Therefore, I say, 'tis meet we all go forth, No, with no more, than if we heard that England By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth, CON. 3 Were BUSIED] The quarto, 1600, reads-were troubled. STEEVENS. so idly KING'D,] Shakspeare is not singular in his use of this verb-to king. I find it in Warner's Albion's England, b. vii. c. xlii. : and king'd his sister's son." STEEevens. 5 You are too much mistaken in this king:] This part is much enlarged since the first writing. POPE. 6 How modest in exception,] making objections. JOHNSON. How diffident and decent in 7 And you shall find, his vanities fore-spent Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus, Covering discretion with a COAT OF FOLLY;] Shakspeare not having given us, in the First or Second Part of Henry IV. or in any other place but this, the remotest hint of the circumstance here alluded to, the comparison must needs be a little obscure to those who do not know or reflect that some historians have told us, that Henry IV. had entertained a deep jealousy of his son's aspiring superior genius. Therefore, to prevent all umbrage, the prince withdrew from public affairs, and amused himself in consorting with a dissolute crew of robbers. It seems to me, that Shakspeare was ignorant of this circumstance when he wrote the As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots two parts of Henry IV. for it might have been so managed as to have given new beauties to the character of Hal, and great improvements to the plot. And with regard to these matters, Shakspeare generally tells us all he knew, and as soon as he knew it. WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton, as usual, appears to me to refine too much. I believe, Shakspeare meant no more than that Henry, in his external appearance, was like the elder Brutus, wild and giddy, while in fact his understanding was good. Our author's meaning is sufficiently explained by the following lines in The Rape of Lucrece, 1594: "Brutus, who pluck'd the knife from Lucrece' side, Seeing such emulation in their woe, 66 Began to clothe his wit in state and pride, "Burying in Lucrece' wound his folly's show. "For sportive words, and uttering foolish things. "To check the tears in Collatinus' eyes." Thomas Otterbourne, and the translator of Titus Livius, indeed, say, that Henry the Fourth, in his latter days, was jealous of his son, and apprehended that he would attempt to depose him; to remove which suspicion, the prince is said (from the relation of an earl of Ormond, who was an eye witness of the fact,) to have gone with a great party of his friends to his father, in the twelfth year of his reign, and to have presented him with a dagger, which he desired the king to plunge into his breast, if he still entertained any doubts of his loyalty: but, I believe, it is no where said, that he threw himself into the company of dissolute persons to avoid giving umbrage to his father, or betook himself to irregular courses with a political view of quieting his suspicions. MALONE. The best comment on this passage will be found in P. Henry's soliloquy in the first part of Henry the IV. vol. xvi. p. 206. BOSWELL. Which, of a weak and niggardly projection", Think we king Harry strong; 8 Which, of a weak and niggardly projection,] This passage, as it stands, is so perplexed, that I formerly suspected it to be corrupt. If which be referred to proportions of defence, (and I do not see to what else it can be referred,) the construction will be"which proportions of defence, of a weak and niggardly projection, spoils his coat, like a miser," &c. If our author had written "While oft a weak and niggardly projection Doth," &c. The reasoning would then be clear.-In cases of defence, it is best to imagine the enemy more powerful than he seems to be by this means, we make more full and ample preparations to defend ourselves: whereas, on the contrary, a poor and mean idea of the enemy's strength induces us to make but a scanty provision of forces against him; wherein we act as a miser does, who spoils his coat by scanting of cloth. Projection, I believe, is here used for fore-cast or preconception. It may, however, mean preparation. Perhaps, in Shakspeare's licentious diction, the meaning may be -"Which proportions of defence, when weakly and niggardly projected, resemble a miser who spoils his coat," &c. The false concord is no objection to such a construction; for the same inaccuracy is found in almost every page of the old copy. MALONE. 9 strain,] Lineage. So, in King Lear: 66 Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain." STEEVENS. 1 That HAUNTED us-] To haunt is a word of the utmost horror, which shows that they dreaded the English as goblins and spirits. JOHNSON. 2 When Cressy BATTLE fatally was STRUCK,] So, in Robert of Gloucester: And all our princes captiv'd, by the hand Of that black name, Edward black prince of Wales; Whiles that his mountain sire,-on mountain standing3, Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun 1‚— Again, in the title to one of Sir David Lyndsay's poems: "How king Ninus began the first warres and strake the first battell." STEEVENS. 3 Whiles that his MOUNTAIN sire,-on mountain standing,] Mr. Theobald would read-mounting; i. e. high-minded, aspiring. Thus, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act IV.: "Whoe'er he was, he show'd a mounting mind." The emendation may be right, and yet I believe the poet meant to give an idea of more than human proportion in the figure of the king: Quantus Athos, aut quantus Eryx, &c. Virg. "Like Teneriffe or Atlas unremov'd." Milton. Drayton, in the 18th Song of his Polyolbion, has a similar thought: "Then he above them all, himself that sought to raise, "Upon some mountain top, like a pyramides." Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. i. c. xi. : "Where stretch'd he lay upon the sunny side agmen agens, magnique ipse agminis instar. Mr. Tollet thinks this passage may be explained by another in Act I. Sc. I.: - his most mighty father on a hill." STEEVENS. If the text is not corrupt, Mr. Steevens's explication is the true See the extract from Holinshed, p. 272, n. 2. The repetition of the word mountain is much in our author's manner, and therefore I believe the old copy is right. MALONE. one. 4 Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun.] Dr. Warburton calls this "the nonsensical line of some player.' The idea, however, might have been taken from Chaucer's Legende of good Women : "Her gilt heere was ycrownid with a son." See also Additions to the History of the English Stage, vol. iii. : "Item-I crown with a sone." Shakspeare's meaning, (divested of its poetical finery.) I suppose, is, that the king stood upon an eminence, with the sun shining over his head. STEEVENS. The patterns that by God and by French fathers MESS. Ambassadors from Henry King of England Do crave admittance to your majesty. FR. KING. We'll give them present audience. Go, and bring them. [Exeunt Mess. and certain Lords. You see, this chase is hotly follow'd, friends. DAU. Turn head, and stop pursuit: for coward dogs Most spend their mouths, when what they seem to threaten, Runs far before them. Good my sovereign, Take up the English short; and let them know Re-enter Lords, with EXETER and Train. FR. KING. From our brother England * ? EXE. From him; and thus he greets your ma jesty. He wills you, in the name of God Almighty, 5 * Folio, of England. FATE of him.] His fate is what is allotted him by destiny, or what he is fated to perform. JOHNSON. So Virgil, speaking of the future deeds of the descendants of Æneas: Attollens humeris famamque et fata nepotum. STEEVENS. spend their mouths,] That is, bark; the sportsman's term. JOHNSON. |