sworn to marry since I perceived the first white hair on my chin: About it; you know where to find me. [Exit Page.] A pox of this gout! or, a gout of this pox! for the one, or the other, plays the rogue with my great toe. It is no matter, if I do halt; I have the wars for my colour, and my pension shall seem the more reasonable: A good wit will make use of any thing; I will turn diseases to commodity1. [Exit. SCENE III. York. A Room in the Archbishop's Palace. Enter the Archbishop of York, the Lords HASTINGS, MOWBRAY, and BARDOLPH. ARCH. Thus have you heard our cause, and known our means; And, my most noble friends, I pray you all, MOWB. I well allow the occasion of our arms; But gladly would be better satisfied, How, in our means, we should advance ourselves HAST. Our present musters grow upon the file BARD. The question then, lord Hastings, standeth thus ; Whether our present five and twenty thousand I to COMMODITY.] i. e. profit, self-interest. See vol. xv, p. 258, n. 8. STEEVENS. May hold up head without Northumberland. BARD. Ay, marry, there's the point; But if without him we be thought too feeble, My judgment is, we should not step too far 2 Till we had his assistance by the hand: For, in a theme so bloody-fac'd as this, Conjecture, expectation, and surmise Of aids uncertain, should not be admitted. ARCH. 'Tis very true, lord Bardolph; for, indeed, It was young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury. BARD. It was, my lord; who lin'd himself with hope, Eating the air on promise of supply, Flattering himself with project of a power 3 Much smaller than the smallest of his thoughts: Proper to madmen, led his powers to death, HAST. But, by your leave, it never yet did hurt, 2 step too far-] The four following lines were added in the second edition. JOHNSON. 3 Much smaller-] i. e which turned out to be much smaller. MUSGRAVE. These first twenty 4 Yes, in this present quality of war; &c.] lines were first inserted in the folio of 1623. The first clause of this passage is evidently corrupted. All the folio editions and Mr. Rowe's concur in the same reading, which Mr. Pope altered thus: 66 Yes, if this present quality of war This has been silently followed by Mr. Theobald, Sir Thomas Hanmer, and Dr. Warburton; but the corruption is certainly deeper, for, in the present reading, Bardolph makes the inconvenience of hope to be that it may cause delay, when, indeed, the whole tenor of his argument is to recommend delay to the rest Lives so in hope, as in an early spring We see the appearing buds; which, to prove fruit, Hope gives not so much warrant, as despair, that are too forward. I know not what to propose, and am afraid that something is omitted, and that the injury is irremediable. Yet, perhaps, the alteration requisite is no more than this: "Yes, in this present quality of war, "It never, (says Hastings,) did harm to lay down likelihoods of hope." "Yes, (says Bardolph,) it has done harm in this present quality of war, in a state of things such as is now before us, of war, indeed of instant action." This is obscure, but Mr. Pope's reading is still less reasonable. JOHNSON. I have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, though I think we might read: 66 66 if this present quality of war Impel the instant action.' Hastings says, it never yet did hurt to lay down likelihoods and forms of hope. Yes, says Bardolph, it has in every case like ours, where an army inferior in number, and waiting for supplies, has, without that reinforcement, impelled, or hastily brought on, an immediate action. STEEVENS. If we may be allowed to read-instanc'd, the text may meanYes, it has done harm in every case like ours; indeed, it did harm in young Hotspur's case at Shrewsbury, which the Archbishop of York has just instanced or given as an example. TOLLET. This passage is allowed on all hands to be corrupt, but a slight alteration will, I apprehend, restore the true reading: 66 Yes, if this present quality of war, Mr. M. Mason has proposed the same 66 in this present quality of war; nineteen lines appeared first in the folio. "Yes, if this present," &c. reading. STEEVENS. This and the following That copy reads: I believe the old reading is the true one, and that a line is lost; but have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, because it makes sense. The punctuation now introduced appears to me preferable to that of the old edition, in which there is a colon after the word action. Bardolph, I think, means to say, "Indeed the present action (our cause being now on foot, war being actually levied,) lives so in hope," &c. otherwise the speaker is made to say, in general, that all causes once on foot afford no hopes that may securely be relied on; which is certainly not true. MALONE. That frosts will bite them. When we mean to build, We first survey the plot, then draw the model; And, when we see the figure of the house, Then must we rate the cost of the erection: What do we then, but draw anew the model To build at all? Much more, in this great work, The plot of situation, and the model; Question surveyors; know our own estate, Like one that draws the model of a house And waste for churlish winter's tyranny. HAST. Grant, that our hopes (yet likely of fair birth,) Should be still born, and that we now possess'd The utmost man of expectation; I think, we are a body strong enough, BARD. What! is the king but five and twenty thousand? HAST. To us, no more; nay, not so much, lord Bardolph. 5 at least,] Perhaps we should read-at last. STEEVENS. 6 CONSENT upon a sure foundation;] i. e. agree. So, in As You Like It, vol. vi. p. 437 : "For all your writers do consent that ipse is he." Again, ibid. p. 489: " - consent with both, that we may enjoy each other." STEEVENS. For his divisions, as the times do brawl, Are in three heads: one power against the French®, And one against Glendower; perforce, a third Must take up us: So is the unfirm king In three divided; and his coffers sound With hollow poverty and emptiness. ARCH. That he should draw his several strengths together, And come against us in full puissance, Need not be dreaded. If he should do so 9, HAST. He leaves his back unarm'd, the French and Welsh Baying him at the heels: never fear that. 8 BARD. Who, is it like, should lead his forces hither? HAST. The duke of Lancaster, and Westmoreland1: -one power against the French,] During this rebellion of Northumberland and the Archbishop, a French army of twelve thousand men landed at Milford Haven, in Wales, for the aid of Owen Glendower. See Holinshed, p. 531. STEEVENS. 9 If he should do so,] This passage is read, in the first edition, thus: "If he should do so, French and Welsh he leaves his back unarmed, they baying him at the heels, never fear that." These lines, which were evidently printed from an interlined copy not understood, are properly regulated in the next edition, and are here only mentioned to show what errors may be suspected to remain. JOHNSON. I believe the editor of the folio did not correct the quarto rightly; in which the only error probably was [as Mr. Capell has observed] the omission of the word to: "To French and Welsh he leaves his back unarm'd, They baying him at the heels; never fear that." MALONE. of I The duke of Lancaster, &c.] This is an anachronism. Prince John of Lancaster was not created a duke till the second year the reign of his brother, King Henry V. MALONE. This mistake is pointed out by Mr. Steevens in another place. It is not, however, true, that " King Henry IV. was himself the last person that ever bore the title of Duke of Lancaster," as Prince Henry actually enjoyed it at this very time, and had done so from the first year of his father's reign, when it was conferred upon him |