A scaly gauntlet now, with joints of steel,
Must glove this hand and hence, thou sickly
quoif;

Thou art a guard too wanton for the head,
Which princes, flesh'd with conquest, aim to hit.
Now bind my brows with iron; And approach
The ragged'st hours that time and spite dare bring,

by a bodily disorder, derives strength from the distemper of the mind, I formerly proposed to read" Weakened with age," or, "Weakened with pain."

When a word is repeated, without propriety, in the same or two succeeding lines, there is great reason to suspect some corruption. Thus, in this scene, in the first folio, we have "able heels," instead of "armed heels," in consequence of the word able having occurred in the preceding line. So, in Hamlet: "Thy news shall be the news," &c. instead of "Thy news shall be the fruit." Again, in Macbeth, instead of " Whom we, to gain our place," &c. we find

"Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace." In this conjecture I had once some confidence; but it is much diminished by the subsequent note, and by my having lately observed that Shakspeare elsewhere uses grief for bodily pain. Falstaff, in King Henry IV. Part I. p. 406, speaks of the grief of a wound." Grief, in the latter part of this line, is used in its present sense, for sorrow; in the former part for bodily pain. MALONE.

Grief, in ancient language, signifies bodily pain, as well as sorrow. So, in A Treatise of sundrie Diseases, &c. by T. T. 1591: "he being at that time griped sore, and having grief in his lower bellie." Dolor ventris is, by our old writers, frequently translated "grief of the guts." I perceive no need of alteration. STEEVENS.

66

nice-] i. e. trifling. So, in Julius Cæsar :

it is not meet

"That every nice offence should bear his comments.” STEEVENS.

--

The ragged'st hour ] Mr. Theobald and the subsequent editors read The rugged'st. But change is unnecessary, the expression in the text being used more than once by our author. In As you like it, Amiens says, his voice is ragged; and rag is employed as a term of reproach in The Merry Wives of Windsor,

To frown upon the enrag'd Northumberland!
Let heaven kiss earth! Now let not nature's hand
Keep the wild flood confin'd! let order die!
And let this world no longer be a stage,
To feed contention in a lingering act;
But let one spirit of the first-born Cain
Reign in all bosoms, that, each heart being set
On bloody courses, the rude scene may end,
And darkness be the burier of the dead!"

TRA. This strained passion" doth you wrong, my lord.

and in Timon of Athens. See also the Epistle prefixed to Spenser's Shepherd's Calender, 1579: "-as thinking them fittest for the rustical rudeness of shepheards, either for that their rough sound would make his rimes more ragged, and rustical," &c. The modern editors of Spenser might here substitute the word rugged with just as much propriety as it has been substituted in the present passage, or in that in As you like it. See Vol. VIII. p. 59, n. 7.

Again, in The Rape of Lucrece:

"Thy secret pleasure turns to open shame,-
"Thy smoothing titles to a ragged name."

Again, in our poet's eighth Sonnet:

"Then let not Winter's ragged hand deface
"In thee thy summer."

Again, in the play before us:

MALOne.

The conclusion

"A ragged and fore-stall'd remission." And darkness be the burier of the dead!] of this noble speech is extremely striking. There is no need to suppose it exactly philosophical; darkness, in poetry, may be absence of eyes, as well as privation of light. Yet we may remark, that by an ancient opinion it has been held, that if the human race, for whom the world was made, were extirpated, the whole system of sublunary nature would cease. JOHNSON.

This strained passion-] This line, in the quarto, where alone it is found, is given to Umfrevile, who, as Mr. Steevens has observed, is spoken of in this very scene as absent. It was on this ground probably rejected by the player-editors. It is now, on the suggestion of Mr. Steevens, attributed to Travers, who is present, and yet (as that gentleman has remarked) “is made to say nothing on this interesting occasion." MALONE.

BARD. Sweet earl, divorce not wisdom from

honour.

your

MOR. The lives of all your loving complices Lean on your health; the which, if you give o'er To stormy passion, must perforce decay.

