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for the old pike, I fee no reason in the law of nature, but I may inap at him. Let time fhape, and there's [Exeunt. an end.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Changes to a forest in Yorkshire.

Enter the archbishop of York, Mowbray, Haftings, and Colevile.

YORK.

HAT is this foreft call'd?

WTH

Haft. 'Tis Gualtree foreft, an't shall please your grace.

York. Here ftand, my lords, and send discoverers forth

To know the numbers of our enemies..

Haft. We have fent forth already.
York. 'Tis well done.

My friends, and brethren in these great affairs,
I must acquaint you, that I have receiv'd
New-dated letters from Northumberland;
Their cold intent, tenour, and fubftance, thus.—
Here doth he wifh his perfon, with fuch
powers
As might hold fortance with his quality,
The which he could not levy; whereupon
He is retir'd, to ripe his growing fortunes,
To Scotland and concludes in hearty prayers
your attempts may over-live the hazard
And fearful meeting of their oppofite..

That

Mowb. Thus do the hopes we have in him, touchground,

And dafh themselves to pieces.

Enter

Enter a Messenger.

Haft. Now, what news?

Mell. Weft of this foreft, fcarcely off a mile, In goodly form comes on the enemy:

And, by the ground they hide, I judge their number Upon, or near, the rate of thirty thousand.

Mowb. The juft proportion that we gave them out. 1 Let us fway on, and face them in the field.

Enter Westmorland.

York. What well-appointed leader fronts us here? Mowb. I think it is my lord of Westmorland. Weft. Health and fair greeting from our general, The prince, lord John, and duke of Lancaster. York. Say on, my lord of Westmorland, in peace: What doth concern your coming?

Weft. Then, my lord,

Unto your grace do I in chief address

The fubftance of my fpeech. If that rebellion
Came like itself, in base and abject routs,

2 Led on by bloody youth, 3 guarded with rage,

And

Let us fway on, -] We should read, way on; i. e. march on. WARBURTON.

I know not that I have ever feen way in this fenfe; but I believe it is the true word, and was intended to exprefs the uniform and forcible motion of a compact body. There is a fenfe of the noun in Milton kindred to this, where, fpeaking of a weighty fword, he fays, " It defcends with huge two-handed "fway." JOHNSON.

2 Led on by bloody youth,-] I believe Shakespeare wrote heady youth. WARBURTON.

Bloody youth is only fanguine youth, or youth full of blood, and of thofe paffions which blood is fuppofed to incite or nourifh. JOHNSON.

3

guarded with rage.] Guarded is an expreffion taken from drefs, it means the fame as faced, turned up. Mr. Pope, who has been followed by fucceeding editors, reads goaded. Guarded is the reading both of quarto and folio. Shakespeare ufes the fame expreffion in the former part of this play :

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And countenanc'd by boys and beggary;
I fay, if damn'd commotion fo appear'd
In his true, native, and moft proper shape,
You, reverend father, and these noble lords,
Had not been here to drefs the ugly form
Of bafe and bloody infurrection

With your fair honours. You, lord archbishop,
Whofe fee is by a civil peace maintain'd;

Whofe beard the filver hand of peace

hath touch'd; Whofe learning and good letters peace hath tutor❜d; Whofe white inveftments figure innocence, The dove and very bleffed fpirit of peace, Wherefore do you fo ill tranflate yourself, Out of the fpeech of peace, that bears fuch grace, Into the harsh and boift'rous tongue of war? Turning your books to 4 graves, your ink to blood, Your pens to launces; and your tongue divine To a loud trumpet, and a point of war?

York. 5 Wherefore do I this? fo the question ftands. Briefly, to this end. We are all difeas'd; And with our furfeiting and wanton hours Have brought ourselves into a burning fever,

"Velvet guards and Sunday citizens," &c.

Again, in The Merchant of Venice,

66

Let him have a livery more guarded than his fellows." STEEVENS. graves- For graves Dr. Warburton very plaufibly reads glaves, and is followed by Sir Thomas Hanmer. Jons.

