dation will convince every reader love and lone are made out of one another, only by a letter turned upside down. Oftentimes is a ftupid concretion of three words. My emendation gives this apt and easy fenfe. "The tears, that you have lent to your afflictions, fhall be turned into gems; and requite you by way of intereft, with happiness twenty times as great as your forrows have been." THEOB. P. 524. 1. 28. But how long fhall that title ever laft] I have fometimes fufpected, Shakespeare wrote, But how long fhall that little Ever last?. At left it must be owned, that calling-Ever-a title-instead of a word-is fomewhat aukward: unless it may be underftood in a forenfic fenfe. P. 525. 1. 8, 9, 10, 11, rejected by CAN.* HANMER. P. 526. 1. 4. two tender bedfellows] Read rather, too tender, L. 15, 16, rejected by REVISAL. HANMER.* P. 527. 1. 26. Some light-foot friend poft to the duke] Richard's precipitation and confufion is in this fcene very happily reprefented by inconfiftent orders, and fudden variations of opinion. JOHNS. P. 530. 1. 7. And every hour more competitors] By the word competitors, the fpeaker would infinuate, that men flocked to the adverse party, as if it had been a competition for intereft and for glory. But the Oxford Editor will make Shakespeare speak like other people, and fo reads complices. WARB. Tbid. more competitors.] i. e. more opponents. JOHNS. P. 531. 1. 19. Sir Chriftopher, tell Richmond this from me] The perfon, who is called Sir Chriftopher here, and who has been ftiled fo in the dramatis perfonæ of all the impreffions, I find by the chronicles to have been Chriftopher Urswick, a batchelor in divinity; and chaplain to the countess of Richmond, who had intermarried with the Lord Stanley. This prieft, the history tells us, frequently went backwards and forwards, unfufpected, on meffages betwixt the Countess of Richmond, and her husband, and the young Earl of Richmond, whilft he was preparing to make his defcent on England. THEOB. P. 533. 1. 5. Is the determin'd refpite of my wrongs] This is nonienfe, we should read respect of my wrongs, i. e. requital. WARB. Ibid.] Hanmer had rightly explained it, the time to which the punishment of his wrongs was refpited. Wrongs in this line means wrongs done, or injurious practices. JOHNS. L. 15. Blame the due of blame]This fcene fhould, in my opinion, be added to the foregoing act, fo the fourth act will have a more full and ftriking conclufion, and the fifth act will comprise the business of the important day, which put an end to the competition of York and Lancaster. Some of the quarto editions are not divided into acts, and it is probable that this and many other plays were left by the author in one unbroken continuity, and afterwards diftributed by chance, or what seems to have been a guide very little better, by the judgment or caprice of the first editors. JOHNS. L. 25. Embowell'd bofoms] Exenterated; ripped up; alluding, perhaps, to the Promethean vulture; or, more probably, to the fentence pronounced in the English courts against traytors, by which they are condemned to be hanged, drawn, that is, emborelled, and quartered. JOHNS. P. 535. 1. 2. Sound direction] True judgment; tried military skill. JOHNS. L. 23. Give me fome ink and paper] I have placed thefe lines here as they ftand in the first editions; the rest place them three speeches before, after the words, Sir William Brandon, you shall bear my ftandard; interrupting what there follows: The Earl of Pembroke, &c. I think them more naturally introduced here, when he is retiring to his tent; and confidering what he has to do that night. POPE. P. 536. 1. 21. Give me a watch] A watch has many fignifications, but I should believe that it means in this place not a fentinel, which would be regularly placed at the king's tent; nor an inftrument to measure time, which was not used in that age; but a watch-light, a candle to burn by him; the light that afterwards burnt blue; yet, a few lines after, he Lays, Bid my guard watch. which leaves it doubtful whether watch is not here a fentinel. JOHNS. L. 23. Look that my staves be found] Staves are the wood of JOHNS. the lances. P. 537. 1. 1 By attorney] By deputation. JOHNS. L. 26. I, as I may With beft advantage will deceive the time] I will take the beft opportunity to elude the dangers of this conjuncture. JOHNS. P. 538. 1. 4. -The leifare, and the fearful time, Cuts off the ceremonious vows of love] We have ftill a phrafe equivalent to this, however harsh it may seem, I would do this if leifure would permit, where leifure, as in this paffage, ftands for want of leifure. So again, -More than I have faid The leifure and enforcement of the time JOHNS. P. 539. 1. 10.] This prophecy, to which this allufion is made, was uttered in one of the parts of Henry the fixth. JOHNS. P. 540. 1. 