* And now loud-howling wolves arouse the jades * That drag the tragick melancholy night; * * Who with their drowsy, slow, and flagging wings Clip dead men's graves, and from their misty jaws Breathe foul contagious darkness in the air. * Therefore, bring forth the soldiers of our prize; And thou that art his mate, make boot of this;- 1 Gent. What is my ransome, master? let me know. • Mast. A thousand crowns, or else lay down your head. • Mate. And so much shall you give, or off goes yours. * Cap. What, think you much to pay two thousand crowns, * And bear the name and port of gentlemen?- This speech is an amplification of the following one in the first part of The Whole Contention, &c. quarto, 1600: "Bring forward these prisoners that scorn'd to yield; "This other the master's mate shall have; "And Walter Whickmore, thou shalt have this man; Suff. Walter!" [He starteth. Had Shakspeare's play been taken down by the ear, or an imperfect copy otherwise obtained, his lines might have been mutilated, or imperfectly represented; but would a new circumstance (like that of sinking Suffolk's ship) not found in the original, have been added by the copyist!-On the other hand, if Shakspeare new modelled the work of another, such a circumstance might well be omitted. Malone. 8 the jades That drag the tragick melancholy night; Who with their drowsy, slow and flagging wings Clip dead men's graves,] The wings of the jades that drag night appears an unnatural image, till it is remembered that the chariot of the night is supposed, by Shakspeare, to be drawn by dragons. Johnson. See Vol. II, p. 330, n. 8. Malone. See also, Cymbeline, Act II, sc. ii. Steevens. *The lives of those which we have lost in fight, * Cannot be counterpois'd with such a petty sum.9 * 1 Gent. I'll give it, sir; and therefore spare my life. * 2 Gent. And so will I, and write home for it straight. • Whit. I lost mine eye in laying the prize aboard, 'And therefore, to revenge it, shalt thou die; [To Suf. ' And so should these, if I might have my will. * Cap. Be not so rash; take ransome, let him live. Suf. Look on my George, I am a gentleman;1 Rate me at what thou wilt, thou shalt be paid. 9 The lives of those &c.] The old copy (from which some deviation, for the sake of obtaining sense, was necessary,) has"The lives of those which we have lost in fight, "Be counter-poys'd with such a pettie sum." Mr. Malone reads: "The lives of those which we have lost in fight "Cannot be counterpois'd with such a petty sum." But every reader will observe, that the last of these lines is incumbered with a superfluous foot. I conceive, that the passage originally stood as follows: "The lives of those we have lost in fight, cannot "Be counterpois'd with such a petty sum." Steevens. I suspect that a line has been lost, preceding-" The lives of those," &c. and that this speech belongs to Whitmore; for it is inconsistent with what the captain says afterwards. The word cannot is not in the folio. The old play affords no assistance. The word now added is necessary to the sense, and is a less innovation on the text than what has been made in the modern editionsNor can those lives, &c. The emendation made in this passage, (which was written by Shakspeare, there being no trace of it in the old play,) is supported by another in Coriolanus, in which we have again the same expression, and nearly the same sentiments: "The man I speak of cannot in the world "Be singly counterpois'd." Malone. The difference between the Captain's present and succeeding sentiments may be thus accounted for. Here, he is only striving to intimidate his prisoners into a ready payment of their ransome. Afterwards his natural disposition inclines him to mercy, till he is provoked by the upbraidings of Suffolk. Steevens. 1 Look on my George,] In the first edition it is my ring. Warburton. Here we have another proof of what has been already so often observed. A ring and a George could never have been confounded either by the eye or the ear. So, in the original play the ransome of each of Suffolk's companions is a hundred pounds, but here a thousand crowns. Malone. • Whit. And so am I; my name is-Walter Whit more. How now? why start'st thou? what, doth death affright? Suf. Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death. A cunning man did calculate my birth, "And told me that by Water3 I should die: • Yet let not this make thee be bloody-minded; • Thy name is—Gualtier, being rightly sounded. Whit. Gualtier, or Walter, which it is, I care not; Ne'er yet did base dishonour blur our name,* But with our sword we wip'd away the blot; Therefore, when merchant-like I sell revenge, 'Broke be my sword, my arms torn and defac❜d, 'And I proclaim'd a coward through the world! [Lays hold on SUF. 2 Thy name affrights me,] But he had heard his name before, without being startled by it In the old play, as soon as ever the captain has consigned him to "Walter Whickmore," Suffolk immediately exclaims, Walter! Whickmore asks him, why he fears him, and Suffolk replies, "It is thy name affrights me." Our author has here, as in some other places, fallen into an impropriety, by sometimes following and sometimes deserting his original. Malone. 