1 LORD. It is our hope, fir, After well-enter'd foldiers, to return And find your grace in health. KING. No, no, it cannot be; and yet my heart Will not confefs he owes the malady That doth my life befiege. Farewell, young lords; what follows, shows this correction to be necessary: "Share the advice betwixt you; if both gain all," &c. TYRWHITT. Tyrwhitt's amendment is clearly right. Advice is the only thing that may be shared between two, and yet both gain all. and yet my Will not confefs he owes the malady M. MASON. That doth my life befiege.] i. e. as the common phrafe runs, I am fill heart-whole; my fpirits, by not finking under my diftemper, do not acknowledge its influence. STEEVENS. 9 let higher Italy (Thofe 'bated, that inherit but the fall Of the laft monarchy,) fee, &c.] The ancient geographers have divided Italy into the higher and the lower, the Apennine hills being a kind of natural line of partition; the fide next the Adriatick was denominated the higher Italy, and the other fide the lower: and the two feas followed the fame terms of diftinction, the Adriatick being called the upper Sea and the Tyrrhene or Tuscan the lower. Now the Sennones, or Senois, with whom the Florentines are here fuppofed to be at war, inhabited the higher Italy, their chief town being Arminium, now called Rimini, upon the Adriatick. HANMER. Italy, at the time of this fcene, was under three very different tenures. The emperor, as fucceffor of the Roman emperors, had one part; the pope, by a pretended donation from Conftantine, another; and the third was compofed of free ftates. Now by the laft monarchy is meant the Roman, the laft of the four general monarchies. Upon the fall of this monarchy, in the fcramble, several cities fet up for themselves, and became free ftates: now thefe The bravest questant shrinks, find what you seek, might be faid properly to inherit the fall of the monarchy. This being premifed, let us now confider fenfe. The King fays higher Italy;-giving it the rank of preference to France; but he corrects himself and fays, I except thofe from that precedency, who only inherit the fall of the laft monarchy; as all the little petty states; for inftance, Florence, to whom these volunteers were going. As if he had faid, I give the place of honour to the emperor and the pope, but not to the free ftates. WARBURTON, Sir T. Hanmer reads: Thofe baftards that inherit, &c. with this note: 66 Reflecting upon the abject and degenerate condition of the cities and ftates which arofe out of the ruins of the Roman empire, the last of the four great monarchies of the world." Dr. Warburton's obfervation is learned, but rather too subtle; Sir Thomas Hanmer's alteration is merely arbitrary. The paffage is confeffedly obfcure, and therefore I may offer another explanation. I am of opinion that the epithet higher is to be understood of fituation rather than of dignity. The fenfe may then be this, Let upper Italy, where you are to exercise your valour, fee that you come to gain honour, to the abatement, that is, to the difgrace and depreffian of thofe that have now loft their ancient military fame, and inherit but the fall of the laft monarchy. To abate is used by Shakspeare in the original fenfe of abatre, to deprefs, to fink, to deje, to fubdue. So, in Coriolanus: 66 - till ignorance deliver you, "As most abated captives to fome nation "That won you without blows." And bated is used in a kindred sense in The Merchant of Venice : in a bondman's key, 66 "With bated breath, and whifp'ring humbleness." The word has still the fame meaning in the language of the law. JOHNSON. In confirmation of Johnfon's opinion, that higher relates to fituation, not to dignity, we find in the third scene of the fourth Act, that one of the Lords fays,-" What will Count Roufillon do then? will he travel higher, or return again to France?" M. MASON. Thofe 'bated may here fignify "thofe being taken away or excepted." Bate, thus contracted, is in colloquial language ftill ufed with this meaning. This parenthetical fentence implies no more than they excepted who poffefs modern Italy, the remains of the Raman empire. HOLT WHITE. That fame may cry you loud: I fay, farewell. 2 LORD. Health, at your bidding, serve your majesty! KING. Those girls of Italy, take heed of them; They fay, our French lack language to deny, If they demand: beware of being captives, Before you ferve,' BOTH. Our hearts receive your warnings. KING. Farewell.-Come hither to me. [The King retires to a couch. I LORD. O my fweet lord, that you will stay be hind us! PAR. 