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EDW. No quarrel, but a flight contention. YORK. About what?

8

RICH. About that which concerns your grace,

and us;

The crown of England, father, which is yours.

'YORK. Mine, boy? not till king Henry be

dead.

* RICH. Your right depends not on his life, or

death.

* EDW. Now you are heir, therefore enjoy it

now:

* By giving the house of Lancaster leave to breathe, * It will outrun you, father, in the end.

'YORK. I took an oath, that he should quietly

reign.

EDWw. But, for a kingdom, any oath may be broken:

' I'd break a thousand oaths, to reign one year. 'RICH. NO; God forbid, your grace should be forfworn.9

again in this scene addresses Montague by the title of brother, and Montague uses the same to York, Dr. Jobuson's conjecture cannot be right. Shakspeare certainly supposed them to be brothers-in-law. MALONE.

3 No quarrel, but a flight contention.] Thus the players, first, in their edition; who did not understand, I prefume, the force of the epithet in the old quarto, which I have restored-fweet contention, i. e, the argument of their difpute was upon a grafeful topick; the question of their father's immediate right to the crown. THEOBALD.

Sweet is, I think, the better reading of the two; and I should certainly have received it had it been found in the folio, which Mr. Malone supposes to be the copy of this play, as reformed by Shakspeare. STEEVENS.

9 Rich. No; God forbid, &c.] Instead of this and the three following speeches, the old play has these lines :

'YORK. I shall be, if I claim by open war.

RICH. I'll prove the contrary, if you'll hear me fpeak.

'YORK. Thou canst not, fon; it is impossible. "RICH. An oath is of no moment, being not

took

'Before a true and lawful magiftrate, That hath authority over him that swears : 'Henry had none, but did ufurp the place; Then, seeing 'twas he that made you to depose, 'Your oath, my lord, is vain and frivolous. Therefore, to arms. * And, father, do but think, * How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown; * Within whose circuit is Elyfium, * And all that poets feign of bliss and joy. * Why do we linger thus ? I cannot rest,

"Rich. An if it please your grace to give me leave, "I'll shew your grace the way to save your oath, "And dispossess King Henry from the crown.

"York. I pr'ythee, Dick, let me hear thy devise." MALONE.

An oath is of no moment,] The obligation of an oath is here eluded by very despicable sophistry. A lawful magistrate alone has the power to exact an oath, but the oath derives no part of its force from the magiftrate. The plea against the obligation of an oath obliging to maintain a ufurper, taken from the unlawfulness of the oath itself in the foregoing play, was rational and just.

JOHNSON.

This speech is formed on the following one in the old play :

"Rich. Then thus, my lord. An oath is of no mo

ment,

"Being not sworn before a lawful magistrate;

"

Henry is none, but doth ufurp your right;

"And yet your grace stands bound to him by oath :
"Then, noble father,

"Refolve yourself, and once more claim the crown."

MALONE.

* Until the white rose, that I wear, be died
* Even in the lukewarm blood of Henry's heart.

'YORK. Richard, enough; I will be king, or

die.

2

'Brother, thou shalt to London presently, ' And whet on Warwick to this enterprise.'Thou, Richard, shalt unto the duke of Norfolk, ' And tell him privily of our intent.'You, Edward, shall unto my lord Cobham, With whom the Kentishmen will willingly rise: ' In them I trust; for they are foldiers,

Witty and courteous, liberal, full of spirit.3

* Brother, thou shalt to London presently,] Thus the original

play :

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"Edward, thou shalt to Edmond Brooke, lord Cobham,
"With whom the Kentishmen will willingly rise.
"Thou, coufin Montague, shalt to Norfolk straight,
"And bid the duke to muster up his foldiers,

" And come to me to Wakefield presently.
"And Richard, thou to London straight shall poft,
"And bid Richard Nevil Earl of Warwick

"To leave the city, and with his men of war
"To meet me at St. Albans ten days hence.

"

My felf here in Sandall castle will provide
"Both men and money, to further our attempts."

