By the rough torrent of occafion :
And have the fummary of all our griefs,
When time shall ferve, to fhow in articles;
Which, long ere this, we offer'd to the king,
And might by no fuit gain our audience :

When we are wrong'd, and would unfold our griefs,
We are denied accefs unto his perfon

2

Even by thofe men that most have done us wrong.
The dangers of the days but newly gone,
(Whose memory is written on the earth
With yet-appearing blood,) and the examples
Of every minute's inftance,3 (prefent now,)
Have put us in thefe ill-befeeming arms:
Not to break peace,+ or any branch of it;
But to establish here a peace indeed,
Concurring both in name and quality.

WEST. When ever yet was your appeal denied?

2 We are denied accefs-] The Archbishop fays, in Holinfhed: "Where he and his companie were in armes, it was for feare of the king, to whom he could have no free acceffe, by reason of fuch a multitude of flatterers, as were about him."

STEEVENS.

3 Of every minute's inftance,] The examples of an instance does not convey, to me at leaft, a very clear idea. The frequent corruptions that occur in the old copies in words of this kind, make me fufpect that our author wrote:

Of every minute's inflants,

i. e. the examples furnished not only every minute, but during the moft minute divifion of a minute.-Inftance, however, is elfewhere used by Shakspeare for example; and he has fimilar pleonafms in other places. MALONE.

Examples of every minute's inftance are, I believe, examples which every minute fupplies, which every minute preffes on our notice. STEEVENS.

4 Not to break peace,]" He took nothing in hand against the king's peace, but that whatsoever he did, tended rather to advance the peace and quiet of the commonwealth." Archbishop's speech in Holinfhed. STEEVENS.

Wherein have you been galled by the king?
What peer hath been fuborn'd to grate on you?
That you fhould feal this lawless bloody book
Of forg'd rebellion with a feal divine,
And confecrate commotion's bitter edge? 5
ARCH. My brother general, the commonwealth,
To brother born an household cruelty,
I make my quarrel in particular."

5 And confecrate commotion's bitter edge?] It was an old cuftom, continued from the time of the first croisades, for the Pope to confecrate the general's fword, which was employed in the service of the church. To this cuftom the line in queftion alludes. WARBURTON.

commotion's bitter edge?] i. e. the edge of bitter strife and commotion; the fword of rebellion. So, in a fubfequent scene "That the united veffel of their blood,"

inftead of the veffel of their united blood." MALONE.

6

My brother general, &c.—

1 make my quarrel in particular.] The fenfe is this"My brother general, the commonwealth, which ought to diftribute its benefits equally, is become an enemy to those of his own house, to brothers born, by giving fome to all, and others none; and this (fays he) I make my quarrel or grievance that honours are unequally diftributed;" the conftant birth of malecontents, and the source of civil commotions. WARBURTON.

In the first folio the second line is omitted, yet that reading, unintelligible as it is, has been followed by Sir T. Hanmer. How difficultly fenfe can be drawn from the best reading, the explication of Dr. Warburton may fhow. I believe there is an error in the first line, which, perhaps, may be rectified thus: My quarrel general, the commonwealth, To brother born an household cruelty,

I make my quarrel in particular.

That is, my general cause of discontent is public mifmanage ment; my particular caufe, a domeftick injury done to my natural brother, who had been beheaded by the king's order. JOHNSON.

This circumftance is mentioned in the First Part of the play : "The archbishop-who bears hard

"His brother's death at Bristol, the lord Scroop."

STEEVENS,

WEST. There is no need of any fuch redress; Or, if there were, it not belongs to you.

MowB. Why not to him, in part; and to us all, That feel the bruifes of the days before; And fuffer the condition of these times

The meaning of the paffage appears to me to be this" My brother-general (meaning Mowbray, the Lord Marischal) makes the misconduct of publick affairs, and the welfare of the community, his caufe of quarrel; but my particular caufe of quarrel, is a family injury, the cruelty with which my real brother has been treated;" meaning Lord Scroop. M. MASON.

