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270. Whose haughty spirit, winged with desire,

Will coast my crown, and, like an empty eagle,
Tire on the flesh-

nifies to hover over any thing.

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The word coast sig

WARBURTON.

The word which Dr. Warburton would introduce, appears to violate the metaphor, nor is to coast used as a term of falconry in any of the books professedly written on that subject. To coast is a sea-faring expression, and means to keep along shore. We may, however, maintain the integrity of the figure, by inserting the word cote, which is used in Hamlet, and in a sense convenient enough on this occasion :

"We coted them on the way."

To cote is to come up with, to overtake.

So, in The Return from Parnassus, a comedy, 1606: -marry, we presently coted and outstript

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them."

Yet I am not certain, that to coast is a sea-faring expression. It is used in the following passage to denote speed:

"And all in haste she coasteth to the cry."

Shakspere's Venus and Adonis. Again, in the Loyal Subject, by Beaumont and Fletcher: "Take you those horse, and coast them." Again, in The Maid of the Mill, by the same authors, two gentlemen are entering, and a lady asks:

-who are those that coast us "

Mr. Tollet observes, that Dr. Warburton's interpretation may be right, as Holinshed often uses the

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verb to coast, i. e. to hover, or range about any thing. "William Douglas still coasted the Englishmen, doing them what damage he might." So, again, p. 387, and 404, and in other writers.

To tire is to peck. So, in Decker's Match me in London, 1631:

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Dr. Warburton's alteration aims at a distinction without a difference, both cost and coast being ultimately deriviations of the same original. HENLEY.

273. those three lords- -] That is, of Northumberland, Westmoreland, and Clifford, who had left him in disgust. JOHNSON.

280. -sons, and brother, -] I believe we should read cousin instead of brother, unless brother be used by Shakspere as a term expressive of endearments, or because they embarked, like brothers, in one cause. Montague was only cousin to York, and in the quarto he is so called. Shakspere uses the expression, Brother of the war, in King Lear. STEEVENS. It should be sons and brothers; my sons, and brothers to each other. JOHNSON.

sons and brother. This is right. In the two succeeding pages York calls Montague brother. This may be in respect to their being brothers of the war, as Mr. Steevens observes, or of the same council as in K. Henry VIII. who says to Cranmer, "You are a brother of us," Montague was brother to Warwick; Warwick's

Warwick's daughter was married to a son of York: therefore York and Montague were brothers. But as this alliance did not take place during the life of York, I embrace Mr. Steevens's interpretation, rather than suppose that Shakspere made a mistake about the the time of the marriage. TOLLET.

Dr. Johnson's emendation is confirmed by the quarto, where York addresses only his sons :

How now sonnes! what jarre among yourselves!

MALONE.

282. No quarrel, but a slight contention.] Thus the players, first, in their edition; who did not understand, I presume, the force of the epithet in the old quarto, which I have restored-sweet contention, i. e. the argument of their dispute was on a grateful topick; the question of their father's immediate right to the THEOBALD.

crown.

298. An oath is of no moment,-] The obligation of an oath is here eluded by very despicable sophistry. A lawful magistrate alone has the power to exact an oath, but the oath derives no part of its force from the magistrate. The plea against the obligation of an oath obliging to maintain an usurper, taken from the unlawfulness of the oath itself in the foregoing play, was rational and just. JOHNSON.

319. In former edititions:

Witty, courteous, liberal, full of spirit.] Wiitý, anciently signified, of sound judgment. The poet calls Buckingham," the deep-revolving, witty Bucking

ham."

STEEVENS.

324.

324. Enter a Messenger.] Thus the quartos; the folio reads, Enter Gabriel. STEEVENS.

Instead of Gabriel, Messenger should be prefixed to this speech. Gabriel was the actor who played this inconsiderable part. He is mentioned by Haywood, in his Apology for Actors, 1612. MALONE.

325. The queen with all, &c.] I know not whether the author intended any moral instruction; but he that reads this has a striking admonition against that precipitancy by which men often use unlawful means to do that which a little delay would put honestly in their power. Had York staid but a few moments, he had saved his cause from the stain of perjury. JOHNSON. -his Tutor.] A priest called Sir Robert

352.

Aspall, Hall. Hen. VI. fo. 99.

REMARKS.

That is, the lion

363. So looks the pent-up lion-] that hath been long confined without food, and is let out to devour a man condemned. JOHNSON.

391. Rutland is under a mistake. The battle of St. Alban's, in which old Clifford was slain, happened in 1455; that of Wakefield in 1460. He appears to have been at this time above seventeen years old. REMARKS.

400. This line is in Ovid's Epistle from Phillis to Demophoon. I find the same quotation in, Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Hervey's Hunt is up, &c. 1596. STEEVENS. 406. My uncles both are slain in rescuing me ;] These

were

were two bastard uncles by the mother's side, Sir John and Sir Hugh Mortimer. See Grafton's Chronicle.

PERCY.

423. We bodg'd again ;—] I find bodgery used by Nashe in his Apologie of Pierce Penniless, 1593, for botchery:

"Do you know your own misbegotten bodgery?" To bodge might therefore mean (as to botch does now) to do a thing imperfectly and awkwardly; and thence to fail or miscarry in an attempt.

Since I wrote the above, I met with the following passage in Nashe's Preface to Greene's Arcadia, which confirms my conjecture:

-to bodge up a blank verse with ifs and ands." In Davies's Scourge of Folly, printed about 1611, the word bodge is used for a stop or hitch, a sense which will suit here:

"Here is a bodge; bots on't; farewell my pen! "My muse is dull'd; another time will serve.

438.

on the dial.

MALONE.

-noon-tide prick.] Or, noon-tide point JOHNSON.

463. It is war's prize-] All 'vantages are in war lawful prize; that is, may be lawfully taken and used. JOHNSON. 472. That raught] i. e. That reach'd. The ancient preterite and participle passive of reach.

STEEVENS.

That

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