lb., 66 Plantagenet, I will; and like thee, Nero, Play on the lute, beholding the towns burn." See Var. notes. Certainly wrong. I imagine the author wrote, "and like the Roman," &c. Ib., next line, "Wretched shall France be only in my name." Ib. "Here Salisbury groans." Why here alter the old stage-direction ? "Here Salisbury lifteth himself up and groans." Ib., ad fin., "Convey me Salisbury into his tent, And then we'll try what these dastard Frenchmen dare." I think, "And then try " &c. ii. 3, this weak and writhled shrimp." Harrington, Ariosto, B. vii. St. lxxii., "Her face was wan, a leane and writhled skin," &c. 4. (Scene in the Temple Garden.) Surely this scene is the work of a different writer from the one to whom we owe the preceding lines of this play, and a superior one. Ib., "Giving my verdict on the white rose side." Rose'. The language of the time requires this. Ib., "Nestor-like aged, in an age of care." i.e., an old age of ordinary length, being overburthened with care, has wrought upon me the effect of Nestor's three centuries. 5, "I will, if that my fading breath permit, And death approach not ere my tale be done." Words dropt out at the end of a line in this play. ii. 4, near the end, fol. p. 104, col. 2,— iv. 7, p. 114, col. 1, apparently, "But tell me whom thou seek'st ? "5 5 The Old Corrector fills up this verse thus; flatly enough,— "But briefly tell me whom thou seekest now." It would be better to read, "There [i.e., in hell] look thy friends; but" &c. The following But is an intruder; First was probably the genuine v. 3, p. 116, col. 1, I think,— "Hast not a Tongue? Is she not heere? col. 2, "And heere I will expect thy comming." (Contra, v. 3, "Suffolk. Lady, wherefore talk you so? Margaret. I cry you mercy, 'tis but quid for quo." A gap, apparently, at the beginning of the line.) Ib., "Am I not the protector, saucy priest ? ” The folio omits the, which Steevens introduced. More probably, I think, "lord protector." Ib., "We, and our wives and children, all will fight, Leave. 3, not far from the end,— these haughty words of hers" &c. See Var. note on haughty for elevated, high-spirited. Add Chapman, All Fools, Dodsley, vol. iv. p. 114,— word. In the next example, the editor of the second folio has eked out the line with the words thy prisoner, borrowed from "For I perceive I am thy prisoner.” Had the author written them here, he would not have written "Wilt thou be daunted at a woman's sight," but "at a captive's sight." Perhaps the author wrote “here in place," or "here beside thee;" at any rate he could scarcely have written what the second folio ascribes to him.-Ed. "So love, fair shining in the inward man, In 2 King Henry VI. i. 3, by the way, Knight reads,— "Beside the haughty protector have we Beaufort," &c.; a remarkable instance of his slavery to the folio." iv. 7, 1. 3. Can any good sense be made out of Triumphant death, smear'd with captivity"? Proffers his only daughter to your grace In marriage, with a large and sumptuous dowry." 66 Read dower; the double rhyme is offensive here. So a little below, "the value of her dower," and 5, a liberal dower,"-" A dower, my lords!" Dower-dowre-dowrie. Browne, Britannia's Pastorals, B. i. Song v., Clarke's ed. p. 138,— "Whilst neighbouring kings upon their frontiers stood, And offer'd for her dow'ry huge seas of blood." Dower. On the other hand, Massinger, Great Duke of Florence, i. 2, Moxon, p. 169, col. 2, 1.2, "The dukedom she brings with her for a dower Will yield a large increase of wealth and power We must read dowry, to avoid the rhyme, which can never have been intended. Beaumont and Fletcher, Fair Maid of the Inn, iv. 1, Moxon, vol. ii. p. 370, col. 2, Dowër sounds strange in Beaumont and Fletcher. Dowry, I think. 3. The quid pro quo dialogue. Massinger, perhaps, imitated this, Great Duke of Florence, ii., towards the end. 4, "Fie, Joan! that thou wilt be so obstacle." I suspect this to be an error of the printer's for obstinate. It seems to jar with the general tone of the passage. 5, "Agree to any covenants, and procure That lady Margaret do vouchsafe to come II. KING HENRY VI. i. 1. Note alderliefest and yclad within a few lines. (iii. 1, "my liefest liege.") See also ii. 4, near the beginning, within the space of three lines, uneath, and abrook; (is it certain, however, that the latter was in the Elizabethan age a semi-archaic form, like the others?) and in the same scene trow, scathe. Ib., "Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage, And purchase friends, and give to courtesans, Still revelling, like lords, till all be gone: While as the silly owner of the goods Weeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands," &c. |