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though the consciousness of his own merit will exempt him from the pangs of envy. Joux.

Exempt from envy. Dr. Johnson's reasoning appears to be false. To be out of the reach of envy, is by no means the privilege of great excellence; on the contrary it is by great abilities that envy is usually excited. If, indeed, he means to say, that great excellence has nothing of envy in its composition, he is certainly right. It is well known, however, that inferior natures have a considerable portion of it. B.

Glo. Brother, we will proclaim you out of hand;
The bruit thereof will bring you many friends.
The bruit] i. e. noise. STEEV.

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Bruit,' French, is rather rumor than noise. Tintamarre is noise. B.

K. Henry. Let's levy men, and beat him back again.

Let's levy men, and beat him back again.] This line expresses a spirit of war so unsuitable to the character of Henry, that I would give the first cold speech to the king, and the brisk answer to Warwick. This line is not in the old quarto; and when Henry said nothing, the first speech might be as properly given to Warwick as to any other. JOHN.

'Let's levy men, and beat him back again.' It matters little to whom the line is given. Dr. Johnson's reason for taking it from Henry, however, is not very forcible. A king who had been imprisoned, and who had recently regained his liberty, might very well throw out a wish for levying forces,' and for beating back the man who was endeavouring to deprive him of his crown. This is surely highly natural, though a spirit were no way consonant to his general character. B.

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Glo. Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete,
That taught his son the office of a fowl?

And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd.

-peevish fool-] As peevishness is the quality of children, peevish seems to signify childish, and by consequence silly. Pecvish is explained by childish, in a former note of Dr. Warburton. JOHN. 'Peevish fool.' Peevish' is likewise Subtle, artful. Gloster uses it in that sense, but ironically. B.

K. Henry.

That many a thousand,

Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear:

Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear ;] Who suspect no part of what my fears presage. JOHN.

Mistrust no parcel of my fear.' Parcel.' The right word, perhaps, is pareil,—often used by old writers—(pareille fr.) like to, equal to. Who at present have not the fears that I have.' B.

King Richard III.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Glo. Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time

Into this breathing world,

Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,] By dissembling is not meant hypocritical nature, that pretends one thing and does another: but nature that puts together things of a dissimilar kind, as a brave soul and a deformed body. WARB.

Dissembling is here put very licentiously for fraudful, deceitful. JOHN. By dissembling nature.' 'Dissembling' is here, I think, disguising. Nature that made me a man, yet disguised me by unseemly features. B.

Glo. Why I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time;
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun,

And descant on mine own deformity:

And descant on mine own deformity:] Descant is a term in music, signifying in general that kind of harmony wherein one part is broken and formed into a kind of paraphrase on the other. The propriety and elegance of the above figure, without such an idea of the nature of descant, could not be discerned. HAW.

And descant on mine own deformity.' Descant' has in this place nothing to do with music. It means, muse on, ruminate. B.

Glo. Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,

By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,

To set my brother Clarence, and the king
In deadly hate the one against the other;

-inductions dangerous,] Preparations for mischief. The induction is preparatory to the action of the play. JOHN.

-inductions dangerous.' The meaning which Dr. Johnson would affix to inductions' is included in plots have I laid.' • Inductions,' in this place, I believe, signifies persuasions. A latin sense. The words by drunken prophecies &c.' confirm this interpretation. B.

Glo. We say, the king

Is wise, and virtuous; and his noble queen
Well struck in years;

Well struck in years;] This odd expression in our language was preceded by one as uncouth though of a similar kind.

Well shot in years he seem'd, &c.] Spenser's F. Queen, B. V. c. vi. : The meaning of neither is very obvious; but as Mr. Warton has observed in his Essay on the Faery Queen, by an imperceptible progression from one kindred sense to another, words at length obtain a meaning entirely foreign to their original etymology. STEEV.

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Well struck in years.' This is said with a sneer, and purposely rendered ambiguous. It may mean, somewhat old,' or as we now say stricken in years: or that the queen is no girl, but so far advanced in age, as to be capable of advising the king. B.

Glo. We say, that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue;
That the queen's kindred are made gentle-folks :

-'a bonny eye.' Bonny,' is spruce, genteel. The epithet will by no means suit with eye. We may read boony eye, i. e. begging, supplicating eye. The line immediately following will show this reading to be right. B.

Anne. O earth, which this blood drink'st, revenge his death!

O earth which this blood drink'st,' &c. This will well explain the passage in Henry IV. part first.

No more this soil,

Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood."

A passage which has so greatly puzzled the critics. See also Act 4. of this play.

Rest thy unrest on England's lawful earth,

Unlawfully made drunk with innocent blood.' B.

Anne. Vouchsafe, diffus'd infection of a man,
For these known evils, but to give me leave,
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.

Vouchsafe, diffus'd infection of a man,] I believe, diffused in this place signifies irregular, uncouth; such is its meaning in other passages of Shakspeare. JOHN.

Diffus'd infection of a man inay mean, thou that art as dangerous as a pestilence, that infects the air by its diffusion. STEEV.

Diffus'd infection of a man,' means, I apprehend-a man having infection diffused, or spread in every part of him. Richard is, as she would insinuate, a mass of vice. B.

Anne. But, since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewel already.

Imagine I have said farewel already.] Cibber, who altered Rich. III. for the stage, was so thoroughly convinced of the ridiculousness and improbability of this scene, that he thought himself obliged to make Tressel say:

When future chronicles shall speak of this,

They will be thought romance, not history. STEEV.

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'Imagine I have said farewell already. Mr Steevens talks very freely of the ridiculousness' of Shakspeare. This exhibition, however, so far from being ridiculous, is exquisitely true to nature. It evinces an intimate acquaintance with the human character-the subtlety of man and the weakness of woman. A critic of eminence, among other cominendations of it, observes, there are two circumstances that mark great delicacy and fineness of painting in the execution of this excellent scene,' &c. As to Cibber's lines, they are merely intended to signify, that it is not virtuous but degenerate nature which is there represented not the less faithful, however, on that account. B.

Q. Mar. Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out In sharing that which you have pill'd from me:

which you have pill'd from me:] To pill is to pillage. So, in the Martyr'd Soldier, by Shirley, 1638 :

"He has not pill'd the rich, nor flay'd the poor." STEEV.

To pill, is literally, to take off the outside or rind. Thus they say in Devonshire, to pill an apple, rather than pare it; and Shirley uses the word precisely in this sense.

HEN.

Which you have pill'd from me.' Mr. H. has mistaken the sense. Pilled,' in this place is fleec'd, taken from me by unlawful means.' A sheep, when deprived of its fleece, is said to be pilled. B.

Q. Mar. Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins!
Thou rag of honor! thou detested-

Thou rag of honor, &c.] This word of contempt is used again in Timon:

If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag,
Must be the subject.'

Again, in this play:

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These over-weening rags of France.' STEEV.

SHAK,

II.

H

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