be a bait for the old pike, I see no reason, in the law of nature, but I may snap at him. Let time shape, and there an end.

[Exit.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

A Forest in Yorkshire.

Enter the Archbishop of YORK, MOWBRAY, HASTINGS, and Others.

ARCH. What is this forest call'd?

yett he had found out the kind you are come of, and your natural affections and apetis: and so, like a skillful man, hath given you natural fisicke, which is the onlie meanes to preserve the radicall hmrs and thus I conclude: My sow is healthfull, my divill's luckie, myself is happie, and needs no more than your blessing, which is my trew Felosophers stone, upon which I build as upon a rocke:

"Your Majesties most humble slave and doge

"Stinie."

The following passage in Churchyard's Commendation to them that can make Gold, &c. 1593, will sufficiently prove that the Elixir was supposed to be a stone before the time of Butler: much matter may you read

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"Of this rich art that thousands hold full deere : "Remundus too, that long liud heere indeede, "Wrate sundry workes, as well doth yet appeare, "Of stone for gold, and shewed plaine and cleere, "A stone for health. Arnolde wrate of the same, "And many more that were too long to name." Again, in the Dedication of The Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image and certaine Satyres, 1598:

"Or like that rare and rich Elixar stone,

"Can turne to gold leaden invention." STEEVENS.

I think Dr. Johnson's explanation of this passage is the true one: "I will make him of twice the value of the philosopher's stone." MALONE.

8 if the young dace-] That is, if the pike may prey upon the dace, if it be the law of nature that the stronger may seize upon the weaker, Falstaff may, with great propriety, devour Shallow. JOHNSON.

HAST. 'Tis Gualtree forest, an't shall please your

grace.

ARCH. Here stand, my lords; and send discoverers forth,

To know the numbers of our enemies.

HAST. We have sent forth already.

ARCH. "Tis well done. My friends and brethren in these great affairs, I must acquaint you that I have receiv'd New-dated letters from Northumberland; Their cold intent, tenour and substance, thus:Here doth he wish his person, with such powers As might hold sortance with his quality, The which he could not levy; whereupon He is retir'd, to ripe his growing fortunes, To Scotland: and concludes in hearty prayers, That your attempts may overlive the hazard, And fearful meeting of their opposite.

Mow B. Thus do the hopes we have in him touch

ground,

And dash themselves to pieces.

HAST.

Enter a Messenger.

Now, what news?

MESS. West of this forest, scarcely off a mile,

In goodly form comes on the enemy:

And, by the ground they hide, I judge their num

ber

Upon, or near, the rate of thirty thousand.

Mow B. The just proportion that we gave them

out.

Let us sway on ', and face them in the field.

9 'Tis GUALTREE forest,] "The earle of Westmoreland, &c. made forward against the rebels, and coming into a plaine, within. Galtree forest, caused their standards to be pitched down in like sort as the archbishop had pitched his, over against them."

Holinshed, p. 529. STEEVENS. Let us SWAY on,] I know not that I have ever seen sway

Enter WESTMORELAND.

ARCH. What well-appointed leader 2 fronts us here?

MoWB. I think, it is my lord of Westmoreland. WEST. Health and fair greeting from our general, The prince, lord John and duke of Lancaster. ARCH. Say on, my lord of Westmoreland, in

peace;

What doth concern your coming?

WEST.

Then, my lord, Unto your grace do I in chief address

The substance of my speech. If that rebellion
Came like itself, in base and abject routs,

Led on by bloody youth3, guarded with rage*,

in this sense; but I believe it is the true word, and was intended to express the uniform and forcible motion of a compact body. There is a sense of the noun in Milton kindred to this, where, speaking of a weighty sword, he says, "It descends with huge two-handed sway.' JOHNSON.

The word is used in Holinshed, English History, p. 986: "The left side of the enemy was compelled to sway a good way back, and give ground," &c. Again, in King Henry VÍ. Part III. Act II. Sc. V.:

"Now sways it this way, like a mightie sea,

"Forc'd by the tide to combat with the wind;
"Now sways it that way," &c.

Again, in King Henry V.:

"Rather swaying more upon our part," &c. STEEV Ens. 2-WELL-APPOINTED leader-] Well-appointed is completely accoutred. So, in The Miseries of Queen Margaret, by Drayton: "Ten thousand valiant, well-appointed men."

Again, in The Ordinary, by Cartwright:

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Naked piety

"Dares more, than fury well-appointed." STEEVENS.

