Think, how thou stab'dst me in my prime of youth King Henry's issue, Richmond, comforts thee. The Ghost of King HENRY the Sixth rises. [TO K. RICH. By thee was punched full of deadly holes:7 Virtuous and holy, be thou conqueror! [TO RICHM. Ghost. Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow! [To K. RICH. Hall and Holinshed, is as follows: "The fame went, that he had the same night [the night before the battle of Bosworth] a dreadful and a terrible dream; for it seemed to him being aslepe, that he saw diverse ymages lyke terrible devilles, which pulled and haled him, not sufferynge him to take any quiet or reste. The which straunge vision not so sodaynly strake his heart with a sodayne feare, but it stuffed his head and troubled his mind with many busy and dreadful imaginations. And least that it might be suspected that he was abashed for fear of his enemies, and for that cause looked so piteously, he recited and declared to his familiar friends, of the morning, his wonderfull vysion, and fearfull dreame." I quote from Holinshed, because he was Shakspeare's authority. Polydore Virgil, as I have already observed, began to write his history about twenty years after Richard's death. Malone. See p. 125, n. 5. Steevens. II: 6 Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow!] So, in King Richard "Bę Mowbray's sins so heavy in his bosom." Steevens. 7 By thee was punched full of deadly holes:] The word punched, which sounds but meanly to our ears, is also employed by Chapman in his version of the sixth Iliad: 66 with a goad he punch'd each furious dame." Steevens. 8 Harry that prophecy'd thou should'st be king,] The prophecy, to which this allusion is made, was uttered in one of the parts of Henry the Sixth. Johnson. See Vol. X, p. 393, n. 3. Malone. Doth comfort thee in thy sleep; Live, and flourish!] Surely, we should read with Sir Thomas Hanmer: Doth comfort thee in sleep; Live thou and flourish! Steevens. I, that was wash'd to death with fulsome wine,1 [TO RICHM. The wronged heirs of York do pray for thee; The Ghosts of RIVERS, GREY, and VAUGHAN, rise. [TO K. RICH. Rivers, that died at Pomfret! Despair, and die! som [TO RICHM. Will conquer him;-awake, and win the day! Ghost. Bloody and guilty, guiltily awake; [TO K. RICH. [TO RICHM. And in a bloody battle end thy days! 1-with fulsome wine,] Fulsome, was sometimes used, I think, in the sense of unctuous. The wine in which the body of Clarence was thrown, was Malmsey. Malone. If Clarence had been choked by this wine, he might fairly enough have employed the epithet fulsome in its vulgar and accepted sense-Shakspeare, however, seems to have forgot himself. The Duke (as appears from Act I, sc. ult.) was killed before he was thrown into the Malmsey butt, and consequently could not be washed to death. Steevens. 2 And fall thy edgeless sword;] Fall, in the present instance, is a verb active, signifying to drop, or let fall. So, in Othello: "If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, "Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile." Steevens. 3 Let us be lead within thy bosom, Richard,] [The first folio &c And weigh thee down to ruin, shame, and death! Sleep, Richmond, sleep in peace, and wake in joy; Edward's unhappy sons do bid thee flourish. The Ghost of Queen ANNE rises. Ghost. Richard, thy wife, that wretched Anne thy wife, That never slept a quiet hour with thee, And fall thy edgeless sword; Despair, and die! Thou, quiet soul, sleep thou a quiet sleep; Dream of success and happy victory; [TO RICHM. The Ghost of BUCKINGHAM rises. Ghost. The first was I, that help'd thee to the crown; The last was I, that felt thy tyranny: [TO K. RICH. -laid.] This is a poor feeble reading. I have restored from the elder quarto, published in 1597, which Mr. Pope does not pretend to have seen: "Let us be lead within thy bosom, Richard." This corresponds with what is said in the line immediately following: "And weigh thee down to ruin, shame, and death!" Theobald. ▲ That never slept a quiet hour with thee,] Shakespeare was probably here thinking of Sir Thomas More's animated description of Richard, which Holinshed transcribed: "I have heard (says Sir Thomas) by creditable report of such as were secret with his chamberlaine, that after this abominable deed done [the murder of his nephews] he never had quiet in his mind. He never thought himself sure where he went abroad; his eyes whirled about; his body privily fenced; his hand ever upon his dagger; his countenance and manner like one always readie to strike againe. He tooke ill rest a-nights; lay long waking and musing, sore wearied with care and watch; rather slumbered than slept, troubled with fearfull dreames; sodainely sometime start up, leapt our of bed, and ran about the chamber; so was his restless heart continually tost and tumbled with the tedious impression and stormy remembrances of his abominable deede." With such a companion well might Anne say, that she never slept one quiet hour. Malone. And die in terror of thy guiltiness! [TO RICHM. 