And let them grapple;-O! the blood more stirs, To rouse a lion, than to start a hare.3 NORTH. Imagination of fome great exploit Drives him beyond the bounds of patience. Hor. By heaven, methinks, it were an eafy leap, To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon;+ 3 the blood more firs, To roufe a lion, than to fart a bare.] This paffage will remind the claffical reader of young Afcanius's heroic feelings in the fourth Eneid: . - pecora inter inertia votis Optat aprum, aut fulvum defcendere monte leonem. STEEVENS. By heaven, methinks, it were an eafy leap, To pluck bright honour from the pale-fac'd moon;] Though I am very far from condemning this fpeech with Gildon and Theobald, as abfolute madnefs, yet I cannot find in it that profundity of reflection, and beauty of allegory which Dr. Warburton has endeavoured to difplay. This fally of Hotfpur, may be, I think, foberly and rationally vindicated as the violent eruption of a mind inflated with ambition and fired with refentment; as the boafted clamour of a man able to do much, and eager to do more; as the hafty motion of turbulent defire; as the dark expreffion of indetermined thoughts. The paffage from Euripides is furely not allegorical, yet it is produced, and properly, as parallel. JOHNSON. Euripides has put the very fame fentiment into the mouth of Eteocles: "I will not, madam, difguife my thoughts; I would fcale heaven, I would defcend to the very entrails of the earth, if fo be that by that price I could obtain a kingdom. WARBURTON. This is probably a paffage from fome bombaft play, and afterwards ufed as a common burlefque phrafe for attempting impoffibilities. At least, that it was the laft, might be concluded from its ufe in Cartwright's poem On Mr. Stokes his Book on the Art of Vaulting, edit. 1651, p. 212: "Then go thy ways, brave Will, for one; By Jove 'tis thou muft leap, or none, To pull bright honour from the moon.” Unless Cartwright intended to ridicule this paffage in Shakspeare, which I partly fufpect. Stokes's book, a noble object for the wits, was printed at London, in the year 1641. T. WARTON. A paffage fomewhat refembling this, occurs in Archbishop Parker's Addrefs to the Reader, prefixed to his Tract entitled A Brief Ex Or dive into the bottom of the deep, Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,' But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!" amination for the Tyme, &c.-" But trueth is to hye fet, for you to pluck her out of heaven, to manifeftlye knowen to be by your papers obfcured, and furely stablished, to drowne her in the myrie lakes of your fophifticall writinges." In The Knight of the burning Peftle, Beaumont and Fletcher have put the foregoing rant of Hotfpur into the mouth of Ralph the apprentice, who, like Bottom, appears to have been fond of acting parts to tear a cat in. I fuppofe a ridicule on Shakspeare was defigned. STEEVENS. 5 Where fathom-line could never touch the ground,] So, in The Tempeft: "I'll seek him deeper than e'er plummet founded." STEEVENS. 6 But out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!] A coat is faid to be faced, when part of it, as the fleeves or bofom, is covered with fomething finer or more fplendid than the main fubftance. The mantua-makers ftill ufe the word. Half-fac'd fellowship is then partnership but half-adorned, partnership which yet wants half the fhow of dignities and honours." JOHNSON. "A gen So, in The Portraiture of Hypocrifie, &c. bl. 1. 1589: tleman fhould have a gowne for the night, two for the daie, &c. one all furred, another half-faced." Mr. M. Mafon, however, obferves, that the allufion may be to the half-faces on medals, where two perfons are reprefented. The coins of Philip and Mary (fays he) rendered this image fufficiently familiar to Shakspeare." STEEVENS. I doubt whether the allufion was to drefs. Half-fac'd seems to have meant paltry. The expreffion, which appears to have been a contemptuous one, I believe, had its rife from the meaner denominations of coin, on which, formerly, only a profile of the reigning prince was exhibited; whereas on the more valuable pieces a full face was represented. So, in King John: "With that half-face would he have all my land,- WOR. He apprehends a world of figures here," But not the form of what he should attend.Good coufin, give me audience for a while. Hor. I cry you mercy. That are your prifoners, Hor. Those fame noble Scots, I'll keep them all; By heaven, he fhall not have a Scot of them: WOR. Hor. But then, it will be faid, "what becomes of fellowship? Where is the fellowship in a fingle face in profile? The allufion must be to the coins of Philip and Mary, where two faces were in part exhibited."This fquaring of our author's comparisons, and making them correfpond precifely on every fide, is in my apprehenfion the fource of endless miftakes. See p. 412, n. 9. Fellowship relates to Hotfpur's" corrival" and himself, and I think to nothing more. I find the epithet here applied to it, in Nafhe's Apologie of Pierce Pennileffe, 1593 - with all other odd ends of your half-faced English." Again, in Hiftriomaftix, 1610: 66 "Whilft I behold yon half-fac'd minion,-." MALONE. 