Glo. This is my doom, my lord,(31) if I may judge: (31) This is my doom, my lord, &c.] The folio has merely "This doome, my Lord," &c. (Compare the corresponding passage of The First Part of the Contention, &c., "My gratious Lord, then this is my resolue.”) (32) K. Hen. Then be it so.-My Lord of Somerset, We make your grace regent over the French.] These two lines were inserted by Theobald from The First Part of the Contention, &c., because "without them the king has not declared his assent to Gloucester's opinion; and the Duke of Somerset is made to thank him for the regency before the king has deputed him to it."Malone rejects the lines, drawing a most inconsequential conclusion from the variations in this scene between the old and the amended play, and supposing that "Shakespeare thought Henry's assent might be expressed by a nod"!-Capell omits them; and asks (with an ignorance of stage-business even greater than Malone's), " may not the king's acquiescence be conveyed by a look?"!-Mr. Collier throws them out, content with the old hypothesis of the nod.-Mr. Knight excludes them, for "Henry, having given the power of deciding to Gloster, both in the case of the armourer and of the regency, might be intended by the poet, on his revisal of the play, to speak by the mouth of the protector." But Henry has not "given the power of deciding to Gloster;" he has merely put to him the question, 66 Uncle, what shall we say to this in law?" Now, why should Malone, Capell, Mr. Collier, and Mr. Knight so obstinately refuse to be indebted to the older play here, when afterwards they are compelled to borrow from it twice, in order to render the text intelligible? In a note on act iv. sc. 1, Mr. Collier writes, "This line, necessary to the congruity of the dialogue, is derived from the quarto," &c. and Mr. Knight, ibid., observes, "The passage in brackets is not found in the folio. Without it the point of the dialogue is lost. There can be no doubt that it was omitted by a typographical error," &c.— What is more; in act ii. sc. 3, where Horner says, "and therefore, Peter, have at thee with a downright blow," Malone and Mr. Knight add from the quarto, without the slightest necessity, "as Bevis of Southampton fell upon Ascapart." 1864. Mr. Staunton inserts the above lines as "essential."-Mr. Grant White and the Cambridge Editors reject them.-I continue to think it absolutely necessary that the King should say something here; and I believe that his words, whatever they may have been according to the revised text, are omitted in the folio by mistake.-The Cambridge Som. I humbly thank your royal majesty. Pet. Alas, my lord, I cannot fight; for God's sake, pity my case! The spite of man prevaileth against me. O Lord, have mercy upon me! I shall never be able to fight a blow: O Lord, my heart! Glo. Sirrah, or you must fight, or else be hang'd. K. Hen. Away with them to prison and the day Of combat shall be the last of the next month.Come, Somerset, we'll see thee sent away. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The same. The Duke of GLOSTER's garden. Enter MARGERY JOURDAIN, HUME, SOUTHWELL, and BOLINGBROKE. Hume. Come, my masters; the duchess, I tell you, expects performance of your promises. Boling. Master Hume, we are therefore provided: will her ladyship behold and hear our exorcisms? Hume. Ay, what else? fear you not her courage. Boling. I have heard her reported to be a woman of an invincible spirit: but it shall be convenient, Master 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 prostrate, and grovel on the earth; -John Southwell, read you;-and let us to our work. Enter Duchess above; and presently HUME. Duch. Well said, my masters; and welcome all. To this gear, the sooner the better. Boling. Patience, good lady; wizards know their times: Editors remark that "Shakespeare would hardly have left so lame a line as the second unaltered:" but they certainly ought not to have been offended at the metre of that line, since afterwards in this play, act ii. sc. 4, they deliberately (see their note ad l.) make the Herald speak the following verses; "I summon your grace to his majesty's parliament, Deep night, dark night, the silent of the night,(*3) [Here they do the ceremonies belonging, and make the the Spirit risetiv. Spir. Adsum. M. Jour. Asmath, By the eternal God, whose name and power Thou tremblest at, answer that I shall ask; For, till thou speak, thou shalt not pass from hence. shall of him become?" Spir. The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose; But