KING RICHARD II.
Act I.
Sc. 1.
"May many years of happy days befall."
"And free from other misbegotten hate."
We might read any, perhaps, for 'other'; Collier's folio has wrath or.
"Upon remainder of a dear account."
Collier's folio reads clear; and d and cl might be confounded.
Sc. 3.
"Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms."
This is the merest prose. Ritson for ask repeats 'demand of'; but it seems to me that the simplest way is to read 'ask of,' making 'Marshal' a trisyllable, as the King of course speaks in a solemn, majestic tone. In 1 Hen. VI. iv. 7, an envoy says: "Great märshal to Henery the Sixth." In Hen. VIII. v. 4, the herald speaks in the same manner.
"Stay them; the King hath thrown his warder down."
"To wake our Peace, which in our country's cradle," etc.
From what follows, in which she is said to "fright fair Peace," we might suspect that for 'Peace' the poet had written Strife, or some such word.
"The sly slow hours shall not determinate."
Pope read fly, and he has been generally followed. I have little doubt that the poet wrote slide (i. q. glide) slow.
"So sholdestow endure and latten slyde
The tyme and fonde to be glad and light."
Chauc. Tr. and Cress.
In Albumazar we have, "How slow the day slides on!" The d was not sounded in slide-slow. Introd. p. [52].
"It boots thee not to be compassionate."
Theobald proposed 'become passionate'; Singer 'be so passionate.' No change seems to be needed, though the expression is singular.
"To plot, contrive, or complot any ill."
It might be better to read compass for 'complot,' as the preceding 'plot' may have been in the printer's mind; or plan for 'plot.'
"Norfolk, so fare as to mine enemy...."
There is here, I think, an aposiopesis, which removes all difficulty; far is usually read for 'fare,' the reading of the 4tos and folio.
"Wherefore think not the king did banish thee."
Sc. 4.
"We did observe it. Cousin Aumerle."
"Where lies he?—At Ely-house, my lord."
By reading 'where' a dissyllable, and thus throwing a metric accent on 'he,' we have the expression of the proud unfeeling character of Richard in the early part of the play. Propriety—to say nothing of metre—demands my lord.
Act II.
Sc. 1.
"The setting sun, and music at the close,
As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
Writ in remembrance more than things long past."
So this place is pointed in the original and subsequent editions, making little or no sense. I punctuate—'As the last taste of sweets is sweetest—last'; in which I find I had been anticipated by Mason. The passage is one of the poet's obscurest. His meaning is that the concluding part of any impression on the senses is the most permanent in its effect on the mind; but how strangely expressed!
"As praises of his state. Then there are found
Lascivious metres," etc.
The two earliest 4tos read: "As praises, of whose taste the wise are found;" and by reading, as we should, fond, this also gives us very good sense.
"Against the envy of less happier lands."
Pope read happy, which is doubtless more grammatical, according to the language of later times; but the text is probably as the poet wrote it. See on As You Like it, i. 2.
"For young hot colts being rag'd do rage the more."
There seems hardly to be any doubt that 'rag'd,' to which it is impossible to give any tolerable meaning, was suggested by 'rage.' We might read curb'd or, with Ritson, rein'd, as in Cor. iii. 3.
"I do beseech your majesty, impute
His words to wayward sickliness and age."
So I read, omitting 'in him,' introduced by the printer, at the end of the second line.
"What says he now?—Nay, nothing; all is said."
"Or else he never would compare between you."
"Tends that that thou would'st speak to the Duke of Hereford?"
"And quite lost their hearts; the nobles hath he fin'd,
For ancient quarrels, and quite lost their hearts too."
"Thy words are but as thoughts; therefore be bold."
Collier's folio needlessly reads Our for 'Thy.'
"That Harry Duke of Hereford, Reginald lord Cobham,
That late broke from the Duke of Exeter,
His brother, late Archbishop of Canterbury."
From Malone's note it would seem quite plain that a line has been lost after the first; yet the poet may have fallen into error. The person who escaped was Thomas Arundel, the nephew, not the brother, of the 'late archbishop.' I transpose here in agreement with the text of Holinshed and the laws of metre.
Sc. 2.
"Thus thrust disorderly into my hands."
The 4tos and folio read 'Thus disorderly thrust.'
"Is my near kinsman, whom the king hath wronged."
"The hateful commons will perform for us."
The 4tos and folio read "Will the hateful," etc.
Sc. 3.
"To take advantage of the absent time."
