'O, I could hew up rocks, and fight with flint, Aside. Buck, That is too much presumption on thy part: 'But if thy arms be to no other end, The king hath yielded unto thy demand; The duke of Somerset is in the Tower. York. Upon thine honour, is he prisoner? York. Then, Buckingham, I do dismiss my powers.— • Soldiers, I thank you all; disperse yourselves; Meet me to-morrow in Saint George's field, You shall have pay, and every thing you wish.* And let my sovereign, virtuous Henry, * Command my eldest son,-nay, all my sons, * As pledges of my fealty and love, * I'll send them all as willing as I live; * Lands, goods, horse, armour, any thing I have * Is his to use, so Somerset may die. • Buck. York, I commend this kind submission: We twain will go into his highness' tent." 60 Buckingham,] O, which is not in the authentic copy, was added, to supply the metre, by the editor of the second folio. Malone. 7 We twain will go into his highness' tent.] Shakspeare has here deviated from the original play without much propriety.—He has followed it in making Henry come to Buckingham and York, instead of their going to him;-yet without the introduction found in the quarto, where the lines stand thus: "Buck. Come, York, thou shalt go speak unto the king; "But see, his grace is coming to meet with us." Malone. Enter King HENRY, attended. • K. Hen. Buckingham, doth York intend no harm to us, That thus he marcheth with thee arm in arm? * York. In all submission and humility, * York doth present himself unto your highness. *K. Hen. Then what intend these forces thou dost bring? 'York. To heave the traitor Somerset from hence;" And fight against that monstrous rebel, Cade, Who since I heard to be discomfited. Enter IDEN, with CADE's Head. Iden. If one so rude, and of so mean condition, • May pass into the presence of a king, 'Lo, I present your grace a traitor's head, The head of Cade, whom I in combat slew. K. Hen. The head of Cade?-Great God, how just art thou! 'O, let me view his visage being dead, That living wrought me such exceeding trouble. • K. Hen. How art thou call'd? and what is thy degree? Iden. Alexander Iden, that's my name; 8 York. To heave the traitor Somerset from hence;] The corresponding speech to this is given in the old play to Buckingham, and acquaints the King with the plea that York had before made to him for his rising: "To heave the duke of Somerset," &c. This variation could never have arisen from copyists, short-hand writers, or printers. Malone. 9 The head of Cade?] The speech corresponding to this in the first part of The Whole Contention, &c. 1600, is alone sufficient to prove that piece the work of another poet: 66 King. First, thanks to heaven, and next, to thee, my friend, "That hast subdu'd that wicked traitor thus. "O, let me see that head, that in his life "Did work me and my land such cruel spight. "Here take it hence, and thou for thy reward "Shalt be immediately created knight: "Kneel down, my friend, and tell me what 's thy name." Malon A poor esquire of Kent, that loves his king. * Buck. So please it you, my lord, 'twere not amiss * He were created knight for his good service. • K. Hen. Iden, kneel down; [he kneels] Rise up a knight. We give thee for reward a thousand marks; • And will, that thou henceforth attend on us. • Iden. May Iden live to merit such a bounty, And never live but true unto his liege?1 K. Hen. See, Buckingham! Somerset comes with the queen; Go, bid her hide him quickly from the duke. Enter Queen MARGARET and SOMERSET. 'Q. Mar. For thousand Yorks he shall not hide his head, 'But boldly stand, and front him to his face. York. How now!2 Is Somerset at liberty? 'Which dar'st not, no, nor canst not rule a traitor. That gold must round engirt these brows of mine; 1 May Iden &c.] Iden has said before: "Lord! who would live turmoiled in a court, "And may enjoy," &c. Shakspeare makes Iden rail at those enjoyments which he supposes to be out of his reach; but no sooner are they offered to him but he readily accepts them. Anonymous. In Iden's eulogium on the happiness of rural life, and in his acceptance of the honours bestowed by his majesty, Shakspeare has merely followed the old play. Malone. 