'Tis not his fault; the spark 2 LORD. O, 'tis brave wars! PAR. Moft admirable: I have seen those wars. BER. I am commanded here, and kept a coil with; Too young, and the next year, and 'tis too early. PAR. An thy mind ftand to it, boy, steal away bravely. BER. I fhall stay here the forehorse to a smock, Creaking my fhoes on the plain masonry, Till honour be bought up, and no fword worn, But one to dance with! By heaven, I'll steal away, 4 * That fame may cry you loud:] So, in Troilus and Creffida: -fame with her loud'ft O yes, "Cries, This is he," STEEVENS. 3 bevare of being captives, Before you ferve.] The word ferve is equivocal; the fenfe is, Be not captives before you ferve in the war. Be not captives before you are foldiers. JOHNSON. - and no fword worn, But one to dance with!] It fhould be remembered that in Shakspeare's time it was ufual for gentlemen to dance with fwords I LORD. There's honour in the theft." PAR. Commit it, count. 2 LORD. I am your acceffary; and fo farewell. BER. I grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body." I LORD. Farewell, captain. 2 LORD. Sweet monfieur Parolles ! PAR. Noble heroes, my fword and yours are kin, Good fparks and luftrous, a word, good metals:You fhall find in the regiment of the Spinii, one captain Spurio, with his cicatrice," an emblem of on. Our author, who gave to all countries the manners of his own, has again alluded to this ancient custom in Antony and Cleopatra: Act III. fc. ix: 66 He, at Philippi kept "His fword, even like a dancer." See Mr. Steevens's note there. 5 I'll feal away. MALONE, There's honour in the theft.] So, in Macbeth: 6 I "Which Steals itself." STEEVENS. grow to you, and our parting is a tortured body.] I read thusOur parting is the parting of a tortured body. Our parting is as the difruption of limbs torn from each other. Repetition of a word is often the cause of mistakes: the eye glances on the wrong word, and the intermediate part of the sentence is omitted. So, in K. Henry VIII. A&t II. fc. iii: 66 -it is a fufferance, panging "As foul and body's fevering." STEEVENS, JOHNSON. As they grow together, the tearing them afunder was torturing a body. Johnson's amendment is unneceffary, M. MASON. We two growing together, and having, as it were, but one body, ("like to a double cherry, feeming parted,") our parting is a tortured body; i. e. cannot be effected but by a difruption of limbs which are now common to both. MALONE. 7—with his cicatrice,] The old copy reads, his cicatrice with. STEEVENS. war, here on his finifter cheek; it was this very fword entrench'd it: fay to him, I live; and observe his reports for me. 2 LORD. We fhall, noble captain. PAR. Mars dote on you for his novices! [Exeunt Lords.] What will you do? BER. Stay; the king— [Seeing him rife. PAR. Use a more fpacious ceremony to the noble lords; you have reftrain'd yourself within the lift of too cold an adieu: be more expreffive to them; for they wear themselves in the cap of the time, there do mufter true gait, eat, fpeak, and move under the influence of the most received star; and It is furprifing, none of the editors could fee that a flight tranfpofition was abfolutely neceffary here, when there is not common fenfe in the paffage, as it ftands without fuch tranfpofition. Parolles only means, You fhall find one captain Spurio in the camp, with a fcar on his left cheek, a mark of war that my fword gave him." THEOBALD. 2 they wear themselves in the cap of the time, there do mufter true gait, &c.] The main obfcurity of this paffage arifes from the mistake of a fingle letter. We should read, instead of, de mufter, to muster.-To wear themselves in the cap of the time, fignifies to be the foremost in the fashion: the figurative allufion is to the gallantry then in vogue, of wearing jewels, flowers, and their miftrefs's favours in their caps.-There to mufter true gait, fignifies to affemble together in the high road of the fashion. All the reft is intelligible and eafy. WARBURTON. I think this emendation cannot be faid to give much light to the obfcurity of the paffage. Perhaps it might be read thus:They do mufter with the true gait, that is, they have the true military ftep. Every man has obferved fomething peculiar in the ftrut of a foldier. JOHNSON. Perhaps we should read-mafter true gait. To mafter any thing, is to learn it perfectly. So, in King Henry IV. P. I: "As if he mafter'd there a double fpirit "Of teaching and of learning Again, in King Henry V: "Between the promise of his greener days, |