"His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer," etc. Stevens and Malone here pointed out some oversights of Shakespeare, with regard to this Lord Morti mer. Before he makes his personal appearance in the play, he is repeatedly spoken of as Hotspur's brother-inlaw. In the second act, Lady Percy expressly calls him her brother Mortimer. And yet, when he enters in the third act, he calls Lady Percy his aunt, which in fact she was, and not his sister. This inconsistency may be accounted for as follows:-It appears from Dugdale and Sanford's account of the Mortimer family, that there were two of them taken prisoners, at different times, by Glendower, each of them bearing the name of Edmund-one being Edmund Earl of March, nephew to Lady Percy, and the proper Mortimer of this play; the other Sir Edmund Mortimer, uncle to the former, and brother to Lady Percy. The Poet has confounded the two persons. "Shall we buy treason, and indent with FEARS, When they have lost and forfeited themselves ?" "To indent with" is found in the old poets, as Harrington's" Ariosto" and Davenant, and is explained in old dictionaries, etc. (as Baret,) in the sense of " to make a covenant or compact with one." "Fears" for the objects of fear, is a sense which can hardly be considered obsolete; for it is merely the use of the word with a latitude of meaning which may, I think, be found authorized by good writers of later times. It certainly has the authority of Shakespeare's contemporaries. Thus, in a passage in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Valentinian:" If I must perish, Yet shall my fears go foremost. That is, "If I must perish, my fears (those whom I fear) shall perish first." The king, therefore, indignantly asks, "Do you think that I will buy off treason, or make terms with those whom I may be thought to fearwhen in reality they have, by their own act, put an end to all cause of alarm ?" Such is, I think, the clear meaning of the passage. Eat the commentators have taken different views of it. Some (with Stevens) take "indent with fears" to mean make agreement with cowards. Johnson would read "with peers," (i. e. lords who have forfeited their honour.) Collier interprets thus:-"That is, subscribe an indenture, as if under apprehension." "They," in the second line, refers to Mortimer and others taken with him. Mr. Knight is much bolder. As "fears" is spelled in the old copies, as usual, feares, he thinks this a misprint for feres, and goes on at great length to show that feres, an old English word for companions, associates, had also the sense of a "feudal vassal;" and that the king here "alludes to Mortimer and Glendower, as his revolted vassals-they are feres, with whom he refuses to indent, or to put himself on equal terms with. They are, moreover, not competent to contract with him, their lord, as being vassals who have forfeited their fees." This most Warburtonian interpretation is supported in an ingenious argument, fraught with curious learning, very entertaining and instructive, though not at all satisfactory as to its object. Among all these variances of the commentators, I have no doubt of the interpretation first given, which has the concurrence of Mr. Dyce, and other sound critics. By Richard, that dead is, the next of blood?" Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, was declared heir apparent to the crown, in 1385; but he was killed, in Ireland, in 1388. The person who was proclaimed heir apparent by Richard II., previous to his last voyage to Ireland, was Edmund Mortimer, son of Roger, who was then but seven years old: he was not Lady Percy's brother, but her nephew. He was the undoubted heir to the crown after the death of Richard. Thomas Walsingham asserts that he married a daughter of Owen Glendower, and the subsequent historians copied him. Sandford says that he married Anne Stafford, daughter of Edmund, Earl of Stafford. Glendower's daughter was married to his antagonist, Lord Grey of Ruthven. Hollingshed led Shakespeare into the error. This Edmund, who is the Mortimer of the present play, was born in 1392, and at the time when this play is supposed to commence, was little more than ten years old. The prince of Wales was not thirteen." MALONE. "this CANKER, Bolingbroke"-The "canker" is the dog-rose-the rose of the hedge, not of the gardens. In MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, we have, "I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace." "and DISDAIN'D contempt”—“ Disdain'd" is used for disdainful, as in OTHELLO, delighted for delightful; a loose and inexact use of the participle, very common in the older English poets. 