as in TWELFTH NIGHT, (act v. scene i.)--" A natural perspective, that is and is not,"-it is evidently used to denote the optical delusion produced by cutting a board, so that it should present a number of sides, or flats, when looked at obliquely. To these sides, a print, or drawing, cut into parts, was affixed; so that looked at "awry" the whole picture was seen: looked at direct"rightly gaz'd upon"-it showed " nothing but confusion." Dr. Plot, in his "History of Staffordshire," describes these " perspectives." Ben Jonson has some verses containing the same thought, contrasting the laterall view" of "a cunning piece wrought perspectire," with that "eyed directly."

Or something hath the nothing that I grieve," etc. Johnson did not "know well what could be done"

with this and the preceding line; but the meaning seems, that either nothing had begotten the Queen's grief, or there really is something in the nothing that she grieves about. "Conceit" here is to be understood as conception.

“'Tis in reversion that I do possess," etc.

As the grief the Queen felt was for some event which had not yet come to pass, or not yet come to her knowledge, she expresses this by saying that the grief which she then actually possessed was still "in reversion," as she had no right to feel the grief until the event should happen which was to occasion it. The opposition of possession and "reversion" is one of the technical phrases of the old common law of real property, always found in old deeds, and retained in many of the forms still in use.

"Come, sister-cousin, I would say"-The nature and truth of this are striking. York, with his mind full of his sister's death, addresses his cousin, the Queen, as her, and suddenly corrects himself.

** If I know how, or which way to order these affairs," etc. This is the regulation of the lines in all the old copies, which we follow, assenting to Collier's good taste in perceiving that Shakespeare intended the measure to be irregular and hurried, the better to accord with York's state of mind. The ordinarily printed text adds If I know" to "Gentlemen, will you go

muster men?"

"I fear me, never"-There is some variation of the division of the dialogue in the older, and consequently in modern editions. We have followed Collier in preferring that marked out in all the quartos, which seems the natural distribution. The folio (1623) gives the desponding line, "Farewell at once," etc., to Bushy, who had just spoken of the possible success of the duke of York.

SCENE III.

"My lord, my answer is-to Lancaster,"—i. e. "My answer is only to a message to Lancaster, which name I am come to seek in England."

SCENE IV.

"SCENE IV."-Johnson thought this scene "inartfully and irregularly" thrust in here, and suspects that it ought to form the second scene of the third act.

ACT III.-SCENE I.

"DISPARK'D my parks"-To "dispark" signifies to divest a park of its name and character, by destroying the enclosures, and the vert, (or whatever bears green leaves, whether wood or underwood,) and the beasts of chase therein; laying it open.

“From mine own windows torn my household coat," etc. "It was the practice, when coloured glass was in use, to anneal the arms of the family in the windows of the house."-JOHNSON.

The "impress" was the device or motto of the coat

of-arms, which was often very conspicuously inscribed, and cut on stone over the gates, or in the halls and gal

leries of old mansions.

"— fairly let her be ENTREATED"-Old writers, especially our dramatists, use "entreat" for treat. So in the old play, "The Weakest goeth to the Wall," (1600:)

Entreat them well, as thou wilt answer me
At my return.

SCENE II.

"As a long parted mother with her child Plays fondly with her tears and smiles," etc. The usual mode of reading these two beautiful lines is as follows:

As a long parted mother with her child

Plays fondly with her tears, and smiles in meeting. "Smiles," in this way, is a verb; but, by the transposition of the comma, it is read as a noun. The "longparted mother" does not only play fondly with her tears, but with her smiles also. Richard adds

So, weeping, smiling, greet I thee, my earth. "-heavy-gaited toads"-" This epithet is one of the many examples of Shakespeare's wonderful accuracy in observing natural objects, and of his power of con veying an image by a word."-KNIGHT.

"BLOODY here"-The earliest quarto has "bouldy here," which was perhaps a misprint for boldly, and this may have been the Poet's word, though all subsequent editions have "bloody here." "Boldly here" seems to accord better with the "trembling at themselves," at the close.

"Awake, thou COWARD majesty"-The folio has varied this epithet of the preceding old editions, to "thou sluggard majesty," which is perhaps the epithet more appropriate to the context, and may on that account have been the author's own correction.

