A milk-fop, one that never in his life far from having any common mother, but England: and the Earl of Richmond was not subsisted abroad at the nation's public charge. During the greatest part of his refidence abroad, he was watched and restrained almost like a captive; and fubfifted by fupplies conveyed from the Countefs of Richmond, his mother. It seems probable, therefore, that we muft read: Long kept in Bretagne at his mother's coft. THEOBALD. Our mother's coft ?] Mr. Theobald perceives to be wrong: he reads, therefore, and all the editors after him : Long kept in Bretagne at his mother's coft. But give me leave to transcribe a few more lines from Holinshed, and you will find at once, that Shakspeare had been there before me : "You fee further, how a company of traitors, theeves, outlaws and runagates be aiders and partakers of this feate and enterprize. And to begin with the erie of Richmond, captaine of this rebellion, he is a Welch milkfop-brought up by my moother's meanes and mine, like a captive in a close cage in the court of Francis Duke of Britaine." P. 756. Holinthed copies this verbatim from his brother chronicler, Hall, edit. 1548, fol. 54, but his printer has given us by accident the word moother inftead of brother; as it is in the original, and ought to be in Shakspeare. FARMER. See a Letter of King Richard III. perfuading his fubjects to refift Henry Tydder, &c. in Sir John Fenn's Collection of the Pafton Letters, Vol. II. p. 318. HENLEY. Henry Earl of Richmond was long confined in the court of the Duke of Britaine, and supported there by Charles Duke of Burgundy, who was brother-in-law to King Richard. Hence Mr. Theobald juftly observed that mother in the text was not conformable to the fact. But Shakspeare, as Dr. Farmer has observed, was led into this error by Holinfhed, where he found the preceding paffage in an oration which Hall, in imitation of the ancient hiftorians, invented, and exhibited as having been spoken by the King to his foldiers before the battle of Bofworth. If, fays a Remarker, [Mr. Ritfon,] it ought to be fo in ShakSpeare, why ftop at this correction, and why not in K. Henry V. print præcariffimus inftead of præclariffimus? [See Vol. XII. p. 524, n. 4.] And indeed if brother is to be fubftituted for mother here, there can be no reason why all other fimilar errors fhould not be corrected in like manner. But the Remarker mif i Let's whip these ftragglers o'er the feas again; understood Dr. Farmer's words, which only mean-as it is in the original, and as Shakspeare ought to have written. Dr. Farmer did not fay-" as it ought to be printed in Shakspeare." In all the other places where Shakspeare had been led into errors by mistakes of the prefs, or by falfe tranflations, his text has been very properly exhibited as he wrote it; for it is not the bufinefs of an editor to new-write his author's works. Thus, in Antony and Cleopatra, A& IV. fc. i. we have-" Let the old ruffian know, I have many other ways to die;" though we know the sense of the paffage in Plutarch there copied is,—that " he [the old ruffian] hath many other ways to die." Again, in Julius Cæfar, Antony is ftill permitted to say, that Cæfar had left the Roman people his arbours and orchards "on this fide Tyber," though it ought to be-" on that fide Tyber:" both which mistakes Shakspeare was led into by the ambiguity and inaccuracy of the old tranflation of Plutarch. In like manner in King Henry V. præclariffimus is exhibited as it was written by Shakspeare, inftead of præcariffimus; and in the fame play I have followed our author in printing in Vol. XII. p. 292, Lewis the tenth, though Lewis the ninth was the perfon meant: an error into which he was led, as in the present instance, by a mistake of the prefs. : For all fuch inaccuracies the poet, and not his editor, is refponfible and in the paffage now under our confideration more particularly the text ought not to be difturbed, because it afcertains a point of fome moment; namely that Holinfhed, and not Hall, was the hiftorian that Shakspeare followed. Of how much confequence this is, the reader may afcertain by turning to the Differtation on the Plays of King Henry VI. where this circumftance, if I do not deceive myself, contributes not a little in addition to the other proofs there adduced, to fettle a long-agitated queftion, and to show that those plays were re-written by Shakspeare, and not his original compofition. MALONE. 