him outlive, and die a violent death. [As the Spirit speaks, Southwell writes the answers. Boling. "What fates await the Duke of Suffolk?" Spir. By water shall he die, and take his end. Boling. "What shall befall the Duke of Somerset ?" Spir. Let him shun castles; Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains Than where castles mounted stand. (33) the silent of the night,] "So reads the folio 1623; but Steevens and Mason, as well as Mr. Collier's annotator, prefer the lection of the earlier version of the play, the silence of the night."" STAUNTON. With respect to Steevens and Mason at least, Mr. Staunton is mistaken : their notes are to show that here "silent" is used as a substantive. (34) Boling. [reading out of a paper] "First of the king: what shall of him become?" Here Mr. Collier omits the modern stage-direction, reading out of a paper," and observes, "We need not suppose that Bolingbroke's questions were written in the first instance," &c. But he appears to have forgotten that at the commencement of this scene, as given in The First Part of the Contention, &c., the Duchess says, "Here sir Iohn, take this scrole of paper here, Have done, for more I hardly can endure. Boling. Descend to darkness and the burning lake! False (35) fiend, avoid! [Thunder and lightning. Spirit descends. Enter YORK and BUCKINGHAM, breaking in with their Guards. York. Lay hands upon these traitors and their trash.— Beldam, I think we watch'd you at an inch.— What, madam, are you there? the king and commonweal Are deep-indebted (36) for this piece of pains: My lord protector will, I doubt it not, See you well-guerdon'd for these good deserts. Duch. Not half so bad as thine to England's king, Injurious duke, that threatest where's no cause. Buck. True, madam, none at all-what call you this?— We'll see your trinkets here forthcoming all.- [Exeunt, above, Duchess and Hume, guarded. Exeunt, below, Southwell, Bolingbroke, &c., guarded. York. Lord Buckingham, methinks you watch'd her well: A pretty plot, well chosen to build upon! Now, pray, my lord, let's see the devil's writ. What have we here? "The duke yet lives that Henry shall depose; But him outlive, and die a violent death." [Reads. (35) False] Altered (and perhaps rightly) to "Foul" by Mr. Collier's Ms. Corrector. (36) deep-indebted] The folio has "deepely indebted." (Compare, in the preceding play, p. 44, "Com'st thou with deep-premeditated lines," &c.) (37) We'll see your trinkets here forthcoming all.— The folio has Away!] "Wee'le see Your Trinkets here all forth-comming. Aio te, Eacida, Romanos vincere pusse.' Well, to the rest: "Tell me what fate awaits the Duke of Suffolk ? By water shall he die, and take his end.— What shall betide the Duke of Somerset ?(38) Let him shun castles; Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains Than where castles mounted stand." These oracles are hardly attain'd, And hardly understood.(40) The king is now in progress towards Saint Alban's, * Aio te, Æacida, Romanos vincere posse.] The ambiguous cracle which Ennius (in his Annales) feigns to have been given by the Pythian Apollo to Pyrrhus. See Cicero De Divin. lib. ii. 56. (38) "Tell me what fate awaits the Duke of Suffolk? What shall betide the Duke of Somerset ?"] But at p. 127, where Bolingbroke reads the very paper which York is now reading, we find See note 4. "What fates await the Duke of Suffolk? What shall befall the Duke of Somerset ?'" (39) lord;] The folio has "Lords:" but York is addressing Buckingham: compare the third line of his speech. Here the text is manifestly corrupted and mutilated. (40) These oracles are hardly attain'd, And hardly understood.] Not only the lameness of the versification, but the imperfection of the sense too, made me suspect this passage to be corrupt. York, seizing the parties and their papers, says, he'll see the devil's writ; and finding the wizard's answers intricate and ambiguous, he makes this general comment upon such sort of intelligence, as I have restored the text; 'These oracles are hardily attain'd i.e. A great risque and hazard is run to obtain them; and yet, after these hardy steps taken, the informations are so perplexed, that they are hardly to be understood." THEOBALD.-In my former edition I adopted Theobald's alteration: but I now think, with Mr. Collier, that "the poet would scarcely have written 'hardily' in one line and 'hardly' in the next;" though possibly he might have intended the first "hardly" to be pronounced "hardily." VOL. V. I |