Chapter XCIV: Act I: SCENE 1. Page 461

GLO. _He capers_ nimbly in a lady's chamber
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

The question with Dr. Johnson is, whether it be _war_ that capers, or _York_; and he justly remarks that if the latter, the antecedent is at an almost forgotten distance. The amorous temper of Edward the Fourth is well known; and there cannot be a doubt that by _the lascivious pleasing of a lute_, he is directly alluded to. The subsequent description likewise that Richard gives of himself is in comparison with the _king_. Dr. Johnson thought the image of _war capering_ poetical; yet it is not easy to conceive how _grimvisag'd war_ could _caper in a lady's chamber_.

SCENE 1. Page 462.

GLO. Cheated of feature by _dissembling_ nature.

The poet by this expression seems to mean no more than that nature had made for Richard features _unlike_ those of other men. To dissemble, both here and in the passage quoted from _King John_, signifies the reverse of to _resemble_, in its active sense, and is not used as _dissimulare_ in Latin.