Or if that surly spirit, melancholy, Had bak'd thy blood, and made it heavy, thick; Or if that thou could'st see me without eyes, Shakspeare, asserted, with that modesty and accuracy by which his pamphlet is distinguished, that the observation contained in the former part of this note was made by one totally unacquainted with the old copies, and that "it would be difficult to find a single instance” in which on and one are confounded in those copies. I suspect that we have too hastily, in this line, substituted unto for into; for into seems to have been frequently used for unto in Shakspeare's time. So, in Harsnet's Declaration, &c. 1603: "-when the nimble vice would skip up nimbly-into the devil's neck." Again, in Daniel's Civil Wars, Book IV. folio, 1602: Again, in our poet's King Henry V "Which to reduce into our former favour—.” Again, in his Will: "I commend my soul into the hands of God, my creator." Again, in King Henry VIII: Yes, that goodness "Of gleaning all the land's wealth into one." i. e. into one man. Here we should now certainly write "unto one." Independently, indeed, of what has been now stated, into ought to be restored. So, Marlowe, in his King Edward II. 1598: "I'll thunder such a peal into his ears," &c. MALone. Shakspeare may be restored into obscurity. I retain Mr. Theobald's correction; for though "thundering a peal into a man's ears" is good English, I do not perceive that such an expression as "sounding one into a drowsy race," is countenanced by any example hitherto produced. STEEVENS. Without a tongue, using conceit alone,7 K. JOHN. Do not I know, thou would'st? Good Hubert, Hubert, Hubert, throw thine eye 7using conceit alone,] Conceit here, as in many other places, signifies conception, thought. So, in King Richard III: "There's some conceit or other likes him well, "When that he bids good-morrow with such spirit." MALONE. brooded-] So the old copy. Mr. Pope readsbroad-ey'd, which alteration, however elegant, may be unnecesAll animals while brooded, i. e. with a brood of young ones under their protection, are remarkably vigilant.-The King says of Hamlet: sary. 66 something's in his soul "O'er which his melancholy sits at brood." In P. Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History, a broodie hen is the term for a hen that sits on eggs. See p. 301, edit. 1601: Milton also, in L'Allegro, desires Melancholy to 66 Find out some uncouth cell "Where brooding darkness spreads his jealous wings:" plainly alluding to the watchfulness of fowls while they are sitting. Broad-eyed, however, is a compound epithet to be found in Chapman's version of the eighth Iliad: "And hinder broad-ey'd Jove's proud will―." STEEVENS. Brooded, I apprehend, is here used, with our author's usual licence, for brooding; i. e. day, who is as vigilant, as ready with open eye to mark what is done in his presence, as an animal at brood. MALONE. I am not thoroughly reconciled to this reading; but it would be somewhat improved by joining the words brooded and watch ful by a hyphen-brooded-watchful. M. MASON. On yon young boy: I'll tell thee what, my friend, He is a very serpent in my way; And wheresoe'er this foot of mine doth tread, He lies before me: Dost thou understand me? Thou art his keeper. Enough. I could be merry now: Hubert, I love thee; K. JOHN, [Exeunt. • Remember.] This is one of the scenes to which may be promised a lasting commendation. Art could add little to its perfection; no change in dramatick taste can injure it; and time itself can subtract nothing from its beauties. STEEvens. For England, cousin:] The old copy For England, cousin, go: I have omitted the last useless and redundant word, which the eye of the compositor seems to have caught from the preceding hemistich. STEEVENS. King John, after he had taken Arthur prisoner, sent him to the town of Falaise, in Normandy, under the care of Hubert, his Chamberlain; from whence he was afterwards removed to Rouen, and delivered to the custody of Robert de Veypont. Here he was secretly put to death. MALONE. SCENE IV. The same. The French King's Tent. Enter King PHILIP, LEWIS, PANDULPH, and Attendants. K. PHI. So, by a roaring tempest on the flood, A whole armado2 of convicted sail3 Is scatter'd and disjoin'd from fellowship. A whole armado-] This similitude, as little as it makes for the purpose in hand, was, I do not question, a very taking one when the play was first represented; which was a winter or two at most after the Spanish invasion in 1588. It was in reference likewise to that glorious period that Shakspeare concludes his play in that triumphant manner: "This England never did, nor never shall, "Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror," &c. But the whole play abounds with touches relative to the then posture of affairs. WARBURTon. This play, so far as I can discover, was not played till a long time after the defeat of the armado. The old play, I think, wants this simile. The commentator should not have affirmed what he can only guess. JOHNSON. Armado is a Spanish word signifying a fleet of war. The armado in 1588 was called so by way of distinction. STEEVENS. - of convicted sail-] Overpowered, baffled, destroyed. To convict and to convince were in our author's time synonymous. See Minshew's Dictionary, 1617: "To convict, or convince, a Lat. convictus, overcome.' So, in Macbeth: 66 their malady convinces "The great essay of art." Mr. Pope, who ejected from the text almost every word that he did not understand, reads-collected sail; and the change was too hastily adopted by the subsequent editors. See also Florio's Italian Dictionary, 1598: " Convitto. Vanquished, convicted, convinced." MALONE. PAND. Courage and comfort! all shall yet go well. K. PHI. What can go well, when we have run so ill? Are we not beaten? Is not Angiers lost? LEW. What he hath won, that hath he fortified: K. PHI. Well could I bear that England had this praise, So we could find some pattern of our shame. Enter CONSTANCE. Look, who comes here! a grave unto a soul; in so fierce a cause,] We should read course, i. e. march. The Oxford editor condescends to this emendation. WARBURTON. Change is needless. A fierce cause is a cause conducted with precipitation. "Fierce wretchedness," in Timon, is, hasty, sudden misery. STEEVENS. a grave unto a soul; Holding the eternal spirit, against her will, In the vile prison of afflicted breath:] I think we should read earth. The passage seems to have been copied from Sir Thomas More: "If the body be to the soule a prison, how strait a prison maketh he the body, that stuffeth it with riff-raff, VOL. X. GG |