The oldeft fins the newest kind of ways?
Be happy, he will trouble you no more:
England fhall double gild his treble guilt; "
England fhall give him office, honour, might:
For the fifth Harry from curb'd licence plucks
The muzzle of restraint, and the wild dog
Shall flesh his tooth in every innocent.
O my poor kingdom, fick with civil blows!

England fhall double gild his treble guilt;] Evidently the nonsense of some foolish player: for we muft make a difference between what Shakspeare might be supposed to have written off hand, and what he had corrected. These scenes are of the latter kind; therefore fuch lines are by no means to be esteemed his. But, except Mr. Pope, (who judiciously threw out this line,) not one of Shakspeare's editors feem ever to have had so reasonable and neceffary a rule in their heads, when they set upon correcting this author. WARBURTON.

I know not why this commentator should speak with so much confidence what he cannot know, or determine so positively what fo capricious a writer as our poet might either deliberately or wantonly produce. This line is, indeed, fuch as difgraces a few that precede and follow it, but it suits well enough with the daggers hid in thought, and whetted on thy ftony heart; and the answer which the Prince makes, and which is applauded [by the King] for wisdom, is not of a strain much higher than this ejected line. JOHNSON.

How much this play on words, faulty as it is, was admired in the age of Shakspeare, appears from the most ancient writers of that time having frequently indulged themselves in it. So, in Marlowe's Hero and Leander, 1617:

"And as amidft the enamour'd waves he fwims,
"The god of gold a purpose guilt his limbs;
"That, this word guilt including double sense,
"The double guilt of his incontinence
"Might be exprefs'd."

Again, in Acolaftus his Afterwit, a poem, by S. Nicholson, 1600:

"O facred thirst of golde, what canst thou not?—

"Some terms thee gylt, that every foule might reade, "Even in thy name, thy guilt is great indeede."

See alfo Vol. X. p. 115, n. 5. MALONE.

When that my care could not withhold thy riots,
What wilt thou do, when riot is thy care? 7
O, thou wilt be a wilderness again,

Peopled with wolves, thy old inhabitants!

P. HEN. O, pardon me, my liege! but for my tears,

[Kneeling.

The moift impediments unto my fpeech,
I had foreftall'd this dear and deep rebuke,
Ere you with grief had fpoke, and I had heard
The course of it fo far. There is your crown
And He that wears the crown immortally,
Long guard it yours! If I affect it more,
Than as your honour, and as your renown,
Let me no more from this obedience rife,
(Which my most true and inward-duteous fpirit
Teacheth,) this proftrate and exterior bending!

when riot is thy care?] i. e. Curator. A bold figure. So Eumæus is ftyled by Övid, Epift. I:

immundæ cura fidelis haræ." TYRWHITT.

One cannot help wishing Mr. Tyrwhitt's elegant explanation to be true; yet I doubt whether the poet meant to say more than-What wilt thou do, when riot is thy regular business and occupation? MALONE.

Which my most true &c.] True is loyal. This paffage is obfcure in the conftruction, though the general meaning is clear enough. The order is, this obedience which is taught this exterior bending by my duteous fpirit; or, this obedience which teaches this exterior bending to my inwardly duteous Spirit. I know not which is right. JOHNSON.

The former conftruction appears to me the leaft exceptionable of the two; but both are extremely harsh, and neither of them, I think, the true construction. MALONE.

The latter words" this proftrate and exterior bending"appear to me to be merely explanatory of the former words→→→ this obedience. Suppofe the intermediate fentence-" which my moft true and inward-duteous fpirit teacheth"-to be included in a parenthesis, and the meaning I contend for will be evident. M. MASON.

Heaven witness with me, when I here came in,
And found no course of breath within your majefty,
How cold it ftruck my heart! if I do feign,
O, let me in my present wildness die;

And never live to fhow the incredulous world
The noble change that I have purposed!
Coming to look on you, thinking you dead,
(And dead almoft, my liege, to think you were,)
I spake unto the crown, as having sense,
And thus upbraided it. The care on thee depending,
Hath fed upon the body of my father;
Therefore, thou, beft of gold, art worst of gold.
Other, lefs fine in carat, is more precious,
Preferving life in med'cine potable: 9

But thou, moft fine, most honour'd, most renown'd,
Haft eat thy bearer up. Thus, my most royal liege,

I have adopted Mr. M. Mafon's regulation. STEEVENS.
Which my most true and inward-duteous fpirit

Teacheth,] i. e. which my loyalty and inward fense of duty prompt me to. The words, "this proftrate and exterior bending," are, I apprehend, put in appofition with "obedience," which is used for obeifance. MALONE.