5 I died for hope,] i. e. I died for wishing well to you. But Mr. Theobald, with great sagacity, conjectured holpe or aid; which gave the line this fine sense, I died for giving thee aid before I could give thee aid. Warburton. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads: I died forsook, and supports his conjecture, as follows: "This, as appears from history, was the case of the Duke of Buckingham: that being stopped with his army upon the banks of Severn by great deluges of rain, he was deserted by his soldiers, who, being in great distress, half famished for want of victuals, and destitute of pay, disbanded themselves and fled." Sir Thomas Hanmer's emendation is very plausible; but may not the meaning of the expression be, I died for only having hoped to give you that assistance, which I never had it in my power to afford you in reality? It may, however, be observed, that fore, or for, when joined to a verb, had anciently a negative signification. So, in Macbeth: - He shall live a man forbid." As to bid was to pray, so to forbid had the meaning directly opposite, i. e. to curse. In Antony and Cleopatra, to forspeak is to speak against. In Hamlet, and The Midsummer Night's Dream, to fordo is the very reverse of to do. Holpen or holp is the old participle passive of help, and is used in Macbeth: his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him "To his home before us." Instead of for hope, we may therefore read for holpe, which would mean unaided, abandoned, deserted, unhelped, which was the real misfortune of the Duke of Buckingham. The word holp has occurred likewise in this play: "Let him thank me that holp to send him thither." Again, in Coriolanus: "Have holp to make this rescue." Steevens. Perhaps we should read: I died fore-done, &c. So, in Hamlet, Act V: " Fore-do its own life." Tyrwhitt. * I died for hope,] This passage is involved in an obscurity, which the commentators, however ingenious, vainly endeavour to elucidate: on so intricate a point, I may be excused in hazarding an opinion. The word for, is frequently used by our author for of. In the present instance" I died for hope," appears to be used in the same manner, as "I died for Love,"." I died for Fear," &c. The personification is frequently introduced with. But cheer thy heart, and be thou not dismay'd: [The Ghosts vanish. K. RICH. starts out of his dream. K. Rich. Give me another horse,-bin ,6-bind wounds, up my Have mercy, Jesu! -Soft; I did but dream.— fime effect by Shakspeare. Should this suggestion be correct, the meaning is plain: "I died of Hope"-Hope (by luring me from the precautions which an enterprise, fraught with danger, required, rendered easy in appearance what was difficult in reality, -if not impossible) was my death, therefore, he truly says,-I died for [of] Hope," -Hope being the cause of his death. Am. Ed. 6 Give me another horse,] There is in this, as in many of our author's speeches of passion, something very trifling, and something very striking. Richard's debate, whether he should quarrel with himself, is too long continued, but the subsequent exaggeration of his crimes is truly tragical. Johnson. 7 The lights burn blue.] So, in Lyly's Galathea, 1592: "I thought there was some spirit in it because it burnt so blue; for my mother would often tell me when the candle burnt blue, there was some ill spirit in the house." It was anciently supposed that fire was a preservative against evil spirits; "because," says Nash, in Pierce Penniless's Supplication to the Devil, 1595, "when any spirit appeareth, the lights by little and little goe out as it were of their own accord, and the takers are by degrees extinguished." The takers are the spirits who blast or take. So, in King Lear: strike her young bones, "Ye taking airs, with lameness!" Steevens. 8- It is now dead midnight.] So reads the quarto, 1597. The next quarto corruptly reads-" It is not dead midnight;" for which the editor of the folio, to obtain some sense, substituted, " Is it not dead midnight?" Malone. The reading of the quarto, 1597, could it be supposed to need support, might meet with it in the following observation of Hamlet: "'Tis now the very witching time of night" Steevens. 9-that is, I am I. Thus the quarto, 1598, and the folio. The quarto, 1597, reads-I and I. I am not sure that it is not right. Malone. |