King Richard II
Act I Sc. 1
“May many years of happy days befall.”
“And free from other misbegotten hate.”
We might read any, perhaps, for ‘other’; Collier’s folio has wrath or.
“Upon remainder of a dear account.”
Collier’s folio reads clear; and d and cl might be confounded.
Sc. 3
“Marshal, ask yonder knight in arms.”
This is the merest prose. Ritson for ask repeats ‘demand of’; but it seems to me that the simplest way is to read ‘ask of,’ making ‘Marshal’ a trisyllable, as the King of course speaks in a solemn, majestic tone. In 1 Hen. VI. iv. 7, an envoy says: “Great märshal to Henery the Sixth.” In Hen. VIII. v. 4, the herald speaks in the same manner.
“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.