The king is not himself, but bafely led 'Gainft us, our lives, our children, and our heirs. Ross. The commons hath he pill'd with grievous taxes, And loft their hearts:5 the nobles hath he fin'd WILLO. And daily new exactions are devis'd; But bafely yielded upon compromise That which his ancestors achiev'd with blows: More hath he spent in peace, than they in wars. Ross. The earl of Wiltshire hath the realm in farm. WILLO. The king's grown bankrupt, like a broken man. NORTH. Reproach, and diffolution, hangeth over him. And loft their hearts:] The old copies erroneously and unmetrically read: And quite loft their hearts : The compofitor's eye had caught the adverb-quite, from the following line. STEEVENS. As, blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what :] Stow records, that Richard II. " compelled all the Religious, Gentlemen, and Commons, to set their feales to blankes, to the end he might as it pleased him, oppresse them feverally, or all at once: fome of the Commons paid 1000 markes, fome 1000 pounds," &c. Chronicle, p. 319, fol. 1639. HOLT WHITE. Ross. He hath not money for thefe Irish wars, His burdenous taxations notwithstanding, But by the robbing of the banish'd duke. NORTH. His noble kinfman: moft degenerate king! But, lords, we hear this fearful tempeft fing," We see the wind fit fore upon our fails, And yet we strike not, but securely perifh. Ross. We fee the very wreck that we must suffer; And unavoided is the danger 1 now, I For fuffering fo the causes of our wreck. NORTH. Not fo; even through the hollow eyes of death, fpy life peering; but I dare not fay How near the tidings of our comfort is. WILLO. Nay, let us fhare thy thoughts, as thou doft ours. Ross. Be confident to speak, Northumberland: 7- we hear this fearful tempeft fing,] So, in The Tempeft: another Storm brewing; I hear it fing in the wind." STEEVENS. And yet we strike not,] To strike the fails, is, to contract them when there is too much wind. JOHNSON. So, in King Henry VI. P. III: "Than bear fo low a fail, to strike to thee." STEEVENS. but fecurely perish.] We perish by too great confidence in our fecurity. The word is used in the fame fenfe in The Merry Wives of Windfor: "Though Ford be a fecure fool," &c. Again, in Troilus and Creffida, A&t IV: fc. v: See Dr. Farmer's note on this paffage. STEEVENS. here used for unavoidable. MALONE. Unavoided is, I believe, We three are but thyfelf; and, fpeaking fo, In Britanny, receiv'd intelligence, That Harry Hereford, Reignold lord Cobham, [The fon of Richard Earl of Arundel,] That late broke from the duke of Exeter,2 2 [The fon of Richard Earl of Arundel,] That late broke from the duke of Exeter,] I fufpect that some of thefe lines are tranfpofed, as well as that the poet has made a blunder in his enumeration of perfóns. No copy that I have feen, will authorize me to make an alteration, though according to Holinthed, whom Shakspeare followed in great measure, more than one is neceffary. All the perfons enumerated in Holinfhed's account of those who embarked with Bolingbroke, are here mentioned with great exactnefs, except "Thomas Arundell, fonne and heire to the late earle of Arundell, beheaded at the Tower-hill." See Holinfhed. And yet this nobleman, who appears to have been thus omitted by the poet, is the perfon to whom alone that circumftance relates of having broke from the duke of Exeter, and to whom alone, of all mentioned in the lift, the archbishop was related, he being uncle to the young lord, though Shakspeare by miftake calls him his brother. See Holinfhed, p. 496. From these circumstances here taken notice of, which are ap plicable only to this lord in particular, and from the improbability that Shakspeare would omit fo principal a perfonage in his hiftorian's lift, I think it can scarce be doubted but that a line is loft in which the name of this Thomas Arundel had originally a place. Mr Ritfon, with fome probability, fuppofes Shakspeare could not have neglected fo fair an opportunity of availing himself of a rough ready-made verfe which offers itself in Holinfhed: [The fon and heir of the late earl of Arundel,] STEEVENS. For the infertion of the line included within crotchets, I am anfwerable; it not being found in the old copies. The paffages in Holinfhed relative to this matter run thus: "Aboute the fame time the Earl of Arundell's fonne, named Thomas, which was kept in the Duke of Exeter's house, escaped out of the realme, by meanes of one William Scot," &c. His brother, archbishop late of Canterbury,3 Sir John Norbery, fir Robert Waterton, and Francis All these well furnish'd by the duke of Bretagne, With eight tall fhips, three thousand men of war, "Duke Henry,-chiefly through the earnest perfuafion of Thomas Arundell, late Archbishoppe of Canterburie, (who, as before you have heard, had been removed from his fea, and banished the realme by King Richardes means,) got him downe to Britaine :-and when all his provifion was made ready, he tooke the fea, together with the said Archbishop of Canterburie, and his nephew Thomas Arundell, fonne and heyre to the late Earle of Arundell, beheaded on Tower-hill. There were also with him Reginalde Lord Cobham, Sir Thomas Erpingham," &c. There cannot, therefore, I think, be the smallest doubt, that a line was omitted in the copy of 1597, by the negligence of the transcriber or compofitor, in which not only Thomas Arundel, but his father, was mentioned; for his in a fubfequent line (His brother) muft refer to the old Earl of Arundel. Rather than leave a lacuna, I have inferted fuch words as render the paffage intelligible. In A&t V. fc. ii. of the play before us, a line of a rhyming couplet was paffed over by the printer of the firft folio: "Ill may'ft thou thrive, if thou grant any grace." It has been recovered from the quarto. So alfo, in K. Henry VI. Part II. the firft of the following lines was omitted, as is proved by the old play on which that piece is founded, and (as in the present inftance,) by the line which followed the omitted line: [Suf. Jove fometimes went difguis'd, and why not I?] Cap. But Jove was never flain, as thou fhalt be." In Coriolanus, A&t II. fc. ult. a line was in like manner omitted, and it has very properly been fupplied. 66 66 The chriftian name of Sir Thomas Ramston is changed to John, and the two following perfons are improperly described as knights in all the copies. These perhaps were likewise mistakes of the prefs, but are scarcely worth correcting. MALone. 3 archbishop late of Canterbury,] Thomas Arundel, Archbishop of Canterbury, brother to the Earl of Arundel who was beheaded in this reign, had been banished by the parliament, and was afterwards deprived by the Pope of his fee, at the request of the King; whence he is here called, late of Canterbury. STEEVENS. Are making hither with all due expedience, Ross. To horfe, to horfe! urge doubts to them that fear. WILLO. Hold out my horfe, and I will first be [Exeunt. there. 4 Imp out] As this expreffion frequently occurs in our auther, it may not be amifs to explain the original meaning of it. When the wing-feathers of a hawk were dropped, or forced out by any accident, it was usual to fupply as many as were deficient. This operation was called, to imp a hawk. So, in The Devil's Charter, 1607: "His plumes only imp the mufe's wings." Again, in Albumazar, 1615: 66 ·when we defire "Time's hafte, he seems to lofe a match with lobsters; Turbervile has a whole chapter on The Way and Manner howe to ympe a Hawke's Feather, how-foever it be broken or broofed. S STEEVENS. gilt,] i. e. gilding, fuperficial difplay of gold: So, in Timon of Athens: "When thou waft in thy gilt and thy perfume," &c. STEEVENS. |