P. HEN. Well, I'll go with thee; provide us all things necessary, and meet me to-morrow night' in Eastcheap, there I'll sup. Farewell. POINS. Farewell, my lord. [Exit POINS. Who doth permit the base contagious clouds To sport would be as tedious as to work; 2 But, when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come 1, to-morrow night-] I think we should read-to-night. The disguises were to be provided for the purpose of the robbery, which was to be committed at four in the morning; and they would come too late if the Prince was not to receive them till the night after the day of the exploit. This is a second instance to prove that Shakspeare could forget in the end of a scene what he had said in the beginning. STEEVENS. 2 Who doth permit the base contagious clouds, &c.] So, in our author's 33d Sonnet: "Full many a glorious morning have I seen "Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye, "Anon permit the basest clouds to ride "With ugly rack on his celestial face." MALOne. vapours, that did seem to STRANGLE him.] So, in Mac "And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp." * If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work; STEEVENS. But, when they seldom come, they wish'd-for come,] So, in our author's 52d Sonnet : "Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare, 1 And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents. - shall I falsify men's HOPES ;] To falsify hope is to exceed hope, to give much where men hoped for little. This speech is very artfully introduced to keep the Prince from appearing vile in the opinion of the audience; it prepares them for his future reformation; and, what is yet more valuable, exhibits a natural picture of a great mind offering excuses to itself, and palliating those follies which it can neither justify nor forsake. JOHNSON. Hopes is used simply for expectations, as success is for the event, whether good or bad. This is still common in the midland counties. "Such manner of uncouth speech, (says Puttenham,) did the Tanner of Tamworth use to King Edward IV. which Tanner having a great while mistaken him, and used very broad talke with him, at length perceiving by his traine that it was the king, was afraide he should be punished for it, and said thus, with a certain rude repentance: I hope I shall be hanged to-morrow,' for 'I fear me I shall be hanged;' whereat the king laughed a-good; not only to see the Tanner's vaine feare, but also to hear his misshapen terme; and gave him for recompence of his good sport, the inheritance of Plumton Parke." P. 214. FARMER. The following passage in The Second Part of King Henry IV. fully supports Dr. Farmer's interpretation. The Prince is there, as in the passage before us, the speaker: 6 66 My father is gone wild into his like bright metal on a SULLEN ground, &c.] So, in King Richard II. : "The sullen passage of thy weary steps "Esteem a foil, wherein thou art to set "The precious jewel of thy home return." STEEVENS. I'll so offend, to make offence a skill; Redeeming time, when men think least I will. [Exit. SCENE III. The Same. Another Room in the Palace. Enter King HENRy, Northumberland, Worcester, HOTSPUR, Sir WALTER BLUNT, and Others. K. HEN. My blood hath been too cold and temperate, Unapt to stir at these indignities, And you have found me; for, accordingly, Which the proud soul ne'er pays, but to the proud. 7 I will from henceforth rather be myself, Mighty, and to be fear'd, than my condition;] i. e. I will from henceforth rather put on the character that becomes me, and exert the resentment of an injured king, than still continue in the inactivity and mildness of my natural disposition. And this sentiment he has well expressed, save that by his usual licence, he puts the word condition for disposition. WARBURTON. The commentator has well explained the sense, which was not very difficult, but is mistaken in supposing the use of condition licentious. Shakspeare uses it very frequently for temper of mind, and in this sense the vulgar still say a good or ill-conditioned man. JOHNSON. So, in King Henry V. Act V.: "Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition is not smooth." Ben Jonson uses it in the same sense, in The New-Inn, Act I. Sc. VI. : "You cannot think me of that coarse condition, "To envy you any thing." STEEVENS. So also all the contemporary writers. See vol. v. p. 27, n. 3, and many other passages in these plays. MALONE. WOR. Our house, my sovereign liege, little de serves The scourge of greatness to be used on it; And that same greatness too which our own hands NORTH. My lord, K. HEN. Worcester, get thee gone, for I do see Danger and disobedience in thine eye : 8 O, sir, your presence is too bold and peremptory, The moody frontier of a servant brow 9. You have good leave to leave us; when we need Your use and counsel, we shall send for you. You were about to speak. [Exit WORCESTer. [TO NORTH. Yea, my good lord. NORTH. Those prisoners in your highness' name demanded, Which Harry Percy here at Holmedon took, Were, as he says, not with such strength denied 8 I see danger-] Old copies-" I do see," &c. STEEVENS. Mr. Steevens has created the necessity for omitting this word, by altering the arrangement of the old copies. He reads: 66 Worcester, get thee gone, for I see danger "And disobedience in thine eye: O, sir, "Your presence is too bold and peremptory." BOSWELL. 9 And majesty might never yet endure The moody FRONTIER of a servant brow.] Frontier was anciently used for forehead. So Stubbs, in his Anatomy of Abuses, 1595: "Then on the edges of their bolstered hair, which standeth crested round their frontiers, and hanging over their faces," &c. STEEVENS. "And majesty might never yet endure," &c. So, in King Henry VIII.: "The hearts of princes kiss obedience, "So much they love it; but to stubborn spirits, They swell and grow as terrible as storms." MALONE. 1 You have GOOD LEAVE-] i. e. our ready assent. So, in King John: See n. 8, "Good leave, good Philip." p. 217, vol. xv. VOL. XVI. STEEVENS. As is deliver'd to your majesty: And 'twixt his finger and his thumb he held ;-— He gave his nose, and took't away again ;- at HARVEST HOME:] That is, a time of festivity. JOHNSON. If we understand harvest-home in the general sense of a time of festivity, we shall lose the most pointed circumstance of the comparison. A chin new shaven is compared to a stubble-land at harvest-home, not on account of the festivity of that season, as I apprehend, but because at that time, when the corn has been but just carried in, the stubble appears more even and upright, than at any other. TYRWHITT. 3 A POUNCET-box,] A small box for musk or other perfumes then in fashion: the lid of which, being cut with open work, gave it its name; from poinsoner, to prick, pierce, or engrave. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton's explanation is just. At the christening of Queen Elizabeth, the Marchioness of Dorset gave, according to Holinshed, "three gilt bowls pounced, with a cover." So also, in Gawin Douglas's translation of the ninth Æneid: "wroght rich curiously "With figuris grave, and punsit ymagery," STEEVENS. Took it in SNUFF:] Snuff is equivocally used for anger, and a powder taken up the nose. So, in The Fleire, a comedy, by E. Sharpham, 1610: "Nay be not angry; I do not touch thy nose, to the end it should take any thing in snuff." Again, in Decker's Satiromastix : |