2 How now! &c.] This speech is greatly amplified, and in other respects very different from the original, which consists of but ten lines. Malone. Here is a hand to hold a sceptre up, 'And with the same to act controlling laws. Give place; by heaven, thou shalt rule no more 'O'er him, whom heaven created for thy ruler. 'Som. O monstrous traitor!-I arrest thee, York, Of capital treason 'gainst the king and crown: *Obey, audacious traitor; kneel for grace. *York. Would'st have me kneel? first let me ask of these, * If they can brook I bow a knee to man. * Sirrah, call in my sons to be my bail;4 [Exit an Attend. *I know, ere they will have me go to ward, * They'll pawn their swords for my enfranchisement. " Q. Mar. Call hither Clifford; bid him come amain, 3 like to Achilles' spear, Is able with the change to kill and cure.] [Exit BUCK. "Mysus et Æmonia juvenis qua cuspide vulnus PROPERT. Lib. II, El. 1. Greene, in his Orlando Furioso, 1599, has the same allusion: "Where I took hurt, there have I heal'd myself; "As those that with Achilles' launce were wounded, "Fetch'd help at self-same pointed speare." Malone. 4 Would'st have me kneel? first let me ask of these, If they can brook I bow a knee to man.— Sirrah, call in my sons to be my bail;] As these lines stand, I think the sense perplexed and obscure. I have ventured to transpose them. Warburton. I believe these lines should be replaced in the order in which they stood till Dr. Warburton transposed them. By these York means his knees. He speaks, as Mr. Upton would have said, Jerns: laying his hand upon, or at least pointing to, his knees. Tyrwhitt. By these York evidently means his sons, whom he had just called for. Tyrwhitt's supposition, that he meant to ask his knees, whether he should bow his knees to any man, is not imagined with his usual sagacity. M. Mason. I have no doubt that York means either his sons, whom he mentions in the next line, or his troops, to whom he may be supposed to point. Dr. Warburton transposed the lines, placing that which is now the middle line of the speech at the beginning of it. But, like many of his emendations, it appears to have been unnecessary. The folio reads-of thee. The emendation was made by Mr. Theobald. Sons was substituted for son by the edi. tor of the second folio. The correction is justified both by the context and the old play: "For my enfranchisement," instead of -of my, &c. was likewise his correction. Malone. * To say, if that the bastard boys of York Enter EDWARD and RICHARD PLANTAGENET, with * See, where they come; I'll warrant they'll make it good. * Q. Mar. And here comes Clifford, to deny their bail. Clif. Health and all happiness to my lord the king! [Kneels. "York. I thank thee, Clifford : Say, what news with thee? 'Nay do not fright us with an angry look: We are thy sovereign, Clifford, kneel again; For thy mistaking so, we pardon thee. Clif. This is my king, York, I do not mistake; But thou mistak'st me much, to think I do :— To Bedlam with him! is the man grown mad? 'K. Hen. Ay, Clifford; a bedlam and ambitious hu mour 5 Shall be their father's bail; and bane to those-] Considering how our author loves to play on words similar in their sound, but opposite in their signification, I make no doubt but the author wrote bail and bale. Bale (from whence our common adjective, baleful) signifies detriment, ruin, misfortune, &c. Theobald. Bale, signifies sorrow. Either word may serve. Johnson. 6 —a bedlam and ambitious humour-] The word bedlam was not used in the reign of King Henry the Sixth, nor was Bethlehem Hospital (vulgarly called Bedlam) converted into a house or hospital for lunaticks till the reign of King Henry the Eighth, who gave it to the city of London for that purpose. Grey. Shakspeare was led into this anachronism by the author of the elder play. Malone. It is no anachronism, and Dr. Grey was mistaken. "Next unto the parish of St. Buttolph," says Stow, "is a fayre inne for receipt of travellers: then an Hospitall of S. Mary of Bethelem, founded by Simon Fitz Mary, one of the Sheriffes of London, in the yeare 1246. He founded it to haue beene a priorie of Cannons with brethren and sisters, and king Edward the thirde granted a protection, which I have seene, for the brethren Milicia beatæ Mariæ de Bethlem, within the citie of London, the |