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there the antick sits"-In HENRY VI. (Part I.) we meet with the expression, thou antick death;" and Douce observes, that Shakespeare may have bor rowed this idea of death sitting in the king's crown from the wood-cuts called Imagines Mortis, attributed, though erroneously, to Holbein. There, however, death is represented taking off an emperor's crown, and not sitting and keeping his court in it; so that, though Shakespeare may have had it in his mind, he did not copy the image.

This is not improbable. Holbein's fame was widely spread in England, where he had been, and the woodcuts, under his name, must have been popular there, as well as throughout Europe.

66- - I'll hate him everlastingly, That bids me be of comfort any more.' Johnson well remarks on this passage, as founded in general nature-"Nothing is more offensive to a mind convinced that its distress is without a remedy, and preparing to submit quietly to irresistible calamity, than these petty and conjectured comforts which unskilful officiousness thinks it virtue to administer."

"To EAR the land"-i. e. To cultivate that soil which promises to be productive. To "ear the land" mean to prepare it for seed, by ploughing it. In ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, Shakespeare speaks of earing, o ploughing, the sea:

Make the sea serve them, which they ear and wound
With keels.

SCENE III.

"Go to the rude ribs of that ancient castle," etc. "Observe the fine struggle of a haughty sense of power and ambition, in Bolingbroke, with the necessity for dissimulation."-COLERIDGE.

"Of his bright passage to the occident."

In every old edition, quarto and folio, these six lines are given to Bolingbroke, and there is no reason for giving them to York, as has been done by the editors since the time of Warburton. It is not inconsistent with the character of Bolingbroke, and what he has before said of Richard, that he should so speak of him. After he has so spoken, and after York's answer, we must suppose Bolingbroke to retire with York, and to leave the conduct of the interview to Northumberland, until he rejoins Bolingbroke just before Richard descends to the plain. Richard's observation to Northumberland, "For yond', methinks, he stands," shows that Bolingbroke was not out of sight.-Collier.

"Words of SOOTH-i. e. Words of assent; assuaging, soothing words. As "sooth," in its first meaning, is true, or truth, so to soothe is to receive as true; and thence to assent, to propitiate.

"My gay apparel"-Richard's expense, in regard to dress, was very extraordinary. "He had one coate which he caused to be made for him, of gold and stones, valued at three thousand marks."-HOLLINGSHED.

·Bolingbroke says AY"-For the rhyme we ought to read, as in the old copies," and Bolingbroke says I;" for "ay" was then almost invariably spelled with a capital I.

"in the BASE court"-i. e. In the lower court, basse-cour;) a term derived from the Norman-French of the ancient lords of England's castles.

"Set on towards London"-"The duke, with a high sharp voice, bade bring forth the King's horses; and then two little nags, not worth forty francs, were brought forth. The King was set on one, and the Earl of Salisbury on the other; and thus the Duke brought the King from Flint to Chester, where he was delivered to the Duke of Gloster's son and to the Earl of Arundel's son, (that loved him but little, for he had put their fathers to death,) who led him straight to the castle."-Stowe. (From a manuscript account by a person who was present.)

SCENE IV.

"And I could SING, would weeping do me good," etc. Thus all the old copies; but Pope, having corrected an error just above, was satisfied that another error existed, and changed sing' to weep. This reading has been adopted in subsequent editions. We believe that the original was right, and that the sense of the passage was mistaken. The queen, who speaks constantly of her sorrow, it may be presumed does weep, or has been weeping. The lady offers to sing, but the queen desires sympathy:-Thou should'st please me better would'st thou weep.' The lady could weep, would it do you good.' The queen rejoins

And I could sing, would weeping do me good.

If my griefs were removed by weeping-if my tears could take away my sorrow-I should be ready to sing;-I could sing, and then, my sorrows being past, I would 'never borrow any tear of thee,'-not ask thee to weep, as I did just now."-KNIGHT.

