SCENE VI. A Room in the Tower. Enter King HENRY, CLARENCE, WARWICK, SoMERSET, young RICHMOND, OXFORD, MONTAGUE, Lieutenant of the Tower, and Attend ants. * K. HEN. Master lieutenant, now that God and friends * Have shaken Edward from the regal feat; * And turn'd my captive state to liberty, * My fear to hope, my forrows unto joys; * At our enlargement what are thy due fees? * LIEU. Subjects may challenge nothing of their sovereigns; * But, if an humble prayer may prevail, * I then crave pardon of your majefty. * K. HEN. For what, lieutenant ? for well using me? * Nay, be thou sure, I'll well requite thy kindness, * For that it made my imprisonment a pleasure: * Ay, such a pleasure as incaged birds * Conceive, when, after many moody thoughts, * At last, by notes of household harmony, * They quite forget their loss of liberty. * But, Warwick, after God, thou set'st me free, * And chiefly therefore I thank God, and thee; * He was the author, thou the instrument. * Therefore, that I may conquer fortune's spite, * By living low, where fortune cannot hurt me; * And that the people of this blessed land * May not be punish'd with my thwarting slars; • Warwick, although my head ftill wear the crown, ' I here resign my government to thee, • For thou art fortunate in all thy deeds. * WAR. Your grace hath still been fam'd for vir tuous; * And now may feem as wife as virtuous, * By spying, and avoiding, fortune's malice, * For few men rightly temper with the stars :9 * Yet in this one thing let me blame your grace, * For choofing me, when Clarence is in place. * CLAR. No, Warwick, thou art worthy of the fway, * To whom the heavens, in thy nativity, * Adjudg'd an olive branch, and laurel crown, * As likely to be blest in peace, and war; * And therefore I yield thee my free consent. * WAR. And I choose Clarence only for protector. * K. HEN. Warwick, and Clarence, give me both your hands; * Now join your hands, and, with your hands, your hearts, * That no diffention hinder government : 9 - few men rightly temper with the flars :] I suppose the meaning is, that few men conform their temper to their destiny; which King Henry did, when finding himself unfortunate he gave the management of publick affairs to more profperous hands. JOHNSON. in place.] i. e. here present. See p. 140, n. 3. STEEVENS. WAR. What answers Clarence to his sovereign's will? * CLAR. That he consents, if Warwick yield con sent; * For on thy fortune I repose myself. * WAR. Why then, though loath, yet must I be content: * We'll yoke together, like a double shadow * To Henry's body, and supply his place; * I mean, in bearing weight of government, * While he enjoys the honour, and his ease. * And, Clarence, now then it is more than needful, * Forthwith that Edward be pronounc'd a traitor, * And all his lands and goods be confifcate.2 CLAR. What else? and that succession be determin'd. * WAR. Ay, therein Clarence shall not want his part. * K. HEN. But, with the first of all your chief affairs, * Let me entreat, (for I command no more,) * That Margaret your queen, and my fon Edward, * Be fent for, to return from France with speed: * For, till I see them here, by doubtful fear * My joy of liberty is half eclips'd. 2 And all his lands and goods be confiscate.] For the infertion of the word be, which the defect of the metre proves to have been accidentally omitted in the old copy, I am answerable. MALONE. Mr. Malone's emendation is countenanced by the following passage in The Comedy of Errors : "Lest that thy goods too foon be confiscate." The fecond folio, however, reads-confifcated; and perhaps this reading is preferable, because it excludes the disagreeable repetition of the auxiliary verb-be. STEEVENS. CLAR. It shall be done, my fovereign, with all speed. K. HEN. My lord of Somerset, what youth is that, Of whom you seem to have so tender care ? • Ѕом. My liege, it is young Henry, earl of Richmond. K. HEN. Come hither, England's hope: If fecret powers [Lays his Hand on his Head. • Suggest but truth to my divining thoughts, This pretty lad 3 will prove our country's bliss. 3 This pretty lad - ) He was afterwards Henry VII. a man who put an end to the civil war of the two houses, but no otherwise remarkable for virtue. Shakspeare knew his trade. Henry VII. was grandfather to Queen Elizabeth, and the King from whom James inherited. JOHNSON. Shakspeare only copied this particular, together with many others, from Holinshed :-" whom when the king had a good while beheld, he said to fuch princes as were with him: Lo, furelie this is he, to whom both we and our adversaries, leaving the poffeffion of all things, shall hereafter give roome and place." P. 678. This pretty lad will prove our country's bliss.] Thus the folio. The quartos thus : Thou, pretty boy, shalt prove this country's blifs." STEEVENS. Holinshed transcribed this passage almost verbatim from Hall, whom the author of the old play, as I conceive, copied. This speech originally stood thus : "Come hither, pretty lad. If heavenly powers "Thou, pretty boy, shalt prove this country's bliss; Thy head is made to wear a princely crown; Thy looks are all replete with majesty : "Make much of him, my lords," &c. Henry Earl of Richmond was the fon of Edmond Earl of Richmond, and Margaret, daughter to John the first Duke of Somerset. Edmond Earl of Richmond was half-brother to King Henry the Sixth, being the son of that King's mother Queen His looks are full of peaceful majesty; • His head by nature fram'd to wear a crown, • His hand to wield a scepter; and himself 'Likely, in time, to bless a regal throne. Make much of him, my lords; for this is he, • Must help you more than you are hurt by me. Enter a Messenger. * WAR. What news, my friend? * MESS. That Edward is escaped from your bro ther, * And fled, as he hears fince, to Burgundy. * WAR. Unfavoury news: But how made he escape? * MESS. He was convey'd by Richard duke of Glofter, * And the lord Hastings, who attended him 4 * In fecret ambush on the foreft fide, * And from the bishop's huntsmen rescued him; * For hunting was his daily exercise. * WAR. My brother was too careless of his charge. Catharine, by her second husband Owen Teuther or Tudor, who was taken prisoner at the battle of Mortimer's Cross, and foon afterwards beheaded at Hereford. Henry the Seventh, to show his gratitude to Henry the Sixth for this early presage in his favour, folicited Pope Julius to canonize him as a faint; but either Henry would not pay the money demanded, or, as Bacon supposes, the Pope refused, left "as Henry was reputed in the world abroad but for a fimple man, the estimation of that kind of honour might be diminished, if there were not a distance kept between innocents and faints." 4 riolanus: MALONE. attended him) i. e. waited for him. So, in Co " I am attended at the cypress grove." STEEVENS. |