11. Let us be laid within thy bafom, Richard] This is a poor feeble reading, I have reftored from the elder quarto, published in 1597, which Mr. Pope does not pretend to have seen; Let us be lead within thy bofom, Richard, This correfponds with what is faid in the line immediately following, And weigh thee down to ruin, shame, and death! THEOB. P. 541. 1. 12. I dy'd for hope, ere I could lend thee aid.] All the editions concur in this reading, to the abfolute detriment of the fenfe. I reftore, with the addition of a fingle letter, I dy'd for bolpe, ere I could lend thee aid; i. e. I perifhed for that help, which I had intended and was preparing to lend thee; tho' I could not effentially give thee any affistance. THEOB.* Ibid.] i. e. I died for wifhing well to you. But Mr. Theobald, with great fagacity, conjectured bolpe or aid; which gave the line this fine fenfe, I died for giving thee aid before I could give thee aid. WARB. Ibid.] Hanmer reads, I died forsoke, and supports his conjecture thus: This, as appears from history, was the cafe of the duke of Buckingham: that being ftopt with his army upon the banks of Severn by great deluges of rain he was deserted by his foldiers, who being in great diftrefs, half famished for want of victuals, and destitute of pay, disbanded themselves and fled. HANMER. L. 16. Give me another borfe] There is in this, as in many of our author's fpeeches of paffion, fomething very trifling, and something very striking. Richard's debate, whether he fhould quarrel with himself, is too long continued, but the fubfequent exaggeration of his crimes is truly tragical. JOHNS. L. 18. O coward confcience !] This is extremely fine. The speaker had entirely got the better of his confcience, and banished it from all his waking thoughts. But it takes advantage of his fleep, and frights him in his dreams. With greater elegance therefore he is made to call it coward conScience, which dares not encounter him while he is himself awake, and his faculties entire; but takes advantage of reafon being off his guard, and the powers of the foul diffolved in fleep. But the players, amongst their other innumerable abfurdities in the reprefentation of this tragedy, make Richard fay, inftead of O coward confcience, O tyrant confcience! whereby not only a great beauty is loft, but a great blunder committed. For Richard had entirely got the better of his confcience; which could, on no account, therefore be faid to play the tyrant with him. WARB. L. 22, to P. 542, 1. 5, inclus. rejected by HANMER.* P. 542. l. 15, 16, rejected by HANMER. L. 17. Methought, the fouls, &c.] Thefe lines ftand with fo little propriety at the end of this fpecch, that I cannot but fufpect them to be misplaced. Where then shall they be inferted? Perhaps after thefe words, Fool do not flatter. P. 544. 1. 3. By the foil JOHNS. Of England's chair] It is plain that foil cannot here mean that of which the obfcurity recommends the brightness of the diamond. It must mean the leaf (feueille) or thin plate of metal in which the ftone is fet. JOHNS. L. 18. The ransome of my bold attempt] The fine paid by me in atonement for my rafhnefs fhall be my dead corps. L. 22. Sound drums and trumpets, boldly, chearfully, JOHNS. God, and St. George, &c.] St. George was the common cry of the English foldiers, when they charged the enemy. The author of the old Arte of Warre, cited above, printed in the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, formally enjoins the use of this cry among the military laws. "84. Item, that all fouldiers entering into battaile, affault, skirmish, or other fraction of armes, shall have for their common cry and word, St. George, St. George, forward, or upon them, St. George, whereby the fouldier is much comforted, and the enemy difmaid by calling to minde the antient valour of England, which with that name has fo often been victorious and therefore, he that upon any finister zeale, fhall maliciously omit fo fortunate a name, shall be severely punifhed for his obftinate erroneous heart, and perverse mind." P. 47. WARTON. P. 545. 1. 25. This, and St. George to boot] That is, this is the order of our battle, which promifes fuccefs, and over and above this, is the protection of our patron Saint. JOHNS. Ibid. to boot.] i. e. to help, as I conceive, not over and above. P. 546. 1. 13. A fort, that is, a company, a collection. HAWKINS. JOHNS. L. 19. They would reftrain the one, diftain the other] The one means the lands; the other their wives. It is plain then we should read, They would diftrain, i. e. feize upon. WARB. L. 20. And who doth lead them but a paltry fellow, Long kept in Britaine at our mother's coft] This is fpoken by Richard, of Henry Earl of Richmond but they were far from having any common mother, but England: and the Earl of Richmond was not fubfifted abroad at the nation's public charge. During the greatest part of his rek |