9—in med'cine potable:] There has long prevailed an opinion that a folution of gold has great medicinal virtues, and that the incorruptibility of gold might be communicated to the body impregnated with it. Some have pretended to make potable gold, among other frauds practised on credulity.

JOHNSON. So, in the character of the Doctor of Phyficke, by Chaucer, Mr. Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 446:

"For gold in phifike is a cordial." STEEVENS.

That gold may be made potable is certain, notwithstanding Dr. Johnson's incredulity. The process is inferted in the Abbé Guenee's incomparable work, intitled, Lettres de quelques Juifs à M. de Voltaire, 5th edit. Vol. I. p. 416, a work which every perfon unacquainted with it will be glad to be referred to.

HENLEY. See Dodfley's Collection of Old Plays, Vol. VIII. p. 484, edit. 1780. REED.

Accufing it, I put it on my head;
To try with it,-as with an enemy,

That had before my face murder'd my father,-
The quarrel of a true inheritor.

But if it did infect my blood with joy,
Or fwell my thoughts to any ftrain of pride;
If any rebel or vain spirit of mine

Did, with the leaft affection of a welcome,
Give entertainment to the might of it,
Let God for ever keep it from my head!
And make me as the pooreft vaffal is,

That doth with awe and terror kneel to it!
K. HEN. O my fon!

Heaven put it in thy mind, to take it hence,
That thou might'ft win the more thy father's love,
Pleading fo wifely in excufe of it.

Come hither, Harry, fit thou by my bed;

And hear, I think, the very lateft counsel

That ever I fhall breathe. Heaven knows, my fon,
By what by-paths, and indirect crook'd ways,
I met this crown; and I myself know well,
How troublesome it fat upon my head:
To thee it fhall defcend with better quiet,
Better opinion, better confirmation;
For all the foil' of the achievement goes
With me into the earth. It seem'd in me,
But as an honour fnatch'd with boisterous hand;
And I had many living, to upbraid

My gain of it by their affiftances;

Which daily grew to quarrel, and to bloodshed, Wounding fuppofed peace: all these bold fears,3

1foil-] Is fpot, dirt, turpitude, reproach. JOHNSON. fuppofed peace:] Counterfeited, imagined, not real.

2

3

JOHNSON. all these bold fears,] Fear is here used in the active fenfe, for that which caufes fear. JOHNSON.

Thou fee'ft, with peril I have answered :
For all my reign hath been but as a scene
Acting that argument; and now my death
Changes the mode:4 for what in me was purchas'd,5
Falls upon thee in a more fairer fort;

So thou the garland wear'ft fucceffively."

Yet, though thou stand'st more fure than I could do, Thou art not firm enough, fince griefs are green; And all thy friends," which thou must make thy

friends,

Have but their ftings and teeth newly ta'en out;
By whofe fell working I was first advanc'd,
And by whofe power I well might lodge a fear
To be again difplac'd: which to avoid,

Thefe bold fears are thefe audacious terrors. To fear is often used by Shakspeare for to fright. STEEVENS.

4 Changes the mode:] Mode is the form or state of things. JOHNSON.

S

-for what in me was purchas'd,] Purchafed feems to be here used in its legal fenfe, acquired by a man's own act (perquifitio) as oppofed to an acquifition by defcent. MALONE.

Purchased, in this place, does not merely fignify acquired, but acquired by unjust and indirect methods. Purchase, in Shakspeare, frequently means Stolen goods, or goods dishonestly obtained. M. MASON.

6-fucceffively.] By order of fucceffion. Every ufurper fnatches a claim of hereditary right as soon as he can.

JOHNSON.

See The Speech of his Highness [Richard Cromwell] the Lord Protector, made to both Houfes of Parliament, at their firft Meeting, on Thursday the 27th of January, 1658: "-for my own part, being by the providence of God, and the difpofition of the law, my father's SUCCESSOR, and bearing the place in the government that I do," &c. Harl. Mifc. Vol. I. p. 21. MALONE.

"And all thy friends,] And all my friends,

VOL. XII.

Should not we read ?—
TYRWHITT.
Р