but eight years since

"Northumberland, even to the eyes of Richard "Gave him defiance."

But it is altogether fruitless to attempt the reconciliation of our author's chronology. RITSON.

P. 92, 1. 11. A chewet or chuet, is a noisy. chattering bird, a pie. This carries a proper reproach to Falstaff for his ill-timed and impertinent jest. THEOBALD.

In an old book of cookery, printed in 1596, I find a receipt to make chewets, which, from their ingredients, seem to have been fat greasy puddings; and to these it is highly probable that the Prince alludes. STEEVENS.

P. 92, 1. 17. 18. For you, my staff of office did I break

In Richard's time;] See Richard the Second. JOHNSON.

P.92, 1.33.

the injuries of a wanton time;] i. e. the injuries done by King Richard in the wantonness of prosperity. MUSGRAVE.

P. 93, 1.6-8. And, being fed by us, you us'd

us so

As that ungentle gull, the cuckoo's bird, Useth the sparrow:] The cuckoo's chicken, who, being hatched and fed by the sparrow, in whose nest the cuckoo's egg was laid, grows in time able to devour her nurse. JOHNSON.

P. 93, 1. 15. we stand opposed -] We stand in opposition to you. JOHNSON.

P. 93, 1. 20. articulated, i. e. exhibited in articles. STEEVENS.

P. 93, 1. 24. 25. With some fine colour, that may please the eye Of fickle changlings,] This is an allusion to our ancient fantastick habits, which were usually

VOL. IX.

23

faced or turned up with a colour different from that of which they were made. STEEVENS.

P. 93, 1. 25. Poor discontents are poor discontented people, as we now say malcontents.

P. 93, 1. 30,

MALONE

starving for a time] i. e. impatiently expecting a time, &c. MALONE.

P. 94, 1. 4.

from his account. P. 94, 1.6.

set off his head,] i. e. taken

MUSGRAVE.

more valiant-young,] Sir Tho mas Hanmer reads - -more valued young, I think the present gingle has more of Shakspeare.

JOHNSON.

P. 94, 1. 20. No, good Worcester, no,] As there appears to be no reason for introducing the negative into this sentence, I should suppose it an error of the press, and that we ought to read: Know, good Worcester, know, &c.

There is sufficient reason to believe that many parts of these plays were dictated to the transcrihers, and the words know and no, are precisely the same in sound. M. MASON

P. 95, 1. 6. 7. if thou see me down in the battle, &c.] In the battle of Agincourt, Henry, when King, did this act of friendship for his brother the Duke of Gloucester. STEEVENS.

P. 95, last but one 1. Honour is a mere scutcheon,] This is very fine. The reward of brave actions formerly was only some honourable bearing in the shields of arms bestowed upon deservers. But Falstaff having said that honour often came not till after death, he calls it very wittily a scutcheon, which is the painted heraldry borne in funeral processions: and by mere scutcheon is insinuated, that whether alive or dead, honour was but a name. WARBURTON.

P. 96, 1. 15. Suspicion shall be all stuck full of eyes:] The same image of suspicion is exhibited in a Latin tragedy, called Roxana, written about the same time by Dr. William Alabaster. JOHNSON.

Dr. Farmer, with great propriety, would reform the line as I have printed it. In all former editions, without regard to measure, it stood thus:

Suspicion, all our lives, shall be stuck full of eyes. STEEVENS. P. 96, 1. 23. 24. And an adopted name of privilege,

A hare-brain'd Hotspur, -] The name of Hotspur will privilege him from censure.

P. 97, 1. 3. 4.

Deliver up

JOHNSON.

My lord of Westmoreland. -] He was "impawned as a surety for the safe return” of Worcester. See Act. IV. sc. iii. MALONE.

P. 97, 1. 6. Doug. Defy him &c.]. This line, as well as the next, (as has been observed. by one of the modern editors,) properly belongs to Hotspur, whose impatience would scarcely suffer any one to anticipate him on such an occasion.

P. 97, 1. 21. Engag'd is delivered as an hostage. A few lines before, upon the return of Worcester, he orders Westmoreland to be dismissed. JOHNSON.

P.98, 1. 7. By still dispraising praise, valued

with you:] This foolish line is indeed in the folio of 1623, but it is evidently the player's nonsense. WARBURTON.

This line is not only in the first folio, but in all the editions before it, that I have seen. Why

it should be censured as nonsense I know not, To vilify praise, compared or valued with merit superior to praise, is no harsh' expression. There is another objection to be made. Prince Henry, in his challenge of Percy, had indeed commended him, but with no such hyperboles as might represent him above praise: and there seems to be no reason why Vernon should magnify the Prince's candour beyond the truth. Did then Shakspeare forget the foregoing scene? or are some lines lost from the Prince's speech? JOHNSON.

I do not suspect any omission. Our author in repeating letters and speeches of former scenes in his plays, seldom attends minutely to what he had written. 1 believe, in these cases he always trusted to memory. MALONE.

P. 98, 1. 9. He made a blushing cital of himself;] Mr. Pope observes, that by cital is meant taxation; but I rather think it means recital. COLLINS

P. 98, 1.11. he master'd] i. e. was master of. STEEVENS.

P. 98, 1. 19. Of any Prince, so wild, at liberty:] Of any Prince that played such pranks, and was not confined as a madman. JOHNSON.

P. .99 1. 15. Esperance! ] This was the word of battle on Percy's side. PoPE.

Esperance, or Esperanza, has always been the motto of the Percy family. Esperance en Dieu is the present motto of the Duke of Northumberland, and has been long used by his predecessors. Sometimes it was expressed Esperance ma Comforte, which is still legible at Alnwick castle over the great gate. PERCY.

P. 99, 1. 18. heaven to earth,] i. e. one might wager heaven to earth. WARBURTON.

P. 100, 1. 24. Semblably furnish'd —] i. e, in resemblance, alike. STEEVENS.

P. 100, 1. 25. A fool go with thy soul, whither it goes! The old copies read: Ah, fool, go with thy soul, &c, but this appears to be nonsense. I have ventured to omit a single letter, as well as to change the punctuation. STEEVENS.

Mr. Steevens has but partially eradicated the nonsense of this passage. Read:

A fool go with thy soul, where-e'er it goes.

Whither, I believe, means place. STEEVENS.

RITSON.

to whatever

P. 101, 1. 2. 3. Though I could 'scape shotfree at London, I fear the shot here ;] A play upon shot, as it means the part of a reckoning, and a missive weapon discharged from artillery. JOHNSON.

P. 101, 1. 6. Here's no vanity!] In our author's time the negative, in common speech, was used to design, ironically, the excess of a thing. Thus, Ben Jonson, in Every Man in his Humour, says:

Ohere's no foppery!

"Death, I can endure the stocks better." Meaning, as the passage shews, that the foppery was excessive. And so in many other places. WARBURTON,

I am in doubt whether this interpretation, though ingenious and well supported, is true. The words may mean, here is real honour, no vanity, or empty appearance. JOHNSON.

I believe Dr. Warburton is right: the same ironical kind of expression occurs in our author's Taming of the Shrew: "Here's no knavery!" STEEVENS.