He seem'd in running to devour the way,"
Staying no longer question.

NORTH.

Ha! Again.

Said he, young Harry Percy's spur was cold?

Of Hotfpur, coldspur? that rebellion

Had met ill luck?

BARD.

My lord, I'll tell you what;

If my young lord your fon have not the day,

Upon mine honour, for a filken point

I'll give my barony: never talk of it.

NORTH. Whyshould the gentleman, that rode by

Travers,

Give then fuch inflances of lofs?

BARD.

Who, he?

" He seem'd in running to devour the way,] So, in the book of Job, chap. xxxix: He Swalloweth the ground in fierceness and 'rage."

The fame expreffion occurs in Ben Jonfon's Sejanus:

But with that speed, and heat of appetite,

" With which they greedily devour the way
"To some great sports." STEEVENS.

So Ariel, to describe his alacrity in obeying Profpero's com

mands:

" I drink the air before me." M. MASON.

So, in one of the Roman poets (I forget which): curfu confumere campum. BLACKSTONE.

The line quoted by Sir William Blackstone is in NEMESIAN. latumque fuga confumere caтрит. MALONE.

* Of Hotspur, coldfpur?] Hotspur seems to have been a very common term for a man of vehemence and precipitation. Stanyhurft, who tranflated four books of Virgil, in 1584, renders the following line :

6

Nec victoris heri tetigit captiva cubile.

"To couch not mounting of mayfter vanquisher hoatspur."

1

STEEVENS.

1

JOHNSON,

filken point - A point is a string tagged, or lace.

He was fome hilding fellow, that had stol'n
The horse he rode on; and, upon my life,
Spoke at a venture. Look, here comes more news.

Enter MORTON.

NORTH. Yea, this man's brow, like to a titleleaf,

Foretells the nature of a tragick volume:

So looks the strond, whereon the imperious flood
Hath left a witness'd ufurpation.4-

Say, Morton, did'st thou come from Shrewsbury?
Mor. I ran from Shrewsbury, my noble lord;
Where hateful death put on his ugliest mask,
To fright our party.

NORTH.

How doth my fon, and brother? Thou trembleft; and the whiteness in thy cheek Is apter than thy tongue to tell thy errand. Even such a man, fo faint, so spiritless,

So dull, so dead in look, so woe-begone,

2 --some hilding fellow,) For hilderling, i. e. base, degene rate. POPE.

Hilderling, Degener; vox adhuc agro Devon. familiaris. Spelman.

REED.

3-like to a title-leaf,] It may not be amiss to observe, that in the time of our poet, the title-page to an elegy, as well as every intermediate leaf, was totally black. I have several in my poffeffion, written by Chapman, the tranflator of Homer, and ornamented in this manner. STEEVENS.

4

--- a witness'd ufurpation.] i. e. an atteftation of its ravage.

STEEVENS.

5-fo woe-begone, ] This word was common enough amongst the old Scottish and English poets, as G. Douglas, Chaucer, Lord Buckhurst, Fairfax; and signifies, far gone in woe.

So, in The Spanish Tragedy :

" Awake, revenge, or we are wo-begone!"
"So woe-begone, fo inly charg'd with woe."

Again, in Arden of Feversham, 1592:

WARBURTON.

Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night,
And would have told him, halfhis Troy was burn'd:
But Priam found the fire, ere he his tongue,
And I my Percy's death, ere thou report'st it.

This thou would'st say, - Your fon did thus, and

thus;

Your brother, thus; so fought the noble Douglas';
Stopping my greedy ear with their bold deeds :
But in the end, to stop mine ear indeed,
Thou haft a figh to blow away this praise,
Ending with-brother, fon, and all are dead.

MOR. Douglas is living, and your brother, yet:

But, for my lord your fon,

NORTH.

Why, he is dead.

See, what a ready tongue fufpicion hath!
He, that but fears the thing he would not know,
Hath, by instinct, knowledge from others' eyes,
That what he fear'd is chanced. Yet speak, Morton;
Tell thou thy earl, his divination lies;"

And I will take it as a sweet disgrace,

And make thee rich for doing me such wrong.

