Steeples, and moss-grown towers *. At your birth, Cousin, of many men Wales,-- 4 and TOPPLEs down Steeples, and moss-grown towers.] To topple is to tumble. So, in Macbeth : “ Though castles topple on their warders' heads." STEEVENS. s The goats ran from the mountains, and the herds Were strangely clamorous to the frighted fields.] Shakspeare appears to have been as well acquainted with the rarer phænomena, as with the ordinary appearances of nature. A writer in The Philosophical Transactions, No. 207, describing an earthquake in Catanea, near Mount Ætna, by which eighteen thousand persons were destroyed, mentions one of the circumstances that are here said to have marked the birth of Glendower : “ There was a blow, as if all the artillery in the world had been discharged at once; the sea retired from the town above two miles ; the birds flew about astonished; the cattle in the fields ran crying." Malone. " to the frighted fields,” We should read-in the frighted fields. M. Mason. In the very next scene, to is used where we should at present use in : “ He hath more worthy interest to the state —". STEEV ENS, And hold me pace in deep experiments. Welsh :-- mad. Hot. Why, so can I; or so can any man: mand the devil. devil, By telling truth; Tell truth, and shame the devil. If thou have power to raise him, bring him hither, And I'll be sworn, I have power to shame him hence. Mort. Come, come, made head too! 6 — to shame the devil,] “ Speak the truth, and shame the devil," was proverbial. See Ray's Proverbs, 163. Reed. 7 Bootless -] Unless we read bootless as a trisyllable, the metre will be defective. In As You Like It-wrestler is apparently to be thus pronounced : “The parts and graces of the wrestler.” Steevens. Mr. Pope transferred the word him from the former line to this : and perhaps he was right. Malone. Glend. Come, here's the map; Shall we divide our right, According to our three-fold order ta'en ? Mort. The archdeacon hath divided it 8 Into three limits, very equally: England, from Trent and Severn hithertoo, By south and east is to my part assign’d: All westward, Wales beyond the Severn shore, And all the fertile land within that bound, To Owen Glendower:-and, dear coz, to you The remnant northward, lying off from Trent. And our indentures tripartite are drawn: Which being sealed interchangeably, (A business that this night may execute,) To-morrow, cousin Percy, you, and I, And my good lord of Worcester, will set forth, To meet your father, and the Scottish power, As is appointed us, at Shrewsbury. My father Glendower is not ready yet, Nor shall we need his help these fourteen days: Within that space, [To Glend.] you may have drawn together Your tenants, friends, and neighbouring gentlemen. Glend. A shorter time shall send me to you, lords, And in my conduct shall your ladies come: From whom you now must steal, and take no leave; For there will be a world of water shed, Upon the parting of your wives and you. Hor. Methinks, my moiety, north from Burton here, & The archdeacon hath divided it -] The metre is here deficient. I suppose the line originally ran thus : “ The archdeacon hath divided it already. STEEVENS. 9 England, from Trent and Severn hiTheRTO,] i, e. to this spot (pointing to the map). Malone. · Methinks, my mieTY, north from Burton here,] The division is here into three parts.-A moiety was frequently used by divide In quantity equals not one of yours : doth. the writers of Shakspeare's age, as a portion of any thing, though not divided into two equal parts. See a note on King Lear, Act I. Sc. IV. Malone. 2 - CRANKING in,] Perhaps we should read-crankling. So, Drayton, in his Polyolbion, song 7, speaking of a river, says that Meander“ Hath not so many turns, nor crankling nooks as she.” STEEVENS. Mr. Pope reads-crankling. Cranking, however, is right. So, in our author's Venus and Adonis : “ He cranks and crosses with a thousand doubles.” Malone. 3 - CANTLE out.] A cantle is a corner, or piece of any thing, in the same sense that Horace uses angulus : O si angulus ille Proximus arridet! “ That this vast globe terrestrial should be cantled." " Rude Neptune cutting in a cantle forth doth take.” Steevens. The word in its strict sense signifies a small piece of any thing, but here a portion or parcel. The French have chanteau and chantel, from the Latin quantulum. Douce. See vol. xii. p. 304, n. 2. The quartos read-scantle. Mr. Todd, in his edition of Johnson's Dictionary, produces the authority of Lord Chesterfield for the verb-to scantle; to divide into small portions, Boswell. Mort. Yea, But mark, how he bears his course, and runs me up With like advantage on the other side; Gelding the opposed continent as much, As on the other side it takes from you. Wor. Yea, but a little charge will trench him here, Hot. I'll have it so; a little charge will do it. Will not you ? Who shall say me nay? GLEND. Why that will I. Hor. Let me not understand you then“, Speak it in Welsh. Glend. I can speak English, lord, as well as you ; For I was train'd up in the English court": 4 Let me not understand you then,] You, an apparent interpolation, destructive to the metre, should, I think, be omitted. Steevens. s For I was train'd up in the English court :] The real name of Owen Glendower was Vaughan, and he was originally a barrister of the Middle Temple. Steevens. Owen Glendower, whose real name was Owen ap Gryffyth Vaughan, took the name of Glyndour or Glendowr from the lordship of Glyndourdwy, of which he was owner. He was particularly adverse to the Mortimers, because Lady Percy's nephew, Edmund Earl of Mortimer, was rightfully entitled to the principality of Wales, (as well as the crown of England,) being lineally descended from Gladys the daughter of Lhewelyn, and sister of David Prince of Wales, the latter of whom died in the year 1246. Owen Glendower himself claimed the principality of Wales. He afterwards became esquire of the body to K. Richard II. with whom he was in attendance at Flint Castle, when Richard was taken prisoner by Henry of Bolingbroke, afterwards King Henry IV. Owen Glendower was crowned Prince of Wales in the year 1402, and for near twelve years was a very formidable enemy to the English. He died in great distress in 1415. MALONE, |