served,) March 12, 1593-4. On these two plays, which I believe to have been written by some preceding author, before the year 1590, Shakspeare formed, as I conceive, this and the following drama; altering, retrenching, or amplifying, as he thought proper. The reasons on which this hypothesis is founded, I shall subjoin at large at the end of The third part of King Henry VI. At present it is only necessary to apprize the reader of the method observed in the printing of these plays. All the lines printed in the usual manner, are found in the original quarto plays (or at least with such minute variations as are not worth noticing); and those, I conceive, Shakspeare adopted as he found them. The lines to which inverted commas are prefixed, were, if my hypothesis be well founded, retouched, and greatly improved by him; and those with asterisks were his own original production; the embroidery with which he ornamented the coarse stuff that had been ́awkwardly made up for the stage by some of his contemporaries. The speeches which he new-modelled, he improved, sometimes by amplification, and sometimes by retrenchment.

These two pieces, I imagine, were produced in their present form in 1591, See An Attempt to ascertain the order of Shakspeare's plays, Vol. I. and the Dissertation at the end of The third part of King Henry VI. Dr. Johnson observes very justly, that these two parts were not written without a dependance on the first. Undoubtedly not; the old play of King Henry VI. (or, as it is now called, The First Part,) certainly had been exhibited before these were written in any form. But it does not follow from this concession, either that The Contention of the

two Houses, &c. in two parts, was written by the author of the former play, or that Shakspeare was the author of these two pieces as they originally appeared. MALONE.

Page 5, line 12. and fol. Suf. As by your high imperial Majesty I had in charge &c.] Vide Hall's Chronicle, fol. 66, year 23. init. POPE.

It is apparent that this play begins where the former ends, and continues the series of transactions of which it presupposes the first part already known. This is a sufficient proof that the second and third parts were not written without dependance on the first, though they were printed as containing a complete period of history. JOHNSON. P. 5, 1. 26. To your most gracious hands,

that are &c.] i. e. to the

gracious hands of you, my Sovereign, who are &c. MALONE. The mutual conference that my mind hath had

P. 6, 1. 13-19.

By day, by night; waking, and in my dreams;

In courtly company, or at my beads, With you mine alder-liefest Sovereign, Makes me the bolder to salute my King With ruder terms;] I am the bolder to address you, having already familiarized you to my imagination. JOHNSON.

Alder-lievest is an old English word given to him to whom the speaker is supremely attached, lievest being the superlative of the comparative levar, rather, from lief. WARBURTON.

Alder-liefest is a corruption of the German

A

word alder-liebste, beloved above all things, dearest of all. STEEVENS.

P. 6, 1. 24. This weeping joy, of which there is no trace in the original play, Shakspeare was extremely fond of; having introduced it in Much ado about nothing, K. Richard II. Macbeth, and King Lear. MALONE.

P. 8, 1. 33. This peroration with such cir cumstance?] This speech crouded with so many instances of aggravation.

1

JOHNSON.

P. 9, l. 16. 17. And are the cities, that I got with wounds,]

Deliver'd up again with peaceful words?] The indignation of Warwick is natural, and I wishi it had been better expressed; there is a kind of jingle intended in wounds and words. JOHNSON.

In the old play the jingle is more striking, "And must that then which we won with our Swords, be given away with words?" MALONE. P. 10, 1. 7. We shall begin our ancient bickerings, To bicker is to skirmish. Levi pugna congredior is the expression by which Barrett in his Alvearie, or Quadruple Dict. 1580, explains the verb to bicker. STEEVENS.

P. 10, 1. 16. And all the wealthy kingdoms of the west,] Certainly

Shakspeare wrote east. WARBURTON.

There are wealthy kingdoms in the west as well as in the east, and the western kingdoms were more likely to be in the thought of the speaker. JOHNSON. , P. 11 1. 30. And, brother York,] Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, married Cicely, the daughter of Ralf Nevil, Earl of Westmoreland.

Richard Nevil, Earl of Salisbury, was son to the Earl of Westmoreland by a second wife. He married Alice, the only daughter of Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, who was killed at the siege of Orleans [See this play, Part I. Act I. sc. i.]; and in consequence of that alliance obtained the title of Salisbury in 1428. His eldest son Richard, having married the sister and heir of Henry Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, was created Earl of Warwick, in 1449. MALONE.

P. 11, 1: 50. 31.

In bringing them to civil discipline} This is an anachronism, The present scene is in 1445, but Richard Duke of York was not viceroy of Ireland till 1449. MALONE.

P. 12, l. 6. While they do tend the profit of the land. I think we might read, more clearly to profit of the land i. e. to profit themselves by it; unless 'tend be written for attend, as in King Richard II: "They tend the crowne, yet still with me "9 they stay." STEEVENS.

Perhaps tend has here the same meaning as tender in a subsequent scene:

"I tender so the safety of my Liege."

Or it may have been put for intend; while they have the advantage of the commonwealth as their object. MALONE.

P. 12, 1, 24. on a tickle point, -] Tickle is very frequently used for ticklish by poets contemporary with Shakspeare. STEEVENS,

P. 13, 1. 9. 10. As did the fatal brand Althea burn'd,

Unto the Prince's heart of Calydon.] According to the fable, Meleager's life was to continue only so long as a certain firebrand should

last. His mother Althea having thrown it inte the fire, he expired in great torments. MALONE. P. 15, 1. 22. Ill-nurtur'd, is ill-educated.

MALONE.

P. 16, 1. 5. Whereas is the same as where ; and seems to be brought into use only on account of its being a dissyllable. STEEVENS.

P. 16, 1. 16. Sir John! A title frequently bestowed on the clergy. STEEVENS.

P. 17, I. 26.

a crafty knave does need no broker;] A proverbial sentence. See Ray's Collection. STEEVENS. P. 17, last 1. Sort how it will,] Let the

issue be what it will. JOHNSON.

P. 18, 1. 7. and then we may deliver our supplications in the quill.] In quill is Sir Thomas Hanmer's reading; the rest have in the quill. JOHNSON.

Perhaps our supplications in the quill, or in quill, means no more than our written or penn'd supplications. We still say, a drawing in chalk, for a drawing executed by the use of chalk,

STEEVENS,

In the quill may mean, with great exactness and observance of form, or with the utmost punctilio of ceremony. The phrase seems to be taken from part of the dress of our ancestors, whose ruffs were quilled. While these were worn, it might be the vogue to say, such a thing is in the quill, i. e, in the reigning mode of taste. TOLLET,

To this observation I may add, that after printing began, the similar phrase of a thing being in print was used to express the same circumstance of exactness. "All this," (declares one of the quibbling servants in The Two Gentlemen of