Then check'd and rated by Northumberland,- That I and greatnefs were compell'd to kifs :- WAR. There is a history in all men's lives, Such things become the hatch and brood of time; 3 -I had no fuch intent ;] He means, "I should have had no fuch intent, but that neceffity" &c. or Shakspeare has here alfo forgotten his former play, or has chosen to make Henry forget his fituation at the time mentioned. He had then actually accepted the crown. See King Richard II. A& IV. fc. i: "In God's name, I'll afcend the regal throne." MALONE. And, by the neceffary form of this,] I think we might better read: the neceffary form of things. The word this has no very evident antecedent. JOHNSON. And, by the neceffary form of these, i. c. the things mentioned in the preceding line. STEEVENS. And, by the neceffary form of this, is, I apprehend, to be understood this hiftory of the times deceased. HENLEY. King Richard might create a perfect guess, K. HEN. Are these things then neceffities? 5 Then let us meet them like neceffities:"— And that fame word even now cries out on us; WAR. It cannot be, my lord; Rumour doth double, like the voice and echo, The powers that you already have fent forth, To comfort you the more, I have receiv'd A certain inftance, that Glendower is dead." Are these things then neceffities?] I fufpect that-things then are interpolated words. They corrupt the measure, do not improve the fenfe, and the anticipation of then diminishes the force of the fame adverb in the following line. STEEVENS. • Then let us meet them like neceffities:] I am inclined to read : Then let us meet them like neceffity. That is, with the refiftiefs violence of neceffity; then comes more aptly the following line: And that fame word even now cries out on us. That is, the word neceffity. JOHNSON. That is, let us meet them with that patience and quiet temper with which men of fortitude meet thofe events which they know to be inevitable.-I cannot approve of Johnson's explana tion. M. MASON. 7 that Glendower is dead.] Glendower did not die till after King Henry IV. Shakspeare was led into this error by Holinfhed, who places Owen Glendower's death in the tenth year of Henry's reign. See Vol. XI. p. 324, n. 5. MALONE. Your majefty hath been this fortnight ill; K. HEN. I will take your counsel : And, were these inward wars once out of hand, [Exeunt. SCENE II. Court before Juftice Shallow's Houfe in Gloucefter fhire.9 Enter SHALLOW and SILENCE, meeting; MOULDY, SHADOW, WART, FEEBLE, BULL-CALF, and Servants, behind. SHAL. Come on, come on, come on; give me your hand, fir, give me your hand, fir: an early 8 unto the Holy Land.] This play, like the former, proceeds in one unbroken tenor through the first edition, and there is therefore no evidence that the divifion of the Acts was made by the author. Since, then, every editor has the fame right to mark the intervals of action as the players, who made the prefent diftribution, I fhould propose that this scene may be added to the foregoing Act, and the remove from London to Gloucestershire be made in the intermediate time, but that it would fhorten the next Act too much, which has not, even now, its due proportion to the reft. JOHNSON. "Juftice Shallow's Houfe in Gloucestershire.] From the following paffage in The Return from Parnaffus, 1606, we may conclude that Kempe was the original Justice Shallow.-Burbage and Kempe are introduced, inftructing fome Cambridge ftudents to act. Burbage makes one of the ftudents repeat fome lines of Hieronymo and King Richard III. Kempe fays to another," Now for you,-methinks you belong to my tuition; and your face methinks would be good for a foolish ftirrer, by the rood. And how doth my good coufin Silence? SIL. Good morrow, good coufin Shallow. SHAL. And how doth my coufin, your bedfellow? and your faireft daughter, and mine, my goddaughter Ellen? SIL. Alas, a black ouzel, cousin Shallow. SHAL. By yea and nay, fir, I dare fay, my coufin William is become a good scholar: He is at Oxford, ftill, is he not? Mayor, or a foolish Juftice of Peace."-And again: "Thou wilt do well in time if thou wilt be ruled by thy betters, that is, by myselfe, and fuch grave aldermen of the play-house as I am." It appears from Nafhe's Apologie of Pierce Penniless, 1593, that he likewife played the Clown: "What can be made of a ropemaker more than a clowne. Will. Kempe, I mistrust it will fall to thy lot for a merriment one of these dayes." MALONE. I by the rood.] i. e. the crofs. POPE. Hearne, in his Gloffary to Peter Langtoft, p. 544, under the word cross, obferves, that although the cross and the rood are commonly taken for the fame, yet the rood properly fignified formerly the image of Chrift on the crofs; fo as to reprefent both the crofs and figure of our bleffed Saviour, as he fuffered upon it. The roods that were in churches and chapels were Roodloft, (faith placed in shrines that were called rood lofts. Blount,) is a fhrine whereon was placed the cross of Chrift. The rood was an image of Chrift on the crofs, made generally of wood, and erected in a loft for that purpose, just over the paffage out of the church into the chancel." REED. 66 Bullokar, however, is a better authority than any of these, being contemporary with Shakspeare. In his English Expofitor, 8vo. 1616, he defines roode thus: "In land it fignifies a quarter of an acre. It is fometimes taken for the picture of our Saviour upon the crofs." MALONE. 2 Sil.] The oldest copy of this play was published in 1600. It muft however have been acted fomewhat earlier, as in Ben Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour, which was performed in 1599, is the following reference to it: "No, lady, this is a kinfman to Justice Silence." STEEVENS. SIL. Indeed, fir; to my coft. SHAL. He must then to the inns of court fhortly: I was once of Clement's-inn; where, I think, they will talk of mad Shallow yet. SIL. You were called-lufty Shallow, then, coufin. SHAL. By the mass, I was called any thing; and I would have done any thing, indeed, and roundly too. There was I, and little John Doit of Staffordfhire, and black George Bare, and Francis Pickbone, and Will Squele a Cotswold man,3-you had not four fuch swinge-bucklers in all the inns of court 3 Will Squele a Cotswold man,] The games at Cotswold were, in the time of our author, very famous. Of these I have feen accounts in feveral old pamphlets; and Shallow, by diftinguishing Will Squele, as a Cotswold man, meant to have him understood as one who was well verfed in manly exercises, and confequently of a daring fpirit, and an athletic conftitution. STEEVENS. The games of Cotswold, I believe, did not commence till the reign of James I. I have never feen any pamphlet that mentions them as having exifted in the time of Elizabeth. Randolph fpeaks of their revival in the time of Charles I.; and from Dover's book they appear to have been revived in 1636. But this does not prove that they were exhibited in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. They certainly were in that of King James, and were probably difcontinued after his death. However, Cotswold might have been long famous for meetings of tumultuous fwinge-bucklers. See Vol. V. p. 16, n. 6. MALONE. fwinge-bucklers-] Swinge-bucklers and fwash-bucklers were words implying rakes or rioters in the time of Shakfpeare. Nafh, addreffing himfelf to his old opponent Gabriel Harvey, 1598, fays: "Turpe fenex miles, 'tis time for fuch an olde foole to leave playing the fwash-buckler.” Again, in The Devil's Charter, 1607, Caraffa fays, "when I was a fcholar in Padua, faith, then I could have swinged a fword and buckler,". &c. STEEVENS. "Weft Smithfield (fays the Continuator of Stowe's Annals, |