And kill the innocent gazer with thy fight; Q. Mar. Why do you rate my Lord of Suffolk thus? Although the Duke was enemy to him, Yet he, moft Chriftian-like, laments his death, Might liquid tears, or heart-offending groans, I would be blind with weeping, fick with groans, What know I, how the world may deem of me? K. Henry. Ah, woe is me for Glofter, wretched man! Q. Mar. Be woe for me, more wretched than he is, What, doft thou turn away and hide thy face? I am no loathfome leper; look on me. What, art thou like the adder waxen deaf? Be pois'nous too, and kill thy forlorn Queen. Is all thy comfort shut in Glo'fter's tomb? Why, then, dame Margaret was ne'er thy joy. Erect his ftatue, and do worship to it, And make my image but an ale-house fign. Was I for this nigh wreckt upon the sea, And twice by adverfe winds from England's bank Drove back again unto my native clime? What boaded this? but well-fore-warning winds Did feem to fay, feek not a fcorpion's neft, 4 Be woe for me.] That is, let not woe be to thee for Gloucester, but for me. Nor fet no footing on this unkind fhore. What did I then? but curft the gentle gufts, Yet Eolus would not be a murderer; But left that hateful office unto thee. The pretty vaulting fea refus'd to drown me, A heart it was, bound in with diamonds, And threw it tow'rds thy Land; the fea receiv'd it, s The Splitting rocks cow'r'd in their ragged fides.] Sinking fands and Splitting rocks are the two destroyers of fhips, but they are not otherwife allied to one another, and act their mischief by very different powers. I believe here is a tranfpofition, and fhould read, The finking fands, the Splitting rocks cow'r'd in. Our poet mentions them together, as in Othello, The gutter'd rocks and congregated fands. But finding no commodious al- The Splitting rocks cow'r'din, For For lofing ken of Albion's wifhed Coaft. To fit and witch me, as Afcanius did, His father's acts, commenc'd in burning Troy? Ah me, I can no more: die, Margaret ! For Henry weeps, that thou doft live fo long. Noife within. Enter Warwick, Salisbury, and maný War. It is reported, mighty Sovereign, K. Ienry. That he is dead, good Warwick, 'tis too true; tory. Again, how did the fuppofed Afcanius fit and watch her? Cupid was ordered, while Dido mistakenly careffed him, to bewitch and infect her with Love. To this Circumstance the Poet certainly alludes; and, unless he had wrote, as I have reftored to the Text; To fit and witch me, Why thould the Queen immediately draw this Inference. Am I not witch'd like her? THEOBALD: Not Henry.] The poet commonly ufes Henry as a word of three fyllables. War. War. That I fhall do, my Liege.-Stay, Salisbury, With the rude multitude, till I return. [Warwick goes in. K. Henry. O thou, that judgest all things, itay my thoughts, My thoughts, that labour to perfuade my foul, [Bed with Glo'fter's body put forth. And to furvey his dead and earthly image, What were it, but to make my forrow greater? War. Come hither, gracious Sovereign, view this body. K. Henry. That is to fee how deep my grave is made, For, with his foul fled all my worldly folace; 7 For feeing him, I fee my life in death. War. As furely as my foul intends to live I do believe, that violent hands were laid Suf. A dreadful oath, fworn with a folemn tongue! What inftance gives Lord Warwick for his vow? 7 For feeing him, I fee my life in death.] Though, by a violent operation, fome fenfe may be extracted from this reading, yet I think it will be better to change it thus ; For Jeeing him, I see my death That is, feeing him I live to fee Come hither, gracious Sove- War. War. See, how the blood is fettled in his face. Of afhy femblance, meager, pale, and bloodless; Which with the heart there cools, and ne'er returneth But fee, his face is black and full of blood; His hair up-rear'd, his noftrils ftretch'd with struggling: Suf. Why, Warwick, who fhould do the Duke to death? Myfelf and Beauford had him in protection; War. But both of you have vow'd Duke Humphry's death, And you, forfooth, had the good Duke to keep. 8 Oft have I feen a timely parted ghoft, Of afby femblance, meager, pale, and bloodfs. All that is true of the body of a dead man is here faid by Warwick of the foul. I would read, Oft have I feen a timely-parted coarfe, But of two common words how or why was one changed for the other? I believe the tranfcriber thought that the epithet, timely parted could not be ufed of the body, but that, as in Hamlet there is mention of peace-parted fouls, fo here timely-paried must have the fame fubftantive. He removed one imaginary difficulty and made many real. If the foul is parted from the body, the body is likewife parted from the foul. I cannot but stop a moment to obferve that this horrible defcription is fcarcely the work of any pen but Shakepeare's. |