Prince. That Julius Cæsar was a famous man; With what his valour did enrich his wit,

"M. That was the old way, gossip, when Iniquity came in, like Hocas Pocas, in a jugler's jerkin, with false skirts, like the knave of clubs."

And, in The Devil's an Ass, we see this old vice Iniquity, described more at large.

From all this, it may be gathered, that the text, where Richard compares himself to the formal vice, Iniquity, must be corrupt: and the interpolation of some foolish player. The vice, or iniquity being not a formal but a merry, buffoon character. Besides, Shakspeare could never make an exact speaker refer to this character, because the subject he is upon is tradition and antiquity, which have no relation to it; and because it appears from the turn of the passage, that he is apologizing for his equivocation by a reputable practice. To keep the reader no longer in suspence, my conjecture is, that Shakspeare wrote and pointed the lines in this manner:

Thus like the formal-wise Antiquity,

I moralize: Two meanings in one word.

Alluding to the mythologic learning of the ancients, of whom they are all here speaking. So that Richard's ironical apology is to this effect, You men of morals who so much extol your all-wise antiquity, in what am I inferior to it? which was but an equivocator as I am. And it is remarkable, that the Greeks themselves called their remote antiquity, Aixóμl, or the equivocator. So far as to the general sense; as to that which arises particularly out of the corrected expression, I shall now only observe, that formal-wise is a compound epithet, an extreme fine one, and admirably fitted to the character of the speaker, who thought all wisdom but formality. It must therefore be read for the future with a hyphen. My other observation is with regard to the pointing; the common reading

I moralize two meanings

is nonsense: but reformed in this manner very sensible:

Thus like the formal-wise Antiquity

I moralize: Two meanings in one word.

i. e. I moralize as the ancients did. And how was that? the haying two meanings to one word. A ridicule on the morality of the ancients, which he insinuates was no better than equivocating.

Warburton.

This alteration Mr. Upton very justly censures. Dr. Warburton has, in my opinion, done nothing but correct the punctuation, if indeed any alteration be really necessary. See the dissertation on the old vice at the end of this play.

To this long collection of notes may be added a question, to what equivocation Richard refers? The position immediately preceding, that fame lives long without characters, that is, without the help of letters, seems to have no ambiguity. He must allude to the former line:

His wit set down, to make his valour live:

So young so wise, they say, do ne'er live long.

in which he conceals under a proverb, his design of hastening the Prince's death. Johnson.

The Prince having caught some part of the former line, asks Richard what he says, who, in order to deceive him, preserves in his reply, the latter words of the line, but substitutes other words at the beginning of it, of a different import from those he had uttered.—This is the equivocation that Gloster really made use of, though it does not correspond with his own description of it:

I moralize-two meanings in one word.

Word is not here taken in its literal sense, but means a saying, a short sentence, as motto does in Italian, and bon-mot in French. -So, in Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, Puntarvolo says:

"Let the word be, Not without mustard; thy crest is rare."

M. Mason. From the following stage direction, in an old dramatick piece, entituled, Histriomastix, or The Player Whipt, 1610, it appears, that the Vice and Iniquity were sometimes distinct personages:

"Enter a roaring devil, with the Vice on his back, Iniquity in one hand, and Juventus in the other."

The devil likewise makes the distinction in his first speech: "Ho, ho, ho! these babes mine are all,

"The Vice, Iniquitie, and Child Prodigal."

The following part of this note was obligingly communicated by the Rev. Mr. Bowle, of Idmestone near Salisbury. I know no writer who gives so complete an account of this obsolete character, as archbishop Harsnet, in his Declaration of Popish Impostures, p. 114, Lond. 1603: "It was a pretty part (he tells us) in the old church-playes, when the nimble Vice would skip up nimbly like a jackanapes into the devil's necke, and ride the devil a course, and belabour him with his wooden dagger, till he made him roare, whereat the people would laugh to see the devil so vice-haunted." Steevens

Dr. Warburton has endeavoured to support his capricious and violent alteration of the text by a very long note, which in my apprehension carries neither conviction, nor information with it.

The Vice, Iniquity, cannot with propriety, be said to moralize in general; but in the old Moralities he, like Richard, did often "moralize two meanings in one word "

Our author has again used moralize as a verb active in his Rape of Lucrece:

"Nor could she moralize his wanton sight,

"More than his eyes were open to the light."

In which passage it means, "to interpret or investigate the latent meaning of his wanton looks," as in the present passage, it signifies either to extract the double and latent meaning of one word or sentence, or to couch two meanings under one word or sentence. So moral is used by our author in Much Ado about

Death makes no conquest of this conqueror;"
For now he lives in fame, though not in life.-
I'll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham.
Buck. What, my gracious lord?
Prince. An if I live until I be a man,
I'll win our ancient right in France again,
Or die a soldier, as I liv'd a king.

Glo. Short summers lightly1 have a forward spring.

[Aside.

Nothing, for a secret meaning: "There is some moral in this Be. nedictus." See Vol. IV, p. 254, n. 2; and Vol. IX, p. 375, n. 2. The word which Richard uses in a double sense is live, which in his former speech he had used literally, and in the present is used metaphorically. Mr. Mason conceives, because what we now call a motto, was formerly denominated the mot or word, that word may here signify a whole sentence. But the argument is defective. Though in tournaments the motto on a knight's shield was formerly called The word, it never at any period was called "One word."

