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To hold in right and title of the female:
So do the kings of France unto this day;
Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law,
To bar your highness claiming from the female;
And rather choose to hide them in a net,
Than amply to imbare their crooked titles "

that Lewis could not wear the crown with a safe conscience, "till satisfied," &c. THEOBALD.

6 ➡IMBARE their crooked titles-] Mr. Pope reads:

"Than openly imbrace."

But where is the antithesis betwixt hide in the preceding line, and imbrace in this? The two old folios read:

"Than amply to imbarre."

We certainly must read, as Mr. Warburton advised me: "Than amply to imbare▬▬•"

lay open, display to view. I am surprized Mr. Pope did not start this conjecture, as Mr. Rowe had led the way to it in his edition; who reads:

"Than amply to make bare their crooked titles."

THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald might have found, in the 4to. of 1608, this reading :

"Than amply to embrace their crooked causes; out of which line Mr. Pope formed his reading, erroneous indeed, but not merely capricious. JOHNSON.

The quarto, 1600, reads-imbace.

I have met with no example of the word-imbare. To unbar is to open, and might have been the word set down by the poet, in opposition to-bar.

So, in the first scene of Timon, the poet says, "I'll unbolt to you."

To embar, however, seems, from the following passage in the first book of Stanyhurst's translation of Virgil, 1583, to signify to break or cut off abruptly:

"Heere Venus embarring his tale," &c.

Yet, as to bar, in Much Ado About Nothing, is to strengthen,that is stronger made,

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"Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron—,”

so, amply to unbar, may mean to weaken by an open display of invalidity.

As imbare, however, is not unintelligible, and is defended by the following able criticks, I have left it in the text. STEEVENS.

I have no doubt but imbare is the right reading. Though the editor who has adopted it seems to argue against it, it makes the sense more clear than any of the other readings proposed.

Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.

K. HEN. May I, with right and conscience, make this claim?

CANT. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign!
For in the book of Numbers is it writ,-
When the son dies, let the inheritance
Descend unto the daughter. Gracious lord,
Stand for your own; unwind your bloody flag;
Look back unto your mighty ancestors:

Go, my dread lord, to your great grandsire's tomb *,
From whom you claim; invoke his warlike spirit,
And your great uncle's, Edward the black prince;
Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy,
Making defeat on the full power of France;
Whiles his most mighty father on a hill
Stood smiling, to behold his lion's whelp
Forage in blood of French nobility”.

O noble English, that could entertain
With half their forces the full pride † of France;
+ Quarto, power.

* Quarto, grave.

Imbare, in the last line, is naturally opposed to hide in that which precedes, and it differs but little from the reading of the quarto 1600. The objection that there is no such word as imbare, can have but little weight. It is a word so fairly deduced, and so easily understood, that an author of much less celebrity than Shakspeare, had a right to coin it. M. MASON.

In the folio the word is spelt imbarre. Imbare is, I believe, the true reading. It is formed like impaint, impawn, and many other similar words used by Shakspeare. MALONE.

7 Whiles his most mighty father on a hill

Stood smiling, &c.] This alludes to the battle of Cressy, as described by Holinshed: "The earle of Northampton and others sent to the king, where he stood aloft on a windmill-hill; the king demanded if his sonne were slaine, hurt, or felled to the earth. No, said the knight that brought the message, but he is sore matched. Well, (said the king,) returne to him and them that sent you, and saie to them, that they send no more to me for any adventure that falleth, so long as my son is alive; for I will that this journeye be his, with the honour thereof. The slaughter of the French was great and lamentable at the same battle, fought the 26th August, 1346." Holinshed, vol. ii. p. 372, col. i.

BOWLE.

And let another half stand laughing by,
All out of work, and cold for action!

ELY. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, And with your puissant arm renew their feats: You are their heir, you sit upon their throne; The blood and courage, that renowned them, Runs in your veins; and my thrice-puissant liege Is in the very May-morn of his youth,

Ripe for exploits and mighty enterprizes.

EXE. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth

Do all expect that you should rouse yourself,
As did the former lions of your blood.

