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5 As 'twere retail'd to all pofterity,

Even to the general all-ending day.

Glo. So wife fo young, they say, do ne'er live long,

Prince. What fay you, uncle?

[Afide,

Glo. I fay, without characters, fame lives long, 7 Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,

Į moralize,-two meanings in one word. } Aside.

Prince.

5 As 'twere retail'd to all pofterity,] And fo it is: and, by that means, like most other retailed things, became adulterated. We fhould read:

-intail'd to all pofterity;

which is finely and fenfibly expreffed, as if truth was the natural inheritance of our children; which it is impiety to deprive them of. WARBURTON.

Retailed may fignify diffufed, difperfed. JOHNSON,

So wife, &c.]

Is cadit ante fenem, qui fapit ante diem, a proverbial line.

Nov. 21, 1576, was enter'd on the books of the Stationers* Company, Carminum proverbialium totius humanæ vitæ, loci communes." From this collection, perhaps, the pentameter, which I have quoted from memory, is derived. STEevens. 7 Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,

I moralize two meanings in one word.]

By vice, the author means not a quality, but a perfon. There was hardly an old play, till the period of the Reformation, which had not in it a devil, and a droll character, a jefter; (who was to play upon the devil;) and this buffoon went by the name of a Vice. This buffoon was at first accoutred with a long jerkin, a cap with a pair of afs's ears, and a wooden dagger, with which (like another arlequin) he was to make sport in belabouring the devil. This was the conftant entertainment in the times of popery, whilst fpirits, and witchcraft, and exorcifing held their own. When the Reformation took place, the ftage fhook off fome groffities, and encreased in refinements. The mafter-devil then was foon difmiffed from the scene; and this buffoon was changed into a fubordinate fiend, whose business was to range on earth, and seduce poor mortals into that perfonated vicious quality, which he occafionally supported; as, iniquity in general, hypocrify, ufury, vanity, prodigality, gluttony, &c. Now, as the fiend (or vice,) who perfonated Iniquity (or Hypocrify, for instance) could never hope to play his game to the purpose but by hiding his cloven foot, and affuming a femblance quite different from his real character;

Prince. That Julius Cæfar was a famous man;

With what his valour did enrich his wit,

His

he must certainly put on a formal demeanour, moralize and prevaricate in his words, and pretend a meaning directly oppofite to his genuine and primitive intention. If this does not explain the paflage in question, 'tis all that I can at present suggest upon it, THEOBALD,

Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,
I moralize two meanings in one word.]

That the buffoon, or jefter of the old English farces, was called the vice, is certain and that, in their moral representations, it was common to bring in the deadly fins, is as true. Of these we have yet feveral remains. But that the vice used to affume the perfonage of those fins, is a fancy of Mr. Theobald's, who knew nothing of the matter. The truth is, the vice was always a fool or jefter: And, (as the woman, in the Merchant of Venice, calls the clown, alluding to this character,) a merry devil. Whereas these mortal fins were fo many fad ferious ones. But what mifled our editor was the name, Iniquity, given to this vice: But it was only on account of his unhappy tricks and rogueries. That it was given to him, and for the reason I mention, appears from the following paffage of Jonfon's Staple of News, fecond intermeane: M. How like you the vice i' the play?

"T. Here is never a fiend to carry him away. Befides he has never a wooden dagger.

"M. That was the old way, goffip, when Iniquity came in, like Hocas Pocas, in a jugler's jerkin, with falfe fkirts, like the knave of clubs."

And, in The Devil's an Afs, we see this old vice, Iniquity, defcribed more at large.

From all this, it may be gathered, that the text, where Richard compares himself to the formal vice, Iniquity, must be corrupt: And the interpolation of fome foolish player. The vice, or iniquity being not a formal but a merry, buffoon character, Befides, Shakespeare could never make an exact speaker refer to this character, because the subject he is upon is tradition and antiquity, which have no relation to it; and because it appears from the turn of the paffage, that he is apologizing for his equivocation by a reputable practice. To keep the reader no longer in fufpence, my conjecture is, that Shakespeare wrote and pointed the lines in this manner:

Thus like the formal-wife Antiquity,

I moralize: Two meanings in one word.

Alluding to the mythologic learning of the antients, of whom they are all here speaking. So that Richard's ironical apology

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His wit fet down to make his valour live:
Death makes no conqueft of this conqueror;

For

is to this effect, You men of morals who fo much extol your allwife antiquity, in what am I inferior to it? which was but an equivocator as I am. And it is remarkable, that the Greeks themfeives called their remote antiquity, Axóub or the equivocator. So far as to the general fenfe; as to that which arifes particularly out of the corrected expreffion, I fhall only obferve, that formal-wife is a compound epithet, an extreme fine one, and admirably fitted to the character of the fpeaker, who thought all wifdom but formality. It must therefore be read for the future with a hyphen. My other obfervation is with regard to the pointing; the common reading:

I moralize tavo meanings

is nonsense: but reformed in this manner, very fenfible: Thus like the formal-wife Antiquity

I moralize: Two meanings in one word.

i.e. I moralize as the antients did. And how was that? the having two meanings to one word. A ridicule on the morality of the antients, which he infinuates was no better than equivocating. WARBURTON.

