That, with the hurly,' death itself awakes? "Th' ambitious ocean fwell, and rage and foam Again, in Golding's Tranflation of Ovid's Metamorphofis, Book XI: "The furges mounting up aloft did feeme to mate the skie, "And with their sprinkling for to wet the clouds that hang on bie." Again, in Ben Jonfon's Mafque of Queens, 1609: 66 when the boisterous sea, "Without a breath of wind, hath knock'd the sky." Again, Virg. Æn. Lib. III: -fpumam elifam, & rorantia vidimus aftra." Drayton's airy browds are the airy covertures of heaven; which in plain language are the clouds. A fimilar image to that before us, occurs in Churchyard's Praife of Poetrie, 1595: "The poets that can clime the cloudes, "Like hip-boy to the top, "When sharpeft ftormes do fhake the browdes," &c. Lee, in his Mithridates, is the copier of Shakspeare: "So fleeps the fea-boy on the cloudy maft, "Safe as a drowsy Triton, rock'd by ftorms, "While toffing princes wake on beds of down." STEEVENS. The inftances produced by Mr. Steevens prove that clouds were fometimes called poetically airy shrouds, or throuds fufpended in air; but they do not appear to me to prove that any writer fpeaking of a fhip, ever called the brouds of the ship by the name of clouds. I entirely, however, agree with him in thinking that clouds here is the true reading; and the paffage produced from Julius Cafar, while it fully fupports it, fhows that the word is to be understood in its ordinary fenfe. So again, in The Winter's Tale: now the fhip boring the moon with her main-maft, and anon fwallowed up with yeft and froth." MALONE. My pofition appears to have been mifunderstood. I meant not to fuggeft that the browds of a ship were ever called clouds. What I defigned to fay was, that the clouds and the forowds of heaven were anciently fynonymous terms, fo that by the exchange of the former word for the latter, no fresh idea would, in fact, be afcertained; as the word browds might be received in the sense of clouds as well as that of hip-tackle. STEEVENS. Can't thou, O partial fleep! give thy repofe Enter WARWICK and SURREY. WAR. Many good morrows to your majesty! K. HEN. Is it good morrow, lords? WAR. 'Tis one o'clock, and past. K. HEN. Why then, good morrow to you all, my lords.s 3 That with the hurly,] Hurly is noife, derived from the French burler to howl, as hurly-burly from Hurluberlu, Fr. STEEVENS. -Then, happy low, lie down!] Evidently corrupted from happy lowly clown. Thefe two lines making the juft conclufion from what preceded. "If fleep will fly a king and confort itself with beggars, then happy the lowly clown, and uneafy the crown'd head." WARBURTON. Dr. Warburton has not admitted this emendation into his text: I am glad to do it the juftice which its author has neglected. JOHNSON. The fenfe of the old reading feems to be this: "You, who are happy in your humble fituations, lay down your heads to reft! the head that wears a crown lies too uneafy to expect fuch a bleffing." Had not Shakspeare thought it necessary to subject himself to the tyranny of rhyme, he would probably have faid :"then happy low, fleep on!" So, in The Misfortunes of Arthur, a tragedy, 1587: "Behold the peafant poore with tattered coate, "Whofe eyes a meaner fortune feeds with fleepe, "How fafe and found the careleffe fnudge doth fnore." Sir W. D'Avenant has the fame thought in his Law for Lovers: "How foundly they fleep whofe pillows lie low!" STEEVENS. 5 Why then, good morrow to you all, my lords.] In my regulation Have you read o'er the letters that I sent you? K. HEN. Then you perceive, the body of our kingdom How foul it is; what rank diseases grow, WAR. It is but as a body, yet, diftemper'd;" Which to his former ftrength may be restor'd, With good advice, and little medicine : My lord Northumberland will foon be cool'd." of this paffage I have followed the late editors; but I am now perfuaded the first line should be pointed thus: Why then good morrow to you all, my lords. This mode of phrafeology, where only two perfons are addreffed, is not very correct, but there is no ground for reading Why, then, good-morrow to you. Well, my lords, &c. as Theobald and all the fubfequent editors do; for Shakspeare in King Henry VI. Part II. Act II. fc. ii. has put the fame expreffion into the mouth of York, when he addreffes only his two friends, Salisbury and Warwick; though the author of the original play printed in 1600, on which the Second Part of King Henry