(You, coufin Nevil, as I may remember,) [TO WARWICK. When Richard, with his eye brim-full of tears, Then check'd and rated by Northumberland, Did speak these words, now prov'd a prophecy? Northumberland, thou ladder by the which My cousin Bolingbroke afcends my throne; Though then, heaven knows, I had no such in tent;4 But that neceffity fo bow'd the state, WAR. There is a history in all men's lives, 3 cousin Nevil, Shakspeare has mistaken the name of the present nobleman. The earldom of Warwick was at this time in the family of Beauchamp, and did not come into that of the Nevils till many years after, in the latter end of the reign of King Henry VI. when it descended to Anne Beauchamp, (the daughter of the earl here introduced,) who was married to Richard Nevil, earl of Salisbury. STEEVENS. Anne Beauchamp was the wife of that Richard Nevil, (in her right,) earl of Warwick, and fon to Richard earl of Salisbury who makes fo confpicuous a figure in our author's Second and Third Parts of King Henry VI. He fucceeded to the latter title on his father's death in 1460, but is never diftinguished by it. RITSON. 4 I had no fuch intent; ) He means, " I should have had no such intent, but that neceffity", &c. or Shakspeare has here alfo forgotten his former play, or has chosen to make Henry forget his fituation at the time mentioned. He had then actually accepted the crown. See King Richard II. A& IV. fc. i: " In God's name, I'll afcend the regal throne." MALONE. ۴ With a near aim, of the main chance of things And weak beginnings, lie intreasured. Such things become the hatch and brood of time; And, by the neceffary form of this. 5 King Richard might create a perfect guess, Unless on you. K. HEN. Are these things then neceffities?6 Then let us meet them like neceffities:" And that fame word even now cries out on us; Are fifty thousand strong. 5 And, by the necessary form of this, I think we might better read: - the necessary form of things. - The word this has no very evident antecedent. JOHNSON. If any change were wanting, I would read: And, by the necessary of these, i. e. the things mentioned in the preceding line. STEEVENS. And by the necessary form of this, is, I apprehend, to be underftood this history of the times deceased. HENLEY. 6 Are these things then neceffities? I suspect that things then 7 Then let us meet them like neceffities: ) I am inclined to read : That is, with the refiftless violence of necessity; then comes more And that fame word even now cries out on us. That is, the word neceffity. JOHNSON. That is, let us meet them with that patience and quiet temper with which men of fortitude meet those events which they know to be inevitable. - I cannot approve of Johnson's explanation. M. MASON. 1 WAR. It cannot be, my lord; Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo, The numbers of the fear'd:-Please it your grace, To go to bed; upon my life, my lord, The powers that you already have fent forth, Shall bring this prize in very easily. To comfort you the more, I have receiv'd A certain instance, that Glendower is dead. Your majesty hath been this fortnight ill; And these unseason'd hours, perforce, must add Unto your ficknefs. K. HEN. 8 I will take your counsel: And, were these inward wars once out of hand, We would, dear lords, unto the Holy Land. 8 9 [Exeunt. * --that Glendower is dead.] Glendower did not die till after King Henry IV. Shakspeare was led into this error by Holinshed, who places Owen Glendower's death in the tenth year of Henry's reign. See Vol. XII. p. 308, n. 5. MALONE. 9 unto the Holy Land. ) This play, like the former, proceeds in one unbroken tenor through the first edition, and there is therefore no evidence that the division, of the acts was made by the author. Since, then, every editor has the same right to mark the intervals of action as the players, who made the present diftribution, I should propose that this scene may be added to the foregoing act, and the remove from London to Glocestershire be made in the intermediate time, but that it would shorten the next act too much, which has not even now its due proportion to the reft. JOHNSON. SCENE II. Court before Justice Shallow's House in Glocester fhire.9 Enter SHALLOW and SILENCE, meeting; MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, BULLCALF, and Servants, behind. SHAL. Come on, your hand, fir, give stirrer, by the rood. fin Silence? 2 come on, come on; give me me your hand, fir: an early And how doth my good cou 9 Justice Shallow's House in Gloceftershire.) From the following palfage in The Return from Parnaffus, 1606, we may conclude that Kempe was the original Justice Shallow. -Burbage and Kempe are introduced inftru&ing some Cambridge ftudents to act. Burbage makes one of the students repeat some lines of Hieronymo and King Richard III. Kempe says to another, Now for you,methinks you belong to my tuition; and your face methinks would be good for a foolish Mayor, or a foolish Justice of Peace."-And again: "Thou wilt do well in time if thou wilt be ruled by thy betters, that is, by myfelfe, and fuch grave aldermen of the play. house as I am." - It appears from Nashe's Apologie of Pierce Penniless, 1593, that he likewife played the Clown : "What can be made of a ropemaker more than a clowne. Will. Kempe, I miftruft it will fall to thy lot for a merriment one of these dayes." 2 --by the rood.] i. e. the cross. POPE. MALONE. Hearne, in his Gloffary to Peter Langtoft, p. 544, under the word cross, observes, that although the cross and the rood are commonly taken for the fame, yet the rood properly fignified formerly the image of Chrift on the cross; so as to reprefent both the cross and figure of our bleffed Saviour, as he fuffered upon it. The roods that were in churches and chapels were placed in shrines that were called rood lofts. Roodloft, (faith Blount,) is a shrine whereon was placed the cross of Chrift. The rood was an image of Chrift on the cross, made generally of wood, and erected in a loft for that purpose, just over the passage out of the church into the chancel." REED. SIL. Good morrow, good coufin Shallow. SHAL. And how doth my coufin, your bedfellow? and your fairest daughter, and mine, my goddaughter Ellen ? SIL. Alas, a black ouzel, coufin Shallow. SHAL. By yea and nay, fir, I dare fay, my coufin William is become a good scholar: He is at Oxford, ftill, is he not? SIL. Indeed, fir; to my coft. SHAL. He must then to the inns of court shortly: I was onte of Clement's-inn; where, I think, they will talk of mad Shallow yet. fin. SIL. You were call'd-lufty Shallow, then, cou SHAL. By the mass, I was call'd any thing; and I would have done any thing, indeed, and roundly too. There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordshire, and black George Bare, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele a Cotfwold man, you had not four 4 Bullokar, however, is a better authority than any of these, being contemporary with Shakspeare. In his English Expofitor, 8vo. 1616, he defines Roode thus : " In land it fignifies a quarter of an acre. It is fometimes taken for the picture of our Saviour upon the cross." MALONE 3 Sil.) The oldest copy of this play was published in 1600. It must however have been acted fomewhat earlier, as in Ben Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour, which was performed in 1599, is the following reference to it: “ No, lady, this is a kinsman to Justice Silence." STEEVENS. 4 Will Squele a Cotswold man,) The games at Cotswold were, in the time of our author, very famous. Of thefe I have feen accounts in several old pamphlets; and Shallow, by diftinguishing Will Squele, as a Cotswold man, meant to have him understood as one who was well versed in manly exercises, and confequently of a daring spisit, and an athletic conftitution. STEEVENS. |