"Have been so brief with you, to shorten

you,

"For taking so the head, your whole head's length."

Here is a brisk play upon words-upon "head," as meaning, at once, "hostile advance, or unbridled course"-and its common implication. Rowe has borrowed the concluding conceit in Jane Shore:

Her brother Rivers,

"Ere this, lies shorter by the head at Pomfret."

"I know it, uncle; and

A word is wanting here:

oppose not."

"I know it, uncle; and do not oppose."

Something has been lost here. Perhaps we should read:

"The castle royally is mann'd, my lord,
Against thy entrance."

Boling. "Royally, say'st thou?

"Noble lord.”·

This fragment might find accommodation in the preceding line:

Boling.

103.

66

Doth kiss King Richard's hand."

Here, too, there seems to have been something lost. Perhaps we should read:

"That Harry Bolingbroke, on both his knees, "Doth, in his duty, kiss King Richard's hand." 105. " Yond', methinks, he is."

The quarto, 1615, reads "he stands ;" and this appears to be right. Richard dwells upon the disrespect shewn by Bolingbroke, who should have been "kneeling."

Ere the crown he looks for live in peace,

"Ten thousand bloody crowns of mothers' sons "Shall ill become the flower of England's face."

A contest for a crown can never be determined, in these works, without a pun or two; but it is strange that Mr. Steevens should have gone so far out of the way for the meaning of "the flower of England's face," which is clearly-the chosen youth of England; and Richard only remarks, that those youths, thus mangled and besmeared, will exhibit a pale or white and ghastly

countenance.

106. "Be rush'd upon! Thy thrice-noble cousin."

This is not metrical. We might read :

"Be rush'd upon! no, thy thrice-noble cousin,

Harry Bolingbroke.

107.

66

By the worth and honour of

himself,

Comprising all that may be sworn or said."

This magnificent attestation has been adopted by Lee:

"I'll swear to you by heaven, by all things sacred,

"By all that's great and lovely upon earth,

By him, by Guise," &c.

And, I think, by the same poet, somewhere else:

By thy bright self, the greatest oath, I swear." "This swears he, as he is a prince, is just."

Is," before just," does not appear in the quarto, but seems a necessary emendation. "A prince is just," is here "a prince who is just," by an ellipsis common enough: but we might read as just; i. e. as (he is) just.

109.

"We'll make foul weather with despised

tears;

"Our sighs, and they, shall lodge the

summer corn,

"And make a dearth," &c.

Lee has adopted and adorned the extravagance of this hyperbole, in Alexander the Great:

"Till all the listening groves and quiet myrtles "Shook with my sighs, as if a tempest bow'd them."

111. "What says his majesty ?"

This is unmetrical; and Bolingbroke would not now be ceremonious. I suppose the author wrote,

The metre is imperfect here. We might read: "Yet he is come."

Boling.

-Stand all apart, and shew "Fair duty to his majesty: my lord!"

"Me rather had."

(Kneeling.)

This is a vile corruption of "I rather would:" yet, though strange, it is not, perhaps, more improper than the common expression thinks."

SCENE IV.

me

113. "And I could weep, would weeping do me good."

The old reading, "and I could sing," &c. is, I believe, the true one: the lady had said, "Madam, I'll sing;" to which the queen replies"thou wou'dst please me better, wou'dst thou weep." The lady then says:

"I could weep, madam, would it do you good."

"And if weeping," says the queen, "would do me good, I could rejoice at it, and sing; for in the abundance of my tears I should have security for my happiness." The quaintness of the conceit is not of force to invalidate its reality.

116. "Set to dress this garden, how dares." I would read:

"Set here to dress this garden, say how dares." LORD CHEDWORTH.

119.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

"Call forth Bagot :

Now, Bagot, freely speak thy mind."

This disorder might thus be reconciled :

"Call Bagot forth :

Enter Bagot.

"Now, Bagot, speak thy mind." 120." You had rather refuse."

This mode of expression, though common enough, is wrong: it should be

You rather would refuse."

"Than Bolingbroke's return," &c.

This must be wrong:

Rather refuse

"The offer of an hundred thousand crowns, "Than (refuse) Bolingbroke's return."

It should certainly be, "than Bolingbroke return;" i. e. than that Bolingbroke should return, &c. We might read :

"Than Bolingbroke to England should return." "Princes and noble lords."

This redundance might be avoided thus:

"In this your cousin's death.

My noble lords."

"Shall I so much dishonour my fair stars."