66- the unsteadfast footing of a spear”—i. e. Of s spear laid across the torrent. "By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap," etc Theobald, Stevens, and the critics of that school, have sneered at this passage, as "rant;" and T. Warton (a critic of a higher order) has strangely suggested that this is "probably a passage from some bombast play, and afterwards used as a common burlesque phrase for attempting impossibilities." But this rant is precisely the rant in which such a character as Hotspur might give vent to his feelings, in real life. It is the language of an ardent mind, under strong excitement, giving utterance to its aspirations in grand but half-formed figures; and is justly liable to no other criticism than Worcester himself immediately subjoins, on the "world of figures" created by his nephew's imagination;-a clear proof as to what the author himself intended. This "rant" of Hotspur is not unlike some of the rants of Napoleon, in his bulletins-so extravagant when tried by the standard of cold criticism; so animating and exciting in their actual effect. Warburton observes that Euripides has put the same sentiment into the mouth of Eteocles:-"I will not disguise my thoughts; I would scale heaven, I would descend to the very entrails of the earth, if so be that by that price I could obtain a kingdom." Johnson says, "Though I am far from condemning this speech, with Gildon and Theobald, as absolute madness, yet I cannot find in it that profundity of reflection, and beauty of allegory, which Warburton endeavoured to display. This sally of Hotspur may be, I think, soberly and rationally vindicated as the violent eruption of a mind inflated with ambition and fired with resentment; as the boasted clamour of a man able to do much, and eager to do more; as the dark expression of indetermined thoughts. The passage from Euripides is surely not allegorical; yet it is produced, and properly, as parallel." In the "Knight of the Burning Pestle," Beaumont and Fletcher put these lines into the mouth of Ralph, the apprentice, apparently with the design of raising a good-natured laugh at Shakespeare's expense, in which he probably would have joined as heartily as any one. etc. 66 “Out upon this HALF-FAC'D fellowship!” The epithet "half-fac'd" is repeatedly met with in old writers, always denoting something imperfect, or without its full form and proportions; as your halffaced English," "yon half-faced mirror," and more literally, in HENRY IV., " that half-faced fellow, Shallow," The commentators have sought the origin of the phrase, in various quarters. Johnson draws it from the use of mantua-makers and tailors, in facing a dress with richer stuff-so that then it would mean "a partnership wanting half of its honours." Others trace the phrase to the half-faces, or profiles, of old used in the smaller coins, as the groat, etc., while those of more value had a full face of the sovereign. Whatever was the origin of the phrase, nothing more seems meant here than a contemptuous expression of repugnance to any partnership (or co-rival) in dignity. "SWORD-AND-BUCKLER prince of Wales"-This is not (as Nares and others explain, and as it would mean in modern use) a phrase indicative of military energy, but was an old English term for a turbulent fellow, who raised brawls in the streets. The meaning of the epithet is clear, from the following authorities :-" This field, commonly called West Smithfield, was for many years called Ruffians' Hall, by reason it was the usual place for frayes and common fighting, during the time that swords and bucklers were in use; when every serving man, from the base to the best, carried a buckler at his back, which hung by the hilt or pomel of his sword.”—(STOWE's Survey of London.) There was a poem, published in 1602, entitled "Sword and Buckler, or Serving-man's Defence," by William Bas; and John Florio, in his " First Fruites," (1578 :)—" What weapons bear they? Some sword and dagger, some sword and buckler. What weapon is that buckler? A clownish, dastardly weapon, and not fit for a gentleman." what a WASP-TONGUE"-We have here the choice of three old readings, every one of which is adopted in some or other of the modern editions. The first quarto (1598) reads wasp-stung, which Stevens and Collier think is the true reading. The quarto of 1599 reads "wasp-tongue," which Malone contends for, and Knight adopts. "He who is stung by wasps has a real cause for impatience; but waspish, which is often used by Shakespeare, is petulant from temper; and 'wasptongue,' therefore, very naturally means petulant tongue, which was exactly the accusation meant to be urged." The folio altered it to wasp-tongued. "Sblood!"