MORT. I understand thy looks: that pretty Welsh Which thou pourest down from these swelling heavens 2,

I am too perfect in; and, but for shame,
In such a parley would I answer thee.

[Lady M. speaks.

I understand thy kisses, and thou mine,

And that's a feeling disputation":

But I will never be a truant, love,

Till I have learn'd thy language; for thy tongue
Makes Welsh as sweet as ditties highly penn'd,
Sung by a fair queen in a summer's bower,
With ravishing division, to her lute".

no persuasion," &c. and so the ancient copies redundantly read. STEEVENS.

2 Which thou pourest down from these swelling heavens,] The defect of harmony in this line, induces me to suppose (with Sir T. Hanmer) that our author originally wrote

"Which thou pour'st down from these two swelling heavens," meaning her two prominent lips. STEEVENS.

According to Mr. Steevens, swelling heavens are prominent lips. Are they not eyes swollen with tears? Glendower has just said, that his daughter wept; and Mortimer tells his wife that he would answer the melting language of her eyes, if it were not for shame. Douce.

3

a feeling disputation :] i. e. a contest of sensibility, a reciprocation in which we engage on equal terms. STEEVENS. 4 Sung by a fair queen, &c.] Our author perhaps here intended a compliment to Queen Elizabeth, who was a performer on the lute and the virginals. See Sir James Melvil's curious account. Memoirs, folio, p. 50. MALOne.

5 With ravishing DIVISION, to her lute.] A division, in musick, is a variation of melody upon some given fundamental harmony. DYER.

ing

This verse may serve for a translation of a line in Horace :

grataque foeminis

Imbelli cithara carmina divides.

It is to no purpose that you (Paris) please the women by sing"with ravishing division," to the harp. See the Commentators, and Vossius on Catullus, p. 239. S. W.

Divisions were very uncommon in vocal musick during the time of Shakspeare. BURNEY.

GLEND. Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad o.
[Lady M. speaks again.

MORT. O, I am ignorance itself in this 7.
GLEND. She bids you on the wanton rushes lay
you down,

And rest your gentle head upon her lap,
And she will sing the song that pleaseth you,
And on your eye-lids crown the god of sleep",

6 Nay, if you melt, then will she run mad.] We might read, to complete the verse:

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Nay, if you melt, why then will she run mad." STEEVENS. 7 O, I am ignorance itself in this.] Massinger uses the same expression in The Unnatural Combat, 1639:

in this you speak, sir,

"I am ignorance itself." STEEVens.

8 She bids you

UPON the wanton RUSHES lay you down,] It was the custom in this country, for many ages, to strew the floors with rushes, as we now cover them with carpets. JOHNSON.

I have followed the old copies.

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she bids you

Mr. Seevens reads:

Upon the wanton rushes lay you down.”

We have some other lines in these plays as irregular as this.

MALONE. We have; but there is the strongest reason for supposing such irregularities arose from the badness of the playhouse copies, or the carelessness of printers. STEEVENS.

9 And on your eyelids crown the god of sleep,] The expression is fine; intimating, that the god of sleep should not only sit on his eyelids, but that he should sit crowned, that is, pleased and delighted. WARBUkton.

The same image (whatever idea it was meant to convey) occurs in Beaumont and Fletcher's Philaster:

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who shall take up his lute,

"And touch it till he crown a silent sleep
Upon my eyelid."

Again, in Chapman's version of the ninth book of Homer's Odyssey:

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Sleep, with all crowns crown'd,

"Subdu'd the savage." STEEVENS.

The image is certainly a strange one; but I do not suspect any corruption of the text. The god of sleep is not only to sit on Mortimer's eyelids, but to sit crowned, that is, with sovereign dominion. So, in Twelfth Night:

Charming your blood with pleasing heaviness;
Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep',
As is the difference betwixt day and night,
The hour before the heavenly-harness'd team
Begins his golden progress in the east.

MORT. With all my heart I'll sit, and hear her sing:
By that time will our book, I think, be drawn.
GLEND. Do so;

And those musicians that shall play to you,

Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence;
And straight they shall be here: sit, and attend.

"Him will I tear out of that cruel eye,

"Where he sits crowned in his master's spite."

Again, in our poet's 114th Sonnet :

"Or whether doth my mind, being crown'd with you,
"Drink up the monarch's plague, this flattery?

Again, in Romeo and Juliet :

Upon his brow shame is asham'd to sit,

"For 'tis a throne, where honour may be crown'd
"Sole monarch of the universal earth."

