that they have, for it is a poore countrey. And when the Englishmen maketh any rood or voyage into the countrey, if they thynke to lyve, they must cause their provysion and vitayle to follow them at their backe, for they shall find nothing in that countrey." Such a people, who made but one meal a day, envying the "English likerous delicats," would be ready enough to brand their ancient enemies with the name of epicures."-STEEVENS.

"Henceforth be earls, the first that ever Scotland In such an honour named."-Act V. Sc. 7. "Malcolm, immediately after his coronation, cal. ed a parlement at Forfair, in the which he re warded them with lands and livings that had assisted him against Macbeth. Manie of them that were before thanes, were at this time made earles, as Fife, Menteith, Atholl, Levenox, Murrey, Cathness, Rosse, and Angus."-HOLINSHED'S HIST. OF SCOT.

KING JOHN.

"With that half-face."-Act I. Sc. 1. The poet sneers at the meagre sharp visage of the elder brother, by comparing him to a silver groat that bore the king's face in profile, so shewed but half the face; the groats of all our English kings, and indeed all their other silver coins, with one or two exceptions, had a full face crowned; till Henry VII. coined groats and half groats, as also some shillings with half faces, as all our coin has now. The first groats of Henry VIII. were like his father's, though he afterwards returned to the broad faces again. These groats, with the impression in profile, are here alluded to; though the author is guilty of an anachronism; for in John's time there were no groats at all, they being first coined in the reign of Edward III.-THEOBALD.

My face so thin,

That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose,
Lest men should say,
look where three farthings goes."
Act I. Sc. 1.

'Richard, that robb'd the lion of his heart."
Act II. Sc. 1,

So Rastal in his Chronicle:-"It is sayd that a lyon was put to Kynge Richard, beynge in prison, to have devoured him, and when the lyon was gapynge he put his arme into his mouth, and pulled the lyon by the harte so hard that he slew the lyon, and therefore some say he is called Richard Cure de Lyon; but some say he is called Cure de Lyon, beIn Elizabeth's time there were three farthing sil-cause of his boldness and hardy stomake."-GREY. ver pieces; they were impressed with her head, with a full blown rose behind it; these pieces were of course extremely thin. In this age, fashionables of both sexes, wore flowers, especially roses, behind their ears. Combine these circumstances, and the allusion is obvious.-THEOBALD.

"By this brave duke came early to his grave."

Act II. Sc. 1.

Richard was not killed by the duke of Austria; he lost his life at the siege of Chaluz, long after he had been ransomed out of the hands of this petty potentate. The producing Austria on the scene is also contrary to the truth of history. Leopold, duke of Austria, by whom Richard I. had been thrown into prison in 1193, died in consequence of a fall from his horse, in 1195, some years before the commencement of the present play. The original cause of quarrel between Austria and Richard is variously related. Harding in his Chronicle says, that the source of enmity was Richard's taking he had set up above those of the king of France and down the duke of Austria's arms and banner, which the king of Jerusalem. The affront was given when they lay before Acre in Palestine.-MALONE.

"Now your traveller."-Act I. Sc. 1. Travelling, in Elizabeth's time, was the fashionable resource of those who had no fixed occupation; as to have seen foreign countries enabled a man to assume airs of superiority over his untravelled companions. "A traveller was a good thing after dinner;" a constant occasion of wonder and amusement. Yet travellers fell into strange imperti-"That thou may'st be a queen, and check the world.” neuces. Sir Thomas Overbury, speaking of one, Act II. Sc. 1. says:-"He censures all things by countenances and shrugs, and speaks his own language with shame sore against her nephew Arthur, rather moved 'Surely Queen Eleanor, the kyng's mother, was and lisping: he will choke rather than confess beere thereto by envye conceyved against his mother, than good drinke, and his tooth-pick is a main part of his upon any just occasion, given in the behalfe of the behaviour." Travellers brought home many ridicu-childe; for that she saw, if he were kynge, how his lous fashions. Gascoigne in his Poems, 1572, describes some of these:

Now, sir, if I shall see your mastership
Come home disguis'd, and clad in quaint array:
As with a pike-tooth byting on your lippe;
Your brave mustachios turn'd the Turkie way;

mother Constance would looke to beare the most rule within the realme of Englande, till her sonne should come to a lawful age to governe himselfe. So hard a thing it is to bringe women to agree in ene minde, their natures commonly being so contrary."

