Speak, Clifford, dost thou know who speaks to thee? Dark cloudy death o'ershades his beams of life, RICH. O, 'would he did! and so, perhaps, he doth; ''Tis but his policy to counterfeit, 'Because he would avoid fuch bitter taunts 'Which in the time of death he gave our father. GEO. If so thou think'st, vex him with eager words." RICH. Clifford, ask mercy, and obtain no grace. York. EDW. Thou pitied'st Rutland, I will pity thee. GEO. Where's captain Margaret, to fence you now? WAR. They mock thee, Clifford! swear as thou wast wont. RICH. What, not an oath? nay, then the world goes hard, When Clifford cannot spare his friends an oath : I know by that, he's dead; And, by my foul, 'If this right hand would buy two hours' life, That I in all despite might rail at him, - eager words.] Sour words; words of afperity. So, in Hamlet : JOHNSON. "It is a nipping and an eager air." STEEVENS. 6 This hand should chop it off; and with the iffu ing blood Stifle the villain, whose unstaunched thirst York and young Rutland could not satisfy. WAR. Ay, but he's dead: Off with the traitor's head, And rear it in the place your father's stands.- From whence shall Warwick cut the sea to France, And ask the lady Bona for thy queen : And, having France thy friend, thou shalt not dread The scatter'd foe, that hopes to rise again; And then to Britany I'll cross the fea, To effect this marriage, so it please my lord. Edw. Even as thou wilt, sweet Warwick, let it be: * For on thy shoulder do I build my feat; RICH. Let me be duke of Clarence; George, of ? And then to Britany I'll cross the fea,] Thus the folio. The quartos thus : "And afterward I'll cross the feas to France." STEEVENS. For Glofter's dukedom is too ominous.8 WAR. Tut, that's a foolish observation; Richard, be duke of Glofter: Now to London, To fee these honours in poffeffion. [Exeunt. S ACT III. SCENE Í. A Chace in the North of England. Enter Two Keepers, with Cross-bows in their 'J KEEP. Under this thick-grown brake we'll fhroud ourselves; -- too ominous.) Alluding, perhaps, to the deaths of Thomas of Woodstock, and Humphrey, Dukes of Glofter. STEEVENS. The author of the original play, in which this line is found, probably had here a passage in Hall's Chronicle in his thoughts: "It seemeth to many men that the name and title of Gloucefter hath bene unfortunate and unluckie to diverse, whiche for their honor have bene erected by creation of princes to that stile and dignitie; as Hugh Spencer, Thomas of Woodstocke, fon to kynge Edwarde the thirde, and this duke Humphrey, [who was killed at Bury; whiche three persons by miferable death finithed their daies; and after them king Richard the iii. alfo duke of Gloucefter, in civil warre was flaine and confounded; fo that this name of Gloucefter is taken for an unhappie and unfortunate stile, as the proverbe speaketh of Sejanes horse, whose ryder was ever unhorsed, and whose poffeffor was ever brought to miserie." MALONE. 9 -two Keepers,] In the folio, instead of two keepers, we have, through negligence, the names of the perfons who represented these characters; Sinklo and Humphrey. See Vol. IX. p. 23, n.7. MALONE, For through this laund anon the deer will come; Dr. Grey observes from Hall and Holinshed, that the name of the perfon who took King Henry, was Cantlowe. See Mr. Tyrwhitt's note on the first scene in The Taming of a Shrew. I learn also from one of the Paston Letters, Vol. I. p. 249, that Giles Senctlowe was among the perfons then in Scotland with the Queen. STEEVENS. One Giles Santlowe, Esquire, is among those attainted by King Edward's first parliament, and may poffibly be here meant, but no person of that name seems to have been any way concerned in the capture of the late king; who, according to W. Wyrcester, was actually taken in Lancashire, by two knights named John Talbois and Richard Tunstall, -July, 1464. Drummond of Hawthornden obferves, it was recorded " that a fon of Sir Edward Talbots apprehended him as he fat at dinner in Waddingtown-hall; and like a common malefactor, with his legs under the horse's belly, guarded him toward London." It is a more certain fact, which I have from records in the Duchy Office, that King Edward granted to Sir James Harrington a rent-charge of one hundred pounds out of his lordship of Rowland in Lancashire, in recompence of his great and laborious diligence about the capture and detention of the king's great traitor, rebel and enemy, lately called Henry the Sixth, made by the faid James; and likewife annuities to Richard Talbot, Thomas Talbot, Esquires,Talbot, and-Livesey, for their services in the fame capture. See also, Rymer's Fœdera, xi. 548. Henry had for fome time been harboured by James Maychell of Crakenthorpe, Westmoreland, Il. 575. It feems clear, however, that the present scene is to be placed near the Scottish border. The King himself fays: From Scotland am I stol'n, even of pure love;" And Hall (and Holinshed after him) tells us "He was no fooner entered [into England,] but he was knowen and taken of one Cantlow, and brought toward the king." RITSON. I -brake-] A brake anciently fignified a thicket. So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream: "This green plot shall be our ftage, this hawthorn brake our tiring house." Again: "Enter into that brake, and so every one according to his cue." See the latter part of a note on Measure for Measure, Vol. VI. p. 232. STEEVENS. 2-this laund -) Laund means the fame as lawn; a plain extended between woods. So, in the old play of Orlando Furioso, 1594: "And that they trace the fhady lawnds," &c. And in this covert will we make our stand, • Culling the principal of all the deer. *2 KEEP. I'll stay above the hill, so both may fhoot. *1 KEEP. That cannot be; the noise of thy cross-bow 3 * Will scare the herd, and so my shoot is loft. * In this felf-place where now we mean to stand. • 2 KEEP. Here comes a man, let's stay till he be paft.4 Enter King HENRY, disguised, with a Prayer-book. K. HEN. From Scotland am I ftol'n, even of pure love, To greet mine own land with my wishful fight.5 No, Harry, Harry, 'tis no land of thine; * Thy place is fill'd, thy scepter wrung from thee, Again: 3 "Tread she these lawnds, kind Flora boasts her pride." STEEVENS. -the noise of thy cross-bow-] The poet appears not to have forgot the secrets of his former profeffion. So, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608: 4 read: - Did I not hear a bow go off, and the buck bray?" STEEVENS. let's stay till he be past.] So the folio. The quartos "let's listen him a while." STEEVENS. 5 To greet mine own land with my wishful fight.] So the folio. The quartos perhaps better, thus: "And thus disguis'd to greet my native land." STEEVENS. |