VI. was founded, had in the correfponding place employed the word both: Where as all you know, "Harmlefs Richard was murder'd traiterously." This is one of the numerous circumstances that contribute to prove that Shakspeare's Henries were formed on the work of a preceding writer. See the Differtation on that fubject in Vol. X. MALONE. It is but as a body, yet, diftemper'd;] Diftemper, that is, according to the old phyfick, a difproportionate mixture of humours, or inequality of innate heat and radical humidity, is lefs than actual difeafe, being only the ftate which foreruns or produces difeafes. The difference between diftemper and disease seems to be much the fame as between difpofition and habit. JOHNSON. 1 My lord Northumberland will foon be cool'd.] I believe Shakfpeare wrote fchool'd; tutor'd, and brought to fubmiffion. Cool'd is certainly right. JOHNSON. So, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: “ not cool." STEEVENS. WARBURTON. -my humour thall K. HEN. O heaven! that one might read the book of fate; And fee the revolution of the times Make mountains level, and the continent (Weary of folid firmness,) melt itself Into the fea! and, other times, to fee The beachy girdle of the ocean Too wide for Neptune's hips; how chances mock, And changes fill the cup of alteration With divers liquors! O, if this were seen," O heaven! that one might read the book of fate; And fee the revolution of the times Make mountains level, and the continent (Weary of folid firmness,) melt itself Into the fea! and, other times, to fee &c.] So, in our author's 64th Sonnet: "When I have feen the hungry ocean gain MALONE. O, if this were feen, &c.] These four lines are supplied from the edition of 1600. WARBURTON. My copy wants the whole fcene, and therefore these lines. What perils paft, what croffes to ensue,— because it seems to make, paft perils equally terrible with enfuing croffes. JOHNSON. This happy youth who is to forefee the future progress of his life, cannot be fuppofed at the time of his happinefs to have gone through many perils. Both the perils and the croffes that the King alludes to, were yet to come; and what the youth is to foresee is, the many croffes he would have to contend with, even after he has paffed through many perils. M. MASON. In answer to Dr. Johnfon's objection it may be observed, that paft perils are not defcribed as equally terrible with enfuing croffes, but are merely mentioned as an aggravation of the fum of human calamity. He who has already gone through fome perils, might hope to have his quietus, and might naturally fink in defpondency, on being informed that " bad begins, and worfe remains behind." The happiest youth,-viewing his progress through, Since Richard, and Northumberland, great friends, Even past perils are painful in retrofpect, as a man fhrinks at the fight of a precipice from which he once fell.-To one part of Mr. M. Mafon's obfervation it may be replied, that Shakspeare does not fay, the happy, but the happiest, youth; that is, even the happiest of mortals, all of whom are deftined to a certain portion of mifery. Though what I have now ftated may, I think, fairly be urged in fupport of what seems to have been Dr. Johnson's fenfe of this paffage, yet I own Mr. M. Mafon's interpretation is extremely ingenious, and probably is right. The perils here fpoken of may not have been actually paffed by the perufer of the book of fate, viewing his progress though they have been paffed by him in " through;" or, in other words, though the register of them has been perufed by him. They may be faid to be paft in one sense only; namely with refpect to thofe which are to enfue; which are prefented to his eye fubfequently to thofe which precede. If the fpirit and general tendency of the paffage, rather than the grammatical expreffion, be attended to, this may be faid to be the most obvious meaning. The conftruction is, "What perils having been paft, what croffes are to enfue." MALONE. 2 But which of you was by, &c.] He refers to King Richard II. Act IV. fc. ii. But whether the king's or the author's memory fails him, fo it was, that Warwick was not prefent at that converfation. JOHNSON. Neither was the King himself prefent, fo that he must have received information of what paffed from Northumberland. His memory, indeed, is fingularly treacherous, as, at the time of which he is now fpeaking, he had actually afcended the throne. RITSON, |