6a world of figures here,] Figure is here ufed equivocally. As it is applied to Hotfpur's fpeech it is a rhetorical mode; as oppofed to form, it means appearance or fhape. JOHNSON. Figures mean fhapes created by Hotfpur's imagination; but not the form of what he should attend, viz. of what his uncle had to propofe. EDWARDS. He faid, he would not ranfom Mortimer ; But I will find him when he lies afleep, And in his ear I'll bolla-Mortimer!] So Marlowe, in his King Edward II: Nay, I'll have a starling fhall be taught to speak WOR. Coufin; a word. Hear you, 8 Hor. All studies here I folemnly defy, But that I think his father loves him not, 8 and if he will not ransom him, "I'll thunder fuch a peale into his eares, "As never fubject did unto his king." MALONE. I folemnly defy,] One of the ancient fenfes of the verb, to defy, was to refuse. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "I do defy thy commiferation." STEEVENS. 9 And that fame fword-and-buckler prince of Wales,] A royfter or turbulent fellow, that fought in taverns, or raised disorders in the streets, was called a Swash-buckler. In this fenfe fword-andbuckler is here ufed. JOHNSON. Stowe will keep us to the precife meaning of the epithet here given to the prince. This field, commonly called Weft-Smithfield, was for many years called Ruffians Hall, by reason it was the ufual place of frayes and common fighting, during the time that fword and bucklers were in ufe. When every ferving-man, from the base to the best, carried a buckler at his back, which hung by the hilt or pomel of his word." HENLEY. I have now before me (to confirm the juftice of this remark) a poem entitled "Sword and Buckler, or Serving Man's Defence." By William Bas, 1602. STEEVENS. "What weapons bear they?-Some fword and dagger, fome fword and buckler.-What weapon is that buckler?-A clownish daftardly weapon, and not fit for a gentleman." Florio's First Fruites, 1578, MALONE. 2 -poifon'd with a pot of ale.] Dr. Grey fuppofes this to be faid in allufion to Caxton's Account of King John's Death; (fee Caxton's Fructus Temporum, 1515, fol. 62.) but I rather think it WOR. Farewell, kinfman! I will talk to you, When you are better temper'd to attend. NORTH. Why, what a wafp-ftung and impatient fool 3 has reference to the low company (drinkers of ale) with whom the prince spent so much of his time in the meaneft taverns. STEEVENS. 3 Why, what a wafp-ftung and impatient fool-] Thus the quarto, 1598; and furely it affords a more obvious meaning than the folio, which reads: -wap-tongued. That Shakspeare knew the fting of a wasp was not fituated in its mouth, may be learned from the following paffage in The Winter's Tale, A&t I. sc. ü: is goads, thorns, nettles, tails of wafps." STEEVENS. This reading is confirmed by Hotfpur's reply: 66 Why look you, I am whipp'd and fcourg'd with rods, "Nettled and ftung with pifmires, when I hear "Of this vile politician, Bolingbroke." M. MASON. The first quarto copies of feveral of thefe plays are in many refpects much preferable to the folio, and in general I have paid the utmost attention to them. In the prefent inftance, however, I think the tranfcriber's ear deceived him, and that the true reading is that of the fecond quarto, 1599, wafp-tongue, which I have adopted, not on the authority of that copy, (for it has none,) but because I believe it to have been the word used by the author. The folio was apparently printed from a later quarto; and the editor from ignorance of our author's phrafeology changed wafp-tongue to wafptongued. There are other inftances of the fame unwarrantable alterations even in that valuable copy of our author's plays. The change, I fay, was made from ignorance of Shakspeare's phrafeology; for in King Richard III. we have-his venom-tooth, not venom'dtooth; your widow-dolour, not widow'd-dolour; and in another play, parted with fugar-breath, not fugar'd-breath; and many more inftances of the fame kind may be found. Thus, in this play, -fmooth-tongue, not smooth-tongued. Again: "ftolen from my hoft at St. Alban's, or the red-nofe innkeeper of Daintry." [not red-nofed.] Again, in King Richard III: "Some light-foot friend poft to the Duke of Norfolk.” not light-footed. So alfo, in The Black Book, 4to. 1604: The Spindle-fhanke fpyder, which fhowed like great leachers with little legs, went ftealing over his head," &c. In the laft act of The Second Part of King Henry IV. "blew-bottle rogue" (the reading of the quarto) is changed by the editor of the folio to "blew-bottled rogue," as he here fubftituted wafp-tongued for wafp-tongue. |