And spur thee on with full as many lies From sun to sun: there is my honour's pawn; that the word oath, in Troilus and Cressida, quarto, 1609, is corrupted in the same manner. Instead of the " untraded oath," it gives "untraded earth." We might read, only changing the place of one letter, and altering another: "I task thy heart to the like.” i. e. I put thy valour to the same trial. So, in King Henry VI. Act V. Sc. II. : "How show'd his tasking? seem'd it in contempt ?" The quarto 1597 reads-task; the succeeding quartos, viz. 1598, 1608, and 1615, have-take. STEEVENS. Task is the reading of the first and best quarto, in 1597. In that printed in the following year the word was changed to take; but all the alterations made in the several editions of our author's plays in quarto, after the first, appear to have been made either arbitrarily or by negligence. (I do not mean to include copies containing new and additional matter.) I confess I am unable to explain either reading; but I adhere to the elder, as more likely to be the true one. MALONE. I should read "I take the earth," i. e. I take the earth to witness. TALBOT. 4 From sun to SUN:] i. e. as I think, from sun-rise to sunset. So, in Cymbeline: "Imo. How many score of miles may we well ride ""Twixt hour and hour? "Pisa. One score 'twixt sun and sun, "Madam, 's enough for you, and too much too." "The time appointed for the duello (says Saviolo,) hath alwaies been 'twixt the rising and the setting sun; and whoever in that time doth not prove his intent, can never after be admitted the combat upon that quarrel." On Honour and honourable Quarrels, 4to. 1595. This passage fully supports the emendation here made, and my interpretation of the words. The quartos read"From sin to sin." The emendation, which in my apprehension requires no enforcement or support, was proposed by Mr. Steevens, who explains these words differently. He is of opinion that they mean, from one day to another. MALONE. However ingenious the conjecture of Mr. Steevens may be, I think the old reading the true one. "From sin to sin," is from one denial to another; for those denials were severally maintained to be lies. HENLEY. AUM. Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw at all: I have a thousand spirits in one breast 5, SURREY. My lord Fitzwater, I do remember well The very time Aumerle and you did talk. FITZ. 'Tis very true: you were in presence then "; And you can witness with me, this is true. SURREY. AS false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true. FITZ. Surrey, thou liest. SURREY. Dishonourable boy! That lie shall lie so heavy on my sword, That it shall render vengeance and revenge, In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn; FITZ. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse! If I dare eat, or drink, or breathe, or live, I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness 7, 5 I have a thousand spirits in one breast,] Richard III.: 66 So, in King A thousand hearts are great within my bosom." STEEVENS. 6 MY LORD, 'tis true: you were in presence then ;] The quartos omit-My lord, and read-" "Tis very true," &c. The folio preserves both readings, and consequently overloads the metre. STEEVENS. ""Tis very true." So the quarto 1597. MALONE. 7 I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,] I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him. So, in Macbeth : 66 or be alive again, "And dare me to the desert with thy sword." JOHNSON. So also, in The Lover's Progress, by Beaumont and Fletcher: And spit upon him, whilst I say he lies, AUM. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage, That Norfolk lies: here do I throw down this 9. BOLING. These differences shall all rest under gage, Till Norfolk be repeal'd: repeal'd he shall be, To all his land and signories; when he's return'd, CAR. That honourable day shall ne'er be seen.Many a time hath banish'd Norfolk fought For Jesu Christ; in glorious Christian field Streaming the ensign of the Christian cross, Against black pagans, Turks, and Saracens : And toil'd with works of war, retir'd himself To Italy; and there, at Venice, gave His body to that pleasant country's earth And his pure soul unto his captain Christ, 8 in this new world,] In this world where I have just begun to be an actor Surrey has, a few lines above, called him boy. JOHNSON. 9 here do I throw down this,] Holinshed says, that on this occasion "he threw down a hood that he had borrowed." STEEVENS. He had before thrown down his own hood, when accused by Bagot. MALOne. I gave His body to that pleasant country's earth,] This is not historically true. The duke of Norfolk's death did not take place till after Richard's murder. MALONE. Under whose colours he had fought so long. BOLING. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom Of good old Abraham!-Lords appellants, Enter YORK, attended. YORK. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing soul Adopts thee heir, and his high scepter yields Ascend his throne, descending now from him,- CAR. Marry, God forbid !— Worst in this royal presence may I speak, Yet best beseeming me to speak the truth 2. 1 In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne.] The words actually spoken by Henry, on this occasion, were as follows: Standing upright, that every one might see him, after he had crossed himself on the forehead and breast, and called on the name of Christ, he said : -"In the name of Fadher, Son, and Holy Ghost, I, Henry of Lancaster, challenge the rewme of Ynglande, and the Croun, with all the membres and the appurtenances, and als I, that am descendit by right line of the blode, coming from the gude king Henry Therde, and throge that right that God of his grace hath sent me, with help of kyn, and of my frendes to recover it, the which rewme was in poynt to be ondone, by defaute of governaunce and ondoying of the gude lawes." Hume, vol. ix. p. 50, 4to. who gives a very ingenious comment on this politick speech, which is copied from Knyghton, p. 2757. MALONE. 2 Yet best BESEEMING me to speak the truth.] It might be read more grammatically: "Yet best beseems it me to speak the truth." 2 Would God, that any in this noble presence But I do not think it is printed otherwise than as Shakspeare wrote it. JOHNSON. 2 nobless-] i. e. nobleness; a word now obsolete, but used both by Spenser and Ben Jonson. STEEvens. 3 And shall the figure, &c.] Here is another proof that our author did not learn in K. James's court his elevated notions of the right of kings. I know not any flatterer of the Stuarts, who has expressed this doctrine in much stronger terms. It must be observed that the poet intends, from the beginning to the end, to exhibit this bishop as brave, pious, and venerable. JOHNSON. Shakspeare has represented the character of the bishop as he found it in Holinshed, where this famous speech, (which contains, in the most express terms, the doctrine of passive obedience,) is preserved. The politicks of the historian were the politicks of the poet. STEEVENS. 66 The chief argument urged by the bishop in Holinshed, is, that it was unjust to proceed against the king" without calling him openly to his aunswer and defence." He says, that none of them were worthie or meete to give judgement to so noble a prince;" but does not expressly assert that he could not be lawfully deposed. Our author, however, undoubtedly had Holinshed before him. MALONE. It does not appear from any better authority than Holinshed that Bishop Merkes made this famous speech, or any speech at all upon this occasion, or even that he was present at the time. His sentiments, however, whether right or wrong, would have been regarded neither as novel nor unconstitutional. And it is observable that usurpers are as ready to avail themselves of the doctrine of divine right, as lawful sovereigns; to dwell upon the sacredness of their persons and the sanctity of their character. Even that " cutpurse of the empire," Claudius, in Hamlet, affects to believe that 66 VOL. XVI. such divinity doth hedge a king," &c. RITSON. K |