8

You cast the event of war, my noble lord,

And summ'd the account of chance, before you said,

Let us make head. It was your presurmise,
That, in the dole of blows9 your son might drop:
You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge,
More likely to fall in, than to get o'er:1
You were advis'd, his flesh was capable2

You cast the event of war, &c.] The fourteen lines, from hence to Bardolph's next speech, are not to be found in the first editions, till that in the folio of 1623. A very great number of other lines in this play were inserted after the first edition in like manner, but of such spirit and mastery generally, that the insertions are plainly by Shakspeare himself. POPE.

To this note I have nothing to add, but that the editor speaks of more editions than I believe him to have seen, there having been but one edition yet discovered by me that precedes the first folio. JOHNSON.

9

- in the dole of blows-] The dole of blows is the distribution of blows. Dole originally signified the portion of alms (consisting either of meat or money) that was given away at the door of a nobleman. See Vol. XI. p. 256, n. I.

1. You knew, he walk'd o'er perils, on an edge,

STEEVENS.

More likely to fall in, than to get o'er:] So, in King

Henry IV. Part I:

"As full of peril and adventurous spirit,

"As to o'erwalk a current roaring loud,

"On the unsteadfast footing of a spear." MALONE.

• You were advis'd, his flesh was capable-] i. e. you knew.

So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona:

"How shall I doat on her with more advice

i. e. on further knowledge. MALone.

Of wounds, and scars; and that his forward spirit
Would lift him where most trade of danger rang'd;
Yet did you say,-Go forth; and none of this,
Though strongly apprehended, could restrain
The stiff-borne action: What hath then befallen,
Or what hath this bold enterprize brought forth,
More than that being which was like to be?

BARD. We all, that are engaged to this loss,"
Knew that we ventur'd on such dangerous seas,
That, if we wrought out life, 'twas ten to one:
And yet we ventur'd, for the gain propos'd
Chok'd the respect of likely peril fear'd;
And, since we are o'erset, venture again.
Come, we will all put forth; body, and goods.
MOR. 'Tis more than time: And, my most noble

lord,

I hear for certain, and do speak the truth,
The gentle archbishop of York is up,*
With well-appointed powers; he is a man,
Who with a double surety binds his followers.

Thus also, Thomas Twyne, the continuator of Phaer's translation of Virgil, 1584, for haud inscius, has advis'd:

"He spake: and strait the sword advisde into his throat receives." STEEVENS.

We all, that are engaged to this loss,] We have a similar phraseology in the preceding play:

"Hath a more worthy interest to the state,

"Than thou the shadow of succession." MALONE.

The gentle &c.] These one-and-twenty lines were added since the first edition. JOHNSON.

This and the following twenty lines are not found in the quarto, 1600, either from some inadvertence of the transcriber or compositor, or from the printer not having been able to procure a perfect copy. They first appeared in the folio, 1623; but it is manifest that they were written at the same time with the rest of the play, Northumberland's answer referring to them.

MALONE.

My lord your son had only but the corps,
But shadows, and the shows of men, to fight:
For that same word, rebellion, did divide
The action of their bodies from their souls;
And they did fight with queasiness, constrain❜d,
As men drink potions; that their weapons only
Seem'd on our side, but, for their spirits and souls,
This word, rebellion, it had froze them up,
As fish are in a pond: But now the bishop
Turns insurrection to religion:

Suppos'd sincere and holy in his thoughts,
He's follow'd both with body and with mind;
And doth enlarge his rising with the blood
Of fair king Richard, scrap'd from Pomfret stones:
Derives from heaven his quarrel, and his cause;
Tells them, he doth bestride a bleeding land,5
Gasping for life under great Bolingbroke;
And more, and less, do flock to follow him.

NORTH. I knew of this before; but, to speak truth,

This present grief had wip'd it from my mind.
Go in with me; and counsel every man
The aptest way for safety, and revenge:
Get posts, and letters, and make friends with speed;
Never so few, and never yet more need. [Exeunt.

• Tells them, he doth bestride a bleeding land,] That is, stands over his country to defend her as she lies bleeding on the ground. So Falstaff before says to the Prince, If thou see me down, Hal, and bestride me, so; it is an office of friendship.

JOHNSON. • And more, and less,] More and less mean greater and less. So, in Macbeth:

"Both more and less have given him the revolt."

STEEVENS.