*

(Investing lank-lean cheeks, and war worn-coats,)
Prefenteth them unto the gazing moon
So many horrid ghofts. Who now beholds
The royal captain of this ruin'd band,

Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent,

Let him cry, praife and glory on his head!
For forth he goes, and vifits all his hoft,
Bids them good-morrow with a modest smile,
And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen.

Upon his royal face there is no note,

How dread an army hath enrounded him;
Nor dath he dedicate one jot of colour
Unto the weary and all-watched night;
But freshly looks, and over-bears attaint,
With chearful femblance, and fweet majefty;
That ev'ry wretch pining and pale before,
Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks.
A largefs univerfal, like the fun,

giving poffeffion by a robe or vestment: He then obferved, that Shakespear ufes the word in a fimple fense: an investment with him being the matching of cloaths: and cloaths that are well match'd or fuited, are called a fute or fuit of cloaths.

And their gefture fad

Invefting (i. e. fuiting or matching with) lank-lean cheeks &c: He feems to have fallen into the fame mistake with the other commentators in regard to the conftruction. All I would obferve from his judicious remark is, that invefling, in the metaphorical fenfe, if it fatisfies not the reader in the fimple one, will explain the paflage very well: lank-lean cheeks and war-worn coats taking poffeffion of them, &c. but I think the first sense the true one.

I cannot but approve Sir Thomas Hanmer's criticism of presented into prefenteth which I have admitted into the text, as the reader may plainly fee, the chorus fpeaks of the time prefent: they fit, they ruminate, and so on. To make the line more clear, I have printed it in a parenthefis, and, I hope, fhall be excused for my endeavour to explain fo difficult a pafiage, as I would have every line, in our author, if poffible, fet right, and, by all means, prefer the old and general readings, to any wanton conjectures of mifapprehending criticifm.

2

*Prefenteth. Ox, edit, vulg. prefented.

His

His lib'ral eyes doth give to ev'ry one,

Thawing cold fear.

SCENE V. The Miferies of Royalty.

(9) O hard condition, and twin-born with greatness,
Subject to breath of ev'ry fool, whofe fenfe
No more can feel but his own wringing.
What infinite heart-ease must kings neglect,
That private men enjoy? And what have kings,
That private have not too, fave ceremony?
Save gen'ral ceremony?

And what art thou, thou idol ceremony?
What kind of god art thou, that fuffer'st more
Of mortal griefs, than do thy worshippers ?
What are thy rents? What are thy comings in ?
O ceremony, fhew me but thy worth:

(10) What is the foul of adoration!

Art thou aught elfe but place, degree, and form,

(9) 0, &c.] See A. 4. S. 10, of the foregoing play.

(10) What, &c.] What is thy foul of adoration--- is the common reading: there wants but the alteration of thy into the, as in the text, and all is well: the meaning is as well explained by Mr. Upton--what is the foul, i. e. the real worth, what substantial good is there in adoration or ceremony? What are the rents? What are the comings in, Oh ceremony! fhew me but thy worth, tell me what is the foul, the very utmost value, of adoration ?---" ShakeSpear ufes the word foul in this sense very often;--in this play, he says,

There is some foul of goodness in things evil;

i. e. fome real or substantial good.

In his midfummer night's dream

But you must join in fouls to mock me too;

i. e. unite together heartily, and in earnest. And in Measure for measure;

We have with special foul

Elected him, &c.

i.e particularly and specially speciamente. The alterations foifted into the texts in the feveral places, are too ridiculous to need mentioning: Upton's Obfervations, p. 406.

C 4

Creating

Creating awe and fear in other men?

Wherein thou art lefs happy, being fear'd,

Than they in fearing.

What drink'st thou oft, inftead of homage sweet,
But poifon'd flatt'ry? O be fick, great greatnefs,
And bid thy ceremony give the cure.
Think'ft thou, the fiery fever will go out
With titles blown from adulation ?