-All the quartos give, and all the folios omit, this characteristic interjection. The same circumstance occurs afterwards. 'Before the game's afoot, thou still let'st slip." The greyhound is held in slips, and is loosened when "the game's afoot." "COUSIN, farewell"—This was a common address, in our author's time, to nephews, nieces, and grandchildren. (See Hollingshed's "Chronicle," passim.) Hotspur was Worcester's nephew. "When time is ripe, which will be suddenly." I see no reason to change the punctuation of all the old editions, as here given. The modern editors, except Knight, give the lines thus : 66 breeds fleas like a LOACH"-Why one carrier should say that he has been "stung like a tench," and the other that "chamber-lie breeds fleas like a loach," has been thought worthy of learned discussion. Farmer thought that "tench" was a misprint for trout, which is spotted; and Mason suggests that as the "loach" is a very prolific little fish, the carrier used it as a simile for any thing breeding in great swarms; which I suppose is the author's meaning. now no reason for elaborate inquiry, whether there were two large cases or two small parcels of gingerall which matter has been duly examined by the critics. "I think it be two o'clock"-The carrier suspects Gadshill, and wishes to mislead him. He has just said it is four o'clock. "At hand, quoth pick-purse"-A proverbial phrase met with in such writers of the time as have preserved the slang of town life. 111 - saint Nicholas' clerks"-This was a term for highwaymen and robbers, but why, it is not easy to tell. Warburton asserts that the patron saint of clerks being St. Nicholas, and Old Nick being a cant name for the devil, the word "clerks" became indifferently applied to scholars and robbers. Grey has shown that highwaymen were termed "St. Nicholas' knights." (See note on Two GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, act iii. scene 1.) "-no foot LAND-RAKERS"-i. e. "No padders; no wanderers on foot :-no long-staff, six-penny strikers;' no fellows that infest the road with long staffs, and knock men down for six-pence:-'none of these mad mustachio, purple-hued malt-worms;' none of those whose faces are red with drinking ale."--JOHNSON. "-and great ONEYERS"-Pope interprets this oneraires, (trustees or commissioners;) Theobald, moneyers; Hanmer, owners; Hardinge, moniers, (mintmen;) Capell, mynheers; Malone, onyers, (public accountants.) Johnson wisely dispenses with such subtleties, and thinks that "great oneyers" is merely a cant phrase for The great ones; as we say auctioneer, privateer, etc. Variorum editions contain large comments on Gadshill's slang, which leave the text pretty much as they found it. "we have the receipt of fern-seed, we walk invisible"-Fern-seed being of old supposed to be invisible, those who carried it about them were supposed to be invisible also. "Pur "-thou shalt have a share in our PURCHASE' chase" meaning originally any sort of acquisition, other than by legal inheritance, was ironically used as the slang word for booty, or property obtained by robbery. HOMO is a common name to all men"—" True man" and "false thief" were frequently opposed in writers of the time; and when Gadshill says, that “homo is a common name to all men," he means that it was just as applicable to the "true man," which he had called himself, as to the false thief," which the chamberlain had termed him. SCENE II. "-he frets like a GUMMED VELVET"-" Velvets" and taffatas, when "gummed," fretted or wore themselves out by their stiffness. To "fret like a gummed velvet," or like a gummed taffata, was a phrase so often in use with our old writers, that it became proverbial. This quotation, from Marston's "Malcontent," (1604,)—“ I'll come among you, like gum into taffata, fret, fret,"shows the allusion intended. "-four foot by the SQUIRE"-i. e. By the square, or carpenter's rule. The phrase is so frequent in old authors, still much read, as Burton, etc., as to leave no ground for Warburton's notion that there was a joke on Falstaff's size-moving forward with his legs four feet