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ters. In the same manner at the present day we have Cit' for citizen, with many others, particularly Brim'for Brimstone, which may be appositely brought forward here, and in regard of Harr' for Harridon, as the same kind of female is intended to be described by both. Another thing to be considered is, that such is likely to be the proper reading, not only from the character of Falstaff, but the humor of the Prince. B.

Fal. I'll make one; an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me.

--and baffle me.] See Mr. Tollet's note on K. Rich. II. p. 147. STEEV.

and baffle me.] Mr Tollet says, that to baffle means, to treat a person with the greatest ignominy imaginable; but I rather think that to baffle is, in this place, to mock, to laugh at. Befler, Fr. It should be written beffle. B.

P. Henry. When this loose behaviour I throw off, And pay the debt I never promised,

By how much better than my word I am,

By so much shall I falsify men's hopes;

shall I falsify men's hopes;] Just the contrary. We should read fears. WARB.

To falsify hope is to exceed hope, to give much where men hoped

for little.

This speech is very artfully introduced to keep the prince from appearing vile in the opinion of the audience; it prepares them for his future reformation; and, what is yet more valuable, exhibits a natural picture of a great mind offering excuses to itself, and palliating those follies which it can neither justify nor forsake.

JOHN.

Hopes is used simply for expectations, as success is for the event, whether good or bad. This is still common in the midland counties. "Such manner of uncouth speech," says Puttenham, "did the tanner of Tamworth use to king Edward IV. which tanner having a great while mistaken him, and used very broad talk, at length perceiving by his train that it was the king, was afraid he should be punished for it, and said thus, with a certain rude repentance, "I hope I shall be hanged to-morrow, for I fear me I shall be hanged;" whereat the king laughed a-good; not only to see the tanner's vain feare, but also to hear his mishapen terme: and gave him for recompence of his good sport, the inheritance of Plumpton Parke. FARM.

"Shall I falsify men's hopes." When Johnson says that to 'falsify hope' is to exceed hope,' he puts a very forced construction on the words, nay it is such perhaps as analogy will not

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admit. Beside it should be remembered that hope, though it certainly implies expectation, can never be used for expectation of ill. For instance, a man who engages in any perilous adventure and with a view to gain, may yet say, by reason of the hazard --that he expects to fail, but not that he hopes it may be so: for this reason in the passage adduced by Dr. Farmer, the word hope' must be wrong. But this I will endeavour to explain. In old language, I is very frequently set down for ay, (yes); I hope I shall should therefore be, ay, hap I shall,' i. e. "yes, it may hap or fall out that I shall &c. ;" for that any one should hope to be hanged is not according to the constitution of human kind. The hard and broad pronunciation of hap by the tanner might lead the King to imagine that he had said hope from not being acquainted with the particular meaning of the word: and on such occasion his Majesty would be very likely to laugh a-good, as Puttenham expresses it. But admitting that the tanner's word were hope,' it will only serve to prove that it could not at any time have the meaning of expectation of ill: for if such had really been thie case, it would not be called a "mishapen terme.”

With respect to the passage in our author, I am of opinion that for hopes' we should read yapes: taunts, sarcasms. They when turned at the press will have greatly the appearance of h.-The types, indeed, of Shakspeare's time were so clumsily cut, that mistakes might easily be made by succeeding printers. This being granted, the Prince will appear to say-" By so much shall I falsify men's taunts,"-"the gibes, the scoffs that have been passed on me will be but air-and men will soon discover what I am.” B.

K. Henry. My blood hath been too cold and temperate,

Unapt to stir at these indignities,

And you have found me; for, accordingly,
You tread upon my patience: but be sure,
I will from henceforth rather be myself,
Mighty, and to be fear'd, than my condition;
I will from henceforth rather be myself,

Mighty, and to be fear'd, than my condition ;]

i. e. I will from henceforth rather put on the character that becomes me, and exert the resentment of an injured king, than still continue in the inactivity and mildness of my natural disposition. And this sentiment he has well expressed, save that by his usual licence, he puts the word condition for disposition; which use of terms displeas

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ing our Oxford editor, as it frequently does, he, in a loss for the meaning, substitutes in for than :

Mighty and to be fear'd in my condition.

So that by condition, in this reading, must be meant station, office. But it cannot be predicated of station and office," that is smooth as oil, soft as young down;" which shows that condition must needs be WARB. licentiously used for disposition, as we said before.

The commentator has well explained the sense, which was not very difficult, but is mistaken in supposing the use of condition licentious. Shakspeare uses it very frequently for temper of mind, and in this sense the vulgar still say a good or ill-conditioned man.

JOHN.

My blood hath been too cold,' &c. The meaning is somewhat obscured by faulty arrangement. I would regulate the pas sage thus

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My blood hath been too cold and temperate,
And you have found me still unapt to stir

At these indignities:-accordingly

You tread upon my patience. But be sure,

I will from henceforth mighty be and fear'd :-
Fear'd rather in myself than my condition.'

