on the bank of his own Avon beneath its high walls, might he have imagined, without the authority of any chronicler, that scene in the Temple Gardens which was to connect the story of the wars in France with the coming events in England. In this scene the Earl of Warwick first plucks the "white rose with Plantagenet ;" and it is Warwick who prophesies what is to come : "This brawl to-day Grown to this faction, in the Temple garden, In the connected plays which form the Three Parts of Henry VI., the Earl of Warwick, with some violation of chronological accuracy, is constantly brought forward in a prominent situation. When the "brave peers of England" unite in denouncing the marriage of Henry with Margaret of Anjou, the Earl of Salisbury says to his bold heir: "Warwick, my son, the comfort of my age, Thy deeds, thy plainness, and thy housekeeping, In a subsequent scene, Beaufort calls him "ambitious Warwick." A scene or two onward, and Warwick, after privately acknowledging the title of Richard Duke of York, exclaims It is he, the blunt-witted lord," that defies Suffolk, and sets the men of Bury upon him to demand his banishment. It is he who stands by the bed of the dying Beaufort, judging that "So bad a death argues a monstrous life." All this is skilfully managed by the dramatist, to keep Warwick constantly before the eyes of his audience, before he is embarked in the great contest for the crown. The poet has given Warwick an early importance, which the chroniclers of the age do not assign to him. He is dramatically correct in so doing; but, at the same time, his judgment might in some degree have been governed by the strength of local associations. Once embarked in the great quarrel, Warwick is the presiding genius of the scene:— "Now, by my father's badge, old Nevil's crest, The rampant bear chain'd to the ragged staff, This day I'll wear aloft my burgonet, As on a mountain-top the cedar shows That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm." After three or The sword is first unsheathed in that battle-field of St. Albans. four years of forced quiet it is again drawn. The "she-wolf of France" plunges her fangs into the blood of York at Wakefield, after Warwick has won the great battle of Northampton. The crown is achieved by the son of York at the field of Towton, where "Warwick rages like a chafed bull.” The poet necessarily hurries over events which occupy a large space in the narratives of the historian. The rash marriage of Edward provokes the resentment of Warwick, and his power is now devoted to set up the fallen house of Lancaster. Shakspere is then again in his native localities. After the battle of Banbury, according to the chronicler, "the northern men resorted toward Warwick, where the Earl had gathered a great multitude of people. The King likewise, sore thirsting to recover his loss late sustained, and desirous to be revenged of the death and murders of his lords and friends, marched toward Warwick with a great army. . . . All the King's doings were by espials declared to the Earl of Warwick, which, like a wise and politic captain, intending not to lose so great an advantage to him given, but trusting to bring all his purposes to a final end and determination, by only obtaining this enterprise, in the dead of the night, with an elect company of men of war, as secretly as was possible set on the King's field, killing them that kept the watch, and ere the King was ware (for he thought of nothing less than of that chance that happened), at a place called Wolney (Wolvey), four mile from Warwick, he was taken prisoner, and brought to the Castle of Warwick." The statement that Wolvey is four miles from Warwick is one of many examples of the inaccuracy of the old annalists in matters of distance. It is upon the borders of Leicester shire, Coventry lying equidistant between Wolvey and Warwick. Shakspere has dramatized the scene of Edward's capture. Edward escapes from Middleham Castle, and, after a short banishment, lands again with a few followers in England, to place himself again upon the throne, by a movement which has only one parallel in history. Shakspere describes his countrymen, in the speech which the great Earl delivers for the encouragement of Henry : "In Warwickshire I have true-hearted friends, Not mutinous in peace, yet bold in war; Henry is again seized by the Yorkists. Warwick, "the great-grown traitor," is at the head of his native forces. The local knowledge of the poet is now rapidly put forth in the scene upon the walls of Coventry : "War. Where is the post that comes from valiant Oxford ? How far hence is thy lord, mine honest fellow? 1 Mess. By this at Dunsmore, marching thitherward. Where is the post that came from Montague? 2 Mess. By this at Daintry, with a puissant troop. Enter Sir JOHN SOMERVILLE. War. Say, Somerville, what says my loving son? [Drum heard. War. Then Clarence is at hand, I hear his drum. The chronicler tells the great event of the encounter of the two leaders at Coventry, which the poet has so spiritedly dramatized :-" In the mean season King Edward came to Warwick, where he found all the people departed, and from thence with all diligence advanced his power toward Coventry, and in a plain by the city he pitched his field. And the next day after that he came thither his men were set forward and marshalled in array, and he valiantly bade the Earl battle: which, mistrusting that he should be deceived by the Duke of Clarence, as he was indeed, kept himself close within the walls. And And yet he had perfect word that the Duke of Clarence came forward toward him with a great army. King Edward, being also thereof informed, raised his camp, and made toward the Duke. And lest that there might be thought some fraud to be cloaked between them, the King set his battles in an order, as though he would fight without any longer delay; the Duke did likewise."‡ Then “a *The landing of Bonaparte from Elba, and Edward at Ravenspurg, are remarkably similar in their rapidity and their boldness, though very different in their final consequences. † Henry VI., Part III., Act v., Scene 1. ✰ Hall. [St. Mary's Hall-Street Front.] fraternal amity was concluded and proclaimed," which was the ruin of Warwick, and of the House of Lancaster. Ten years before these events, in the Parliament held in this same city of Coventry-a city which had received great benefits from Henry VI.-York, and Salisbury, and Warwick had been attainted. And now Warwick held the city for him who had in that same city denounced him as a traitor. With store of ordnance, and warlike equipments, had the great Captain lain in this city for a few weeks; and he was honoured as one greater than either of the rival Kings-one who could bestow a crown and who could take a crown away; and he sate in state in the old halls of Coventry, and prayers went up for his cause in its many churches, and the proud city's municipal officers were as his servants. He marched out of the city with his forces, after Palm Sunday; and on Easter-day the quarrel between him and the perjured Clarence and the luxurious Edward was settled for ever upon Barnet Field: "Thus yields the cedar to the axe's edge, Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle; 66 Whose top-branch overpeer'd Jove's spreading tree, The Battle of Barnet was fought on the 14th of April, 1471. Sir John Paston, a stout Lancastrian, writes to his mother from London on the 18th of April: As for other tidings, it is understood here that the Queen Margaret is verily landed, and her son, in the west country, and I trow that as to-morrow, or else the next day, the King Edward will depart from hence to her ward to drive her out again."+ Sir John Paston, himself in danger of his head, seems to hint that the landing of Queen Margaret will again change the aspect of things. In sixteen days the Battle of Tewksbury was fought. This is the great crowning event of the terrible struggle of sixteen years; and the scenes at Tewksbury are amongst the most spirited of these dramatic pictures. We may readily believe that Shakspere had looked upon the "fair park adjoining to the town," where the Duke of Somerset "pitched his field, against the will and consent of many other captains which would that he should have drawn aside;" and that he had also thought of the unhappy end of the gallant Prince Edward, as he stood in "the church of the Monastery of Black Monks in Tewksbury," where "his body was homely interred with the other simple |