Enter MORTON. NORTH. Yea, this man's brow, like to a titleleaf, Foretells the nature of a tragick volume: So looks the strond, whereon* the imperious flood Say, Morton, didst thou come from Shrewsbury? NORTH. 8 -- * Folio, when. like to a title-leaf,] It may not be amiss to observe, that, in the time of our poet, the title-page to an elegy, as well as every intermediate leaf, was totally black. I have several in my possession, written by Chapman, the translator of Homer, and ornamented in this manner. STEEVENS. 9 I " a witness'd usurpation.] i. e. an attestation of its ravage. STEEVENS. so woe-begone,] This word was common enough amongst the old Scottish and English poets, as G. Douglas, Chaucer, Lord Buckhurst, Fairfax; and signifies, far gone in woe. So, in The Spanish Tragedy: WARBURTON. "Awake, revenge, or we are wo-begone!" Again, in Arden of Feversham, 1592: “So woe-begone, so inly charg'd with woe." Again, in A Looking Glass for London and England, 1598: "Fair Alvida, look not so woe-begone." Dr. Bentley is said to have thought this passage corrupt, and therefore (with a greater degree of gravity than my readers will probably express) proposed the following emendation: 66 So dead, so dull in look, Ucalegon, "Drew Priam's curtain," &c. The name of Ucalegon is found in the third book of the Iliad, and the second of the Æneid. STEEVENS. And would have told him, half his Troy was burn'd: But Priam found the fire, ere he his tongue, And I my Percy's death; ere thou report'st it. Your brother, thus; so fought the noble Douglas; NORTH. Why, he is dead. See, what a ready tongue suspicion hath! He, that but fears the thing he would not know, 2 And make thee rich for doing me such wrong. upon your mind, by which JOHNSON. 2 Your spirit] The impression you conceive the death of your son. 3 Yet, for all this, say not, &c.] The contradiction, in the first part of this speech, might be imputed to the distraction of Northumberland's mind; but the calmness of the reflection, contained in the last lines, seems not much to countenance such a supposition. I will venture to distribute this passage in a manner which will, I hope, seem more commodious; but do not wish the reader to forget, that the most commodious is not always the true reading : "Bard. Yet, for all this, say not that Percy's dead. I see a strange confession in thine eye : Thou shak'st thy head; and hold'st it fear, or sin *, * Remember'd knolling a departing friend". * Quartos, tolling. "And he doth sin, that doth belie the dead; "Mor. Yet the first bringer of unwelcome news "Remember'd knolling a departing friend." Here is a natural interposition of Bardolph at the beginning, who is not pleased to hear his news confuted, and a proper preparation of Morton for the tale which he is unwilling to tell. 4 JOHNSON. hold'st it FEAR, or sin,] Fear, for danger. WARBURTON. If he be slain, say so:] The words say so are in the first folio, but not in the quarto: they are necessary to the verse, but the sense proceeds as well without them. JOHNSON. 6 Sounds ever after as a SULLEN bell, Remember'd knolling a DEPARTING friend.] So, in our author's 71st Sonnet: 66 you shall hear the surly sullen bell "Give warning to the world that I am fled." This significant epithet has been adopted by Milton: Swinging slow with sullen roar." Departing, I believe, is here used for departed. MALONE. I cannot concur in this supposition. The bell, anciently, was rung before expiration, and thence was called the passing bell, i. e. the bell that solicited prayers for the soul passing into another world. STEEVENS. I am inclined to think that this bell might have been originally used to drive away demons who were watching to take possession of the soul of the deceased. In the cuts to some of the old service books which contain the Vigilia mortuorum, several devils are waiting for this purpose in the chamber of a dying man, to whom the priest is administering extreme unction. DOUCE. BARD. I cannot think, my lord, your son is dead. MOR. I am sorry, I should force you to believe That, which I would to heaven I had not seen: But these mine eyes saw him in bloody state, Rend'ring faint quittance', wearied and outbreath'd, To Harry Monmouth; whose swift wrath beat down The never-daunted Percy to the earth, From whence with life he never more sprung up. Lend to this weight such lightness with their fear, 7-faint QUITTANCE,] Quillance is return. By "faint quittance " is meant a 'faint return of blows.' So, in King Henry V.: "We shall forget the office of our hand, "Sooner than quittance of desert and merit." STEEvens. 8 For from his metal was his party steel'd; Which once in him ABATED,] Abated is not here put for the general idea of diminished, nor for the notion of blunted, as applied to a single edge. Abated means reduced to a lower temper, or, as the workmen call it, let down. JOHNSON. 9 'Gan vail his stomach,] spirits sink under his fortune. Began to fall his courage, to let his Of those that turn'd their backs; and, in his flight, Stumbling in fear, was took. The sum of all that the king hath won; And Westmoreland: this is the news at full. NORTH. For this I shall have time enough to mourn. In poison there is physic; and these news, Having been well that would have made me sick', Being sick, have in some measure made me well: And as the wretch, whose fever-weaken'd joints, Like strengthless hinges, buckle 2 under life, Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire Out of his keeper's arms; even so my limbs, Weaken'd with grief, being now enrag'd with grief, Are thrice themselves: hence therefore, thou nice* crutch; From avaller, Fr. to cast down, or to let fall down. MALONE. This phrase has already appeared in The Taming of the Shrew, vol. v. p. 521 : 66 Then vail your stomachs, for it is no boot; 66 And place your hands below your husbands' foot." REED. Thus, to vail the bonnet is to pull it off. So, in The Pinner of Wakefield, 1599: "And make the king vail bonnet to us both." To vail a staff, is to let it fall in token of respect. Thus, in the same play : "And for the ancient custom of vail-staff, 66 Keep it still; claim thou privilege from me : "If any ask a reason, why? or how? 66 Say, English Edward vail'd his staff to you." See vol. ix. p. 178, n. 4. STEEVENS. 'Having been well, that would have made me sick,] i. e. that would, had I been well, have made me sick. MALONE. 2 3 buckle-] Bend; yield to pressure. JOHNSON. even so my limbs, Weaken'd with GRIEF, being now enrag'd with GRIEF, Are thrice themselves:] As Northumberland is here comparing himself to a person, who, though his joints are weakened by a bodily disorder, derives strength from the distemper of the |