Nor leave not one behind, that doth not wish CAM. Never was monarch better fear'd, and lov'd, Than is your majesty; there's not, I think, a subject, That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness Under the sweet shade of your government. GREY. Even those, that were your father's enemies, Have steep'd their galls in honey; and do serve you With hearts create of duty and of zeal. K. HEN. We therefore have great cause of thank- And shall forget the office of our hand *, SCROOP. So service shall with steeled sinews toil; K. HEN. We judge no less.-Uncle of Exeter, Enlarge the man committed yesterday, That rail'd against our person: we consider, It was excess of wine that set him on ; And, on his more advice3, we pardon him. SCROOP. That's mercy, but too much security: Let him be punish'd, sovereign; lest example Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind. "If you shall cleave to my consent," &c. Consent is union, party, &c. STEEVENS. 66 ours. 3 in a fair concent In friendly concord; in unison with See vol. xi. p. 92, n. 3. MALONE. hearts CREATE ] Hearts compounded or made duty and zeal. JOHNSON. 4 And shall forget the office of our hand,] Perhaps our author, when he wrote this line, had the fifth verse of the 137th Psalm in his thoughts: "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." STEEVENS. 5 — more advice,] On his return to more coolness of mind. JOHNSON. See vol. iv. p. 56, n. 7. MALONE. K. HEN. O, let us yet be merciful. CAM. So may your highness, and yet punish too. GREY. Sir, you show great mercy, if you give him life, After the taste of much correction. K. HEN. Alas, your too much love and care of me Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch. If little faults, proceeding on distemper, Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye", When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and di gested, Appear before us?-We'll yet enlarge that man, Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey,-in their dear care, And tender preservation of our person,― Would have him punish'd. And now to our French causes; Who are the late commissioners 8 ? 6-proceeding on DISTEMPER,] i. e. sudden passions. Perturbation of mind. WARBURTON. Temper is equality or calmness of mind, from an equipoise or due mixture of passions. Distemper of mind is the predominance of a passion, as distemper of body is the predominance of a humour. JOHNSON. It has been just said by the king, that "it was excess of wine that set him on," and distemper may therefore mean intoxication. Distemper'd in liquor is still a common expression. Chapman, in his Epicedium on the Death of Prince Henry, 1612, has personified this species of distemper: "Frantick distemper, and hare-ey'd unrest." And Brabantio says, that Roderigo is "Full of supper and distemp'ring draughts." Again, Holinshed, vol. iii. p. 626: " gave him wine and strong drink in such excessive sort, that he was therewith distempered, and reel'd as he went." STEEVENS. 7 how shall we stretch our eye,] If we may not wink at small faults, how wide must we open our eyes at great? JOHNSON. 8 Who are the late commissioners ?] That is, as appears from the sequel, who are the persons lately appointed commissioners? M. MASON. CAM. I one, my lord; Your highness bade me ask for it to-day. GREY. And me, my royal sovereign. K. HEN. Then, Richard, earl of Cambridge, there is yours: There yours, lord Scroop of Masham:-and, sir knight, Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours:- What see you in those papers, that you lose Сам. K. HEN. The mercy that was quick in us but late, These English monsters! My lord of Cambridge here, . You know, how apt our love was, to accord To furnish him with all appertinents 1 Belonging to his honour; and this man * Folio, you. 9-quick-] That is, living. JOHNSON. To furnish HIM] The latter word, which is wanting in the first folio, was supplied by the editor of the second. MALONE. To kill us here in Hampton: to the which, Could out of thee extract one spark of evil, With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd But he, that temper'd thee *, bade thee stand up, I though the truth of it stands off as gross As black from white,] Though the truth be as apparent and visible as black and white contiguous to each other. To stand off is être releve, to be prominent to the eye, as the strong parts of a picture. JOHNSON. 2 WHOOP at them:] That they excited no exclamation of surprise. Such, I think, is meant by the word in As You Like It: "O wonderful, wonderful, &c. and after that out of all whooping." See vol. vi. p. 429, n. 6. BOSWELL. 3so grossly] Palpably; with a plain and visible connection of cause and effect. JOHNSON. 4 - he, that TEMPER'D thee,] Though temper'd may stand for Gave thee no instance why thou should'st do trea son, Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor. 5 If that same dæmon, that hath gull'd thee thus, The sweetness of affiance! Show men dutiful? formed or moulded, yet I fancy tempted was the author's word, for it answers better to suggest in the opposition. JOHNSON. Temper'd, I believe, is the true reading, and means-rendered thee pliable to his will. Falstaff says of Shallow, that he has him "tempering between his thumb and finger." STEEVENS. 5 vasty TARTAR -] i. e. Tartarus, the fabled place of future punishment. So, in Heywood's Brazen Age, 1613: With aconitum that in Tartar springs." STEEVENs. Again, in The Troublesome Raigne of King John, 1591: "And let the black tormentors of black Tartary, Upbraide them with this damned enterprize." MALone. 6 O, how hast thou with jealousy infected The sweetness of affiance!] Shakspeare uses this aggravation of the guilt of treachery with great judgment. One of the worst consequences of breach of trust is the diminution of that confidence which makes the happiness of life, and the dissemination of suspicion, which is the poison of society. JOHNSON. 7 Garnish'd and deck'd in MODEST COMPLEMENT;] Complement has, in this instance, the same sense as in Love's Labour's Lost, Act I. Complements, in the age of Shakspeare, meant the same as accomplishments in the present one. STEEVENS. |