P. 167. (109) 66 What, is my Richard both in shape and mind Transform'd and weaken'd? hath Bolingbroke depos'd That the author intended these lines to be so regulated, is proved by some other passages of the play; "Harry Bolingbroke doth humbly kiss thy hand." p. 150. "What says King Bolingbroke? will his majesty," &c. p. 152.1864. Walker, I now find, arranges these lines as I have done, but would alter "weaken'd" to "weak'd;" see his Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 113.-Mr. W. N. Lettsom (note, ibid.) supposes that I"make a dissyllable of ‘Bolingbroke:" not so; vide my second note on The Second Part of King Henry VI. The old eds. have "bound," which Capell altered to "bind."-I adopt the emendation of Mr. W. N. Lettsom, who, no doubt, is right in considering that here"bound" is a misprint for "bowe:" and see Walker on "Final d and final e confounded," in his Crit. Exam, &c. vol. ii. p. 61. P. 170. (114) 66 66 Yea, look'st thou pale, sir? let me see the writing." Here"si" was inserted by Capell (compare York's next speech but one).— Hanmer printed come, let me see the writing;” and Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector reads " let me, then, see the writing."-Dr. Guest (Hist. of English Rhythms, vol. i. p. 226) sees no deficiency in the old text of this line. I prefer making this addition, instead of printing in the next portion of the line, "Saddle me my horse," which was given by Hanmer, and is recommended by Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 131). Thrown out by Pope for the metre's sake: but see note 2 on The Second Part of King Henry VI. The old eds. have "Which he," &c.-I adopt Pope's correction; which, after all, seems to be the better way of dealing with this (perhaps mutilated) P. 173. (120) "My tongue cleave to the roof within my mouth," The old eds. have ". to my roof," &c.-Corrected by Mr. W. N. Lettsom (who compares," my tongue [might freeze] to the roof of my mouth," in The Taming of the Shrew, act iv. sc. 1).- Here the error was occasioned by "MY mouth." Which Pope altered to "but," is equivalent to "of." Walker would read "strange" (Crit. Exam, &c. vol. iii. p. 23). P. 175. (124) "Our prayers do out-pray his; then let them have "To say nothing else, my ear repudiates this, standing where it does; see context. Read ought to crave,' I think. 'Prayers' in the second line is precatores, not preces." Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. i. p. 285.-Pope printed - let them crave," making, of course, no alteration in the second line. 46 The old eds. have "I pardon him with all my heart" (which Mr. Collier retains, though a couplet was evidently intended here). Here all the old eds. have merely "and Cosin," except quarto 1634 (a slight authority), which has "and Cosin too."-I adopt, as preferable, the reading of Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector.-"Perhaps," say the Cambridge Editors, "the line may be amended thus ; 'Uncle, farewell; farewell, aunt; cousin, adieu.' Many as harsh-sounding lines may be found [?], and it seems only consonant with good manners that the king should take leave of his aunt as well as of the others. There is a propriety too in his using a colder form of leave-taking to his guilty cousin than to his uncle and aunt."-Qy.“ Uncle, farewell; aunt,-cousin, too,-adieu"? "Read [with Hanmer] 'content. (This little world,' i.e. his prison, not, as Malone explains it, his body; see below; P. 177. (128) this hard world, my ragged prison-walls.")" Walker's Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 127. "small neeld's” So the first four quartos, except that they have "needle's" (see note 59 on A Midsummer-Night's Dream, vol. ii. p. 331): the folio omits "small;" but Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. iii. p. 131) says; "That the epithet is from Shakespeare's hand, I feel certain." P. 178. (129) "To check time broke in a disorder'd string;" "I strongly suspect that Shakespeare wrote 'To check at time broke in disorder'd string.'" W. N. LETTSOM. In the folio "heare" is substituted for "check," which is the reading of the first four quartos. P. 178. (130) "they jar Their watches to mine eyes, the outward watch,” So the second folio.-The earlier eds. have "Their [and "there"] watches on vnto mine eyes the outward watch,"-which it is evident are not the very words of the poet.-Nares (Gloss. in v. “Jar") remarks; "The above is the reading of the second folio, and is sense without alteration or laborious explanation: the reading of the old quartos serves as the best comment. . . The meaning is, 'They tick their periods on, to my eyes, which represent the outward watch;' 'watch' signifying, as Dr. Johnson observed, in the first place a portion of time, and in the second the face of the clock."