the dutchess had been suspected. I cannot find the name in Holinshed. Surely the poet's fondness for a quibble has not induced him at once to personify and christen that hour of the day which summon'd his mother to breakfast. So, in The Wit of a Woman, 1592: "Gentlemen, time makes us brief: our old mis tress, Houre, is at hand." The common cant phrase of dining with duke Humphrey, I have never yet heard satisfactorily explained. It appears, however, from a satirical pamphlet called the Guls Horn-booke, 1609, written by T. Decker, that in the ancient church of St. Paul, one of the ailes was called Duke Humphrey's Walk, in which those who had no means of procuring a dinner, affected to loiter. Decker concludes his fourth chapter thus: "By this I imagine you have walked your bellyful, and there upon being weary, or (which is rather, I beleeve) being most gentleman-like, hungry, it is fit that as [ brought you unto the duke, so (because he followes the fashion of great men in keeping no house, and that therefore you must go seeke your dinner) suffer me to take you by the hand and leade you into an ordinary." 'The title of this chapter is, "How a gallant should behave himself in Powles Walkes.". Hall, in the 7th Satire, B. III. seems to confirm this interpretation : "'Tis Ruffio: Trow'st thou where he din'd today? "In sooth I saw him sit with duke Humfray: "Manie good welcoms, and much gratis cheere, Hall's Satires, Edit. 1602, p. 60. See likewise Foure Letters and certain Sonnets, by Gabriel Harvey, 1592: -to seeke his dinner in Poules with duke Humphrey to licke dishes, to be a beggar.” Again, in the Return of the Knight of the Post, &c. by Nash, 1606: "in the end comming into Poules, to behold the old duke and his guests," &c. Again, in A wonderful, strange, and miraculous Prognostication, for this Year, &c. 1591, by Nash: -sundry fellowes in their silkes shall be appointed to keepe duke Humfrye company in Poules, because they know not where to get their dinners abroad." If it be objected that duke Humphrey was buried at St. Albans, let it likewise be remembered that cenotaphs were not uncommon. STEEVENS. 490. Shame serves thy life,] To serve is to accompany, servants being near the persons of their JOHNSON. masters. 493. Stay, madam,- -] On this dialogue it is not necessary to bestow much criticism: part of it is ridiculous, and the whole improbable. JOHNSON. 506. she is of royal blood.] The folio readsshe is a royal princess. STEEVENS. 510. Lo, at their births-] Perhaps we should read No, at their births TYRWHITT. 522. 'Till it was whetted on thy stone-hard heart,] This conceit seems to have been a great favourite of Shakspere. We meet with it more than once. In K. Henry IV. Part II: "Thou hid'st a thousand daggers in thy thoughts, "Which thou hast whetted on thy stony heart, To stab," &c. Again, in the Merchant of Venice: "Not on thy soal, but on thy soul, harsh Jew, "Thou mak'st thy knife keen STEEVENS. 539. The high imperial type-] Type is exhibition, shew, display. JOHNSON, The canopy placed over a pulpit is still called by architects a type. It is, I apprehend, in a similar sense that the word is here used. HENLEY. 542. Canst thou demise-] To demise is to grant, from demittere, to devolve a right from one to another, STEEVENS. 545. So in the Lethe of thy angry soul Thou drown the sad remembrance of those wrongs,] So, in King Henry IV. Part II : "May this be wash'd in Lethe, and forgotten." 571. STEEVENS, as sometime Margaret] Here is another JOHNSON. reference to the plays of Henry VI. 587. Nay, then indeed, she cannot choose, but hate thee,] The sense seems to require that we should read, Fiij - bus ironically. -but love thee, TYRWHITT. 588. bloody spoil.] Spoil is waste, havock. JOHNSON. 602. bid like sorrow.] Bid is in the past tense from bide. 644. JOHNSON. which the king's King forbids] Alluding to the prohibition in the Levitical law. See Leviticus xviii. 14. GREY. 648. But how long shall that title, ever, last ?] Young has borrowed this thought in his Universal Passion: "But say, my all, my mistress, and my friend, "What day next week th' eternity shall end ?" STEEVENS. 653. --am her subject low.] Thus the folio. The quartos read: -her subject love. STEEVENS. 662. Harp not, &c.] In the regulation of these short pieces I have followed the first and second quartos. STEEVENS. 681. with heaven.] The quarto reads-by STEEVENS. 684.- -by him.] Thus all the old copies. The modern ones read: him. The folio-with him. with heaven. I have restored the old reading, because him (the oblique case of he) was anciently used for it, in a neutral sense. STEEVENS. Shakspere, Shakspere, I have no doubt, wrote by him in both places. This appears from the first words of this speech, which begun originally : God's wrong is most of all. The players probably substituted Heaven instead of the sacred name, in this and many other places, after the passing of the stat. 3 Jac. I. c. 21.; and having changed-God's wrong-to Heaven's wrong, it became necessary to read, "an oath with Heaven," instead of "an oath by him." MALONE. 688.. Which now, two tender, &c.] Mr. Roderick observes, that the word two is without any force, and would read: Which now too tender, &c. STEEVENS. 728. in that nest of spicery,-] Alluding to the phœnix. STEEVENS. 744. Some light-foot friend post to the duke-] Richard's precipitation and confusion is in this scene very happily represented by inconsistent orders, and sudden variations of opinion. JOHNSON. -white-liver'd runagate,] This epithet, descriptive of cowardice, is not peculiar to Shakspere. Stephen Gosson in his School of Abuse, 1579, speaking of the Helots, says, 770. "Leave those precepts to the white-livered Hylotes." STEEVENS. 777. What heir of York--] i. e. What son of Richard duke of York? 811. nents. REMARKS. -more competitors] That i,more oppo JOHNSON |
