ACT IV.

SC. 1. "Led on by bloody youth, guarded with rage And countenanc'd by boys and beggary."

There may be some doubt about 'bloody'; for 'rage' Sidney Walker and Collier's folio read _rags_, which seems confirmed by the following line.

* * * * *

"Turning your books to graves, your ink to blood."

For 'graves' Warburton and Hanmer read _glaives_, Steevens, _greaves_. Neither of these words occurs in Shakespeare, and I rather suspect that the poet's word was _braves_, _i.e._ bravadoes, boasts. "I will not bear these _braves_ of thine" (Tam. of Shr. iii. 1). "Now where's the Bastard's _braves_?" (1 Hen. VI. iii. 2).

* * * * *

"And are enforc'd from our most quiet there."

For 'there' Warburton read _sphere_; perhaps we might read _haven_. But, as in Lear (i. 1) we have "Thou losest _here_ a better _where_ to find," 'there' is probably the poet's word, both it, _here_ and _where_ being used as nouns signifying place.

* * * * *

"My brother-general the commonwealth ... To brother-born a household cruelty I make my quarrel in particular."

The second line is not in the folio, and there may be, as some critics think, a line lost; but my punctuation removes all difficulty. We have only to understand _makes his quarrel_; yet how strangely critics have puzzled over this not very difficult passage! We should perhaps read 'generals'; for Hastings and Bardolph seem to have equal authority with Mowbray. Lord Scroop had been put to death at Bristol, 1 Hen. IV. i. 3.

* * * * *

"And bless'd and grac'd, and did more than the king _affect_."

Thirlby conjectured _indeed_ for 'and did.' I rather think there was, as usual, an effacement at the end of the line.

* * * * *

"Every thing set off That might so much as think you enemies."

This is a strange use of 'think'; we should perhaps read _hint_, were it not that this verb does not occur in Shakespeare.

* * * * *

"And present execution of our wills To us and to our purposes confin'd."

For 'confin'd' Hanmer read _confirm'd_; Johnson, _consign'd_. I confess I do not clearly understand the passage.

* * * * *

"That were our royal faiths martyrs in love."

Hanmer and Johnson read _loyal_; but Malone makes a good defence of 'royal.'

* * * * *

"No, no, my lord. Note this, the king is weary of _Such_ dainty and such picking grievances."

I think it was thus the poet wrote, but that _such_ was effaced and then 'of' transposed on account of the metre.

* * * * *

Sc. 2. "You have taken up Under the counterfeited zeal of God, The subjects of his substitute, my father."

I would read _seal_, in which I am supported by Sidney Walker and Collier's folio. In iv. 1 we have

"That you should seal this lawless bloody book Of forged rebellion with a _seal_ divine."

* * * * *

Sc. 4. "As he, whose brow with homely biggin bound."

For 'whose,' I read without hesitation, _who_, _his_, probably written _who's_.

* * * * *

"Changes the mode; for what in me was purchas'd."

Collier's folio reads _purchase_, which is very plausible.

* * * * *

"And all thy friends whom thou must make thy friends."

This is nonsense, produced in the usual way (Introd. p. 64). Tyrwhitt proposed '_my_ friends,' _i.e._ those who are regarded as such. For the first 'my friends,' we may read _my_, _thy_, or _the foes_.

"True: those that were _your father's enemies_, Have steep'd their galls in honey and do serve you With hearts create of duty and of zeal." Hen. V. ii. 2.

* * * * *

"I cut them off."

Mason's reading _some_ seems to be certain.