"I see a yielding in the looks of France.”

The parties are inclined to it.

"Mark how they whisper; urge them while their souls

"Are capable of this ambition."

Lest, by the tender supplications of Constance and her child, and the renovated impulse of pity and remorse, the king should relapse into his former vowed hostility.

404." Drawn and quarter'd."

Drawn, in the legal sentence pronounced on traitors, is no more than being dragged by the heels, or on a hurdle, to the place of execution. See Mr. Tollet and Sir W. Blackstone on the word embowelled, Richard III. Act 5, Scene 2. The vulgar notion, however, is, that "drawn" implies exenterated or embowelled; and that this was the poet's meaning, in the present instance, is plain, from the order of the context, hanged and drawn, which otherwise would have been drawn and hanged.

66

If he see aught in you, that makes him like, "That any thing he sees, which moves his liking, "I can with ease translate it to my will."

In this idle tautology there is manifest corruption. Where is the difference between what makes him like, and what moves his liking? It seems to be an altered passage, with words retained which were meant to be rejected. I would read:

"If he see aught in you that moves his liking, "I can with ease translate it to my will."

407. "Hath willingly departed with a part.”

This

may mean yielded or parted with a part, or it may signify that John has been willing to go back to England with a part only of his dominions; but I rather think the first of these interpretations is the true one, as in the third part of King Henry VI. Act 2, Scene 2:

Like life and death's departing."

Rounded in the ear."

This phrase occurs in Camden's Remains :

"Which proud speech, when the unfortunate father heard, he rounded the archbishop in the eare, and said—I repent me, I repent me of nothing more than of untimelie advancements.

Wise Speeches, p. 249. Ed. 1636. Harper.

And in Middleton:

"Then is your grandsire rounded in the ear." A Mad World My Masters.

"Who having no external thing to lose "But the word maid, cheats the poor maid of that."

Mr. Malone has laboured, with little success, to reconcile this passage, as it stands, to any tolerable conformity with grammar. Who can have no other antecedent but maids; and so the maid must cheat herself. I would propose, with a slight correction, to read:

"Who, having no external thing to lose

"But the word maid, are cheated e'en of that."

The word, maid, the external thing, is the name or repute of virginity.

Commodity, says Mr. Steevens, is interest; but this, I suspect, is not a very accurate definition: perhaps expediency, or existing circumstances, accommodation, would best explain it; and I find the word so used in a translation of Tacitus, 1622, by Greenwey :-" That happened of late under Artabanus, who, for his owne commoditie, made the people subject to the chiefe gentlemen."—And again, "No man laboured to attaine to any knowledge unlesse he had seene some commoditie in it.”

"Made to run even, upon even ground.”

The allusion is to the game of bowls; and the inference, that the business of mankind would advance fairly and directly to its object, were it not insidiously drawn aside by the influence of secret corruption.

-Take head from all indifferency, "From all direction, purpose, course, intent."

Proceed violently, unmindful of fairness and impartiality, or the just rules and intention of the game.

409. "Determin'd aid."

The aid which Lewis had at first determined to give to the claims of Arthur. This seems so clear, that I should never have thought of explaining it, if Mr. Steevens had not produced, from Mr. M. Mason, a note in which the passage is called non

sense.

Q 3

410.

ACT III. SCENE I.

-Capable of fears.”

Capable, says Mr. Malone, here signifies having strong sensibility; and he quotes, from Ham

let:

His form and cause conjoin'd,

Preaching to stones, would make them capable.” But "capable," in the cited instance, only means, susceptible," capable of feeling; and in the case before us, it implies, I believe, no more than being liable to, and liable in consequence of, sickness; as, being "oppressed with wrongs," she is therefore "full of fears;" by being "husbandless," " subject to fears;" and by being “a woman," "naturally born to fears."

412. "Prodigious."

Thus in King Richard III.

"If ever he have child, abortive be it,

''

Prodigious, and untimely brought to light," &c. 419. "You have beguil'd me with a counterfeit."

Here is a tirfling allusion to the coin called a royal.

420. "You came in arms to spill mine enemies' blood,

"But now in arms," &c.

Dr Johnson's anxiety has again too sure a foundation; the double meaning of "arms," as referring to both war and embraces is but too evident.

Our oppression hath made up this league."

The oppression we are to suffer was the motive for the fulfilling this league.

421. "Her humorous ladyship."

Her capricious ladyship.

423. "Force perforce."

Accumulation of force, like vi et armis.

B. STRUTT. 424. "What earthly name to interrogatories "Can task the free breath of a sacred king." The meaning appears to be plainly, "What mortal can task the free breath of a sacred king to the answering interrogatories?"

"What earthly name," &c.

The above explanation is just: name, here, signifies (as it often does) person: there is no need of recurring to the idea of the subscription of a name to interrogatories exhibited in writing, as Mr. Malone, by his mode of expression, appears to suppose. Theobald's emendation, task, is clearly right.

425. "

LORD CHEDWORTH.

Canonized, and worship'd as a saint.” Transposition is evident here: the line must have run thus,

426. "

Worship'd and canonized as a saint."

-When law can do no right, "Let it be lawful, that law bar no wrong." When law is impotent to effect justice, let violence have the sanction of law, and not be obstructed by it. This is bold language, and the author might, in times like ours, have been brought to answer for it at the Old Bailey.