And straight am nothing:-But, whate'er I am,
Nor I, nor any man, that but man is,

With nothing fhall be pleas'd, till he be eas'd
With being nothing.-Mufick do I hear? [Mufick.
Ha, ha keep time:-How four sweet mufick is,
When time is broke, and no proportion kept!
So is it in the mufick of men's lives.
And here have I the daintiness of ear,
To check time broke in a diforder'd ftring;
But, for the concord of my ftate and time,
Had not an ear to hear my true time broke.
I wafted time, and now doth time wafte me.
For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock:
My thoughts are minutes; and, with fighs, they jar
Their watches on to mine eyes, the outward watch,"

To check-] Thus the firft quarto, 1597. The folio reads -To hear. Of this play the firft quarto copy is much more valuable than that of the folio. MALONE.

For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock:

My thoughts are minutes; and, with fighs, they jar

Their watches on to mine eyes, the outward watch, &c.] I think this paffage must be corrupt, but I know not well how to make it better. The firft quarto reads:

My thoughts are minutes; and with fighs they jar, Their watches on unto mine eyes the outward watch. The quarto, 1615:

My thoughts are minutes, and with fighs they jar, There watches on unto mine eyes the outward watch. The firft folio agrees with the fecond quarto.

Perhaps out of these two readings the right may be made. Watch feems to be used in a double fenfe, for a quantity of time, and for the inftrument that measures time. I read, but with no great confidence, thus:

My thoughts are minutes, and with fighs they jar

Their watches on; mine eyes the outward watch,
Whereto &c. JOHNSON.

I am unable to throw any certain light on this paffage. A few hints, however, which may tend to its illuftration, are left for the fervice of future commentators.

The outward watch, as I am informed, was the moveable

Whereto my finger, like a dial's point,

Is pointing ftill, in cleanfing them from tears.

figure of a man habited like a watchman, with a pole and lantern in his hand. The figure had the word-watch written on its forehead; and was placed above the dial-plate. This informa

tion was derived from an artift after the operation of a fecond cup: therefore neither Mr. Tollet, who communicated it, or myfelf, can vouch for its authenticity, or with any degree of confidence apply it to the paffage before us.* Such a figure, however, appears to have been alluded to in Ben Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour: " - he looks like one of thefe motions in a great antique clock," &c. A motion anciently fignified a puppet. Again, in his Sejanus:

"Obferve him, as his watch observes his clock." Again, in Churchyard's Charitie, 1595:

“The clocke will strike in hafte, I heare the watch
"That founds the bell.”

The fame thought alfo occurs in Greene's Perimedes, 1588:
Difquiet thoughts the minuts of her watch."
To jar is, I believe, to make that noise which is called ticking.
So, in The Winter's Tale :

I love thee not a jar o'the clock behind," &c. Again, in The Spanish Tragedy:

66

the minutes jarring, the clock ftriking."

STEEVENS.

There appears to be no reason for fuppofing with Dr. Johnson, that this paffage is corrupt. It should be recollected, that there are three ways in which a clock notices the progress of time; viz. by the libration of the pendulum, the index on the dial, and the ftriking of the hour. To these, the King, in his comparison, feverally alludes; his fighs corresponding to the jarring of the pendulum, which, at the fame time that it watches or numbers the feconds, marks also their progress in minutes on the dial or outward--watch, to which the King compares his eyes; and their want of figures is fupplied by a fucceffion of tears, or, (to use an expreffion of Milton,) minute drops: his finger, by as regularly wiping these away, performs the office of the dial's point: his clamorous groans are the founds that tell the hour. In King Henry IV. P. II. tears are used in a fimilar manner : "But Harry lives, that fhall convert those tears, "By number, into hours of happiness." HENLEY.

Mr. Dutton, of Fleet Street, has fince confirmed to me this intelligence. STEEVENS

Now, fir, the found, that tells what hour it is,
Are clamorous groans, that strike upon my heart,
Which is the bell: So fighs, and tears, and groans,
Show minutes, times, and hours :-but my time
Runs pofting on in Bolingbroke's proud joy,
While I ftand fooling here, his Jack o'the clock.9
This mufick mads me, let it found no more;1
For, though it have holpe madmen to their wits,2
In me, it seems it will make wife men mad.
Yet bleffing on his heart that gives it me!
For 'tis a fign of love; and love to Richard
Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.3

Now, fir, &c.] Should we not read thus :

Now, fir, the founds that tell what hour it is,
Are clamorous groans, &c. RITSON.

