5 And either end in peace, which heaven so frame! ARCH. My lord, we will do so. [Exit WEST. Mow B. There is a thing within my bosom, tells me, That no conditions of our peace can stand. HAST. Fear you not that if we can make our peace Upon such large terms, and so absolute, As our conditions shall consist upon, Our peace shall stand as firm as rocky mountains. 5 AND either-] The old copies read-" At either," &c. That easy, but certain, change in the text, I owe to Dr. Thirlby. THEOBALD. 6 CONSIST upon.] Thus the old copies. Modern editors— insist. STEEVENS. So, Perhaps the meaning is, as our conditions shall stand upon, shall make the foundation of the treaty. A Latin sense. in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609: "Then welcome peace, if he on peace consist. See also p. 153: 7 "Of what conditions we shall stand upon." MALONE. - nice,] i. e. trivial. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "The letter was not nice, but full of charge." STEEVENS. 8 That, were our ROYAL faiths martyrs in love,] If royal faith can mean faith to a king, it yet cannot mean it without much violence done to the language. I therefore read, with Sir T. Hanmer, loyal faiths, which is proper, natural, and suitable to the intention or the speaker. JOHNSON. Royal faith, the original reading, is undoubtedly right. Royal faith [as Mr. Capell observes] means, the faith due to a king. So, in King Henry VIII. : "The citizens have shown at full their royal minds; i. e. their minds well affected to the king. Wolsey, in the same We shall be winnow'd with so rough a wind, ARCH. No, no, my lord; Note this,—the king is weary Of dainty and such picking grievances": To new remembrance: For full well he knows, HAST. Besides, the king hath wasted all his rods play, when he discovers the king in masquerade, says, "here I'll make my royal choice," i. e. not such a choice as a king would make, but such a choice as has a king for its object. So royal faith, the faith which is due to a king; which has the sovereign for its object. MALONE. This reading is judiciously restored, and well supported by Mr. Malone. STEEVENS. 9 Of dainty and such PICKING grievances:] I cannot but think that this line is corrupted, and that we should read: "Of picking out such dainty grievances." JOHNSON. Picking means piddling, insignificant. STEEVENS. I wipe his tables clean:] Alluding to a table-book of slate, ivory, &c. WARBURTON. May offer, but not hold. ARCH. 'Tis very true ; And therefore be assur'd, my good lord marshal, Our peace will, like a broken limb united, MoWB, Be it so. Here is return'd my lord of Westmoreland. Re-enter WESTMORELAND. WEST. The prince is here at hand: Pleaseth your lordship, To meet his grace just distance 'tween our armies ? Mow B. Your grace of York, in God's name then set forward. ARCH. Before, and greet his grace:-my lord, [Exeunt. we come. SCENE II. Another Part of the Forest. Enter, from one side, MOWBRAY, the Archbishop, HASTINGS, and Others: from the other side, Prince JOHN of LANCASTER, WESTMORELAND, Officers and Attendants. P. JOHN. You are well encounter'd here, my cousin Mowbray : Good day to you, gentle lord archbishop Than now to see you here an iron man2, 2 an IRON man,] ́ ́ Holinshed says of the Archbishop, that Cheering a rout of rebels with your drum, Between the grace, the sanctities of heaven", "coming foorth amongst them clad in armour, he incouraged and pricked them foorth to take the enterprise in hand." STEEVENS. 3 Turning the word to sword, &c.] A similar thought occurs in Gower's Confessio Amantis, 1554: 4 "Into the sworde the churche kaye "Is turned, and the holy bede," &c. STEEVENS. the IMAGIN'D Voice of God himself;] The old copies, by an apparent error of the press, have-" the imagine voice." Mr. Pope introduced the reading of the text. Perhaps Shakspeare wrote "To us, the image and voice," &c. So, in a subsequent scene: "And he, the noble image of my youth." MALONE. I cannot persuade myself to reject a harmonious reading, that. another eminently harsh may supply its place. STEEVENS. 5 the sanctities of heaven,] This expression Milton has copied : "Around him all the sanctities of heaven -workings:] i. e. labours of thought. So, in King Henry V.: the forge and working-house of thought." STEEVENS. In deeds dishonourable? You have taken up", The subjects of his substitute, my father; ARCH. Good my lord of Lancaster, I am not here against your father's peace: The time misorder'd doth, in common sense, The parcels and particulars of our grief; The which hath been with scorn shov'd from the court, Whereon this Hydra son of war is born : Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd asleep, Mow B. If not we ready are to try our fortunes To the last man. HAST. And though we here fall down, We have supplies to second our attempt; If they miscarry, theirs shall second them: And so success of mischief1 shall be born; 7 You have TAKEN UP,] To take up is to levy, to raise in arms. 8 JOHNSON. in COMMON SENSE,] I believe Shakspeare wrote common fence, i. e. drove by self-defence. WARBURTON. Common sense is the general sense of general danger. JOHNSON. May not common sense here mean, according to the dictates of reason? M. MASON. 9 Whose dangerous eyes may well be charm'd asleep,] Alluding to the dragon charmed to rest by the spells of Medea. STEEVENS. 1 And so SUCCESS of mischief-] Success for succession. WARBURTON. |