Fear'd in myself'-will mean feared for what I am feared in my kingly capacity: not according to my disposition, as Warburton and Johnson suppose

Hot.

B.

Revolted Mortimer!

He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,

But by the chance of war;-To prove that true, Needs no more but one tongue, for all those wounds, Those mouthed wounds, which valiantly he took, When, on the gentle Severn's sedgy bank,

In single opposition, hand to hand,

He did confound the best part of an hour
In changing hardiment with great Glendower :
He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,

But by the chance of war;

A poor apology for a soldier, and a man of honor, that he fell off, The poet certainly wrote: and revolted by the chance of war.

But 'bides the chance of war ;

i. e. he never did revolt, but abides the chance of war, as a prisoner. And if he still endured the rigor of imprisonment, that was a plain proof he was not revolted to the enemy. Hotspur says the same thing afterwards:

-suffer'd his kinsman March

to be encag'd in Wales.

Here again the Oxford editor makes this correction his own at the small expence of changing 'bides to bore. WARB.

The plain meaning is, he came not into the enemy's power but by the chance of war. To 'bide the chance of war may well enough signify, to stand the hazard of a battle; but can scarcely mean, to endure the severities of a prison. The king charged Mortimer, that he wilfully betrayed his army, and, as he was then with the enemy, calls him revolted Mortimer. Hotspur replies, that he never fell off, that is, fell into Glendower's hands, but by the chance of war. I should not have explained thus tediously a passage so hard to be mistaken, but that two editors have already mistaken it. JOHN.

'He never did fall off, my sovereign liege,

But by the chance of war.'

Johnson's attempt at explanation is here particularly unhappy. How can "fall off" be made to signify fall into the hands of an enemy? The words are clearly expressive of disloyalty. But the passage is not, in my opinion, read properly by either Editor. The construction is not that Mortimer fell off by the chance of war. To use that kind of language were absurd: neither are we to understand that he abided the chance of war. Hotspur's averment is, that Mortimer never fell, or swerved from his duty. There should be a full stop at 'liege.' He then goes on- But by the chance of war to prove this true '— that is" But to prove this, and arguing by the frequent fortune of war," i. e. the being wounded &c. Percy then further instances, and in support of what he before advanced, the hurts which his brother had actually received in combating on the part of the king;-and also relates the circumstances of the fight. B.

K. Henry. Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him,

He never did encounter with Glendower;

'Thou dost belie him, Percy, thou dost belie him.' To' belie' will certainly mean to aver falsely of any one, and further perhaps with either a good or evil intent. Yet the latter is the received opinion touching that expression, and it is commonly used in that sense. It should at the same time be remarked that Percy is elaborate in his commendation of Mortimer, so that to make the King say" thou dost belie him, Harry -is contrary to our established idea in regard to the word. We may better read-Thou dost belie thee, Percy, thou dost belie thee,' i. e. "Thou utterest falsehoods: thou speakest untruths."

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This indeed is not strictly conformable with our English idiom, but may be admitted as bordering in analogy on betray thee: betray thyself; and which is said of a person who inadvertently lets fall expressions injurious to his own particular interests. B.

Hot. By heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap,
To pluck bright honor from the pale-fac'd moon;
Or dive into the bottom of the deep,

Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,
And pluck up drowned honor by the locks;
So he, that doth redeem her hence, might wear,
Without corrival, all her dignities:

By heaven, methinks, &c.] Gildon, a critic of the size of Dennis, &c. calls this speech, without any ceremony, 68 a ridiculous rant, and absolute madness." Mr. Theobald talks in the same strain. The French critics had taught these people just enough to understand where Shakspeare had transgressed the rules of the Greek tragic writers; and on those occasions, they are full of the poor frigid caut of fable, sentiment, diction, unities, &c. But it is another thing to get to Shakspeare's sense to do this required a little of their own. For want of which, they could not see that the poet here uses an allegorical covering to express a noble and very natural thought.Hotspur, all on fire, exclaims against huckstering and bartering for honor, and dividing it into shares. O! says he, could I be sure that when I had purchased honor I should wear her dignities without a rival-what then? Why then,

By heaven, methinks it were an easy leap

To pluck bright honor from the pale-fac'd moon :

i. e. though some great and shining character, in the most elevated orb, was already in possession of her, yet it would, methinks, be easy by greater acts, to eclipse his glory and pluck all his honors from him:

Or dive into the bottom of the deep,

And pluck up drowned honor by the locks. WARB. Though I am very 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 the learned com. mentator has 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 clamor of a man able to do much, and eager to do more; as the hasty motion of turbulent desire; as the dark expression of indetermined thoughts. JOHN.

، By Heaven, methinks, it were an easy leap,

To pluck bright honor from the pale-fac'd moon,' &c. This speech, as it now stands, exhibits so much of what may be called rodomontade, that I am persuaded of an error in the printing. Hotspur, while he is represented as of a fiery and impatient spirit, must at no time be considered as a Drawcansir, who in speaking of his enemies, says

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