3 Led on by BLOODY youth,] I believe Shakspeare wrote― heady youth. WARBURTON.

Bloody youth is only sanguine youth, or youth full of blood, and of those passions which blood is supposed to incite or nourish. JOHNSON.

So, The Merry Wives of Windsor; "Lust is but a bloody fire." MALone.

And countenanc'd by boys, and beggary;
I say,
if damn'd commotion so appear'd,
In his true, native, and most proper shape,
You, reverend father, and these noble lords,
Had not been here, to dress the ugly form
Of base and bloody insurrection

With your fair honours. You, lord archbishop,-
Whose see is by a civil peace maintain'd";
Whose beard the silver hand of peace hath touch'd;
Whose learning and good letters peace hath tutor❜d;
Whose white investments figure innocence 7,
The dove and very blessed spirit of peace,-
Wherefore do you so ill translate yourself,

4 — GUARDED with rage,] Guarded is an expression taken from dress; it means the same as faced, turned up. Mr. Pope, who has been followed by succeeding editors, reads goaded. Guarded is the reading both of quarto and folio. Shakspeare uses the same expression in the former part of this play:

"Velvet guards and Sunday citizens," &c.

Again, in The Merchant of Venice:

Give him a livery

"More guarded than his fellows." STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens is certainly right. We have the same allusion in a former part of this play:

"To face the garment of rebellion

"With some fine colour, that may please the eye
"Of fickle changelings," &c.

So again, in the speech before us :

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to dress the ugly form

"Of base and bloody insurrection-." MALONE. —SO APPEAR'D,] Old copies-so appear. Corrected by

Mr. Pope. MALONE

6 Whose see is by a CIVIL peace maintained;] decent, solemn. So, in Romeo and Juliet :

Come civil night,

"Thou sober-suited matron, all in black."

Civil is grave,

STEEVENS.

7 Whose WHITE INVESTMENTS figure innocence,] Formerly, (says Dr. Hody, History of Convocations, p. 141,) all bishops wore white, even when they travelled. GREY.

By comparing this passage with another in p. 91, of Dr. Grey's notes, we learn that the white investment meant the episcopal rochet; and this should be worn by the theatrick archbishop.

TOLLET.

Out of the speech of peace, that bears such grace, Into the harsh and boist'rous tongue of war? Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood,

8-graves,] For graves Dr. Warburton very plausibly reads glaives, and is followed by Sir Thomas Hanmer. JOHNSON.

We might perhaps as plausibly read greaves, i. e. armour for the legs, a kind of boots. In one of The Discourses on the Art Military, written by Sir John Smythe, Knight, 1586, greaves are mentioned as necessary to be worn; and Ben Jonson employs the same word in his Hymenæi :

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upon their legs they wore silver greaves." Again, in The Four Prentices of London, 1615:

"Arm'd with their greaves and maces."

Again, in the second Canto of The Barons Wars, by Drayton : Marching in greaves, a helmet on her head."

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Warner, in his Albion's England, 1602, b. xii. ch. Ixix. spells the word as it is found in the old copies of Shakspeare:

"The taishes, cushes, and the graves, staff, pensell, baises, all."

I know not whether it be worth adding, that the ideal metamorphosis of leathern covers of books into greaves, i. e. boots, seems to be more apposite than the conversion of them into instruments of war.

Mr. M. Mason, however, adduces a quotation (from the next scene) which seems to support Dr. Warburton's conjecture :

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Turning the word to sword, and life to death." STEEVENS The emendation, or rather interpretation, proposed by Mr. Steevens, appears to me extremely probable; yet a following line, in which the Archbishop's again addressed, may be urged in favour of glaives, i. e. swords:

"Chearing a rout of rebels with your drum,

19

"Turning the word to sword, and life to death." The latter part of the second of these lines, however, may be adduced in support of graves in its ordinary sense. Mr. Steevens observes, that the metamorphosis of the leathern covers of books into greaves, i. e. boots, seems to be more apposite than the conversion of them into such instruments of war as glaives; but surely Shakspeare did not mean, if he wrote either greaves or glaives, that they actually made boots or swords of their books, any more than that they made lances of their pens. The passage already quoted, "turning the word to sword," sufficiently proves that he had no such meaning. MALONE.

I am afraid that the expression "turning the word to sword," will be found but a feeble support for " glaives," if it be considered as a mere jeu de mots. DOUCE.