Dr. Johnson's first thought, I believe, is best. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Love's Cure, or The Martial Maid:

"To this against myself? - STEEVENS.

P. 21, l. 16. For our advantage;] If we read - For your advantage, it would be a more specious reason for interrupting Philip. TYRWHITT. P. 21, l. 26. winking gates;] i. e. gates hastily closed from an apprehension of danger. MALONE.

P. 21, 1. 31.-dishabited,-] i. e. dislodged, violently removed from their places: a word, I believe, of our author's coinage. STEEVENS.

P. 22, 1. 2. Countercheck, I believe, is one of the ancient terms used in the game of chess. So, in Mucedorus, 1598:

"Post hence thyself, thon counterchecking
trull." STEEVENS.
Forwearied -

11

P. 22. 1.
Sax. STEE ENS.

i. e. worn out.

P. 22, 1. 27. To him that owes it;] i. e. owns it. See our author and his contemporaries, passim. STEEVENS.

P. 23, 1. 4. Roundure means the same as the French rondeur, i. e. the circle. STEEVENS.

P. 24, last 1. and P. 25, 1. 1-11. You men of Angiers, &c. &c.] This speech is very poetical and smooth, and except the conceit of the widow's husband embracing the earth, is just and beautiful. JOHNSON. P. 25, 1. 13. and fol. Rejoice, you men of

Angiers, &c. &c] The English herald falls somewhat below his antagonist. Silver armour gilt with blood is poor image. Yet our author has it again in Macbeth;

a

"_ Here lay Ducan,

"His silver skin lac'd with his golden

blood." JoHNSON.

P. 25, 1. 26—29. And, like a jolly troop of huntsmen, &c.] It was, I think, one of the savage practices of the chase, for all to stain their hands in the blood of the deer, as a trophy. JOHNSON.

Shakspeare alludes to the same practise in Julius Caesar:

"

- Here thy hunters stand,

Sign'd in thy spoil, and crimson'd in thy lethe." STEEVENS.

P. 25, 1. 30. and fol. Cit. Heralds, &c. &c.] These three speeches seem to have been laboured. The citizen's is the best; yet both alike we like is a poor gingle. JOHNSON.

P. 25, last 1.

whose equality

By our best eyes cannot be censured:] i.e. cannot be estimated. Our author ought rather to have written-whose superiority, or whose inequality, cannot be censured.

MALONE.

P. 27, 1. 4. mouthing the flesh of men,] The old copy reads - mousing. STEEVENS.

Mousing, like many other ancient and now uncouth expressions was expelled from our author's text by Mr. Pope; and mouthing, which he substituted in its room, has been adopted in the subsequent editions, without any sufficient reason, in my apprehension. Mousing is, I suppose, mamocking, and devouring eagerly, as a cat devours a mouse. So, in A Midsummer Night'sDream: "Well mous'd, Lion!" Again, in The Wonderful Year, by Thomas Decker, 1603: "Whilst Troy was swilling sack and sugar, and mousing fat venison, the mad Greekes made bonfires of their houses." MALONE.

I retain Mr. Pope's emendation, which is supported by the following passage in Hamlet : "irst mouth'd to be last swallowed" Shakspeare designed no ridicule in this speech: and therefore did not write, (as when he was writing the burlesque interlude of Pyramus and Thisbe,)— mousing. STEEVENS.

P. 27, 1. 7. Cry, havock.] That is, command slaugther to proceed; so, in Julius Caesar: "Cry, havock, and let slip the dogs of war.' JOHNSON. P. 27, 1. 8. Potents for potentates. STEEVENS. P. 27, 1. 24. 29. A greater power than we, may mean, the Lord of hosts, who has not yet decided the superiority of either army; and till it be undoubted, the people of Angiers will not open their gates. Secure and confident as lions, they are not at all afraid, but are Kings, i. e. masters and commanders, of their fears, until their fears or doubts about the rightful King of England are removed. TOLLET.

We should read, than ye. What power was this? their fears. It is plain, therefore we should

read:

Kings are our fears;·

i. e. our fears are the Kings which at present rule WARBURTON.

us.

Dr Warburton saw what was requisite to make this passage sense; and Dr. Johnson rather too hastily, I think, has received his emendation into the text. He reads:

Kings are our fears;

which he explains to mean, "our fears are the Kings which at present rule us."

As the same sense may be obtained by a much slighter alteration, I am more inclined to read:

King'd of our fears;

King'd is used as a participle passive by Shakspeare more than once, I believe. I remember one instance in Henry the Fifth, Act II. sc. v. The Dauphin says of England:

she is so idly king'd"

It is scarce necessary to add, that, of, here (as in numberless other places,) has the signification of, by. TYRWHITT.

King' of our fears;] i. e. our fears being our Kings, or rulers. King'd is again used in King Richard II:

"Then I am king'd again :"

It is manifest that the passage in the old copy is corrupt, and that it must have been so worded, that their fears should be styled their Kings or masters, and not they, Kings or masters of their fears; because in the next line mention is made of these fears being deposed. Mr. Tyrwhitt's emendation produces this meaning by a very slight alteration, and is, therefore, I think, entitled to a place in the text.

This passage in the folio is given to King Philip, and in a subsequent part of this scene, all the speeches of the citizens are given to Hubert; which I mention, because these, and innumerable other instances, where the same error has been committed in that edition, justify some licence in transferring speeches from one person to another.

MALONE.

P. 27, 1. 30.. these scroyles-] Escrouelles, Fr. i. e scabby scrophulous fellows. STEEVENS.

P. 27, last 1. The mutines are the mutineers, the seditious. So again, in Hamlet ;

"- and lay

"Worse than the mutines in the bilboes." MALONE.

P. 28, 1. 1. and fol. Be friends a while, &c.] This advice is given by the Bastard in the old copy of the play, though comprized in fewer and less spirited lines. STEEVENS.

l'. 28, 1. 5. soul-fearing palling. MALONE.

i. e. soul-ap

P. 29, 1. 23. The lady Blanch was daughter to Alphonso the Ninth, King of Castile, and was niece to King John by his sister Elianor. STEEVENS.

P. 29, 1. 28. Zealous seems here to signify pious, or influenced by motives of religion. JOHNSON.

P. 30, 1. 14. Our author uses spleen for any violent hurry, or tumultuous speed. Só, in A Midsummer Night's Dream, he applies spleen to the lightning. I am loath to think that Shakspeare meant to play with the double of match for nuptial,and the match of a gun. JOHNSON.

P. 30, 1. 23. 25. Here's a stay &c.] I cannot but think that every reader wishes for some other word in the place of stay, which though it may signify an hindrance, or man that hinders, is yet very improper to introduce the next line. I read : Here's a flaw,

That shakes the rotten carcase of old death. That is, here is a gust of bravery, a blast of menace. This suits well with the spirit of the speech. Stay and flaw, in a careless hand are not easily distinguished; and if the writing was obscure, flaw being a wordless usual was easily missed. JOHNSON.

P. 31, 1. 13-15.

Lest zeal, now melted by the windy breath