that will not do here. The right word is preseance (fr.) i. e. priority in point of rank. Lord is frequently used for King or Prince. Of' is by or in. Lord of thy Preseance' will therefore be-Lord or Prince in thine own right by lineal descent. B. Phil. Madam, I'll follow you unto the death. unto the death.] This expression is common among our ancient writers. See vol. ii. p. 74. STEEV. "Unto the death" is according to the French idiom-jusqu'à la mort. B. Phil. "Tis too respective, and too sociable, For your conversing. 'Tis too respective, &c.] i. e. respectful. STEEV. "Respective" is not, respectful, but particular, too much attached to self. B. Phil. My piked man of countries: My piked man of countries: -] The word piked may not refer to the beard, but to the shoes, which were once worn of an immoderate length. To this fashion our author has alluded in King Lear, where the reader will find a more ample explanation. Piked may, however, mean only spruce in dress. STEEV. "My piked man of countries." I would rather understand picked or piqued as meaning, in this place, sharp, keen. The sense of the whole is apparently this." I catechise my sharp keen gentleman concerning the countries he has visited." We are to suppose that this is spoken of the traveller ironically. B. Faulc. It lies as sightly on the back of him, As great Alcides' shoes upon an ass: It lies as sightly on the back of him, As great Alcides' shoes upon an ass': -] But why his shoes in the name of propriety? For let Hercules and his shoes have been really as big as they were ever supposed to be, yet they (I mean the shoes) would not have been an overload for an ass. I am persuaded, I have retrieved the true reading; and let us observe the justness of the comparison now. Faulconbridge in his resentment would say this to Austria: "That lion's skin, which my great father king Richard once wore, looks as uncouthly on thy back, as that other noble hide, which was borne by Hercules, would look on the back of an ass." A double allusion was intended; first to the fable of the ass in the lion's skin; then Richard I. is finely set in competition with Alcides, as Austria is satirically coupled with the ass. THEOB. The shoes of Hercules are more than once introduced in the old comedies on much the same occasions. So, in The Isle of Gulls, by J. Day, 1606: -are as fit, as Hercules' shoe for the foot of a pigmy." Again, in Greene's Epistle Dedicatory to Perimedes the Blacksmith, 1588: “—and so least I should shape Hercules' shoe for a child's foot, I commend your worship to the Almighty." Again, in Greene's Penelope's Web 1601: "I will not make a long harvest for a smallcrop, nor go about to pull a Hercules' shoe on Achilles' foot." Again, ibid. "Hercules shoe will never serve a child's foot." Again in Stephen Gosson's School of Abuse, 1579: "-to draw the lion's skin upon Esop's asse, or Hercules' shoes on a childes feete." STEEV. "As great Alcides' shoes upon an ass." From the several instances adduced by Mr. Steevens, there can be little doubt, but that" Alcides' shoes" is the right reading. An incorrectness in our author's expression has called forth Mr. Theobald's,-how. must I say? acuteness and perhaps wit, for so he evidently considers of his remark. But his pleasantry is merely niuserie, and his sagacity de meme trempe. Shakspeare having spoken of the lion's hide on the back of Austria and of Alcides' shoes upon an ass, the editor has unfortunately conceived that the shoes must necessarily be placed as the hide had been: and hence, I say, he has been provoked to exercise his wit. But Alcides' shoes upon an ass' means nothing more than Hercules' shoes worn by an ass; and when Faulconbridge says, "but ass, I'll take that burden from your back;" it merely alludes to the lion's skin as borne by the Duke. By a slight transposition, however, the passage will be still more clear :- -Read As great Alcides' shoes upon an ass; It (the lion's hide) lies as sightly on the back of him: Const. I have but this to say, That he's not only plagued for her sin, But God hath made her sin and her the plague All punish'd in the person of this child, And all for her; A plague upon her! I have but this to say, That he's not only plagued for her sin, This passage appears to me very obscure. The chief difficulty arises from this, that Constance having told Elinor of her sin-conceiving womb, pursues the thought, and uses sin through the next lines in au ambiguous sense, sometimes for crime, and sometimes for offspring. He's not only plagued for her sin, &c. Ile is not only made miserable by vengeance for her sin or crime; but her sin, her offspring, and she, are made the instruments of that vengeance, on this descendant; who, though of the second generation, is plagued for her and with her; to whom she is not only the cause but the instrument of evil. The next clause is more perplexed. -plagu'd for her, All the editions read: And with her plague her sin; his injury, All punish'd in the person of this child. I point thus: -plagu'd for her And with her.