P. 312. (12)

"know'st thou not
That when the searching eye of heaven is hid
Behind the globe, that lights the lower world," &c.

In the last of these lines, "that does not relate to the nearest antecedent, globe, but to the eye of heaven. Nothing is more common in Shakespeare and the writers of his day than this manner of disposing of the relative." TALBOT.

P. 312. (13) " In murders and in outrage, boldly here."

The usual reading is "- bloody here:" but the earliest 4to has "bouldy here"-a misprint for "bouldly (boldly) here," -" boldly" being put in opposition to "trembling" six lines after.

P. 314. (14)

"and boys, with women's voices, Strive to speak big, and clap their female joints In stiff unwieldy arms against thy crown."

Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector changes "clap" to "clasp" (an alteration made also by Pope), and "female" to "feeble:" but "clap" is undoubtedly right; and "female" may keep its place as equivalent to-womanish.

P. 317. (15) "I know it, uncle; and oppose not myself
Against their will. -But who comes here?"

"Such," says Malone, "is the regulation of the old copies. The second line is left unmetrical, according to a frequent practice of our author, when a person enters suddenly," &c.:-whence it appears that Malone regarded the first line as metrical!-though, like some others in the play, it is evidently corrupted.

-tot

So the two latest 4tos and the folio. - The two earliest 4tos have " tered battlements," &c., which is merely a variety of spelling: see note (55), p. 268 of this vol. "So in the Second Part of Henry IV. [Induction] Rumour calls Northumberland's castle 'this worm-eaten hold of ragged stone,' an expression synonymous to 'tatter'd.' " - MASON. And see Mr. Collier's note ad l.

P. 318. (17) "See, see, King Richard doth himself appear,
As doth, &c.

York. Yet looks he like a king," &c.

So all the old copies distinctly; and, with Mr. Collier, I consider it better to follow them here than violently to assign the whole of this to York, as is done by the more recent editors, who think, with Warburton, that, according to the original distribution of the speeches, "Bolingbroke is made to condemn his own conduct and to disculp the king's." (If I were to venture on any alteration, I should prefer giving, "See, see," &c. to Percy: compare his last speech in the preceding page.)

P. 319. (18)

"That any harm should stain so fair a show." This is altered both by Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector and by Mr. Singer's to "That any storm should," &c.: and so, perhaps, Shakespeare wrote.

" And I could weep, would weeping do me good," &c. The old copies have " And I could sing, would," &c.

The old copies omit "We." ("Do wound the bark," &c., is the reading of the 4tos:-and what can Mr. Collier mean, when, recommending the alterations made here by the Ms. Corrector, he says that "Malone thrust in do to supply the defect of the measure?")

P. 325. (22)

Thou, old Adam's likeness [coming forward with ladies], set to dress this garden,

How dares thy harsh-rude tongue sound these unpleasing news?"

This was cut down by Pope to,

"Thou Adam's likeness, set to dress this garden,

How dares thy tongue sound this unpleasing news?"

In the second line, for the sake of consistency, I have altered "this unpleasing newes" to "these unpleasing news;" -all the 4tos and the folio having, in the next speech, "To breath these newes," and the 4to of 1597, in the second speech after, "these news of woe."

So the first 4to. -The later 4tos, "I take the earth," &c. (This and the seven next lines are omitted in the folio.) - The true reading here is far from certain.

P. 330. (*) "Prevent, resist it, let it not be so,

Lest child, child's children, cry against you woe!"

The old copies have "Preuent it, resist it," &c.

P. 331. (25)

"Give me the crown. -Here, cousin, seize the crown;
On this side my hand, and on that side yours."

"The quarto 1608, where this scene first appeared, reads,

'Seize the crown.

Here, cousin, on this side my hand, and on that side yours.'

The folio,

'Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown;

Here, cousin, on this side my hand, on that side thine.'

It is evident that in the original copy, the words, 'Here, cousin, seize the crown,' were erroneously printed-Seize the crown. Here, cousin;' but these words being properly arranged, all the rest of the first copy is right." MA

LONE.

P. 336. (26)

"What, is my Richard both in shape and mind

Transform'd and weaken'd? hath Bolingbroke depos'd
Thine intellect? hath he been in thy heart?"

That the author intended these lines to be so regulated, is proved by some other passages of the play;

"Harry Bolingbroke doth humbly kiss thy hand." p. 320.

"What says King Bolingbroke? will his majesty," &c. p. 321.

P. 337. (27)

"And he shall think, that thou, which know'st the way," &c.

I may notice that Mr. Collier's attempt to rectify the metre, without adopting the modern addition "And,"

1

Mr. Collier says that here his Ms. Corrector makes "an improvement in the measure of a line, which has been given corruptly everywhere," viz.

"'Tis nothing but some bond he's enter'd into," &c.

But Mr. Collier might have found the same "improvement" in the editions of Pope, Theobald, and Hanmer,-those earlier editors allowing themselves such liberties with the text as their successors dare not take, even in passages which are most probably corrupted.

P. 342. (30)

"Which he, young wanton and effeminate boy," &c.

Pope printed "While he, young," &c.; and his reading has become the established one: but our old writers sometimes use the relative "which" so ungrammatically, that any alteration here is very questionable.

P. 342. (31)

"I see some sparks of better hope," &c.

A mutilated line. - The usual modern reading is,

"I see some sparkles of a better hope," &c.

(which, says Mr. Knight, "is certainly an improvement; and one of the quartos has 'sparkles of better hope:" - nay, three of the 4tos have that lection; which, however, Mr. Collier pronounces to be "an error," adding that "the folio returns to 'sparks," and that "Bolingbroke afterwards (p. 351) speaks of sparks of honour.' ")

P. 346. (32) “But makes one pardon strong.

With all my heart

Boling.
I pardon him.
Duch.

A god on earth thou art."

The old copies have "I pardon him with all my heart" (which Mr. Collier retains, though a couplet was obviously intended here).

soliloquy are not unusual with our author and with other old dramatists: see Remarks on Mr. Collier's and Mr. Knight's eds. of Shakespeare, p. 102. Το the instances which I have cited there the following may be added: in Fletcher's Woman's Prize, or the Tamer Tamed, Petruchio says, while solus,

"'Tis hard dealing, Very hard dealing, gentlemen, strange dealing!"

and in his Wild-Goose Chase, Pinac says, while alone,

Act iii. sc. 2.

(Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector, it appears, was also perplexed by "sir," and substituted a word which does away with all meaning in the passage ;

"Now, for the sound that tells what hour it is,

Are clamorous groans, that strike upon my heart,
Which is the bell.")

P. 348. (35)

"What art thou? and how com'st thou hither," &c. If the more recent editors thought that by printing (with the 4tos) "comest," they restored the line to measure, they were sadly mistaken.-Something has dropped out.

P. 349. (36)

The folio has "

"So proudly as if he disdain'd the ground."

he had disdain'd the ground:" and probably (considering

the " So proud" in the next line) the true reading is,

"So proud as if he had disdain'd the ground."

P. 349. (37)

"Sir Pierce of Exton,

Who lately came from the king, commands the contrary."

Qy. "Who late came," &c.? (The usual modern arrangement is to make "who" the last word of the first line.)