Perhaps the meaning is-"My brother general, who is joined here with me in command, makes the commonwealth his quarrel, i.e. has taken up arms on account of publick grievances; a particular injury done to my own brother, is my ground of quarrel." I have, however, very little confidence in this interpretation. I have supposed the word general a fubftantive; but probably it is used as an adjective, and the meaning may be, I confider the wrongs done to the commonwealth, the common brother of us all, and the particular and domeftick cruelty exercised against my natural brother, as a fufficient ground for taking up arms.If the former be the true interpretation, perhaps a femicolon fhould be placed after commonwealth. The word born in the fubfequent line (To brother born] feems ftrongly to countenance the fuppofition that general in the prefent line is an epithet applied to brother, and not a fubftantive.

In that which is apparently the firft of the two quartos, the fecond line is found; but is omitted in the other, and the folio, I fufpect that a line has been loft following the word commonwealth; the fenfe of which was-" is the general ground of our taking up arms."

This fuppofition renders the whole paffage so clear, that I am now decidedly of opinion that a line has been loft. "My general brother, the commonwealth, is the general ground of our taking up arms; a wrong of a domeftich nature, namely the cruelty Shewn to my natural brother, is my particular ground for engaging in this war." MALone.

It is now become certain that there are three varieties of the

quarto editions, 1600, of this play. They are all before me, and in two of them (only one of which contains the additional scene at the beginning of the third Act) the second line, pointed out by Mr. Malone, is wanting. STEEVENS.

To lay a heavy and unequal hand
Upon our honours ?

WEST.
O my good lord Mowbray,"
Conftrue the times to their neceffities,8
And you fhall fay indeed, it is the time,
And not the king, that doth you injuries.
Yet, for your part, it not appears to me,
Either from the king, or in the present time,9
That fhould have an inch of any ground
To build a grief on: Were you not reftor'd
To all the duke of Norfolk's figniories,

you

Your noble and right-well-remember'd father's? MoWB. What thing, in honour, had my father

loft,

That need to be reviv'd, and breath'd in me? The king, that lov'd him, as the state stood then, Was, force perforce, compell'd to banish him: And then, when 3 Harry Bolingbroke, and he,Being mounted, and both roused in their feats, Their neighing courfers daring of the spur,

70 my good lord Mowbray, &c.] The thirty-feven lines following are not in the quarto. MALONE.

8 Conftrue the times to their neceffities,] That is,-Judge of what is done in these times according to the exigencies that over-rule us. JOHNSON.

Either from the king, &c,] Whether the faults of government be imputed to the time or the king, it appears not that you have, for your part, been injured either by the king or the time. JOHNSON.

1 To build a grief on :] i. e. a grievance. MALOne. 2 Was, force perforce,] Old copy-Was forc'd. Corrected by Mr. Theobald. In a fubfequent fcene we have the fame words:

"As, force perforce, the age will put it in." MALONE. 3 And then, when-] The old copies read-And then, that-. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Mr. Rowe reads-And when that—. MALONE

Their armed ftaves in charge, their beavers down,5
Their eyes of fire fparkling through fights of steel,"
And the loud trumpet blowing them together;
Then, then, when there was nothing could have staid
My father from the breaft of Bolingbroke,
O, when the king did throw his warder down,
His own life hung upon the ftaff he threw :
Then threw he down himfelf; and all their lives,
That, by indictment, and by dint of sword,
Have fince miscarried under Bolingbroke.

WEST. You speak, lord Mowbray, now you know not what:

The earl of Hereford was reputed then
In England the most valiant gentleman;
Who knows, on whom fortune would then have
fmil'd?

But, if
your father had been victor there,
He ne'er had borne it out of Coventry:
For all the country, in a general voice,

Cried hate upon him; and all their prayers, and love,
Were fet on Hereford, whom they doted on,

4 Their armed ftaves in charge, &c.] An armed staff is a lance. To be in charge, is to be fixed in the reft for the encounter. JOHNSON.

5 their beavers down,] Beaver, it has been already obferved in a former note, (see Vol. XI. p. 380, n. 5,) meant properly that part of the helmet which let down, to enable the wearer to drink; but is confounded both here and in Hamlet with vifiere, or used for helmet in general.

Shakspeare, however, is not answerable for any confufion on this fubject. He used the word beaver in the same sense in which it was used by all his contemporaries. MALONE.

6

fights of steel,] i. e. the perforated part of their helmets, through which they could fee to direct their aim. Vifiere, Fr. STEEVENS.

7 The earl of Hereford-] This is a mistake of our author's. He was Duke of Hereford. See King Richard II. MALONE.