6

These, as I learn, and such like toys as these,
Have mov'd his highness to commit me now.

GLO. Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by

women:

"Tis not the king, that sends you to the Tower; My lady Grey, his wife, Clarence, 'tis she,

That tempers him to this extremity 7.

Was it not she, and that good man of worship,
Antony Woodeville, her brother there",

That made him send lord Hastings to the Tower;
From whence this present day he is deliver'd?
We are not safe, Clarence, we are not safe.

CLAR. By heaven, I think, there is no man

secure,

But the queen's kindred, and night-walking heralds
That trudge betwixt the king and mistress Shore.
Heard you not, what an humble suppliant
Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?
GLO. Humbly complaining to her deity
Got my lord chamberlain his liberty.
I'll tell you what,—I think, it is our way,
If we will keep in favour with the king,

6

8

toys-] Fancies, freaks of imagination. JOHNSON. So, in Hamlet, Act I. Sc. IV. :

"The very place puts toys of desperation,
"Without more motive, into every brain."

REED.

7 That TEMPERS him to this extremity.] I have collated the original quarto published in 1597, verbatim, with that of 1598. In the first copy this line stands thus:

"That tempers him to this extremity."

and so undoubtedly we should read. To temper is to mould, to fashion. So, in Titus Andronicus :

66

'Now will I to that old Andronicus ;

"And temper him, with all the art I have,

"To pluck proud Lucius from the warlike Goths.'

In the quarto 1598, tempts was corruptly printed instead of tempers. The metre being then defective, the editor of the folio supplied the defect by reading

"That tempts him to this harsh extremity." MALONE. 8 Humbly complaining, &c.] I think these two lines might be better given to Clarence. JOHNSON.

To be her men, and wear her livery:

The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself',

Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen, Are mighty gossips in this monarchy.

BRAK. I beseech your graces both to pardon me; His majesty hath straitly given in charge, That no man shall have private conference, Of what degree so ever, with his brother.

GLO. Even so; an please your worship, Brakenbury,

You may partake of any thing we say :

We speak no treason, man ;-We say, the king
Is wise and virtuous; and his noble queen
Well struck in years 2; fair, and not jealous:
We say, that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a passing pleasing
tongue;

And that the queen's kindred3 are made gentlefolks:
How say you, sir? can you deny all this ?}

BRAK. With this, my lord, myself have nought to do.

The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,] That is, the Queen and Shore. JOHNSON.

2 Well STRUCK in years;] This odd expression in our language was preceded by others as uncouth though of a similar kind. Thus, in Arthur Hall's translation of the first book of Homer's Iliad, 1581:

"In Grea's forme, the good handmaid, nowe wel ystept in yeares."

Again:

66

'Well shot in years he seem'd," &c.

Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. v. c. vi. The meaning of neither is very obvious; but as Mr. Warton has observed in his Essay on The Fairy Queen, by an imperceptible progression from one kindred sense to another, words at length obtain a meaning entirely foreign to their original etymology. STEEVENS.

3 And the queen's kindred-] The old copies harshly and unnecessarily read

"And that the queen's," &c. STEEVENS.

GLO. Naught to do with mistress Shore? I tell thee, fellow,

He that doth naught with her, excepting one,
Were best to do it secretly, alone 1.

BRAK. What one, my lord?

4

GLO. Her husband, knave :-Would'st thou betray me?

BRAK. I beseech your grace to pardon me; and, withal,

Forbear your conference with the noble duke. CLAR. We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey.

GLO. We are the queen's abjects, and must obey.

4

alone.] Surely the adjective-alone, is an interpolation, as what the Duke is talking of, is seldom undertaken before witnesses. Besides, this word deranges the metre, which, without it, would be regular :-for instance:

"Were best to do it secretly.

66

My lord?

"What one,

"Her husband, knave :-Would'st thou betray me?"

STEEVENS.

The above note is a good specimen of Mr. Steevens's readiness to suppose an interpolation in the ancient copies, whenever he chose to disturb the text. He does not seem ever to have perceived that many short prosaical sentences are frequently interposed in our poet's metrical dialogues. Of this kind are the words-" What one, my lord?"—and the following line: Her husband, knave," &c. MALOne.

