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THIRD PART OF HENRY VI.

Act ii. sc. 5.

"Fath. These arms of mine shall be thy winding-sheet; My heart, sweet boy, shall be thy sepulchre,

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When Shakespeare wrote the first two lines (to which there is nothing parallel in The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke), he was thinking, it would seem, of Marlowe's Jew of Malta, where the Governor, on seeing the dead body of his son, exclaims,

"What sight is this? my Lodowick [Lodovico] slain !
These arms of mine shall be thy sepulchre."

Marlowe's Works, i. 289, ed. Dyce.

In the last line but one, the misprint "Men" was altered by Rowe to "Sad," which Malone and Mr. Knight adopted. Steevens conjectured "Man," and Mr. Collier inserted it in his text.

"The word 'Men' is merely the printer's mistake, who carelessly began the line with M instead of E:

'E'en for the loss of thee,' &c.

There can be little objection to receive this trifling, but

effectual, emendation at the hands of the old corrector." Collier's Notes and Emendations, &c. p. 293.

Re

Mr. Collier appears not to be aware that in my marks, &c., published in 1844, I said, "Surely Men' must be a misprint for 'E'en."" p. 133.

RICHARD III.

Act i. sc. 2.

"Anne. Set down, set down your honourable load."

Here Shakespeare had in his recollection a line at the commencement of a scene in the Sec. Part of The Troublesome Raigne of King John;

"Set downe, set downe the loade not worth your paine."

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Sig. K 4, ed. 1622.

Act i. sc. 4.

"false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence."

The word "fleeting," applied to a person, is of very rare occurrence (Steevens, I presume, could call to mind no instance of it, for he illustrates the present line by "the fleeting moon" from Antony and Cleopatra). John Harington, in his Orlando Furioso, has;

"But Griffin (though he came not for this end,

For praise and bravery at tilt to run,

But came to find his fleeting female friend)," &c.

Sir

B. xvii. st. 18.

Act iii. sc. 4.

"And this is Edward's wife, that monstrous witch,
Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have marked me.”

So Malone, Mr. Collier, and Mr. Knight, with an erroneous punctuation in the second line, which ought to stand,

"Consorted with that harlot strumpet Shore,”—

"harlot" being here an adjective. Compare;

"O harlot whore, why should I stay my hands?

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Locrinus now (quoth she) had not thus dide,

If such an harlot whore he had not tooke."

A Mirour for Magistrates, &c. p. 34, ed. 1610.

Act v. sc. 3.

"I died for hope, ere I could lend thee aid."

The reading, "died for hope," has been questioned: but (however we are to understand it) the following passage in Greene's James the Fourth seems to determine that it is right;

""Twixt love and fear continual are the wars.
The one assures me of my Ida's love,
The other moves me for my murder'd queen.
Thus find I grief of that whereon I joy,
And doubt in greatest hope, and death in weal.
Alas, what hell may be compar'd with mine,
Since in extremes my comforts do consist!
War then will cease, when dead ones are reviv'd;
Some then will yield, when I am dead for hope."
Works, ii. 149, ed. Dyce.

HENRY VIII.

Act ii. sc. 2.

"Enter Wolsey and Campeius."

Shakespeare is not the only great poet that has introduced Campeius. In the Orlando Furioso, c. xlvi. st. 11, Lorenzo Campeggi figures among the illustrious persons who congratulate Ariosto on the completion of his labours.

Act iii. sc. 2.

"I have ventur'd,

Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders,
This many summers in a sea of glory," &c.

In Fairfax's Tasso, B. ii. st. 68, is,

"The sea of glorie hath no bankes assignde,"

a metaphor not in the original. That celebrated translation* appeared in 1600. Shakespeare's Henry VIII., there seems to be no doubt, was produced at a later date.

It has been praised somewhat beyond its merits by critics who knew very little about the original. That Fairfax possessed considerable power as a poet, is not to be denied: but unfortunately, instead of being content to translate Tasso, he is continually introducing allusions and similes of his own invention, and frequently in the worst possible taste; for instance, at p. 186, ed. 1600;

"This said, that narrow entrance past the knight,

(So creepes a camell through a needles eie)," &c. !!!

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