8 A milk-fop, &c.] So, in The Mirrour for Magiftrates, already quoted: "Firft with our foe-mens captaine to begin, "A weake Welch milkfop,-." Alluding perhaps to goat's milk, of which anciently the Welth were fonder than they are at present. STEEVENS. Who, but for dreaming on this fond exploit, For want of means, poor rats, had hang'd themfelves: If we be conquer'd, let men conquer us, And not these baftard Bretagnes? whom our fathers Fight, gentlemen of England! fight, bold yeomen! Enter a Meffenger. What fays lord Stanley ? will he bring his power? MESS. My lord, he doth deny to come. K. RICH. Off inftantly with his fon George's head.1 • Amaze the welkin with your broken ftaves !] That is, fright the fkies with the fhivers of your lances. JOHNSON. So, in Soliman and Perfeda: "Now by the marble face of the welkin." A fimilar idea is more tamely expreffed in W. Smith's Palgrave, 1613: " Spears flew in fplinters half the way to heaven." The fame imagery is juftified by the following paffage in Froiffart's Chronicle, Vol. II. cap. Íxxviii : « Syr Raynolde du Roy brake his fpere in iiii peces, and the fhevers flewe a grete hyght in to the ayre.' STEEVENS. Off inftantly &c.] The word-inftantly, was fupplied by Sir Thomas Hanmer. Without it, this line has no pretenfions to metre. STEEVENS. NOR. My lord, the enemy is pafs'd the marsh ;2 After the battle let George Stanley die. K. RICH. A thousand hearts are great within my bofom : Advance our ftandards,3 fet upon our foes; the enemy is pass'd the marsh;] There was a large marsh in Bosworth plain between the two armies. Henry paffed it, and made fuch a disposition of his forces that it ferved to protect his right wing. By this movement he gained also another point, that his men fhould engage with the fun behind them, and in the faces of his enemies: a matter of great confequence when bows and arrows were in ufe. MALONE. 3 Advance our standards, &c.] So again, in The Mirrour of Magiftrates; and apparently borrowed from Shakspeare: "Advance then captaines, forward to the fight, "Draw forth your fwords, each man address his theeld; "Hence faint conceites, die thoughts of coward flight, "To heaven your hearts, to fight your valours yeeld: "Behold our foes do brave us in the field. Upon them, friends; the cause is yours and mine; "Saint George and conqueft on our helmes doth shine." STEEVENS. So Holinfhed after Hall: "-like valiant champions advance forth your ftandardes, and affay whether your enemies can decide and try the title of battaile by dint of fword; avaunce, I fay again, forward, my captaines.-Now Saint George to borrow, let us fet forward." MALONE. SCENE IV. Another Part of the Field. Alarum: Excurfions. Enter NORFOLK, and Forces; to him CATESBY. CATE. Refcue, my lord of Norfolk, rescue, rescue! His horfe is flain, and all on foot he fights, 4 Daring an oppofite to every danger;] Perhaps the poet wrote: Daring and oppofite to every danger. TYRWHITT. Perhaps the following paffage in Chapman's verfion of the eighth Book of Homer's Odyfey may countenance the old reading: 66 a moft dreadful fight Daring againf him." STEEVENS. The old reading is perhaps right. An oppofite is frequently used by Shakspeare and the contemporary writers, for adverfary. So, in Twelfth-Night: "your oppofite hath in him what youth, ftrength, fkill, and wrath, can furnish man withal." Again: "and his oppofite the youth, bears in his vifage no prefage of cruelty." So, in Blurt Mr. Conftable, a comedy, by Middleton, 1602: "to ftrengthen us againft all oppofites." Again, more appofitely, in Marston's Antonio and Mellida, 1602: Myfelf, myself, will dare all oppofites." The fenfe then should seem to be, that King Richard enacts wonders, daring the adverfary he meets with to every danger attending fingle combat. MALONE. To dare a fingle oppofite to every danger, is no very wonderful exploit.-I fhould therefore adopt Tyrwhitt's amendment, which infers that he flew to oppose every danger, wherever it was to be found, and read with him, " and oppofite." M. MASON. |