Chapter LXXI: Act III: SCENE 2. Page 272

K. RICH. That when the searching eye of heaven is hid
Behind the globe, _and_ lights _the lower world_.

The slight but necessary emendation of _and_ for _that_ ascribed to Johnson, had already been made by Hanmer. _Lower world_ simply means _lower hemisphere_.

SCENE 2. Page 279.

K. RICH. Our lands, our lives, and all are Bolingbroke's,
And nothing can we call our own, but death.

This resembles Wolsey's speech;

"To the last penny 'tis the king's; my robe
And my integrity to heav'n, is all
I dare now call my own."

SCENE 2. Page 279.

K. RICH. And that small _model_ of the barren earth.

_Model_ or _module_, for they were the same in Shakspeare's time, seems to mean in this place, a _measure_, _portion_, or _quantity_.

SCENE 2. Page 280.

K. RICH. ... For within the hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of a king
Keeps death his court; and there the antick sits,
Scoffing his state, and _grinning_ at his pomp.

Some part of this fine description might have been suggested from the seventh print in the _Imagines mortis_, a celebrated series of wooden cuts which have been improperly attributed to Holbein. It is probable that Shakspeare might have seen some spurious edition of this work; for the great scarcity of the original in this country in former times is apparent, when Hollar could not procure the use of it for his _copy_ of the dance of death. This note, which more properly belongs to the present place, had been inadvertently inserted in the first part of _Henry the Sixth_. See Act IV. Scene 7, in Mr. Steevens's edition.

SCENE 3. Page 283.

NORTH. Your grace mistakes me; only to be brief
Left I his _title_ out.

YORK. The time hath been,
Would you have been so brief with him, he would
Have been so brief with you, to shorten you,
For _taking so the head_, your whole head's length.

"_To take the head_," says Dr. Johnson, "is to act without restraint; to take undue liberties." It is presumed it rather means to take away or omit the sovereign's _chief_ and usual _title_; a construction which considerably augments the play on words that is here intended.

KING HENRY IV.

PART I.