"-for every one doth so

Against a change. Woe is forerun with woe. "The Poet, according to the common doctrine of prognostication, supposes dejection to forerun calamity, and a kingdom to be filled with rumours of sorrow when any great disaster is impending. The sense is, that public evils are always presignified by public pensiveness and plaintive conversation."-JOHNSON.

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Go, bind thou up yond' dangling APRICOCKS," etc. "See here the skill and judgment of our Poet, in giving reality and individual life, by the introduction of accidents in his historic plays, and thereby making them dramas, and not histories. How beautiful an islet of repose-a melancholy repose, indeed-is this scene with the Gardener and his servant. And how truly affecting and realizing is the incident of the very horse Barbary, in the scene with the Groom in the last act !"— COLERIDGE.

Our apricot is from the French abricot. But the name came with the fruit from Persia, (bricoc;) and we probably derived it from the Italian. Florio, in his "New World of Words," has" Berricocoli; apricock-plumbes."

"Her KNOTS disorder'd"-The symmetrical beds of a garden were the "knots."

-press'd to death, through want of speaking"-I believe Malone is right here in pointing out another of those common-law allusions, so strangely frequent in SHAKESPEARE, and which are certainly not among his excellences:-"The Poet alludes to the ancient legal punishment called peine forte et dure, which was inflicted on those persons, who, being arraigned, refused to plead, remaining obstinately silent. They were pressed to death by a heavy weight laid upon their stomach."

"Here did she FALL a tear"-"This is the reading of the quarto, (1597,) and doubtless the language of Shakespeare. The later quartos and folios substitute drop forfall.' In OTHELLO, (act iv. scene 1,) we have a corresponding expression :

Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile. So in the COMEDY OF ERRORS:

as easy may'st thou fall A drop of water.

And in the MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, we meet with her mantle she did fall.' There are other instances in which Shakespeare uses to fall as a verb active." -"Rue" was

"— a bank of RUE, sour herb of grace"called "herb of grace" by old writers; but Shakespeare's authority on the point is sufficient. We have it mentioned as "herb of grace" in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, and in HAMLET it is introduced by both names:There's rue for you, and here's some for me: we may call it herb of grace o' Sundays." It was frequently termed herbgrace, for brevity.

"If that thy valour stand on SYMPATHY," etc. "Here is a translated sense much harsher than that of the stars. Aumerle has challenged Bagot, with some hesitation, as not being his equal; and therefore one whom, according to the rules of chivalry, he was not obliged to fight, as a nobler life was not to be staked in a duel against a baser. Fitzwater then throws down his gage, a pledge of battle; and tells him that if he stands upon sympathy,' (i. e. upon equality of blood.) the combat is now offered him by a man of rank not inferior to his own. Sympathy' is an affection incident at once to two subjects. This community of affection implies a likeness or equality of nature, and thence our Poet transferred the term to equality of blood."

"RAPIER's point"-" The rapier was a weapon not known in the time of Richard. This is an anachronism which the commentators dwell on, but which is justified upon the principle of employing terms which were familiar to an audience."-KNIGHT.

"From sun to sun"-i. e. From sunrise 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 old quartos read, ""Twixt sin and sin." The emendation is Stevens's. This speech is not in the folio. "I task the earth" probably means, "I lay the burthen of my pledge upon the earth to the like purpose," accompanying the words by throwing his mailed glove to the ground. Some of the quartos read take, and Johnson thinks the right reading may be, "take thy oath."

"Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw at all." Expressions used in games with dice.

"-here do I throw down this"-Hollingshed says, that on this occasion "he threw down a hood that he had borrowed."

"true NOBLESS"-" Nobless" is the reading of the first edition, for nobleness, as it was afterwards printedit is an old form of the same word, and used by Spenser and Ben Jonson, and from the metre would appear to be the word written by the Poet himself.

"a SORT of traitors here"-i. e. A company of traitors. The use of the word in this sense is common with Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

thou HAUGHT, insulting man"-The adjective "haught" was nearly in as common use as haughty. We meet with it in Spenser and Marlowe, and down to the time of Milton.

“O, good! CONVEY?—CONVEYERS are you all,” etc. To convey," "conveyer," and conveyancer, were, in Shakespeare's time, words of double meaning. To convey" meant to cheat, and defraud, or, more strictly, to pick pockets; and conveyers and conveyancers were not only lawyers, but persons who practised tricks of sleight of hand.

