For Gloster's dukedom is too ominous.8 WAR. Tut, that's a foolish observation; Richard, be duke of Gloster: Now to London, To see these honours in possession. [Exeunt. 8 ACT III. SCENE I. A Chace in the North of England. 9 Enter Two Keepers, with Cross-bows in their 1 KEEP. Under this thick-grown brake' we'll shroud ourselves; too ominous.] Alluding, perhaps, to the deaths of Thomas of Woodstock, and Humphrey, Dukes of Gloster. STEEVENS. The author of the original play, in which this line is found, probably had here a passage in Hall's Chronicle in his thoughts: "It seemeth to many men that the name and title of Gloucester hath bene unfortunate and unluckie to diverse, whiche for their honor have bene erected by creation of princes to that stile and dignitie; as Hugh Spencer, Thomas of Woodstocke, son to kynge Edwarde the thirde, and this duke Humphrey, [who was killed at Bury ;] whiche three persons by miserable death finished their daies; and after them king Richard the iii. also duke of Gloucester, in civil warre was slaine and confounded; so that this name of Gloucester is taken for an unhappie and unfortunate stile, as the proverbe speaketh of Sejanes horse, whose ryder was ever unhorsed, and whose possessor was ever brought to miserie." MALONE. 9 two Keepers,] In the folio, instead of two keepers, we have, through negligence, the names of the persons who represented these characters; Sinklo and Humphrey. See Vol. IX. p. 23, n. 7. MALONE. For through this laund2 anon the deer will come; Dr. Grey observes from Hall and Holinshed, that the name of the person who took King Henry, was Cantlowe. See Mr. Tyrwhitt's note on the first scene in The Taming of a Shrew. I learn also from one of the Paston Letters, Vol. I. p. 249, that Giles Senctlowe was among the persons then in Scotland with the Queen. STEEVENS. One Giles Santlowe, Esquire, is among those attainted by King Edward's first parliament, and may possibly be here meant, but no person of that name seems to have been any way concerned in the capture of the late king; who, according to W. Wyrcester, was actually taken in Lancashire, by two knights named John Talbois and Richard Tunstall,-July, 1464. Drummond of Hawthornden observes, it was recorded" that a son of Sir Edward Talbots apprehended him as he sat at dinner in Waddingtown-hall; and like a common malefactor, with his legs under the horse's belly, guarded him toward London." It is a more certain fact, which I have from records in the Duchy Office, that King Edward granted to Sir James Harrington a rent-charge of one hundred pounds out of his lordship of Rowland in Lancashire, in recompence of his great and laborious diligence about the capture and detention of the king's great traitor, rebel and enemy, lately called Henry the Sixth, made by the said James; and likewise annuities to Richard Talbot, Thomas Talbot, Esquires,Talbot, and-Livesey, for their services in the same capture. See also, Rymer's Fœdera, xi. 548. Henry had for some time been harboured by James Maychell of Crakenthorpe, Westmoreland, Ib. 575. It seems clear, however, that the present scene is to be placed near the Scottish border. The King himself says: "From Scotland am I stol'n, even of pure love ;" And Hall (and Holinshed after him) tells us "He was no sooner entered [into England,] but he was knowen and taken of one Cantlow, and brought toward the king." RITSON. 'brake-] A brake anciently signified a thicket. So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream: "This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn brake our tiring house." Again: “Enter into that brake, and so every one according to his cue." the latter part of a note on Measure for Measure, Vol. VI. p. 232. STEEVENS. See this laund-] Laund means the same as lawn; a plain extended between woods. So, in the old play of Orlando Furioso, 1594: ، And in this covert will we make our stand, * 2 KEEP. I'll stay above the hill, so both may shoot. * 1 KEEP. That cannot be; the noise of thy cross-bow3 * Will scare the herd, and so my shoot is lost. ، * In this self-place where now we mean to stand. 2 KEEP. Here comes a man, let's stay till he be past.* Enter King HENRY, disguised, with a Prayer-book. K. HEN. From Scotland am I stol'n, even of pure love, To greet mine own land with my wishful sight.5. No, Harry, Harry, 'tis no land of thine; Thy place is fill'd, thy scepter wrung from thee, Again: -3 ، Tread she these lawnds, kind Flora boasts her pride." STEEVENS. the noise of thy cross-bow-] The poet appears not to have forgot the secrets of his former profession. So, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608: -Did I not hear a botw go off, and the read: 66 buck bray pi STEEVENS. The quartos STEEVENS. let's stay till he be past.] So the folio. let's listen him a while." : To greet mine own land with my wishful sight.] So the folio. The quartos perhaps better, thus: "And thus disguis'd to greet my native land." STEEVENS. * Thy balm wash'd off, wherewith thou wast anointed: No bending knee will call thee Cæsar now, * '1 KEEP. Ay, here's a deer whose skin's a keeper's fee: This is the quondam king;' let's seize 6 upon him. Thy balm wash'd off,] This is an image very frequent in the works of Shakspeare. So again, in this scene: "I was anointed king." It is common in these plays to find the same images, whether jocular or serious, frequently recurring. JOHNSON. So, in King Richard II: "Not all the water in the rough rude sea "Can wash the balm from an anointed king." It is observable that this line is one of those additions to the original play, which are found in the folio, and not in the quarto. MALONE. * This is the quondam king; &c.] Thus the folio. The quartos thus: "Ay, marry, sir, here's a deer; his skin is a STEEVENS, Quondam had not in Shakspeare's time uniformly acquired a ludicrous sense. "Make them quondams (says Latimer in one of his Sermons,) out with them, cast them out of their office." And in another place: "He will have every man a quondam, as he is. As for my quondamship I thank God that he gaue me the grace to come by it, by so honest a meanes as I did; I thanke him for myne owne quondamship, and as for them I will not haue them made quondams, if they discharge their office. I would haue them doe their duety. I would haue no more quondams, as God help me." Fol. 53. Again, in Warner's Albion's England, B. V. ch. 28, 1602: "Not knights alone, but prelates too, and queens whereof were twain, "The quondam & in esse queenes-,” HOLT WHITE. * K. HEN. Let me embrace these sour ad versities;8 * For wise men say, it is the wisest course. * 2 KEEP. Why linger we? let us lay hands upon him, * 1 KEEP. Forbear a while; we'll hear a little more. K. HEN. My queen, and son, are gone to France for aid; And, as I hear, the great commanding Warwick Poor queen, and son, your labour is but lost; 'And Lewis a prince soon won with moving words. * Her sighs will make a battery in his breast; * Her tears will pierce into a marble heart; * The tiger will be mild, while she doth mourn;9 * And Nero will be tainted with remorse, * To hear, and see, her plaints, her brinish tears. * Ay, but she's come to beg; Warwick, to give: She, on his left side, craving aid for Henry; He, on his right, asking a wife for Edward. She weeps, and says-her Henry is depos'd; He smiles, and says his Edward is install'd; these sour adversities;] The old copy reads-the sowre adversaries. STEEVENS. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALone. ? The tiger will be mild, while she doth mourn;] So, in Othello: "She will sing the savageness out of a bear." STEEVENS. 1 And Nero will-] Perhaps we might better read—A Nero will- STEEVENS. |