ciation shews that Shakspeare intended to impress his auditors with dislike of the deposal of Richard. JOHNSON.

Line 360. To bury-] To conceal, to keep secret. JOHNS. Enter Richard.] In the first edition there is no personal appearance of king Richard, so that all to the line at which he leaves the stage was inserted afterwards. JOHNSON.

ACT V. SCENE I.

Line 2. To Julius Cæsar's ill-erected tower,] The Tower of London is traditionally said to have been the work of Julius Cæsar. JOHNSON.

Line 5. Here let us rest, &c.] So Milton. Here rest, if any rest can harbour here.

Line 11. Ah, thou, the model where old Troy did stand;] The queen uses comparative terms absolutely. Instead of saying, Thou who appearest as the ground on which the magnificence of Troy was once erected, she says,

O thou, the model, &c.

Thou map of honour. Thou picture of greatness. JOHNS. Line 16. Join not with grief,] Do not thou unite with grief against me; do not, by thy additional sorrows, enable grief to strike me down at once. My own part of sorrow I can bear, but thy affliction will immediately destroy me. JOHNSON.

Line 21.

-I am sworn brother,

To grim necessity,] I have reconciled myself to necessity, I am in a state of amity with the constraint which I have sustained. JOHNSON. -to quit their grief,] To retaliate their mournful JOHNSON.

Line 46.

stories.

Line 49. -For why,] The poet should have ended this speech with the foregoing line, and have spared his childish prattle about the fire. JOHNSON.

Line 85.

-Hallowmas,] i. e. November the first.

-95. Better fur off, than-near, be ne'er the near.] To be never the nigher, or, as it is commonly spoken in the midlandcounties, ne'er the ne-er, is, to make no advance towards the good desired.

JOHNSON.

ACT V. SCENE II.

Line 143. Are idly bent] That is carelessly turned, thrown without attention. This the poet learned by his attendance and practice on the stage. JOHNSON. Line 171. bear you well—] That is, conduct yourself with prudence. JOHNSON. Line 179. What seal is that, that hangs without thy bosom ?] The seals of deeds were formerly impressed on slips or labels of parchment appendant to them. MALONE.

Line 181. Yea, looks't thou pale? let me see the writing.] Such harsh and defective lines as this are probably corrupt, and might be easily supplied, but that it would be dangerous to let conjecture loose on such slight occasions. JOHNSON.

ACT V. SCENE III.

Line 261. Inquire at London, &c.] This is a very proper introduction to the future character of Henry the Fifth, to his debaucheries in his youth, and his greatness in his manhood. JOHNS. Line 329. Thou sheer, immaculate, &c.] Sheer is pure, transparent. STEEVENS.

Line 352. —the Beggar and the King.] The King and Beggar seems to have been an interlude well known in the time of our author, who has alluded to it more than once. I cannot now find that any copy of it is left. JOHNSON.

The King and Beggar was perhaps once an interlude; it was certainly a song. The reader will find it in the first volume of Dr. Percy's collection. It is there intitled, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid. STEEVENS.

Line 397. -Pardonnez moy.] That is, excuse me, a phrase used when any thing is civilly denied. The whole passage is such as I could well wish away. JOHNSON.

Line 421. But for our trusty brother-in-law,] The brother-inlaw meant, was John duke of Exeter and earl of Huntingdon (own brother to king Richard II.) and who had married with the lady Elizabeth sister of Henry of Bolingbroke. THEOBALD.

Line 455. the state of man. Line 496.

ACT V.

SCENE V.

-people this little world;] i.e. his own frame; MALONE.

For now hath time made me his numb'ring clock:
My thoughts are minutes; and, with sighs, they jar
Their watches to mine cyes, the outward watch, &c.]

Watch seems to be used in a double sense, for a quantity of time, and for the instrument that measures time. I read, but with no great confidence, thus :

"My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar "Their watches on; mine eyes the outward watch, "Whereto," &c. JOHNSON. Line 506. —his Jack o'the clock.] That is, I strike for him. One of these automatons is alluded to in King Richard the Third: "Because that like a Jack thou keepst the stroke, "Between thy begging and my meditation." Line 511. -and love to Richard

Is a strange brooch in this all-hating world.] i. e. is as strange and uncommon as a brooch which is now no longer MALONE.

worn.

Line 512. in this all-hating world—] I believe the meaning is, this world in which I am universally hated. JOHNSON. Line 517. Where no man never comes, but that sad dog-] It should be remembered that the word sad was in the time of our author used for grave. The expression will then be the same as if he had said, that grave, that gloomy villain. STEEVENS.

Line 543. by jauncing Bolingbroke.] Jaunce and jaunt were synonymous words. STEEVENS.

STEEVENS.

END OF THE ANNOTATIONS ON THE LIFE AND DEATH

OF KING RICHARD II.

LINE 2.

ANNOTATIONS

ON

THE FIRST PART OF

KING HENRY IV.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Find we a time for frighted peace to pant,

And breathe short-winded accents of new broils-] That is, let us soften peace to rest a while without disturbance, that she may recover breath to propose new wars. JOHNSON.

Line 5. No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil

Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood;] If there be no corruption in the text, I believe Shakspeare meant, however licentiously, to say, No more shall this soil have the lips of her thirsty entrance, or mouth, daubed with the blood of her own children. MALONE.

By Erinnys is meant the fury of discord.

Line 19. As far as to the sepulcher, &c.] The lawfulness and justice of the holy wars have been much disputed; but perhaps there is a principle on which the question may be easily determined. If it be part of the religion of the Mahometans to extirpate by the sword all other religions, it is, by the laws of selfdefence, lawful for men of every other religion, and for Christians among others, to make war upon Mahometans, simply as Maho