(If ever I remember to be holy,) K. JOHN. Coz, farewell. [Exit Bastard. ELI. Come hither, little kinsman; hark, a word. [She takes ARTHUR aside. K. JOHN. Come hither, Hubert. O my gentle Hubert, We owe thee much; within this wall of flesh 4 But thou shalt have; and creep time ne'er so slow, Yet it shall come, for me to do thee good. I had a thing to say,-But let it go: The sun is in the heaven, and the proud day, 4 with some better TIME.] The old copy reads-tune. Corrected by Mr. Pope. The same mistake has happened in Twelfth Night. See that play, vol. xi. p. 397, n. 3. In Macbeth, Act IV. Sc. ult. we have "This time goes manly," instead of—" This tune goes manly." MALONE. 66 In the hand-writing of Shakspeare's age, the words time and tune are scarcely to be distinguished from each other. STEEVENS. full of GAWDS,] Gawds are any showy ornaments. So, in The Dumb Knight, 1633 : 5 "To caper in his grave. and with vain gawds See A Midsummer-Night's Dream, vol. v. p. 178, n. 8. STEEVENS. To give me audience :-If the midnight bell ons. 6 Sound ONE into the drowsy race of night;] The word one is here, as in many other passages in these plays, written on in the old copy. Mr. Theobald made the correction. In Chaucer, and other old writers, one is usually written on. See Mr. Tyrwhitt's Glossary to The Canterbury Tales. So once was anciently written And it should seem, from a quibbling passage in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, that one, in some counties at least, was pronounced, in our author's time, as if written on. transcriber's ear might easily have deceived him. persons whom I employed to read aloud to me each present work [Mr. Malone's edition, 1790] before it off, constantly sounded the word one in this manner. native of Herefordshire. Hence the One of the sheet of the was printed He was a The instances that are found in the original editions of our author's plays, in which on is printed instead of one, are so numerous, that there cannot, in my apprehension, be the smallest doubt that one is the true reading in the line before us. Thus, in Coriolanus, edit. 1623, p. 15: 66 This double worship, "Where on part does disdain with cause, the other Again, in Cymbeline, 1623, p. 380: 66 perchance he spoke not; but "Like a full-acorn'd boar, a Jarmen on," &c. Again, in Romeo and Juliet, 1623, p. 66: “And thou, and Romeo, press on heavie bier.” Again, in The Comedy of Errors, 1623, p. 94: 66 On, whose hard heart is button'd up with steel.” Again, in All's Well That End's Well, 1623, p. 240: “A good traveller is something at the latter end of a dinner,-but on that lies three thirds," &c. Again, in Love's Labour's Lost, quarto, 1598: "On, whom the musick of his own vaine tongue-." Again, ibid. edit. 1623, p. 113: "On, her hairs were gold, crystal the other's eyes." 66 The same spelling is found in many other books. So, in Holland's Suetonius, 1606, p. 14: trumpet," &c. he caught from on of them a I should not have produced so many passages to prove a fact of which no one can be ignorant, who has the slightest knowledge of And thou possessed with a thousand wrongs; the early editions of these plays, or of our older writers, had not the author of Remarks, &c. on the last Edition of Shakspeare, asserted, with that modesty and accuracy by which his pamphlet is distinguished, that the observation contained in the former part of this note was made by one totally unacquainted with the old copies, and that "it would be difficult to find a single instance” in which on and one are confounded in those copies. Mr. Theobald also proposed to read unto for into, which has been too hastily adopted; for into seems to have been frequently used for unto in Shakspeare's time. So, in Harsnet's Declaration, &c. 1603; - when the nimble vice would skip up nimbly 66 into the devil's neck." Again, in Daniel's Civil Wars, b. iv. folio, 1602: Again, in our poet's King Henry V.: "Which to reduce into our former favour-.” Again, in King Henry VIII.: 66 Yes, that goodness "Of gleaning all the land's wealth into one." i. e. into one man. Here we should now certainly write "unto one." Independently, indeed, of what has been now stated, into ought to be restored. So, Marlowe, in his King Edward II. 1598: "I'll thunder such a peal into his ears," &c. "These So also Bishop Hall, in his Heaven upon Earth: courses are not incident into an almighty power, who having the command of all vengeance, can smite when he list!" MALONE. I should suppose the meaning of "Sound on," to be this: "If the midnight bell, by repeated strokes, was to hasten away the race of beings who are busy at that hour, or quicken night itself in its progress;' the morning bell (that is, the bell that strikes one,) could not, with strict propriety, be made the agent; for the bell has ceased to be in the service of night, when it proclaims the arrival of day. Sound on may also have a peculiar propriety, because, by the repetition of the strokes at twelve, it gives a much more forcible warning than when it only strikes one. Such was once my opinion concerning the old reading; but on re-consideration, its propriety cannot appear more doubtful to any one than to myself. It is too late to talk of hastening the night, when the arrival of the morning is announced: and I am afraid that the repeated strokes have less of solemnity than the single notice, as they take Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy, thick; Or if that thou could'st see me without eyes, Without eyes, ears, and harmful sound of words ; 8 from the horror and awful silence here described as so propitious to the dreadful purposes of the king. Though the hour of one be not the natural midnight, it is yet the most solemn moment of the poetical one; and Shakspeare himself has chosen to introduce his Ghost in Hamlet, "The bell then beating one." Shakspeare may be restored into obscurity. I retain Mr. Theobald's correction; for though "thundering a peal into a man's ears" is good English, I do not perceive that such an expression as "sounding one into a drowsy race," is countenanced by any example hitherto produced. STEEVENS. 7 many other - using CONCEIT alone,] Conceit here, as in places, signifies conception, thought. So, in King Richard III.: "There's some conceit or other likes him well, "When that he bids good-morrow with such spirit." 8 MALONE. brooded-] So the old copy. Mr. Pope reads-broadey'd, which alteration, however elegant, may be unnecessary. All animals while brooded, i. e, "with a brood of young ones under their protection," are remarkably vigilant.-The King says of Hamlet: 66 there's something in his soul "O'er which his melancholy sits on brood." In P. Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History, a broodie hen is the term for a hen that sits on eggs. See p. 301, edit. 1601: Milton also, in L'Allegro, desires Melancholy to "Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings: " plainly alluding to the watchfulness of fowls while they are sitting. Broad-eyed, however, is a compound epithet to be found in Chapman's version of the eighth Iliad : “And hinder broad-ey'd Jove's proud will-." STEEVens. Brooded, I apprehend, is here used, with our author's usual I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts: K. JOHN. Do not I know, thou would'st? And, wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread, licence, for brooding; i. e. day, who is as vigilant, as ready with open eye to mark what is done in his presence, as an animal at brood. Shakspeare appears to have been so fond of domestick and familiar images, that one cannot help being surprized that Mr. Pope, in revising these plays, should have gained so little knowledge of his manner as to suppose any corruption here in the text. MALONE. The same image is found in Beaumont and Fletcher's Borduca, Act IV. Sc. II. : "See how he broods the boy." Again, in The Woman's Prize, Act I. Sc. I.: "This fellow broods his master." Brooded is used for brooding by Shakspeare, (says Mr. Malone) with his usual licence. So delighted for delighting in Othello: "If virtue no delighted beauty lack." Discontenting for discontented: "Your discontenting father strive to qualify.” And so in a multitude of other instances. BOSWELL. I am not thoroughly reconciled to this reading; but it would be somewhat improved by joining the words brooded and watchful by a hyphen-brooded-watchful. M. MASON, |