HOLINSHED.

"The Lady Blanch."-Act II. Sc. 2.

The Lady Blanch was daughter to Alphonso IX. king of Castile, and was niece to King John, by

his sister Eleanor.-STEEVENS

"A widow."-Act III. Sc. 1.

This was not the fact. Constance was, at this time, married to a third husband, Guido, brother to the viscount of Touars. She had been divorced from her second husband, Ranulph, earl of Chester.

panie, which he doth to this end, that the guests might mutter how this his deep melancholy argueth great learning in him, and an intendment to most weighty affaires and heavenly speculations." Again in Lyly's Midas, 1592:-"Melancholy? is melancholy a word for a barber's mouth? Thou should'st of courtiers, and now every base companion says, say, heavy, dull, and doltish: melancholy is the crest he is melancholy." And in the Life and Death of the Lord Cromwell, 1613:

MALONE. My nobility is wonderful melancholy.

Is it not most gentleman-like to be melancholy ?"
STERVENS.

"Some airy devil hovers in the sky."-Act III. Sc. 2. "The spirits of the aire will mixe themselves with "And here's a prophet."-Act IV. Sc. 2. thunder and lightning, and so infect the clyme This man was a hermit in great repute with the where they raise any tempest, that sodainely great common people. Notwithstanding the event is said mortalitie shall ensue to the inhabitants. The spi-to have fallen out as he prophesied, the poor fellow rits of fire have their mansions under the regions of the moone."-PIERCE PENNILESSE, HIS SUP

PLICATION.

|

was inhumanly dragged at horses' tails through the streets of Warham, and together with his son, who appears to have been even more innocent than his father, hanged afterwards upon a gibbet.-Douck.

"The wall is high, and yet I will leap down."

"Bell, book, and candle, shall not drive me back." Act III. Sc. 3. In Archbishop Winchelsea's Sentences of ExAct IV. Sc. 3. communication, anno 1298, it is directed, that the In what manner Arthur was deprived of life is sentence against the infringers of certain articles uncertain; it seems that John conducted the assas should be throughout explained in order in Eng-sination with impenetrable secrecy. The French lish, with bells tolling and candles lighted, that it may writers, however, say, that John coming in a boat, cause the greater dread; for laymen have greater during the night time, to the castle of Rouen, where regard to this solemnity, than to the effect of such the young prince was confined, ordered him to be sentences."-REED. brought forth, and having stabbed him, while supplicating for mercy, the king fastened a stone to the dead body, and threw it into the Seine, in order to give some colour, which he afterwards caused to be spread, that the prince, attempting to escape out of a window of the tower of the castle, fell into the river, and was drowned.-MALONE.

"Young gentlemen would be as sad as night,

Only for wantonness."-Act IV. Sc. 1. It was once fashionable to affect melancholy in company. Ben Jonson ridicules this folly in Every Man in his Humour; again, in Questions concernyng Conie-hood, and the Nature of the Conie: That conie-hood which proceeds of melancholy, is, when in feastings appointed for merriment, this kind of conic-man sits like Mopsus or Corydon, blockish, never laughing, never speaking, but so bearishlie as if he would devour all the com

"At Worcester must hus body be interr'd."

Act V. Sc. 7. A stone coffin, containing the body of King John, was discovered in the cathedral church of Worcester, July 17, 1797.-STEEVENS.

KING RICHARD II.

