Chapter XCVII: Act V: SCENE 1. Page 660

BUCK. _Holy_ king Henry----

This epithet is not applied without good reason. King Henry the Sixth, though never actually canonized, was regarded as a saint, and miracles were supposed to have been performed by him. In some of our church service-books before the Reformation, there are prayers which are said to have been of his composition, and one in particular that is addressed to him is entitled, "A prayer to _holy_ king Henry."

SCENE 3. Page 665.

K. RICH. Besides, the king's name is a tower of strength.

Borrowed from _Proverbs_, xviii. v. 10. "The _name_ of the Lord is _a strong tower_."

SCENE 3. Page 667.

CATE. ... It's supper time, my lord;
It's _nine_ o'clock.

"A supper at so late an hour as nine o'clock in the year 1485," says Mr. Steevens, "would have been a prodigy." It certainly would, and even at the time when this play was written, the period to which the criticism more justly belongs. In either instance there was a reason for preferring the text of the quarto copy, and yet the unnecessary alteration is retained.

SCENE 3. Page 688.

K. RICH. This and Saint George _to boot_.

Dr. Johnson is undoubtedly right against both his opponents, one of whom has adduced the phrase _St. George to borrow_, unintentionally in support of him. _To borrow_ is no more a verb than _to boot_; it means _as a pledge or security_, _borrow_ being the Saxon term for _a pledge_. The phrase is an invocation to the saint to act as a protector. _Saint George to thrive_ is evidently a misconceived paraphrase of the old mode of expression, by improperly changing the substantive to a verb. Holinshed, in the speech of Richard before the battle, introduces "_St. George to borrowe_."

SCENE 3. Page 690.

K. RICH. Long kept in Bretagne at our _mother's_ cost.

It has already been stated by Dr. Farmer that the mistake here of _mother_ for _brother_ must be placed to the account of the book which Shakspeare followed, viz. Holinshed's chronicle; but the doctor has omitted to notice that in the _first edition_ of Holinshed the word is rightly printed _brother_. It is no otherwise worth while to mention this fact, than that it points out the particular edition of the above historian which Shakspeare used. Nothing can be more judicious nor decisive than Mr. Malone's argument for retaining the historical errors of Shakspeare, and Mr. Ritson's desire of changing the text does not correspond with those principles of accuracy on which he laid so much stress.

SCENE 3. Page 691.

K. RICH. A _milksop_, &c.

This is from Holinshed, "To begyn with the earle of Richmonde capitayne of this rebellion, he is a _Welsh milksoppe_," &c.

FOOTNOTES:

[17] See the fine frontispiece by Coriolano to Vesalius's Anatomy.

KING HENRY VIII.