"Stay _them_; the King hath thrown his warder down." * * * * * "To wake our Peace, which in our country's cradle," etc. From what follows, in which she is said to "fright fair Peace," we might suspect that for 'Peace' the poet had written _Strife_, or some such word. * * * * * "The sly slow hours shall not determinate." Pope read _fly_, and he has been generally followed. I have little doubt that the poet wrote _slide_ (_i. q._ glide) _slow_. "So sholdestow endure and latten _slyde_ The _tyme_ and fonde to be glad and light." Chauc. Tr. and Cress. In Albumazar we have, "How _slow_ the day _slides_ on!" The _d_ was not sounded in _slide-slow_. Introd. p. 52. * * * * * "It boots thee not to be compassionate." Theobald proposed 'become passionate'; Singer 'be so passionate.' No change seems to be needed, though the expression is singular. * * * * * "To plot, contrive, or complot any ill." It might be better to read _compass_ for 'complot,' as the preceding 'plot' may have been in the printer's mind; or _plan_ for 'plot.' * * * * * "Norfolk, so fare as to mine enemy...." There is here, I think, an aposiopesis, which removes all difficulty; _far_ is usually read for 'fare,' the reading of the 4tos and folio. * * * * * "_Wherefore_ think not the king did banish thee." * * * * * SC. 4. "We did observe _it_. Cousin Aumerle." * * * * * "Where lies he?--At Ely-house, _my lord_." By reading 'where' a dissyllable, and thus throwing a metric accent on 'he,' we have the expression of the proud unfeeling character of Richard in the early part of the play. Propriety--to say nothing of metre--demands _my lord_. ACT II. SC. 1. "The setting sun, and music at the close, As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last, Writ in remembrance more than things long past." So this place is pointed in the original and subsequent editions, making little or no sense. I punctuate--'As the last taste of sweets is sweetest--last'; in which I find I had been anticipated by Mason. The passage is one of the poet's obscurest. His meaning is that the concluding part of any impression on the senses is the most permanent in its effect on the mind; but how strangely expressed! * * * * * "As praises of his state. Then there are found Lascivious metres," etc. The two earliest 4tos read: "As praises, of whose taste the wise are _found_;" and by reading, as we should, _fond_, this also gives us very good sense. * * * * * "Against the envy of less happier lands."