apart, so as to “move four feet by the square.' "not John of GAUNT"-Falstaff intends a passing joke on his own corpulence, in a double allusion to the valour and the title, "Gaunt," of the prince's grandfather; who derived his appellation, of course, not from his person, but from his birth-place-Ghent, or Gand. "ARGUMENT for a week”—i. e. The subject-matter of conversation; as we still say the "argument" of a play, or poem. ["-leaving the booty behind them"]-This is verbatim the oldest stage-direction; and the controversies on the point of Falstaff's courage or cowardice, give some importance (as Collier remarks) to the matter of Falstaff's running last, and we therefore preserve it in place of the modern alteration, which says, "Falstaff, after a blow or two, and the rest run away." SCENE III. "How now, KATE"-" Shakespeare either mistook the name of Hotspur's wife, (which was not Katharine, but Elizabeth,) or else designedly changed it, out of the remarkable fondness he seems to have had for the familiar appellation of Kate,' which he is never weary of repeating, when he has once introduced it; as in this scene, the scene of Katharine and Petruchio, and the courtship between King Henry V. and the French Princess." "Of palisadoes, FRONTIERS, parapets,” etc. The use of "frontiers," in this connection, confirms the interpretation given to the word in act i. scene 3, where the editors differ. Old dictionaries and military books show that " frontiers" formerly meant not only the bounds of different territories, but also the forts built along or near those limits. Thus, in Ives's "Practice of Fortification," -(1589:)—“ A forte not placed where it were needful, might skantly be accounted for frontier." Florio interprets "frontiera, a frontire, or bounding place; also a skonce, a bastion, a defence, a trench, or block-house, upon or about confines or borders." In Notes from Blackfryers," by H. Fitzgeoffrey, (1617:)— He'll tell of basilisks, trenches, and retires, Of palisadoes, parapets, frontiers. 66 "Of BASILISKS, of cannon, culverin," etc. Harrison's "Description of England" contains 44 the names of our greatest ordinance." The "basilisk," the cannon, and the culverin, are fully described. The basilisk, the largest of all, weighed nine thousand pounds, and carried a ball of sixty pounds; the cannon weighed seven thousand pounds, and also carried a ball of sixty pounds, (but this weight of ball would appear to be a misprint;) and the culverin weighed four thousand pounds, and carried a ball of eighteen pounds. Harrison gives a wondrous account of a great gun, compared with which the English basilisk must have been a pocketpistol:-"The Turk had one gun, made by one Orbon, a Dane, the caster of his ordinance, which could not be drawn to the siege of Constantinople but by seventy yokes of oxen and two thousand men." "—the CURRENT of a heady fight"—A clear and Shakespearian expression, found in all the old editions"the strong rushing of an impetuous battle;" for which most editions have substituted the uncouth and weak word currents, explained as an abbreviation of occurrents, (used for occurrences.) "On some great sudden HASTE"-Collier substitutes the reading of the first quarto, which may be right, giving hest for “haste." Hest, for behest, is a cominon word. "On some great sudden hest," is "On some great sudden command." - O, ESPERANCE"-The motto of the Percy family. The folio omits "O." "To play with MAMMETS"-" Mammets" were puppets, or dolls, here used by Shakespeare for a female plaything; a diminutive of mam. Quasi dicat parvam matrem, seu matronulam."-" Icuncula; mammets, or puppets, that goe by devises of wyers or strings, as though they had life and moving.”—(Junius's Nomenclator, by Fleming, 1585.) Mr. Gifford has thrown out a conjecture about the meaning of "mammets," from the Italian mammetta, which signifies a bosom, as well as a young wench. (See Ben Jonson's Works.) "I have not found the word used in English, in that sense; but mammet, for a puppet, or dressed-up living doll, is common enough."