Sc. 2. p. 279.

K. RICH. And that small model of the barren earth.

Model or module, for they were the same in Shakspeare's time, seems to mean in this place, a measure, portion, or quantity.

K. RICH.

Sc. 2. p. 280.

For within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps death his court; and there the antick sits,
Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp.

Some part of this fine description might have been suggested from the seventh print in the Imagines mortis, a celebrated series of wooden cuts which have been improperly attributed to Holbein. It is probable that Shakspeare might have seen some spurious edition of this work; for the great scarcity of the original in this country in former times is apparent, when Hollar could not procure the use of it for his copy of the dance of death. This note, which more properly belongs to the present place, had been inadvertently inserted in the first part of Henry the Sixth. See Act iv. Sc. 7. in Mr. Steevens's edition.

Sc. 3. p. 283.

NORTH. Your grace mistakes me; only to be brief
Left I his title out.

YORK.

The time hath been,

Would you have been so brief with him, he would
Have been so brief with you, to shorten you,

For taking so the head, your whole head's length.

"To take the head," says Dr. Johnson, "is to act without restraint; to take undue liberties." It is presumed that it rather means, to take away or omit the sovereign's chief and usual title; a construction which considerably augments the play on words that is here intended.

KING HENRY IV.

PART I.

ACT I.

Scene 1. Page 357.

K. HEN. To be commenc'd in stronds afar remote.

THIS antiquated word, signifying shores, seems to have been entitled to some notice by the editors, as it cannot be familiar to every reader. We have now, perhaps accidentally, restored the original Saxon reɲand.

Sc. 1. p. 357.

K. HEN. No more the thirsty Erinnys of this soil

Shall daub her lips with her own childrens blood.

The original reads entrance, which is supported by Mr. Malone and also by Mr. Ritson, to whose authorities might be added the line in Spenser's Shepherds calendar;

"Quenching the gasping furrowes thirst with rayne."

The present reading was ingeniously suggested by Mr. Mason, and has been adopted by Mr. Steevens, who, vigorously maintaining its propriety, throws the gauntlet of defiance to all adversaries: but let us not be appalled!

To the assertion that a just and striking personification is all that is wanted on this emergency, the answer is, that we have it already. Soil is personified; they are her lips, and her children that are alluded to. With respect to Erinnys; notwithstanding the examples of typographical errors that are adduced, it is highly improbable that it should have been mistaken for entrance, a word which has three letters that are wanting in the other. Again, are the instances common, or rather do they exist at all, where the capital letter of a proper name has been lost in a corruption? And, lastly, to turn in part Mr. Steevens's own words against himself, it is not probable that Shakspeare would have "opened his play with a speech, the fifth line of which is obscure enough to demand a series of comments thrice as long as the dialogue to which it is appended;" or, it may be added, which contained a name of such unfrequent occurrence, and certainly unintelligible to the greatest part of the audience.

It is often expected, though perhaps rather unreasonably, that where an opinion is controverted, a better should be substituted; yet it does seem just that something at least, in value equal or nearly so, should be produced, and on this ground the following new reading is very diffidently offered;

"No more the thirsty entrails of this soil."

In Titus Andronicus we have the expression, "the ragged entrails of this pit." And in the Third part of King Henry VI;

"What, hath thy fiery heart so parch'd thine entrails ?"

Nothing that has been here advanced is calcu lated to maintain that the name of Erinnys must have been obscure to Shakspeare. One or two quotations have been already given from autho rities that might have supplied him, to which the following shall now be added;

"Erinnis rage is growen so fel and fearce."

Last part of the mirour for magistrates,

1578, fo. 153.

"On me, ye swarth Erinnyes, fling the flames."

Turbervile's Ovid's epistles, sign, K. ij.