ACT V.-SCENE I.

Julius Cæsar's ill-erected tower"-The tradition familiar to all Londoners is, that the ancient portion of the tower was built by Julius Cæsar; and it was "erected for ill," as it had been the scene of many state crimes such as those alluded to by Gray, doubtless with this very phrase in his mind:

Ye towers of Julius, London's lasting shame, With many a foul and midnight murder fed. -thou most beauteous INN"-"Stevens and Knight suggest that inn' is here used in a higher and older sense than Falstaff uses:-Shall I not take mine ease in mine inn?' An inn was originally a dwelling, and anciently applied to any dignified habitation.' have still the Inns of Court: Lord Braybrooke's seat in Essex, commonly called Audley-End, is, properly, Audley-Inn. When the queen opposes the term ale-house to inn,' she does not mean to discriminate between two classes of houses of entertainment, but between a public house and a beauteous mansion.'

"I am sworn brother, sweet, To grim necessity,” etc.

We

"Sworn brother" alludes to the fratres jurati, who, in the age of adventure, bound themselves by mutual oaths to share fortunes together The meaning is, "I have reconciled myself to necessity: I am in a state of amity with the constraint which I have sustained."

"Sent back like HALLOWMAS"-Or All-Hallows, the first of November; opposed to "sweet May."

"Better far off, than near, be ne'er the NEAR." That is, Never the nearer-better be wide apart than more near in actual space, and yet unable to meet again. Johnson says the phrase is still used in the midland counties of England, for "making no advance towards the desired good." The literal sense is more fitting here. SCENE II.

-and that all the walls

With painted imagery had said at once," etc. The allusion is to the painted cloths that were hung in the streets during the pageants, in which the figures sometimes had labels from their mouths, containing sentences of gratulation.

"As in a theatre, the eyes of men,

After a well-grac'd actor leaves the stage," etc. Dryden, in the preface to his "Troilus and Cressida," quotes these lines, with this warm and just praise :— The painting of this description is so lively, and the words so moving, that I have scarce read anything comparable to it, in any other language."

"Did scowl on GENTLE Richard"-The lovers of Shakespearian rhythm and expression owe thanks to Mr. Collier, for restoring the epithet "gentle," which adds so much to the feeling of the language, and the pause of the long line, to that of the versification. It is wanting in the folio, but is found in the quartos; and has been silently left out in the popular editions, since Malone, in order to bring the line to a regular ten-syllable measure. Lines of twelve syllables, so frequent in SHAKESPEARE, are especially abundant in this play. "But that is lost by being Richard's friend,

And, madam, you must call him RUTLAND now." "The Dukes of Aumerle, Surrey, and Exeter, were deprived of their dukedoms by an act of the first parliament of Henry IV.; but were allowed to retain their earldoms of Rutland, Kent, and Huntingdon."-HOL

LINGSHED.

SCENE III.

"Can no man tell me of my unthrifty son?” "This is a very proper introduction to the future character of King Henry V.: to his debaucheries in his youth, and his greatness in his manhood."-JOHNSON.

As this conspiracy was in 1400, and Henry of Monmouth was born in 1388, in point of fact the prince was too young at this time to act in the manner here spoken of, even if he ever did so, which appears doubtful; but on this point the Poet adopted the popular notion.

"I see some SPARKS of better hope"-We give these lines as they appear in all the old editions, except that. in two of the quartos, sparkles is printed for sparkes, as it is in the rest. The modern unauthorized reading is thus:

I see some sparkles of a better hope,

Which elder days may happily bring forth.

"York. [Within]"-The stage-direction in the old quartos is, "The duke of York knocks at the door, and crieth."

"And now chang'd to 'The Beggar and the King."

The old ballad of "King Cophetua and the BeggarMaid," referred to in LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST, is here alluded to. There may have also been a popular interlude on the subject, for the story is referred to by various contemporary writers.

"say PARDONNEZ MOI"-i. e. "Excuse me-a phrase used when any thing is civilly denied. The whole passage is such as I could well wish away."-JOHNSON.

