Drones suck not eagles' blood, but rob bee-hives. It is impossible, that I should die

By such a lowly vassal as thyself.

Thy words move rage, and not remorse, in me :* go of message from the queen to France;

'I

"I charge thee, waft me safely cross the channel. 'CAP. Walter,

'WHIT. Come, Suffolk, I must waft thee to thy

death.

*SUF. Gelidus timor occupat artus :5-'tis thee

I fear.

is the famous Theopompus's History: "Bargulus, Illyrius latro, de quo est apud Theopompum, magnas opes habuit. Lib. II. cap. xi. WARBURTON.

Dr. Farmer observes that Shakspeare might have met with this pirate in two translations. Robert Whytinton, 1533, calls him "Bargulus, a pirate upon the see of Illiry;" and Nicholas Grimoald, about twenty-three years afterwards, "Bargulus, the Illyrian robber.”

Bargulus does not make his appearance in the quarto; but we have another hero in his room. The Captain, says Suffolk, "Threatens more plagues than mighty Abradas,

"The great Macedonian pirate."

I know nothing more of this Abradas, than that he is mentioned by Greene in his Penelope's Web, 1601:

"Abradas the great Macedonian pirat thought every one had

a letter of mart that bare sayles in the ocean."

STEEVENS.

Here we see another proof of what has been before suggested. See p. 285, n. 9; and p. 311, n. 1. MALONE.

4

Thy words move rage, and not remorse, in me: :] This line Shakspeare has injudiciously taken from the Captain, to whom it is attributed in the original play, and given it to Suffolk; for what remorse, that is, pity, could Suffolk be called upon to show to his assailant? whereas the Captain might with propriety say to his captive-thy haughty language exasperates me, instead of exciting my compassion. MALONE.

Perhaps our author meant (however imperfectly he may have expressed himself,) to make Suffolk say" Your words excite my anger, instead of prompting me to solicit pity." STEEVENS,

* Gelidus timor occupat artus:] The folio, where alone this

'WHIT. Thou shalt have cause to fear, before I leave thee.

What, are ye daunted now? now will ye stoop?

1 GENT. My gracious lord, entreat him, speak

him fair.

'SUF. Suffolk's imperial tongue is stern and

rough,

'Us'd to command, untaught to plead for favour. Far be it, we should honour such as these

With humble suit: no, rather let my head

Stoop to the block, than these knees bow to any, "Save to the God of heaven, and to my king; • And sooner dance upon a bloody pole,

‹ Than stand uncover'd to the vulgar groom.

line is found, reads-Pine, &c. a corruption, I suppose, of [pene] the word that I have substituted in its place. I know not what other word could have been intended. The editor of the second folio, and all the modern editors, have escaped the difficulty by suppressing the word. The measure is of little consequence, for no such line, I believe, exists in any classick author. Dr. Grey refers us to "Ovid de Trist. 313, and Metamorph. 247 :" a very wide field to range in; however with some trouble I found out what he meant. This line is not in Ovid; (nor I believe in any other poet;) but in his De Tristibus, Lib. I. El. iii. 113, we find:

"Navita, confessus gelido pallore timorem,”and in his Metamorph. Lib. IV. 247, we meet with these lines: "Ille quidem gelidos radiorum viribus artus, "Si queat, in vivum tentat revocare calorem."

MALONE.

In the eleventh Book of Virgil, Turnus (addressing Drances) says

66

cur ante tubam tremor occupat artus?” This is as near, I conceive, to Suffolk's quotation, as either of the passages already produced. Yet, somewhere, in the wide expanse of Latin Poetry, ancient and modern, the very words in question may hereafter be detected.

Pene, the gem which appears to have illuminated the dreary mine of collation, is beheld to so little advantage above-ground, that I am content to leave it where it was discovered.

STEEVENS.

*True nobility is exempt from fear:

6

More can I bear, than you dare execute. " 'CAP. Hale him away, and let him talk no more. "SUF. Come, soldiers, show what cruelty ye can," That this my death may never be forgot!"Great men oft die by vile bezonians :

' A Roman sworder and banditto slave, 'Murder'd sweet Tully; Brutus' bastard hand'

More can I bear, than you dare execute.] So, in King Henry VIII:

66

I am able now, methinks,

"(Out of a fortitude of soul I feel,)

"To endure more miseries, and greater far,
"Than my weak-hearted enemies dare offer."
Again, in Othello:

"Thou hast not half that power to do me harm,
"As I have to be hurt." MALONE.

