A Select Collection of Old English Plays Volume Viii Part 105

[301] [Accepted.]

[302] [Old copy, _muddy_.]

[303] [A very unusual phrase, which seems to be used here in the sense of _masculine pa.s.sions or properties_.]

[304] In the old copy it stands thus--

"Yes, but I do: I think not Isabel, Lord, The worse for any writing of Brunes."

[In the MS. both Lord and Le were probably abbreviated into L., and hence the misprint, as well as misplacement, in the first line.]

[305] [i.e., You may count on her wealth as yours. We now say to build _on_, but to build _of_ was formerly not unusual.]

[306] See the notes of Dr Johnson, Steevens, and other commentators on the words in the "Comedy of Errors," act ii. sc. 1--"Poor I am but his _stale_." [See also Dyce's "Shakespeare Glossary," 1868, in v.]

[307] The stage directions are often given very confusedly, and (taken by themselves) unintelligibly, in the old copy, of which this instance may serve as a specimen: it stands thus in the 4to--"_Enter Fitzwater and his son Bruce, and call forth his daughter_."

[308] [A feeder of the Wye. Lewis's "Book of English Rivers," 1855, p. 212.]

[309] Alluding most likely to the "Andria" of Terence, which had been translated [thrice] before this play was acted; the first time [in 1497, again about 1510, and the third time] by Maurice Kiffin in 1588. [The former two versions were anonymous. See Hazlitt's "Handbook," p. 605.]

[310] _Holidom_ or _halidom_, according to Minsheu (Dict. 1617), is "an old word used by old country-women, by manner of swearing by my _halidome_; of the Saxon word _haligdome, ex halig, sanctum_, and _dome, dominium aut judicium_." Shakespeare puts it into the mouth of the host in the "Two Gentlemen of Verona," act iv. sc. 2.

[311] The entrance of Richmond clearly takes place here, but in the 4to he is said to come in with Leicester.

[312] [See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," p. 22.]

[313] [In the 4to and former editions this and the following nine words are given to Richmond.]

[314] Meaning that her father Fitzwater [takes her, she having declined to pair off with the king.] The whole account of the mask is confused in the old copy, and it is not easy to make it much more intelligible in the reprint.

[315] [The proverb is: "There are more maids than Malkin." See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," p. 392.]

[316] [Old copy, _Had_.]

[317] This line will remind the reader of Shakespeare's "mult.i.tudinous seas incarnardine," in "Macbeth," act ii. sc. 1.

[318] This answer unquestionably belongs to the king, and is not, as the 4to gives it, a part of what Leicester says. It opens with an allusion to the crest of Leicester, similar to that noticed in the "Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington."

[319] [Old copy, _by G.o.d's_.]

[320] [Old copy, _armed men_.]

[321] [Old copy, _shall_.]

[322] [An allusion to the proverb.]

[323] This and other pa.s.sages refer probably to the old play of "King John," printed in 1591, [or to Shakespeare's own play which, though not printed till 1623, must have been familiar to the public, and more especially to dramatic authors.]

[324] In this line; in the old copy, _Salisbury_ is made to call himself _Oxford_.

[325] The 4to reads _Enter or above Hugh, Winchester. Enter or above_ means, that they may either enter on the stage, or stand above on the battlements, as may suit the theatre. With regard to the names _Hugh_ and _Winchester_, they are both wrong; they ought to be _Hubert_ and _Chester_, who have been left by the king to _keep good watch_. When, too, afterwards Chester asks--

"What, Richmond, will you prove a runaway?"--

the answer in the old copy is--

"From thee, good _Winchester_? now, the Lord defend!"

It ought to be--

"From thee, good _Chester_? now the Lord defend!"

And it is clear that the measure requires it. The names throughout are very incorrectly given, and probably the printer composed from a copy in which some alterations had been made in the _dramatis personae_, but incompletely. Hence the perpetual confusion of _Salisbury_ and _Oxford_.

[326] The scene changes from the outside to the inside of the castle.

[327] [Without muscle, though muscle and bristle are strictly distinct.]

[328] To _tire_ is a term in falconry: from the Fr. _tirer_, in reference to birds of prey tearing what they take to pieces.

[329] The 4to prints _Ilinnus_.

[330] [Old copy, _a deed_.]

[331] The 4to has it _Elinor_, but it ought to be _Isabel_. The previous entrance of the Queen and Matilda is not marked.

[332] [_Fairness_, in which sense the word has already occurred in this piece.]

[333] [i.e., Champion.]

[334] Matilda's name is omitted in the old copy, but the errors of this kind are too numerous to be always pointed out.

[335] [Old copy, _Triumvirates_.]

[336] Nothing can more clearly show the desperate confusion of names in this play than this line, which in the 4to stands--

"It's Lord _Hugh Burgh_ alone: _Hughberr_, what newes?"

In many places Hubert is only called _Hugh_.

[337] Company or collection.

[338] _Head of hungry wolves_ is the reading of the original copy: a "_herd_" of hungry wolves would scarcely be proper, but it may have been so written. [_Head_ may be right, and we have not altered it, as the word is occasionally used to signify a gathering or force.]

[339] In the old copy the four following lines are given to King John.

[340] [Old copy, _warres_.]