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Turn'd on themselves, like dull and heavy lead.
And as the thing that's heavy in itself,
Upon enforcement, flies with greatest speed;
So did our men, heavy in Hotspur's lofs,
Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear,
That arrows fled not swifter toward their aim,
Than did our foldiers, aiming at their fafety,
Fly from the field: Then was that noble Worcester
Too foon ta'en prisoner: and that furious Scot,
The bloody Douglas, whose well-labouring fword
Had three times flain the appearance of the king,
'Gan vail his stomach, and did grace the shame
Of those that turn'd their backs; and, in his flight,
Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all
Is, that the king hath won; and hath sent out
A fpeedy power, to encounter you, my lord,
Under the conduct of young Lancaster,
And Westmoreland: this is the news at full.

NORTH. For this I shall have time enough to mourn.
In poison there is physick; and these news,

to a single edge. Abated means reduced to a lower temper, or, as
the workmen call it, let down. JOHNSON.

4 'Gain vail his stomach, Began to fall his courage, to let his
fpirits fink under his fortune. JOHNSON.

From avaler, Fr. to cast down, or to let fall down. MALONE.
This phrafe has already appeared in The Taming of the Shrew,
Vol. IX. p. 376:

" Then vail yaur ftomachs, for it is no boot;

" And place your hands below your husband's foot." REED. Thus, to vail the bonnet is to pull it off. So, in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599: 1

" And make the king vail bonnet to us both."

To vail a staff, is to let it fall in token of respect. Thus, in the
same play :

" And for the ancient custom of vail-ftaff,

"Keep it still; claim thou privilege from me:

"If any ask a reason, why? or how?

" Say, English Edward vail'd his staff to you."

See Vol. VIII. p. 8, n. 9.

VOL. XIII.

STEEVENS.

C

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Having been well, that would have made me fick,4
Being fick, have in some measure made me well :
And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints,
Like strengthless hinges, buckles under life,
Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire
Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs,
Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,
Are thrice themselves: hence therefore, thou nice'

crutch;

4 Having been well, that would have made me fick,] i. e. that would, had I been well, have made me fick. MALONE.

5

6

buckle - Bend; yield to preffure. JOHNSON.
seven fo my limbs,

Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief,

Are thrice themselves:] As Northumberland is here comparing himself to a perion, who, though his joints are weakened by a bodily diforder, derives strength from the distemper of the mind, I formerly proposed to read "Weakened with age," or, Weakened with pain."

When a word is repeated, without propriety, in the same or two fucceeding lines, there is great reason to suspect some corruption. Thus, in this scene, in the first folio, we have " able heels," instead of " armed heels," in consequence of the word able having occurred in the preceding line. So, in Hamlet: “ Thy news shall be the news," &c. instead of "Thy news shall be the fruit." Again, in Macbeth, instead of "Whom we, to gain our place," &c. we find

"Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace." In this conjecture I had once some confidence; but it is much diminished by the subsequent note, and by my having lately obferved, that Shakspeare elsewhere uses grief for bodily pain. Falstaff, in K. Henry IV. Part I. p. 383, speaks of " the grief of a wound." Grief in the latter part of this line is used in its present sense, for forrow; in the former part for bodily pain. MALONE.

he

Grief, in ancient language, signifies, bodily pain, as well as forrow. So, in A Treatise of fundrie Diseases, &c. by T. T. 1591: “ being at that time griped fore, and having grief in his lower bellie." Dolor ventris is, by our old writers, frequently tranflated of the guts." I perceive no need of alteration. STEEVENS.

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nice-] i. e. trifling. So, in Julius Cæfar:

it is not meet

" grief

4. That every nice offence should bear his comments."

STEEVENS.

A scaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel,
Must glove this hand: and hence, thou fickly

quoif;

Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,
Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron; And approach
The ragged'st hours that time and spite dare bring,
To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!
Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die!
And let this world no longer be a stage,
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being fet
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead! 9

8 The ragged'it hour-] Mr. Theobald and the subsequent editors read-The rugged ft. But change is unneceffary, the expreffion in the text being used more than once by our author. In As you like it, Amiens says, his voice is ragged; and rag is employed as a term of reproach in The Merry Wives of Windfor, and in Timon of Athens. See also the Epistle prefixed to Spenser's Shepherd's Calender, 1579: “ as thinking them fittelt for the ruftical rudeness of shepheards, either for that their rough found would make his rimes more ragged, and ruftical," &c. The modern editors of Spenser might here substitute the word rugged with just as much propriety as it has been fubftituted in the present passage, or in that in As you like it. See Vol. VIII. p. 222, n. 5.

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

" Thy fecret pleasure turns to open shame,-
Thy smoothing titles to a ragged name."

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Again in our poet's eighth Sonnet:

" Then let not Winter's ragged hand deface
" In thee thy summer."

Again, in the play before us:

" A ragged and fore-stall'd remiffion." MALONE.

9 And darkness be the burier of the dead!] The conclufion of this noble speech is extremely striking. There is no need to fuppofe it exactly philosophical; darkness, in poetry, may be absence of

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TRA. This ftrained paffion doth you wrong, my

lord.

BARD. Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from

your honour.

MOR. The lives of all your loving complices Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er To stormy paffion, must perforce decay. You caft the event of war, my noble lord.

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And fumm'd the account of chance, before you

faid,

Let us make head. It was your presurmise,

That, in the dole of blows your fon might drop:

eyes, as well as privation of light. Yet we may remark, that by an ancient opinion it has been held, that if the human race, for whom the world was made, were extirpated, the whole system of fublunary nature would cease. JOHNSON.

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This strained paffion - ) This line in the quarto, where alone it is found, is given to Umfrevile, who, as Mr. Steevens has observed, is spoken of in this very scene as absent. It was on this ground probably rejected by the player-editors. It is now, on the fuggeftion of Mr. Steevens, attributed to Travers, who is present, and yet (as that gentleman has remarked) is made to fay nothing on this interefting occafion." MALONE.

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You caft the event of war, &c,) The fourteen lines from hence to Bardolph's next speech, are not to be found in the firft editions till that in the folio of 1623. A very great number of other lines in this play were inferted after the first edition in like manner, but of such spirit and mastery generally, that the insertions are plainly by Shakspeare himself. POPE.

To this note I have nothing to add, but that the editor speaks of more editions than I believe him to have feen, there having been but one edition yet discovered by me that precedes the first folio.

4

JOHNSON.

in the dole of blows-] The dole of blows is the diftribution of blows. Dole originally fignified the portion of alms (confifting either of meat or money) that was given away at the door of a nobleman. See Vol. XII. p. 243, n. 5. STEEVENS.

You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge,
More likely to fall in, than to get o'er:5
You were advis'd, his flesh was capable

Of wounds, and scars; and that his forward fpirit
Would lift him where most trade of danger rang'd;
Yet did you fay,-Go forth; and none of this,
Though ftrongly apprehended, could restrain
The fliff-borne action: What hath then befallen,
Or what hath this bold enterprize brought forth,
More than that being which was like to be?

BARD. We all, that are engaged to this lofs,"
Knew that we ventur'd on fuch dangerous feas,
That, if we wrought out life, 'twas ten to one:
And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd
Chok'd the respect of likely ppril fear'd;
And, since we are o'erset, venture again.
Come, we will put forth; body, and goods.

MOR. 'Tis more than time: And, my most noble lord,

You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge,

More likely to fall in, than to get o'er: So, in King Henry IV,

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As full of peril and adventurous spirit,

"As to o'erwalk a current roaring loud,

"On the unfteadfast footing of a fpear." MALONE.

6 You were advis'd, his flesh was capable-] i. e. you knew. So,

in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

"How shall I doat on her with more advice --."

i. c. on further knowledge. MALONE.

Thus also, Thomas Twyne, the continuator of Phaer's tranfla tion of Virgil, 1584, for haud infcius, has advis'd:

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He fpake: and strait the sword advisde into his throat receives." STEEVENS.

"We all, that are engaged to this loss, ) We have a fimilar phraseology in the preceding play:

"Hath a more worthy interest to the ftate,
Than thou the shadow of facceffion." MALONE.

L

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