K. Rich. Besides, the king's name is a tower of strength.
Borrowed from Proverbs, xviii. v. 10. "The name of the Lord is a strong tower."
Scene 3. Page 667.
Cate. ... It's supper time, my lord;
It's nine o'clock.
"A supper at so late an hour as nine o'clock in the year 1485," says Mr. Steevens, "would have been a prodigy." It certainly would, and even at the time when this play was written, the period to which the criticism more justly belongs. In either instance there was a reason for preferring the text of the quarto copy, and yet the unnecessary alteration is retained.
Scene 3. Page 688.
K. Rich. This and Saint George to boot.
Dr. Johnson is undoubtedly right against both his opponents, one of whom has adduced the phrase St. George to borrow, unintentionally in support of him. To borrow is no more a verb than to boot; it means as a pledge or security, borrow being the Saxon term for a pledge. The phrase is an invocation to the saint to act as a protector. Saint George to thrive is evidently a misconceived paraphrase of the old mode of expression, by improperly changing the substantive to a verb. Holinshed, in the speech of Richard before the battle, introduces "St. George to borrowe."
Scene 3. Page 690.
K. Rich. Long kept in Bretagne at our mother's cost.