Would fain have come with me to meet your grace, But by his mother was perforce withheld. Buck. Fie! what an indirect and peevish courfe If the deny,-lord Haftings, you go with him, Buck. You are too fenfelefs-obftinate, my lord, 2 Too ceremonious, and traditional : Weigh it but with the groffness of this age, 2 Too ceremonious, and traditional:] Ceremonious for superstitious; traditional for adherent to old customs. WARBURTON. 3 Weigh it but with the groffness of this age,] But the more gross, that is, the more fuperftitious the age was, the ftronger would be the imputation of violated fanctuary. The queftion, we fee by what follows, is whether fanctuary could be claimed by an infant. The fpeaker refolves it in the negative, because it could be claimed by those only whofe actions neceffitated them to fly thither; or by those who had an understanding to demand it; neither of which could be an infant's cafe: It is plain then, the first line, which introduces this reafoning, fhould be read thus: Weigh it but with the greennefs of his age, i. e. the young duke of York's, whom his mother had fled with to fanctuary. The corrupted reading of the old quarto is something nearer the true : WARBURTON. the greatnefs of his age. This emendation is received by Hanmer, and is very plausible; yet the common reading may ftand: Weigh it but with the groffness of this age, You break not fanctuary, That is, compare the act of feizing him with the grofs and licen tious practices of thefe times, it will not be confidered as a viola. tion of fanctuary, for you may give fuch reasons as men are now ufed to admit. JOHNSON. You You break not fanctuary in feizing him. To those whofe dealings have deferv'd the place, 4 But fanctuary children, ne'er 'till now. Card. My lord, you fhall o'er-rule my mind for once. Come on, lord Haftings, will you go with me? Prince. Good lords, make all the speedy hafte you [Exeunt Cardinal, and Haftings. Say, uncle Glofter, if our brother come, may. Where fhall we fojourn 'till our coronation? Prince. I do not like the Tower, of any place:Did Julius Cæfar build that place, my lord? Glo. He did, my gracious lord, begin that place; Which, fince, fucceeding ages have re-edify'd. جمہ Prince. Is it upon record? or elfe reported. Succeffively from age to age, he built it? Buck. Upon record, my gracious lord.. Prince. But fay, my lord, it were not register'd; Methinks, the truth fhould live from age to age, + Oft have I heard of fanctuary, men; &c.] Thefe arguments against the privilege of fanctuary are taken from fir Tho. More's Life of K. Edward the Fifth, published by Stowe: "And verily, I have often heard of fanctuary men, but I never heard art of fanctuary children, &c." STEEVENS, • As 'twere retail'd to all pofterity, Even to the general all-ending day. Glo. So wife fo young, they fay, do ne'er live long. Prince. What fay you, uncle? [Afide. Glo. I fay, without characters, fame lives long. 7 Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity, Į moralize,—two meanings in one word. As 'twere retail'd to all pofterity,] And fo it is: and, by that means, like most other retailed things, became adulterated. We fhould read: -intail'd to all pofterity; which is finely and fenfibly expreffed, as if truth was the natural inheritance of our children; which it is impiety to deprive them of. WARBURTON, Retailed may fignify diffused, difperfed. JOHNSON, So wife, &c.] Is cadit ante fenem, qui fapit ante diem, a proverbial line. Nov. 21, 1576, was enter'd on the books of the Stationers' Company," Carminum proverbialium totius humanæ vitæ, loci communes. From this collection, perhaps, the pentameter, which I have quoted from memory, is derived. STEEVENS. 7 Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity, I moralize two meanings in one word.] By vice, the author means not a quality, but a perfon. There was hardly an old play, till the period of the Reformation, which had not in it a devil, and a droll character, a jefter; (who was to play upon the devil ;) and this buffoon went by the name of a Vice. This buffoon was at first accoutred with a long jerkin, a cap with a pair of afs's ears, and a wooden dagger, with which (like another arlequin) he was to make fport in belabouring the devil. This was the conftant entertainment in the times of popery, whilst fpirits, and witchcraft, and exorcifing held their own. When the Reformation took place, the ftage hook off fome groffities, and encreased in refinements. The mafter-devil then was foon dif miffed from the scene; and this buffoon was changed into a fubordinate fiend, whofe bufinefs was to range on earth, and feduce poor mortals into that perfonated vicious quality, which he occafionally fupported; as, iniquity in general, hypocrify, ufury, va nity, prodigality, gluttony, &c. Now, as the fiend (or vice,) who perfonated Iniquity (or Hypocrify, for inftance) could never hope to play his game to the purpose but by hiding his cloven foot, and affuming a femblance quite different from his real character; he Prince. That Julius Cæfar was a famous man; With what his valour did enrich his wit, His he muft certainly put on a formal demeanour, moralize and prevaricate in his words, and pretend a meaning directly oppofite to his genuine and primitive intention. If this does not explain the paffage in queftion, 'tis all that I can at prefent fuggest upon it. Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity, THEOBALD. That the buffoon, or jefter of the old English farces, was called the vice, is certain: and that, in their moral representations, it was common to bring in the deadly fins, is as true. Of these we have yet feveral remains. But that the vice used to affume the perfonage of those fins, is a fancy of Mr. Theobald's, who knew nothing of the matter. The truth is, the vice was always a fool or jester: And, (as the woman, in the Merchant of Venice, calls the clown, alluding to this character,) a merry devil. Whereas these mortal fins were fo many fad ferious ones. But what milled our editor was the name, Iniquity, given to this vice: But it was only on account of his unhappy tricks and rogueries. That it was given to him, and for the reason I mention, appears from the following paffage of Jonfon's Staple of News, fecond intermeane: M. How like you the vice i' the play? "T. Here is never a fiend to carry him away. Befides he has never a wooden dagger. "M. That was the old way, gofip, when Iniquity came in, like Hocas Pocas, in a jugler's jerkin, with false skirts, like the knave of clubs." And, in The Devil's an Afs, we see this old vice, Iniquity, defcribed more at large. From all this, it may be gathered, that the text, where Richard compares himself to the formal vice, Iniquity, must be corrupt: And the interpolation of fome foolish player. The vice, or iniquity being not a formal but a merry, buffoon character. Befides, Shakespeare could never make an exact speaker refer to this character, because the subject he is upon is tradition and antiquity, which have no relation to it; and because it appears from the turn of the paffage, that he is apologizing for his equivocation by a reputable practice. To keep the reader no longer in fufpence, my conjecture is, that Shakespeare wrote and pointed the lines in this manner : Thus like the formal-wife Antiquity, I moralize: Two meanings in one word. Alluding to the mythologic learning of the antients, of whom they are all here fpeaking. So that Richard's ironical apology 1 His wit fet down to make his valour live: For is to this effect, You men of morals who fo much extol your allwife antiquity, in what am I inferior to it? which was but an equivocator as I am. And it is remarkable, that the Greeks themselves called their remote antiquity, Aixou or the equivocator. So far as to the general fenfe; as to that which arifes particularly out of the corrected expreffion, I fhall only observe, that formal-wife is a compound epithet, an extreme fine one, and admirably fitted to the character of the fpeaker, who thought all wifdom but formality. It must therefore be read for the future with a hyphen. My other obfervation is with regard to the pointing; the common reading: "I moralize two meanings is nonsense: but reformed in this manner, very fenfible: Thus like the formal-wife Antiquity I moralize: Two meanings in one word. i.e. I moralize as the antients did. And how was that? the having two meanings to one word. A ridicule on the morality of the antients, which he infinuates was no better than equivocating. WARBURTON. This alteration Mr. Upton very justly cenfures. Dr. Warbur ton, has, in my opinion, done nothing but correct the punctuation, if indeed any alteration be really neceflary. See the differtation on the old vice at the end of this play. To this long collection of notes may be added a queftion, to what equivocation Richard refers? The pofition immediately preceding, that fame lives long without characters, that is, without the help of letters, feems to have no ambiguity. He must allude to the former line : So young fo wife, they fay, did ne'er live long, in which he conceals under a proverb, his defign of haftening the prince's death. JOHNSON. From the following stage direction, in an old dramatic piece, entituled, Hifiriomaftix, or the Player whipt, 1610, it appears, that the Vice and Iniquity were fometimes diftinct perfonages Enter a roaring devil, with the Vice on his back, Iniquity in one hand, and Juventus in the other." The devil likewife makes the diftinction in his first speech: "Ho, ho, ho! thefe babes mine are all, "The Vice, Iniquitie, and child prodigal." The following part of this note was obligingly communicated by the rev. Mr. Bowle, of Idmestone near Salisbury. I know no writer who gives fo complete an account of this obfolete charafter, as archbishop Harfnet, in his Declaration of Popish Im poftures, |