Obedience bids, I fhould not bid again. K. Rich. Norfolk, throw down; we bid; there is no boot 4. Mowb. Myfelf I throw, dread fovereign, at thy foot: My life thou fhalt command, but not my fhame; The 3 When, Harry?—] This obfolete exclamation of impatience, is likewife found in Heywood's Silver Age, 1613: "Fly into Affrick; from the mountains there, "Chufe me two venomous ferpents: thou shalt know them "By their fell poison and their fierce afpect. “When, Iris? Iris. I am gone." Again, in Look about you, 1600: 66 I'll cut off thy legs, "If thou delay thy duty. When, proud John " STEEVENS. 4 -no boot.] That is, no advantage, no ufe, in delay or refufal. JOHNSON. 5 my fair name, &c.] That is, my name that lives on my grave in defpight of death. This eafy paffage most of the editors feem to have miftaken. JOHNSON. 6 and baffled here;] Baffled in this place means treated with the greatest ignominy imaginable. So, Holinfhed, vol. III. p. 827, and 1218, or annis 1513, and 1570, explains it: Bafulling, fays he, is a great difgrace among the Scots, and it is ufed when a man is openlie perjured, and then they make of him an image painted, reverfed, with his heels upward, with his name, woondering, crieing, and blowing out of him with horns." Spenfer's Faery Queen, b. v. c. 3. ft. 37; and b. vi. c.7. ft. 27. has the word in the fame fignification. TOLLET. The fame expreffion occurs again in Twelfth Night, fc. ult. "Alas, poor fool! how have they baffled thee?" Again, in K. Hen. IV. P. I. act I. fc. ii: 46 an I do not, call me villain, and baffle me." 1 The which no balm can cure, but his heart-blood K. Rich. Rage must be withstood: Give me his gage :-Lions make leopards tame, And I refign my gage. My dear dear lord, Men are but gilded loam, or painted clay. Mine honour is iny life; both grow in one; K. Rich. Coufin, throw down your gage; do you Boling. Oh, heaven defend my foul from fuch foul Shall I feem creft-fallen in my father's fight? 8 The flavish motive of recanting fear; Again, in The London Prodigal, 1605:"chil be abaffelled up and down the town, for a messel." i.e. for a beggar, or rather a leper. STEEVENS. 7 Or with pale beggar face] i. e. with a face of fupplication. But this will not fatisfy the Oxford editor, he turns it to baggard fear. WARBURTON. beggar fear is the reading of the first folio and one of the quartos. STEEVENS. The flavish motive] Motive, for inftrument. WARBURTON. Rather that which fear puts in motion. JOHNSON. And And spit it bleeding, in his high difgrace, Where fhame doth harbour, even in Mowbray's face. 2 [Exeunt. Gaunt. Alas! the part I had in Glofter's blood Doth more folicit me, than your exclaims, To ftir against the butchers of his life. Juftice decide] The old copies concur in reading-Juftice defign. Mr. Pope made the alteration, which may be unneceffary. Defigno, Lat. fignifies to mark out, to point out: "Notat defignatque oculis ad cædem unumquemque noftrum." Cicero in Catilinam. STEEVENS. —the part I had-] That is, my relation of confanguinity to Glofter. HANMER. 2 —in Glofter's blood] The three elder quartos read :— Woodstock's blood. STEEVENS. -in Edward's Edward's feven fons, whereof thyself art one, Or feven fair branches, fpringing from one root: Ah, Gaunt! his blood was thine; that bed, that womb, What fhall I fay? to fafeguard thine own life, His deputy anointed in his fight, 3 One phial &c.] Though all the old copies concur in the prefent regulation of the following lines, I would rather read: One phial full of Edward's facred blood Is crack'd, and all the precious liquor Spill'd; Is hack'd down, and his fummer leaves all faded. Some of the old copies in this inftance, as in many others, read vaded, a mode of fpelling practised by several of our ancient writers. After all, I believe the tranfpofition to be needlefs. STEEVENS. Hath Hath caus'd his death the which if wrongfully, Dutch. Where then, alas! may I complain myfelf 4 ș Dutch. Why then, I will. Farewel, old Gaunt. Thou go'ft to Coventry, there to behold Our coufin Hereford and fell Mowbray fight: Be Mowbray's fins so heavy in his bosom, Not with the empty hollownefs, but weight: For forrow ends not, when it feemeth done. -may I complain myself?] To complain is commonly a verb neuter, but it is here ufed as a verb active. Dryden employs the word in the fame fenfe in his Fables; "Gaufride, who couldft fo well in rhime complain "The death of Richard with an arrow flain." STEEVENS. 5 A caitiff recreant] Caitiff originally fignified a prifoner; next a flave, from the condition of prifoners; then a fcoundrel, from the qualities of a flave. Ημισυ τῆς ἀρετῆς αποαίνυται δέλιον ἦμαρ, In this paffage it partakes of all these fignifications. JOHNSON. Lo, |