That thou wert cause of noble Gloster's death. Aum. Thou dar❜st not, coward, live to see that day. Fitz. Now, by my soul, I would it were this hour. Aum. Fitzwater, thou art damn'd to hell for this. Percy. Aumerle, thou liest; his honour is as true, In this appeal, as thou art all unjust: And, that thou art so, there I throw my gage, prove Το it on thee to the extremest point. 2 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 critick 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: at that 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 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, 4to. 1623, p. 223, sub anno, 1587. Again, in Bulleine's Dialogue between Soarnesse and Chirurgi, fol. 1579, p. 20: "There is a new kynd of instruments to let bloud withall, whych brynge the bloud-letter sometyme to the gallowes, because hee stryketh to deepe. These instruments are called the ruffins tucke, and long foining rapier: weapons more malicious than manly." Reed. And never brandish more revengeful steel Lord. I take the earth to the like, forsworn Aumerle;3 And spur thee on with full as many lies As may be holla'd in thy treacherous ear there is my honour's pawn; 3 I take the earth to the like, &c.] 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, thy oath. Johnson. To take the earth is, at present, a fox-hunter's phrase. So, in The Blind Beggar of Alexandria, 1598: "I'll follow him until he take the earth." 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. We still say to ground a musquet, and to ground a bowl. 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 " untraded 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. So, in King Henry IV, Act V, sc. ii: "How show'd his tasking? seem'd it in contempt?" The quarto, 1597, reads-task; the succeeding quartos, viz. 1598, 1608, and 1615, have take. Steevens. In Task is the reading of the first and best quarto in 1597. that printed in the following year the word was changed to take; but all the alterations made in the several editions of our author's plays in quarto, after the first, appear to have been made either arbitrarily or by negligence. (I do not mean to include copies containing new and additional matter.) I confess I am unable to explain either reading; but I adhere to the elder, as more likely to be the true one. Malone. 4 From sun to sun:] i. e. as I think, from sun-rise to sun-set. So, in Cymbeline: "Imo. How many score of miles may we well ride "Twixt hour and hour? "Pisa. One score 'twixt sun and sun, "Madam, 's enough for you, and too much too." "The time appointed for the duello (says Saviolo,) hath alwaies Engage it to the trial, if thou dar❜st. Aum. Who sets me else? by heaven, I'll throw at all: I have a thousand spirits in one breast,5 To answer twenty thousand such as you. Surrey. My lord Fitzwater, I do remember well The very time Aumerle and you did talk. Fitz. My lord, 'tis true: you were in presence then;" And you can witness with me, this is true. Surrey. As false, by heaven, as heaven itself is true. Fitz. Surrey, thou liest. Surrey. Dishonourable boy! In proof whereof, there is my honour's pawn; Fitz. How fondly dost thou spur a forward horse! I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,7 bene 'twixt the rising and the setting sun; and whoever in that time doth not prove his intent, can never after be admitted the com bat upon that quarrel." On Honour and honourable Quarrels, 4to. 1595. This passage fully supports the emendation here made, and my interpretation of the words. The quartos read-From sin to sin. The emendation, which in my apprehension requires no enforcement or support, was proposed by Mr. Steevens, who explains these words differently. He is of opinion that they mean, from one day to another. Malone. However ingenious the conjecture of Mr. Steevens may be, I think the old reading the true one. From sin to sin, is from one denial to another; for those denials were severally maintained to be lies. Henley. I have a thousand spirits in one breast,] So, in King Rich ard III: A thousand hearts are great within my bosom." Steevens. My lord, 'tis true: you were in presence then;] The quartos omit My lord, and read-'Tis very true, &c. The folio preserves both readings, and consequently overloads the metre. Steevens. 7 I dare meet Surrey in a wilderness,] I dare meet him where no help can be had by me against him. So, in Macbeth: or be alive again, "And dare me to the desert with thy sword." Johnson. 8 And spit upon him, whilst I say, he lies, Aum. Some honest Christian trust me with a gage, Boling. These differences shall all rest under gage, To all his land and signories; when he 's return'd, Car. That honourable day shall ne'er be seen.- Boling. Sweet peace conduct his sweet soul to the bosom Of good old Abraham!-Lords appellants, 8 in this new world,] In this world where I have just begun to be an actor. Surrey has, a few lines above, called him boy. 9 Johnson. 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. Enter YORK, attended. York. Great duke of Lancaster, I come to thee From plume-pluck'd Richard; who with willing soul Adopts thee heir, and his high sceptre yields To the possession of thy royal hand: Ascend his throne, descending now from him,— Worst in this royal presence may I speak, 1 Yet best beseeming 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. 2 - nobless —] i. e. nobleness: a word now obsolete, but used both by Spenser and Ben Jonson. Steevens. 3 And shall the figure &c ] Here is another proof that our author did not learn in K. 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. it The chief argument urged by the bishop in Holinshed, is, that was unjust to proceed against the king "without calling him openly to his answer 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 law |