70 72 'Tis not the King that fends you to the Tower, My Lady Grey his Wife, Clarence 'tis fhee. That tempts him to this harsh Extremity. 71. Shee.] fhe, Q,Q,Ff. The QQls 72. tempts] Q2-8Ff, Rowe, +, Cap. Var. Mal. Coll. i, ii. (temps Q,.) tempers Q, et cet. 72. harsh] Ff, Rowe,+, Cap. Var. Mal. Sing. Ktly. Om. Qq et cet. Extremity.] extermitie: Q5 in great men's fellowship.' [It is, perhaps, worth notice that in these three passages the phrase 'this it is' is introduced by 'Why.'-ED.] 71. My Lady Grey] See Dram. Person.: Queen to Edward IV. 72. tempts] MALONE: We should undoubtedly read tempers as in Q. Το temper is to mould, to fashion. So in Titus And., IV, iv, 109: 'And temper him with all the art I have.' In Q, tempts was corruptly printed for tempers. The metre being then defective, the Editor of F, supplied the defect by adding 'harsh' to the line.-SPEDDING (Sh. Soc. Trans., 1875-'76; p. 4): I think the reading of Q, is probably what Shakespeare wrote, because tempers is more likely to have been corrupted into tempts than the reverse. The mistake may have arisen from the use in the MS of the contracted form of per. . . . The insertion of 'harsh' is a correction which the author himself might have made if he found the imperfect line in the copy which he was correcting, and did not remember what he had originally written. There is not much to choose between the two lines.-PICKERSGILL (Sh. Soc. Trans., 1875-'76; p. 80): I cannot agree with Spedding in his conjecture as to the 'contracted form of per.' For the corrupted form tempts is found first in Q, which was printed, not from MS, but from Q1. As the error of the Second Quarto is reproduced substantially by all the following Qq, there can be very little doubt, I think, that the copy which the corrector used, at least as far as this passage is concerned, was one of the later Qq, probably the Third. [By 'the corrector' Pickersgill here refers to the author of certain changes in the Folio text as compared to that of the Qq. Spedding classifies these alterations under a number of heads, regarding them as due to various causes. The present change Spedding attributes to the printer of the Folio. See Appendix: Text.-ED.] We come then to the heart of the question-can we suppose that the corrector was Shakespeare? Can we suppose that Shakespeare would adopt the reading tempts, which a mere printer's error had introduced into the copy which he was revising? I cannot see any propriety in the reading of the Folio. Why should Lady Grey be said to tempt the King, when she is represented throughout Gloucester's speech as having him completely under her control? Only three lines before, Gloucester had cited the committal of Clarence as an illustration of what occurs when 'men are ruled by women.' Eve tempted Adam, it is true, but Jezabel stirred up (nearly = tempered) Ahab; and the latter is certainly the true analogy. Upon the other hand, if the corrector were not the author, he would, of course, accept the reading which he found, as it no doubt gives a fair sense.— HALLIWELL: This is a remarkable and decisive instance of the First Folio's want of authority as regards part at least of the present drama. A MS corrector of my copy of ed. 1629 alters the line to-"That tempts him now,' etc.-WRIGHT: The reading of Q, is undoubtedly correct. Compare Two Gentlemen, III, ii, 64: 'Where you may temper her by your persuasion To hate young Valentine . . . Was it not shee, and that good man of Worship, That made him fend Lord Haflings to the Tower? 74. Woodeulle] Wood uile Qq. Wood ville FF, Woodvil F, Rowe,+. Woodeville Cap. et cet. (subs.) her] he her Han. 73 75 75, 76. Tower?...deliuered?] tower? ...deliuered. Ff, Rowe ii,+, Sing. Ktly. tower...delivered. Rowe i. tower, ...deliuered? Qq et cet. [The Text. Notes-hard food for minds-show in no uncertain fashion the reading which has received the largest popular approval. Moreover, is not this a case where the excellent scholastic rule, Durior lectio preferenda est, exactly applies? 'Tempts' is more easily comprehended than tempers.-ED.] 73. good man of Worship] HUNTER (Illust., ii, 81): Perhaps there is historical evidence that the Plantagenet princes were accustomed to speak thus of the Woodviles. If not, it ought to be remembered that, whatever his father may have been, the mother of Woodvile was of the house of Luxemburgh, Jaquetta, Duchess of Bedford. 74. Anthony Woodeulle] FRENCH (p. 224): Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers, was the eldest brother to the Queen of Edward IV., who made him a Knight of the Garter and appointed him governor to his son, the Prince of Wales. As one of the faithful friends, as also being uncle to the young princes, Earl Rivers was looked upon with great dislike by the Duke of Gloucester. 