"Old John of Gaunt, time-honour'd Lancaster.” Act I. Sc. 1. John of Gaunt, who is here supposed to be extremely old, was at this time only fifty-eight years of age. But it was usual with our old authors to attribute senility to persons whom we should only think in their middle age. King Henry is represented by Daniel as extremely old, when he had a child by the Lady Rosamond. This monarch, at his death, was only fifty-six. The earl of Leicester is called an old man, by Spenser, when he was not fifty; and the French admiral, Coligny, is represented by his biographer as a very old man, though at the time of his death he was but fifty-three. This might arise, in some measure, from its being usual to enter life much earlier than we do at present; those who were married at fifteen, had been, at fifty, masters of a house and family for thirty-five years.-MALONE.

"The duke of Gloster's death."—Act 1. Sc. 1. Thomas of Woodstock, the youngest son of Edward III. who was murdered at Calais, in 1397. MALONE.

"Since last I went to France to fetch his queen." Act I. Sc. 1.

Isabel, the daughter of Charles VI. was, at the time of her marriage with Richard II. not more than eight years old. Consequently, the part she is made to take in this play, is a palpable deviation from historical truth, as she was still a mere child at her husband's death.-MALONE.

"Lions make leopards tame."-Act I. Sc. 1. The Norfolk crest was a golden leopard.-MALONE.

"Duchess of Gloster."-Act I. Sc. 2. The duchess of Gloster, was Eleanor Bohun, widow of Duke Thomas, son of Edw. III.—WALPOLE

"Aumerle."-Act I. Sc. 3.

Edward, duke of Aumerle, so created by his cousin-german, Richard II. in 1397. He was the eldest son of Edward of Langley, duke of York, fifth son of King Edward III.; and was killed in 1415, at the battle of Agincourt. He officiated at the lists of Coventry, as high-constable of England. MALONE.

"Mowbray's waren coat."-Act I. Sc. 3.

The brigandines, or coats of mail, then in use, were composed of small pieces of steel quilted over one another, and yet so flexible as to accommodate the dress they form to every motion of the body; of these many are still to be seen in the Tower of London.-STEEVENS.

"Warder."-Act I. Sc. 3.

"Like perspectives, which, rightly gaz'd upon,
Shew nothing but confusion; ey'd awry,
Distinguish form.”
Act II. Sc. 2.

Amongst mathematical recreations, there is one in optics, in which & figure is drawn, wherein all the rules of perspective are inverted, so that if held in the same position with those pictures which are

A warder appears to have been a kind of trun-drawn according to the rules of perspective, it can cheon, carried by the person who presided at these single combats.-STEEVENS.

"The duke of York."-Act II. Sc. 1. Edmond, duke of York, was the fifth son of Edward III., and was born in 1441, at Langley, near St. Alban's, in Hertford, from whence he had his surname. This prince, as Bishop Lowth has observed, was of an indolent disposition, a lover of pleasure, and averse to business; easily prevailed upon to lie still, and consult his own quiet; and never acting with spirit upon any occasion."

Is now leas'd out (I die pronouncing it,)
Like to a tenement or pelting form."
Act II. Sc. 1.
In this twenty-second year of King Richard,
the common fame ranne that the king had letten to
farme the realme unto Sir William Scroope, earle
of Wiltshire, and then treasurer of England, to Sir
John Bushey, Sir John Bagot, and Sir Henry
Grene, knightes."-FABIAN.

"Nor the prevention of poor Bolingbroke,
About his marriage."
Act II. Sc. 1.

present nothing but confusion: and to be seen in form and under a regular appearance, it must be looked upon from a contrary station; or, as Shak. speare says, "eyed awry."-WARBURTON.

"The bay trees in our country all are wither'd."

Act II. Sc. 4.

"In this yeare, in a manner throughout all the realme of England, old baie-trees withered."

HOLINSHED.

"From my own windows torn my household coat." Act III. Sc. 1.

