K. RICH. I am in health, I breathe, and fee thee GAUNT. How, He that made me, knows I see ill. thee ill; 8, Ill in myself to fee, and in thee seeing ill. shame: Deposing thee before thou wert possess'd, * Ill in myself to fee, and in the feeing ill.) I cannot help fupposing that the idle words to fee, which destroy the measure, should be omitted. STEEVENS. 9 Thy ftate of law is bondslave to the law; ] State of law, i. e. legal fovereignty. But the Oxford editor alters is to ftate o'er law, i. e. abfolute Sovereignty. A doctrine, which, if ever our poet learnt at all, he learnt not in the reign when this play was written, Queen Elizabeth's, but in the reign after it, King James's. By bondslave to the law, the poet means his being inflaved to his favourite fubjects. WARBURTON. This sentiment, whatever it be, is obscurely expressed. I un 1 And thou 1 K. RICH. -- a lunatick lean-witted fool.s 1 derftand it differently from the learned commentator, being perhaps not quite so zeaolus for Shakspeare's political reputation. The reasoning of Gaunt, I think, is this: By Setting the royalties to farm thou hast reduced thyself to a state below fovereingly, thou art now no longer king but landlord of England, fubject to the Same refiraint and limitations as other landlords: by making thy condition a state of law, a condition upon which the common rules of law can operate, thou art become a bondslave to the law; thou hast made thySelf amenable to laws from which thou wert originally exempt. Whether this explanation be true or no, it is plain that Dr. Warburton's explanation of bondslave to the law, is not true. JOHNSON. Warburton's explanation of this paffage is too absurd to require confutation; and his political observation is equally ill-founded. The doarine of absolute sovereignty might as well have been learned in the reign of Elizabeth, as in that of her fucceffor. She was, in fact, as absolute as he wished to be.. Johnson's explanation is in general juft; but I think that the words, of law, must mean, by law, or according to law, as we fay, of course, and of right, inftead of. by right, or by course. Gaunt's reasoning is this" Having let your kingdom by lease, you are no longer the king of England, but the landlord only; and your state is by law, fubject to the law." M. MASON. Mr. Heath explains the words ftate of law somewhat differently: " Thy royal estate, which is established by the law, is now in virtue of thy having leased it out, fubjected," &c. MALONE. 8. Gaunt. And thou K. Rich. 0- lunatick lean-witted fool, ] In the disposition of these lines I have followed the folio, in giving the word thou to the king; but the regulation of the first quarto, 1597, is perhaps preferable, being more in our poet's manner: Gaunt. And thou K. Rich. a lunatick, lean-witted fool, And thou a mere cypher in the own kingdom, Gaunt was going to fay. Richard interrupts him, and takes the word thou in a different sense, applying it to Gaunt, instead of himself. Of this kind of retort there are various inftances in these plays. The folio repeats the word And : Gaunt. And K. Rich. And thou, &c. MALONE. J Presuming on an ague's privilege, With fury, from his native residence. Now by my feat's right royal majefty, Wert thou not brother to great Edward's fon, This tongue that runs so roundly in thy head, Should run thy head from thy unreverend shoulders. GAUNT. O, spare me not, my brother Edward's fon, For that I was his father Edward's fon; To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower. 9 - -lean-witted) Dr. Farmer observes to me that the fame expression occurs in the 106th Pfalm: "---and fent leanness withal into their foul." 9 And thy unkindness be like crooked age, STEEVENS. To crop at once a too-long wither'd flower.] Thus stand these lines in all the copies, but I think there is an error. Why should Gaunt, already old, call on any thing like age to end him? How can age be faid to crop at once? How is the idea of crookedness connected with that of cropping? I fuppofe the poet dictated thus: And thy unkindness be time's crooked edge That is, let thy unkindness be time's scythe to crop. Edge was ealily confounded by the ear with age, and one mistake once admitted made way for another. JOHNSON. A Shakspeare, I believe, took this idea from the figure of Time, who was represented as carrying a fickle as well as a Scythe. fickle was anciently called a crook, and sometimes, as in the folVOL. XII, E 1 1 Live in thy shame, but die not shame with thee!- [Exit, borne out by his Attendants. K. RICH. And let them die, that age and fullens have; For both haft thou, and both become the grave. 2 YORK. 'Beseech your majesty, impute his words To wayward fickliness and age in him: lowing instances, crooked may mean armed with a crook. So, in Kendall's Epigrams, 1577: "The regall king and crooked clowne "All one alike death driveth downe." Again, in the 100th Sonnet of Shakspeare: "Give my love, fame, fafter than time waftes life, " So thou prevent'ft his scythe and crooked knife." Again, in the 11gth: " Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks "Within his bending fickle's compass come." It may be mentioned, however, that crooked is an epithet bestowed on age in the tragedy of Locrine, 1595: " Now yield to death o'erlaid by crooked age." Locrine has been attributed to Shakspeare; and in this paffage quoted from it, no allufion to a Scythe can be supposed. Our poet's expreffions are sometimes confused and abortive. STEEVENS. Again, in A Flourish upon Fancie, by N. B. [Nicholas Breton, ] 1577: "Who, when that he awhile hath bin in fancies schoole, MALONE. Shakspeare had probably two different but kindred ideas in his mind; the bend of age, and the fickle of time, which he confounded together. M. MASON. 9 Love they-] That is, let them love. JOHNSON. 'Beseech your majesty, The old copies redundantly read - Mr. Ritfon would regulate the passage differently (and perhaps tightly) by omitting the words - in him: He loves you, on my life, and holds you dear K. RICH. Right; you say true: as Hereford's love, fo his: As theirs, fo mine; and all be as it is, Enter NORTHUMBERLAND. 3 NORTH. My liege, old Gaunt commends him to your majesty. K. RICH. What says he now? 4 Nay, nothing; all is faid: His tongue is now a stringless instrument; YORK. Be York the next that must be bankrupt fo! Though death be poor, it ends a mortal woe. he; His time is spent, our pilgrimage must be:5 1 do beseech your majesty, impute. His words to wayward fickliness and age. STEEVENS. Northumberland.] was Henry Percy, Earl of Northum berland. WALPOLE. 4 What Says he now?] I have supplied the adverb - now, (which Is wanting in the old copy) to complete the meafure. |