WEST. They know, your grace hath cause, and means, and might;

So hath your highness; never king of England

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8 and COLD for action!] i. e. cold for want of action. So Lyly, in Euphues and his England, 1581: if he were too long for the bed, Procrustes cut off his legs, for catching cold, i. e. for fear of catching cold. MALONE.

I always regarded the epithet cold as too clear to need explanation. The soldiers were eager to warm themselves by action, and were cold for want of it. A more recondite meaning, indeed, may be found; a meaning which will be best illustrated by a line in Statius, Theb. vi. 395:

Concurrit summos animosum frigus in artus. STEEVENS. 9 They know, your GRACE HATH cause, and means, and might; So hath your highness:] We should read:

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your race had cause,”

which is carrying on the sense of the concluding words of Exeter: "As did the former lions of your blood;

meaning Edward III. and the Black Prince. WARBURTON.

I do not see but the present reading may stand as I have pointed it. JOHNSON.

Warburton's amendment is unnecessary; but surely we should point the passage thus :

"They know your grace hath cause; and means, and might, "So hath your highness;"

Meaning that the king had not only a good cause, but force to support it. So, in this place, has the force of also, or likewise.

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M. MASON.

Had nobles richer, and more loyal subjects; Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England, And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France.

CANT. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, With blood', and sword, and fire, to win your right: In aid whereof, we of the spiritualty

Will raise your highness such a mighty sum,
As never did the clergy at one time

Bring in to any of your ancestors.

K. HEN. We must not only arm to invade the French;

But lay down our proportions to defend

Against the Scot, who will make road upon us
With all advantages.

CANT. They of those marches, gracious sove-
reign,

Shall be a wall sufficient to defend

Our inland from the pilfering borderers.

K. HEN. We do not mean the coursing snatchers* only,

But fear the main intendment of the Scot3,

* Quarto, sneakers.

"So hath your highness." i. e. your highness hath indeed what they think and know you have. MALONE.

With BLOOD, &c.] Old copy-bloods. Corrected in the third folio. MALONE.

This and the foregoing line Dr. Warburton gives to Westmoreland, but with so little reason that I have continued them to Canterbury. The credit of old copies, though not great, is yet more than nothing. JOHNSON.

The marches are the borders, the
Lords Marchers, i. e. the lords

2 They of those MARCHES,] limits, the confines. Hence the presidents of the marches, &c. So, in the first canto of Drayton's Barons' Wars:

3

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"When now the marchers well upon their way," &c.

STEEVENS.

the main INTENDMENT of the Scot,] Intendment is here perhaps used for intention, which, in our author's time, signified extreme exertion. The main intendment may, however, mean, the general disposition. MALONE.

Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us;
For you shall read, that my great grandfather
Never went with his forces into France 5.
But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach,
With ample and brim fulness of his force;
Galling the gleaned land with hot essays;
Girding with grievous siege, castles and towns;
That England, being empty of defence,
Hath shook, and trembled at the bruit thereof *.
CANT. She hath been then more fear'd than
harm'd, my liege:

*Folio, at the ill neighbourhood.

6

Main intendment, I believe, signifies-exertion in a body. The king opposes it to the less consequential inroads of detached parties. STEEVENS.

4

- giddy neighbour -] That is, inconstant, changeable.

JOHNSON.

5 Never went with his forces into France,] The quartos, 1600 and 1608, read:

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never my great grandfather

"Unmask'd his power for France-."

What an opinion the Scots entertained of the defenceless state of England, may be known by the following passage from The Battle of Floddon, an ancient historical poem:

"For England's king, you understand,

"To France is past with all his peers:
"There is none at home left in the land,
"But joult-head monks, and bursten freers.

"Of ragged rusties, without rules,

"Of priests prating for pudding shives; "Of milners madder than their mules,

"Of wanton clerks, waking their wives."

Thus also in Wyntown's Cronykil, b. viii. ch. xl. v. 96: "Thai sayd, that thai mycht rycht welle fare

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"Til Lwndyn, for in Ingland than

"Of gret mycht wes left ná man,

"For, thai sayd, all war in Frawns,

"Bot sowteris, skynneris, or marchauns." STEEVENS. fear'd- i. e. frightened. MALONE.

So, in Measure for Measure:

"Setting it up to fear the birds of prey." STEEVENS.

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