Will it give place to flexure and low bending?
Can't thou, when thou command'ft the beggar's knee,
Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream,
That play'ft fo fubtly with a king's repofe;
I am a king, that find thee, and I know,
'Tis not the balm, the fceptre and the ball,
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial,
The enter-tiffued robe of gold and pearl,
The farfed title running 'fore the the king,
The throne he fits on, nor the tide of pomp
That beats upon the high fhoar of this world
No, not all these thrice gorgeous ceremonies,
Not all thefe, laid in bed majestical,

Can fleep fo foundly as the wretched flave;
Who, with a body fill'd, and vacant mind,
Gets him to reft, cramm'd with distressful bread;
Never fees horrid night, the child of hell:
*But, like a lacquey, from the rise to set,

Sweats

4 But, like, &c.] The poet in this most beautiful paffage is comparing the laborious flave to the lacquey or footman of Phoebus: "He never beholds night, fays the poet, but like a lacquey obliged ever to attend and follow his mafter, fweats from rife to fet, in the eye of Phoebus, bis mafter, fleeps all night, where be (Phabus) fleeps, in Elyhum, and the next day, after dawn, rifes to his bufinefs, and helps his mafter, Hyperion, to his horfe; in whofe fight he again fweats from rife to fet as before, and thus follows the ever-running year &c." Nothing can be more exquifite, and more nobly befpeak the hand of Shakespear. Mr. Seward's alteration is quite unneceffary; for this manner of expreffion is entirely

agreeable

Sweats in the eye of Phoebus; and all night
Sleeps in elyfium: next day, after dawn,
Doth rife, and help Hyperion to his horse :
And follows fo the ever running year
With profitable labour to his grave:
And (but for ceremony) fuch a wretch,

Winding up days with toil, and nights with fleep,
Hath the fore-hand and vantage of a king.

SCENE VII. A Defcription of the miferable State of the English A

my.

Yon island carrions, desperate of their bones,
Il favour'dly become the morning field:
Their ragged curtains poorly are let loofe,
And our air shakes them paffing fcornfully.
Big Mars feems bankrupt in their beggar'd hoft,
And faintly through a rufty beaver peeps.
The horsemen fit like fixed candlesticks,

With torch-ftaves in their hands: and their poor jades
Lob down their heads, dropping the hide and hips:

agreeable to our author. That gentleman, in his preface, brings the following paffage from Philafter, A. 4. as worthy to be placed in competition with that of Shakespear, and where the hands, he fays, are scarcely to be diftinguished, except from one fingle expreffion of Shakespear. A prince depriv'd of his throne and betray'd as he thought in love, thus mourns his melancholy ftate. See Beaumont: and Fletcher's works, Vol. 1: preface, p, 24.

Oh that I had been nourish'd in thefe woods,
With milk of goats and acorns, and not known:
The right of crowns, or the diffembling train.
Of woman's looks; but dig'd myself a cave,
Where I, my fire, my cattle, and my bed,
Might have been shut together in one fhed:
And then had taken me fome mountain girl,
Beaten with winds, chafte as the harden'd rocks
Whereon fhe dwells: that might have ftrew'd my bed
With leaves and reeds, and with the skins of beafts,
Our neighbours, and have borne at her big breafts
My large coarse iffue!

C 5

The

The gum down-roping from their p le dead eyes;
And in their pale dull mouths the (11) jymold bit
Lies foul with chaw'd grafs, ftill and motionless:
And their executors, the knavish crows,

Fly o'er them, all impatient for their hour.

SCENE X. K. Henry's Speech before the Battle at Agincourt.

He that out-lives this day, and comes fafe home, Will ftand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd:

And rouze him at the name of Crifpian :

He that out-lives this day, and fees old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feaft his neighbour,.

And fay, to-morrow is faint Crifpian :

Then will he ftrip his fleeve, and fhew his fcars:

Old men forget; yet fhall not all forget,

But they'remember, with advantages,

What feats they did that day. Then fhall our names, Familiar in their mouth as houfhold words,

Harry the king, Bedford, and Exeter,

Warwick, and Talbot, Salisbury, and Glo'fter,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remembred.

SCENE XII. Defcription of the Earl of York's
Death.

* He fmil'd me in the face, gave me his hand, And, with a feeble gripe, fays, dear my lord,

Commend.

(11) Fymold Jymold, or rather gimma'd, which fignifies a ring of two rounds, Gemellus, Skinner. Mr. Pope.

*He fmil'd, &c] This tender and pathetic defcription of the earl of York's death always reminds me of Virgil's celebrated epifode on the friendship of Nifus and Euryalus, who fell undivided in death, and lovely as they had lived---Euryalus was wounded when his fiiend rush'd to his affiftance, and begg'd his life: the.poet tells us ;

In vain he fpoke, for ah, the fword addreft With ruthless rage, had pierc'd his lovely breaft, * Nifus.

With