93 commotion’s bitter edge the injurious (OED bitter adj. 5a) sword of rebellion. For a similar use of edge as a metonymy for sword, see 1.1.170; for commotion as rebellion, see 36 and 2.4.368.

  93] Qa; not in QbF bitter edge] Qa; Civil Page Theobald; Civil Edge Warburton; title-page Herford; evil page (Vaughan)

  94–6 This passage seems to be built on a double antithesis: general vs. particular and brother general vs. brother born (Cam2). The Archbishop quarrels over wrongs done both to the commonwealth (personified as his brother general, his fellow subjects) and to William Scroop (le Scrope), Earl of Wiltshire, whom Shakespeare, following Holinshed (3.522), erroneously believed to be brother to the Archbishop (1H4 1.3.265–6; he was in fact the Archbishop’s cousin) and who was beheaded by Bolingbroke (R2 3.2.141). On the other hand, brother general may be a calculatedly unctuous form of address to Westmorland; and if so, 95 may stand in apposition to commonwealth, which is not separated from it by any punctuation in uncorrected Q. The passage thus might mean that the Archbishop makes the subject of his particular quarrel the commonwealth itself, which has degenerated into civil unrest that cruelly pits brothers from the same household against one another. DSK suggests that for clarity, a simple ‘is’ added after born might allow 94–5 to be read together as a sentence meaning ‘the commonwealth is become a cruelty to my brother’ and 96 to stand as a separate assertion that the Archbishop is therefore making his quarrel particular – that is, personal.

  95 an household Bulloch suggests ‘unhouseled’, meaning not allowed to receive the last sacrament, which would have added insult to injury in the case of the Archbishop’s brother. Cf. Ham 1.5.76–7: ‘Cut off even in the blossoms of my sin, / Unhouseled, disappointed, unaneled’. Bulloch’s emendation wins support in West, ‘Scroop’s quarrel’.

  96 quarrel ground for complaint

  97 such redress The referent is unclear, because the Archbishop has not detailed what particular grievances he wants to be redressed.

  98 it … you Westmorland counters not only that the Archbishop’s grievances are unfounded (97), but that the King himself may have suffered wrongs at the hands of the Archbishop which need to be redressed. Holinshed faults the Archbishop for ‘the reforming whereof did not yet apperteine vnto him’ (3.529) and in so doing echoes Tudor policy, which censured rebellious clerics: ‘it is evident that men of the Cleargie … ought both themselues specially, and before other, to be obedient vnto their princes, and also to exhort al others vnto the same’ (Certain Sermons, 598).

  99 Why … him ‘Why shouldn’t the Archbishop be entitled to redress?’

  94] QF; My brother general, [shewing Mowbray.] the common-wealth; Capell; My quarrel general, the commonwealth, (conj. Johnson) 95] Qa; not in QbF an household] Qa; unhouseled (Bulloch)

  100 days before Cf. ‘days but newly gone’ (80).

  101 condition … times Cf. 3.1.78 and 5.2.11.

  102 unequal unjust

  103–39 *O … King These lines were cut from Q probably owing to political censorship, or fear of it. Not only do they recall events leading to the deposition of Richard II, about which Elizabeth was acutely sensitive; they also anticipate, in Mowbray’s situation (107–14), the plight of the son of the most recent Duke of Norfolk, to whom Elizabeth restored the lands but not the title of his father, whom she had executed in 1572 for plotting treason against her. Without these lines, which digress from the immediate purpose, Westmorland’s reply to Mowbray at 140 makes no sense.

  104 i.e. understand the current situation in terms of what present circumstances demand. Cf. 3.1.92–4.

  107 for your part a direct reply to Mowbray’s allegation beginning at 99

  111 signories estates. In R2 Bolingbroke repeals the banishment of his rival Thomas Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, and restores to him ‘all his lands and signories’ (4.1.90) just prior to hearing of his death (92–101). Carlisle reports that before his death, the banished Mowbray fought ‘Many a time … / For Jesu Christ in glorious Christian field’ (93–4) on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land that, ironically, his opponent King Henry is prevented from making in this play. Though inheriting his father’s estates, Mowbray is not given the dukedom nor made Lord Marshal other than in name: see 1.3.4n.

