Through my burn'd bosom; nor entreat the North 'Poisoned, ill-fare! dead, forsook, cast off. This line seems to want a syllable, and the word 'dead' also seems unseasonable in many points of view. But the scansion may be Poison'd ill-fa | er dead | forsook | cast off. And 'dead' is perhaps equivalent to 'killd;' so in King Hen. 'Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest, 'Ill fare.'] 'Ill viand' occurs in Holinshed for 'poison.' A.D. 1483. And comfort me with cold: I do not ask you much.'] This line contains apparently one foot too much. I would read it thus- To make the bleak winds kiss my parched lips The scansion is- And comfort me | with cold | I do not ask much. Pope, as I learn, reduced the line to normal length by reading 'I ask not much' for 'I do not ask you much.' But this presupposes a far less natural corruption of the genuine text. P. Hen. O that there were some virtue in my tears That might relieve you! K. John. The salt in them is hot; Within me is a hell; and there the poison Is, as a fiend, confined to tyrannise On unreprievable, condemned blood. The second line sounds out of tune. Probably it is to be articulated thus: That might relieve you! The salt in them's hot. 'Upon advantage.'] That is, 'upon an opportunity offered,' not upon an advantage (in the modern sense) gained. Bast. He will the rather do it when he sees Ourselves well sinewed to our defense. 'Well sinewed.'] This is Rowe's alteration of 'well sinew'd,' the reading of all the folios. All critics adopt Rowe's change except Collier's Corrector, who retains 'sinew'd,' but interpolates 'own' before 'defense.' Shakespeare very rarely pronounced the final 'ed' of the participles, active and passive, as a separate syllable. The folio reading I would restore, with this scansion : Ourselves well sine-w'd | to our | defense. Our natural pronunciation of 'sinew' is trisyllabic, as I have here written it. SCENE 7. Hen. The life of all his blood Is touch'd corruptibly; and his pure brain, Pure brain' has been variously amended. The word 'pure' is right. It is countenanced and illustrated by the following use of the same word in Holinshed: The king "&c., after, because the air of Paris seemed contrarie to his 'pure complexion, by the advice of his counsel removed to 'Rome,' A.D. 1431, where 'complexion' is equivalent to 'constitutional health.' NEW RENDering in KING JOHN. MISPLACED. Act III. Scene 1. Eli. Oh foul revolt of French inconstancy! Bast. Old Time the clock-setter, that bald sexton Time; Is it as he will? well then, France shall rue. The order of thought here is indistinctly and elliptically expressed. It is as follows:- Old Time sets the clock, and ' as he does this duty of the parish sexton, he also probably 'does his other duty of digging graves. By his calling there'fore he is bound to wish for as many deaths as possible. If 'Time therefore is to do what he likes, he will make the 'French rue.' 100 KING RICHARD II. ACT I. SCENE I. King Rich. Hast thou, according to thy oath and band, Brought hither Henry Hereford, thy bold son. The first four quartos and the first three folios give this line 'Brought hither Henry Herford, thy bold son.' All the modern editions print 'Hereford.' That 'Herford' represents the old pronunciation is, I think, confirmed by the fact that the capital town of Pembrokeshire once used to be called Herfordwest. This occupied precisely the same position on the western side of Wales that Hereford did on the east of Wales, and therefore was called, probably, 'Herfordwest,' in contradistinction to 'Herford' simply, which was Herfordeast geographically. No writer whom I have consulted explains sufficiently the origin of the name 'Herfordwest.' The question naturally presents itself whether Herfordwest derives its name from its contrast in position to Hertford near London. But as persons, who habitually spoke of Herfordwest' and heard it spoken of could not habitually hear or speak of Hertford, separated from Wales by the whole breadth of England, such a supposition could hardly be correct. UNIV. OF Since these remarks were first sent to press, I have met with a passage in Holinshed (Chronicles,' A.D. 1405), where Herfordwest is actually spoken of as ' Hereford west,' thus proving the truth of my supposition. But beyond and subsequently to this I have found, as will appear by the following quotations, Hereford in Herefordshire is in authors of the sixteenth century sometimes called Hereford east' and sometimes also 'Harford East.' Thus 'The Duke of Yorke, 'called Erle of Marche, somewhat spurred and quickened with 'these novelties, returned backe and mette his enemies in a 'fair plane near to Mortimers Crosse not farre from Herford 'east, on Candelmass day in the morning.'-Hall xxix. yere of Henry the Sixt, p. 251. Again as to Jasper duke of Bedford, son of Owen Tudor, who died xxth December, 11 Hen. VII., Dugdale says that 'by his will he bequeathed his 'second gown of cloth of gold to make a cope or vestment 'there, to the house of gray friars at Harford East, where his 'father lay interred.' In the Paston letters too, vol. i. p. 190, we have Harford for Hereford. Both towns therefore were called Hereford,' both towns also Herford' and 'Harford.' The Pembrokeshire town was always called 'west' besides, and the Herefordshire sometimes called 'East' besides. Surely then 'Herford,' the readings of the quartos in the earlier scenes, should be restored to the text throughout. Here the line will be: Brought hither Henry Herford, thy bold son. K. Rich. Tell me, moreover, hast thou sounded him, If he appeal the duke on ancient malice, Or worthily, as a good subject should, On some known ground of treachery in him? Gaunt. As near as I could sift him on that argument, On some apparent danger seen in him, Aim'd at your highness, no inveterate malice. |