It means probably of the time of absence; but it is very awkwardly expressed. Perhaps for 'time' we should read king, which Theobald also proposed. We have "the absent King" (i.e. Rich. II.) in 1 Hen. IV. iv. 3.
"And ostentation of despised arms."
I can see no sense in 'despised' here; Singer reads disposed. I prefer displayed, which he also had conjectured.
Sc. 4.
"The other in hope to enjoy by rage and war."
So also Theobald completed sense and metre.
Act III.
Sc. 1.
"Thanks, gentle uncle. Come, my lords, away,
To fight with Glendower and his complices."
With Theobald, I am dubious of the last line. The scene would end better with the couplet, and Glendower is not mentioned anywhere else in the play. A little higher up in the scene, however, a line intervenes between two rimes.
Sc. 2.
"Barloughly Castle call they this at hand?—
Yea, my lord. How brooks your grace the air."
For 'Yea,' we should read Even so. Introd. p. [68].
"In murders and in outrage bloody here."
As 4to 1597 reads bouldy for 'bloody', the reading of the other 4tos and the folio, the right reading would seem to be boldly.
"Strive to speak big and clap their female joints
In stiff unwieldy arms."
Pope reads clasp and Collier's folio feeble, which seem to be better.
Sc. 3.
"Your Grace mistakes me; only to be brief,
Left I his title out."
"Had been so brief with you to shorten you,
For taking so the head, your whole head's length."
We should read off for 'so' suggested by that in the preceding line.
"That any harm should stain so fair a show."
The folios of both Collier and Singer read storm for 'harm.'
Sc. 4.
"And I could sing, would weeping do me good,
And never borrow any tear of thee."
We should either read weep for 'sing' or singing for 'weeping.' Pope, who is generally followed, read weep. I prefer singing; so also does Staunton.
"But stay, girl, hëre come the gardeners."
She had already called her 'girl' twice.
"As we this garden. At time of year we cut
And wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees."
In the first line something is wanting at the end in both 4tos and folio; in the second the 4tos read 'Do wound,' and those who follow them read 'We at time of year.' I prefer the reading of the folio, adding we cut. If we follow the 4tos, we should read perhaps 'year we still.' The expression 'time of year,' i.e. spring (?) occurs in one of the Sonnets of Thomas Watson (1581?): "And time of year reviveth everything."
"Their fruits of duty. The superfluous branches."
So also S. Walker; 2nd folio reads All.
Act IV.
Sc. 1.
"I heard you say that you had rather refuse
The offer of an hundred thousand crowns
Than Bolingbroke's return to England."
This is nonsense, and the last line is unmetrical. A verb is evidently lost; if we read 'Than to see,' or 'Than see proud,' all becomes clear.
"Of good old Abraham. My Lords Appellants."
"Give me the crown. Here, cousin, seize the crown.
Here cousin, on this side my hand; and on that side yours."
Some reject, as a needless repetition, which destroys the metre, the 'Here cousin' in the second line; but it serves to mark the impatience of the King.
Act V.
Sc. 1.
"Hath Bolingbroke depos'd
Thine intellect? hath he been in thy heart?"
"For why, the senseless brands will sympathize
With the heavy accent of thy moving tongue."
"And he shall think that thou, which knowest the way."
"Sent back like Hallowmas, or shortest [of] day."
As, on account of the rime, we must read 'day,' it is evident that 'of' is a superfluous addition made by the printers. We have just the same in Meas. for Meas. iv. 4, and elsewhere.
Sc. 2.
"If God prevent me not, I purpose so."
"Yea, lookest thou pale? Let me see the writing, sir."
Sc. 3.
"Thy overflow of good converts to bad."
What follows might lead us to read 'the bad.'
"But makes one pardon strong.—With all my heart
I pardon him.—A god on earth thou art."
This natural—I might almost say inevitable—transposition did not escape Pope; yet many subsequent editors have clung faithfully to the old printers!
"Uncle, farewell, and, cousin mine, adieu."
This addition of Collier's folio is better than Theobald's of too, which makes an unpleasant jingle.
Sc. 5.
"My brain I'll prove the female to my soul."
It might be better to read will for 'I'll.'
"Against the Word, as thus: Come, little ones, and then again."
The 'and' is most probably a printer's addition.
"My thoughts are minutes, and with sighs they jar
Their watches on unto mine eyes, the outward watch."
As this is nonsense, and 'watches' was evidently suggested by 'watch,' I read motions for 'watches on.' "To a minute, to a second; thou shalt set thy watch, and the bridegroom shall observe its motions" (Congreve, Love for Love, iii. 9).
"What art thou? and how camest thou in hither?"