-SINGER. SCENE IV. "Eastcheap. A Room in the Boar's Head Tavern." “Who knows not Eastcheap and the Boar's Head? Have we not all been there, time out of mind? And is it not a more real as well as notorious thing to us than the London Tavern, or the Crown and Anchor, or the Hummums, or White's, or What's-his-name's, or any other of your contemporary and fleeting taps?' We quote this passage from Leigh Hunt's delightful Indicator.' Mr. Hunt, we take it, is speaking of the endearing associations of the Boar's Head-not of a real brick and stone tavern. But Goldsmith, it would appear, had sat in the Boar's Head of Shakespeare. We quote the following from his 'Essays:' "Such were the reflections that naturally arose while I sat at the Boar's Head tavern, still kept at Eastcheap. Here, by a pleasant fire, in the very room where old Sir John Falstaff cracked his jokes, in the very chair which was sometimes honoured by Prince Henry, and sometimes polluted by his immoral merry companions, I sat and ruminated on the follies of youth; wished to be young again, but was resolved to make the best of life while it lasted, and now and then compared past and present times together. I considered myself as the only living representative of the old knight, and transported my imagination back to the times when the prince and he gave life to the revel, and made even debauchery not disgusting. The room also conspired to throw my reflections back into antiquity: the oak floor, the Gothic windows, and the ponderous chimney-piece, had long withstood the tooth of time.' "Alas! the real Boar's Head was destroyed in the great fire of London; and its successor, that rose up out of the ruins, was recently swept away with the old London Bridge, to which it was a neighbour. no longer make a pilgrimage even to the second Boar's Head."-KNIGHT. We can "but a CORINTHIAN"-i. e. A wencher, a debauchee; a phrase found often in old plays, and used in this sense even by the solemn Milton, in his "Apology for Smectymnus:"-" And raps up, without pity, the sage and rheumatic old prelatess with all her young Corinthian laity." "breathe in your WATERING"-i. e. Take breath when you are drinking. To "water" was a common word for to drink, as we still say to water a horse. Some mechanics have still their "watering" time, in the afternoon. "I am not yet of Percy's mind”—“ The drawer's answer had interrupted the prince's train of discourse. He was proceeding thus: I am now of all humours that have showed themselves humours;-I am not yet of Percy's mind;' that is, I am willing to indulge myself in gayety and frolic, and try all the varieties of human life. I am not yet of Percy's mind,'-who thinks all the time lost that is not spent in bloodshed, forgets decency and civility, and has nothing but the barren talk of a brutal soldier."-JOHNSON. "Rivo!' says the drunkard"—" Rivo!" is a drinking exclamation, which, from the frequency of its use in old poets, seems to have made part of the familiar slang of the London taverns. Its etymology has not been discovered. 46 NETHER-stocks"-i. e. Lower stocks, or stockings. ' — pitiful-hearted Titan, that melted at the sweet tale of the SUN"-This being one of the favourite texts for editorial comment, upon which pages of controversy have been bestowed, I have not ventured to substitute for the old text the emendation I otherwise prefer. This is the reading of the folio; the first and second quartos have sonnes for "sun." The later quartos are like the folio. The passage has been hotly disputed by Theobald, Warburton, Stevens, Malone, etc. Collier and Knight think that Warburton's interpretation of the meaning must be adopted. He reads " pitiful-hearted Titan" as in parenthesis, and made the word "that" refer to the butter, which "melted at the sweet tale of the sun." Still a difficulty remains in the words "at the sweet tale," unless we suppose Titan to whisper a tale, while he is kissing the dish of butter." 66 Malone and Stevens both adopt readings founded on the old quarto one-" of the sonnes.' Stevens thought that this refers to Ovid's story of Apollo's melting at his son Phaton's "sweet tale," when, by his plausible story, he won permission to guide the chariot of day. Malone, thinking that it meant Apollo's grief at the story of his son's death, changes the word to "thy sons." After all, Theobald is most likely to be right, in reading pitiful-hearted butter, that melted at the sweet tale of the sun." The change might happen very naturally, by the compositor, or the copyist before him, repeating the word "Titan," instead of butter, both words having just before occurred-a kind of mistake which is often observed by all who have much experience either in correcting the press, or in revising copied manuscript. 