7 Come, soldiers, show what cruelty ye can,] In the folio this line is given to the Captain by the carelessness of the printer or transcriber. The present regulation was made by Sir Thomas Hanmer, and followed by Dr. Warburton. See the latter part of note 6, p. 313. MALONE.

Surely (as has been suggested) this line belongs to the next speech. No cruelty was meditated beyond decollation; and without such an introduction, there is an obscure abruptness in the beginning of Suffolk's reply to the Captain. Steevens.

8

bezonians:] See a note on the 2d part of K. Henry IV. Act V. sc. iii. Vol. XII:

ἐσ Bisognoso, is a mean low man.”

So, in Sir Giles Goosecap, 1606:

66 -if he come to me like y your Besognio, or your boor." Again, in Markham's English Husbandman, p. 4:

"The ordinary tillers of the earth, such as we call husbandmen; in France peasants, in Spain besonyans, and generally the cloutshoe." STEEVENS.

9 A Roman sworder &c.] i. e. Herennius, a centurion, and Popilius Laenas, tribune of the soldiers. STEEVENs.

1

Brutus bastard hand-] Brutus was the son of Servilia, a Roman lad,y who had been concubine to Julius Cæsar.

STEEVENS.

Stabb'd Julius Cæsar; savage islanders, Pompey the great:2 and Suffolk dies by pirates. [Exit SUF. with WHIT. and Others.

CAP. And as for these whose ransome we have

set,

It is our pleasure, one of them depart :-
Therefore come you with us, and let him go.

[Exeunt all but the first Gentleman.

Re-enter WHITMORE, with SUFFOLK'S Body.

'WHIT. There let his head and lifeless body lie, Until the queen his mistress bury it.3

L

[Exit.

Pompey the great:] The poet seems to have confounded the story of Pompey with some other. JOHNSON.

This circumstance might be advanced as a slight proof, in aid of many stronger, that our poet was no classical scholar. Such a one could not easily have forgotten the manner in which the life of Pompey was concluded. Pompey, however, is not in the quarto. Spenser likewise abounds with deviations from established history and fable. STEEvens.

Pompey being killed by Achillas and Septimius at the moment that the Egyptian fishing boat in which they were, reached the coast, and his head being thrown into the sea, (a circumstance which Shakspeare found in North's translation of Plutarch,) his mistake does not appear more extraordinary than some others which have been remarked in his works.

It is remarkable that the introduction of Pompey was among Shakspeare's additions to the old play: This may account for the classical error, into which probably the original author would not have fallen. In the quarto the lines stand thus: "A sworder, and banditto slave "Murdered sweet Tully;

"Brutus' bastard hand stabb'd Julius Cæsar,
"And Suffolk dies by pirates on the seas."

MALONE.

There let his head &c.] Instead of this speech, the quarto

gives us the following:

1 GENT. O barbarous and bloody spectacle! "His body will I bear unto the king: If he revenge it not, yet will his friends ; 'So will the queen, that living held him dear. [Exit, with the Body.

SCENE II.

Blackheath.

Enter GEORGE BEVIS and JOHN HOLLand.

GEO. Come, and get thee a sword, though 'made of a lath; they have been up these two days. 'JOHN. They have the more need to sleep now then.

ཐཱ

• GEO. I tell thee,5 Jack Cadê the clothier means to dress the commonwealth, and turn it, and set a new nap upon it.

"Cap. Off with his head, and send it to the queen, "And ransomless this prisoner shall go free, "To see it safe deliver'd unto her." STEEVENS.

See p. 323, n. 8, and the notes there referred to. MALONE. See Sir John Fenn's Collection of The Paston Letters, Vol. I. p. 40. HENLEY.

4

get thee a sword,] The quarto reads Come away, Nick, and put a long staff in thy pike, &c. STEEVENS.

So afterwards, instead of " Cade the clothier," we have in the quarto "Cade the dyer of Ashford." See the notes above referred to. MALONE.

5 I tell thee,] In the original play this speech is introduced more naturally. Nick asks George "Sirra George, what's the matter?" to which George replies, "Why marry, Jack Cade, the dyer of Ashford here," &c. MALONE.