We might perhaps as plaufibly read greaves, i. e. armour for the legs, a kind of boots. In one of the Difcourfes on the Art Military, written by Sir John Smythe, Knight, 1589, greaves are mentioned as neceffary to be worn; and Ben Jonfon employs the fame word in his Hymenæi :

66

upon their legs they wore filver greaves." STEEVENS. 5 Wherefore, &c.] In this fpeech, after the first two lines, the next twenty-five are either omitted in the first edition, or added in the fecond. The anfwer, in which both the editions agree, apparently refers to fome of thefe lines, which therefore may be probably fuppofed rather to have been dropped by a player defirous to fhorten his fpeech, than added by the fecond labour of the author. JoHNSON.

And

And we must bleed for it: of which difeafe
Our late king, Richard, being infected, dy'd.
But, my most noble lord of Westmorland,
I take not on me here as a phyfician;
Nor do I, as an enemy to peace,
Troop in the throngs of military men:
But, rather, fhew a while like fearful war,
To diet rank minds, fick of happiness;

And purge the obftructions, which begin to stop
Our very veins of life. Hear me more plainly.
I have in equal balance juftly weigh'd

What wrongs our arms may do, what wrongs we fuffer;
And find our griefs heavier than our offences.
We fee which way the ftream of time doth run,
And are enforc'd from our moft quiet fphere,
By the rough torrent of occafion:

And have the fummary of all our griefs,
When time shall serve, to fhew in articles;
Which, long ere this, we offer'd to the king,
And might by no fuit gain our audience.
When we are wrong'd, and would unfold our griefs,
We are deny'd accefs unto his person,
Even by thofe men that moft have done us wrong.
The danger of the days but newly gone,
(Whose memory is written on the earth
With yet appearing blood) and the examples
Of every minute's inftance (prefent now)
Have put us in thefe ill-befeeming arms,
Not to break peace, or any branch of it,
But to establish here a peace, indeed,
Concurring both in name and quality.

In former editions:

And are inforc'd from our moft quiet there,] This is faid in anfwer to Weftmorland's upbraiding the archbishop for engaging in a course which fo ill became his profeffion,

you, my lord archbishop,

Whofe fee is by a civil peace maintain'd, &c.

So that the reply must be this,

And are enforc'd from cur moft quiet fphere. WARBURT.

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Weft. When ever yet was your appeal deny'd ? Wherein have you been galled by the king i What peer hath been fuborn'd to grate on you, That you fhould feal this lawless bloody book Of forg'd rebellion with a feal divine,

7 And confecrate commotion's civil edge?

8

York. My brother-general, the common-wealth; To brother born an houfehold cruelty,

I make my quarrel in particular.

7 And confecrate, &c.] In one of my old quarto's of 1600 (for I have two of the felf fame edition; one of which, it is evident, was corrected in fome paffages during the working off the whole impreffion) I found this verfe. I have ventured to fubftitute page for edge, with regard to the uniformity of metaphor. Though the fword of rebellion, drawn by a hishop, may in some fort be faid to be confecrated by his reverence. THEOBALD.

And confecrate commotion's civil edge ?] So the old books read. But Mr. Theobald changes edge to page, out of regard to the uniformity (as he calls it) of the metaphor. But he did not understand what was meant by edge. It was an old custom, continued from the time of the first croifades, for the pope to confecrate the general's fword, which was employed in the service of the church. To this custom the line in question alludes. As to the cant of uniformity of metaphor in writing, this is to be obferved, that changing the allufion in the fame fentence is indeed vicious, and what Quintilian condemns, "Multi quum " initium à tempeftate fumferint, incendio aut ruinâ finiunt." But when one comparifon or allufion is fairly feparated from an other, by diftin&t fentences, the cafe is different, So it is here; in one fentence we fee" the book of rebellion ftampt with a “feal divine;” in the other," the fword of civil difcord con"feciated." But this change of the metaphor is not only allowable, but fit. For the dwelling overlong upon one, occafions the difcourfe to degenerate into a dull kind of allegorism.

WARBURTON.

What Mr. Theobald fays of two editions feems to be true; for my copy reads, commotion's bitter edge; but civil is undoubtedly right, and one would wonder how bitter could intrude if civil had been written firft; perhaps the author himself made the change. JOHNSON.

Since I began to print this play, I have feen both the copies, but they both concur in reading bitter. Unless there be a third copy, Theobald has faid what is not true.

My brother general, &c.

STEEVINS.

I make my quarrel in particular.] The fenfe is this, "My "brother general, the common-wealth, which ought to diftri

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