66 "Down fell their hose"-Their hose fell down because the points (i. e. the laces, with metal points) broke. Falstaff uses "points" in one sense, and Poins in another. "-in Kendal green"-i. e. Green cloth, made at Kendal, in Westmoreland, famous of old for its manufacture; and it being the traditional uniform of Robin Hood's men, was celebrated in many old songs and plays. 11 -greasy tallow-KETCH"-In the old copies it is tallow catch. A "ketch" is a tub-a cask. A tallowcask is no unapt comparison for Falstaff. Modern editions read keech, which also gives an appropriate sense, as a keech of tallow is the fat of an ox, rolled up in a lump. But the first is more probably the allusion intended, because catch and "ketch" appear to have been formerly spelled the same. Our musical catch is ketch, in Beaumont and Fletcher. "were I at the STRAPPADO"-The punishment of the "strappado" (often alluded to by writers of the time) is thus described: The strappado is when the person is drawn up to his height, and then suddenly to let him fall half way with a jerk, which not only breaketh his arms to pieces, but also shaketh all his joints out of joint; which punishment is better to be hanged, than for a man to undergo."-(RANDLE HOLME's Academy of Arts and Blazon.) you EEL-skin"-The old copies have elf-skin, of which no reasonable sense has been suggested, so that it seems a misprint for eel-skin; appropriate enough to a tall very thin person, such as Prince "Hal" was. Stowe, speaking of him, says-" He exceeded the mean stature of men, his neck long, body slender and lean, and his bones small," etc. "a ROYAL, man"-The hostess has previously called the messenger a nobleman. The joke lies in the difference between the coins-a "royal," which was ten shillings, and a noble, which was only six shillings and eight-pence; he that deceived a noble being called, in cant language, a noble-man. The joke has royal authority, for the antiquary Hearne has preserved a similar one of Queen Elizabeth. "taken with the MANNER"-More correctly, mainores is the technical common-law term for "taken in the fact," or with the evidence of guilt in the prisoner's hands. This, however, differs from many of our Poet's other common-law allusions, in having been a familiar phrase of colloquial use, found in other dramatists. "CHOLER, my lord"-The reader who would enter into the spirit of this repartee, must recollect the similarity of sound between "choler" and collar. "my sweet creature of BOMBAST"-" Bombast" was cotton-wool; and the older English naturalists call the cotton-plant the "bombast tree." It was used, as well as horse-hair, to stuff out the dress of both sexes. "-a Welsh hook"-This weapon appears to have been a pike, with a hook placed at some distance below its point, like some of the ancient partizans; and would seem to have been used alike for " wood-craft" and for irregular war. "—with his pistol kills a sparrow flying"-This is a very pardonable anachronism, which none but a very accurate antiquary would observe, either in Shakespeare's days or our own. Pistols were not known as early as Henry V. "a thousand BLUE-CAPS more"-i. e. Scotsmen; 80 called from their blue caps, or bonnets, so familiar in Scottish song. "-king Cambyses' vein"-The allusion is to a play called "A Lamentable Tragedie, mixed full of Pleasant Mirth, conteyning the Life of Cambises, King of Persia," by T. Preston. "— here is my LEG❞—i. e. My obeisance to my father. "good TICKLE-BRAIN"-"Tickle-brain" was the nickname of some sort or sorts of strong liquor. -a MICHER"-i. e. A truant. To "mich" is to lurk out of sight-be like "a truant boy, who lurks in the fields, and picks wild fruits." Like many other old words, it is to be traced still in provincial use. In Ackerman's "Glossary of Wiltshire Provincialisms," we find-“Moocher, a truant; a blackberry moocher, a boy who plays truant to pick blackberries." "for a RABBIT-SUCKER"-i. e. A sucking rabbit. The jest (as Johnson points out) is his comparing himself to something small and thin. "—that BOLTING-HUTCH of beastliness"-A "boltinghutch" is the wooden receptacle into which meal is bolted, or sifted. 