His weary joints would gladly rise, I know; Our knees shall kneel till to the ground they grow: Ours of true zeal and deep integrity. Our prayers do out-pray his; then let them have That mercy which true prayers ought to have. BOLING. Good aunt, stand up. DUCH. Nay, do not say-stand up; But pardon, first; and afterwards, stand up. Ah, my sour husband, my hard-hearted lord, BOLING. Good aunt, stand up. DUCH. I do not sue to stand, Pardon is all the suit I have in hand. BOLING. I pardon him, as heaven shall pardon me. Twice saying pardon doth not pardon twain, BOLING. I pardon him. DUCH. With all my heart A god on earth thou art. BOLING. But for our trusty brother-in-law 23, and the abbot, With all the rest of that consorted crew, Destruction straight shall dog them at the heels. Chopping French. Chopping is here used in the sense of changing, which is derived from cheaping, trafficking. We still say a chopping wind. Malone, we apprehend, mistakes when he explains the word by jabbering. York exhorts the King, instead of saying pardon, to say pardonnez moy-excuse me. The Duchess will have pardon as "'t is current in our land." The chopping French-the French which changes the meaning of words-which sets "the word itself against the word"—she says, 66 we do not understand." Good uncle, help to order several powers Your mother well hath pray'd, and prove you true. DUCH. Come, my old son;-I pray Heaven make thee new. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. Enter EXTON and a Servant. EXTON. Didst thou not mark the king, what words he spake? EXTON. "Have I no friend?" quoth he: he spake it twice. b EXTON. And speaking it, he wistly look'd on me; SCENE V.-Pomfret. The Dungeon of the Castle. Enter KING RICHARD. K. RICH. I have been studying how to compare This prison, where I live, unto the world: I cannot do it ;-yet I'll hammer it out. [Exeunt. • Heaven. This is the last passage of the play in which we have substituted, according to the authority of the folio of 1623, the word Heaven for God. It is to be observed that the editors of the folio have retained the name of the Most High when it is used in a peculiarly emphatic or reverential manner, and have not made the change to Heaven indiscriminately. The substitution of this word, in most cases, was made in obedience to a statute of James I. (3 Jac. I. c. 21); and it appears to us that the modern editors have not exercised good taste, to say the least of it, in restoring the readings of the earliest copies, which were issued at a time when the habits of society sanctioned the habitual, and therefore light, employment of the Sacred Name. Wistly. So the old copies. Wistfully has crept into the modern editions without authority. Wistly is constantly used by the writers of Shakspere's time,-by Drayton, for example:"But when more wistly they did her behold." So the folio. Modern editions, how I may compare. And these same thoughts people this little world; For no thought is contented. The better sort,- As thus,—Come, little ones; and then again, Think that I am unking'd by Bolingbroke, With nothing shall be pleas'd till he be eas'd Ha, ha! keep time:-How sour sweet music is, [Music. . This little world. "The little world of man," as in "Lear.' Shakspere here uses the philosophy which is thus described by Raleigh:-" Because in the little frame of man's body there is a representation of the universal, and (by allusion) a kind of participation of all the parts there, therefore was man called microcosmos, or the little world."-('History of the World.") So the folio. The quarto of 1597 reads "The word itself against the word;" which is, perhaps, better taken singly. But in the third scene of this act the Duchess uses precisely the same expression; and the sense of the word there being altogether different, the change was, we think, judicious. Modern editors have, however, rejected the reading which we adopt. VOL. I.-HISTORIES. N So is it in the music of men's lives. Is pointing still, in cleansing them from tears*. Are clamorous groans, that strike upon my heart, • It is somewhat difficult to follow this reading. Richard says Time has made him a numbering clock. A clock and a watch were formerly the same instruments; a clock so called because it clicketh-a watch so called because it marks the watches, the ancient divisions of the day. Comparing, then, himself to such an instrument, he says, his thoughts jar, that is, tick their watches on (unto) his eyes, which are the outward part of the instrument-the dial-plate on which the hours are numbered,—whereto his finger, the dial's point, is pointing. These analogies may appear forced, and somewhat obscure; but it must be observed that, throughout the character of Richard, the poet has made him indulge in those freaks of the imagination which belong to weakness of character. b Jack o' the clock. An automaton, such as formerly constituted one of the wonders of London before St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet Street; but which the ruthless hand of improvement has now swept away. • A strange brvoch. According to Malone, the brooch, a valuable ornament, was out of fashion in Shakspere's time. In All's Well that Ends Well' we have, "the brooch and the toothpick, which wear not now." Love to Richard is, therefore, called a strange brooch, a thing of value out of fashion. But Mr. Dyce thinks that the word "sign" probably suggested the expression—a sign of love for Richard is a strange thing for any one to display, as he would a "brooch," or orna ment. Where no man ever comes, but that sad dog a How went he under him? That jade hath eat bread from my royal hand; Wast born to bear? I was not made a horse; b Enter Keeper, with a dish. KEEP. Fellow, give place; here is no longer stay. K. RICH. Taste of it first, as thou art wont to do. K. RICH. The devil take Henry of Lancaster, and thee! Enter EXTON, and Servants, armed. K. RICH. How now? what means death in this rude assault? • Sad dog. Sad is here used in the sense of grave, gloomy. [To the Groom. [Exit. [Beats the Keeper. Jauncing. Richard compares himself to a spur-galled beast that Bolingbroke rides.-Jauncing -jaunting-hurriedly-moving Bolingbroke. It is possible, however, that it may be a contraction of joyauncing. |