This community of affection implies a likeness or equality of nature, and thence our poet transferred the term to equality of blood. JOHNSON. P. 172, 1. 25. 26. And I will turn thy falsehood to thy heart,

Where it was forged, with my rapier's point.] Shakspeare deserts the manners of the age in which his drama was placed, very often without necessity or advantage. The edge of a sword had served his purpose as well as the point of a rapier, and he had then escaped the impropriety of giving the English nobles a weapon which was not seen in England till two centuries afterwards.

JOHNSON.

Mr. Ritson censures this note in the following terms: "It would be well however, though not quite so easy for some learned critic to bring some proof in support of this and such like assertions. Without which the authority of Shakspeare is at least equal to that of Dr. Johnson." It is probable that Dr. Johnson did not see the necessity of citing any authority for a fact so well known, or suspect that any person would demand one. If an authority however only is wanted, perhaps, the following may be deemed sufficient to justify the Doctor's observation: "— time two other Englishmen, Sir W. Stanley, and Rowland Yorke, got an ignominious name of traytors. This Yorke, borne in London, was a man most negligent and lazy, but desperately hardy; he was in his time most famous among those who respected fencing, having been the first that brought into England that wicked and pernicious fashion to fight in the fields in duels with a rapier called a tucke, onely for the thrust the English having till that very time

at that

used to fight with backe swords, slashing and cutting one the other, armed with targets or bucklers, with very broad weapons, accounting it not to be a manly action to fight by thrusting and stabbing, and chiefly under the waste. Darcie's Annals of Queen Elizabeth, 410. 1623. p. 223, sub anno, 1587. REED.

P. 173, 1. 6. I take the earth to the like,] This speech I have restored from the first edition in humble imitation of former editors, though, I believe, against the mind of the author. For the earth I suppose we should read, they oath. JOHNSON.

To take the earth is, at present, a fox-hunter's phrase. But I know not how it can be applied here. It should seem, however, from the following passage in Warner's Albion's England 1602. B. III. c. xvi. that the expression is yet capable of another meaning:

"Lo here my gage, (he terr'd his glove) thou know'st the victor's meed.' To terre the glove was, I suppose, to dash it on the earth.

Let me add, however, in support of Dr. Johnson's conjecture, that the word oath, in Troilus and Cressida, quarto 1609, is corrupted in the same manner. Instead of the " traded oath," it gives "untraded earth." We might read, only changing the place of one letter, and altering another:

I task thy heart to the like,

i. e. I put thy valour to the same trial.

un

STEEVENS.

P. 173, 1. 10. From sun to sun:] i. e. as I think, from sun-rise to sun-set. MALONE.

P. 173, last 1. but one. I dare meet Surry in a wilderness,] I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him. So, in Macbeth:

66 or be alive again,

"And dare me to the desert with thy sword."

JOHNSON.

P. 174, 1.3. in this new world,] In this world where I have just begun to be an actor. Surry has, a few lines above, called him boy.

JOHNSON.

P. 174. 1. 10. here do I throw down this,] Holinshed says, that on this occasion "he threw down a hood that he had borrowed." STEEVENS.

He had before thrown down his own hood, when accused by Bagot. MALONE.

P. 175,1. 13. Yet best beseeining me to speak the truth.] It might be

read more grammatically:

Yet best beseems it me to speak the truth. But I do not think it is printed otherwise than as Shakspeare wrote it. JOHNSON.

P. 175, 1. 16. nobless

i. e. nobleness; a word now obsolete, but used both by Spenser and Ben Jonson. STTEVENS.

P. 175, 1. 22-26. And shall the figure of God's majesty, &c.) Here is another proof that our author did not learn in King James's court his elevated notions of the right of Kings. I know not any flatterer of the Stuarts, who has expressed this doctrine in much stronger terms. It must be observed that the poet intends, from the beginning to the end, to exhibit this Bishop as brave, pious, and venerable. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare has represented the character of the Bishop as he found it in Holinshed, where

this famous speech, (which contains in the most express terms, the doctrine of passive obedience,) is preserved. The politicks of the historian were the politicks of the poet. STEEVENS.

The chief argument urged by the Bishop in Holinshed, is, that it was unjust to proceed against the King "without calling him openly to his aunswer and defence." He says, that none of them were worthie or meete to give judgement to so noble a Prince,,, but does not expressly assert that he could not be lawfully deposed. Our author, however, undoubtedly had Holinshed before him. MALONE.

It does not appear from any better authority than Holinshed that Bishop Merkes made this famous speech, or any speech at all upon this occasion, or even that he was present at the time. Ilis sentiments, however, whether right or wrong, would have been regarded neither as novel nor unconstitutional. And it is observable that usurpers are as ready to avail themselves of the doctrine of divine right, as lawful sovereigns; to dwell upon the sacredness of theirpersons and the sanctity of their character. RITSON.

P. 176, 1. 16. After this line, whatever follows, almost to the end of the act, containing the whole process of dethroning and debasing King Richard, was added after the first edition, of 1598, and before the second of 1615. Part of the addition is proper, and part might have been forborn without much loss. The author, I suppose, intended to make a very moving scene. JOHNSON. l'he addition was first made in the quarto 1608. STEEVENS.

The first edition was in 1597, not in 1598. When it is said that this scene was added, the

reader must understand that it was added by the printer, or that a more perfect copy fell into the hands of the later editor than was published by a former. There is no proof that the whole scene was not written by Shakspeare at the same time with the rest of the play, though for political reasons it might not have been exhibited or printed during the life of Queen Elizabeth. MALONE. P. 176, I. 23. I will be his conduct.] i. e. conductor. STEEVENS.

P. 177, 1. 3. The favour of these men :] The countenances; the features. JOHNSON.

P. 177, l. 21 – 26. Now is this golden crown like a deep well, etc.] This is a somparison not easily accommodated to the subject, nor very naturally introduced. The best part is this line, in which he makes the usurper the empty bucket. JOHNSON. loss of care,

P. 178, 1. 1. 2.
Your care is

My care is by old care done; gain of care, by new care won] Shakspeare often obscures his meaning by playing with sounds. Richard seems to say here, that his cares are not made less by the increase of Bolingbroke's cares; for this reason, that his care is the loss of care,his grief it, that his regal cares are at an end, by the cessation of the care to which he had been accustomed. JOHNSON.

P. 178, 1. 13. With mine own tears I 'wash away my balm,] The oil of consecration. He has mentioned it before. JOHNSON. P. 179, 1. 4. If thou would'st,] That is, if thou wouldst read over a list of they owu deeds.

JOHNSON.