We'rt not for laughing, I should pity him. SCENE III. [Exeunt. Warkworth. A Room in the Castle. Enter HOTSPUR, reading a Letter . But, for mine own part, my lord, I could be well contented to be there, in respect of the love I bear your house. He could be contented,-Why is he not then? In respect of the love he bears our house-he shows in this, he loves his own barn better than he loves our house. Let me see some more. The purpose you undertake, is dangerous; -Why, that's certain; 'tis dangerous to take a cold, to sleep, to drink: but I tell you, my lord fool, out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety. The purpose you undertake, is dangerous; the friends you have named, uncertain; the time itself unsorted; and your whole plot too light, for the counterpoise of so great an opposition.-Say you so, say you so? I say unto you again, you are a shallow, cowardly hind, and you lie. What a lackbrain is this? By the Lord, our plot is a good plot as ever was laid; our friends true and constant: a good plot, good friends, and full of expectation: an excellent plot, very good friends. What a frostyspirited rogue is this? Why, my lord of York commends the plot, and the general course of the action. 'Zounds, an I were now by this rascal, I could brain him with his lady's fan'. Is there not • Enter Hotspur, reading a letter.] This letter was from George Dunbar, Earl of March, in Scotland. MR. EDWARDS's MS. Notes. my lord of York-] Richard Scroop, Archbishop of York. STEEVENS. : my father, my uncle, and myself? lord Edmund Mortimer, my lord of York, and Owen Glendower? Is there not, besides, the Douglas? Have I not all their letters, to meet me in arms by the ninth of the next month? and are they not, some of them, set forward already? What a pagan rascal is this? an infidel? Ha! you shall see now, in very sincerity of fear and cold heart, will he to the king, and lay open all our proceedings. O, I could divide myself, and go to buffets, for moving such a dish of skimmed milk with so honourable an action! Hang him! let him tell the king: We are prepared: I will set forward to-night. Enter Lady PERCY. How now, Kate2? I must leave you within these two hours. I I could brain him with his lady's fan.] Mr. Edwards observes, in his Canons of Criticism, that the ladies in our au 66 thor's time wore fans made of feathers." See Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, Act II. Sc. II. : "This feather grew in her sweet fan sometimes, tho' now it be my poor fortune to wear it." So again, in Cynthia's Revels, Act III. Sc. IV. : 66 for a garter, "Or the least feather in her bounteous fan." Again, as Mr. Whalley observes to me, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Wit at several Weapons, Act V.: 66 Wer't not better "Your head were broke with the handle of a fan?” See the wooden cut in a note on a passage in The Merry Wives of Windsor, vol. viii. p. 75, and the figure of Marguerite de France Duchesse de Savoie, in the fifth vol. of Montfaucon's Monarchie de France, Plate xi. STEEVENS. This passage ought to be a memento to all commentators, not to be too positive about the customs of former ages. Mr. Edwards has laughed unmercifully at Dr. Warburton for supposing that Hotspur meant to brain the Earl of March with the handle of his lady's fan, instead of the feathers of it. The lines quoted by Mr. Whalley show that the supposition was not so wild a one as Mr. Edwards conceived. MALONE. 2 How now, KATE ?] Shakspeare either mistook the name of LADY. O my good lord, why are you thus alone? Tell me, sweet lord, what is't that takes from thee Hotspur's wife, (which was not Katharine, but Elizabeth,) or else designedly changed it, out of the remarkable fondness he seems to have had for the familiar appellation of Kate, which he is never weary of repeating, when he has once introduced it; as in this scene, the scene of Katharine and Petruchio, and the courtship between King Henry V. and the French Princess. The wife of Hotspur was the Lady Elizabeth Mortimer, sister to Roger Earl of March, and aunt to Edmund Earl of March, who is introduced in this play by the name of Lord Mortimer. STEEVENS. The sister of Roger Earl of March, according to Hall, was called Eleanor: "This Edmonde was sonne to Erle Roger,which Edmonde at King Richarde's going into Ireland was proclaimed heire apparent to the realme; whose aunt, called Elinor, this lord Henry Percy had married." Chron. fol. 20. So also, Holinshed. But both these historians were mistaken, for her christian name undoubtedly was Elizabeth. See p. 213, n. 3. MALONE. 