74. Anthony... there] MALONE, who seldom hesitates to sacrifice sound to metre, here suggests that 'there' is to be pronounced as a disyllable. STEEVENS, although himself somewhat too fond of such 'procrustean scansions,' querulously remarks that he has too often been obliged to say that he has 'no faith in this disyllabical pronunciation of "there,' "' and prescribes as a cure for the metre that 'Woodeville be pronounced as a trisyllable,' and adds that it is still so pronounced 'by a gentleman of that name.' Steevens is, I think, anticipated by CAPELL, who says: "The metre in this line is made out by what may be call'd a new amendment a quaint spelling of the family name of Earl Rivers, covering a piece of witty abuse, which we shall leave to decypherers.' [See Text. Notes.] WEBB also suggests that the pronunciation Woodeville is intended as a pun on Wooddevil. But the spelling of all names, both in Qq and Ff, is far too erratic, I fear, to form any safe guide to pronunciation. (See this name in Text. Notes; also 'Gloster,' l. 5.) Neither Malone's note nor Steevens's answer appears in the Variorum of 1821: Although the word 'there' has attached to it the figure 8, there is no note on the line at the foot of the page; moreover, the words 'Humbly complaining' (1.83) are also numbered 8, which last figure corresponds to Johnson's note on that and the next line. Possibly Malone withdrew his suggestion and Boswell purposely omitted the note, but neglected to remove the figure, which now remains as the only record, on the page of the Variorum of 1821, of this little tilt between Steevens and Malone. COLLIER'S MS corrector improves the metre by reading 'her same brother,' an addition that Collier says (Emendations, p. 324) 'is a considerable increase of contempt as well as an improvement in the verse.' SINGER (Sh. Vind., p. 165) strongly disapproves of this last addition, remarking, with an ungentlemanly innuendo, that 'The interpolation only adds "a considerable increase of contempt" for such impertinent meddlars.' Both KEIGHTLEY and ABBOTT prefer to take 'Woodeville' as a trisyllable.-ED. 75. That... Tower] WRIGHT: The histories say nothing directly of the com 76 From whence this present day he is deliuered? Cla. By heauen, I thinke there is no man secure 80 82 80. trudge betwixt] truge betweene QQ trudge between Pope, +, Cap. 81. you] ye Huds. Cam.+. 82. was, for her] was, for his F„F ̧. was for his F, Rowe. was to her for his Qq et cet. mittal of Hastings to the Tower, although it is implied in the narrative of Sir Thomas More. [The following passage is from More's Life of Richard, p. 77; Wright quotes from Holinshed, who copied almost verbatim from More.-ED.] 'Upon the very tower wharfe so nere the place where his head was of so sone after, there met he with one Hastinges a perseuant of his own name. And of their meting in that place, he was put in remembraunce of an other time... At which other tyme the Lord Chamberlein had ben accused vnto king Edward, by the lord Riuers the quenes brother, in such wise that he was for the while (but it lasted not long) farre fallen into the kinges indignacion, and stode in gret fere of himselfe.' 78. secure] VAUGHAN (iii, 7): Shakespeare (Tempest, II, i, 309) makes use of the active participle 'securing' in the sense of making and keeping safe: 'Whiles we stood here securing your repose.' As he has used the active, so is it not improbable that he might use the passive, participle in the same sense. I would read, therefore, partly with the Qq, 'there's no man is secured.' 79. night-walking Heralds] DELIUS: An ironical designation of those courtiers who are the accredited emissaries between Edward and Jane Shore. [Is there not something more than irony in Gloster's adjective 'night-walking'? I think that what he implies is that it is not safe for honest men to be abroad at night, and that none but those who are on a dishonest errand may pass the King's guards unmolested. There was but one mission for a herald whose 'limited service' was nocturnal between the King and Jane Shore.-ED.] 82. was... deliuery] SPEDDING (Sh. Soc. Trans., 1875-'76; p. 4): Here the Folio is evidently wrong. [See Text. Notes.] But the error may have arisen from an interlinear correction misunderstood. The corrector, who evidently disliked lines of twelve syllables,-I do not call this line (as in the Qq] an Alexandrine, meant, I think, to strike out to her. But if the correction was not clearly made, or if the printer was careless, it might easily happen that 'her' was left instead of his.-PICKERSGILL (Sh. Soc. Trans., 1875-'76; p. 81): It appears to me the omission of the words to her leaves the sense, or at all events the perspicacity, of the passage defective, and that this was evident to the corrector himself, who therefore deliberately altered his delivery to 'her delivery' in order to make it clear to whom Lord Hastings addressed his prayers. Spedding holds Rich. Humbly complaining to her Deitie, If we will keepe in fauour with the King, 83 85 To be her men, and weare her Liuery. Bra. I beseech your Graces both to pardon me, 90 92 90. our] Ff, Rowe, Pope, Han. Knt, Coll. Wh. i, Hal. Ktly, Rlfe. this Qq et cet. 91. Bra.] Bro. Qq. befeech] beg Pope,+. me,] me? Qq. 92. ftraightly] straitly Pope. that the passage, as it stands in the Folio, cannot be Shakespeare's; I have given good reason, I think, for supposing that it is the corrector's. [See ABBOTT, § 494.] 