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ACT IV-Sc. 2.

FASLTAFF....Ten times more dishonourable ragged thou,

An old faced ancient.

I agree with Theobald in reading an old-feast ancient, for the shattered colours of a regiment are considered as rather a mark of honour than disgrace; and Falstaff says, but two lines before, that his ragamuffins were the cankers of a calm world, and a long peace.

ACT V.-Sc. 2.

HOTSPUR....Now esperance, Percy, and set on.

Mr. Malone says that esperance is used as à word of four syllables, and he is right, for in the French metre the e final always makes a syllable, though it does not in prose.

HENRY IVth. SECOND PART.

ACT I.-Sc. 2.

FALSTAFF....You may keep it still a face-royal, for the barber shall never earn sixpence out of it.

If nothing be taken out of a royal, it will remain a royal as it was; this appears to me to be Falstaff's conceit; a royal was a piece of coin of the value of ten shillings. I cannot approve either of Johnson's explanation, or that of Steevens.

ACT IV.-Sc. 3.

FALSTAFF... My Lord, I beseech you, when you come to Court, stand my good Lord, I pray, in . your report.

I must acknowledge, that my explanation of this passage is erroneous, and that of Percy and Steevens, evidently the true one.

In Jonson's Case is Altered, Onion says to Chamont,

Monsieur Chamont, stand you my honour'd Sir,

and in King Lear, Edmond says to Gloster, speaking of Edgar,

Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword drawn,
Mumbling of wicked charms, conjuring the moon,
To stand his auspicious mistress.

HENRY THE Vth.

ACT IV.-Sc. 5.

BOURBON...

Shame, and eternal shame! nothing but shame!
Let us die instant, once more back again.

I am still of opinion, that the old reading,
Let us die! in once more, back again.

requires no amendment, and it is supported by the following passage in Fletcher's Mad Lover, where Stremon says, in his war-song,

G

Hark! how the horses charge! in boys, boys in,

The battle totters.

The second folio reads, let us fly in once more, back again, which is perhaps the better reading; nor can I discover that it makes nonsense of the passage, as Mr. Malone asserts, for to fly in does not mean to run away, but to return to the attack with rapidity.

ACT IV.Sc. 3.

HENRY...

Why now thou hast unwish'd five thousand men,
Which likes me better that to wish us one.

Mr. Malone has endeavoured to prove, in a very elaborate note, that Westmorland by wishing that he and the king alone, without more help, might fight the battle out, did not wish away the whole of the army, but five thousand men only; but I must confess, that I cannot comprehend his argument, and must concur with Johnson, in his observation on the poet's inattention.

ACT III.-Sc. 4.

ALICE.... De foot, Madame, and de coun—

Mr. White observes, that as Alice speaks all the other words properly, we ought to read, de foot, and de gown; but in that case we must leave out the next speech of Catherine's, in which she says that those words were,

De son mauvais, grosses et impudiques,

a description which will not apply to the word

gown.

HENRY VIth. FIRST PART.

ACT I.-Sc. 1.

BEDFORD..

Comets, importing change of time and states,
Brandish your chrystal tresses in the sky.

The epithet chrystal is applied to comets, in consequence of the resemblance that the tails of comets bear to those bunches of spun glass, which are frequently used as ornaments.

3d. MESSENGER.....

He being in the vaward, placed behind,
With purpose to relieve and follow them,
Cowardly fled.

When an army is attacked in the rear, the van becomes the rear in its turn, and of course the reserve.

HENRY Vlth. SECOND PART.

ACT IV.-Sc. 10.

As for more words, whose greatness answers words,
Let this, my sword, report what speech forbears.

Mr. Malone says, that the old reading is,

As for words, whose greatness answers words,

and that the word more was introduced by Rowe, which in my opinion injures the sense, though it improves the metre: if I were to introduce any word for that purpose, I should chuse to read, as for mère words, instead of more words.

HENRY VIth. THIRD PART.

ACT II.-Sc. 5.

FATHER....What stratagems, how fell and butcherly, Erroneous, mutinous, and unnatural,

This deadly quarrel daily doth beget!

Mr. Malone, asserts that stratagem in this place means a subtle device in war; but I still adhere to my former opinion, that it means a disastrous event, or an atrocious action. Can we suppose that a father, in the paroxysm of despair, on finding that he had killed, with his own hand, his only son, should call that horrid deed a subtle device in war? When Lorenzo says, in the Merchant of Venice, that,

The man who hath no musick in himself, &c.
Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils.

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