-In The Parthenon for July 19, 1862, p. 378, the late Mr. W. W. Williams writes thus; "The second folio (1632) remedies the measure by printing; 'My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar Their watches to mine eyes, the outward watch,' &c.; but not of necessity correctly. As a mere conjecture, it might be suspected that 'watches' was a misreading for aches-a dissyllable in Shakespeare's time, and pronounced aitches. But many critics would maintain that a pun was intended. Such repetitions were admired in the days of Elizabeth, and were also a fruitful source of typographical error. It must be admitted, too, that the text is reasonably intelligible as it stands. The word 'watches' does not necessarily apply to 'thoughts,' but to thoughts as minutes. So in 'King John,' act iv. scene 1, we have 'And like the watchful minutes to the hour,' &c. 6 The King may mean to say, that his thoughts 'jar' [or tick] their watchful minutes 'to' [or on] the outward dial of his eyes. Richard the Second' is an early play, and it is dangerous to meddle with any passage because the imagery may be forced or the language obscure.” P. 178. (131) "Now, sir, the sounds that tell what hour it is,” The old eds. have "Now, sir, the sound that tells," &c.-Here I do not adopt Mr. Collier's (and his Ms. Corrector's) alteration of "sir" to "for," though I now find that the change is also recommended by Walker (Crit. Exam. &c. vol. ii. p. 290), because I am still strongly inclined to believe that “sir" is merely one of those improprieties in soliloquy, of which so many examples might be collected from our early dramatists. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Launce soliloquizes thus; "This shoe, with the hole in it, is my mother, and this my father; a vengeance on't! there 'tis : NOW, SIR, this staff is my sister," &c. act ii. sc. 3; and further on, he soliloquizes as follows; "If I had not had more wit than he [my dog], to take a fault upon me that he did, I think verily he had been hanged for't; sure as I live, he had suffered for't: You shall judge. He thrusts me himself," &c. act iv. sc. 2. In The Merry Wives of Windsor, Falstaff, while soliloquizing at the Garter Inn, says; "The rogues slighted me into the river with as little remorse as they would have drowned a bitch's blind puppies, fifteen i' the litter and YOU may know by my size that I have a kind of alacrity in sinking," &c. act iii. sc. 5. In The Lamentable Tragedie of Locrine, &c. 1595, Strumbo thus appeals to the audience; “I [i.e. Ay], MAISTERS, I [i.e. ay], YOU may laugh, but I must weepe ***** for, trust me, GENTLEMEN AND MY VERIE GOOD FRIENDS," &c. sig. B4. In Chapman's Humorous Dayes Myrth, 1599, while Florila is alone on the stage, her husband enters behind, unseen by her, and commences a soliloquy thus; "Yea, mary, SIR, now I must looke about: now if her desolate [i. e. dissolute] proouer come againe, shal I admit him to make farther triall?" &c. sig. c 3. In Middleton's A Mad World, my Masters, Sir Bounteous, who is the only person on the stage, observes; An old man's venery is very chargeable, MY MASTERS; there's much cookery belongs to't." act iv. sc. 2,-Works, vol. ii. p. 390, ed. Dyce. In Fletcher's Woman's Prize, or the Tamer tamed, Petruchio says, while solus, ""Tis hard dealing, Very hard dealing, gentlemen, strange dealing!" 66 Act iii. sc. 2. and in his Wild-Goose Chase Pinac says, while alone, "You talk of travels; here's a curious country!" Nay, Walker, who, in the present passage of our text, pronounces "sir” to be Act ii. sc. 2. an error, himself furnishes me with at least one quotation which helps to support it, when (ubi supra) he writes as follows; "Ford, it is true, has fallen into this fault, Love's Sacrifice, ii. 2, Moxon, p. 81, col. 1, Fernando's soliloquy; 'She's young and fair: why, madam, that's the bait But Ford was not Shakespeare; and he may even have been misled by this very error of the press into a blind imitation of his great model." Utterly unlikely, I think. A playful rejoinder,-like the "what would my lord?" of Portia in The Merchant of Venice: see note 42 on that comedy, vol. ii. p. 421. Not in the old eds.-Capell added "man" here.-If the more recent editors thought that by printing in this line "comest," they perfected the metre, they were very strangely mistaken. P. 179. (134) "my sometimes master's face." The old eds. have ". my sometimes royall master's face."-" Sometimes was [occasionally] used for formerly." MALONE. P. 182. (138) "The mightiest of thy greatest enemies" Capell conjectures "The mightiest of thy mighty enemies." Would seem to have been repeated by mistake from the preceding line.— Pope substituted "over." |