Though Richard my life's counsel would not hear, YORK. No; it is stopp'd with other flattering founds, As, praises of his state: then, there are found 8 lofe. GAUNT. Methinks, I am a prophet new in fpir'd; * Lascivious metres ;) The old copies have-meeters; but I believe we should read metres, for verses. Thus the folio spells the word metre in the first part of King Henry IV: one of these same meeter ballad-mongers." Venom found agrees well with lafcivious ditties, but not so com. modioufly with one who meets another; in which sense the word appears to have been generally received. STEEVENS. 9 Report of fashions in proud Italy; Our author, who gives to all nations the customs of England, and to all ages the manners of his own, has charged the times of Richard with a folly not perhaps known then, but very frequent in Shakspeare's time, and much lamented by the wisest and best of our ancestors. 2 JOHNSON. Where will doth mutiny with wit's regard.] Where the will rebels against the notices of the understanding. JOHNSON. 3 whose way himself will choose; ) Do not attempt to guide him, who, whatever thou shalt say, will take his own course. 1 JOHNSON. , And thus, expiring, do foretell of him :- He tires betimes, that spurs too fast betimes; land, This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, 4-rash] That is, hafty, violent. JOHNSON. So, in K. Henry IV. Part I: " Like aconitum, or rash gunpowder." MALONE. * Against infe&ion, I once suspected that for infection we might read invasion; but the copies all agree, and I suppose Shakspeare meant to say, that islanders are secured by their situation both from war and pestilence. JOHNSON. In Allot's England's Parnaffus, 1600, this paffage is quoted " Against intestion," &c. perhaps the word might be infestion, if such a word was in use. FARMER. 6 - less happier lands; So read all the editions, except Sir T. Hanmer's, which has less happy. I believe, Shakspeare, from the habit of saying more happier, according to the custom of his time, inadvertently writ less happier. JOHNSON. Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth, 8 7 Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth, The first edition in quarto, 1598, reads: Fear'd by their breed, and famous for their birth. The quarto, in 1615: Fear'd by their breed, and famous by their birth. The first folio, though printed from the second quarto, reads as the first. The particles in this author seem often to have been printed by chance. Perhaps the passage, which appears a little difordered, may be regulated thus: royal kings, Fear'd for their breed, and famous for their birth, The first folio could not have been printed from the second quarto, on account of many variations as well as omiffions. The quarto 1608 has the fame reading with that immediately preceding it. STEEVENS. Fear'd by their breed,] i. c. by means of their breed. 8 This land Is now leas'd out (I die pronouncing it,) MALONE. Like to a tenement, or pelting farm:] "In this 22d yeare of King Richard (fays Fabian) the common fame ranne, that the kinge had letten to farm the realme unto Sir William Scrope, earle of Wiltshire, and then treasurer of England, to Syr John Bushey, Sir John Bagot, and Sir Henry Grene, knightes." MALONE. 9 With inky blots, and rotten parchment bonds;2 3 Enter King RICHARD, and Queen; AUMERLE, 4 BUSHY, GREEN, BAGOT, Ross,5 and WIL YORK. The king is come: deal mildly with his youth; With inky blots,] I suspect that our author wrote-inky bolts. How can blots bind in any thing? and do not bolts correfpond better with bonds? Inky bolts are written restrictions. So, in The Honest Man's Fortune, by Beaumont and Fletcher, Ad IV. fc. i: 2 ،، -- manacling itself " In gyves of parchment." STEEVENS. - rotten parchment bonds; ) Alluding to the great fums raised by loans and other exactions, in this reign, upon the English subjects. GREY. Gaunt does not allude, as Grey supposes, to any loans or ex. ations extorted、by Richard, but to the circumstances of his having actually farmed out his royal realm, as he himself styles it. In the last scene of the first act he says: " And, for our coffers are grown somewhat light, And it afterwards appears that the person who farmed the realm was the Earl of Wiltshire, one of his own favourites. f 3 M. MASON. Queen; Shakspeare, as Mr. Walpole suggests to me, has deviated from historical truth in the introduction of Richard's queen as a woman in the present piece; for Anne, his firft wife, was dead before the play commences, and Isabella, his fecond wife, was a child at the time of his death. MALONE. 4 Aumerle, was Edward, eldest fon of Edmund Duke of York, whom he succeeded in the title. He was killed at Agin court. WALPOLE. Ross, was William Lord Roos, (and so should be printed,) 5 of Hamlake, afterwards Lord Treafurer to Henry IV. WALPOLE. 1 For young hot colts, being rag'd, do rage the more." QUEEN. How fares our noble uncle, Lancaster? K. RICH, What comfort, man? How is't with aged Gaunt? Gaunt. O, how that name befits my compo fition! Old Gaunt, indeed; and gaunt in being old: And who abstains from meat, that is not gaunt? K. RICH. Can fick men play so nicely with their names? GAUNT. No, misery makes sport to mock itself: Since thou dost seek to kill my name in me, I mock my name, great king, to flatter thee. K. RICH. Should dying men flatter with those that live? 6 GAUNT. No, no; men living flatter those that die. ter'st me. K. RICH. Thou, now a dying, say'st-thou flatGAUNT. Oh! no; thou diest, though I the ficker be. Willoughby. was William Lord Willoughby of Eresby, who afterwards married Joan, widow of Edmund Duke of York. WALPOLE. For young hot colts, being rag'd, do rage the more.] Read |