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Nor bruise her flowrets with the armed hoofs

The thirty entrance of the foil is nothing more or less, than the face of the earth parch'd and crack'd as it always appears in a dry fummer. As to its being perfonified, it is certainly no fuch unufual practice with Shakspeare. Every one talks familiarly of Mother Earth; and they who live upon her face, may without much impropriety be called her children. Our author only confines the image to his own country. The allufion is to the Barons' wars.

RITSON.

The amendment which I fhould propofe, is to read Erinnys, inftead of entrance.-By Erinnys is meant the fury of difcord. The Erinnys of the foil, may poffibly be confidered as an uncommon mode of expreffion, as in truth it is; but it is juftified by a paffage in the second Æneid of Virgil, where Æneas calls Helen

Troja & patriæ communis Erinnys.
And an expreffion fomewhat fimilar occurs in the first part
Henry VI. where Sir William Lucy fays:

"Is Talbot flain? the Frenchman's only scourge,

of King

"Your kingdom's terror, and black Nemefis?" It is evident that the words, her own children, her fields, her flowrets, must all neceffarily refer to this foil; and that Shakspeare in this place, as in many others, ufes the perfonal pronoun instead of the imperfonal; her instead of its; unless we fuppofe he means to perfonify the foil, as he does in Richard II. where Bolingbroke departing on his exile fays:

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fweet foil, adieu!

My mother, and my nurse, that bears me yet." M. MASON. Mr. M. Mafon's conjecture (which I prefer to any explanation hitherto offered refpecting this difficult paffage) may receive fupport from N. Ling's Epiffle prefixed to Wit's Commonwealth, 1598: I knowe there is nothing in this worlde but is fubject to the Erynnis of ill-difpofed perfons."-The fame phrase alfo occurs in the tenth book of Lucan:

Dedecus Egypti, Latio feralis Erinnys.

Amidst these uncertainties of opinion, however, let me prefent our readers with a single fact on which they may implicitly rely; viz. that Shakspeare could not have defigned to open his play with a fpeech, the fifth line of which is obfcure enough to demand a feries of comments thrice as long as the dialogue to which it is appended. All that is wanted, on this emergency, feems to be― a juft and ftriking perfonification, or, rather, a proper name. former of thefe is not difcoverable in the old reading-entrance; but the latter, furnished by Mr. M. Mason, may, I think, be fafely admitted, as it affords a natural unembarrassed introduction to the train of imagery that fucceeds.

The

Of hoftile paces: thofe oppofed eyes,

Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven,*
All of one nature, of one fubftance bred,-
Did lately meet in the inteftine shock
And furious clofe of civil butchery,

Shall now, in mutual, well-befeeming ranks,
March all one way; and be no more oppos'd
Against acquaintance, kindred, and allies:
The edge of war, like an ill-fheathed knife,
No more fhall cut his mafter. Therefore, friends,
As far as to the fepulcher of Chrift,'

Let us likewife recollect, that, by the firft editors of our author, Hyperion had been changed into Epton; and that Marston's Infatiate Countefs, 1613, concludes with a fpeech fo darkened by corruptions, that the comparifon in the fourth line of it is ab folutely unintelligible.-It ftands as follows:

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Night, like a mafque, is entred heaven's great hall,
"With thoufand torches ufhering the way:

"To Rifus will we confecrate this evening,
"Like Meffermis cheating of the brack.

"Weele make this night the day," &c.

Is it impoffible, therefore, that Erinnys may have been blundered into entrance, a transformation almost as perverfe and mysterious as the foregoing in Mariton's tragedy?

Being neverthelefs aware that Mr. M. Mafon's gallant effort to produce an cafy fenfe, will provoke the flight objections and petty cavils of fuch as reftrain themselves within the bounds of timid conjecture, it is neceffary I fhould fubjoin, that his prefent emendation was not inferted in our text on merely my own judgement, but with the deliberate approbation of Dr. Farmer.-Having now prepared for controversy-figna canant! STEEVENS.

like the meteors of a troubled heaven,] Namely, long ftreaks of red, which reprefent the lines of armies; the appearance of which, and their likeness to fuch lines, gave occafion to all the fuperftition of the common people concerning armies in the air, &c. WARBURTON.

5 As far as to the fepulcher &c.] The lawfulness and juftice of the holy wars have been much difputed; but perhaps there is a principle on which the queftion may be eafily determined. If it be part of the religion of the Mahometans to extirpate by the fword all other religions, it is, by the laws of felf-defence, lawful for men of every other religion, and for Chriftians among others,

Whose foldier now, under whose bleffed cross We are impreffed and engag'd to fight,) Forthwith a power of English fhall we levy;" Whofe arms were moulded in their mothers' womb To chase these pagans, in thofe holy fields, Over whofe acres walk'd thofe bleffed feet, Which, fourteen hundred years ago, were nail'd For our advantage, on the bitter crofs. But this our purpose is a twelve-month old, And bootlefs 'tis to tell you-we will go; Therefore we meet not now:-Then let me hear Of you, my gentle coufin Weftmoreland, What yesternight our council did decree, In forwarding this dear expedience.

