[315] [The proverb is: "There are more maids than Malkin." See Hazlitt's "Proverbs," p. 392.] [316] [Old copy, _Had_.] [317] This line will remind the reader of Shakespeare's "multitudinous seas incarnardine," in "Macbeth," act ii. sc. 1. [318] This answer unquestionably belongs to the king, and is not, as the 4to gives it, a part of what Leicester says. It opens with an allusion to the crest of Leicester, similar to that noticed in the "Downfall of Robert Earl of Huntington." [319] [Old copy, _by God's_.] [320] [Old copy, _armed men_.] [321] [Old copy, _shall_.] [322] [An allusion to the proverb.] [323] This and other passages refer probably to the old play of "King John," printed in 1591, [or to Shakespeare's own play which, though not printed till 1623, must have been familiar to the public, and more especially to dramatic authors.] [324] In this line; in the old copy, _Salisbury_ is made to call himself _Oxford_. [325] The 4to reads _Enter or above Hugh, Winchester. Enter or above_ means, that they may either enter on the stage, or stand above on the battlements, as may suit the theatre. With regard to the names _Hugh_ and _Winchester_, they are both wrong; they ought to be _Hubert_ and _Chester_, who have been left by the king to _keep good watch_. When, too, afterwards Chester asks-- "What, Richmond, will you prove a runaway?"-- the answer in the old copy is-- "From thee, good _Winchester_? now, the Lord defend!" It ought to be-- "From thee, good _Chester_? now the Lord defend!" And it is clear that the measure requires it. The names throughout are very incorrectly given, and probably the printer composed from a copy in which some alterations had been made in the _dramatis personae_, but incompletely. Hence the perpetual confusion of _Salisbury_ and _Oxford_. [326] The scene changes from the outside to the inside of the castle. [327] [Without muscle, though muscle and bristle are strictly distinct.] [328] To _tire_ is a term in falconry: from the Fr. _tirer_, in reference to birds of prey tearing what they take to pieces. [329] The 4to prints _Ilinnus_. [330] [Old copy, _a deed_.] [331] The 4to has it _Elinor_, but it ought to be _Isabel_. The previous entrance of the Queen and Matilda is not marked. [332] [_Fairness_, in which sense the word has already occurred in this piece.] [333] [i.e., Champion.] [334] Matilda's name is omitted in the old copy, but the errors of this kind are too numerous to be always pointed out. [335] [Old copy, _Triumvirates_.] [336] Nothing can more clearly show the desperate confusion of names in this play than this line, which in the 4to stands-- "It's Lord _Hugh Burgh_ alone: _Hughberr_, what newes?" In many places Hubert is only called _Hugh_. [337] Company or collection.