Looking awry upon your lord's departure,
Find fhapes of grief, more than himself, to wail;
Which, look'd on as it is, is nought but fhadows
Of what it is not. Then, thrice-gracious queen,
More than your lord's departure weep not; more's
not feen:

aright and

The following fhort poem would almoft perfuade one that the words rightly and awry [perhaps originally written wryly] had exchanged places in the text of our author. Lines prefixed to " Melancholike Humours, in Verfes of Diverse Natures; fet down by Nich. Breton, Gent. 1600.

In Authorem.

"Thou that wouldft finde the habit of true paffion,
"And fee a minde attir'd in perfect ftraines;
"Not wearing moodes, as gallants doe a fashion
"In these pide times, only to fhewe their brainės;
Looke here on Breton's work, the mafter print,
"Where fuch perfections to the life doe rifé :
If they feeme wry, to fuch as looke afquint,
"The fault's not in the obje&, but their eyes.
"For, as one comming with laterall viewe

Unto a cunning piece - wrought perfpedive,
"Wants facultie to make a censure true:

"So with this author's readers will it thrive:

"Which, being eyed directly, I divine,

"His proofe their praise will meete, as in this line.
Ben Jonson. STEEVENS.

So, in Hentzner, 1598, Royal Palace, Whitehall. "Edwardi VI. Angliæ regis effigies, primo intuițu monftrosum quid repræfentans, sed fi quis —— effigiem rectâ intueatur, tum vera depræhenditur." FARMER.

The perfpectives here mentioned, were not pictures, but round chryftal claffes, the convex furface of which was cut into faces, like thofe of the rofe diamond; the concave left uniformly fmooth, These chryftals which were fometimes mounted on tortoise. shell box-lids, and fometimes fixed into ivory cafes. if placed as here reprefented, would exhibit the different appearances described by

the poet.

The word fhadows is here ufed, in oppofition to fubftance, for dorted images, and not as the dark forms of bodies, occafioned pais aterception of the light that falls upon them.

HENLEY.

Or if it be, 'tis with falfe forrow's

eye,

Which, for things true, weeps things imaginary.
QUEEN. It may be fo; but yet my inward foul
Perfuades me, it is otherwife: Howe'er it be,
I cannot but be fad; fo heavy fad,

As, though, in thinking, on no thought I think,a—
Makes me with heavy nothing faint and fhrink.
BUSHY. 'Tis nothing but conceit, my gracious

lady.

3

QUEEN. 'Tis nothing less: conceit is ftill deriv'd

From fome fore-father grief; mine is not fo;
For nothing hath begot my fomething grief;
Or fomething hath the nothing that I grieve: 4

2 As,

though, in thinking, on no thought I think, Old copy thinking; but we should read. - As though in thinking; that is though, mufing, I have no diftinct idea of calamity. The involuntary and unaccountable depreffion of the mind, which every one has fometime felt, is here very forcibly described. JOHNSON.

3'Tis nothing but conceit,] Conceit is here, as in K. Henrý VIII. and many other places, used for a fanciful conception. MALONE. 4 For nothing hath begot my fomething grief;

Or fomething hath the nothing that I grieve:] With thefe lines I know not well what can be done. The queen's reafoning as it now ftands, is this: my trouble is not conceit, for conceit is fill derived from fome antecedent caule, fome forefather grief; but with me the cafe is, that either my real grief hath no real caufe, or feme real caufe has produced a fancied grief. That is, my grief is not conceit, because it either has not a caufe like conceit, or it has a cause like conceit. This can hardly ftand. Let us try again, and read thus: For nothing hath begot my fomething grief;

Not fomething hath the nothing that I grieve: That is, my grief is not conceit; conceit is an imaginary uneasiness from Jome paft occurrence. But, on the contrary, here is real grief without a real caufe; not a real caufe with a fanciful forrow. `This, I think, must be the meaning; harth at the belt, yet better than contra' diction or abfurdity. JOHNSON.

'Tis in reverfion that I do poffefs;

But what it is, that is not yet known; 5 what
I cannot name; 'tis nameless woe, I wot.

gentlemen:

and well met,

I hope, the king is not yet hipp'd for Ireland. QUEEN. Why hop'ft thou fo? 'tis better hope, he is;

For his defigns crave hafte, his hafte good hope; Then wherefore doft thou hope, he is not fhipr'd? GREEN. That he, our hope, might have retir'd 6 his power,

3 'Tis in reverfion that I do poffefs;

But what it is, that is not yet known; &c.] I am about to propose an interpretation which many will think harfh, and which I do not offer for certain. To poffefs a man, in Shakspeare, is to inform him fully, to make him comprehend. To be poffeffed, is to be fully informed. Of this fenfe the examples are numerous: "I have poffefs'd him my moft ftay can be but fhort. Meafure for Measure.

