in the old quarto, and when Henry faid nothing, the first fpeech might be as properly given to Warwick as to any

other.

JOHNS. P. 404. l. 1. - My meed bath got me fame :] Meed fignifies reward. We fhould read my deed, i. e. my manners, conduct in the administration.

WARB.

Ibid. Meed,] This word fignifies merit, both as a verb and a fubftantive; that it is used as a verb, is clear from the following foolith couplet, which I remember to have read. Deem if I meed

Dear madam Read.

A fpecimen of verfes that read the fame backward and HAWKINS. *

forward.

L. 14. Shout within. A Lancaster!] Surely the fhouts that ufhered king Edward should be a York, a York. I fuppofe the author did not write the marginal directions, and the players confounded the characters. JOHNS.

P. 406. 1. 25. But while he thought to fieal the fingle ten,

The King was flyly finger'd from the deck,] Tho' there may seem no confonance of metaphors betwixt a fingle ten and a deck, the latter word being grown obfolete, and not acknowledged by our dictionaries in the fenfe here required; yet deck, in all our northern counties, is this day ufed to fignify a pack or flock of cards. THEOB.*

P. 40. after I. 5. A parley is founded, &c.] This note of direction I restored from the old quarto. And, without it, it is impoffible that any reader can guess at the meaning of this line of Clarence;

Look, here, I throw my Infamy at Thee. THEOB. L. 9. -to lime the ftones.] That is, to cement the ftones.

Lime makes mortar.

JOHNS.

L. 11. Blunt,] Stupid, infenfible of paternal fondness.

JOHNS.

P. 409. 1.3. Paffing] Eminent, egregious; traiterous

beyond the common track of treafon.

JOHNS.

L. 13. For Warwick was a bug that fear'd us all,] Bug is

a Bugbear, a terrifick being.

JOHNS.

P. 410. 1. 8. Cedes comptis faltibus, et demo, Villâque. HOR. This mention of his parks and manours diminishes the pathetic effect of the foregoing lines.

JOHNS.

L. 28. Which founded like a cannon in a vault,] The old quarto reads clamour, which is undoubtedly right, i. e, a clamour of tongues, which, as he says, could not be diftinguifh'd. This was a pertinent fimilitude: The other abfurd, and neither agrees with what is predicated of it, nor with what it is intended to illuftrate. WARB.

P. 414. 1. 10. K. Edw. Brave followers, &c.] This fcene is ill-contrived, in which the king and queen appear at once on the stage at the head of oppofite armies. It had been eafy to make one retire before the other entered. JOHN.

P. 415. 1. 25. Let Efop, &c,] The prince calls Richard for his crookednefs, fop; and the poet, following nature, makes Richard highly incenfed at the reproach. JOHNS. P. 416. l. 13. tbou likeness of this railer bere,] Thou that resembleft thy railing mother. JOHNS. P. 417. 1. 16. - you have rid this fweet Prince.] The condition of this warlike queen would move compaffion could it be forgotten that she gave York, to wipe his eyes in his captivity, a handkerchief stained with his young child's blood.

JOHNS.

L. 25. 'Twas fin,] She alludes to the defertion of Cla

rence.

JOHNS.

L. 26. - Where is that Devil's Butcher, Richard ?] Thus all the Editions. But Devil's Butcher, in other terms, I think, is Kill-devil: rare news for the free-thinkers, if there were any grounds for depending on it. But the poet certainly wrote devil-butcher; and the first part of the compound is to be taken adjectively, meaning, execrable, infernal, devilish. THEOB.

Ibid.] Devil's Butcher is a butcher fet on by the Devil. Either reading may serve without fo long a note. JOHNS.

P. 418. 1. 18. What fcene of death bath Rofcius now to act?] Rofcius was certainly put for Richard by fome fimple conceited player, who had heard of Rofcius and of Rome: but did not know that he was an actor in comedy, not in tragedy. WARB.

L. 26. Peevish fool,] As peevishness is the quality of children, peevib feems to fignify childish, and by confequence filly. Peevifh is explained by childish, in a former note of Dr. Warburton.

JOHNS.

P. 419. 1. 18. Which now miftruft no parcel of my fear,] Who fufpect no part of what my fears prefage. JOHNS. L. 27. The raven rook'd her,] What is rook'd her? Read, croak'd boarfe.

JOHNS. Ibid.] The true reading feems to be at no great distance, the tempeft fhook down trees

The raven rock'd her on the chimney's top; on the top of the chimney fhaken by the tempeft. JOHNS. P. 420. 1. 3. And, if the reft be true which I have heard, Thou cam'ft -] Had our editors had but a grain of fagacity, or due diligence, there could have been no room for this abfurd break, fince they might have ventured to fill it up with certainty too. The old.quarto would have led them part of the way,

Thou cam'ft into the world

And that the verfe is to be compleated in the manner I have given it, is inconteftible; for unless we fuppofe King Henry actually reproaches him with this his prepofterous birth, how can Richard in his very next foliloquy fay?

Indeed, 'tis true, that Henry told me of,
For I have often heard my mother fay,

I came into the world with my legs forward.

I can eafily fee, that this blank was caufed by the nicety of the players, to fupprefs an incident idea. But, with fubmiflion, this was making but half a cure, unless they had expung'd the repetition of it out of Richard's fpeech too.

THEOB.

P. 422. 1. 10. Work thou the way, and that shall execute.] I believe we fhould read,

and this fhall ex cute.

Richard laying his hand on his forehead fays,
Work thou the way

then bringing down his hand and beholding it,

and this fhall execute.

Though that may ftand, the arm being included in the fhoulder.

JOHNS.

L. 15. Thanks, noble Clarence; avorthy brother, thanks.] This line has been given to king Edward; but I have, with the old quarto, reftored it to the queen.

THEOB.

END of the NOTES on the 3d. PART of HENRY VI.

NOTE S

ON THE

LIFE AND DEATH OF K. RICHARD III.

PAGE 425. The life and death of king Richard the Third,] The oldest known edition of this tragedy is printed for Andrew Wife, 1597: but Harrington, in his Apologie of Po etrie, written 1590, and prefixed to the tranflation of Ariosto, fays, that a tragedy of Richard the Third had been acted at Cambridge. His words are, "For tragedies, to omit other "famous tragedies, that which was played at St. John's in "Cambridge, of Richard the Third, wou'd move, I think, "Phalaris the tyrant, and terrify all tyrannous minded "men, &c." He moft probably means Shakespeare's; and if fo, we may argue, that there is fome more antient edition of this play than what I have mentioned; at least this thews us how early Shakespeare's plays appeared: or if fome other Richard the Third is here alluded to by Harrington, that a play on this fubject preceded our author's. WARTON.

Ibid.] This Tragedy, though it is called the Life and Death of this Prince, comprizes, at most, but the last eight years of his time: for it opens with George Duke of Clarence being clap'd up in the Tower, which happen'd in the beginning of the year 1477; and clofes with the death of Richard at Bosworthfield, which battle was fought on the 22d of Auguft in the year 1485. THEOB.

L. 11. To fright the fouls.] This may be right. But I rather think Shakespear wrote the foule, French, the crowd or multitude running away in a rout or confufion. WARB." L. 12. He capers-] War capers. This is poetical, Though a little harsh; if it be York that capers, the ante Vo IV, PART II.

A