  113 in honour a defence of his family’s reputation injured when Richard II banished Thomas Mowbray, the Duke of Norfolk: cf. R2 1.3.148–77.

  102–3 To … honours?] Q; one line F 103–39 WESTMORLAND O … King.] F; not in Q

  114 breathed reinvigorated. Mowbray’s point is that his father, though banished, had never lost his titles and signories; thus they were not Bolingbroke’s to restore.

  115–29 Mowbray vividly recalls the scene at Coventry in R2 (1.3) – imagining details beyond the scope of the Elizabethan playhouse – and thus provides both a continuity of historical narrative, doubtless for the sake of audiences who had seen the earlier play, and a justification for the present rebellion.

  115 state political situation

  116 *force perforce willy-nilly. Theobald’s emendation of F, an adverbial phrase which appears at 4.3.46, makes sense, since F’s ‘forc’d’ and ‘compell’d’ form an awkward tautology.

  117–26 Mowbray begins a string of participial phrases (Being mounted) and absolute constructions (coursers daring) which ultimately does not result in a sentence: the clause beginning ‘Henry Bolingbroke and he’ is never completed. The then at 117 is repeated twice at 123, followed by a when clause that breaks off after two lines to be replaced by a new, more coherent attempt at a sentence, this time about King Richard, at 125. The rushed syntax is probably intended to convey the intensity of Mowbray’s feeling in describing a scene that resulted in his father’s banishment and eventual death in exile. In 117, that serves either as a demonstrative intensifier for Henry or, less likely, as the false start of a relative clause.

  118 roused raised, with overtones of excitement; rousèd

  119 daring … spur eager for the charge: the horses are awaiting the spur (metonymic for rider) to prick them into action.

  120 armed … charge lances poised in readiness; armèd

  beavers visors or faceguards of their helmets

  121 sights visors (OED sb. 13b obs.); here, slits in the beavers

  123 stayed kept

  125 warder mace, staff of command. Cf. R2 1.3.118, which this line echoes. Richard’s calling a halt to the confrontation, from Mowbray’s point of view, kept Bolingbroke alive, who otherwise would have died in the tilt.

  116 force … compelled] Theobald; forc’d, … compell’d F

  127 threw … down metaphorically, sacrificed

  all their lives the lives of all those. See Abbott, 218.

  128 by indictment … sword through legal (in Mowbray’s view, illegal) prosecution, or by force of arms. For an illustration of Bolingbroke’s abuse of power, see his indictment of Bushy and Green in R2 3.1.2–30.

  129 miscarried perished

  131 Earl of Hereford In R2, Bolingbroke’s title was Duke (not Earl) of Hereford before he assumed the title of his father John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster. For the sake of metrics, Hereford is a dissyllable, and is so spelled in F at 138 (‘Herford’).

  135 ne’er … it would never have been able to maintain that victory (owing to public censure: cf. 136–7). Coventry was the place where Bolingbroke and Mowbray’s father met for the trial by combat which Richard aborted: see 115–29n.

  136 country … voice a personification of public sentiment; country is understood as a collective noun, signifying the people.

  138 Hereford disyllabic: see 131n.

  138–9 doted … King For evidence of Bolingbroke’s popularity and his courtship of the common people, see R2 1.4.23–36.

  140 *digression … purpose See 103–39n. This line makes no sense without the previous speeches’ recapitulation of events that led to the present rebellion.

  141 princely general i.e. Prince John

  142 know your griefs listen to your grievances

  139 indeed] Theobald (Thirlby); and did F 140 But] F; West. But Q

  143 wherein in so far as

  145 You … them i.e. they will be granted (enjoy = be satisfied)

  everything set off an ambiguous phrase which probably means that anything proving an obstacle to amity will be excepted or removed (OED set v.1 147a)

  146 think you hint that you are

  147 forced … compel an apparent tautology, though compel probably here means ‘accept under duress’

  148 policy expedience, but with connotations of cunning or dissimulation. Here, as at 183–4, Mowbray is prescient.

