'Or I should breathe it so into thy body, To die by thee, were but to die in jest; Q. Mar. Away! though parting be a fretful corrosive, 3 It is applied to a deathful wound. To France, sweet Suffolk: Let me hear from thee; I'll have an Iris that shall find thee out. Suf. I go. Q. Mar. And take my heart with thee.5 Q. Mar. This way for me. [Exeunt, severally. 2 turn my flying soul,] Perhaps Mr. Pope was indebted to this passage in his Eloisa to Abelard, where he makes that votarist of exquisite sensibility say: "See my lips tremble, and my eye-balls roll, "Suck my last breath, and catch my flying soul." Steevens. 3 Away! though parting be a fretful corrosive,] This word was generally, in our author's time, written, and, I suppose, pronounced corsive; and the metre shows that it ought to be so printed here. So, in The Spanish Tragedy, 1605: "His son distrest, a corsive to his heart." Again, in The Alchymist, by Ben Jonson, 1610: "Now do you see that something's to be done Again, in an Ode by the same: "I send not balms nor corsives to your wound." Malone. Thus also, in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 600: "a corsive to all content, a frenzie," &c. Steevens. 4 I'll have an Iris —] Iris was the messenger of Juno. So, in All's Well that Ends Well: this distemper'd messenger of wet, Johnson. 5 And take my heart with thee.] I suppose, to complete the we should read: along with thee. Steevens. verse, SCENE III. London. Cardinal Beaufort's Bed-chamber. 6 Enter King HENRY, SALISBURY, WARWICK, and Others. The Cardinal in bed; Attendants with him. *K. Hen. How fares my lord?7 speak, Beaufort, to thy sovereign. • Car. If thou be'st death, I'll give thee England's treasure, 8 6 Enter King Henry, &c.] The quarto offers the following stage directions. Enter King and Salisbury, and then the curtaines be drawne, and the cardinal is discovered in his bed, raving and staring as if he were mad. Steevens. This description did not escape our author, for he has availed himself of it elsewhere. See the speech of Vaux in page 210. Malone. 7 How fares my lord? &c.] This scene, and that in which the dead body of the duke of Gloster is described, are deservedly admired. Having already submitted to the reader the lines on which the former scene is founded, I shall now subjoin those which gave rise to that before us: "Car. O death, if thou wilt let me live but one whole year, "I'll give thee as much gold as will purchase such another island. "King. O see, my lord of Salisbury how he is troubled. "Lord Cardinal, remember, Christ must have thy soul. "Car. Why, dy'd he not in his bed? "What would you have me to do then? "Can I make men live, whether they will or no? "The 'pothecary sent me. "O, see where duke Humphrey's ghost doth stand? "And stares me in the face! Look; look; comb down his hair. "So now, he's gone again. Oh, oh, oh. "Sal. See how the pangs of death doth gripe his heart. "King. Lord Cardinal, if thou diest assured of hea venly bliss, "Hold up thy hand, and make some sign to me. [The Cardinal dies. "O see, he dies, and makes no sign at all. "O God, forgive his soul! "Sal. So bad an end did never none behold; "But as his death, so was his life in all. King. Forbear to judge, good Salisbury forbear; "For God will judge us all. Go take him hence, "And see his funerals be perform'd." [Exeunt. Malone. Enough to purchase such another island, * War. Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee. * Car. Bring me unto my trial when you will. 'Died he not in his bed? where should he die? Can I make men live, whe'r they will or no?9*O! torture me no more, I will confess.'Alive again? then show me where he is; 'I'll give a thousand pound to look upon him.— * He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them.1 'Comb down his hair; look! look! it stands upright, Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul!Give me some drink; and bid the apothecary Bring the strong poison that I bought of him. * K. Hen. O thou eternal Mover of the heavens, * Look with a gentle eye upon this wretch! 8 If thou be'st death, I'll give thee England's treasure, &c.] The following passage in Hall's Chronicle, Henry VI, fol. 70, b. suggested the corresponding lines to the author of the old play "During these doynges, Henry Beaufford, byshop of Winchester, and called the riche Cardynall, departed out of this worlde.