"The CHOPPING French"-i. e. The changing, or changeable French. Thus "chopping churches" is changing one church for another; and "chopping logic" is discoursing or interchanging logic with another. To chop and change is still a common idiom.

our trusty brother-in-law"-The brother-in-law was John, Duke of Exeter, (brother to Edward II.,) who had married the Lady Elizabeth, Bolingbroke's sister.

"I pray HEAVEN make thee new"-Here, as in several other passages, in this play and others, we have substituted, according to the folios, the word "Heaven” for God-a frequent variance between the older editions and the folio of 1623. On this Knight well observes, that "the editors of the folio retained the name of the Most High when it is used in a peculiarly emphatic, or reverential manner, and have not made the change to Heaven' indiscriminately. The substitution of this word, in most cases, was made in obedience to a statute of James I., (3 Jac. I. c. 21;) and it appears to us that the modern editors have not exercised good taste, to say the least of it, in restoring the readings of the earliest copies, which were issued at a time when the habits of society sanctioned the habitual and light employment of the Sacred Name."

SCENE IV.

"he WISTLY look'd at me"-" Wistly" meant earnestly; with eager attention-a word used by Drayton, and other contemporary writers. Stevens, and the editors who follow his text, change it to wistfully; and Collier gives it wishtly, as an abridged form of the same word. It is of little importance as to the context, and adherence to the old text is only of consequence as aiding to preserve an expressive old word.

SCENE V.

this little world"-" The little world of man," as in LEAR. Shakespeare here uses the philosophy which is thus explained by Raleigh:- Because in the little frame of man's body there is a representation of the universal, and (by allusion) a kind of participation of all the parts there, therefore was man called microcosmos, or the little world."—(History of the World.)

"and do set the WORD itself Against the WORD," etc.

So the four quarto editions; meaning, of course, the Divine Word-Holy Writ. The folio changes it into "the faith itself against the faith." Perhaps it was thought that this allusion to Holy Writ was too direct for the times when the folio (1623) was published.

"the postern of a needle's eye"-There is a variation here between the folio of 1623 and the editions preceding it, which is worthy of note, as marking the gradual change of language. The older editions have it thus:

To thread the postern of a small needle's eye. This, when "needle" was pronounced as a monosyllable, (neeld, neele,) as it seems to have been until about 1600, made this a regular metrical line; and thus Shakespeare pronounced the word in KING JOHN, the MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM, (act iii. scene 2,) and elsewhere; but the present pronunciation of "needle" becoming more general, the metre was afterwards accommodated to it, probably by the author himself.

"Their watches on unto mine eyes the outward watch, Whereto my finger, like a dial's point," etc.

"It should be recollected, that there are three ways in which a clock notices the progress of time, viz: by the libration of the pendulum, the index on the dial, and the striking of the hour. To these, the King severally alludes; his sighs corresponding to the jarring of the pendulum, which, at the same time that it watches or numbers the seconds, marks also their progress in minutes on the dial or outward-watch, to which the King compares his eyes; and their want of figures is supplied by a succession of tears, or (to use an expression of Milton) minute drops. His finger, by as regu larly wiping these away, performs the office of the dial's

"It is somewhat difficult to follow this reading. Richard says, Time has made him a numbering clock. A clock and a watch were formerly the same instruments; a clock so called because it clicketh-a watch so called because it marks the watches, the ancient divisions of the day. Comparing, then, himself to such an instrument, he says his thoughts jar-that is, tick their watches on (into) his eyes, which are the outward part of the instrument-the dial-plate on which the hours are numbered-whereto his finger, the dial's point, is pointing. These analogies may appear forced, and somewhat obscure; but it must be observed that throughout the character of Richard, the Poet has made him indulge in those freaks of the imagination which belong to weakness of character."-KNIGHT.

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- his Jack o' the clock"-The figure that in old clocks used to strike the hour, was called the "Jack of the clock," and "Jack of the clock-house." It is often mentioned by old writers.

