blazing by our meeds,] Meed

P. 170. 1, 1. 45. here means merit. Id. 1. 59 0 speak no more!] The generous tenderness of Edward, and savage fortitude of Richard are well dist nguished by their different reception of their father's death JOHNSON.

Id l. 62 the hope of Troy-] Hector. P. 171, c. 1 / 28. haught Northumberland,] ie. high spirited, or haughty.

Id. 1. 71. Why then it sorts,] Why then things are as they should be.

Id. c. 2. l. 38 Id. l. 46

SCENE II.

fondly-] i. e. foolishly. didst thou never hear,

That things ill got had ever bad success? &e] The proverb quoted by lus majesty on this occasion, seems to mil tate directly against his own argument, and shows that things ill got might have good success. M MASON. 'd. l. 48 Whose father, &c.] Alluding to a common proverb:

"Happy the child whose father went to the devi"

Id. l. 74 Darreign-] that is, range your host, put your host in order. P. 172 c.1, 1 60 I am resolv'd.] It is my firm persuasion; I am no loager in doubt. Id. l. 77. (As if a channel should be call'd the sea)] A channel, in our author's time, sig, nified what we now call a kennel.

Id. c. 2, 1. To let thy tongue detect-] To show thy meanness of birth by the indecency of language with which thou railest at my deform.ty. JOHNSON.

Id. 1. 2. A wisp of straw-] A instrument of correction that might disgrace, but not hurt her. A wisp was also the punishment for a scold.

Id. 1. 4. To make this shameless callet-] Callet, a lewd woman, a drab, perhaps so called fom the French calotte, which was a sort of headdress worn by country girls. Id. l. 6. Menelaus; i. e. a cuckold. Id. l. 23.

-

we saw our sunshine made thy | spring,

And that thy summer bred us no increase] When we saw that by favouring thee we made thee grow in fortune, but that we received no advantage from thy fortune Hourishing by our favor, we then resolved to destroy thee, and determined to try some other means, though our first efforts have failed.

Id.

expected glimpse of rural innocence and pastoral tranquillity. JOHNSON.

c 2,1 23. Enter a Son, &c] These two horrible incidents are selected to show the innumerable calamities of civil war. JOHNSON.

In the battle of Constantine and Maxentius by Raphael, the second of these incidents is introduced on a similar occasion.

Id. 1. 43. And let our hearts, and eyes, like civil war.

Be bind with tears, and break o'erchary'd with grief] The meaning is here inaccurately expressed. The king intends to say that the state of their hearts and eyes shall be like that of the kingdom in a ciru war, all shall be destroyed by power formed within themselves. JOHNSON.

Id. l. 61. What stratagems,] Stratagem is used by Shakspeare not merely to express the events and surprises of war -The word means in this place some dreadful event.

Id. 1. 65.

O boy thy father gave thee life too soon, &c.] Of the various meanings given to these two lines, the following seems the most probable. Had the son been younger, he would have been precluded from the levy that brought him into the field; and had the father recognised him before the mortal blow, it would not have been too late to have saved him from death. HENLEY

Id. l. 77. Take on with me,] To take on is a phrase still in use among the vulgar. and signifies to persist in clamorous lamen tation.

P. 174, c. 1, 4. Mis-think,] i. c. to think ill, unfavourably.

1d. 1. 17. And so obsequious will thy father be 】 Obsequious is here careful of obsequies, or of funereal rites.

SCENE JI.

Id. c. 2, 1. 77. Widow, we will consider-] This is a very lively and spritely dialogue; the reciprocation is quicker than is common in Shakspeare. JOHNSON.

P. 176. c. 1, l. 27. good leave have you ;] Good leave, are words implying readiness of

assent.

Id. c. 2 l. 11.

ness.

-the sadness-] i. e. the serious

11

Id 1 53 "for she looks very sad." MALONE P. 177, c. 1, 7. 32. unlick'd bear-whels.] It was an opinion which, in spite of its absurdity, preva led long, that the bear brings forth only shapeless lumps of animated flesh, which she

As are of better person than myself. Richard speaks here the language of nature. Whoever is stigmatized with deformity has a constant source of envy in his mind, and would counterbalance by some other superiority those advantages which he feels himself to waat. Bacon remarks that the deformed are commonly daring; and it is almost proverbially observed tha. they are ill-natured. The truth is, that the deformed, like all other men, are displeased with inferiority, and endeavour to gain ground by good or bad means, as they are virtuous or corrupt. JOHNSON.

