Let him have all the rigour of the law. HOR. Alas, my lord, hang me, if ever I fpake the words. My accufer is my prentice; and when I did correct him for his fault the other day, he did vow upon his knees he would be even with me: I have good witnefs of this; therefore, I beseech your majefty, do not caft away an honeft man for a villain's accufation. K. HEN. Uncle, what shall we fay to this in law? GLO. This doom, my lord, if I may judge. Let Somerfet be regent o'er the French, Because in York this breeds fufpicion : 8 • For he hath witness of his fervant's malice: This is the law, and this duke Humphrey's doom. K. HEN. Then be it fo. My lord of Somerset, And let thefe have a day appointed them, &c.] In the original play, quarto 1600, the corresponding lines ftand thus: The law, my lord, is this. By case it refts fufpicious, And these to try each other's right or wrong, In Smithfield, before your royal majefty. An opinion has prevailed that The whole Contention, &c. printed in 1600, was an imperfect furreptitious copy of Shakspeare's play as exhibited in the folio; but what, fpurious copy, or imperfe& transcript taken in fhort-hand, ever produced fuch variations as these? MALONE. Such varieties, during feveral years, were to be found in every Mf. copy of Mr. Sheridan's then unprinted Duenna, as used in country theatres. The dialogue of it was obtained piece-meal, and connected by frequent interpolations. STEEVENS. For, 9 K. Hen. Then be it fo. &c.] Thefe two lines I have inferted from the old quarto; and, as I think, very neceffarily. without them, the king has not declared his affent to Glofter's opinion and the duke of Somerfet is made to thank him for the regency before the king has deputed him to it. THEOBALD. : We make your grace lord regent o'er the French. PET. Alas, my lord, I cannot fight; for God's fake, pity my cafe! the fpite of man prevaileth * against me. O, Lord have mercy upon me! I * fhall never be able to fight a blow: O Lord, my * heart! The plea urged by Theobald for, their introdu&ion is, that otherwise Somerset thanks the king before he had declared his appointment; but Shakspeare, I fuppofe, thought Henry's affent might be expreffed by a nod. Somerset knew that Humphrey's doom was final; as likewife did the Armourer, for he, like Somerfet, accepts the combat, without waiting for the king's confirmątion of what Glofter had faid. Shakspeare therefore not having introduced the following fpeech, which is found in the first copy, we have no right to insert it. That it was not intended to be preferved, appears from the concluding line of the prefent fcene, in which Henry addreffes Somerset; whereas in the quarto, Somerset goes out, on his appointment. This is one of thofe minute circumftances which may be urged to fhow that these plays, however afterwards worked up by Shakspeare, were originally the production of another author, and that the quarto edition of 1600 was printed from the copy originally written by that author, whoever he was. MALONE. After the lines inferted by Theobald, the king continues his Speech thus: over the French; And to defend our rights 'gainst foreign foes, And fo do good unto the realm of France. Make hafte, my lord; 'tis time that you were gone: Som. I humbly thank your royal majefty, And take my leave, to poft with speed to France. [Exit Somerset. King. Come, uncle Glofter; now let's have our horse, [Exeunt omnes. STEEVENS. GLO. Sirrah, or you must fight, or else be hang'd. K. HEN. Away with them to prifon: and the day Of combat fhall be the laft of the next month. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The fame. The Duke of Glofter's Garden. Enter MARGERY JOURDAIN, HUME, SOUTHWELL, and BOLINGBROKE. * HUME. Come, my mafters; the duchefs, I tell you, expects performance of your promises. BOLING. Mafter Hume, we are therefore provided: * Will her ladyflip behold and hear our exorcisms ?4 *HUME. Ay; What elfe; fear you not her cou rage. 3 Enter &c.] The quarto reads: Enter Eleanor, Sir John Hum, Roger Bolingbrook a conjurer, and Eleanor. Here, fir John, take this fcroll of paper here, And to my queftions write the answers down. She goes up to the tower. our exorcifms?] The word exorcife, and its derivatives, are used by Shakspeare in an uncommon fenfe. In all other writers it means to lay fpirits, but in these plays it invariably means to raise them. So, in Julius Cæfar, Ligarius fays, "Thou, like an exorcift, haft conjur'd up See Vol. IX. p. 193, n. 3. MALONE. BOLING. I have heard her reported to be a wo* man of an invincible fpirit: But it fhall be con*venient, mafter Hume, that you be by her aloft, * while we be busy below; and so, I pray you, go in God's name, and leave us. [Exit Hume. ] Mother Jourdain, be you proftrate, and grovel on the earth: John Southwell, read you; and let us to our work. Enter Duchefs, above. * DUCH. Well faid, my masters; and welcome * all. To this geer; the fooner the better. *BOLING. Patience, good lady; wizards know their times: Deep night, dark night, the filent of the night, 5 Deep night, dark night, the filent of the night,] The filent of the night is a claffical expreffion, and means an interlunar night.Amica filentia luna. So Pliny, Inter omnes verò convenit, utiliffimè in coitu ejus fterni, quem diem alii interlunii, alii filentis lunæ appellant. lib. xvi. cap. 39. In imitation of this language, Milton fays: The fun to me is dark, "And filent as the moon, Hid in her vacant interlunar cave." WARBURTON. Silent, I believe this display of learning might have been spared. though an adjective, is ufed by Shakspeare as a fubftantive. So, in The Tempest, the vaft of night is used for the greateft part of it. The old quarto reads, the filence of the night. The variation between the copies is worth notice. Bolingbrooke makes a circle. Bol. Dark night, dread night, the filence of the night, • The time of night when Troy was fet on fire; The time when fcritch-owls cry, and bandogs And fpirits walk, and ghofts break up their graves, That time beft fits the work we have in hand. Madam, fit you, and fear not; whom we raise, We will make faft within a hallow'd verge. Here they perform the ceremonies appertaining, and make the circle; Bolingbroke, or Southwell, reads, Conjuro te, &c. It thunders and lightens terribly; then the Spirit rifeth. In a speech already quoted from the quarto, Eleanor fays, they have caft their fpells in filence of the night. And in the ancient Interlude of Nature, bl. 1. no date, is the fame expreffion: Who taught the nyghtyngall to recorde befyly "Her frange entunes in fylence of the night?" Again, in The Faithful Shepherdess of Fletcher: "Through fill filence of the night, Guided by the glow-worm's light." STEEVENS. Steevens's explanation of this paffage is evidently right: and Warburton's obfervations on it, though long, learned, and laborious, are nothing to the purpose. Bolingbroke does not talk of the filence of the moon, but of the filence of the night; nor is he defcribing the time of the month, but the hour of the night. 6 M. MASON. bandogs howl, ] I was unacquainted with the etymology of this word, till it was pointed out to me by an ingenious correfpondent in the Supplement to the Gentleman's Magazine for 1789, who figus himself D. T. " Shakspeare's ban-dog (fays he) is fimply a village-dog, or mafliff, which was formerly called a band-dog, per fyncopen, bandog." In support of this opinion he quotes Caius de canibus Britannicis "Hoc genus canis, etiam catenarium, à catena vel ligamento, qua ad januas interdiu detinetur, ne lædat, & tamen latratu terreat, appellatur. - Rufticos, Shepherds' dogs, mastives, and bandogs, nominavimus. STEEVENS. Ban-dog is furely a corruption of band-dog; or rather the firft d is fuppreffed here, as in other compound words. Cole in his Dia, 1679, renders ban-dog, canis catenatus. MALONE. |