3 golden sleep?] So, in Hall's Chronicle, Richard III. : - he needed now no more once for that cause eyther to wake, or breake hys golden sleepe." HENDERSON. The various epithets, borrowed from the qualities of metals, which have been bestowed on sleep, may serve to show how vaguely words are applied in poetry. In the line before us, sleep is called golden, and in King Richard III. we have "leaden slumber." But in Virgil it is "ferreus somnus ; " while Homer terms sleep brazen, or more strictly copper, xaλOS UπVOS. HOLT WHITE. 4 And given my TREASURES,] So, in Othello: "To pour our treasures into foreign laps." MALOne. 5 In thy faint slumbers,] Such are the remarks of Argia, on the inquietude of her husband Polynices, at the commencement of the Theban war. See the second Thebaid of Statius, v. 333, et seq. STEEVENS. And heard thee murmur tales of iron wars: Of basilisks, of cannon, culverin; Of prisoner's ransom, and of soldiers slain, 9 Thy spirit within thee hath been so at war, 6- and RETIRES ;] Retires are retreats. So, in Drayton's Polyolbion, Song 10: their secret safe retire." Again, in Holinshed, p. 960: "the Frenchmen's flight, (for manie so termed their sudden retire,") &c. STEEVENS. 7 - frontiers,] For frontiers, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, read very plausibly-fortins. JOHNSON. Plausible as this is, it is apparently erroneous, and therefore unnecessary. Frontiers formerly meant not only the bounds of different territories, but also the forts built along, or near those limits. In Ives's Practice of Fortification, printed in 1589, p. 1, it is said: "A forte not placed where it were needful, might skantly be accounted for frontier." Again, p. 21: "In the frontiers made by the late emperor Charles the Fifth, of their walles having given way," &c. p. 34: "It shall not be divers necessary to make the bulwarkes in townes so great as those in royall frontiers." P. 40: "When as any open towne or other inhabited place is to be fortified, whether the same be to be made a royal frontier, or to be meanly defended," &c. This account of the word will, I hope, be thought sufficient. STEEVENS. So, in Notes from Blackfryers, by H. Fitzgeoffery, 1617: "He'll tell of basilisks, trenches, and retires, "Of palisadoes, parapets, frontiers." MALONE. 8 Of BASILISKS,] A basilisk is a cannon of a particular kind. So, in Ram Alley, 1611: 66 My cannons, demi-cannons, basilisks," &c. Again, in The Devil's Charter, 1607: 66 are those two basilisks Already mounted on their carriages?' Again, in Holinshed, p. 816: "-setting his basiliskes and other cannon in the mouth of the baie." See likewise Holinshed's Description of England, p. 198, 199. STEEVENS. In old MALONE. 9 And all the 'CURRENTS] i. e. the occurrences. language occurrent was used instead of occurrence. 1 That beads of sweat have stood upon thy brow, Some heavy business hath my lord in hand, Enter Servant. SERV. He is my lord, an hour ago Hor. Hath Butler brought those horses from the SERV. One horse, my lord, he brought even now, Hor. [Exit Servant. LADY. But hear you, my lord. That BEADS of sweat-] So, in Julius Cæsar : 66 mine eyes, Seeing those beads of sorrow stand in thine, 'Began to water." MALONE. 2 On some great SUDDEN haste.] The epithet-sudden, which overloads the verse, may be justly suspected as an interpolation. STEEVENS. 3 He is, my lord, an hour ago.] I suppose our author wrote: "He is, my lord, above an hour ago." The verse is otherwise defective as is the Servant's next reply, which originally might have run thus: 4 : "One horse, my lord, he brought but even now." STEEVENS. - esperance?] This was the motto of the Percy family. MALONE. 5 What say'st, my lady?] Old copies-What say'st thou, my lady? STEEVENS. |