WEST. My liege, this hafte was hot in queftion, And many limits of the charge fet down But yesternight: when, all athwart, there came

to make war upon Mahometans, fimply as Mahometans, as men obliged by their own principles to make war upon Chriftians, and only lying in wait till opportunity shall promise them fuccefs.

JOHNSON.

6fball we levy ;] To levy a power of English as far as to the fepulcher of Chrift, is an expreffion quite unexampled, if not corrupt. We might propofe lead, without violence to the fenfe, or too wide a deviation from the traces of the letters. In Pericles, however, the fame verb is used in a mode as uncommon:

"Never did thought of mine levy offence." STEEVENS. The expreffion" As far as to the fepulcher" &c. does not, as I conceive, fignify-to the diftance of &c. but-fo far only as regards the fepulcher &c. DOUCE.

7 Therefore we meet not now: i. e. not on that account do we now meet;- -we are not now affembled, to acquaint you with our intended expedition. MALONE.

8 this dear expedience.] For expedition. WARBURTON. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

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I fhall break

"The cause of our expedience to the queen."

STEEVENS.

• And many limits-] Limits for estimates. WARBURTON,

A poft from Wales, loaden with heavy news;
Whose worst was,-that the noble Mortimer,
Leading the men of Herefordfhire to fight
Against the irregular and wild Glendower,
Was by the rude hands of that Welshman taken,
And a thousand of his people butchered:
Upon whose dead corps there was such misuse,
Such beaftly, fhameless transformation,
By those Welshwomen done,' as may not be,
Without much shame, retold or spoken of.

K. HEN. It seems then, that the tidings of this broil

Brake off our business for the Holy land.

WEST. This, match'd with other, did, my gracious

lord;

For more uneven and unwelcome news

Came from the north, and thus it did import.
On Holy-rood day, the gallant Hotspur there,
Young Harry Percy,' and brave Archibald,*

Limits, as Mr. Heath obferves, may mean, outlines, rough sketches or calculations. STEEVENS.

Limits may mean the regulated and appointed times for the conduct of the bufinefs in hand. So, in Meafure for Measure:-" between the time of the contract and limit of the folemnity, her brother Frederick was wreck'd at fea." Again, in Macbeth:

-I'll make fo bold to call,

"For 'tis my limited service." MALONE.

By thofe Welforwomen done,] Thus Holinfhed, p. 528: "-fuch fhameful villanie executed upon the carcaffes of the dead men by the Welbomen; as the like (I doo beleeve) hath never or fildome beene practifed." STEEVENS.

3

the gallant Hotspur there,.

Young Harry Percy,] Holinfhed's Hiftory of Scotland, p. 240, fays: "This Harry Percy was furnamed, for his often pricking, Henry Hotfpur, as one that feldom times refted, if there were anie fervice to be done abroad." TOLLET.

4 Archibald,] Archibald Douglas, earl Douglas.

STEEVENS.

That ever-valiant and approved Scot,
At Holmedon met,

Where they did spend a fad and bloody hour;
As by discharge of their artillery,

And shape of likelihood, the news was told;
For he that brought them, in the very heat
And pride of their contention did take horse,
Uncertain of the iffue any way.

K. HEN. Here is a dear and true-industrious

friend,

Sir Walter Blunt, new lighted from his horse,
Stain'd with the variation of each foils

Betwixt that Holmedon and this feat of ours;
And he hath brought us fmooth and welcome news.
The earl of Douglas is difcomfited;

Ten thousand bold Scots, two and twenty knights, Balk'd in their own blood," did fir Walter fee

5 Stain'd with the variation of each foil-] No circumstance could have been better chofen to mark the expedition of Sir Walter. It is used by Falstaff in a fimilar manner, “As it were to ride day and night, and not to deliberate, not to remember, not to have patience to shift me, but to fland ftained with travel." HENLEY.

6 Balk'd in their own blood,] I fhould fuppofe, that the author might have written either bath'd, or bak'd, i. e. encrusted over with blood dried upon them. A paffage in Heywood's Iron Age, 1632, may countenance the latter of these conjectures:

"Troilus lies embak'd

"In his cold blood.".

Again, in Hamlet:

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-horribly trick'd

"With blood of fathers, mothers, daughters, fons,
"Bak'd and impafted," &c.

Again, in Heywood's Iron Age:

Again, ibid:

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bak'd in blood and duft."

as bak'd in blood." STEEVENS.

Balk is a ridge; and particularly, a ridge of land: here is therefore a metaphor; and perhaps the poet means, in his bold and careless manner of expreffion: "Ten thoufand bloody carcaffes piled up together in a long heap."" A ridge of dead bodies

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