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gel, became the habitation of celestial spirits, so the King's heart, since consideration has driven out his follies, is now the receptacle of wisdom and of yirtue. JOHNSON.

Mr. Upton observes, that according to the scripture expression, the old Adam, or the old man, signified man in an unregenerated or gentile state. MALONE.

P. 6, 1.20-24. Never came reformation in a flood, &c.] Alluding to the method by which Hercules cleansed the famous stables, when he turned a river through them. Hercules still is in our author's head when he mentions the Hydra. JOHNSON.

This

P. 6, 1. 26 and fol. Hear him but reason in divinity, &c.] speech seems to have been copied from King James's Prelates, speaking of their Solomon; when Archbishop Whitgift, who, as an eminent writer says, died soon afterwards, and probably doated then, at the Hampton-Court conference, declared himself verily persuaded, that his sacred Majesty spake by the spirit of God. And, in effect, this scene was added after King James's accession to the crown: so that we have no way of avoiding its being esteemed a compliment to him, but by supposing it a compliment to his bishops. WAREURTON.

Why these lines should be divided from the rest of the speech and applied to King James, I am not able to conceive; nor why an opportunity should be so eagerly snatched to treat with contempt that part of his character which was the least contemptible. King James's theological i knowledge was not inconsiderable. To preside at disputations is not very suitable to a King,

but to understand the questions is surely laudable. The poet, if he had James in his thoughts, was no skilful encomiast; for the mention of Harry's skill in war, forced upon the remembrance of his audience the great deficiency of - their present King; who yet with all his faults, and many faults he had, was such, that Sir Robert Cotton says, he would be content that England should never have a better, provided that it should never have a worse. JOHNSON.

Those who are solicitous that justice should be done to the theological knowledge of our British Solomon, may very easily furnish themselves with specimens of it from a book entitled, Rex Platonicus, sive de potentissimi Principis Jacobi Britanniarum Regis ad illustrissimam Academiam Oxoniensem adventu, Aug. 27, Anno 1605. STEEVENS.

P. 7, 1. 2. The air, a charter'd libertine,

is still,]

This line is

exquisitely beautiful. JOHNSON. P. 7, 1. 5. 6. So that the art and practick part of life

Must be the mistress of this theorick: He discourses with so much skill on all subjects, that the art and practice of life must be the mistress or teacher of his theorick; that is, that his theory must have been taught by art and practice; which, says he, is strange, since he could see little of the true art or practice among his loose companions, nor ever retired to digest his practice into theory. Art is used by the author for practice, as distinguished from science or theory. JOHNSON.

Theorick is what terminates in speculation.

STREVENS.

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In our author's time, this word was always used where we now use theory. MALONE.

P. 7, 1. 10. -- companies -) is here used for companions. MALONE.

P. 7, 1. 14. -- popularity.] i. e. plebeian intercourse; an unusual sense of the word: though perhaps the same idea was meant to be communicated by it in King Henry IV. Part I. where King Richard II. is represented as having

"Enfeoff'd himself to popularity. STEEVENS. P.7, 1. 16. nettles] i. e. the wild fruit so called, that grows in the woods, STEEVENS. P. 7, 1. 22. crescive in his faculty.] Increasing in its P. 7, 1. 31. P. 8, 1. 10.

proper power. JOHNSON. Swaying is inclining. MALONE. The severals, and unhidden passages,] This line I suspect of corruption, though it may be fairly enough explained: the passages of his titles are the lines of succession by which his claims descend. Unhidden is open, clear. JOHNΤΟΝ.

I believe we should read, several, instead of severals. M. MASON.

P. 8, last 1. K. Hen. Send for him, good uncle.] The person here addressed was Thomas Deaufort, Earl of Dorset, who was half-brother to King Henry IV. being one of the sons of John of Gaunt, by Katharine Swynford. Shakspeare is a little too early in giving him the title of Duke of Exeter; for when Harfleur was taken and he was appointed governour of the town, he was only Earl of Dorset. He was not made Duke of Exeter till the year after the battle of Agincourt, Nov. 14, 1416. MALONE.

Perhaps Shakspeare confounded this character

with

with that of John Holland, Duke of Exeter, who was married to Elizabeth the King's aunt. He was executed at Plashey in 1400: but with this circumstance our author might have been unaequinted. STEEVENS.

P. 9, first 1. Here began the old play. POPE. P. 9, 1.6. That task i. e. keep busied with scruples and laborious disquisitions. JOHNSON. P. 9, 1. 20. Or nicely charge your understanding soul &c.] Take heed lest by nice and subtle sophistry you burthen your knowing soul, or knowingly burthen your soul, with the guilt of advancing a false title, or of maintaining, by specious fallacies, a claim which, if shown in its native and true colours, would appear to be false. JOHNSON.

P. 9, 1. 21.

miscreate, i. e. ill-be

gotten, illegitimate, spurious. JOHNSON. P. 9, 1. 24. 25. Shall drop their blood in approbation &c.] i. e. in proving and supporting that title which shall be now set up. MALONE.

P.9, 1. 26. Therefore take heed how you impawn our person,] The whole drift of the King is to impress upon the Archbishop a due sense of the caution with which he is to speak. He tells him that the crime of unjust war, if the war be unjust, shall rest upon him:

Therefore take heed how you impawn your' person.

So, I think, it should be read, Take heed how you pledge yourself, your honour, your happiness in support of bad advice.

Dr. Warburton explains impawn by engage, and so escapes the difficulty. JOHNSON. VOL. x.

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The allusion here is to the game of chess, and the disposition of the pawns with respect to the King, at the commencement of this mimetic contest. HENLEY.

To engage and to pawn were in our author's time synonymous. See Minshew's DICTIONARY in v. engage. But the word pawn had not, I believe, at that time, its present signification. To impawn seems here to have the same meaning as the French phrase se commettre. MALONE. P. 10, 1. 14. - gloze, i. e. expound, explain, and sometimes comment upon. REED. P.11, 1. 11. To fine his title with some show of truth, This is the reading of the quarto of 1608; that of the folio is To find his title. I would read :

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To line his title with some shew of truth. To line may signify at once to decorate and to strengthen. So, in Macbeth:

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did line the rebel

"With hidden help and vantage;" Dr. Warburton says, that to fine his title, is to refine or improve it. The reader is to judge.

to

I now believe that find is right; the jury finds for the plaintiff, or finds for the defendant; find his title is, to determine in favour of his title with some show of truth. JOHNSON.

To fine his title, is to make it showy or specious by some appearance of justice. STEEVENS.

I believe that fine is the right reading, and that the metaphor is taken from the fining of liquors. In the next line, that speaker says:

"Though in pure truth it was corrupt and naught."

It is the jury that finds a verdict, not the plaint

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