-Plague her son! his injury, That is; instead of inflicting vengeance on this innocent and remote descendant, punish her son, her immediate offspring: then the affliction will fall where it is deserved; his injury will be her injury, and the misery of her sin; her son will be a beadle, or chastiser, to her crimes, which are now all punish'd in the person of this child. JOHN. 'I have but this to say,' &c.-This passage, as the commentators observe, is obscure; and every effort to interpret it rightly, in the present order of the words, will be of no avail. A transposition of them, however, with some little change in the expression, will give to the whole, I believe, a sufficient degree of clearness. I therefore read: "I have but this to say, That he's not only plagued for her sin, But God hath made her sin and her the plague And with her,all for her, her injury, It should be noted in respect to the reading here proposed, that injury in the first instance (" her injury") is not injury done to her, but by her; and that injury in the second instance, (" his injury ") is not to have the meaning of wrong either done to, or received by, (John); but simply hurt, annoyance; and such as war would be likely to occasion to him. B. K. Phil. It ill beseems this To these ill-tuned repetitions. presence, to cry aim It ill beseems this presence, to cry aim To these ill-tuned repetitions.] Dr. Warburton has well observed on one of the former plays, that to cry aim is to encourage. I once thought it was borrowed from archery; and that aim! having been the word of command, as we now say present to cry aim had been to incite notice, or raise attention. But I rather think, that the old word of applause was J'aime, I love it, and that to applaud was to cry J'aime, which the English, not easily pronouncing Je, sunk into aime or aim. Our exclamations of applause are still borrowed, as bravo and encore. JOHN. I think it highly probable that we should read, "cry alen," i. e. cry again! aien is again.-See Chaucer and other old writers. Cry aim may, indeed, in other places, have the sense which Dr. Warburton has given to it. B. K. Phil. 'Tis not the roundure of your old-fac'd walls Can hide you from our messengers of war; 'Tis not the roundure, &c.] Roundure means the same as the French rondeur, i. e. the circle. STEEV. To suppose that by "rondure" Philip means the roundness of their walls, that he is merely describing them as a circle, were highly absurd. By rondure we are to understand the round, the whole extent of the walls. B. K. John. France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away? Say, shall the current of our right run on? Shall leave his native channel, and o'er-swell -run on.' Rome on' is unquestionably the true reading. Rome in old language is wide. Indeed, the modern expression to roam, i. e. to wander, to ramble, may, without any great Jatitude, be used in regard of fluids when speaking of any tendency they may have to spread, extend over, or widen by reason of their excess. Of' is by or from. The lines must be written and pointed as follows: 'France, hast thou yet more blood to cast away? Say, shall the current, of our right, rome on?' The construction is" Shall the Current of blood, by [oc casioned by asserting] our right, spread, or become wide?"and not that the Current of right, (as the Editors imagine) is to run on. The latter reading is weak and inconsequent, while in the former, as is easily seen by attending to the context'leave his native channel''O'er-swell with course disturbed,' &c. a clear and determinate meaning may be found. B. Cit. A greater power than ye, denies all this; A greater pow'r than we, denies all this; Kings of our fears ;] We should read, than ye. What power was this? their fears. It is plain therefore we should read: Kings are our fears,-i. c. our fears are the kings which at present rule us. WARB. Dr. Warburton saw what was requisite to make this passage sense; and Dr. Johnson, rather too hastily, I think, has received his emendation into the text. He reads: which he explains to mean, our fears are the kings which at present rule us." TYRW. Kings of our fears.'- The commentators are mistaken. Kings of our fears' means neither that their fears are their Kings, nor that they are Kings or masters of their fears. 'Kings' is here to be considered as an exclamatory address to the warring powers. We must read and point as under : we do lock Our former scruple in our strong-barr'd gates,- 'Of' is by or from. The sense is " We shut our gates against ye, Kings! [contending Kings] 'of' [by reason of or from] our fears, until a certain King," &c. [until the contest shall be determined] &c. B. Cit. At this match, With swifter spleen than powder can enforce, -at this match, With swifter spleen &c. Our author uses spleen for any violent hurry, or tumultuous speed. |