SCENE II. A Room in Sandal Castle, near Wakefield, in Yorkshire. Enter EDWARD, RICHARD, and MONTAGUE. Rich. Brother, though I be youngest, give me leave. Edw. No, I can better play the orator. Mont. But I have reasons strong and forcible. "York. Why, how now, sons, and brother,3 at a strife? What is your quarrel? how began it first? Edw. No quarrel, but a slight contention.⭑ York. About what? • Rich. About that which concerns your grace, and us; 3 sons, and brother,] I believe we should read-cousin instead of brother, unless brother be used by Shakspeare as a term expressive of endearment, or because they embarked, like brothers, in one cause. Montague was only cousin to York, and in the quarto he is so called. Shakspeare uses the expression, brother of the war, in King Lear. Steevens. It should be sons and brothers; my sons, and brothers to each other. Johnson. Brother is right. In the two succeeding pages York calls Montague brother. This may be in respect to their being brothers of the war, as Mr. Steevens observes, or of the same council as in King Henry VIII, who says to Cranmer: "Your are brother of us." Montague was brother to Warwick; Warwick's daughter was married to a son of York: therefore York and Montague were brothers. But as this alliance did not take place during the life of York, I embrace Mr. Steevens's interpretation rather than suppose that Shakspeare made a mistake about the time of the marriage. Tollet. The third folio reads as Dr. Johnson advises. But as York again in this scene addresses Montague by the title of brother, and Montague uses the same to York, Dr. Johnson's conjecture cannot be right. Shakspeare certainly supposed them to be brothers-in-law. Malone. 4 No quarrel, but a slight contention.] Thus the players, first, in their edition; who did not understand, I presume, the force of the epithet in the old quarto, which I have restored-sweet contention, i. e. the argument of their dispute was upon a grateful 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. 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. ‹ Edw. 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 for sworn.5 ‹ York. I shall be, if I claim by open war. Rich. I'll prove the contrary, if you 'll hear me speak. • Rich. An oath is of no moment, being not took That hath authority over him that swears: ( Henry had none, but did usurp 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 Elysium, * And all that poets feign of bliss and joy. 5 Rich. No; God forbid, &c.] Instead of this and the three following speeches, the old play has these lines: "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. 6 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 magistrate. The plea against the obligation of an oath obliging to maintain a usurper, 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 moment, "Being not sworn before a lawful magistrate; "Henry is none, but doth usurp your right; "And yet your grace stands bound to him by oath: "Resolve yourself, and once more claim the crown." Malent *Why do we linger thus? I cannot rest, *Until the white rose, that I wear, be dy'd * Even in the lukewarm blood of Henry's heart. 'York. Richard, enough; I will be king, or die.Brother, thou shalt to London presently," And whet on Warwick to this enterprize.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 soldiers, 8 Witty and courteous, liberal, full of spirit. And yet the king not privy to my drift, Nor any of the house of Lancaster? Enter a Messenger. But, stay; What news? Why com'st thou in such post? 7 Brother, thou shalt to London presently,] Thus the original play: "And Richard, thou to London straight shall posť, "To leave the city, and with his men of war "Both men and money, to further our attempts." Malone. & Witty and courteous, liberal, full of spirit.] What a blessed harmonious line have the editors given us! and what a promising epithet, in York's behalf, from the Kentishmen being so 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 soldiers, "Wealthy and courteous, liberal, full of spirit. Now these five characteristicks answer to lord Say's description of them in the preceding play: "Kent, in the commentaries Cæsar writ, "Is term'd the civil'st place in all this isle; "The people liberal, valiant, active, wealthy." Theobald. This is a conjecture of very little import. Johnson. I see no reason for adopting Theobald's emendation. Witty anciently signified, of sound judgment. The poet calls Buckingham, "the deep revolving, witty Buckingham," Steevens. 'Mess. The queen, with all the northern earls and lords,9 9 The queen, with all &c.] 1 know not whether the author in. tended any moral instruction, 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 honestly 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 history and truth. It may be likewise observed that the Queen was not actually present at this battle, not returning out of Scotland till some little time after. This insurrection, which the Duke, not in breach of, but in strict conformity with his oath to the King, and in discharge of his duty as protector of the realm, had marched from London to suppress, was headed by the Duke of Somerset, thé Earl of Northumberland, and the Lord Nevil, who in direct violation of a mutual agreement, and before the day prefixed for the battle, fell suddenly upon the Duke's army, made him and Salisbury prisoners, 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. Wyrcester. Ritson. In October 1460, when it was established in parliament that the Duke of York should succeed to the throne after Henry's death, the Duke and his two sons, the Earl of March, and the Earl of Rutland, took an oath to do no act whatsoever that might "sound to the abridgement of the natural life of King Henry the Sixth, or diminishing of his reign or dignity royal" Having persuaded the King to send for the Queen and the Prince of Wales, (who were then in York) and finding that she would not. obey his requisition, 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 desire 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 asserts, 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 son, it is not very difficult to conjecture. Malone. Intend here to besiege you in your castle: 'She is hard by with twenty thousand men ;1 And therefore fortify your hold, my lord. *York. Ay, with my sword. What! think'st thou, that we fear them? 'Edward and Richard, you shall stay with me ;- * Mont. Brother, I go; I'll win them, fear it not: * And thus most humbly I do take my leave. [Exit. Enter Sir JOHN and Sir HUGH MORTIMER. York. Sir John, and Sir Hugh Mortimer, mine uncles! You are come to Sandal in a happy hour; The army of the queen mean to besiege us. Sir John. She shall not need, we 'll meet her in the field. York. What, with five thousand men? Rich. Ay, with five hundred, father, for a need. A woman 's general; What should we fear? [A March afar off. Edw. I hear their drums; let 's set our men in order; And issue forth, and bid them battle straight. 'York. Five men to twenty!2-though the odds be great, 'I doubt not, uncle, of our victory. Many a battle have I won in France, When as the enemy hath been ten to one; Why should I not now have the like success? 1 [Alarum. Exeunt. with twenty thousand men ;] In the quarto this speech stands as follows: "My lord, the queene with thirty thousand men "Northumberland, and Westmerland "Are marching towards Wakefield, "To besiedge you in your castle heere." Steevens. 2 Five men to twenty! &c.] Thus, in the old play: "York. Indeed many brave battles have I won "In Normandy, whereas the enemy "Hath been ten to one, and why should I now |