These four speeches were probably all designed for prose. What verse can be made out of this line:

"We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey?" Brakenbury's speech, "What one, my lord ?" and Gloster's answer, are omitted in quarto 1597. BOSWELL.

3 5- the queen's ABJECTS,] That is, not the queen's subjects, whom she might protect, but her abjects, whom she drives away. JOHNSON.

So, in The Case is Alter'd. How? Ask Dalio and Milo, 1604: This ougly object, or rather abject of nature."

HENDERSON.

I cannot approve of Johnson's explanation. Gloster forms a substantive from the adjective abject, and uses it to express a lower

Brother, farewell: I will unto the king;
And whatsoever you will employ me in,-
Were it, to call king Edward's widow-sister",-
I will perform it to enfranchise you.

Mean time, this deep disgrace in brotherhood,
Touches me deeper than you can imagine.

CLAR. I know it pleaseth neither of us well.
GLO. Well, your imprisonment shall not be long;

degree of submission than is implied by the word subject, which otherwise he would naturally have made use of. The Queen's abjects, means the most servile of her subjects, who must of course obey all her commands; which would not be the case of those whom she had driven away from her.

In a preceding page Gloster had said of Shore's wife-
I think, it is our way,

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"If we will keep in favour with the king,

"To be her men, and wear her livery."

The idea is the same in both places, though the expression differs. In Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, Puntarvolo says to Swift:

"I'll make thee stoop, thou abject." M. MASON.

This substantive was not of Shakspeare's formation. We meet with it in Psalm xxxv. 15: "-yea, the very abjects came together against me unawares, making mouths at me, and ceased not." Again, in Chapman's translation of the 21st book of Homer's Odyssey:

"Whither? rogue! abject! wilt thou bear from us
"That bow propos'd?"

Again, in the same author's version of Homer's Hymn to Venus: "That thou wilt never let me live to be

"An abject, after so divine degree
"Taken in fortune-." STEEVENS.

6 Were it, to call king Edward's widow-sister,] This is a very covert and subtle manner of insinuating treason. The natural expression would have been, "were it to call king Edward's wife,sister." I will solicit for you, though it should be at the expence of so much degradation and constraint, as to own the low-born wife of King Edward for a sister. But by slipping, as it were casually, widow, into the place of wife, he tempts Clarence with an oblique proposal to kill the King. JOHNSON.

"King Edward's widow" is, I believe, only an expression of contempt, meaning the "widow Grey," whom Edward had chosen for his queen. Gloster has already called her, "the jealous o'erworn widow." STEEVENS.

I will deliver you, or else lie for you? :
Mean time, have patience.

CLAR.

8

I must perforce ; farewell. [Exeunt CLARENce, Brakenbury, and Guard.

GLO. Go, tread the path that thou shalt ne'er
return,

Simple, plain Clarence!-I do love thee so,
That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven,
If heaven will take the present at our hands.
But who comes here? the new-deliver'd Hastings?

Enter HASTINGS.

HAST. Good time of day unto my gracious lord! GLO. As much unto my good lord chamberlain! Well are you welcome to this open air.

How hath your lordship brook'd imprisonment? HAST. With patience, noble lord, as prisoners

must:

But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks,
That were the cause of my imprisonment.

GLO. No doubt, no doubt; and so shall Clarence

too:

For they that were your enemies, are his,

And have prevail'd as much on him, as you. HAST. More pity, that the eagle should be mew'd9,

While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.

GLO. What news abroad?

7 →LIE for you :] He means, to be imprisoned in your stead To lie was anciently to reside, as appears by many instances in these volumes. REED.

8 I must perforce ;] Alluding to the proverb, force, is a medicine for a mad dog." STEEVENS.

"Patience per

9 — should be MEW'D,] A mew was the place of confinement where a hawk was kept till he had moulted. So, in Albumazar : "Stand forth, transform'd Antonio, fully mew'd "From brown soar feathers of dull yeomanry, "To the glorious bloom of gentry." STEEVENS.