Report of Fashions in proud Italy, 2 Whose manners still our tardy, apifh, Nation His rafh, fierce blaze of riot cannot laft; Confuming means, foon preys upon itself. This fortrefs, built by Nature for her felf, 2 Report of fashions in proud. Italy,] Our authour, who gives to all nations the customs of England, and to all ages the manners of his own; has charged the times of Richard with a folly not perhaps known then, but very frequent in Shakespeare's time, and much lamented by the wifeft and beft of our ancestors. 3 Where Will doth mutiny with wit's regard.] Where the will rebels against the notices of the understanding. -whofe way him!e'f avill chufe ;] Do not attempt to guide him who, whatever thou halt fay, will take his own coure. lent. Rak. That is, hafty, vio 4 Again infection,—] I once fufpected that for infection we might read invafion; but the copies all agree, and I fuppofe Shakespeare meant to fay, that islanders are fecured by their fituation both frem war and pestilence. Which ferves it in the office of a wall, Against the envy of lefs happier Lands; This nurfe, this teeming womb of royal Kings, Of the world's Ranfom, bleffed Mary's Son; 5 Lefs happier lands.] So read all the editions, except Harmer's, which has happy. I believe Shakespeare, from the habit of faying more happier according to the custom of his time, inadvertently writ lefs happier. Fear'd for their breed, and famous by their birth.), The first edition in 4to, 1598, reads, Fsar'd by their breed, and fa- The fecond 4to in 1615, The first folio, though printed from the fecond quarto, reads as the first. The particles in this authour feem often to have been printed by chance. Perhaps the paffage, which appears a little difordered, may be regulated thus: -royal kings, Fear'd for their breed, and famous for their birth, For Chriftian service, and true chivalry; Renowned for their deeds as far from home As is the Sepulchre. SCENE S CENE II. Enter King Richard, Queen, Aumerle, Bushy, Green, Bagot, Rols, and Willoughby. York. The King is come, deal mildly with his youth: For young hot colts, being rag'd, do rage the more. Gaunt. Oh, how that Name befits my compofition! And who abftains from meat, that is not gaunt ? names? Gaunt. No, mifery makes sport to mock itself: K. Rich. Should dying men flatter those that live? me. Gaunt. Oh! no, thou dyeft, though I ficker be. Ill in my self, but feeing thee too, ill. Wherein Wherein thou lieft in Reputation fick ; Of thofe phyficians, that firft wounded thee. Thy wafte is no whit leffer than thy Land. 7 K. Rich. And thou, a lunatick lean-witted fool, Prefuming on an ague's privilege, 7 Thy ftate of law is bondflave to the law;] State of law, i. e. legal for rainty. But the Oxford Editor alters it to flate Per law, i. e. absolute fov'rainty. A doctrine, which, if our poet ever learnt at all, he learnt not in the reign when this play was written, Queen Elizabeth's, but in the reign after it, King James's. By bondjave to the law, the poet means his being inflaved to his favorite fubjects. WARBURTON. This fentiment, whatever it be, is obfcurely expreffed. I understand it differently from the learned commentator, being perhaps not quite fo zealous for ShakeSpeare's political reputation. The reafoning of Gaunt, I think, is this: By Jetting thy royalties to farm thou hajl reduced thyself to a fiate below fovereignty, thou art now no longer king but landlord of England, fubject to the fame refraint and limitations as other landlords; by making thy condition a state of law, a condition upon which the common rules of law can operate, thou art become a bondЛlave to the law; thou hast made thyself amenable to laws from which thou wert originally exempt. Whether this interpretation be true or no, it is plain that Dr. Warburton's explanation of bandflave to the law, is not true. Dar'ft Dar'ft with thy frozen admonition Make pale our cheek; chafing the royal blood Wert thou not Brother to Great Edward's fon, That blood already, like the Pelican, Haft thou tapt out, and drunkenly carows'd. have; For both haft thou, and both become the Grave. And thy unkindness be like crooked age, To crop at once a too-long wither'd flow'r.] Thus ftand thefe lines in all the copies, but I think there is an errour. Why fhould Gaunt, already old, call on any thing like age to end him? How can age be faid to crop at once? How is the idea of crookedness connected with that of cropping? I fuppofe the poet dictated thus: And thy unkindness be time's crooked edge To crop at once That is, let thy unkindness be time's fcythe to crop. Edge was eafily confounded by the ear with age, and one miftake once admitted made way for another. 9 Love they. That is, let them love. |