This alteration Mr. Upton very juftly cenfures. Dr. Warbur ton, has, in my opinion, done nothing but correct the punctua tion, if indeed any alteration be really neceffary. See the differtation on the old vice at the end of this play.

To this long collection of notes may be added a question, to what equivocation Richard refers? The pofition immediately preceding, that fame lives long without characters, that is, without the help of letters, feems to have no ambiguity. He must allude to the former line:

So young fo wife, they fay, did ne'er live long,

in which he conceals under a proverb, his defign of haftening the prince's death. JOHNSON.

From the following stage direction, in an old dramatic piece, entituled, Hiftriomaflix, or the Player awhipt, 1610, it appears, that the Vice and Iniquity were fometimes diftinct perfonages: "Enter a roaring devil, with the Vice on his back, Iniquity in one hand, and Juventus in the other."

The devil likewife makes the diftinction in his first speech; "Ho, ho, bo! thefe babes mine are all,

"The Vice, Iniquitie, and child prodigal."

The following part of this note was obligingly communicated by the rev. Mr. Bowle, of Idmeftone near Salisbury. I know no writer who gives fo complete an account of this obfolete charafter, as archbishop Harfnet, in his Declaration of Popish Im

poftures,

For now he lives in fame, though not in life.--
I'll tell you what, my coufin Buckingham.
Buck. What, my gracious lord ?

Prince. An if I live until I be a man,
I'll win our ancient right in France again,
Or die a foldier, as I liv'd a king.

8

Glo. Short fummers lightly have a forward fpring.

Enter York, Haflings, and the Cardinal.

[Afide.

Buck. Now, in good time, here comes the duke of
York.

Prince. Richard of York! how fares our loving
brother?

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York. Well, my dread lord; fo muft I call you

now.

Prince. Ay, brother; to our grief, as it is yours: 'Too late he died, that might have kept that title, Which by his death hath loft much majesty.

Glo. How fares our coufin, noble lord of York ? York. I thank you, gentle uncle. O, my lord, You faid, that idle weeds are faft in growth: The prince my brother hath outgrown me far. Glo. He hath, my lord.

York. And therefore is he idle?

poftures, p. 114, Lond. 1603: "It was a pretty part (he tells us) in the old church playes, when the nimble Vice would fkip up nimbly like a jackanapes into the devil's necke, and ride the devil a course, and belabour him with his wooden dagger, till he made him roare, whereat the people would laugh to see the devil fo vice-haunted," STEEVENS.

slightly- Commonly, in ordinary courfe. JOHNSON. So, in the old proverb: "There's lightning lightly before thunder." See Ray's Proverbs, p. 130. edit. 3d. STEEVENS.

9

dread lord;

] The original of this epithet applied to kings has been much difputed. In fome of our old ftatutes, the king is called Rex metuendiffimus. JOHNSON. Too late he died,] i. e, too lately, the lofs is too fresh in our memory. But the Oxford editor makes him say:

Too foon he died

WARBURTON.

O, my

Glo. O, my fair coufin, I muft not say so. York. Then is he more beholden to you, than I. Glo. He may command me, as my fovereign; But you have power in me, as in a kinfman. York. I pray you, uncle, give me this dagger. Glo. My dagger, little coufin? with all my heart. Prince. A beggar, brother?

York. Of my kind uncle, that I know will give;
And, being but a toy, which is no gift to give.
Glo. A greater gift than that I'll give my coufin.
York. A greater gift! O, that's the fword to it?
Glo. Ay, gentle coufin, were it light enough.
York. O then, I fee, you'll part but with light
gifts;

In weightier things you'll fay a beggar, nay.
Glo. It is too weighty for your grace to wear.
York. I weigh it lightly, were it heavier.

Glo. What, would you have my weapon, little
lord ?.

York. I would, that I might thank you as you call

me.

Glo. How?

York. Little.

Prince. My lord of York will still be crofs in talk;Uncle, your grace knows how to bear with him.

2 And, being but a toy, which is no gift to give.] This is the reading of the quartos; the first folio reads:

And, being but a toy, which is no grief to give. This reading, made a little more metrical, has been followed, I think erroneously, by all the editors. JOHNSON.

The quarto 1612 reads:

no grief

STEEVENS.

3 I weigh it lightly, &c.] i.e. I fhould still efteem it but a trifling gift, were it heavier. But the Oxford editor reads:

I'd weigh it lightly,

i. e. I could manage it, tho' it were heavier. WARBUrton. Dr. Warburton is right. So, in Love's Labour's Loft, act V. fc. ji:

"You weigh me not,-O that's you çare not for me."

STEEVENS,

York

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