I. iii. 228. rooting hog. Richard's badge was a white boar. In the second year of Richard's reign, 1484, William Collingborne published the couplet:
'The Cat, the Rat, and Louell our dog,
Rule all England vnder an hog.
Meaning by the hog, the dreadfull wild boare, which was the kings cognisance.' Holinshed, iii. 746. Halle, 398. Collingborne was executed for this indiscretion.
I. iii. 256. Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current. The figure of speech is from the art of coining or minting money. 'Fire-new' = newly coined. Dorset's title was granted him on April 18, 1475 (Stow, 713. Holinshed, iii. 702). He had therefore held this title for about eight years.
I. iii. 277. My charity is outrage, life my shame. Le. outrage is the only charity shown me, and my life is my shame.
I. iii. 285, 286. curses never pass The lips of those that breathe them in the air. A possible reference to an old belief that curses to be efficacious should be uttered within walls. More probably the meaning is: 'curses never take effect outside the lips of those who utter them' (Tawney).
I. iii. 321. The Quarto reading is 'you my noble Lord.' Capell's emendation 'you, my noble lords' is accepted by many editors.
I. iii. 333. Dorset. In the Quarto the name appears as Vaughan. Spedding remarked (p. 85) that he could see no reason for the change. Pickersgill in reply (p. 11) points out that later it is upon Rivers, Vaughan, and Grey that Richard's vengeance falls. Nearly all editors accept the reading 'Vaughan.'
I. iii. 353. millstones. Probably a proverbial expression. Cf. Troilus and Cressida, I. ii. 156: 'Hecuba laughed that her eyes ran o'er.'—'With millstones.'
I. iv. S. d. In the Quarto Brakenbury and the
