OFF. All manner of men, affembled here in arms this day, against God's peace and the king's, we charge and command you, in his highness' name, to repair to your feveral dwelling-places; and not to wear, handle, or ufe, any fword, weapon, or dagger, henceforward, upon pain of death. GLO. Cardinal, I'll be no breaker of the law: But we shall meet, and break our minds at large. WIN. Glofter, we'll meet; to thy dear coft, be fure :5 Thy heart-blood I will have, for this day's work. WIN. Abominable Glofter! guard thy head; [Exeunt. MAY. See the coaft clear'd, and then we will depart. s Glofter, we'll meet; to thy dear coft, be fure:] Thus the fecond folio. The firft omits the epithet-dear; as does Mr. Malone, who fays that the word-fure " is here used as a diffyllable." STEEVENS. I'll call for clubs, if you will not away] This was an outcry for affiftance, on any riot or quarrel in the streets. It hath been explained before. WHALLEY. In That is, for peace-officers armed with clubs or ftaves. affrays, it was customary in this author's time to call out clubs, clubs! See As you like it, Vol. VIII. p. 166, n. 3. MALONE, Good God! that nobles fhould fuch ftomachs 7 bear! I myself fight not once in forty year. SCENE IV. France. Before Orleans. [Exeunt. Enter, on the Walls, the Mafter-Gunner and his Son. M. GUN. Sirrah, thou know'ft how Orleans is be fieg'd; And how the English have the suburbs won. SON. Father, I know; and oft have shot at them, Howe'er, unfortunate, I mifs'd my aim. 7 -Stomachs-] Stomach is pride, a haughty spirit of refentment. So, in King Henry VIII: he was a man "Of an unbounded stomach -." STEEVENS. that nobles fhould fuch ftomachs bear! I myself fight not once in forty year.] Old copy-thefe nobles. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE. The Mayor of London was not brought in to be laughed at, as is plain by his manner of interfering in the quarrel, where he all along preferves a fufficient dignity. In the line preceding these, he directs his Officer, to whom without doubt these two lines should be given. They fuit his character, and are very expreffive of the pacific temper of the city guards. WARBURTON. I fee no reason for this change. The Mayor fpeaks first as a magiftrate, and afterwards as a citizen. JOHNSON. Notwithstanding Warburton's note in fupport of the dignity of the Mayor, Shakspeare certainly meant to represent him as a poor, well-meaning, fimple man, for that is the character he invariably gives to his Mayors. The Mayor of London, in Richard III. is juft of the fame ftamp. And fo is the Mayor of York, in the Third Part of this play, where he refufes to admit Edward as King, but lets him into the city as Duke of York, on which Glofter fays A wife ftout captain! and perfuaded soon, Haft. The good old man would fain that all were well." Such are all Shakspeare's Mayors. M. MASON. M. GUN. But now thou fhalt not. Be thou rul'd by me: Chief mafter-gunner am I of this town; A piece of ordnance 'gainst it I have plac'd; The prince's efpials-] Espials are spies. So, in Chaucer's Freres Tale: "For fubtilly he had his efpiaille." STEEVENS. The word is often used by Hall and Holinfhed. MALONE. I Wont, through a fecret grate of iron bars &c.] Old copywent. See the notes that follow Dr. Johnson's. STEEVENS. That is, the English went not through a fecret grate, but went to over-peer the city through a fecret grate which is in yonder tower. I did not know till of late that this paffage had been thought difficult. JOHNSON. I believe, inftead of went, we should read—wont. The third perfon plural of the old verb wont. The English-wont, that is, are accustomed to over-peer the city. The word is ufed very frequently by Spenfer, and several times by Milton. TYRWHITT. The emendation proposed by Mr. Tyrwhitt is fully fupported by the paffage in Hall's Chronicle, on which this speech is formed. So, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584: the ufual time is nie, "When wont the dames of fate and deftinie 2 Now, boy, do thou watch, For I can fay no longer.] The first folio reads: MALONE, If thou spy'ft any, run and bring me word; [Exit. SON. Father, I warrant you; take you no care; I'll never trouble you, if I may fpy them. Enter, in an upper Chamber of a Tower, the Lords SAL. Talbot, my life, my joy, again return'd! TAL. The duke of Bedford had a prifoner, And even these three days have I watcht Part of this line being in the old copy by a mistake of the transcriber connected with the preceding hemiftich, the editor of the fecond folio supplied the metre by adding the word-boy, in which he has been followed in all the fubfequent editions. MALONE. As I cannot but entertain a more favourable opinion than Mr. Malone of the numerous emendations that appear in the fecond folio, I have again adopted its regulation in the prefent inftance. This folio likewife supplied the word-fully. STEEVENS. 3 Talbot,] Though the three parts of King Henry VI. are deservedly numbered among the feebleft performances of Shakspeare, this firft of them appears to have been received with the greatest applaufe. So, in Pierce Penniless's Supplication to the Devil, by Nash, 1592: "How would it have joyed brave Talbot (the terror of the French,) to thinke that after he had lien two hundred years in his tombe, he should triumph againe on the stage, and have his bones new embalmed with the teares of ten thousand spectators at least (at feveral times,) who in the tragedian that reprefents his perfon, imagine they behold him fresh bleeding?" STEEVENS. For him I was exchang'd and ransomed. But with a bafer man of arms by far, Once, in contempt, they would have barter'd me: Which I, difdaining, fcorn'd; and craved death Rather than I would be fo pil'd esteem'd.4 -fo pil'd esteem'd.] Thus the old copy. Some of the modern editors read, but without authority-fo vile-esteem'd.So pill'd, may mean-fo pillag'd, fo Stripp'd of honours; but I fufpect a corruption, which Mr. M. Mafon would remedy, by reading either vile or ill-esteemed. It is poffible, however, that Shakspeare might have written— Philiftin'd; i. e. treated as contumelioufly as Samson was by the Philistines.-Both Samfon and Talbot had been prifoners, and were alike infulted by their captors. 66 Our author has jocularly formed more than one verb from a proper name; as for inftance, from Aufidius, in Coriolanus : I would not have been fo fidius'd for all the chefts in Corioli." Again, in King Henry V. Piftol fays to his prifoner: "Mafter Fer? I'll fer him," &c. Again, in Hamlet, from Herod, we have the verb "out-herod." Shakspeare, therefore, in the present inftance, might have taken a fimilar liberty.-To fall into the hands of the Philiftines has long been a cant phrafe, expreffive of danger incurred, whether from enemies, affociation with hard drinkers, gamesters, or a less welcome acquaintance with the harpies of the law. Talbot's idea would be fufficiently expreffed by the term-Philiftin'd, which (as the play before us appears to have been copied by the ear,) was more liable to corruption than a common verb. I may add, that perhaps no word will be found nearer to the found and traces of the letters, in pil-esteem'd, than Philiftin'd. Philistine, in the age of Shakspeare, was always accented on the first fyllable, and therefore is not injurious to the line in which I have hesitatingly proposed to infert it. I cannot, however, help fmiling at my own conjecture; and fhould it excite the fame fenfation in the reader who journeys through the barren defert of our accumulated notes on this play, like Addison's traveller, when he discovers a cheerful spring amid the wilds of fand, let him— blefs his stars, and think it luxury." STEEVENS. I have no doubt that we fhould read-fo pile-esteem'd: a Latinifm, for which the author of this play had, I believe, no occafion to go to Lily's Grammar: "Flocci, nauci, nihili, pili, ᎠᏎ |