85. way] For examples of 'way' in sense of course, means, see SCHMIDT (Lex. 5). 88. ore-worne] MARSHALL: Elizabeth Woodville was born in 1437, so that even if we take 1477 as the date of the present Act, her age would be no more than forty. But Richard is sneering at the fact that she had been married before she became Edward's wife. 88. Widdow... selfe] JOHNSON: That is, the Queen and Jane Shore. 89. that] For examples of 'that' as a conjunctional suffix see ABBOTT, § 287. 89. Gentlewomen] WRIGHT: The Queen's kindred were ennobled after her marriage, but they were hardly 'made gentlefolks,' for her father was of a good Northamptonshire family, and had been created Baron Rivers in 1448, and Earl Rivers in 1466; and her mother was the Dowager Duchess of Bedford. Mistress Shore had never any title of rank conferred upon her. 9c. Gossips] SKEAT (Dict.): The old sense of 'gossip' was sponsor in baptism; literally, god-relative (god-sib). The word sib in Anglo-Saxon means peace, but there was a derived word meaning relative, of which there are some traces. 91. I beseech] DYCE, in his second Edition, omits the 'I' for the sake of improving the metre; WRIGHT acknowledges the justice of such an omission, and both HUDSON and MARSHALL follow Dyce. See ABBOTT, § 456. 92. His Maiesty ... charge] WRIGHT: The Act for Clarence's attainder was passed in the 17 Edward IV., and on February 8, 1477-8, the Duke of Buckingham was appointed Lord High Steward of England, to see the sentence carried out. Clarence's death was on February 18. [See note on l. 47 supra.] 92. straightly] WRIGHT: That is, strictly. Compare Matt. ix, 30: 'And Jesus straitly charged them, saying, see that no man know it.' That no man shall haue priuate Conference 93 (Of what degree foeuer) with your Brother. Rich. Euen fo, and please your Worship Brakenbury, You may partake of any thing we say : 95 We speake no Treafon man; We fay the King 94. your] Ff, Rowe, +, Coll. Wh. i. his Qq, Var. '73 et cet. 95. So,] so? Cap. Var. '73, Sing. Ktly. and] an't Pope, +. an Cap. et seq. 95, 114. Brakenbury] Brokenbury Qq. 96. partake] pertake Q,. 98. his] the Q,. 99 99. ftrooke] firoke Q, struck Var. '78 et seq. faire] yet fair still Cap. fair loving Seymour. icalious] F. iealous QqF,F over-jealous Han. jealous Rowe et cet. 95. and] KEIGHTLEY (Exp. Preface, p. iv) acknowledges that he did not read through the Variorum of 1821 until after making all his emendations; and whenever he found that he had been anticipated it 'was a source of real pleasure' to him, as a 'proof of the correctness of his emendation.' In the present case the Variorum might not have excited this feeling of pleasure, but had Keightley looked through Pope's or Theobald's Edition he would have seen that he had been anticipated in proposing to read an't instead of 'and.'-ED. 96. partake] WRIGHT: That is, share; and so, hear. Used absolutely in Coriol., IV, iv, 184: ‘O slaves, I can tell you news,-news, you rascals! What, what, what? Let's partake.' 99. Well... iealious] WALKER (Vers. 154) gives a number of examples wherein 'jealous' must, for the sake of the metre, be pronounced as spelt in this line, though, as Keightley observes, none of Walker's examples is from Shakespeare. KEIGHTLEY (Exp., p. 262) prefers 'reading "years" and "fair," as more suited to the slow, chaffing tone of Gloucester.' ABBOTT thinks it might be possible to scan as Keightley suggests, but prefers taking ‘jealious' as a trisyllable. (See GUEST, p. 198.) WRIGHT points out that ““iealious" is the uniform spelling in the First Folio of Othello, even where the metre does not require it.' In a note on 'beautious,' Love's Labour's, IV, i, 72, this edition, the Editor says: "There is a noticeable tendency on the part of Shakespeare's compositors to insert an additional syllable in such words as jealous, dexterous, stupendous, etc., which they spell jealious, dexterious, stupendious. (See note in Twelfth Night, IV, iii, 30, of this edition.) This has been generally considered a corruption, but I incline to think that it was an allowable pronunciation, sometimes even available for rhythm's sake. This preference for the form -ious is found in words where the simpler form does not exist, such as prolixious, robustious, superbious, splendidious, and cannot be attributed solely to the compositors; we have it now-a-days in the vulgar mischievious. Possibly such words as tedious, gracious, delicious, may be responsible for this tendency. . . . In the note on Twelfth Night, IV, iii, 30, cited above, are gathered examples of this termination in ious. To them add from Milton: "All with incredible, stupendious force.”—Samson Agonistes, line 1628.' As an instance of the small dependence to be placed on the spelling of the Folio, see the spelling 'ielous' in 1. 88.-ED. |