Again, in King Henry V. :

"As if allegiance in their bosoms sat,

"Crowned with faith and constant loyalty." MALONE. Making such difference 'twixt wake and sleep,] She will lull you by her song into soft tranquillity, in which you shall be so near to sleep as to be free from perturbation, and so much awake as to be sensible of pleasure; a state partaking of sleep and wakefulness, as the twilight of night and day. JOHNSON. our book,] Our paper of conditions. JOHNSON.

2

3 And those musicians that shall play to you,

Hang in the air a thousand leagues from hence;

And straight they shall be here:] Glendower had before boasted that he could call spirits from the vasty deep; he now pretends to equal power over the spirits of the air. Sir, says he to Mortimer, and, by my power, you shall have heavenly musick. The musicians that shall play to you, now hang in the air a thousand miles from the earth: I will summon them, and they shall straight be here. "And straight" is the reading of the most authentick copies, the quarto 1598, and the folio 1623, and indeed of all the other ancient editions. Mr. Rowe first introduced the reading-Yet straight, which all the subsequent editors have adopted; but the change does not seem absolutely necessary.

MALONE.

sing:

1.

..

d.

Hor. Come, Kate, thou art perfect in lying down: Come, quick, quick; that I may lay my head in thy

lap.

LADY P. Go, ye giddy goose.

GLENDOWER speaks some Welsh words,
and then the Musick plays.

Hor. Now I perceive, the devil understands
Welsh;

And 'tis no marvel, he's so humorous.
By'r-lady, he's a good musician.

LADY P. Then should you be nothing but mu-
sical; for you are altogether governed by humours.
Lie still, ye thief, and hear the lady sing in Welsh.
Hor. I had rather hear Lady, my brach, howl in
Irish.

LADY P. Would'st thou have thy head broken?
Hor. No.

LADY P. Then be still.

Hor. Neither; 'tis a woman's fault 4.

4 Neither; 'tis a woman's fault.] I do not plainly see what is a woman's fault. JOHNSON.

"It is a woman's fault," is spoken ironically. FARMER. This is a proverbial expression. I find it in The Birth of Merlin, 1662:

“'Tis a woman's fault: p- of this bashfulness." Again :

66

66

A woman's fault, we are subject to go to it, sir." Again, in Greene's Planetomachia, 1585: - a woman's faulte, to thrust away that with her little finger, whiche they pull to them with both their hands."

I believe the meaning is this: Hotspur having declared his resolution neither to have his head broken, nor to sit still, slily adds, that such is the usual fault of a woman; i. e. never to do what they are bid or desired to do. STEEVENS.

The whole tenor of Hotspur's conversation in this scene shows, that the stillness which he here imputes to women as a fault, was something very different from silence; and that an idea was couched under these words, which may be better understood than explained. He is still in the Welsh lady's bedchamber. WHITE. Without attempting to penetrate Mr. White's occult meaning,

LADY P. Now God help thee!

HOT. To the Welsh lady's bed.
LADY P. What's that?

Hor. Peace! she sings.

A Welsh Song sung by Lady M.

Hor. Come, Kate, I'll have your song too.
LADY P. Not mine, in good sooth.

Hor. Not yours, in good sooth! 'Heart, you swear like a comfit-maker's wife! Not you, in good sooth; and, As true as I live; and, As God shall mend me; and, As sure as day:

And giv'st such sarcenet surety for thy oaths,
As if thou never walk'dst further than Finsbury 5.
Swear me, Kate, like a lady, as thou art,

A good mouth-filling oath; and leave in sooth,
And such protest of pepper-gingerbread,
To velvet-guards', and Sunday-citizens.
Come, sing.

it may be questioned whether there is any ground for supposing that this scene takes place in the Welsh lady's bedchamber.

BOSWELL.

5 AS IF thou never walk'dst further than Finsbury.] Open walks and fields near Chiswell-street, London Wall, by Moorgate; the common resort of the citizens, as appears from many of our ancient comedies. I suppose the verse originally (but elliptically) ran thus:

"As thou ne'er walk'dst further than Finsbury." i. e. as if thou ne'er, &c. STEEVENS.

6- such protest of PEPPER-GINGERBREAD,] i. e. protestations as common as the letters which children learn from an alphabet of ginger-bread. What we now call spice ginger-bread was then called pepper ginger-bread. STEEVENS.

Such protestations as are uttered by the makers of gingerbread.

MALONE.

Hotspur had just told his wife that she “ swore like a comfitmaker's wife;" such protests therefore of pepper ginger-bread, as "in sooth," &c. were to be left to persons of that class. HENLEY.

7-velvet-guards,] To such as have their clothes adorned with shreds of velvet, which was, I suppose, the finery of cockneys.

JOHNSON.