Thou rag of honor.' This appears not to be the English rag, i. e. fragment, tatter, but a contraction (rag') of the French ragot, which signifies a shrimp, a dwarf, and here used by a like kind of figure for a petty, despicable fellow. Margaret would say, (which is far more expressive than the present reading), Thou dwarf in honor,' &c. In like manner These over-weening rags of France,' means these paltry shrimps of France: an epithet, by the way, which in former days, John Bull was very lavish in bestowing on the soldiers of the gallic state; forgetting that if the enemy were really so very contemptible, the honor in subduing such men could not be very great. But of this sort of pleasantry there is now an end. B. Q. Mar. Your aiev buildeth in our aiery's nest: Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's nest :--] An aiery is a hawk's or an eagle's nest. STEEV. Your aiery buildeth,' &c. This line, I think, should run thus: Glo. Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repay'd; God pardon them that are the cause thereof! He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains ;-] A frank is an old English word for a hog-sty. POPE. A frank was not a common hog-stye, but the pen in which those hogs were confined, of whom brawn was to be made. STEEV. 'He is franked up to fatting.' And so Mr. S. 'a frank' was not ' a common hog's-stye, but the pen in which those hogs were confined of whom brawn was to be made.' Thus do men grow wiser every day!' As Touchstone observes. B. Clar. Clarence is come, false, fleeting, perjur'd Cla sides. rence, -fleeting, perjur'd Clarence,] Fleeting is the same as changing JOHN, So, in Antony and Cleopatra: -now the fleeting moon No planet is of mine. Clarence broke his oath with the earl of Warwick, and joined the army of his brother king Edward IV. STEEV. Fleeting perjured Clarence.' Dr. Johnson says that fleeting is changing sides; and Mr. Steevens accordingly brings forward fleeting moon by way of illustration. That is, the moon changing sides, or dancing the Hay with the earth, I suppose, as exhibited by Mr. Bayes in the Rehearsal. Fleeting' however, signifies quickly, speedily gone; and the fleeting moon is the moon quickly passing away. In the speech of Clarence, the word should be written Fleting, i, e. unsettled, unstable. B. Clar. If you are hir'd for meed, go back again, If you are hired for meed, go back again.] The quarto of 1613 readsfor need,--which may be right. If it be necessity which induces you to undertake this murder. MAL. If you are hired for meed. must read; The punctuation is wrong. We 'If you are hired, for meed go back again.' i. e. If you were hired to kill me, be now hired to save me.' This reading the following lines will justify. B. Dutch. Was never mother, had so dear a loss. So dear a loss.' 'Dear' should in this place, as in some others, be printed dere-the old word for mischievous, hurtful. A loss so likely to be destructive to me.' B. Queen. A parlous boy:-Go to, you are too shrewd. 1608: "A parlous youth, sharp and satirical." STEEV. A parlous boy. Parlous' is peerless. See Chaucer, Spenser and other old writers. B. Buck. You are too senseless obstinate, my lord, Weigh it but with the grossness of this age, You break not sanctuary in seizing him. Weigh it but with the grossness of this age,] But the more gross, that is, the more superstitious the age was, the stronger would be the imputation of violated sanctuary. The question, we see by what follows, is whether sanctuary could be claimed by an infant. The speaker resolves it in the negative, because it could be claimed by those only whose actions necessitated them to fly thither; or by those who had an understanding to demand it; neither of which could be an infant's case: It is plain then, the first line, which introduces this reasoning, should be read thus: Weigh it but with the greenness of his age, i. e. the young Duke of York's, whom his mother had fled with to sanctuary. The corrupted reading of the old quarto is something nearer the true : -the greatness of his age. WARB. This emendation is received by Hanmer, and is very plausible; yet the common reading may stand: Weigh it but with the grossness of this age, You break not sanctuary, That is, compare the act of seizing him with the gross and licentious practices of these times, it will not be considered as a violation of sanctuary, for you may give such reasons as men are now used to admit. The quarto of 1613 reads as the folio does: —the grossness of this age. MAL. Jonn. The grossness of this age.' The proper word, I think, is groffness, i. e. churlishness, doggedness. You are too ceremonious,' says Buckingham, Cousider the rugged manners (generally speaking) of the age:' beside you break not sanctuary &c. It' refers to ' Ceremonious 'the punctuation is wrong. Prince. What say you, uncle? Glo. I say, without characters, fame lives long. 1 moralize, two meanings in one word. Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity, I moralize two meanings in one word.] B. By vice, the author means not a quality, but a person. There was hardly an old play, till the period of the Reformation, which had not in it a devil, and a droll character, a jester; (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 ass's ears, and a wooden dagger, with which (like another Harlequin) he was to make sport in belaboring the devil. This was the constant entertainment in the times of popery, whilst spirits, and witchcraft, and exorcising held their own. When the Reformation took place, the stage shook off some grossities, and encreased in refinements. The master-devil then was soon dismissed from the scene; and this buffoon was changed into a subordinate fiend, whose business was to range on earth, and seduce poor mortals into that personated vicious quality, which he occasionally supported; as, iniquity in general, hypocrisy, usury, vanity, prodigality, gluttony, &c. Now, as the fiend (or vice,) who personated Iniquity (or Hypocrisy, for instance) could never hope to play his game to the purpose but by hiding his cloven foot, and assuming a semblance quite different from his real character; he must certainly put on a formal demeanour, moralize and prevaricate in his words, and pretend a meaning directly opposite to his genuine and primitive intention. If this does not explain the passage in question, 'tis all that I can at present suggest upon it. THEub. Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity, 1 moralize two meanings in one word.] That the buffoon, or jester 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 sins, is as true. Of these we have yet several remains. But that the vice used to assume the personage of those sins, is a fancy of Mr. Theobald's, who knew nothing of the matter. The truth is, the vice was always à 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 sins were so many sad serious ones. But what misled 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 passage of Jonson's Staple of News, second intermeane : "M. How like you the vice i' the play? “T. Here is never a fiend to carry him away. Besides he has never a wooden dagger. "M. That was the old way, gossip, 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 Ass, we see this old vice, Iniquity, described 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 thé interpolation of some foolish player. The vice, or iniquity being not a formal, but a merry, buffoon character. Besides, Shakspeare 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 passage, that he is apologizing for his equivocation by a reputable practice. To keep the reader no longer in suspence, my conjecture is, that Shakspeare wrote and pointed the lines in this manner: Thus like the formal-wise Antiquity, I moralize: Two meanings in one word. Alluding to the mythologic learning of the ancients, of whom they are all here speaking. So that Richard's ironical apology is to this effect, You men of morals who so much extol your all-wise 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, Axóubos or the equivocator. So far as to the general sense; as to that which arises particularly out of the corrected expression, I shall only observe, that formal-wise is a compound epithet, an extreme fine one, and admirably fitted to the character of the speaker, who thought all wisdom but formality. It must therefore be read for the future with a hyphen. My other observation is with regard to the pointing; the common reading: I moralize two meanings- is nonsense: but reformed in this manner, very sensible: Thus like the formal-wise Antiquity I moralize: Two meanings in one word. i. e. I moralize as the ancients did. And how was that? the having two meanings to one word. A ridicule on the morality of the ancients, which he insinuates was no better than equivocating. WARB. This alteration Mr. Upton very justly censures. Dr. Warburton has, in my opinion, done nothing but correct the punctuation, if indeed any alteration be really necessary. See the dissertation on the old vice at the end of this play. To this long collection of notes may be added a question, to what equivocation Richard refers? The position immediately preceding, that fame lives long without characters, that is, without the help of letters, seems to have no ambiguity. He must allude to the former line : So young, so wise, they say, did ne'er live long, in which he conceals under a proverb, his design of hastening the prince's death. JouN. Thus like the formal vice, Iniquity.' The controversy which has been carried, on in regard to the vice,' has arisen from not attending to circumstances, to the situations into which the allegorical characters of the ancient moralists or plays are thrown. Dr. Warburton says that the vice,' is always represented as a droll or Buffoon; and he says rightly,-for it is certain that the simple expression the vice, was as much a distinguishing mark of the fool, as the actual mention of the attribute or quality belonging to the per sonified vices would be. The learned prelate maintains, that formal vice iniquity,' must be corrupt, as the vice is at all times, and which has been already noticed, a buffoon. But that vices, or sins, with their particular designations, were shown on the stage, the citations from Ben Jonson will sufficiently prove. Pug asks the devil to lend him a vice. "Satan. What vice? or old Iniquity." It is easily seen that when the formal vice iniquity is spoken of, we can understand it as alluding to the buffoon. Yet this acknowledged, it by no means supports the opinion of Warburton, and for the reasons already set down. Richard by applying the epithet formal to the vice in question undoubtedly means Hypocrisy. What then can be clearer, what can be more expressive of his character and situation than the present reading? Thus like hypocrisy, I employ a double meaning,' &c. But Johnson has asked to what equivocation Richard refers: and then immediately resolves the question himself by instancing the line-So wise, so young, they say, do ne'er live long.' But in this there is nothing equivocal: beside it is spoken apart, and Gloster by thus do I moralize two meanings in one word,' must allude to what the Prince had heard him say, which was without character fame lives long. It is evident then that the ambiguity is in the word characters, which signifies letters and personal reputation. Fame, [or name] says he, wi!! live long on mere report, without the aid of letters and Fame [or a name,] (meaning his own) will live to after times-Distinction will be mine though wholly without character: In fine he will be damned to everlasting fame. Here, I believe, will be found the equivocation of Richard: the two meanings in one word. Here, I say, we discover his hypocrisy. B., Glo. Short summers lightly have a forward spring. lightly- Commonly, in ordinary course. Joan. In Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels. He is not lightly within to his mercer. STEEV. 6 'Lightly. Lightly' seems to be here used mistakenly for the old word lichley, i. e. ordinarily. Lightly in the passage from Cynthia's revels is totally foreign to the present matter. Not lightly,' is, in that place, greatly in debt. B. Glo. O, my fair cousin, I must not say so. 'O my fair cousin.' Fair' is here printed as though Gloster meant to say pretty, pleasing to the eye and so I believe the editors have understood him. The proper word, however, is faire, and which by the earlier writers is used for happy, fortunate. 0 my happy, [fortunate in expression,] quick-witted cousin,' &c and this is insinuated of York, as well by others as by Richard. B. |