SCENE III.

P. 178, c. 1. / 55. -that Henry was unfortunate.] He means, that Hery was unsuccessful in war, having lost his dominions in France, &c. Id 1 65 Exempt from envy, but not from disdain] Evy is always supposed to have some fa cinating or blasting power; and to be out of the reach of envy is therefore a privilege belonging only to great excellence. I know not well why envy is meat.oned here, or whose envy can be meant; but the meaning is, that h.s love is superior to envy, and can feel no blast from the lady's disdain. Or that, if Boa re fuse to quit or requite his pain, his love may tura to disdain, though the consciousness of his own mer t will exempt him from the pangs of envy. JOHNSON.

I believe envy is in this place, as in many others, put for malice or hatred. His situation places him above these, though it cannot secure him from female disdain. STEEVENS. Id. c. 2, 1. 13. You have a father able-] This seems ironical The poverty of Margaret's father is a very frequent topic of reproach. Id. 1 20 Thy sly conveyance,] Conveyance is juggling, and thence is taken for artifice and fraud.

Id. 1. 44.

to sooth your forgery and his,] To soften it, to make it more endurable: or perhaps, to sooth us, and to prevent our being exasperated by your forgery and his. MALONE. Id 1 61. querdon'd-] i. e. rewarded. P. 179, c. 1, 7. 21. --go fear thy king-] That

is. fright thy king. Id. l. 26. -to put armour on ] It was once no unusual thing for queeas themselves to appear in armour at the head of their forces. The suit which Elizabeth wore, when she rode through the lines at Tilbury to encourage the troo; s. on the approach of the armada, may be stili seen in the Tower.

Id. 1. 30 -thy reward;] Here we are to suppose that, according to ancient custom, Warwick makes a present to the herald or messenger, whom the original copies call-a post Id. l_ 62. —— to make a stale,-] i. e. stalking horse, pretence.

ACT IV.

SCENE I.

Id. c. 2, 1 44. Why, knows not Montague, that of itself.

England is safe, if true within itself?] Neither the lapse of two centuries, nor any circumstance which has occurred during that

Id.

eventful period, has in any degree shook the credit of this observation, or impaired the con fidence of the public in the truth of it, “England is and will be still safe, if true within itself."

I 49.--with the seas,] This has been the advice of every man who in any age understood and favoured the interest of gland

Id. l. 65 you would not have bestowed the heir-] It must be remembered, that till the Restoration, the heiresses of great estates were in the wardship of the king, who in their minority gave them up to plund r, and afterwards matee them to his favourites. I know not when liberty gained more than by the abol.tion of the court of wards. JOHNSON.

Id. 1 80 I was not ignoble of descent] Her father was s.r Richard Wadvile, kuight, afterwards earl of Rivers: her mother, Jequeline, duchess-dowager of Pedford who was daughter to Peter of Luxemburgh, earl of Saint Paul, and widow of John duke of Bedford, brother to King Henry V.

P. 180. c. 1, 7. 39. she was there in place.] This expression, signifying, she was there present, occurs frequently in old English writers. En place a Gall.cism.

Id. 1 41 are done,] i. e. are consumed, thrown off. The word is often used in this sense by the writers of our author's age.

192

ACT V.

SCENE I.

P. 184, c. 1, l. 39. I'll do thee service-] i. e. enroll myself among thy dependants. Cowell informs us, that servitium is "that service which the tenant, by reason of his fee, oweth unto his lord."

Id. 1. 52. The king was slily finger'd from the deck! A pack of cards was anciently termed a deck of cards, or a pair of cards, and this is still in use in some parts.

ld. c. 2, l. 14. Two of thy name, both dukes of Somerset, Have sold their lives unto the house of York;] The first of these noblemen was Edmund, slain at the battle of Saint Alban's, 1455. The second was Henry his son, beheaded after the battle of Hexham, 1463. The present duke Edmund, brother to Henry, was taken prisoner at Tewksbury, 1471, and there beheaded, his brother John losing his life in the same fight. Id. 1. 27. to lime the stones-] that is, to cement the stones. Lime makes mortar. Id. 1. 29. so blunt,] Stupid, insensible of pater

nal fondness.