The Vice of the old moralities was a buffoon character, [Sce Cotgrave's Dict. "Badin, A foole or Vice in a play-Mime, A vice, foole, jester, &c. in a play."] whose chief employment was to make the audience laugh, and one of the modes by which he effected his purpose was by double meanings, or playing upon words. In these moral representations, Fraud, INIQUITY, Covetousness, Luxury, Gluttony, Vanity, &c. were frequently introduced. Mr. Upton in a dissertation which, on account of its length, is annexed at the end of this play, has shown, from Ben Jonson's Staple of News, and The Devil's an Ass, that Iniquity was sometimes the Vice of the Moralities. Mr. Steevens's note in the foregoing page, shows, that he was not always so.

The formal Vice perhaps means, the shrewd, the sensible Vice. -In The Comedy of Errors, "a formal man" seems to mean, one in his senses; a rational man. Again, in Twelfth Night, Vol. III, p. 239, n. 2: " this is evident to any formal capacity." Malone. of this conqueror;] For this reading we are indebted to Mr. Theobald, who derived it from the original edition in 1597. All the subsequent ancient copies read corruptly-of his conMalone.

queror.

1

lightly-] Commonly, in ordinary course. Johnson. So, in the old Proverb: "There's lightning lightly before thunder." See Ray's Proverbs, p. 130, edit. 3d.

Again, in Penny-wise and Pound-foolish, &c.—" Misfortunes seldome walke alone; and so when blessings doe knocke at a man's dore, they lightly are not without followers and fellowes."

Again, Holinshed, p. 725, concerning one of King Edward's concubines: " -one whom no one could get out of the church lightly to any place, but it were to his bed."

Enter YORK, HASTINGS, and the Cardinal.

Buck. Now, in good time, here comes the duke of York.

Prince. Richard of York! how fares our loving brother?
York. Well, my dread lord ;2 so must I call you now.
Prince. Ay, brother; to our grief, as it is yours:
Too late he died,3 that might have kept that title,
Which by his death hath lost much majesty.

Glo. How fares our cousin, noble lord of York?
York. I thank you, gentle uncle. O, my lord,
You said, that idle weeds are fast in growth:
The prince my brother hath outgrown me far.
Glo. He hath, my lord.

York.

And therefore is he idle?

Glo. O, my fair cousin, I must not say so.

York. Then is he more beholden to you, than I. Glo. He may command me, as my sovereign; But you have power in me, as in a kinsman.

York. I pray you, uncle, then, give me this dagger. Glo. My dagger, little cousin? with all my heart. Prince. A beggar, brother?

York. Of my kind uncle, that I know will give; And, being but a toy, which is no grief to give.5

Again, in Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels:

"He is not lightly within to his mercer."

Steevens.

Short summers lightly have a forward spring.] That is, short summers are usually preceded by a forward spring; or in other words, and more appositely to Gloster's latent meaning, a premature spring is usually followed by a short summer. Malone.

2

dread lord;] The original of this epithet applied to kings has been much disputed. In some of our old statutes the king is called Rex metuendissimus. Johnson.

3 Too late he died,] i e. too lately, the loss is too fresh in our memory. Warburton.

So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece :

I did give that life,

"Which she too early, and too late hath spill'd."

Again, in King Henry V:

"The mercy that was quick in us but late," &c. Malone.

I pray you, uncle, then, give me this dagger.] Then was added, by Sir Thomas Hanmer, for the sake of metre.

Steevens.

5 And, being but a toy, which is no grief to give.] The reading of

the quartos is-gift. The first folio reads:

And, being but a toy, which is no grief to give.

Glo. A greater gift than that I'll give my cousin. York. A greater gift! O, that's the sword to it? Glo. Ay, gentle cousin, were it light enough. York. O then, I see, you'll part but with light gifts; In weightier things you'll say a beggar, nay. Glo. It is too weighty for your grace to wear. York. I weigh it lightly, were it heavier.

6

Glo. What, would you have my weapon, little lord? York. I would, that I might thank you as you call me. Glo. How?

York. Little.

Prince. My lord of York will still be cross in talk ;— Uncle, your grace knows how to bear with him.

York. You mean, to bear me, not to bear with me:-Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me; Because that I am little, like an ape,7

This reading, made a little more metrical, has been followed, I think, erroneously, by all the editors. Johnson.

The quarto 1612 reads:

· no grief

Steevens.

which is no grief to give.] Which to give, or the gift of which, induces no regret. Thus the authentick copies, the quarto, 1598, and the first folio. A quarto of no authority changed grief to gift, and the editor of the second folio capriciously altered the line thus: "And being a toy, it is no grief to give." Malone.

I weigh it lightly, &c.] i. e. I should still esteem it but a trifling gift, were it heavier. But the Oxford editor reads:

I'd weigh it lightly,

i. e. I could manage it though it were heavier. Warburton. Dr. Warburton is right. So, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, sc. ii: "You weigh me not,-O that's you care not for me."

Steevens.

7 Because that I am little, like an ape,] The reproach seems to consist in this at country shows it was common to set the monkey on the back of some other animal, as a bear. The Duke therefore in calling himself ape, calls his uncle bear. Johnson.

To this custom there seems to be an allusion in Ben Jonson's Masque of Gypsies:

"A gypsy in his shape,

"More calls the beholder,

"Than the fellow with the ape,

"Or the ape on his shoulder."

Again, in The First Part of the Eighth liberall Science, entituled Ars Adulandi &c. devised and compiled by Ulpian Fulwel, 1576: -thou hast an excellent back to carry my lord's ape."

66

See likewise Hogarth's Humours of an Election, plate IV.