Is there a murderer here? No; - Yes; Iam:
Then fly, What, from myself? Great reason: Why?
Lest I revenge. What? Myself on myself?
I love myself.1 Wherefore? for any good,
That I myself have done unto myself?

O, no: alas, I rather hate myself,

For hateful deeds committed by myself.
I am a villain: Yet I lie, I am not.

Fool, of thyself speak well:- Fool, do not flatter.
My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.
Perjury perjury, in the high'st degree, foul
Murder, stern murder, in the dir'st degree;
All several sins, all us'd in each degree,
Throng to the bar, crying all,-Guilty! guilty!
I shall despair. There is no creature loves me;
And, if I die, no soul will pity me:-

Nay, wherefore should they? since that I myself
Find in myself no pity to myself.

Methought, the souls of all that I had murder'd2

1 I love myself) The old copies redundantly read-Alack, I love, &c. Steevens.

2 Methought, the souls &c.] These lines stand with so little propriety at the end of this speech, that I cannot but suspect them to be misplaced. Where then shall they be inserted? Perhaps after these words:

"Fool, do not flatter." Johnson.

I agree with Johnson in supposing that this and the two following lines have been misplaced, but I differ from him with respect to their just situation. -The place, in my opinion, in which they might be introduced with the most propriety, is just ten lines further on, after the words

"Ratcliff, I fear, I fear,-
"Methought,” &c.

And then Ratcliff's reply

"Nay, good my lord, be not afraid of shadows." would he natural; whereas as the text is now regulated, Ratcliff bids him not to be afraid of shadows, without knowing that he had been haunted by them; unless we suppose that the idea of shadows is included in what Richard calls a frightful dream. M. Mason.

Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
What do I fear? &c. -

Methought, the souls of all that I had murder'd-] Either the two and twenty intermediate lines are not Shakspeare's, or aro

Came to my tent; and every one did threat
To-morrow's vengeance on the head of Richard.

Rat. My lord,

Enter RATCLIFF.

K. Rich. Who's there?

Rat. Ratcliff, my lord; 'tis 1.3 The early village cock

Hath twice done salutation to the morn;

Your friends are up, and buckle on their armour.

K. Rich. O, Ratcliff, I have dream'd a fearful dream!What thinkest thou? will our friends prove all true? Rat. No doubt, my lord.

K. Rich

Ratcliff, I fear, I fear,Rat. Nay, good my lord, be not afraid of shadows. K. Rich. By the apostle Paul, shadows to-night Have struck more terror to the soul of Richard, Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers, Armed in proof, and led by shallow Richmond. It is not yet near day. Come, go with me; Under our tents I'll play the eaves-dropper, To hear, if any mean to shrink from me.

[Exeunt K. RICH. and RAT.

so unworthy of him, that it were to be wished they could with propriety be degraded to the margin. I wonder that Dr. Johnson, who thought the subsequent lines misplaced, did not perceive that their connection with the preceding part of the speech, ending at-trembling flesh, was interrupted solely by this apparent interpolation, which is in the highest degree childish and unnatural. Ritson.

I rather suppose these lines (though genuine) to have been crossed out of the stage manuscript by Shakspeare himself, and afterwards restored by the original but tasteless editor of this play.

Burbage, the first performer of Richard, might, for obvious reasons, have requested their dismission; or the poet discovering how awkwardly they stood, might, "without a prompter," have discarded them.

Steevens.

3-'tis 1.] Surely, these two syllables, serving only to derange the metre, should be omitted; or we ought to read: My lord, 'tis 1. The early village-cock-." Steevens.

4 0, Ratcliff, &c.] This and the two following lines are omitted in the folio. Yet Ratcliff is there permitted to say "be not afraid of shadows,” though Richard's dream has not been mentioned: an additional proof of what has been already suggested in p. 167, n. 8. Malone.

RICHMOND wakes. Enter OXFORD and Others. Lords. Good morrow, Richmond.

Richm. 'Cry mercy, lords, and watchful gentlemen,

That you have ta'en a tardy sluggard here.
Lords. How have you slept, my lord?

Richm. The sweetest sleep, and fairest-boding dreams,
That ever enter'd in a drowsy head,
Have I since your departure had, my lords.
Methought, their souls, whose bodies Richard murder'd,
Came to my tent, and cried-On! victory!
I promise you, my heart is very jocund
In the remembrance of so fair a dream.
How far into the morning is it, lords?
Lords. Upon the stroke of four.
Richm. Why, then 'tis time to arm, and give direc-
tion.
[He advances to the Troops.