  149 overween are presumptuous or arrogant (OED v. 1)

  151 ken normal range of vision (OED sb. 2)

  154 battle army. Cf. 179 and 3.2.155.

  more … names probably (1) replete with more men of rank (cf. H5 4.8.106), but possibly (2) of greater size

  156 all every bit

  157 reason will it stands to reason

  hearts courage, spirit (OED sb. 11a)

  159 by my will i.e. if it’s up to me

  admit no parley refuse any conference

  161 Westmorland puns on case to mean the rebels’ cause or claim: he suggests that their refusal to discuss it attests to its weakness. Cf. the proverb ‘It is a bad sack (case) that will abide no clouting’ (Dent, S6), where ‘case’ refers to a box or container and ‘clouting’ means mending or patching.

  159 parley] Q (parlee), F

  rotten weak or unsound (OED adj. 8a)

  162 commission probably pronounced as four syllables

  163 In … virtue with the full authority

  164 absolutely with binding force

  164–5 determine / Of make a decision about

  165 stand insist

  166 intended … name signified (OED v. 20) by the title of general

  167 ‘I am surprised [OED muse v. 3a] you entertain so frivolous a doubt [OED question sb. 1a]’; question is pronounced as three syllables.

  168 schedule document, list. The term may come from Stow’s account in Annales, 529; Holinshed uses ‘scroll’.

  169 general common, shared

  170 an absolute construction: ‘Once every article has been redressed’: several = individual

  171–3 another absolute construction: ‘Once all members … have been acquitted … .’ The Archbishop’s syntax is formal in its parallelism.

  171 here and hence now and in the future

  172 ensinewed to joined as by strong sinews to; alternatively, bound to one another in

  172, 192 action pronounced as three syllables

  173–4 i.e. pardoned (Acquitted) by both a legally binding agreement (OED form sb. 13) and the immediate implementation (execution) of our demands (wills)

  175 *The placement of this line has caused the whole passage to be misread or declared unintelligible. It belongs not with the lines above – for the ‘execution of [their] wills’ to be ‘confined’ would make little sense – but with those that follow. If read in conjunction with 176, it signals the rebels’ willingness to return to orderly conduct, within prescribed bounds and restricted (confined) again to their own affairs (purposes), once the conditions outlined in the two absolute phrases above have been met (see 170n., 171–3n). Had this line followed rather than preceded 176, it would have caused less confusion (Ard2).

  168 SD] this edn 172 ensinewed] Q, F (insinewed) 175 our] Q; to our F purposes confined] QF; purposes, confin’d Theobald2; properties confirm’d Hanmer; properties, confin’d Warburton; purposes, confirm’d Capell; purposes, consign’d Malone; purposes consigned Oxf

  and our F’s additional ‘to’ helps to ensure a pentameter line, but there is no compelling reason to alter Q’s metrical variation.

  176 come … banks The image of a river that has flooded its banks becoming once again confined within them harks back to imagery at 70–2. See a similar metaphor in the section of Sir Thomas More thought to be in Shakespeare’s hand: ‘Whiles they [the rebels] are o’er the bank of their obedience / Thus will they bear down all things’ (6.47–8).

  *awful Recent editors have tended to adopt Q’s spelling ‘awefull’ in order to capture the word’s original sense of reverence or due respect, which in this case would be owed to the King. The word is used similarly at 5.2.85. In performance, however, it would prove nearly impossible to aurally distinguish the old form from the new.

  177 knit … arm The metaphor is inchoate. The idea of knitting (fastening) something to an arm suggests clothing, but in the context of powers, arm carries a military connotation.

  178 Please you a deferential phrase: ‘If it pleases you’

  179 battles See 154n.

  180 *And Theobald’s emendation makes end in peace a verb phrase parallel to call the swords (181). QF’s ‘At’, on the other hand, requires end to be a noun and is difficult to explain: meeting ‘at either end’ makes little sense here.

  frame bring to pass (OED v. 8d)

  181 place of diff’rence i.e. battlefield; diff’rence = contention

  swords metonymy for soldiers

  176 awful] Q (awefull), F (awfull) 178 SD] Oxf subst. general. Please] F; Generall, please Q 180 And] Theobald (Thirlby); At QF God] Q; Heauen F 182 SD] Q (after decide it.), Rowe; not in F