One

his Jack o'the clock.] That is, I ftrike for him. of these automatons is alluded to in King Richard 111. A& IV.

fc. iii:

Because that, like a Jack, thou keep'ft the ftroke, "Between thy begging and my meditation."

Again, in an old comedy, entitled, If this be not a good Play the Devil is in it, 1612:

""

fo would I,

"And we their jacks o'the clockhoufe." STEEVENS. This mufick mads me, let it found no more ;] So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece:

"The little birds that tune their morning throats,
"Make her moans mad with their fweet melody."

MALONE.

2 For, though it have holpe madmen to their wits,] In what degree mufick was fuppofed to be useful in curing madness, the reader may receive information from Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, Part II. fe&t. ii. REED.

The allufion is perhaps to the perfons bit by the tarantula, who are faid to be cured by mufick. MALONE,

Is a firange brooch in this all-hating world.] i.e. is as ftrange and uncommon as a brooch which is now no longer worn. So, in All's well that ends well: "Virginity, like an old courtier,

Enter Groom.

GROOM. Hail, royal prince!

K. RICH.

Thanks, noble peer ; The cheapest of us is ten groats too dear. What art thou? and how comeft thou hither, Where no man never comes, but that fad dog 4 That brings me food, to make misfortune live?

GROOM. I was a poor groom of thy ftable, king, When thou wert king; who, travelling towards York, With much ado, at length have gotten leave To look upon my fometimes 5 mafter's face.

wears her cap out of fashion, richly fuited, but unfuitable; just like the brooch and the toothpick, which wear not now."

MALONE.

That the word brooch was applied to a particular kind of ornament is certain; but it alfo fignifies a jewel in general: and it appears to me, that Richard means to fay that love to him was a ftrange jewel in an all-hating world, without any reference to the fashion of wearing brooches. M. MASON.

-in this all-hating world.] I believe the meaning is, this world in which I am universally hated. JOHNSON.

I think, he rather means a world in which the spirit of hatred was prevalent. M. MASON.

• Where no man never comes, but that fad dog-] It should be remembered that the word fad was in the time of our author ufed for grave. The expreffion will then be the fame as if he had faid, that grave, that gloomy villain. So, in Holinshed, p. 730: "With that, the recorder called Fitzwilliam, a fad man, and an honeft," &c. STEEVENS.

fometimes mafter's face.] Sometimes was used for formerly, as well as fometime, which the modern editors have fubftituted. So, in Speed's Hiftory of Great Britaine, 1611 :"A catalogue of the religious houfes, &c. fometimes in England and Wales.". MALONE.

The old copy, redundantly

fometimes royal mafier's face. STEEVENS.

O, how it yern'd my heart, when I beheld,
In London ftreets, that coronation day,
When Bolingbroke rode on roan Barbary !
That horse, that thou fo often haft beftrid;
That horse, that I fo carefully have dress'd!
K. RICH. Rode he on Barbary ? Tell me, gentle
friend,

How went he under him?

GROOM. So proudly, as if he difdain'd the ground. K. RICH. So proud that Bolingbroke was on his back!

That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand;
This hand hath made him proud with clapping him.
Would he not stumble? Would he not fall down,
(Since pride must have a fall,) and break the neck
Of that proud man that did ufurp his back?
Forgiveness, horfe! why do I rail on thee,
Since thou, created to be aw'd by man,
Waft born to bear? I was not made a horfe;
And yet I bear a burden like an ass,
Spur-gall'd, and tir'd, by jauncing Bolingbroke."

Rode he on Barbary ?] This ftory of Roan Barbary might have been of Shakspeare's own invention. Froiffart, however, relates a yet more filly tale concerning a favourite grey hound of King Richard's, "who was wont to lepe upon the King, but left the King and came to the erle of Derby duke of Lancaftre, and made to hym the fame frendly countinaunce and chere as he was wonte to do to the King," &c. Froiffart, Vol. II. fo. CCC.xxx. STEEVENS.

7 by jauncing Bolingbroke.] Jaunce and jaunt were fynonymous words. Ben Jonfon ufes geances in his Tale of a Tub:

"I would I had a few more geances of it:
"And you fay the word, fend me to Jericho."

STEEVENS.