MOR. You are too great to be by me gainsaid: Your spirit is too true, your fears too certain. NORTH. Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's

dead.

Again, in a Looking Glass for London and England, 1598:

" Fair Alvida, look not so woe begone."

Dr. Bentley is faid to have thought this passage corrupt, and therefore (with a greater degree of gravity than my readers will probably express) proposed the following emendation:

So dead fo dull in look, Ucalegon,
Drew Priam's curtain &c.

The name of Ucalegon is found in the third book of the Iliad, and the second of the Aneid. STEEVENS.

* Your Spirit] The impression upon your mind, by which you

conceive the death of your fon.

JOHNSON.

• Yet, for all this, say not &c.]

The contradition in the first

I see a strange confeffion in thine eye:
Thou shak'st thy head; and hold'st it fear, or fin,'
To speak a truth. If he be flain, say fo; *
The tongue offends not, that reports his death:
And he doth fin, that doth belie the dead;
Not he, which says the dead is not alive.
Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news
Hath but a losing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a fullen bell,
Remember'd knolling a departing friend.

9

part of this speech might be imputed to the distration of North umberland's mind; but the calmness of the refletion, contained in the laft lines, seems not much to countenance such a supposition. I will venture to distribute this passage in a manner which will, I hope, seem more commodious; but do not wish the reader to forget, that the most commodious is not always the true reading:

Bard. Yet, for all this, fay not that Percy's dead.
North. I fee a strange confession in thine eye,
Thou shak'st thy head, and hold'st it fear, or fin,
To speak a truth. If he be flain, Say fo:
The tongue offends not, that reports his death;
And he doth fin, that doth belie the dead;
Not he, which says the dead is not alive.

Mor. Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news

Hath but a losing office; and his tongue
Sounds ever after as a fullen bell,
Remember'd knolling a departing friend.

Here is a natural interposition of Bardolph at the beginning, who is not pleased to hear his news confuted, and a proper preparation of Morton for the tale which he is unwilling to tell.

7 hold'ft it fear, or fin,

8

Fear for danger.

Say so

JOHNSON.

WARBURTON.

If he be flain, Say So; ] The words are in the first folio, but not in the quarto: they are necessary to the verse, but the sense proceeds as well without them. JOHNSON.

9 Sounds ever after as a fullen bell,

Remember'd knolling a departing friend.) So, in our author's yist Sonnet:

BARD. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. MOR. I am forry, I should force you to believė That, which I would to heaven I had not seen : But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state, Rend'ring faint quittance, wearied and out

breath'd,

2

To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat

down

The never-daunted Percy to the earth,
From whence with life he never more sprung up.
In few, his death (whose spirit lent a fire
Even to the dullest peasant in his camp.)
Being bruited once, took fire and heat away
From the best temper'd courage in his troops:
For from his metal was his party steel'd;
Which once in him abated, all the reft

This fignificant epithet has been adopted by Milton:
"I hear the far-off curfew found,
"Over fome wide water'd shore

८८

Swinging flow with fullen roar."

Departing, I believe, is here used for departed. MALONE.

I cannot concur in this supposition. The bell, anciently, was tung before expiration, and thence was called the passing bell, i. e. the bell that folicited prayers for the foul paffing into another

world. STEEVENS.

I am inclined to think that this bell might have been originally ufed to drive away demons who where watching to take poffeffion In the cuts to some of the old of the foul of the deceased. fervice books which contain the Vigilia mortuorum, several devils are waiting for this purpose in the chamber of the dying man, to whom the priest is administering extreme untion.

DOUCE.

By faint quitiance

faint quittance, Quittance is return. is meant a faint return of blows. So, in King Henry V: "We shall forget the office of our hand, " Sooner than quittance of defert and merit."

$ For from his metal was his party steel'd;

STEFVENS.

Which once in him abated, Abated, is not here put for the general idea of diminished, nor for the notion of blunted, as applied