Of murd❜rous Subornation? fhall it be, Wor. Peace, Coufin, fay no more. Hot. If he fall in, good night, or fink or fwim- * D fda n'd for d'fdainful. a fpear. ] i. e. of a fpear laid 4 On the unfteadfast footing of across. WARBURTON. And -O! the blood more ftirs And let them grapple. By beav'n, methink, &c.] Gildon, a critic of the fize of Dennis, &c. calls this fpeech, Without any ceremony, a ridiculas rant and abfolute madness. Mr. Theobald talks in the fame ftrain. The French critics had taught these people juft enough to understand where Shakespear had tranfgreffed the rules of the Greek tragic writers; and, on thofe occafions, they are full of the poor frigid cant, of fable, Jent ment, diction, unities, &c. But it is another thing to get to Shakespear's fenfe: to do this required a little of their own. For want of which, they could not fee that the poet here ufes an allegorical covering to exprefs a noble and very natural thought. -Hot-fpur, all on fire, exclaims against bu klering and bartering for honour, and dividing it into fhares. O fays he, could I be fure that when I had purchased honour I should wear her dignities without a Rival-what then? why then, By beav'n, methinks, it were an eafy lap, To pull bright honour from the pale far'd Moon: .e. tho' fome great and fhining character in the mott elevated orb, was already in poffeffion of her, yet it would, methinks, be eafy by greater acts, to eclipfe bis glory, and pluck all his honours from him; Το Or dive into the bottom of the deep, And pluck up drowned honour by the locks: So i. e. or what is ftill more difficult, tho' there were in the world no great examples to incite and fire my emulation, but that honour was quite funk and buried in oblivion, yet would I bring it back into vogue, and render it more illuftrious than ever. that we fee, tho' the expreffion be fublime and daring, yet the thought is the natural movement of an heroic mind. Euripides at leaft thought fo, when he put the very fame fentiment, in the fame words, into the mouth of Eteocles-Iwill not, madam, dif guife my thoughts; I could fcale beaven, I could defcend to the very entrails of the earth, if fo be that by that price I could obtain a kingdom. WARBURTON. Though I am very far from condemning this fpeech with Gildon and heald as abfolute madnefs, yet I cannot find in it that profundity of reflection and beauty of allegory which the learned commentator has endeavoured to difplay. This fally of Hot-fur may be, I think, foberly and rationally vindicated as the violent eruption of a mind inflated with ambition and fired with refentment; as the boaftful clamour of a man able to do much, and eager to do more; as the haity K 3 motion To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd Moon; Where fathom-line could never touch the ground, 6 But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship! Wor. He apprehends * a world of figures here, -Good Coufin, give me audience for a while. Wor. Thofe fame noble Scots, That are your prifoners Hot. I'll keep them all; By heav'n, he fhall not have a Scot of them; Wor. You ftart away, And lend no ear unto my purposes; He faid, he would not ranfom Mortimer, motion of turbulent defire; as 6 But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!] I think this finely expreffed. The image is taken from one who turns from another, fo as to ftand before him with a fide face; which implied neither a full conforting, nor a feparation. WARB. I cannot think this word rightly explained. It alludes rather to drefs. A coat is faid to be faced when part of it, as the fleeves or bofom, is covered with fomething finer and more fplen did than the main fubflance. The mautua makers ftill use the word. Half-fac'd fello xhip is then partnerhip but half ado ned, partnerfhip whib yet wants baf the fhew of dignities and honours. -a world of figures here, &c.] Figure is ufed here equivocally. As it is applied to Hotfur's fpeech it is a rhetorical mode; as oppofed to form, it means appearance or shipe. Nay Nay, I will have a Starling taught to speak Wor. Hear you, coufin, a word. "And that fame fword-and-buckler Prince of Wales, Wor. Farewel, my kinfman! I will talk to you, North. Why, what a wafp-tongu'd and impatient fool Art thou, to break into this woman's mood, Tying thine ear to no tongue but thine own? Hot. Why, look you, I am whipt and fcourg'd with rods, Nettled, and ftung with pifmires, when I hear In Richard's time-what do ye call the place? -- 'Twas where the mad-cap Duke his uncle keptHis uncle York-where I first bow'd my knee Unto this King of Smiles, this Bolingbroke, When you and he came back from Ravenfpurg. North. At Berkley castle. Hot. You fay true: Why, what a deal of candy'd Courtesy And that fame fword-and- called a fv:afb-buckler. In this buckler Prince of Wales.] fenfe fword-and-buckler is ufed A Royfter, or turbulent fellow, here. that fought in the taverns, or Alluding to what paffed in failed diforders in the ftreets, was King Richard, Act II. Sc. IX. K 4 Wor. Wer. Nay, if you have not, to't again; We'l flay your leifure. Ilot. I have done, i'faith. Wor. Then once more to your Scottish prisoners. [To Hot-fpur. Deliver them without their ranfom ftraight, And make the Dowglas' Son your only mean For Pow'rs in Scotland; which, for divers reasons Which I fhall fend you written, be affur'd, Will eafily be granted.-You, my lord, [To North. Your Son in Scotland being thus employ'd, Shall fecretly into the bofom creep Of that fame noble Prelate, well belov'd, Hot. York, is't not? Wor. True, who bears hard His brother's death at Bristol, the lord Sercop. As what, I think, might be, but what, I know, And only stays but to behold the face Of that occafion, that fhall bring it on. Hot. I fmell it. On my life, it will do well. & I (peak not this in eftimation.] player, I fuppofe, thinking the fpeech too long, ftruck them out. WARBURTON. If the Editor had, before he wrote his note, read ten lines forward, he would have seen that nothing is omitted. Worcefier gives a dark hint of a confpiracy. Hot-fpur fmelis it, that is, guefes it. Northumberland reproves him for not fuffering Worcejier to tell his defign Hot-Spur, according to the vehemence of his temper, ftill follows his own conjecture. To let p is, to loose the greyhound. Hot. |