Up to the rowel-head;5 and, starting so, North. Ha! Again. Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold? Had met ill luck? Bard. My lord, I'll tell you what; If my young lord your son have not the day, Upon mine honour, for a silken point I'll give my barony: never talk of it. kept for show, or to be rid by its master. So, in a comedy called A Knack to know a Knave, 1594: Besides, I'll give you the keeping of a dozen jades, "And now and then meat for you and your horse." This is said by a farmer to a courtier. Steevens. Shakspeare, however, (as Mr. Steevens has observed) certainly does not use the word as a term of contempt; for King Richard the Second gives this appellation to his favourite horse Roan Barbary, on which Henry the Fourth rode at his coronation: "That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand." Malone. rowel-head;] I think that I have observed in old prints the rowel of those times to have been only a single spike. Johnson. 6 He seem'd in running to devour the way,] So, in the Book of Job, chap. xxxix: "He swalloweth the ground in fierceness and rage." 5 The same expression occurs in Ben Jonson's Sejanus : "But with that speed and heat of appetite, "With which they greedily devour the way "To some great sports." Steevens. So Ariel, to describe his alacrity in obeying Prospero's commands: "I drink the air before me." M. Mason. So, in one of the Roman poets (I forget which): cursu consumere campum. Blackstone. The line quoted by Sir William Blackstone is in Nemesian: latumque fuga consumere campum. Malone. 7 Of Hotspur, coldspur?] Hotspur seems to have been a very common term for a man of vehemence and precipitation. Stany. hurst, who translated four books of Virgil, in 1584, renders the following line: Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile. "To couch not mounting of mayster vanquisher hoatspur." Steevens. Johnson. silken point —] A point is a string tagged, or lace. North. Why should the gentleman, that rode by Tra vers, Give then such instances of loss? Bard. Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news. North. Yea, this man's brow, like to a title-leaf,1 Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury? North. How doth my son, and brother? Thou tremblest; and the whiteness in thy cheek Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand. So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,3 some hilding fellow,] For hildering, i. e. base, degenerate. Pope. Hildering, Degener; vox adhuc agro Devon. familiaris. Spel man. 1 Reed. like to a title-leaf,] It may not be amiss to observe, that, in the time of our poet, the title-page to an elegy, as well as every intermediate leaf, was totally black. I have several in my possession, written by Chapman, the translator of Homer, and ornamented in this manner. Steevens. 2 a witness'd usurpation.] i. e. an attestation of its ravage. 3 Steevens. so woe-begone,] This word was common enough amongst the old Scottish and English poets, as G. Douglas, Chaucer, Lord Buckhurst, Fairfax; and signifies, far gone in woe. Warburton. So, in The Spanish Tragedy: "Awake, revenge, or we are wo-begone!" Again, in Arden of Feversham, 1592: "So woe-begone, so inly charg'd with woe." Again, in A Looking Glass for London and England, 1598: "Fair Alvida, look not so woe-begone." Dr. Bently is said to have thought this passage corrupt, and therefore (with a greater degree of gravity than my readers will probably express) proposed the following emendation: Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night, And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd: North. Why, he is dead. See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath! He, that but fears the thing he would not know, That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton; And I will take it as a sweet disgrace, And make thee rich for doing me such wrong. Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain. So dead so dull in look, Ucalegon, Drew Priam's curtain &c. The name of Ucalegon is found in the third Book of the Iliad, and the second of the Æneid. Steevens. Your spirit-] The impression upon your mind, by which you conceive the death of your son. Johnson. 5 Yet, for all this, say not &c.] The contradiction, in the first part of this speech might be imputed to the distraction of Northumberland's mind; but the calmness of the reflection contained in the last lines, seems not much to countenance such a supposition. I will venture to distribute this passage in a manner which will, I hope, seem more commodious; but do not wish the reader to forget, that the most commodious is not always the true reading: Bard. Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead. B I see a strange confession in thine eye: Thou shak'st thy head; and hold'st it fear, or sin," Remember'd knolling a departing friend. Bard. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. Mor. Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, Remember'd knolling a departing friend. Here is a natural interposition of Bardolph at the beginning, who is not pleased to hear his news confuted, and a proper preparation of Morton for the tale which he is unwilling to tell. 6 71 Johnson. hold'st it fear, or sin,] Fear for danger. Warburton. If he be slain, say so:] The words say so are in the first folio, but not in the quarto: they are necessary to the verse, but the sense proceeds as well without them. Johnson. 8 Sounds ever after as a sullen bell, Remember'd knolling a departing friend.] So, in our author's 71st Sonnet: 66 you shall hear the surly sullen bell "Give warning to the world that I am fled." This significant epithet has been adopted by Milton: Departing, I believe, is here used for departed. Malone. I cannot concur in this supposition. The bell, anciently, was rung before expiration, and thence was called the passing bell, i. e. the bell that solicited prayers for the soul passing into another world. Steevens. I am inclined to think that this bell might have been originally used to drive away demons who were watching to take possession of the soul of the deceased. In the cuts to some of the old service books which contain the Vigilia mortuorum, several devils are waiting for this purpose in the chamber of a dying man, to whom the priest is administering extreme unction. Douce. Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out-breath'd, From whence with life he never more sprung up, 9 - faint quittance,] Quittance is return. By faint quittance is meant a faint return of blows. So, in K. Henry V: "We shall forget the office of our hand, "Sooner than quittance of desert and merit." Steevens. 1 For from his metal was his party steel'd; Which once in him abated,] Abated is not here put for the general idea of diminished, nor for the notion of blunted, as applied to a single edge. Abated means reduced to a lower temper, or, as the workmen call it, let down. Johnson. 2'Gan vail his stomach,] Began to fall his courage, to let his spirits sink under his fortune. Johnson. From avaller, Fr. to cast down, or to let fall down. Malone. This phrase has already appeared in The Taming of the Shrew, Vol. VI, p. 150: "Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot; "And place your hands below your husbands' foot." Reed. Thus, to vail the bonnet is to pull it off. So, in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599: "And make the king vail bonnet to us both." To vail a staff, is to let it fall in token of respect. Thus, in the same play: "And for the ancient custom of vail staff, "Keep it still; claim thou privilege from me: |