It was the practice, when coloured glass was in use, of which there are still some remains in old seats and churches, to anneal the arms of the family in the windows of the house.-JOHNSON.

When the duke of Hereford, after his banish- The rebuilding of Westminster-hall, which Riment, went into France, he was honourably enter-chard had begun in 1397, being finished in 1399, tained at that court, and would have obtained in the first meeting of parliament in the new edifice marriage the only child of the duke of Berry, uncle was for the purpose of deposing him.-MALONE. to the French king, had not Richard prevented the match.-STEEVENS.

His livery."

to sue

Act II. Sc. 1. On the death of every person who held by knights' service, the escheator of the court in which he died, summoned a jury, who enquired what estate he died seized of, and of what age his next heir was. If he was under age, he became a ward of the king's; but if he was found to be of full age, he then had a right to sue out a writ of ouster-le-main, that is, his livery, that the king's hand might be taken off, and the land delivered to him.-MALONE.

"In God's name, I'll ascend the regal throne." Act IV. Sc. 1

The words actually spoken by Henry, on this occasion, were as follows, standing upright, that every one might see him, after he had crossed himself on the forehead and breast, and called on the name of Christ, he said:" In the name of Fadher, Son, and Holy Ghost, I, Henry of Lancaster, challenge the rewme of Ynglande, and the croun, with all the membres and the appurtenances, and als I, that am descendit by right line of the blode, coming from the goode King Henry Therde, and throge that right that God of his grace hath sent me, with help of kyn, and of my frendes to recover it, the which rewme was in poynt to be undone, by defaut of goAct II. Sc. 1.vernaunce, and ondoyng of the gude lawes."

"As blanks, benevolences, and I wot not what."

Stowe records, that Richard II. "compelled all! the religious, gentlemen, and commons, to set their scales to blankes, to the end he might, if it pleased him, oppress them severally, or all at once: some

MALONE.

"Did keep ten thousand men.”—Act IV. Sc. 1. Richard II. was very magnificent in his household.

That to his household shew, that three or four characters were frequently represented by one person.-STEEVENS.

King Richard's body was publicly exposed in St. Paul's, and as no marks of violence appeared, he could not have been assassinated, as represented in the drama; though a similar account is given in Hall's Chronicle, and Sir Pierce Exton's Narrative was to the same effect. Stow's account seems the most probable, and is confirmed by many other authors. He says, "He was emprisoned in Pomfract castle, where fifteen days and nightes they vexed him with continual hunger, thirst, and cold, and fiThis alludes to the necessities of our early thea-nally bereft him of his life with such a kind of death tres. The title-pages of some of our Moralities as never before that time was knowen in England.”

KING HENRY IV. (PART I.)

Mountain Malaga, were drank indifferently under that appellation.-The fat knight mixed sugar with his sack, but this will not be thought extraordinary, since we know that in our poet's time it was a common practice to put sugar in all wines. "Clownes and vulgar men (says Fynes Moryson) only use large drinking of beere or ale, but gentlemen garBy the law of arms, every man who had taken rawse only in wine, with which they mix sugar, which any captive, whose ransom did not exceed ten thou-I never observed in any other place or kingdom to sand crowns, had him clearlyr himself, either to redeem or retain at his pleasure.-TOLLET.

"All-hallown summer.”—Act I. Sc. 2. All-hallows is All-hallown-tide, or All-saints-day, which is the first of November. All-hallown summer is that short period of fine, bright weather, which frequently occurs about the commencement of November.

"A pouncet box."-Act I. Sc. 3.

A small box for musk or other perfumes then in fashion; the lid of which, being cut with open work, gave it its name, from poinsoner, to prick, pierce, or engrave.-WARBURTON.

"Heir to the crown."-Act I. Sc. 3.