— This man was-haut in stomach and hygh in countenance, ryche above measure of all men, and to fewe liberal; disdaynful to his kynne, and dreadful to his lovers. His covetous insaciable and hope of long lyfe made bym bothe to forget God, his prynce, and hymselfe, in his latter dayes; for Doctor John Baker, his pryvie counsailer and his chapellayn, wrote, that lying on his death-bed, he said these words: Why should I dye, having so muche riches? If the whole realme would save my lyfe, I am able either by pollicie to get it, or by ryches to bye it. Fye will not death be hyred, nor will money do nothynge? When my nephew of Bedford died, I thought my selfe halfe up the whele, but when I sawe myne other nephew of Gloucester disceased, then I thought my selfe able to be equal with kinges, and so thought to increase my treasure in hope to have worne a trypple croune. But I se nowe the worlde fayleth me, and so I am deceyved; praying you all to pray for me." Malone. 9 Can I make men live? whe'r they will or no?] So, in King John: "We cannot hold mortality's strong hand::-"Why do you bend such solemn brows on me? "Think you, I bear the shears of destiny? "Have I commandment on the pulse of life?" Malone. He hath no eyes, &c.] So, in Macbeth: "Thou hast no speculation in those eyes, O, beat away the busy meddling fiend, * That lays strong siege unto this wretch's soul, * And from his bosom purge this black despair! War. See, how the pangs of death do make him grin. * Sal. Disturb him not, let him pass peaceably. *K. Hen. Peace to his soul, if God's good pleasure be! • Lord cardinal, if thou think'st on heaven's bliss, Hold up thy hand, make signal of thy hope.— • He dies, and makes no sign; O God, forgive him! • War. So bad a death argues a monstrous life. K. Hen. Forbear to judge,3 for we are sinners all.— . Close up his eyes, and draw the curtain close; And let us all to meditation. [Exeunt.4 2 Hold up thy hand,] Thus, in the spurious play of K. John, 1591, Pandulph sees the King dying, and says: Again: "Then, good my lord, if you forgive them all, 66 Lift up thy hand, that we may witness here, When a dying person is incapable of speech, it is usual (in the church of Rome) previous to the administration of the sacraments, to obtain some sign that he is desirous of having them administered. The passage may have an allusion to this practice. C. 3 Forbear to judge, &c.] "Peccantes culpare cave, nam labimur omnes, “Aut sumus, aut fuimus, vel possumus esse quod hic est.” Johnson. 4 Exeunt.] This is one of the scenes which have been applauded by the criticks, and which will continue to be admired when prejudices shall cease, and bigotry give way to impartial examnination. These are beauties that rise out of nature and of truth; the superficial reader cannot miss them, the profound can image nothing beyond them. Johnson. ACT IV..... SCENE I. Kent. The Sea-shore near Dover.5 Firing heard at Sea. Then enter from a Boat, a Captain, a Master, a Master's-Mate, WALTER WHITMORE, and Others; with them SUFFOLK, and other Gentlemen, prisoners. * Cap. The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day? * Is crept into the bosom of the sea; 5 The circumstance on which this scene is founded, is thus related by Hall in his Chronicle:-"But fortuue would not that this flagitious person [the Duke of Suffolk, who being impeached by the Commons was banished from England for five years,] shoulde so escape; for when he shipped in Suffolk, entendynge to be transported into France, he was encountered with a shippe of warre apperteinyng to the Duke of Excester, the Constable of the Towre of London, called The Nicholas of the Towre. The capitaine of the same bark with small fight entered into the duke's shyppe, and perceyving his person present, brought him to Dover rode, and there on the one syde of a cocke-bote, caused his head to be stryken of, and left his body with the head upon the sandes of Dover; which corse was there founde by a chapelayne of his, and conveyed to Wyngfielde college in Suffolke, and there buried." Malone. See the Paston Letters, published by Sir John Fenn, second edit. Vol. I, p. 38, Letter X, in which this event is more circumstantially related. Steevens. 6 Firing heard at Sea.] Perhaps Ben Jonson was thinking of this play, when he put the following declaration into the mouth of Morose in The Silent Woman: "Nay, I would sit out a play that were nothing but fights at sea, drum, trumpet, and target." Steevens. 7 The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day -] The epithet blabbing applied to the day by a man about to commit murder, is exquisitely beautiful. Guilt is afraid of light, considers darkness as a natural shelter, and makes night the confidante of those actions which cannot be trusted to the tell-tale day. Johnson. So, Milton, in his Comus, v. 138: "Ere the blabbing eastern scout —.” Todd. Again, in Spenser, Brit. Ida. c. ii, st. 3: "For Venus hated his all-blabbing light." Steevens. Remorseful is pitiful. So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona : a gentleman, "Valiant, wise, remorseful, well accomplish'd." The same idea occurs in Macbeth: "Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day." Steevens |