3 by Water-] So, in queen Margaret's letter to this duke of Suffolk, by Michael Drayton : "I pray thee, Poole, have care how thou dost pass, "And one foretold, by water thou should'st die," &c. A note on these lines says, "The witch of Eye received answer from her spirit, that the duke of Suffolk should take heed of water." See the fourth scene of the first act of this play. Steevens. ▲ Ne'er yet did base dishonour &c.] This and the following lines are founded on these two in the old play : "And therefore ere I merchant-like sell blood for gold, "Then cast me headlong down into the sea." The new image which Shakspeare has introduced into this speech, " my arms torn and defac'd,"-is found also in King Richard II: "From my own windows torn my household coat, See the notes on that passage. Vol. VIII, p. 70, n. 3 and 4. Malone. Suf. Stay, Whitmore; for thy prisoner is a prince, The duke of Suffolk, William de la Pole. • Whit. The duke of Suffolk, muffled up in rags! Suf. Ay, but these rags are no part of the duke; Jove sometime went disguis'd, And why not I?5 Cap. But Jove was never slain, as thou shalt be. Suf. Obscure and lowly swain, king Henry's blood, The honourable blood of Lancaster, 6 • Must not be shed by such a jaded groom." Hast thou not kiss'd thy hand, and held my stirrup? 'Bare-headed plodded by my foot-cloth mule, And thought thee happy when I shook my head? "How often hast thou waited at my cup, Fed from my trencher, kneel'd down at the board, * Remember it, and let it make thee crest-fall'n; * How in our voiding lobby hast thou stood, * And duly waited for my coming forth? This hand of mine hath writ in thy behalf, 5 Fove sometime went disguis'd &c ] This verse is omitted in all but the first old edition, [quarto 1600,] without which what follows is not sense. The next line also: Obscure and lowly swain, king Henry's blood, was falsely put in the Captain's mouth. Pope. lowly swain,] The folio reads-lowsy swain. Steevens. The quarto lowly. In a subsequent passage the folio has the word right: By such a lowly vassal as thyself. Lowsy was undoubtedly an error of the press. Malone. 7-a a jaded groom.] I suppose he means a low fellow, fit only to attend upon horses; which in our author's time were frequently termed jades. The original play has jady, which conveys this meaning (the only one that the words seem to afford) more clearly, jaded being liable to an equivoque. Faded groom, however, may mean a groom whom all men treat with contempt; as worthless as the most paltry kind of horse. So, in King Henry VIII: 66 if we live thus tamely, "To be thus jaded by a piece of scarlet Malone. A jaded groom may signify a groom who has hitherto been treated with no greater ceremony than a horse. Steevens. 8 abortive pride:] Pride that has had birth too soon, pride issuing before its time. Johnson. And therefore shall it charm thy riotous tongue.3 * Whit. Speak, captain, shall I stab the forlorn swain? * Cap. First let my words stab him, as he hath me. * Suf. Base slave! thy words are blunt, and so art thou. Cap. Convey him hence, and on our long-boat's side Strike off his head. 'Ay, kennel, puddle, sink; whose filth and dirt Troubles the silver spring where England drinks. 'Now will I dam up this thy yawning mouth, 'For swallowing the treasure of the realm: ‹ Thy lips, that kiss'd the queen, shall sweep the ground; 'And thou, that smil'dst at good duke Humphrey's death, 3 8 charm thy riotous tongue.] i. e. restrain thy licentious talk; compel thee to be silent. See Vol. VI, p. 109, n. 6, and Mr. Steeven's note in Othello, Act V, sc. ult. where Iago uses the same expression. It occurs frequently in the books of our author's age. Malone. Again, in the Third Part of this Play, Act V, sc. iii: "Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm your tongue." Steevens 9 Thou dar❜st not &c.] In the quarto edition the passage stands thus: "Suf. Thou dar'st not for thy own. "Cap. Yes, Pole? "Suf. Pole? "Cap. Ay, Pole, puddle, kennel, sink and dirt, "I'll stop that yawning mouth of thine." I think the two intermediate speeches should be inserted in the text, to introduce the Captain's repetition of Poole, &c. Steevens. It is clear from what follows that these speeches were not intended to be rejected by Shakspeare, but accidentally omitted at the press. I have therefore restored them. Malone. 1 Poole? Sir Poole? lord?] The dissonance of this broken line makes it almost certain that we should read with a kind of ludicrous climax: Poole? Sir Poole? lord Poole? He then plays upon the name Poole, kennel, puddle. Johnson. prevent thy he is now in 2 For swallowing ] He means, perhaps, so as to swallowing, &c. So, in The Puritan, 1607: “— huckster's handling for running away." I have met with many other instances of this kind of phraseology. The more obvious interpretation, however, may be the true one. Malone. |