In deadly hate the one against the other: Enter CLARENCE, guarded, and BRAKENBURY. Clar. His majesty, Tendering my person's safety, hath appointed This conduct to convey me to the Tower. Glo. Upon what cause? Clar. Because my name is George. Glo. Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours; Clar. Yea, Richard, when I know; for, I protest, And, for my name of George begins with G,5 3 Edward be as true and just,] The meaning is, if Edward keeps his word. Johnson. May not this mean-If Edward hold his natural disposition and be true to that? M. Mason. 4 He hearkens after prophecies, and dreams;] From Holinsbed: "Some have reported that the cause of this nobleman's death rose of a foolish prophesie, which was, that after king Edward should raign one whose first letter of his name should be a G; wherewith the king and the queene were sore troubled, and began to conceive a grievous grudge against this duke, and could not be in quiet till they had brought him to his end." Philip de Comines, a contemporary historian, says that the English at that time were never unfurnished with some prophecy or other, by which they accounted for every event. Malone. 5 And, for my name of George begins with G, &c.] So, in Nichols's Tragical Life and Death of Richard III: It follows in his thought, that I am he: 'Tis not the king, that sends you to the Tower; Same Clar. By heaven, I think, there is no man secure, Glo. Humbly complaining to her deity The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,1 6 "By that blind riddle of the letter G, "George lost his life; it took effect in me." Steevens. So, in Hamlet, Act I, sc. iv : "The very place puts toys of desperation, "Without more motive, into every brain." Reed. 7 That tempers him to this extremity.] I have collated the ori ginal quarto published in 1597, verbatim with that of 1598. In the first copy this line stands thus: "That tempers him to this extremity." and so undoubtedly we should read. To temper is to mould, to fashion. So, in Titus Andronicus : "Now will I to that old Andronicus; "And temper him, with all the art I have, "To pluck proud Lucius from the warlike Goths." Malone. * To temper is not to mold or to fashion, but to harden, to soften, to molify, any thing to suit the purpose for which it is intended. Am. Ed. 8 Humbly complaining &c.] I think these two lines might be better given to Clarence. Johnson. 9 The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,] That is, the Queen and Shore. Johnson. Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen, Brak. I beseech your graces both to pardon me; His majesty hath straitly given in charge, Glo. Even so? an please your worship, Brakenbury, A bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue; Brak. With this, my lord, myself have nought to do. fellow, He that doth naught with her, excepting one, 1 Well struck in years;] This odd expression in our language was preceded by others as uncouth though of a similar kind. Thus, in Arthur Hall's translation of the first Book of Homer's Iliad, 1581: Again: "In Grea's forme, the good handmaid, nowe wel ystept in yeares." " Well shot in years he seem'd," &c. Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. V, c. vi. The meaning of neither is very obvious; but as Mr. Warton has observed in his essay on The Fairy Queen, by an imperceptible progression from one kindred sense to another, words at length obtain a meaning entirely foreign to their original etymology. Steevens. 2 And the queen's kindred-] The old copies harshly and unnecessarily read And that the queen's &c. Steevens. 3-alone.] Surely the adjective-alone, is an interpolation, as what the Duke is talking of, is seldom undertaken before witnesses. Besides, this word deranges the metre, which, without it, would be regular: -for instance: Were best to do it secretly. My lord? What one, Her husband, knave:-Would'st thou betray me? Steevens. Brak. What one, my lord? Glo. Her husband, knave :- Would'st thou betray me? Brak. 1 beseech your grace to pardon me; and, withal, Forbear your conference with the noble duke. Clar. We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey. Brother, farewel: I will unto the king; Clar. I know, it pleaseth neither of us well. 4- the queen's abjects,] That is, not the queen's subjects whom she might protect, but her abjects whom she drives away. Johnson. So, in The Case is altered. How? Ask Dalio and Milo, 1604: "This ougly object, or rather abject of nature." Henderson. I cannot approve of Johnson's explanation. Gloster forms a substantive from the adjective abject, and uses it to express a lower degree of submission than is implied by the word subject, which otherwise he would naturally have made use of. The Queen's abjects, means the most servile of her subjects, who must of course obey all her commands; which would not be the case of those whom she had driven away from her. In a preceding page Gloster had said of Shore's wife "-I think, it is our way, "If we will keep in favour with the king, The idea is the same in both places, though the expression differs.-In Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, Puntarvolo says to Swift: "I'll make thee stoop, thou abject!" M. Mason. This substantive was not of Shakspeare's formation. We meet with it in Psalm xxxv, 15: " - yea the very abjects came together against me unawares, making mouths at me, and ceased not." Steevens. 5 Were it to call King Edward's widow-sister,] This is a very covert and subtle manner of insinuating treason. The natural expression would have been, were it to call king Edward's wife, sister. I will solicit for you, though it should be at the expence of so much degradation and constraint, as to own the low-born wife of King Edward for a sister. But by slipping, as it were casually, widow, into the place of wife, he tempts Clarence with an oblique proposal to kill the King. Johnson. King Edward's widow is, I believe, only an expression of contempt, meaning the widow Grey, whom Edward had chosen for his queen. Gloster has already called her, the jealous d'er-worn widow. Steevens. Glo. Well, your imprisonment shall not be long; I will deliver you, or else lie for you:6 Mean time, have patience. Clar. I must perforce; farewel. Hast. Good time of day unto my gracious lord! Hast. With patience, noble lord, as prisoners must: Glo. No doubt, no doubt; and so shall Clarence too; For they, that were your enemies, are his, And have prevail'd as much on him, as you. Hast. More pity, that the eagle should be mew'd,8 While kites and buzzards prey at liberty. Glo. What news abroad? Hast. No news so bad abroad, as this at home ;- Glo. Now, by saint Paul, this news is bad indeed. O, he hath kept an evil diet1 long, And over-much consum'd his royal person; 6 - lie for you:] He means to be imprisoned in your stead. To lie was anciently to reside, as appears by many instances in these volumes. Reed. 7 I must perforce;) Alluding to the proverb, "Patience perforce, is a medicine for a mad dog." Steevens. 8 should be mew'd,] A mew was the place of confinement where a hawk was kept till he had moulted. So, in Albumazar: "Stand forth, transform'd Antonio, fully mew'd "From brown soar feathers of dull yeomanry, "To the glorious bloom of gentry." Steevens. 9 Now, by saint Paul, The folio reads : Now, by saint John, -. Steevens. 1- an evil diet-] i. e. a bad regimen. Steevens. |