Id. 1.50.

passing traitor,] Eminent, egregious; traitorous beyond the common track of treason.

SCENE II.

Id. l. 66. --a bug, that fear'd us all.] Bug is a bugbear, a terrific being. P185, c. 1, . 15. My parks, &c.] This mention of his parks and manors diminishes the pathetic effect of the foregoing lines.

Id. 1.38. Which sounded like a cannon in a vault,]

Mr. Steevens thinks clamour, which is in the old play, the proper word, and adds, "The indistinct gabble of undertakers, while they adjust a coffin in a family vault, will abundantly illustrate the preceding simile. Such a peculiar hubbub of inarticulate sounds might have attracted our author's notice: it has too often forced itself on mine."

Id. 1. 72. hapless male-] The word male is here used in a very uncommon sense, not for the male of the female, but for the male parent: the sweet bird is evidently his son prince Edward. P. 187, c. 1, l. 18 Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear:] Who suspect no part of what my fears presage.

Id. t. 28. The raven rook'd her-] To rook, or rather to ruck, is a north country word, signifying to squat down, or lodge on any thing. Id. 1. 69. But I will sort a pitchy day for thee:] But I will choose out an hour whose gloom shall be as fatal to you. To sort is to select.

SCENE VII.

Id. c. 2, l. 41. Work thou the way, &c.] He speaks this line, first touching his head, and then looking on his hand.

Id. l. 48. Thanks, noble Clarence; worthy brother, thanks.] In my copy of the second folio, which had belonged to king Charles the First, his majesty has erased-Cla. and written King in its stead. Shakspeare, therefore, in the catalogue of his restorers, may boast of a royal name. STEEVENS.

Id. 1. 65. With stately triumphs,] Triumphs are public shows.

THIS tragedy, though it is called the life and death of this prince, comprises, at most, but the last eight years of his time; for it opens with George duke of Clarence being clapped up in the Tower, which happened in the beginning of the year 1477; and closes with the death of Richard at Bosworth field, which battle was fought on the 22th of August, in the year 1485. THEOBALD.

It appears that several dramas on the present subject had been written before Shakspeare attempted it. This play was first entered at Stationers' Hall by Andrew Wise, Oct. 20, 1597, under the title of The Tragedie of King Richard the Third, with the Death of the Duke of Clarence. Before this, viz. Aug. 15, 1586, was entered, A tragical report of King Richard the Third, a Ballad. It may be necessary to remark that the words, song, ballad, enterlude, and play, were often synonymously used. STEEVENS.

This play was written, I imagine, in the year 1593. The Legend of King Richard III. by Francis Seagars, was printed in the first edition of The Mirrour for Magistrates, 1559, and in that of 1575, and 1587, but Shakspeare does not appear to be indebted to it. In a subsequent edition of that book printed in 1610, the

old legend was omitted, and a new one inserted, by Richard Nicols, who has very freely copied the play before us. In 1597, when this tragedy was published, Nicols, as Mr. Warton has observed, was but thirteen years old. Hist. of Poetry, Vol. III. p. 267.

The real length of time in this piece is fourteen years; not eight years, as Mr. Theobald supposed for the second scene commences with the funeral of King Henry VI. who, according to the received account, was murdered on the 21st of May, 1471. The imprisonment of Clarence, which is represented previously in the first scene, did not in fact take place till 1477-8.

It has been since observed to me by Mr. Elderton (who is of opinion that Richard was charged with this murder by the Lancastrian historians without any foundation,) that "itappears on the face of the public accounts allowed in the exchequer for the maintenance of king Henry and his numerous attendants in the Tower, that he lived to the 12th of June, which was twenty-two days after the time assigned for his pretended assassination; was exposed to the public view in St. Paul's for some days, and interred at Chertsey with much solemnity, and at no inconsiderable expense." MALONE.