Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

۱۰

My judgement is, we should not step too far
Till we had his assistance by the hand :
For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this,
Conjecture, expectation, and furmise
Of aids uncertain, should not be admitted.

2

ARCH. 'Tis very true, lord Bardolph; for, indeed, It was young Hotspur's cafe at Shrewsbury,

BARD. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with

hope,

Eating the air on promise of fupply,
Flattering himself with project of a power
Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts:
And fo, with great imagination,

Proper to madmen, led his powers to death,
And, winking, leap'd into destruction.

HAST. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt,
To lay down likelihoods, and forms of hope.
BARD. Yes, in this present quality of war ;-
Indeed the inftant action, 4 (a cause on foot,)

2

Acp too far] The four following lines were added in the second edition. JOHNSON.

3 Much smaller-] i. e. which turned out to be much smaller.

4

MUSGRAVE.

Yes, in this present quality of war; &c.] These first twenty lines were firft inferted in the folio of 1623.

The first clause of this passage is evidently corrupted. All the folio editions and Mr. Rowe's concur in the fame reading, which Mr. Pope altered thus:

[blocks in formation]

This has been filently followed by Mr. Theobald, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton; but the corruption is certainly deeper, for in the present reading Bardolph makes the inconvenience of hope to be that it may cause delay, when indeed the whole tenor of his argument is to recommend delay to the reft that are too forward. I know not what to propose, and am afraid

Lives so in hope, as in an early spring
We fee the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit,
Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair,

that something is omitted, and that the injury is irremediable. Yet, perhaps, the alteration requifite is no more than this:

[blocks in formation]

It never, fays Hastings, did harm to lay down likelihoods of hope. Yes, says Bardolph, it has done harm in his present quality of war, in a state of things such as is now before us, of war, indeed of instant action. This is obscure, but Mr. Pope's reading is ftill less reasonable. JOHNSON.

I have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, though I think we might read:

if this prefent quality of war

Impel the instant action.

Hastings fays, it never yet did hurt to lay down likelihoods and forms of hope. Yes, says Bardolph, it has in every cafe like ours, where an army inferior in number, and waiting for fupplies, has, without that reinforcement, impell'd, or haftily brought on, immediate action. STEEVENS.

an

If we may be allowed to read-instanc'd, the text may meanYes, it has done harm in every cafe like ours; indeed it did harm in young Hotspur's cafe at Shrewsbury, which the Archbishop of York has just instanced or given as an example. TOLLET.

This paffage is allowed on all hands to be corrupt, but a flight alteration will, I apprehend, reftore the true reading.

Yes, if this present quality of war,
Induc'd the instant action. HENLEY.

Mr. M. Mason has proposed the fame reading. STEEVENS.

in this present quality of war; ) This and the following nineteen lines appeared first in the folio. That copy reads-Yes, if this present &c.

I believe the old reading is the true one, and that a line is loft; but have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, because it makes senfe. The punduation now introduced appears to me preferable to that of the old edition, in which there is a colon after the word action.

Bardolph, I think, means to say, "Indeed the present action (our cause being now on foot, war being actually levied,) lives," &c. otherwise the speaker is made to say, in general, that all caufes once on foot afford no hopes that may fecurely be relied on; which is certainly not true. MALONE.

That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build,5
We first survey the plot, then draw the model ;
And when we fee the figure of the house,
Then must we rate the cost of the erection :
Which if we find outweighs ability,
What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least, desist

7

To build at all? Much more, in this great work
(Which is, almost, to pluck a kingdom down,
And fet another up,) should we survey
The plot of fituation, and the model;
Confent upon a fure foundation; '
Question furveyors; know our own eftate,
How able such a work to undergo,
To weigh against his oppofite; or else,
We fortify in paper, and in figures,
Ufing the names of men instead of men :
Like one, that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it; who, half through,
Gives o'er, and leaves his part-created cost
A naked subject to the weeping clouds,
And waste for churlish winter's tyranny.

HAST. Grant, that our hopes (yet likely of fair birth,)

Should be stillborn, and that we now poffefs'd
The utmost man of expectation ;

I think, we are a body ftrong enough,

Even as we are, to equal with the king.

[blocks in formation]

" Consent upon a fure foundation; i. e. agree. So, in As you like it, A& V. fc. i: " For all your writers do confent that ipfe is he." Again, ibidem, fc. ii: "confent with both, that we may enjoy each other," STEEVENS.

1

B

BARD. What! is the king but five and twenty

thousand?

HAST. To us, no more; nay, not so much, lord

Bardolph.

For his divisions, as the times do brawl,
Are in three heads: one power against the French,
And one against Glendower; perforce, a third
Must take up us: So is the unfirm king
In three divided; and his coffers found

With hollow poverty and emptiness,

ARCH. That he should draw his several strengths

together,

And come against us in full puissance,

Need not be dreaded.

HAST.

9

If he should do so,
He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh
Baying him at the heels: never fear that.

BARD. Who, is it like, should lead his forces
hither?

8

8 one power against the French, During this rebellion of Northumberland and the Archbishop, a French army of twelve thousand men landed at Milford Haven in Wales, for the aid of Owen Glendower. See Holinshed, p. 531. STEEVENS.

9 If he should do so,] This passage is read in the first edition thus: If he should do so, French and Welsh he leaves his back unarm'd, they baying him at the heels, never fear that. These lines, which were evidently printed from an interlined copy not understood, are properly regulated in the next, edition, and are here only mentioned to show what errors may be suspected to remain.

JOHNSON.

I believe the editor of the folio did not correct the quarto rightly; in which the only error probably was the omiffion of the word to:

To French and Welsh he leaves his back unarm'd,
They baying him at the heels: never fear that.

MALONE.

HAST. The duke of Lancaster, and Westmoreland: 2

Against the Welsh, himself, and Harry Monmouth: But who is substituted 'gainst the French,

I have no certain notice.

ARCH.

Let us on;

3

And publish the occasion of our arms.
The commonwealth is fick of their own choice,

Their over-greedy love hath surfeited :

An habitation giddy and unsure

,

Hath he, that buildeth on the vulgar heart.
O thou fond many! 4 with what loud applause
Didst thou beat heaven with bleffing Bolingbroke,
Before he was what thou would'st have him be?

And being now trimm'd in thine own defires,

2

The duke of Lancaster, &c.] This is an anachronism, Prince John of Lancafter was not created a duke till the second year of the reign of his brother, King Henry V. MALONE.

This mistake is pointed out by Mr. Steevens in another place. It is not, however, true: that "K. Henry IV. was himself the laft perfon that ever bore the title of duke of Lancaster," as Prince Henry actually enjoyed it at this very time, and had done so from the first year of his father's reign, when it was conferred upon him in full parliament. Rot. Parl. 111, 428, 532. Shakspeare was mifled by Stowe, who speaking of Henry's first parliament, says, "then the King rofe, and made his eldeft son Prince of Wales, &c. his fecond Sonne was there made Duke of Lancaster." Annales, 1631, p. 323. He should therefore seem to have confulted this author between the times of finishing the last play, and beginning the present. RITSON.

3 Let us on; &c.] This excellent speech of York was one of the passages added by Shakspeare after his first edition. POPE. This fpeech first appeared in the folio. MALONE.

4 O thou fond many!) Many or meyny, from the French mesnies a multitude. DOUCE.

5-in thine own defires,] The latter word is employed here as a trifyllable. MALONE.

« AnteriorContinuar »