differs but little from the reading of the quarte, 1600. The objection that there is no such word as imbare, can have but little weight. It is a word so fairly deduced, and so easily understood, that an author of much less celebrity than Shakspeare, had a right to coin it.

M. MASON. In the folio the word is spelt imbarre, Imbare is, I believe, the true reading. It is formed like impaint, impawn, aud many other similar words used by Shakspeare. MALONE.

P. 12, 1. 19—21, Whiles his most mightyfather on a hill

Stood smiling, to behold his lion's whelp Forage in blood of French nobility.] This alludes to the battle of Cressy, as described by Holinshed, Vol. II. p. 372, Col,i. BowLE.

P. 12 1.25. cold for action!] This epithet all the commentators have passed by, `and I am unable to explain. I cannot but suspect it to be corrupt. A desire to distinguish themselves seems to merit the name of ardour, rather than the term here given to it. If cold be the true reading, their coldness should arise. from inaction; and therefore the meaning must he, cold for want of action; MALONE.

I always regarded the epithet cold as too clear to need explanation. The soldiers were eager to warm themselves by action, and were cold for want of it. A more recondite meaning in deed may be found; a meaning which will be best illustrated by a line in Strada's imitation of Statins:

4. Extremosque artus animosum frigus habebat. STEEVENS.

P: 13, 1: 3--25. They know, your Grace hath cause, and means, and might;

So hath your Highness;] We should read: - your race had cause,

which is carrying on the sense of the concluding words of Exeter:

As did the former lions of your blood; meaning Edward III and the Black Prince. WARBURTON, I do not see but the present reading may stand as I have pointed it. JOHNSON.

Warburton's amendment is unnecessary; but surely we should point the passage thus:

They know your Grace, hath cause; and means, and might,

So hath your Highness;

Meaning that the King had not only a good cause but force to support it. place, has the force of also, ΟΙ

So, in this likewise.

M. MASON.

P. 13, 1. 12. With blood,] This and the foregoing line Dr. Warburton gives to Westmoreland, but wih so little reason that I have continued them to Canterbury. The credit of old copies, though not great, is yet more than nothing. JOHNSON.

P. 13, 1. 23. The marches are the borders, the limits, the confines. Hence the Lords Marchers, i. e. the Lords. Presidents of the marches, &c. STEEVENS,

P. 13, 1. 29. Intendment is here perhaps used for intention, which in our author's time signified extreme exertion. The main intendment may, however, mean the general disposition. MALONE.

Main intendment, I believe, signifies

exer

tion in a body, The King opposes it to the less consequential inroads of detached parties.

STEEVENS,

giddy-] That is, inconstant,

P. 13, 1. 30 changeable. JOHNSON, P. 14, 1. 5. — fear'd

P. 14, 1. 15. And make your chronicle as rich with praise,

As is the ooze and bottom of the sea

With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.] The similitude between the chronicle and the sea consists only in this, that they are both full, and filled with something valuable.

has your, the folio their chronicle.

The quarto

Your and their written by contraction yr are just alike, and her in the old hands is not much unlike yr. I believe we should read her chronicle. JOHNSON.

Your chronicle means, I think, the chronicle of your Kingdom, England. MALONE.

P. 14, 1. 18. and fol. West. But there's a `saying, very old and true,

If that you will France win,

Then with Scotland first begin: &c.] This speech, which is dissuasive of war with France, is absurdly given to one of the churchinen in confederacy to push the King upon it, as appears by the first scene in this act. Besides, the poet had here an eye to Hall, who gives this observation to the Duke of Exeter. But the editors have made Ely and Exeter change sides, and speak one another's speeches: for this, which is given to Ely, is Exeter's; and the following, given to Exeter, is Ely's. WARBURTON.

This speech is given in the folio to the Bishop

of Ely. But it appears from Holinshed (whom our author followed,) and from Hall, that these words were the conclusion of the Earl of Westmoreland's speech; to whom therefore I have assigned them. In the quarto Lord only is prefixed to this speech. Dr. Warburton and the subsequent editors attributed it to Exeter, but certainly without propriety'; for he on the other hand maintained, that "he whiche would Scotland winne, with France must first beginne." MALONE P. 14, 1. 25. 26. Playing the mouse, in absence of the cat,

To spoil and havock more than she can

eat.] It is not much the quality of the mouse to tear the food it comes at, but to run over it and defile it. The old quarto reads, spoile; and the two first folios, tame: from which last corrupted word, I think, I have retrieved the poet's genuine reading, éaint. THEOBALD.

bue

P. 14, 1, 29. Yet that is but a eurs'd ne¬ cessity.] So she old quarto [600]. The folios read crush'd: neither of the words convey any tolerable idea; give us a counter-reasoning, and not at all pertinent. We should read 'seus'd necessity. It is Exeter's business to show there is no real necessity for staying at home: he must therefore mean, that though there be a seeming necessity, yet it is one that may be well excus'd and got over. WARBURTON.

Neither the old readings nor the emendation seem very satisfactory. A curs'd necessity has no sense; a 'scus'd necessity is so harsh that one would not admit it, if any thing else can

be found. A crush'd necessity may mean necessity which is subdued and overpowered by contrary reasons. We might read a orude necessity, a necessity not complete, or not well considered and digested; but it is too harsh.

Sir. T. Hanmer reads:

Yet that is not o'course a necessity.

JOHNSON

A curs'd necessity means, I believe, only an unfortunate necessity. Curs'd, in colloquial phrase, signifies any thing unfortunate. So we say, such a one leads a cursed life; ar other has got into a cursed scrape. It may mean, a necessity to be execrated. STEEVENS.

Mr. M. Mason justly observes that this interpretation, though perhaps the true one, does not agree with the context; [Yet, that is but an unfortunate necessity, since we, &c.] and therefore proposes to read,

Yet that is not a curs'd necessity.

But and not are so often confounded in these plays, that I think his conjecture extremely prob able, It is certainly (as Dr. Warburton has observed) the speaker's business to show that there is no real necessity for staying at home. MALONE.

P. 14, last 1. I learn from Dr. Burney, that consent is connected harmony, in general, and not confined to any specific cousonance. Thus, [says the same elegant and well-informed wri ter) concentio and concentus are both used by Cicero for the union of voices or instruments in what we should now call a chorus, norvequo cert. STEEVENS.

P. 15, 1. 5—7.

Setting endeavour in contiəs nual motion, doc A