MALONE:

3 Witty and courteous, liberal, full of spirit.] What a blessed harmonious line have the editors given us! and what a promifing epithet, in. York's behalf, from the Kentishmen being to witty! I cannot be so partial, however, to my own county, as to let this compliment pass. I make no doubt to read :

-for they are foldiers,

Wealthy and courteous, liberal, full of spirit.

Now these five characteristicks answerto Lord Say's defcription

of them in the preceding play :

"Kent, in the commentaries Cæfar writ,
"Is term'd the civil'st place in all this ifle;

"The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy."

THEOBALD.

This is a conjecture of very little import. JOHNSON.

• While you are thus employ'd, what resteth more,

'But that I seek occafion how to rife;

' And yet the king not privy to my drift, 'Nor any of the house of Lancaster?

Enter a Messenger.4

But, stay; What news? Why com'st thou in such poft ?

MESS. The queen, with all the northern earls

and lords,5

I fee no reason for adopting Theobald's emendation. Witty anciently fignified, of found judgment. The poet calls Buckingham, "the deep revolving, witty Buckingham."

STEEVENS.

* Enter a Messenger.] Thus the quartos; the folio reads, Enter Gabriel. STEEVENS.

Gabriel was the actor who played this inconfiderable part. He is mentioned by Heywood, in his Apology for Actors, 1612. The correction has been made by Mr. Theobald] from the old play. MALONE.

5 The queen, with all &c.] I know not whether the author intended any moral inftruction, but he that reads this has a striking admonition against that precipitancy by which men often use unlawful means to do that which a little delay would put honeftly in their power. Had York staid but a few moments, he had saved his cause from the stain of perjury. JOHNSON.

It will be no more than justice to York, if we recollect that this scene, so far as respects the oath, and his resolution to break it, proceeds entirely from our author's imagination. Neither the Earl of March nor Richard was then at Sandal; the latter being likewise a mere child, barely turned of eight years old. His appearance, therefore, and actions in this, and, at least, the two first Acts of the following play, are totally unsupported by hiftory and truth..

It may be likewife observed that the Queen was not actually present at this battle, not returning out of Scotland till fome little time after. This insurrection, which the Duke, not in breach of, but in strict conformity with his oath to the King, and in dif

* Intend here to besiege you in your castle :
'She is hard by with twenty thousand men;
'And therefore fortify your hold, my lord.

6

charge of his duty as protector of the realm, had marched from London to fupprefs, was headed by the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland, and the Lord Nevil, who in direct violation of a mutual agreement, and before the day prefixed for the battle, fell fuddenly upon the Duke's army, made him and Salisbury prifoners, and treated him in the manner here described. See Whethamstede. Salisbury was next day killed at Pontefract by a bastard son of the Duke of Exeter, and beheaded, with York, Rutland, and others, after death. W. Wyrcefter.

RITSON.

In October 1460, when it was established in parliament that the Duke of York should fucceed to the throne after Henry's death, the Duke and his two fons, the Earl of March, and the Earl of Rutland, took an oath to do no act whatsoever that might "found to the abridgement of the natural life of King Henry the Sixth, or diminishing of his reign or dignity royal." Having perfuaded the King to fend for the Queen and the Prince of Wales, (who were then in York,) and finding that she would not obey his requifition, he on the second of December set out for his castle in Yorkshire, with such military power as he had; a messenger having been previously dispatched to the Earl of March, to defire him to follow his father with all the forces he could procure. The Duke arrived at Sandal Castle on the 24th of December, and in a short time his army, amounted to five thousand men. An anonymous Remarker, [the author of the preceding note, however, very confidently afferts, that "this scene, so far as respects York's oath and his resolution to break it, proceeds entirely from the author's imagination." His oath is on record; and what his resolution was when he marched from London at the head of a large body of men, and sent the message above stated to his fon, it is not very difficult to conjecture.

MALONE.

with twenty thousand men ;) In the quarto this speech

stands as follows:

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My lord, the queene with thirty thousand men

Accompanied with the earles of Cumberland,

"Northumberland, and Westmerland,

"With others of the house of Lancaster,

"Are marching towards Wakefield,

"To befiedge you in your castle heere." STEEVENS.

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