Chapter LXXVI: Act I

SC. 1. "_May_ many years of happy days befall."

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"And free from other misbegotten hate."

We might read _any_, perhaps, for 'other'; Collier's folio has _wrath or_.

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"Upon remainder of a dear account."

Collier's folio reads _clear_; and _d_ and _cl_ might be confounded.

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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 Hen_e_ry the Sixth." In Hen. VIII. v. 4, the herald speaks in the same manner.

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"Stay _them_; the King hath thrown his warder down."

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"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.

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"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.

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"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.

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"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.'

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"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.

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"_Wherefore_ think not the king did banish thee."

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SC. 4. "We did observe _it_. Cousin Aumerle."

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"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_.