"a strange BROOCH in this all-hating world”—i. e. "As strange as a brooch, which is now no longer worn;" and we have already seen, in ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL, that brooches were then out of fashion—“ just like the brooch and tooth-pick, which wear not now." This explanation of Malone's is adopted by the later editors, and is therefore reprinted here, though to me it seems forced and improbable. Brooch," though origi nally an ornament of a particular kind, (a rich pin, loop. or buckle,) was taken for any oruamental jewel; and thus is here equivalent to "a rich jewel out of place in this angry and embittered world." The thought, therefore, is like that of Portia's

So shines a good deed in a naughty world.

"The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear." Boswell suggests that an allusion is intended here to the royal and noble, as pieces of money.

"that SAD DOG"-" "Sad dog," in its present colloquial use, is more modern than Shakespeare's time, when it had no such burlesque association as it now conveys. "Sad" was used for grave, serious; and sad dog" would be then equivalent to gloomy fellow.

"Rode he on Barbary"-"This story of Roan Barbary might have been of Shakespeare's own invention. Froissart, however, relates a yet more silly tale concerning a favourite greyhound of King Richard's, who was wont to lepe upon the King, but left the King and came to the erle of Derby duke of Lancastre, and made to hym the same friendly countinaunce and chere as he was wonte to do to the King,' etc."-STEVENS.

Stevens is entitled to our thanks for this reference to the greyhound, in spite of the tastleless and flippant tone of his note. It is quite probable that the incident of the greyhound did indeed suggest this touching and beautiful passage of Roan Barbary, for the idea of the fallen prince's seizing and dwelling upon the circumstance of a favourite animal's ingratitude, amidst the umversal prostration of his fortunes and his desertion, is of wonderfully deep truth and feeling. But the Poet, familiar with every shade of the canine character,"hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs, sloughs, water-rugs;""the swift, the slow, the subtle, the housekeeper, the hunter,"-of which he has given a hundred proofs; knowing that the greyhound was the most-indeed the only-faithless and heartless animal of his whole species, transferred the sentiment to the conduct of a nobler creature. The feeling in itself so natural, to all who have that sympathy with domestic animals which makes us regard them as humble friends, is specially in unison with the characters of a knightly prince and his faithful groom. Virgil has made

use of a similar incident, and with the same poetic object; that of interesting the reader in the fall and death of a tyrant, by this and other redeeming touches at the close. I allude to the address of Mezentius to his warhorse, Phoebus:

Aperit si nulla viam vis
Occumbes pariter; neque enim, fortissime credo
Jussa aliena pati et dominos dignabere Teucros.
(Encid, x. 864.)

This day thou either shall revenge my woe, For murdered Lausus on his cruel foe,

Or if inexorable Fate deny

Our conquest, with thy conquered master die;
For after such a lord I rest secure,

Thou wilt no foreign lord, or Trojan load endure.

There is no reason to suppose that the great dramatist had the Latin Poet in his mind here, (whom, however, he might have read, if not in the original, in Phaer's translation,) for there is nothing of that sort of resemblance which enables us to trace the marks of imitation even in Milton and Gray. But the coincidence of thought and feeling is sufficiently striking, and proves that both of the great artists drew from nature.

by JAUNCING Bolingbroke"-Richard compares himself to a spur-galled beast that Bolingbroke rides"Jauncing" (jaunting, hurriedly moving) Bolingbroke. Knight suggests that it may be a contraction of joyauncing, but it rather seems to be the older use of our word jaunting, taken in its primitive sense of the old French jancer-to work a horse hard.

["Strikes the Keeper"]-This and the two next stagedirections are not in the old copies. Something of the kind seems necessary.

"Whilst my gross flesh sinks downward, here to die." Mr. Amyot, who has taken such successful pains in investigating the curious point of Richard's death, thus sums up his own views:

"The story of Richard's murder by Sir Pierce of Exton, is now generally disbelieved, and the prevalent opinion is, that the King died in prison in the year 1400. Some think that he starved himself to death; others, that he was starved by his keepers. On the other hand, it has been maintained by Mr. Tytler that he escaped, and lived for several years in Scotland. The controversy is much too voluminous for us; and I would refer those who wish to have a notion of it to a paper, read by the late Lord Dover to the Royal Society of Literature, on the 4th of May, 1832. Lord Dover sums up carefully and fairly, and finally pronounces judgment in favour of Mr. Amyot, who disbelieves the Scottish story."-COURTENAY, (Commentary on Shakespeare's Historical Plays.