66 Just so the people stare At an ox in the fair Roasted whole with a pudding in's belly. (NICHOLL'S Collection of Poems.) wherein CUNNING, but in craft”—i. e. Knowing, or skilful, but in trickery. “—I would your grace would take me with you” — That is, Let me understand you; or, as Johnson explains it, "go no faster than I can follow." The phrase is hardly out of date. "-behind the ARRAS"-England was long dependant on Flanders for most of the fabrics of luxury, and even of domestic comfort; and among the rest for the material used for clothing the bare walls, called after the place of its manufacture-the city of Arras, in French Flanders. When "arras" was first brought into England, it was suspended on small hooks driven into the walls of houses and castles; but this practice was discontinued. After the damp of the stone and brick work had been found to rot the tapestry, it was fixed on frames of wood, at such distance from the wall as prevented the damp from being injurious. Large spaces were thus left between the arras and the walls, sufficient to contain even one of Falstaff's bulk. Our old dramatists avail themselves of this convenient hidingplace, upon all occasions. ["Exeunt all but the Prince and PETO."] The modern editors have retained Poins on the stage with the Prince, and it is to be admitted that Poins has generally been his companion; but in this instance it is clear that Peto remains; for in the quarto and folio editions, after the sheriff and carrier have retired, the conversation is entirely between the Prince and Peto, whom the Prince by name afterwards wishes good morrow, nothing being said about Poins. We therefore (with Collier) restore the old reading. "Item, Bread, ob."-" So the old copies: ob.,' for obulum, was the mode, at that time, of writing a half-penny. In the quartos and folios the account is drawn up like a tavern-bill, and in this form it ought to be preserved."-COLLier. though yourself had never been born"-We follow Collier, in deviating from all the late editions, as to this and Hotspur's preceding speeches, which are printed as prose in all the old copies; and it is not easy to make any thing like verse of them, though they are metrically arranged by Stevens and others. The contrast between Glendower's self-deceiving enthusiasm and Hotspur's impatient bluntness is stronger by the metre of the one and the prose of the other; and so the Poet probably intended. "The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes," etc. "Owen Glendower-the damned Glendower' of the king-the 'great Glendower' of Hotspur-he of Wales,' that 'swore the devil his true liege-man,' of the Prince, was among the most bold and enterprising of the warriors of his age. The immediate cause of his outbreak against the power of Henry IV. was a quarrel with Lord Grey of Ruthyn, on the occasion of which, the parliament of Henry seems to have treated Owen with injustice but there can be no doubt that the great ob ject of his ambition was to restore the independence of Wales. In the guerilla warfare which he waged against Henry, he was eminently successful; and his boast in this drama is historically true, that 66 Three times hath Henry Bolingbroke made head 'Shakespeare has seized, with wonderful exactness, upon all the features of his history and character, and of the popular superstitions connected with him. They all belonged to the region of poetry. Glendower says— at my birth, The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes. The old chroniclers say, 'the same night he was born all his father's horses were found to stand in blood up to their bellies.' His pretensions as a magician, which Shakespeare has most beautifully connected with his enthusiastic and poetical temperament, made him a greater object of fear than even his undoubted skill and valour. When the king pursued him into his moun tains, Owen (as Hollingshed relates) conveyed himself out of the way into his known lurking-places, and, as was thought, through art magic he caused such foul weather of winds, tempest, rain, snow, and hail, to be raised for the annoyance of the king's army, that the like had not been heard of.' His tedious stories to Hotspur of the moldwarp and the ant, A clip-wing'd griffin, and a moulten raven, were old Welsh prophecies which the people in general, and very likely Glendower himself, devoutly believed. According to Hollingshed, it was upon the faith of one of these prophecies in particular, that the tripartite indenture of Mortimer, Hotspur, and Glendower, was executed. This was done (as some have said) through a foolish credit given to a vain prophecy, as though King Henry was the Moldwarp, cursed of God's own mouth, and they three were the dragon, the lion, and the wolf, which should divide this realm between them.' Glendower might probably have Believed the magic wonders which he sangbut he was no vulgar enthusiast. He was trained up in the English court,' as he describes himself, and he |