TUT. Ah, Clifford! murder not this innocent child, Lest thou be hated both of God and man. [Exit, forced off by Soldiers. CLIF. How now! is he dead already? Or, is it fear, That makes him close his eyes??—I'll open them. 'RUT. So looks the pent-up lion3 o'er the wretch • That trembles under his devouring paws : And so he walks, insulting o'er his prey; And so he comes to rend his limbs asunder.- * is he dead already? Or, is it fear, That makes him close his eyes?] This circumstance is taken from Hall: "Whilst this battail was in fighting, a prieste called Sir Robbert Aspall, chappelaine and schole-master to the yong erle of Rutlande, sonne to the above named duke of Yorke, scarce of the age of xii yeres, a faire gentleman, and a maydenlike person, perceyving that flight was more safe-gard than tarrying, bothe for hym and his master, secretly conveyd therle out of the felde, by the lord Cliffordes bande, toward the towne; but or he could entre into a house, he was by the sayd Lord Clifford espied, folowed, and taken, and by reson of his apparell, demaunded what he was. The yong gentleman dismayed, had not a word to speake, but kneled on his knees, imploring mercy, and desiring grace, both with holding up his handes, and making dolorous countenance, for his speache was gone for feare." MALONE. • So looks the pent-up lion-] That is, The lion that hath been long confined without food, and is let out to devour a man condemned. JOHNSON. *--devouring parus:] Surely the epithet devouring, which might well have characterised the whole animal, is oddly bestowed on his paws. STEEVENS. CLIF. In vain thou speak'st, poor boy; my fa ther's blood Hath stopp'd the passage where thy words should enter. RUT. Then let my father's blood open it again; He is a man, and, Clifford, cope with him. CLIF. Had I thy brethren here, their lives, and thine, Were not revenge sufficient for me; No, if I digg'd up thy forefathers' graves, [Lifting his Hand. RUT. O, let me pray before I take my death :To thee I pray; Sweet Clifford, pity me! CLIF. Such pity as my rapier's point affords. 'RUT. I never did thee harm; Why wilt thou slay me? CLIF. Thy father hath. · RUT. But 'twas ere I was born." The sight of any of the house of York Is as a fury &c.] In Romeo and Juliet the same idea is expressed in humbler language: "A dog of the house of Montague moves me." STEEVENS. • But 'twas ere I was born.] Rutland is under a mistake. The battle of St. Albans, in which old Clifford was slain, happened in 1455; that of Wakefield in 1460. He appears to have been at this time about seventeen years old. RITSON. The author of the original play appears to have been as incorrect in his chronology as Shakspeare. Rutland was born, I believe, in 1448; according to Hall, in 1448; and Clifford's Thou hast one son, for his sake pity me; Lest, in revenge thereof,-sith God is just,- Ah, let me live in prison all my days; Then let me die, for now thou hast no cause. Thy father slew my father; therefore, die. [Dies. CLIF. Plantagenet! I come, Plantagenet! And this thy son's blood cleaving to my blade, Shall rust upon my weapon, till thy blood, Congeal'd with this, do make me wipe off both. [Exit. father was killed at the battle of St. Albans, in 1455. Consequently Rutland was then at least seven years old; more probably twelve. The same observation has been made by an anonymous writer. MALONE. 7 Windsor: sith-] i. e. since. So, in The Merry Wives of "-sith you yourself know how easy it is to be such an offender." STEEVENS. 8 Dii faciant, &c.] This line is in Ovid's Epistle from Phillis to Demophoon. I find the same quotation in Have with you to Saffron Walden, or Gabriel Harvey's Hunt is up, &c. 1596. STEEVENS. SCENE IV. The same. Alarum. Enter YORK. YORK. The army of the queen hath got the field: My uncles both are slain in rescuing me; ? • And all my followers to the eager foe 'Turn back, and fly, like ships before the wind, 'Or lambs pursu'd by hunger-starved wolves. My sons God knows, what hath bechanced them : But this I know,-they have demean'd themselves Like men born to renown, by life, or death. • Three times did Richard make a lane to me; And thrice cried,-Courage, father! fight it out! And full as oft came Edward to my side, With purple faulchion, painted to the hilt • In blood of those1 that had encounter'd him : ' And when the hardiest warriors did retire, Richard cried,-Charge! and give no foot of ground! 'And cried,-A crown, or else a glorious tomb! A sceptre, or an earthly sepulchre ! With this, we charg'd again: but, out, alas! 9 My uncles both are slain in rescuing me ;] These were two bastard uncles by the mother's side, Sir John and Sir Hugh Mortimer. See Grafton's Chronicle, p. 649. PERCY. ' With purple faulchion, painted to the hilt In blood of those-] So, in King Henry V: "With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur." STEEVENS. 'We bodg'd again;2 as I have seen a swan • With bootless labour swim against the tide, And spend her strength with over-matching waves. [A short Alarum within. Ah, hark! the fatal followers do pursue; ' And I am faint, and cannot fly their fury: And, were I strong, I would not shun their fury: The sands are number'd, that make up my life; 'Here must I stay, and here my life must end. Enter Queen MARGARET, CLIFFORD, NORTHUM BERLAND, and Soldiers. Come, bloody Clifford,-rough Northumberland, I dare your quenchless fury to more rage; NORTH. Yield to our mercy, proud Plantagenet. CLIF. Ay, to such mercy, as his ruthless arm, With downright payment, show'd unto my father. We bodg'd again;] I find bodgery used by Nashe in his Apologie of Pierce Penniless, 1593, for botchery: "Do you know your own misbegotten bodgery" To bodge might therefore mean, (as to botch does now) to do a thing imperfectly and aukwardly; and thence to fail or miscarry in an attempt. Cole, in his Latin Dictionary, 1679, renders" To botch or bungle, opus corrumpere, disperdere." I suspect, however, with Dr. Johnson, that we should readWe budg'd again. "To budge" Cole renders, pedem referre, to retreat the precise sense required here. So, Coriolanus,speaking of his army who had fled from their adversaries: "The mouse ne'er shunn'd the cat, as they did budge "From rascals worse than they." MALONE. I believe that we bodg'd only means, we boggled, made bad or bungling work of our attempt to rally. A low unskilful tailor is often called a botcher. STEEVENS. |