372 THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI. "Alas! my lord, I am not able for to fight,” "And charm the fiends for to obey your wills." "To aide and helpe thee for to win thy right." Slice thy cursed heart "For to revenge the murders thou hast done.” "To levy soldiers for to go with you." "And shut the gates for to preserve the towne." And, hand to hand, enforce him for to yield." THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING RICHARD III. ACT I. SCENE I. 269. "Now is the winter of our discontent "Made glorious summer," &c. In the early quarto there is a hiatus between "of" and "discontent," by which it appears that a word has been lost, to supply which and fill up the metre, "our" has been feebly introduced. It is the suggestion of my ingenious friend Mr. Strutt that we should read, with the addition of but a single letter, sour discontent; this certainly gives point and vigour to the expression. Here is a three-fold quibble, sun, the luminary, son, the offspring, and sun, the armorial bearing of the Duke of York. 272. Dissembling nature." "Dissembling nature," I believe, means, here, howsoever licentiously, nature combining or forming things disproportioned and dissimilar: this I find is Dr. Warburton's opinion. 274. "If King Edward be as true and just, "As I am subtle," &c. i. e. Says Dr. Johnson, if Edward keep his word; but I question if this explanation be "true and just;" I rather think the sense is, if Edward attend as faithfully to the maintenance of his authority and the rigorous dispensation of justice, as I do to the practice of what forms my charac ter. 275. "That tempers him." Mr. Malone appears to be not quite correct in his definition of " to temper;" it is not, I apprehend, to fashion or mould, but to soften or make pliant, to prepare for the mould. 276. " -Her brother there," I cannot help, with Mr. Steevens, repeating my surprise at Mr. Malone's contending for the word "there" being a dissyllable, as such a pronunciation of it, at least in the present instance, must be contrary to all usage; "Anthony Woodeville, her brother, the-re (or the-ar)." 277. "Well struck in years; fair, and not jealous." This is not measure; a word is wanting: perhaps, "Well struck in years, fair, loving, and not jealous." The phrase, struck in years, which Mr. Steevens seems to consider as an inexplicable perversion of sense, may, I apprehend, be resolved; one meaning of to strike, is to afflict, as povertystruck, i. e. afflicted with poverty; struck in years may be, loaded, encumbered, or afflicted with age; well struck, is sufficiently struck. "A cherry lip.". There seems to have been something lost in the enumeration of the lady's features, perhaps words like these, "fair forehead, dimpled checks." 278. "We are the queen's abjects," &c. Though the copies give no authority for alteration here; I cannot but suspect that Richard's remark was suggested by words different from these uttered by Clarence, who, in the meekness of his loyalty, might naturally have said, "We're the king's subjects, and we will obey." To which Richard sarcastically adds : "We're the queen's abjects, and we must obey." -I do love thee so, "That I will shortly send thy soul to 280. heaven." Richard expresses this thought in another Scene: Lady Anne. Rich. He is in heaven," &c. "Was I not kind to send him thither, then?" "No news so bad," &c. From the words of this reply, and the deficiency of the verse in Gloster's question, it would seem that something has been omitted, perhaps to this effect: Gl. "The times are bad, my lord; what news abroad?" Hast. "No news so bad," &c. 281. "Another secret, close intent, A slight transposition would render the construction easier: "Which I, by marrying her, must reach unto." Milton has this expression: "Her apostolic virtue is departed from her, and hath left her key-cold." Reasons of Church Government urged against Prelaty. Wounds Open their congeal'd mouths." This conceit occurs in K. Henry IV. Part 1: "Those mouthed wounds," &c. And again in Julius Cæsar : -Thy wounds. "Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips." -Exhales this blood "From cold and empty veins where no blood dwells." Your presence works a miracle-it makes blood issue from veins that, by the established rule of nature, were bloodless :-or "dwells" may emphatically imply, "lives," is quick, abides, in a state of circulation: but I rather think the sense is general, as in the first conjecture; and somewhat resembling this construction we find in a passage of the Paradise Lost, Book I. Doleful shades where peace "And rest can never dwell; hope never comes "That comes to all." |