than the old one of metre. Walker suggests "To any worthy, welldeserving friend”; but queries, as he well may, whether this would not be a tautology. Still it is much better than Hanmer's. If I were to venture any supplementing of the verse, it would be noble or honest. P. 126. The Moon shines fair; you may away to-night: Break with your wives, &c.—The words I'll in, which are needful both for sense and metre, are wanting in the old copies, and were proposed by Steevens. P. 127. He held me last night at the least nine hours out. In reckoning up the several devils' names That were his lacqueys: I cried hum, and well, But mark'd him not a word.-In the first of these lines the old text is without the, and to the third it adds go to, which Pope struck Ritson comments upon the addition thus: "These two senseless monosyllables seem to have been added by some foolish player, purposely to destroy the metre." P. 127. O, he's as tedious As is a tirèd horse, a railing wife. — So Capell. The old copies lack is in the second line; an omission not to be endured. P. 128. In faith, my lord, you are too wilful-blunt. — The old text has "too wilfull blame." Walker says, " Of course, 'too wilful-blunt'; and so Johnson suggests." Dyce, however, retains blame, and refers to Nares, who shows that the phrase to blame is a corruption of too blame, which formerly meant too blamable or blameworthy. But it seems to me that the phrase, even so explained, does not yield a fitting sense here. P. 128. Good father, tell her she and my aunt Percy Shall follow in my conduct speedily. — The old text mars the rhythm by thrusting in the useless word that between her and she. Corrected by Pope. P. 129. One no persuasion can do good upon. Here, again, the metre is spoilt in the old copies by inserting that after One. P. 129. I understand thy looks: that pretty Welsh Which thou pour'st down from those two swelling heavens I am too perfect in.· - So Pope and Lettsom. The old copies read “these swelling heavens." The omission of two untunes the verse utterly. Pope's reading gives just the sense required, meaning, of course, the lady's sky-blue eyes, which seem to grow larger when brightened with tears. P. 129. Nay, if you melt, then she will run quite mad. — Here quite is wanting in the old text. Dyce says, "This addition occurred to me before I knew that Capell had inserted it." - P. 130. An those musicians that shall play to you Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence, Yet straight they shall be here. Instead of An and Yet, at the beginning of the first and third lines, the old copies have And in both places. But an, the old equivalent of if, was very often printed and; and here the word probably got repeated from the first line in the place of Yet. The latter word was substituted by Rowe. P. 131. Heart, you swear like a comfit-maker's wife! Not mine, in good sooth; and, As true as I live ; &c. The old copies have you instead of mine; the former having probably crept in by mistake from the line before. Collier's second folio changes you into yours, and Lettsom would substitute I. But, as Hotspur is repeating his wife's oathlets, it appears to me that mine is the right word. P. 132. Come, come, Lord Mortimer; you are as slow By this our book's drawn; we'll but seal, and then Mort. With all my heart. The Poet often closes a scene with one or more rhyming couplets. So I strongly sus pect we ought to read here with Collier's second folio: By this our book is drawn: we'll seal, and part ACT III., SCENE 2. P. 133. Such poor, such base, such lewd, such mean attempts. — The old copies have bare instead of base. The two words were often confounded. Corrected by Rowe. P. 133. As, in reproof of many tales devised By smiling pick-thanks and base news-mongers,- The old text has the second and third of these lines transposed. The correction was proposed by Keightley. Carded his state, P. 135. Mingled his royalty with capering fools.— So the first quarto. The other old copies have carping instead of capering. For "carded his state" Collier's second folio substitutes "discarded state," and is followed by White; very unadvisedly, I think. Carded, taken as the word was often used, gives a very fitting sense, namely, "mixed, and debased by mixing." So in Bishop Andrewes' Sermons, quoted by Mr. Arrowsmith: "And these - for that by themselves they will not to mingle and to card with the Apostles' doctrine." See footnote 13. utter P. 138. Th' Archbishop's Grace of York, Douglas, and Mortimer Capitulate against us, and are up. the first of these lines. Inserted by Rowe. The old text omits and in P. 138. When I will wear a garment all of blood, - So Hanmer and Warburton. The old text has favours. The context shows that the Prince means his own face or countenance, and the plural can hardly give that sense. P. 139. This, in the name of God, I promise here: The which if I perform, and do survive. - So the folio. The quartos read "The which if he be pleas'd I shall performe." P. 139. How now, good Blunt! thy looks are full of speed. - Blunt. So is the business that I come to speak of. The old copies read "So hath the business." A very palpable error. P. 140. On Wednesday next you, Harry, shall set forward; On Thursday we ourselves will march.-The old text reads "On Wednesday next, Harry, you shall set forward." ACT III., SCENE 3. P. 148. Go bear this letter to Lord John of Lancaster, - In the second of these lines, the old copies have "To my brother John "; in the third, “Go, Peto, to horse"; in the fourth, "to ride yet ere dinner-time "; and in the fifth, "Jack, meet me to-morrow in the Temple-hall." Yet they print the whole speech as verse. Some modern editors print the whole as prose; and I have been rather slow in coming to the conclusion that they are wrong in doing so. In truth, without the several changes I have noted, the speech is neither fairly verse nor fairly prose, but an awkward and hobbling mixture of the two. Withal, it is quite certain that Peto should be Pointz. See the last of these notes on the second Act, page 194. ACT IV., SCENE I. P. 150. His letters bear his mind, not I, my lord. The first two quartos have "not I my mind"; the other old copies, "not I his mind." Corrected by Capell. P. 150. He writes me here, that inward sickness· And that his friends by deputation could not So soon be drawn. The first of these lines is manifestly incomplete both in sense and in metre; and I suspect it was purposely left so, as a casual note of Hotspur's impatience and perturbation of mind. Capell, however, printed "that inward sickness holds him." If I were to make any change, it would be "that inward sickness, — and― And," &c. P. 151. Where now remains a sweet reversion; Of what is to come in. out And in the second line. be little doubt," says Dyce. - So Capell. The old copies are with"That this speech is mutilated, there can P. 152. That shows the ignorant a kind of fear Before not dreamt of. Hot. Nay, you strain too far.-The old text is without Nay; and possibly the verse was not meant to be complete. Capell reads "Come, you strain too far." P. 153. There is not such a word Spoken in Scotland as this term of fear.— Instead of Spoken, the old text has Spoke of. The correction is Lettsom's. I question whether it was ever English to use spoke of as an equivalent for spoken. P. 153. The King himself in person is set forth, Or hitherwards intendeth speedily. — So Collier's second folio. The old text has intended. An easy misprint. P. 153. And his cområdes, that daff the world aside, And bid it pass. —So Dyce; and notes upon the text as follows: "Here daft of the old editions is a present tense, merely a corrupt spelling of doff. - Formerly, to words ending with f it was not unusual to add a t." P. 153. All plumed like estridges that with the wind Bate it; like eagles having lately bathed. -So the old copies, except that they have Bated instead of Bate it, and lack the (;) after Bated. The change was lately proposed by Professor Hiram Corson, of Cornell University, and is fully justified from the conditions of the passage, and by ancient usage.· - Rowe printed "like estridges that wing the wind; Bated like eagles; " &c.; and is followed by several editors, Staunton, White, and Dyce among them; in deference to whom I once gave up the old reading: but I now return to it in full confidence under the better advice of Mr. A. E. Brae, who justly notes it as "perfectly legitimate" to take bated with as equivalent to struggled |