SCENE III. Another Part of the Field. Flourish. Enter King EDWARD in triumph; with CLARENCE, GLOSTER, and the rest. K. EDW. Thus far our fortune keeps an upward course, ' And we are grac'd with wreaths of victory.4 'I mean, my lords,-those powers,5 that the queen * Thus far our fortune keeps an upward course, And we are grac'd with wreaths of victory.] Thus the folio. The quartos thus : " Thus still our fortune gives us victory, "And girts our temples with triumphant joys. STEEVENS. It is observable, that the expreffion which Shakspeare had fubstituted for " temples engirt with triumphant joys," occurs again in King Richard III: "Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,-." Again, in his Rape of Lucrece : "Made glorious by his manly chivalry, MALONE. $ I mean, my lords, those powers, &c.] Thus the folio. The old play thus : "I meane those powers which the queen hath got in France, "Are landed, and meane once more to menace us." MALONE. 'Hath rais'd in Gallia, have arriv'd our coaft, 'And, as we hear, march on to fight with us. * CLAR. A little gale will foon disperse that cloud, * And blow it to the source from whence it came : * Thy very beams will dry those vapours up; * For every cloud engenders not a storm. * GLO. The queen is valu'd thirty thousand strong, 'And Somerset, with Oxford, fled to her; 'If she have time to breathe, be well assur'd, Her faction will be full as strong as ours. K. EDW. We are advértis'd by our loving friends, That they do hold their course toward Tewksbury; • We having now the best at Barnet field, • Will thither straight, For willingness rids way; • And, as we march, our strength will be augmented In every county as we go along. Strike up the drum; cry-Courage! and away." [Exeunt. 6 have arriv'd our coast,] So, in Coriolanus : " and now arriving "A place of potency,-." Again, in Julius Cæfar : "But ere we could arrive the point propos'd,-." Milton uses the same structure, Paradise Lost, B. II: "The happy ifle." STEEVENS. Strike up the drum; cry-Courage! and away.] Thus the folio. The quartos have the following couplet: " Come, let's go ; "For if we flack this faire bright summer's day, " Sharp winter's showers will mar our hope for haie." Something like this has occurred in p. 171. STEEVENS. SCENE IV. Plains near Tewksbury. March. Enter Queen MARGARET, Prince EDWARD, SOMERSET, OXFORD, and Soldiers. * Q. MAR. Great lords, wise men ne'er fit and wail their lofs, * But cheerly seek how to redress their harms. • What though the mast be now blown over-board, The cable broke, the holding anchor loft, 'And half our failors swallow'd in the flood? 'Yet lives our pilot still: Is't meet, that he 'Should leave the helm, and, like a fearful lad, * With tearful eyes add water to the fea, * Great lords, &c.] This speech in the old play stands thus : Queen. Welcome to England, my loving friends of " France, "And welcome, Somerset and Oxford too. "Once more have we spread our fails abroad; "And though our tackling be almost confumde, "And Warwick as our maine-mast overthrowne, " Yet, warlike lordes, raise you that sturdie poft "That bears the failes to bring us unto rest. " And Ned and I, as willing pilots should, " For once, with careful mindes, guide on the sterne, "To beare us through that dangerous gulfe, "That heretofore hath swallowed up our friends." There is perhaps no speech that proves more decisively than the above, that The First Part of the Contention of the Two Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, &c. and The true Tragedie of the Duke of Yorke, &c. printed in 1600, were the production of fome writer who preceded Shakspeare; and that what are now called The Second and Third Parts of King Henry VI. were only a revisal and amplification of those pieces. Here we have a thought which in the original play is expressed in eleven lines, expanded by our author into thirty-feven lines. MALONE. * And give more strength to that which hath too much;9 * Whiles, in his moan, the ship splits on the rock, * Which industry and courage might have sav'd? * Ah, what a shame! ah, what a fault were this! Say, Warwick was our anchor; What of that? ' And Montague our top-mast; What of him? Our flaughter'd friends the tackles; What of these? • Why, is not Oxford here another anchor? 'And Somerset another goodly mast? The friends of France our fhrouds and tacklings? 'And, though unskilful, why not Ned and I For once allow'd the skilful pilot's charge? • We will not from the helm, to fit and weep; * But keep our course, though the rough wind say no, * From shelves and rocks that threaten us with wreck. * As good to chide the waves, as speak them fair. * And what is Edward, but a ruthless sea? • With tearful eyes add water to the fea, And give more ftrength to that which hath too much;] See note on As you like it, Vol. VIII. p. 44, n. 1. REED. So, in our author's Lover's Complaint: " Upon whose weeping margent she was set, "Like ufury, applying wet to wet." Again, in As you like it : - Thou mak'ft a teftament "As worldings do, giving the sum of more Again, in Romeo and Juliet : "With tears augmenting the fresh morning dew." So also, Spenfer, in his Shepherd's Calendar, 1579: "Thou, plenteous spring, haft lull'd me oft asleep, "Whose streames my trickling tears did oft augment." Of this thought, which we fee Shakspeare has fo often expressed, there is no trace in the old play. See note 8. MALONE. * What Clarence, but a quicksand of deceit ? * And Richard, but a ragged fatal rock ? * All these the enemies to our poor bark. * Say, you can swim; alas, 'tis but a while: * Tread on the sand; why, there you quickly fink: * Bestride the rock; the tide will wash you off, * Or else you famish, that's a threefold death. * This speak I, lords, to let you understand, * In case some one of you would fly from us, * That there's no hop'd-for mercy with the brothers, * More than with ruthless waves, with sands, and rocks. * Why, courage, then! what cannot be avoided, * 'Twere childish weakness to lament, or fear. * PRINCE. Methinks, a woman' of this valiant fpirit * Should, if a coward heard her speak these words, * Infuse his breast with magnanimity, * And make him, naked, foil a man at arms. ' I speak not this, as doubting any here: 'For, did I but suspect a fearful man, 'He should have leave to go away betimes; I Methinks, a woman &c.] In this speech there is much and important variation in the quarto : "Prince. And if there be (as God forbid there should) 'Mongst us a timorous or fearful man, "I will not stand aloof, and bid you fight, STEEVENS. Our author has availed himself of these lines in former scenes of these plays. MALONE. |