  186 large generous, broad

  187 consist stand or insist (OED v. 4c)

  189 our valuation ‘the way we are regarded’

  190 false-derived wrongly attributed (to us); derivèd

  191 nice petty, insignificant

  wanton frivolous

  192 to … taste remind the King

  193 ‘so that even if we martyred ourselves to prove our loyalty (faiths) to the King’

  194–5 Winnowing, a process for separating wheat from chaff, required a gentle wind to blow off the lighter husks and leave the grain (corn) for milling. Mowbray, however, anticipates a wind so severe (rough) that corn and chaff will be blown away together. His point is that the King, in his suspicions, will not be able to distinguish the rebels’ loyal service from their past actions.

  196 partition distinction; pronounced as four syllables

  198 ‘of such finicky and pernickety fault-finding’. The adjectives are redundant, and such might logically precede both of them. Some editors have regarded such picking as a scribal or compositorial misreading, though picking was in use at the time and is appropriate in context, akin to the modern phrase ‘nit-picking’. The grievances of which the King is said to be weary are probably not those catalogued by the rebels (which are far from dainty), but his own niggling suspicions.

  199 doubt source of fear or suspicion

  death putting someone to death

  200 greater i.e. doubts

  heirs of life supporters who survive the person executed

  185 not that:] Pope; not, that QF; not that, F2 189 Yea] Q; I F 198 dainty … picking] QF; picking out such dainty (conj. Johnson)

  201 tables records or writing tablets. Cf. 2.4.269 and Ham 1.5.98, 107.

  202 tell-tale … memory tattle-tale (reminding the King of deeds he has tried to blot from memory). This line may mean that the King will not resume the kind of behaviour that will lead to more bloodshed and regret.

  203 history preserve or record: the only use of history as a verb in Shakespeare (OED v. 1 trans.)

  his loss This may refer to the concessions which the King is willing to make to the rebels (Shaaber, Variorum); it may mean the sacrifice – of men, of trust, of honour – incurred by the King during the civil insurrection; or it may signify more generally those things that the King will try to erase from his memory.

  204 new remembrance presumably the King’s, but possibly the collective memory of his country

  205–6 precisely … occasion completely (precisely) eradicate from England everything that his fears or suspicions (misdoubts) give rise to (present occasion)

  205 weed this land The metaphor of the state as an unweeded garden was common, most fully developed in R2 3.4.24–101, and most famously in Ham 1.2.132–7.

  207–9 probably inspired by the parable of the wheat and the tares in Matthew, 13.29: ‘Nay: lest whyle ye geather vp the tares, ye roote vp also the wheate with them’; enrooted suggests an entangling of roots.

  209 so by this action

  shake lose, alienate

  210 offensive i.e. who has offended her husband

  211 offer strokes threaten a beating. A simile comparing England to the offending wife of an abusive monarch would, in an Elizabethan context, have been politically daring.

  213–14 hangs … execution By her action, the wife stops in mid-air (hangs) the blow (correction) that her husband has resolved to administer even as his arm was raised (upreared) to do it (execution); execution is pronounced as five syllables. Cf. a similar suspension of an intended blow in the Player’s account of Pyrrhus’s slaughter of Priam: ‘For lo, his sword / Which was declining on the milky head / Of reverend Priam seemed i’th’air to stick’ (Ham 2.2.415–17).

  215 wasted … rods used up all his punishments. Cf. Psalms, 89.32: ‘I will visite their offences with the rod’.

  216 late recent, or, more ominously, deceased. Cf. 199.

  that so that

  219 offer … hold threaten violence (as at 211) but not carry out the threat

  221 atonement reconciliation

  222–3 a broken … breaking proverbial: ‘A broken bone (leg) is the stronger when it is well set’ (Dent, B515)

  223 for as a result of

  225 Pleaseth ‘would it please’; a variant of please it (OED please v. 3). Cf. 178.

  your lordship This line is addressed to the Archbishop, whom Westmorland cannot call ‘your grace’ because grace in his speech is reserved for Prince John. The line would certainly not be addressed to Mowbray, pace Capell, because Westmorland’s earlier conversation with Mowbray (97–161) would discourage him from regarding Mowbray as a spokesman for the rebel cause.