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To the lafcivious pleafing of a lute.

But I,—that am not shap'd for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glafs;
I, that am rudely ftamp'd, and want love's majefty,
To ftrut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by diffembling nature,6
Deform'd, unfinish'd, fent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that fo lamely and unfashionable,
That dogs bark at me, as I halt by them ;-

harfh; if it be York that capers, the antecedent is at such a diftance, that it is almost forgotten. JOHNSON.

6 Cheated of feature by diffembling nature,] By diffembling is not meant hypocritical nature, that pretends one thing and does another but nature that puts together things of a diffimilar kind, as a brave soul and a deformed body. WARBURTON.

Diffembling is here put very licentiously for fraudful, deceitful. JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnfon hath certainly mistaken, and Dr. Warburton rightly explained the word diffembling; as is evident from the following extract: "Whyle thinges ftoode in this cafe, and that the manner of addyng was fometime too fhort and fometime too long, els diffembled and let flip together." Arthur Golding's tranflation of Julius Solinus, 1587. HENLEY.

I once thought that Dr. Johnson's interpretation was the true one. Diffimulation neceffarily includes fraud, and this might have been fufficient to induce Shakspeare to use the two words as fynonymous, though fraud certainly may exift without diffimulation. But the following lines in the old King John, 1591, which our author must have carefully read, were perhaps in his thoughts, and feem rather in favour of Dr. Warburton's interpretation :

"Can nature fo diffemble in her frame,
"To make the one fo like as like may be,
"And in the other print no character
"To challenge any mark of true descent?"

Feature is ufed here, as in other pieces of the fame age, for beauty in general. See note on Antony and Cleopatra, Act II. fc. v. MALONE.

Why I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pafs away the time;
Unless to spy my fhadow in the sun,
And defcant on mine own deformity;"
And therefore, fince I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-fpoken days,9---
I am determined to prove a villain,

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And hate the idle pleasures' of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,"

7 And defcant on mine own deformity:] Defcant is a term in mufick, fignifying in general that kind of harmony wherein one part is broken and formed into a kind of paraphrase on the other. The propriety and elegance of the above figure, without such an idea of the nature of defcant, could not be discerned. SIR J. HAWKINS.

That this is the original meaning of the term, is certain. But I believe the word is here ufed in its fecondary and colloquial fense, without any reference to mufick. MALONE.

8 And therefore, fince I cannot prove a lover,] Shakspeare very diligently inculcates, that the wickedness of Richard proceeded from his deformity, from the envy that rofe at the comparison of his own person with others, and which incited him to disturb the pleasures that he could not partake. JOHNSON.

9 To entertain thefe fair well-fpoken days,] I am strongly inclined to think that the poet wrote-thefe fair well-fpoken dames, and that the word days was caught by the compofitor's eye glancing on a fubfequent line. So, in the quarto copy of this play, printed in 1612, Signat. I:

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I, my lord, but I had rather kill two deep enemies. King. Why, there thou haft it; two deep enemies." In the original copy, printed in 1597, the first line is right: kill two enemies.' MALONE.

2

And hate the idle pleafures-] Perhaps we might read:
And bate the idle pleasures

JOHNSON.

inductions dangerous,] Preparations for mischief. The induction is preparatory to the action of the play. JOHNSON. Marfton has put this line, with little variation, into the mouth of Fame :

"Plots ha' you laid

inductions dangerous?"

STEEVENS.

VOL. XIV.

T

By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,
To fet my brother Clarence, and the king,
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And, if king Edward be as true and juft,3
As I am fubtle, false, and treacherous,
This day fhould Clarence closely be mew'd
About a prophecy, which fays-that G
Of Edward's heirs the murderer fhall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my foul! here Clarence

comes.

up;

Enter CLARENCE, guarded, and BRAKENBURY.

Brother, good day: What means this armed guard, That waits upon your grace?

CLAR.

His majefty, Tendering my perfon's fafety, hath appointed This conduct to convey me to the Tower. GLO. Upon what cause ?

CLAR.

Because my name is-George.
GLO. Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours;
He should, for that, commit your godfathers:-
O, belike, his majefty hath fome intent,

That you fhall be new chriften'd in the Tower.
But what's the matter, Clarence? may I know?
CLAR. Yea, Richard, when I know; for, I pro-
teft,

As yet I do not: But, as I can learn,

He hearkens after prophecies, and dreams ;4

3

Edward be as true and juft,] The meaning is, if Edward keeps his word. JOHNSON.

May not this mean-If Edward hold his natural difpofition and be true to that? M. MASON.

4 He hearkens after prophecies, and dreams ;] From Holin

And from the cross-row plucks the letter G,
'And fays—a wizard told him, that by G
His iffue difinherited fhould be;

And, for my name of George begins with G,5
It follows in his thought, that I am he

Thefe, as I learn, and such like toys as these,
Have mov'd his highness to commit me now.

GLO. Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by

women :

'Tis not the king, that fends you to the Tower; My lady Grey, his wife, Clarence, 'tis she, That tempers him to this extremity."

shed: "Some have reported that the cause of this nobleman's death rofe of a foolish prophecie, which was, that after king Edward should raign one whose first letter of his name should be a G; wherewith the king and the queene were fore troubled, and began to conceive a grievous grudge against this duke, and could not be in quiet till they had brought him to his end." Philip de Comines, a contemporary hiftorian, fays that the English at that time were never unfurnished with fome prophecy or other, by which they accounted for every event. MALONE.

5 And, for my name of George begins with G, &c.] So, in Niccols's Tragical Life and Death of Richard III :

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By that blind riddle of the letter G,
George loft his life; it took effect in me."

STEEVENS.

toys-] Fancies, freaks of imagination. JOHNSON.

So, in Hamlet, A&t I. fc. iv:

"The very place puts toys of desperation,

"Without more motive, into every brain." REED.

7 That tempers him to this extremity.] I have collated the original quarto published in 1597, verbatim with that of 1598. In the firft copy this line ftands thus :

That tempers him to this extremity.

and fo undoubtedly we should read. To temper is to mould, to fashion. So, in Titus Andronicus :

"Now will I to that old Andronicus;

"And temper him, with all the art I have,
"To pluck proud Lucius from the warlike Goths."

Was it not she, and that good man of worship,
Antony Woodeville, her brother there,

That made him fend lord Haftings to the Tower;
From whence this present day he is deliver❜d?
We are not fafe, Clarence, we are not safe.

CLAR. By heaven, I think, there is no man fecure,

But the queen's kindred, and night-walking heralds
That trudge betwixt the king and mistress Shore.
Heard you not, what an humble fuppliant
Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?

GLO. Humbly complaining to her deity
Got my lord chamberlain his liberty.
I'll tell you what,—I think, it is our way,
If we will keep in favour with the king,
To be her men, and wear her livery:
The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,1
Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen,
Are mighty goffips in this monarchy.

BRAK. I beseech your graces both to pardon me; His majefty hath ftraitly given in charge,

In the quarto, 1598, tempts was corruptly printed instead of tempers. The metre being then defe&ive, the editor of the folio fupplied the defect by reading

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That tempts him to this harsh extremity. MALONE.

her brother there,] There is in this place, according to our author's ufual practice, a diffyllable. MALONE.

Having no faith (as I have too often been obliged to say) in this diffyllabical pronunciation of the adverb-there, it is neceffary I thould add that Woodeville is really a trifyllable, and is ftill fo pronounced by a gentleman of that name. STEEVENS. 9 Humbly complaining &c.] I think these two lines might be better given to Clarence. JOHNSON.

The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,] That is, the Queen and Shore. JOHNSON.

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