AUM. For ever may my knees grow to the earth, [Kneels. My tongue cleave to my roof within my mouth, Unless a pardon, ere I rife, or speak. BOLING. Intended, or committed, was this fault? If but the firft, how heinous ere it be, To win thy after-love, I pardon thee. AUM. Then give me leave that I may turn the key, That no man enter till my tale be done. BOLING. Have thy defire. [AUMERLE locks the door. YORK. [Within.] My liege, beware; look to thy felf; Thou haft a traitor in thy prefence there. BOLING. Villain, I'll make thee fafe. [Drawing. AUM. Stay thy revengeful hand; Thou haft no cause to fear. YORK. [Within.] Open the door, fecure, foolhardy king: Shall I, for love, fpeak treafon to thy face? [BOLINGBROKE ofens the door. Enter YORK. BOLING. What is the matter, uncle? fpeak; Recover breath; tell us how near is danger, That we may arm us to encounter it. YORK. Perufe this writing here, and thou fhalt The treason that my hafte forbids me fhow. I do repent me; read not my name there, I tore it from the traitor's bofom, king; O loyal father of a treacherous fon! 9 Thou fheer, immaculate, and filver fountain, 2 9 Thou sheer, immaculate, &c.] Sheer is pellucid, tranfparent. Some of the modern editors arbitrarily read clear. Faery Queen, B. III. c. i: "Who having viewed in a fountain Shere Again, B. III. c. xi: "That the at laft came to a fountain here. So, in Spenser's Again, in the Fourth Book of Golding's Tranflation of Ovid's Metamorphofis, 1587: The water was fo pure and sheere, Transparent mullin is ftill called fheer muflin. &c. STEEVENS. • Thy overflow of good converts to bad; ] Mr. Theobald would read: Converts the bad. STEEVENS. The old reading converts to bad, is right, I believe, though Mr. Theobald did not understand it. "The overflow of good in thee is turned to bad in thy fon; and that fame abundant goodness in thee fhall excufe his tranfgreffion. TYRWHITT. 3 digreffing fon,] Thus the old copies, and rightly. So, in Romeo and Juliet: เ Digreffing from the valour of a man. To digrefs is to deviate from what is right or regular. Some of the modern editors read: — tranfgreffing. STEEVENS. YORK. So fhall my virtue be his vice's bawd; And he fhall spend mine honour with his fhame, As thriftless fons their scraping fathers' gold. Mine honour lives when his difhonour dies, Or my fham'd life in his difhonour lies: Thou kill'ft me in his life; giving him breath, The traitor lives, the true man's put to death. DUCH. [ Within. ] What ho, my liege! for God's fake, let me in. BOLING. What fhrill-voic'd fuppliant makes this eager cry? DUCH. A woman, and thine aunt, great king; 'tis I. Speak with me, pity me, open the door; BOLING. Our fcene is alter'd, from a ferious thing, And now chang'd to The Beggar and the King. the Beggar and the King.] The King and the Beggar feems to have been an interlude well known in the time of our author, who has alluded to it more than once. I cannot now find that any copy of it is left. JOHNSON. The King and Beggar was perhaps once an interlude; it was certainly a fong. The reader will find it in the firft volume of Dr. Percy's collection. It is there entitled, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid; and is printed from Rich. Johufon's Crown Garland of Goulden Rofes, 1612, 12m0; where it is entitled fimply. A song of a Beggar and a King. This interlude or ballad is mentioned in Cynthia's Revenge, 1613: "Provoke thy fharp Melpomene to fing STELVENS. Enter Duchefs. DUCH. O king, believe not this hard-hearted man; Love, loving not itself, none other can. YORK, Thou frantick woman, what doft thou make here ? 5 Shall thy old dugs once more a traitor rear? DUCH. Sweet York, be patient: Hear me, gentle liege. BOLING. Rife up, good aunt. [Kneels. DUCH. Not yet, I thee befeech: For ever will I kneel upon my knees," 6 And never see day that the happy fees, [Kneels. YORK. Against them both, my true joints bended Kneels. be. Ill may'st thou thrive, if thou grant any grace!? DUCH. Pleads he in earneft? look upon his face; His eyes do drop no tears, his prayers are in jest; His words come from his mouth, ours from our breaft: Thou frantick woman, what doft thou make here!] So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor: What make you Again, in Othello: 6 here?" "Ancient, what makes he here. MALONE. Ill may kneel upon my knees, ] Thus the folio. The quartos read: walk upon my knees. STEEVENS. thou thrive, if thou grant any grace!] This line is not in the folio. MALONE. He prays but faintly, and would be denied; Ours, of true zeal and deep integrity.. Our prayers do out-pray his; then let them have That mercy, which true prayers ought to have. BOLING. Good aunt, ftand up. DUCH. Nay, do not fay-ftand up; But, pardon, firft; and afterwards, ftand up, An if I were thy nurfe, thy tongue to teach, Pardon-fhould be the firft word of thy fpeech. I never long'd to hear a word till now; Say-pardon, king; let pity teach thee how: The word is fhort, but not fo fhort as fweet; No word like, pardon, for kings' mouths fo meet. YORK. Speak it in French, king; fay, pardonner moy. 8 DUCH. Doft thou teach pardon pardon to deftroy? Ah, my four husband, my hard-hearted lord, 8 9 pardonnez moy.] That is, excufe me, a phrafe used when any thing is civilly denied. The whole paffage is fuch as I could well with away. JOHNSON. 9 The chopping French -] Chopping, I fuppofe, here means jabbering, talking flippantly a language unintelligible to Englishmen; or perhaps it may mean, the French, who clip and mutilate their words. I do not remember to have met the word, in this fenfe, in any other place. In the univerfities they talk of chopping logick; and our author in Romeo and Juliet has the fame phrafe : "How now! how now! chop logick?" MALONE. |