* What time the fhepherd, blowing of his nails,* * Can neither call it perfect day, nor night. 'Now fways it this way, like a mighty fea, 'Forc'd by the tide to combat with the wind; Now fways it that way, like the self-same sea Forc'd to retire by fury of the wind: 'Sometime, the flood prevails; and then, the wind 'Now, one the better; then, another beft; 'Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast," "Yet neither conqueror, nor conquered: 'So is the equal poife of this fell war. * Here on this molehill will I fit me down. * To whom God will, there be the victory! For Margaret my queen, and Clifford too, Have chid me from the battle; fwearing both, They profper beft of all when I am thence. "'Would I were dead! if God's good will were fo: "For what is in this world, but grief and woe? * O God! methinks, it were a happy life, Virgil, however, Æn. Lib. X. v. 354, has a fimilar comparison: "Nunc hi, nunc illi: certatur limine in ipfo Anceps pugna diu: ftant obnixi omnia contra," &c. This fimile, however, originates with Homer; Iliad, XIV. STEEVENS, the Shepherd, blowing of his nails,] So, in Love's Labour's Loft: "When icicles hang by the wall, "And Dick the Shepherd blows his nail,-." MALONE. 7 Both tugging to be victors, breaft to breaft,] Hence, perhaps, the vulgarifm that gives fuch acknowledged force to the following line in Lee's Rival Queens : "When Greeks join'd Greeks, then was the tug of war.” STEEVENS, methinks, it were a happy life,] This fpeech is mournful and foft, exquifitely fuited to the character of the King, and To be no better than a homely swain; *To fit upon a hill, as I do now, * To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, * So many days my ewes have been with young; makes a pleafing interchange, by affording, amidft the tumult and horror of the battle, an unexpected glimfe of rural innocence and paftoral tranquillity. JOHNSON. This fpeech ftrongly confirms the remark made by Sir Joshua Reynolds on a paffage in Macbeth, Vol. X. p. 72, n. 3. • Thereby to see the minutes how they run : MALONE. How many make the hour full complete,] So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece : "Stuff up his luft, as minutes fill up hours." MALONE. ere the poor fools will yean ;] Poor fool, it has already been obferved, is an expreffion of tenderness, often used by our author. MALONE. So, in King Lear, fcene the laft: "And my poor fool is hang'd." See notes on this paffage, Vol. XVII. STEEVENS. 2 So many years ere I shall sheer the fleece:] i. e. the years which muft elapfe between the time of the yeaning of the ewes, and the lambs arriving to fuch a state as to admit of being thorn. Mr. Rowe changed years to months; which was followed by the fubfequent editors; and in the next line inferted the word weeks; not obferving that hours is used there, and throughout this speech, VOL. XIV. G So minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, *Pafs'd over to the end they were created, * Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. * Ah, what a life were this! how fweet! how lovely! *Gives not the hawthorn bufh a sweeter fhade *To fhepherds, looking on their filly sheep, *Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy * To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery? * O, yes it doth; a thousand fold it doth. * And to conclude,-the thepherd's homely curds, *His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle, * His wonted fleep under a fresh tree's shade, *All which fecure and fweetly he enjoys, * Is far beyond a prince's delicates, * His viands fparkling in a golden cup, *His body couched in a curious bed, * When care, mistrust, and treason wait on him. Alarum. Enter a Son that has killed his Father,3 dragging in the dead Body. SON. Ill blows the wind, that profits no-body.This man, whom hand to hand I flew in fight, May be poffeffed with fome ftore of crowns: * And I, that haply take them from him now, * May yet ere night yield both my life and them as a diffyllable. Years is in that line likewise used as a word of two fyllables. MALONE. This diffyllabical pronunciation will by no means fuit the conclufion of a verfe, however it may be admitted in other parts of it. I have retained Mr. Rowe's very neceffary insertion. STEEVENS. 3 Enter a Son &c.] These two horrible incidents are selected to fhow the innumerable calamities of civil war. JOHNSON. In the battle of Conftantine and Maxentius, by Raphael, the fecond of these incidents is introduced on a fimilar occafion. STEEVENS. *To fome man elfe, as this dead man doth me."Who's this?-O God! it is my father's face, • Whom in this conflict I unwares have kill'd. "O heavy times, begetting fuch events! From London by the king was I prefs'd forth Have by my hands of life bereaved him.- * My tears fhall wipe away these bloody marks; * And no more words, till they have flow'd their fill. 'K. HEN. O piteous fpectacle !4 O bloody times! Whilft lions war, and battle for their dens, 'Poor harmless lambs abide their enmity, * Weep, wretched man, I'll aid thee tear for tear; *And let our hearts, and eyes, like civil war, * Be blind with tears, and break o'ercharg'd with grief.5 40 piteous fpectacle ! &c.] In the old play the King does not fpeak, till both the Son and the Father have appeared, and spoken, and then the following words are attributed to him, out of which Shakspeare has formed two diftinct speeches : "Woe above woe! grief more than common grief! "Poor lambs do feel the rigour of their wraths. "The red rose and the white are on his face, "The fatal colours of our striving houses. "Wither one rofe, and let the other perish, "For, if you strive, ten thousand lives must perish." s And let our hearts, and eyes, like civil war, MALONE. Be blind with tears, and break o'ercharg'd with grief.] The meaning is here inaccurately expreffed. The King intends to fay that the ftate of their hearts and eyes fhall be like that of the kingdom in a civil war, all shall be deftroyed by power formed within themselves. JOHNSON. Enter a Father, who has killed his Son, with the Body in his Arms. FATH. Thou that fo ftoutly haft refifted me, 'Give me thy gold, if thou haft any gold; 'For I have bought it with an hundred blows.'But let me fee:-is this our foeman's face? Ah, no, no, no, it is mine only fon !--* Ah, boy, if any life be left in thee, * Throw up thine eye; fee, fee, what showers arife, *Blown with the windy tempeft of my heart," * Upon thy wounds, that kill mine eye and heart!O, pity, God, this miferable age! "What ftratagems," how fell, how butcherly, 6 what showers arise, Blown with the windy tempeft of my heart,] This image had occurred in the preceding A&t: For raging wind blows up inceffant fhowers. STEEvens. 7 What ftratagems,] Stratagem feems to ftand here only for an event of war, or may intend fnares and furprizes. JOHNSON. Stratagem is used by Shakspeare not merely to express the events and furprizes of war.-The word means in this place fome dreadful event, as it does alfo in The Second Part of K. Henry IV. where Northumberland says: Every minute now "Should be the father of fome Stratagem." Stratagemma, in Italian, bears the fame acceptation which Shakspeare gives to the English word Stratagem, in these two paffages. Bernini in his Hiftory of Herefies, fays: "Ma Dio puni la Francia, & la Spagna, co'l flagello dei Vandali, per Î'Erefia abbracciata, & più gravamente puni Roma, prevaricata di nuovo, al culto de gl' idoli, con il facco che gli diedero. Orofio, che defcriffe quelle firatagemme, paragoni Roma a Sodoma, chiamando i Romani peccatori." It is evident, that in this paffage firatagemme means difaftrous events, as firatagem does in this place. M. MASON. Stratageme. A policie or fubtle device in warre, whereby the enemie is often vanquished." Bullokar's English Expofitor, |