"This play is one of those which Shakespeare has apparently revised; but as success in works of invention is not always proportionate to labour, it is not finished at last with the happy force of some others of his tragedies, nor can be said much to affect the passions, or enlarge the understanding."-JOHNSON.

"RICHARD II. as well as RICHARD III., according to Malone's dates, appeared in 1593. The former tragedy is estimable for its pathos and skilful delineation of character. Its eloquence is not unblemished by a disposition to play upon words, the besetting sin of Shakespeare; but it is wholly free from the intermixture of comic scenes. The march of incidents is perspicuous and progressively affecting. Our interest at the outset is bespoken against Richard, and we wish well to the banished Bolingbroke. Nor is the Poet unfaithful to the latter personage, but rather mitigates the truth of history in describing the Lancastrian hero's treatment of the fallen king. But Lancastrian in his prejudices, as Shakespeare was he lets us see, though without saying so directly, that Henry IV., though heir to his father's property, was not the inheritor of all his virtues. The aged Gaunt is a model of heroic loyalty and justice. His eloquence on his death-bed is prophetic; and we

reverence Gaunt's predictions of what would ensue to Richard for his injustice, not the less superstitiously that they are tinged with human sagacity. Nor is the Bishop of Carlisle's part in this drama to be overlooked, as the intrepid champion of Richard. When he appeals in parliament for his hapless sovereign, and protests against his being sentenced in his absence, whilst thieves are not condemned without a hearing, he says most eloquently

I speak to subjects, and a subject speaks, etc.

"With such characters in the piece as the heroic Gaunt and this intrepid churchman, it is absurd to talk of this tragedy depending for its interest solely on the character of the hapless Richard. The king is undoubtedly at first obnoxious to us. But the Poet coils up his strength, as the piece closes, to the double task of commanding our warm tears for Richard, and preserving our cold respect for Lancaster. As Henry Bolingbroke advances to be a king, he ceases to interest us as a man; whilst, as Richard is unkinged, he becomes a more rational man, and more interesting to our sympathies. We forget his past errors when dust is thrown upon his discrowned head, and when none among the brutal mob cries, God bless him! The Poet has departed from the letter of history in several particulars; among others, in representing his queen, who could have been then only twelve years old, as his equal companion; for after the death of his first wife, the "good Queen Anne," of Bohemia, he was betrothed to the daughter of France, in her ninth year. If Shakespeare had given himself the trouble to adhere to the truth of history, it is not unimaginable that he might have drawn effect from the very circumstance of their unequal ages. Richard was a beautiful man, and his queen, young as she was at twelve, might have been attached to him, though betrothed before she had a free choice. I doubt if she ever came to England?

"Admirable is the judgment with which Shakespeare always in the first scenes prepares, yet how naturally, and with what concealment of art, for the catastrophe. Observe how, in the first scene of the first act, he presents the germ of all the after events in Richard's insincerity. partiality, arbitrariness, and favoritism, and in the proud, tempestuous temperament of his barons. In the very beginning, also, is displayed that feature in Richard's character, which is never forgotten throughout the play -his attention to decorum, and high feeling of the kingly dignity. These anticipations show with what judgment Shakespeare wrote, and illustrate his care to connect the past and future, and unify them with the present by forecast and reminiscence.

"It is interesting to a critical ear to compare the six opening lines of the play

Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster, Hast thou, according to thy oath and band, etc. each closing at the tenth syllable, with the rhythmless metre of the verse in HENRY VI. and TITUS ANDRONICUS, in order that the difference, indeed, the heterogeneity, of the two may be felt etiam in simillimis prima superficie. Here the weight of the single words supplies all the relief afforded by intercurrent verse, while the whole represents the mood. And compare the apparently defective metre of Bolingbroke's first line,— Many years of happy days befallwith Prospero's,

Twelve years since, Miranda! twelve years since. The actor should supply the time by emphasis, and pause on the first syllable of each of these verses."COLERIDGE.