"Disdain'd," says Dr. Johnson, for'" disdainful;" but so it might as well have been "disdainful disdain," or contemptuous contempt. The sense, I believe, is contempt that is repelled with equal contempt or disdain. "To o'er-walk a current, roaring loud, This is a strange image of an action that does not appear to have been ever practised, or to be practicable. 229. " An easy leap, "To pluck bright honour from the palefac'd moon." D. Johnson, I think, has well defended this sally of Hotspur: but, says Mr. T. Warton, it is probably a passage from some bombast play, and afterwards used as a common burlesque phrase for attempting impossibilities, I believe neither that learned critic nor Mr Steevens will find many readers agreeing with him in fancying a probability that our poet would designedly put into the mouth of the noble Percy, at a time like this, a speech of boastful nonsense and extravagant burlesque. 232. "All studies here I solemnly defy." "Defy," says Mr. Steevens, is "refuse;" but it is rather "renounce," disclaim with vehemence, abjure, as in Romeo and Juliet: "I do defy thy conjurations." I have always thought, with Mr. Capel and Mr. Malone, that "wasp-tongue," the reading Us 66 of the second quarto, is right:-had Hotspur himself been the speaker, he might naturally have said, in justification of his impatience, that he was wasp-stung, as he afterwards says he is stung with pismires ;" and even if Northumberland had supposed his son to be so uncomfortably assailed, there would be no reason to wonder at his restlessness; but Hotspur is reproached for being irritated without any sufficient cause, and from the mere caprice and petulance of his temper, and thus he is called "wasp-tongue," as Brutus says to Cassius: "I'll use you for my mirth, yea, for my laughter, "When you are waspish." Wasp-tongued," says Heron, "is a metaphor nothing like so hard as many used by Shakspeare, and implies, with a tongue, poisonous and keen as the sting of a wasp: let us, with due gratitude, return thanks to Mr. Steevens, for his skilful quotation to prove that Shakspeare knew where the sting of a wasp lies; not in the mouth, but in its tail." I think wasp-tongued the true reading, and heartily agree with Heron. LORD CHEDWORTH. You say true." Something appears to have been lost: perhaps, "'Twas there; you say true." 236. " Nay, if you have not, to't again." We might read: Nay, if you have not, you may to't again.” Or, with Mr. Capel: 237. "For, bear ourselves as even as we can, "The king will always think him in our debt; "And think we think ourselves unsatisfied, "Till he hath found a time to pay us home." Dr. Johnson's observation here, as well as one to the same purpose by Mrs. Montague, appears to have been suggested by the following passage in Tacitus," Nam Beneficia eo usque læta sunt, dum videntur exolvi posse: ubi multum antevenere, pro gratia odium redditur. It is not easy, says Gibbon, to settle between a subject and a despot, the debt of gratitude; which the former is tempted to claim by a revolt, and the latter to discharge by an execution. Hist. of the Decl. and Fall of the Roman LORD CHEDWORTH. "And think we think ourselves unsatisfied." This is not carelessly written: Iago says to Cassio: "I think you think I love you." 238. -O let the hours be short, Till fields, and blows, and groans applaud our sport." I am afraid the poet had no better motive than the pitiful jingle of a rhyme for degrading the gallant Hotspur by this savage sentiment. U 4 ACT II. SCENE I. 243. "Time enough to go to bed with a candle." I know not whether the humour implies, that any time would serve to go to bed with a candle, or that it is simply asserted that he shall be at home before all lights are put out. "Time enough to go to bed with a candle.” I suppose we are not to look for any very profound meaning here; the whole of the dialogue shews that the carrier did not rejoice in his companion, whom he answers jeeringly: I do not suppose the words were intended to convey more than "time enough to go to bed after it is dark;" the answer is purposely not precise. 247. "Great oneyers." LORD CHEDWORTH. This phrase, which Mr. Malone would refine into a meaning that, I suppose, neither Gadshill nor Shakspeare ever thought of, appears to be, as Dr. Johnson has remarked, a mere cant expression for " great ones," or " great folks," or those who assume or challenge that distinction. 248. "Such as can hold-in." To hold-in, if I mistake not, is a common phrase in the chace for "not to tire," not to spend the breath too soon. "To hold-in," I believe means here, not to blab; Parmenio, in the Eunuch, speaking of his own guarrulity, says: "Plenus rimarum sum, hac atq; illac profluo." LORD CHEDWORTH, "Such as will strike sooner than speak, and speak sooner than drink, and drink sooner than pray." This arrangement is certainly wrong; and Dr. Warburton has in vain attempted to rectify it: there is, indeed, but little humour in saying of this dissolute crew, that "they would speak sooner than drink;" as little is there, I believe, in the proposed emendation, that " they would speak sooner than think, and think sooner than prey." Dr. Johnson is obliged to leave the passage as he found it; and Mr. Malone appears to be not at all satisfactory upon it: perhaps we should read thus: "Such as will strike sooner than drink, and drink sooner than speak, and speak sooner than pray." i. e. They are plain blunt fellows, who would rather open their mouths to drink than to talk; yet, would decline their loved potations sooner than omit an opportunity to plunder; and would be even loquacious sooner than religious. 66 SCENE II. 252. If I travel but four foot by the square." Dr. Warburton has explained this passage just as I had conceived it, before I saw his note, and I am persuaded he is right; the humour is completely in Falstaff's manner, he cannot advance four feet without describing, in his motion, the square surface of that measure; he is as broad as he is long. "Ere I'll rob a foot further." Dr. Johnson would read, "rub," but there is much more humour in the expression as it is: it |