only SHAKE-SCENE in a country," I repeat, to Lodge, Green, Peele, or Marlow; and to them, with as little scruple, I assign, not only Titus Andronicus, and Pericles, but all the applause that may be due to no inconsiderable portion of many other plays, which have hitherto been indiscriminately imputed to Shakspeare.

ACT I. SCENE I.

6. "That have consented unto Henry's death."

Mr. Steevens's explanation of "consented" here (which I am persuaded is right) might, if it were wanting, receive support from a passage in the next speech but one

"What, shall we curse the planets of mishap, "That plotted thus our glory's overthrow?"and is among those numerous classical ideas which, as Mr. Malone has justly remarked, contribute to prove that this play is not the work of our poet.

8. "He ne'er lift up his hand but conquered."

This is wrong construction: he is wanted between "but" and "conquered;" lift for lifted, the present for the past tense: Milton uses lift as the passive participle:

"With head up-lift above the waves.”

"He ne'er lift up," &c.

Lift was anciently used both as the past tense and the participle passive. See John xiii. 18. LORD CHEDWORTH.

11 "What say'st thou, man, before dead Hen

66

ry's corse?

Speak softly; or the loss of those great

towns

"Will make him burst his lead and rise from death."

But if a miracle, so "devoutly to be wish'd for," could be wrought by loud speech, why should Bedford desire the messenger to speak softly.

13.

Having full scarce six thousand in his troop."

I believe there is a transposition here, and that we should read,

'Having scarce full six thousand," &c.

The passage quoted by Mr. Steevens from the Tempest is not parallel," a full poor cell," is a cell, poor in the extreme; but "in the extreme scarcely" (for "scarce," here, is the adverb) is a mode of speech, I believe, so very scarce as to be no where else discoverable.

14. "A Talbot! a Talbot! cried out amain." We might obtain metre by reading:

"A Talbot! cried, a Talbot! out, amain."

SCENE II.

24. "Otherwise I renounce all confidence." A slight transposition would harmonise this

line:

66

"I otherwise renounce," &c.

"Out of a deal of old iron I chose forth."

It is a waste of criticism, of time, and thought to remark upon the numerous wretched lines occurring in this play, but when Mr. Steevens chose to reform the prosody here, we might have expected something more like metre than this:

"Out of a deal of old iron I chose forth,' in which, it is true, we may count ten syllables, but can only utter them in this manner:

"Out á děal óf öld iron I chose forth." 26. "Glory is like a circle in the water,

"Which never ceaseth to enlarge itself,
"Till, by broad spreading, it disperse to
nought.

"With Henry's death the English circle
ends;

Dispersed are the glories it included.”

Glory, here, is evidently ambition.

SCENE III.

28. "I am come to survey the tower this day." This line can only be measured by the syllables: "I am come to-survey the tow'r this day." Again, in the next scene:

"Who is there that knocks so imperiously?" Which must be read:

"Who is there that knocks só imperiously?" Who might perhaps read :

"I am come here to survey the tower this day."

And:

"Who's there that so imperiously doth knock." 32. "I'll canvas thee in thy broad Cardinal's hat."

I suspect a double meaning, which, after all, is not very well worth the search; I'll canvas thee may mean at once, I'll sift and expose thy villany, and, I'll have thee tossed in a blanket or sheet.

35. "For I intend to have it ere long."

For the purpose of making up this defective line, I wonder we have not been told that we should read ere as a dissyllable.

LORD CHEDWORTH.

SCENE IV.

42. "Salisbury, cheer thy spirit with this comfort;

"Thou shalt not die, whiles”.

What comfort was Talbot going to propose? or what extent of life?

These words of Talbot's refer to the fame of Salisbury: "Thy renoun shall not die so long (he would say) as the story of this war shall exist." B. STRUTT.

The metre might be mended: "Cheer, Salisbury, thy spirit with this comfort."

SCENE V.

46" Or horse, or oxen, from the leopard."

Leopard" a trisyllable.

1

ACT II. SCENE I.

52. "To quittance their deceit."

This verb occurs in K. Richard III, Act 3, 310: "Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me."

-Uunready."

Unready" for unattired, undressed, is still a common expression in Ireland.

SCENE III.

60. "Is this the Talbot so much fear'd abroad, "That with his name them others still their

babes ?"

In Camden's Remains, fifth impression, 1636, there is a quotation from Jan Sire de Jonville's Life of St. Lewis, referring to King Richard I. of England: "This prince was of such prowesse that he was more feared and redoubted amongst the Saracens than ever was any prince Christian, insomuch that whenas their little infants began to cry, their mothers would say, to make them hold their peace, King Richard cometh and will have you; and immediately the little children, hearing him named, would forbear crying," &c. 64. "Taste of your wine," &c.

It seems not very consistent with discretion in Talbot thus to solicit a repast from one that had just been plotting his destruction; she who intended to hang him would not have scrupled to give him poison,