our trusty brother-in-law,] The brother-inlaw meant, was John duke of Exeter and earl of Huntingdon (own brother to king Richard II.) and who had married with the lady Elizabeth sister of Henry of Bolingbroke. THEOBALD.

Line 455.

the state of man. Line 496.

ACT V. SCENE V.

—people this little world;] i. e. his own frame; MALONE.

For now hath time made me his numb’ring clock: My thoughts are minutes; and, with sighs, they jar Their watches to mine eyes, the outward watch, &c.] Watch seems to be used in a double sense, for a quantity of time, and for the instrument that measures time. I read, but with no great confidence, thus:

"My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar
"Their watches on; mine eyes the outward watch,
"Whereto," &c.

Line 506.

JOHNSON.

-his Jack o'the clock.] That is, I strike for him. One of these automatons is alluded to in King Richard the Third:

"Because that like a Jack thou keepst the stroke,
"Between thy begging and my meditation."

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STEEVENS.

Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.] i. e. is as strange and uncommon as a brooch which is now no longer

worn.

MALONE.

Line 512. in this all-hating world-] I believe the meaning is, this world in which I am universally hated. JOHNSON. Line 517. Where no man never comes, but that sad dog-] It should be remembered that the word sad was in the time of our author used for grave. The expression will then be the same as if he had said, that grave, that gloomy villain. STEEVENS.

Line 543. by jauncing Bolingbroke.] Jaunce and jaunt were synonymous words.

STEEVENS.

END OF THE ANNOTATIONS ON THE LIFE AND DEATH

OF KING RICHARD II.

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