Puc. And, while I live, I'll ne'er fly from a man. [They fight. CHAR. Stay, ftay thy hands; thou art an Ama zon, And fighteft with the fword of Deborah. Puc. Chrift's mother helps me, elfe I were too weak. CHAR. Whoe'er helps thee, 'tis thou that muft help me : Impatiently I burn with thy defire ;3 My heart and hands thou haft at once fubdu'd. Let me thy fervant, and not fovereign, be; CHAR. Mean time, look gracious on thy proftrate thrall. REIG. My lord, methinks, is very long in talk. ALEN. Doubtlefs he fhrives this woman to her fmock; Elfe ne'er could he fo long protract his speech. REIG. Shall we difturb him, fince he keeps no mean? Impatiently I burn with thy defire;] The amorous conftitution of the Dauphin has been mentioned in the preceding play: Doing is activity, and he will ftill be doing." COLLINS. The Dauphin in the fucceeding play is John, the elder brother of the prefent fpeaker. He died in 1416, the year after the battle of Agincourt. RITSON. ALEN. He may mean more than we poor men do know : These women are shrewd tempters with their tongues. REIG. My lord, where are you ? what devife you on? Shall we give over Orleans, or no? Puc. Why, no, I fay, diftruftful recreants! Fight till the laft gasp; I will be your guard. CHAR. What the fays, I'll confirm; we'll fight it out. Puc. Affign'd am I to be the English scourge. This night the fiege affuredly I'll raife: Expect Saint Martin's fummer, halcyon days, Since I have entered into these wars. Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceafeth to enlarge itself, Till, by broad spreading, it difperfe to nought.5 • Expect Saint Martin's fummer,] That is, expect profperity after misfortune, like fair weather at Martlemas, after winter has begun. JOHNSON. 5 Glory is like a circle in the water, Which never ceafeth to enlarge itself, Till, by broad Spreading, it difperfe to nought.] So, in Nofce Teipfum, a poem by Sir John Davies, 1599: "Aş when a ftone is into water caft, "One circle doth another circle make, "Till the laft circle reach the bank at laft." The fame image, without the particular application, may be found in Silius Italicus, Lib. XIII : "Sic ubi perrumpfit stagnantem calculus undam, Exiguous format per prima volumina gyros, "Mox tremulum vibrans motu glifcente liquorem Contingat geminas patulo curvamine ripas." MALONE. This was a favourite fimile with Pope. It is to be found alfo With Henry's death, the English circle ends Now am I like that proud infulting ship, CHAR. Was Mahomet infpired with a dove ?" Helen, the mother of great Conftantine, in Ariofto's Orlando Furiofo, Book VIII. ft. 63, of Sir John Harrington's translation : "As circles in a water cleare are spread, "When funne doth fhine by day, and moone by night, "Succeeding one another in a ranke, "Till all by one and one do touch the banke." I meet with it again in Chapman's Epifile Dedicatorie, prefixed to his verfion of the Iliad: 66 As in a spring, "The plyant water, mov'd with any thing "In perfect circles, that moue round about And the fame image is much expanded by Sylvefter, the tranflator of Du Bartas, 3d part of 2d day of 2d week. 6 like that proud infulting fhip, HOLT WHITE. Which Cæfar and his fortune bare at once.] This alludes to a paffage in Plutarch's Life of Julius Cæfar, thus tranflated by Sir Thomas North: "Cæfar hearing that, ftraight discovered himselfe unto the maifter of the pynnafe, who at the first was amazed when he saw him; but Cæfar, &c. faid unto him, Good fellow, be of good cheere, &c. and fear not, for thou haft Cæfar and his fortune with thee." STEEVENS. ' Was Mahomet inspired with a dove?] Mahomet had a dove, "which he used to feed with wheat out of his ear; which dove, when it was hungry, lighted on Mahomet's fhoulder, and thruft its bill in to find its breakfaft; Mahomet perfuading the rude and fimple Arabians, that it was the Holy Ghost that gave him advice." See Sir Walter Raleigh's Hiftory of the World, Book I. P. I. ch. vi. Life of Mahomet, by Dr. Prideaux. GREY. Nor yet Saint Philip's daughters,] Meaning the four daugh ters of Philip mentioned in the Acts. HANMER. Bright ftar of Venus, fall'n down on the earth, REIG. Woman, do what thou canft to fave our Drive them from Orleans, and be immortaliz'd. CHAR. Prefently we'll try:-Come, let's away about it: No prophet will I truft, if fhe prove falfe. [Exeunt. SCENE III. London. Hill before the Tower. Enter, at the Gates, the Duke of GLOSTER, with his Serving-men, in blue Coats. Gzo. I am come to furvey the Tower this day; Since Henry's death, I fear, there is conveyance.'Where be these warders, that they wait not here? Open the gates; Glofter it is that calls. [Servants knock. 1 WARD. [Within.] Who is there that knocks fo imperiously? 1 SERV. It is the noble duke of Glofter. 9 How may I reverently worship thee enough ?] Perhaps this unmetrical line originally ran thus: How may I reverence, worship thee enough? The climax rifes properly, from reverence, to worship. STEEVENS. 1 - there is conveyance.] Conveyance means theft. HANMER. Convey the So Piftol, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: wife it call: Steal! foh; a fico for the phrafe." STEEVENS. 2 WARD. [Within.] Whoe'er he be, you may not be let in. 1 SERV. Answer you fo the lord protector, villains? 1 WARD. [Within.] The Lord protect him! fo we answer him: We do no otherwife than we are will'd. GLO. Who willed you? or whofe will stands, but mine? There's none protector of the realm, but I.— up Servants rush at the Tower Gates. Enter, to the Gates, WOODVILLE, the Lieutenant. WOOD. [Within.] What noife is this? what traitors have we here? GLO. Lieutenant, is it you, whofe voice I hear ? Open the gates; here's Glofter, that would enter. WOOD. [Within.] Have patience, noble duke; I may not open; 2 Break up the gates,] I fuppofe to break up the gate is to force up the portcullis, or by the application of petards to blow up the gates themselves. STEEVENS. 66 To break up in Shakspeare's age was the fame as to break open. Thus, in our tranflation of the Bible: They have broken up, and have paffed through the gate." Micah, ii. 13. So again, in St. Matthew, xxiv. 43: " He would have watched, and would not have fuffered his house to be broken up." Some one has proposed to read― Break ope the gates, WHALLEY. but the old copy is right. So Hall, HENRY VI. folio 78, b: "The lufty Kentifhmen hopyng on more friends, brake up the gaytes of the King's Bench and Marshalfea," &c. MALONE. |