More than I have said, loving countrymen,
The leisure and enforcement of the time
Forbids to dwell on: Yet remember this,-
God, and our good cause, fight upon our side;
The prayers of holy saints, and wronged souls,
Like high-rear'd bulwarks, stand before our faces;
Richard except, those, whom we fight against,
Had rather have us win, than him they follow.
For what is he they follow? truly, gentlemen,
A bloody tyrant, and a homicide;

One rais'd in blood, and one in blood establish'd;
One that made means to come by what he hath,
And slaughter'd those that were the means to help him;
A base foul stone, made precious by the foil
Of England's chair, where he is falsely set;

5 One that made means - To make means was, in Shakspeare's time, often used in an unfavourable sense, and signified-to come at any thing by indirect practices. Steevens.

6 by the foil

Of England's chair,] It is plain that foil cannot here mean that of which the obscurity recommends the brightness of the diamond. It must mean the leaf (feuille) or thin plate of metal in which the stone is set. Johnson.

Nothing has been, or is still more common, than to put a bright-coloured foil under a cloudy or low-prized stone. The same allusion is common to many writers. So, in a Song published in England's Helicon, 1614 :

One that hath ever been God's enemy:
Then, if you fight against God's enemy,
God will, in justice, ward you as his soldiers;
If you do sweat to put a tyrant down,
You sleep in peace, the tyrant being slain;
If you do fight against your country's foes,
Your country's fat shall pay your pains the hire;
If you do fight in safeguard of your wives,
Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors;
If you do free your children from the sword,
Your childrens' children quit it in your age.
Then, in the name of God, and all these rights,
Advance your standards, draw your willing swords:
For me, the ransom of my bold attempts
Shall be this cold corpse on the earth's cold face;
But if I thrive, the gain of my attempt
The least of you shall share his part thereof.
Sound, drums and trumpets, boldly and cheerfully;
God, and Saint George! Richmond, and victory!

[Exeunt.

"False stones by foiles have many one abus'd." Steevens. England's chair means England's throne. Set is used equivocally.

7

8

Malone.

-quit-] i. e. requite. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:
"To let a fellow who will take rewards,
"And say, God quit you!" Steevens.

the ransom of my bold attempt -) The fine paid by me in atonement for my rashness shall be my dead corse. Johnson. So, in Henry V, p. 297, Vol IX:

"My ransome is this frail and worthless trunk;" Am. Ed. 9 God, and Saint George!] Saint George was the common cry of the English soldiers when they charged the enemy. The author of the old Arte of Warre, printed in the latter end of Queen Elizabeth's reign, formally enjoins the use of this cry among his military laws, p. 84:

"Item, that all souldiers entring into battaile, assault, skirmish, or other faction of armes, shall have for their common cry and word, Saint George, forward, or upon them, saint George, whereby the souldiour is much comforted, and the enemy dismaied by calling to minde the ancient valour of England, which with that name has so often been victorious; and therefore he, who upon any sinister zeale, shall maliciously omit so fortunate a name, shall be severely punished for his obstinate erroneous heart, and perverse mind."

Hence too the humour of the following lines in Marston's nerRe-enter King RICHARD, RATCLIFF, Attendants, and Forces.

K. Rich. What said Northumberland, as touching

Richmond?

Rat. That he was never trained up in arms.
K. Rich. He said the truth: And what said Surrey

then?

Rat. He smil'd and said, the better for our purpose. K. Rich. He was i' the right; and so, indeed, it is.

[Clock strikes.

Tell the clock there. Give me a calendar.

Who saw the sun to-day?

Rat.

Not I, my lord.

K. Rich. Then he disdains to shine; for, by the book,

He should have brav'd the east1 an hour ago:

A black day will it be to somebody.

Ratcliff,

Rat. My lord?

K. Rich.

The sun will not be seen to-day;

The sky doth frown and lour upon our army.

I would, these dewy tears were from the ground.

Not shine to-day! Why, what is that to me,

vous but neglected satires, entitled The Scourge of Villainie, printed in 1599, Lib. III, Sat. viii:

"A pox upon't that Bacchis' name should be
"The watch-word given to the souldierie.
"Goe troupe to field, mount thy obscured fame,
"Cry out Saint George, invoke thy mistresse' name;
"Thy Mistresse and Saint George," &c.

In Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Pestle, that admirable and early ridicule of romance-writing, where the champion Ralph is going to attack the Barber, or the huge giant Barboroso, the burlesque is heightened, when, with much solemnity, and as if a real heroick encounter had been going forward, he cries out, "Saint George! set on before, march squire and page." Act III, sc. i. And afterwards, when the the engagement begins, Ralph says, "St. George for me:" and Barbaroso, "Garagantua for me." T. Warton.

1-brav'd the east -] i. e. made it splendid. So, Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew, says to the Tailor: " - thou hast braved many men [i. e. invested them with finery] brave not me." The common signification of the verb-to brave, will, in my apprehension, hardly suit the passage before us; for with what propriety can the sun be said to challenge or set the East at defiance? Steevens.

1