Is he yet poffefs'd

What fum you would?" Merchant of Venice:

I therefore imagine the queen fays thus:

'Tis in reverfion —

that I do poffefs:.

The event is yet in futurity that I know with full conviction but what it is, that is not yet known. In any other interpretation fhe muft fay that he poffeffes what is not yet come, which, though it may be allowed to be poetical and figurative language, is yet, Il think, lefs natural than my explanation. MALONE.

As the grief the Queen felt, was for fome event which had not yet come to pafs, or at leaft yet come to her knowledge, fhe expreffes this by faving that the grief which the then adually poffeffed, was ftill in reversion, as fhe had no right to feel the grief until the évent should happen which was to occafion it.

M. MASON.

might have retir'd his power,] Might have drawn it back.

A French fenfe. JOHNSON.

And driven into defpair an enemy's hope,
Who ftrongly hath fet footing in this land:
The banifh'd Bolingbroke repeals himself,
And with uplifted arms is fafe arriv'd

At Ravenfpurg.

QUEEN.

Now God in heaven forbid!

GREEN. O, madam, 'tis too true: and that is

A

worse,The lord Northumberland, his young fon Henry

Percy,

The lords of Rofs, Beaumond, and Willoughby,
With all their powerful friends, are fled to him.
BUSHY. Why have you not proclaim'd Northum-
berland,

And all the rest of the revolting faction
Traitors?

GREEN. We have: whereon the earl of Worcester
Hath broke his ftaff, refign'd his ftewardship,
And all the household fervants fled with him
To Bolingbroke.

QUEEN. So, Green, thou art the midwife to my

woe,

And Bolingbroke my forrow's difmal heir:'
So, in The Rape of Lucrece:

༡

Each one, by him enforc'd, retires his ward." MALONĖ. my forrow's difmal heir:] The author feems to have used heir in an improper fenfe, an heir being one that inherits by fucceffion, is here put for one that fucceeds, though he fucceeds but in order of time, not in order of defcent. JOHNSON.

Johnson has miftaken the meaning of this paffage alfo. The Queen does not in any way allude to Bolingbroke's fucceffion to the crown, an event, of which he could at that time have had no idea. She had faid before, that fome unborn forrow, ripe in fortune's womb, was coming towards her." She talks afterwards of her unknown griefs being begotten;" fhe calls Green "the midwife of her woe;" and then means to fay, in the fame metaphorical jargon, that the arrival of Bolingbroke was the difmal offspring that her fore boding forrow was big of which the expreffes by calling him her VOL. XII.

F

Now hath my foul brought forth her prodigy;
And I, a gafping new-deliver'd mother,
Have woe to woe, forrow to forrow join'd."
BUSHY. Despair not, madam.

QUEEN.

Who fhall hinder me?'

I will defpair, and be at enmity

With cozening hope; he is a flatterer,

A parafite, a keeper-back of death,

Who gently would diffolve the bands of life,
Which falfe hope lingers in extremity.

Enter YORK.

GREEN. Here comes the duke of York. QUEEN. With figns of war about his aged neck; O, full of careful business are his looks!-

Uncle,

For heaven's fake, fpeak comfortable words.
YORK.Should I do fo, I fhould belie my thoughts:
Comfort's in heaven; and we are on the earth,
Where nothing lives, but croffes, care, and grief.
Your husband he is gone to fave far off,

Whilft others come to make him lofe at home:
Here am I left to underprop his land;

Who, weak with age, cannot fupport myfelf:-
Now comes the fick hour that his furfeit made;
Now fhall he try his friends that flatter'd him.

"forrow's dismal heir, " and explains more fully and intelligibly in the following line:

7

Now hath my foul brought forth her prodigy. M. Mason.
thou art the midwife to my woe,

And I a gasping new-deliver'd mother,

Have woe to woe, forrow to forrow join'd.] So, in Pericles & "I am great with woe, and fhall deliver weeping.

MALONE.

Should I do fo, I should belie my thoughts: ] This line is found in the three eldeft quartos, but is wanting in the folio. STEVENS.