Holinshed copies this verbatim from his brother chronicler, Hall, edit. 1548. fol. 54. but his printer has given us by accident the word moother instead of brother; as it is in the original, and ought to be in Shakspeare. FARMER. See a letter of King Richard III. persuading his subjects to resist Henry Tydder, &c. in Sir John: Fenn's collection of the Paston 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 justly observed that mother in the text was not conformable to the fact. But Shakspeare, as Dr. Farmer has observed, was led into this errour by Holinshed, where he found the preceding passage in an oration which Hall, in imitation of the ancient historians, invented, and exhibited as having been spoken by the King to his soldiers before the battle of Bosworth. If, says a Remarker, [Mr. Ritson,] it ought to be so in Shakspeare, why stop at this correction, and why not in King Henry V. print praecartssimus instead of praeclarissimus? And indeed if brother is to be substituted for mother here, there can be no reason why all other similar errors should not be corrected in like manner. But the Remarker misunderstood Dr. Farmer's words, which only mean as it is in the original, and as Shakspeare ought to have written. Dr. Farmer did not say as it ought to be printed in Shakspeare." In all the other places where Shakspeare has been led into errours by mistakes of the press, or by false translations, his text has been very pro perly exhibited as he wrote it; for it is not the business of an editor to new-write his author's works. Thus, in Antony and Cleopatra, Act IV. sc. i. we bave "Let the old ruffian know, I have many other ways to die;" though we know the sense of the passage in Plutarch there copied that "he [the old ruffian] hath many other ways to die." Again, in Julius Caesar, Antony is still permitted to say, that Caesar had left the Roman people his arbours and orchards "on this side Tyber," though it ought to be on that side Tyber;" both which mistakes Shakspeare was led into by the ambiguity and inaccuracy of the old translation of Plutarch. is, In like manner in King Henry V. praeclarissimus is exhibited as it was written by Shakspeare, instead of praecarissimus; and in the same playI have followed our author in printing Lewis the tenth, though Lewis the ninth was the person meant an errour into which he was led, as in the present instauce, by a mistake of the press. For all such inaccuracies the poet, and not his editor, is responsible and in the passage now under our consideration more particularly the text ought not to be disturbed, because it ascertains a point of some moment; namely that Holinshed and not Hall, was the historian that Shakspeare followed. Of how much consequence this is, the reader may ascertain by turning to the Dissertation on the plays of King Henry VI. where this circumstance, if I do not deceive myself, con-* tributes not a little in addition to the other proofs there adduced, to settle a long-agitated question, and to shew that those plays were re-written by Shakspeare, and not his original composition. MALONE. P. 145, 1. 21. Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!-] That is, fright the skies with the shivers of your lances. JOHNSON. P. 145, 1. 28. the enemy is pass'd the marsh;] There was a large marsh in Bosworth plain between the two armies. Henry pass'd it, and made such a dispotion of his forces that it served to protect his right wing. By this movement he gained also another point, that his men should engage with the sun behind them, and in the faces of his enemies: a matter of great consequence when bows and arrows were in use. MALONE. P. 146, 1. 11. Daring an opposite to every danger;] Perhaps the poet wrote: `Daring and opposite to every danger. TYRWHITT. The old reading is perhaps right. An opposite is frequently used by Shakspeare and the contemporary writers, for adversary. The sense then should seem to be, that King Richard enacts wonders, daring the adversary he meets with to every danger attending single combat. MALONE. To dare a single opposite to every danger, is no very wonderful exploit. I should 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 opposite. M. MASON. P. 146, 1. 23. 24. I think, there be six Richmonds in the field; Five have I slain to-day, instead of him:-1 Shakspeare had employed this incident with histo rical propriety in the first Part of King Henry IV. STLEVENS. t Shakspeare had good ground for_this_potical exaggeration. Richard, according to Polydore Ver- || gil, was determined, if possible, to engage with Richmond in single combat. For this purpose he rode furiously to that quarter of the field where the Earl was attacked his standard-bearer, Sir William Brandon, and killed him; then assaulted Sir John Cheny, whom he overthrew: having thus at length cleared his way to his antagonist, he engaged in single combat with him, and probably would have been victorious, but that at that instant Sir William Stanley with three thousand men joined Richmond's army, and the royal forces fled with great precipitation. Richard was soon afterwards overpowered by numbers, and fell, fighting bravely to the last moment. MALONE.. P. 146, last 1. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!] Some inquiry hath been made for the first performers of the capital characters of Shakspeare. We learn, that Burbage, the alter Roscius of Camden, was the original Richard, from a passage in the poems of Bishop Corbet; who itroduced his host at Bosworth describing the battle: "But when he would have said KingRichard died, "And call'd a horse, a horse, he Burbage cried." FARMER. P. 147, 1. 11. From the dead temples of this bloody wretch] It is not necessary to suppose that Richmond points to the dead body of Richard, when he speaks of him. According to an ancient idiom in our language, the denominative pronoun is often used instead of the prepositive article. STEEVENS. P. 147, P. 147, 1. 30. as we have ta'en the sacra ment,] So, in Holinshed, p. 745: "The Earle himselfe first tooke a corporall oth on his honor, promising that incontinent after he should be possessed of the crowne and dignitie of the realme of England, he would be conjoined in matrimonie with the ladie Elizabeth, daughter to King Edward de fourth. STEEVENS. P. 148, 1. 6-10. All this divided York and Lancaster, Divided, in their dire division, O, now, let Richmond and Elizabeth, All that divided York and Lancaster, O now let Richmond and Elizabeth, P. 148, 1. 14. Abate the edge of traitors, ] To abate, is to lower, depress, subdue. STEEVENS. P. 148, 1. 15. reduce i. e. bring back; an obsolete sense of the word. STEEVENS. This is one of the most celebrated of our author's performances; yet I know not whether it has not happened to him as to others, to he praised most, when praise is not most deserved. That this play has scenes noble in themselves, and very well contrived to strike in the exhibition, VOL. XII, 17 |