Caddis was a kind of coarse ferrett. In Shakspeare's time, the garters were worn in sight, and were often very costly. He who wore a plainer sort was probably called "caddis garter" in contempt. "At this day (about 1625), says the continuator of Roger Mortimer, earl of March, who was born in Stow's Chronicle, men of meane ranke weare garters 1371, was declared heir-apparent to the crown in and shoe roses of more than five pound price." In a the ninth year of King Richard II. He was killed memorandum book kept by Henslowe, step-father to in Ireland, 1398. The person, who was proclaimed the wife of Alleyn the player, is the following item: by Richard heir-apparent, previous to his last voyage" Lent unto Thomas Hewode (the dramatic to Ireland, was Edmund Mortimer (the son of Ro-writer), the 1 of September, 1602, to bye him a ger), who was then but seven years old; but he was payre of silver garters, ij s. vid." not Percy's wife's brother, but her nephew.

MALONE.

"Sword-and-buckler.”—Act I. Sc. 3.

MALONE and STEEVENS.

"The strappado."—Act II. Sc. 4.

ARMES AND BLAZON.

"I could have crept into any alderman's thumb ring." Act II. Sc. 4.

The following extract from Stowe is worth notice: "The strappado is when the person is drawn up -"This field, commonly called West Smithfield, to his height, and then suddenly to let him fall half was for many years called Ruffian's-hall, by reason way with a jerk, which not only breaketh his arms it was the usual place of frayes and common fight-to pieces, but also shaketh all his joints out of joint, ing, during the time that swords and bucklers were than to undergo."-RANDLE HOLME'S ACADEMY OF which punishment is better for a man to be hanged in use. When every serving-man, from the base to the best, carried a buckler at his back, which hung by the hilt or pomel of his sword."-HENLY. "We have the receipt of fern seed, we walk invisible." Act II. Sc. 1. An alderman's thumb ring is mentioned by Fern is one of those plants which have their seed Brome, in The Antipodes, 1641. "Item, a distich on the back of the leaf, so small as to escape the graven in his thumb ring." Again in The Northern sight. Those who perceived that fern was propa- Lass, 1632:-"A good man in the city, &c. wears gated by semination, and yet could never see the nothing rich about him, but the gout or a thumb seed, were much at a loss for a solution of the diffi-ring;" and in The Wit's Constable, 1640, "No culty; and as wonder always endeavours to augment itself, they ascribed to fern ssed many strange properties, some of which the rustic virgins have not yet forgotten or exploded.-JOHNSON.

"Out of all cess."-Act II. Sc. 1. That is, out of all measure; the phrase being taken from a cess or tax; which being by regular and moderate rates, when any thing was exorbitant it was said to be out of all cess.-WARBURTON.

"Gadshill."-Act II. Sc. 2.

Gadshill, the scene of the robbery in this play, is

on the Kentish road. Steevens informs us, that as

early as 1558, a ballad, entitled, The Robbery at Gadshill, was entered on the books of the stationers' company. The poet, however, on whom the more noted facts of his time were never lost, probably alluded to the conduct of a particular gang, who appear, in 1590, to have infested Gadshill and its neighbourhood with more than common boldness, and who, like our author's robbers, were mounted

and wore vizors.-BOSWELL.

"Look down into the Pomegranate."-Act II. Sc. 4. To have windows or loop-holes looking into the rooms beneath them was, anciently, a general custom.-STEEVENS.

more wit than the rest of the bench; what lies in his thumb ring.”—Steevens.

"A Welsh hook."-Act II. Sc. 4. The Welsh hook was pointed like a spear, to push or thrust with; and, below, had a hook to seize the enemy, if he should attempt to escape by flight.

WHALLEY.

"Hide thee behind the arras."-Act II. Sc. 4.

When arras was first used in England, it was suspended on hooks driven into the bare walls; this practice was soon changed; for after the damp of the wall had been found to rot the tapestry, it was fixed on wooden frames, at such a distance from the wall, as to prevent its being injured. In old mansions, therefore, sufficient space could have been easily found, to conceal even one of Falstaff's bulk.

MALONE.