Now Phaeton hath tumbled from his car,
And made an evening at the noontide prick.3
YORK. My ashes, as the phoenix, may bring forth
A bird that will revenge upon you

all:

And, in that hope, I throw mine eyes to heaven, Scorning whate'er you can afflict me with. "Why come you not? what! multitudes, and fear? CLIF. So cowards fight, when they can fly no further;

'So doves do peck the falcon's piercing talons; So desperate thieves, all hopeless of their lives, Breathe out invectives 'gainst the officers.

YORK. O, Clifford, but bethink thee once again, And in thy thought o'er-run my former time: * And, if thou canst for blushing, view this face; And bite thy tongue, that slanders him with cowardice,

'Whose frown hath made thee faint and fly ere this.

CLIF. I will not bandy with thee word for word; But buckle with thee blows, twice two for one. [Draws. Q. MAR. Hold, valiant Clifford! for a thousand

causes,

I would prolong awhile the traitor's life :-
Wrath makes him deaf: speak thou, Northumber-

land.

NORTH. Hold, Clifford; do not honour him so much,

To prick thy finger, though to wound his heart:

3

noontide prick.] Or, noontide point on the dial.

JOHNSON.

The same phrase occurs in Romeo and Juliet, Act II. sc. iv.

STEEVENS.

What valour were it, when a cur doth grin,
For one to thrust his hand between his teeth,
When he might spurn him with his foot away?
It is war's prize to take all vantages;
And ten to one is no impeach of valour.

[They lay hands on YORK, who struggles. CLIF. Ay, ay, so strives the woodcock with the gin.

NORTH. So doth the coney struggle in the net. [YORK is taken prisoner. YORK. So triumph thieves upon their conquer'd

booty;

So true men yield, with robbers so o'er-match'd. NORTH. What would your grace have done unto him now?

Q. MAR. Brave warriors, Clifford, and Northumberland,

Come make him stand upon this molehill here; 'That raught at mountains with outstretched arms,

*It is war's prize-] Read-praise. WARBURton.

I think the old reading right, which means, that all 'vantages are in war lawful prize; that is, may be lawfully taken and used. JOHNSON.

To take all advantages, is rather to the discredit than to the praise of war, and therefore Warburton's amendment cannot be right; nor can I approve of Johnson's explanation ;-it appears to me that it is war's prize, means merely that is the estimation of people at war; the settled opinion. M. MASON.

dolus, an virtus, quis in hoste requirat?" Virg. MALONE.

* So true men yield,] A true man has been already explained to be an honest man, as opposed to a thief. See Vol. VI. p. 349, n. 8. MALONE.

• That raught-] i. e. That reach'd. The ancient preterite and participle passive of reach. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "The hand of death has raught him." STEEVENS.

Yet parted but the shadow with his hand.* What! was it you, that would be England's king? Was't you that revell'd in our parliament,

And made a preachment of your high descent? Where are your mess of sons to back you now? The wanton Edward, and the lusty George?

And where's that valiant crook-back prodigy, Dicky your boy, that, with his grumbling voice, Was wont to cheer his dad in mutinies?

Or, with the rest, where is your darling Rutland?
Look, York; I stain'd this napkin' with the blood
That valiant Clifford, with his rapier's point,
Made issue from the bosom of the boy:
And, if thine eyes can water for his death,
I give thee this to dry thy cheeks withal.
Alas! poor York! but that I hate thee deadly,
I should lament thy miserable state.

I pr'ythee, grieve, to make me merry, York;
Stamp, rave, and fret, that I may sing and dance.
What, hath thy fiery heart so parch'd thine entrails,
That not a tear can fall for Rutland's death?
*Why art thou patient, man? thou shouldst be
mad ;

* And I, to make thee mad, do mock thee thus.
Thou would'st be fee'd, I see, to make me sport;
York cannot speak, unless he wear a crown.-
A crown for York; and, lords, bow low to him.

7-this napkin-] A napkin is a handkerchief.

JOHNSON.

So, in As you like it: "To that youth he calls his Rosalind, he sends this bloody napkin." STEEVENS.

8 Stamp, rave, and fret, &c.] I have placed this line as it stands in the old play. In the folio it is introduced, I believe, by the carelessness of the transcriber, some lines lower, after the words" do mock thee thus;" where it appears to me out of its place. MALONE.

Hold you his hands, whilst I do set it on.

9

[Putting a paper Crown on his Head.

Putting a paper Crown on his Head.] Shakspeare has on this occasion deviated from history, if such of our English Chronicles as I have occasionally looked into, may be believed. According to these, the paper crown was not placed on the Duke of York's head till after it had been cut off. Rutland likewise was not killed by Clifford, till after his father's death. STEEvens.

The ingenious commentator is most certainly mistaken. Shakspeare, so far from having deviated from history, has followed it with the utmost precision. Whethamstede expressly tells us, that the Lancastrians, in direct breach of a mutual agreement, and before the day appointed for the battle, fell suddenly upon the Duke's army, and took him and the Earl of Salisbury prisoners; treating both, but especially the Duke, in the most shameful manner: Nam, says he, statuentes eum super unum parvum formicarium colliculum, et quoddam sertum vile, ex palustri gramine confectum, imponentes, per modum coronæ, super caput suum, non aliter quam Judæi coram domino incurvaverunt genua sua coram ipso, dicentes illusorie: Ave rex, sine regimine; ave rex, absque hereditate; ave dux et princeps, absque omni populo penitus et possessione. Ex hiis una cum aliis variis, in eum probrose opprobrioseque dictis, coegerunt ipsum demum per capitis abscissionem clameum relinquere suæ justicia vendicacionis, p. 489. Not a single circumstance is omitted, or varied in the scene. It is not, however, imagined that Shakspeare had ever consulted Whethamstede; he found the same story no doubt in some old black letter Chronicle, or he might possibly have it from a popular tradition. RITSON.

According to Hall the paper crown was not placed on York's head till after he was dead; but Holinshed after giving Hall's narration of this business almost verbatim, adds:-" Some write, that the Duke was taken alive, and in derision caused to stand upon a mole-hill, on whose heade they put a garland instead of a crowne, which they had fashioned and made of segges or bulrushes, and having so crowned him with that garlande, they kneeled downe afore him, as the Jewes did to Christe in scorne, saying to him, hayle king without rule, hayle king without heritage, hayle duke and prince without people or possessions. And at length having thus scorned hym with these and dyverse other the like despitefull woordes, they stroke off his heade, which (as yee have heard) they presented to the queen."

Both the chroniclers say, that the Earl of Rutland was killed

Ay, marry, sir, now looks he like a king!
Ay, this is he that took king Henry's chair;
And this is he was his adopted heir.-

But how is it that great Plantagenet

Is crown'd so soon, and broke his solemn oath? As I bethink me, you should not be king,

Till our king Henry had shook hands with death."
And will you pale your head in Henry's glory,
And rob his temples of the diadem,

Now in his life, against your holy oath?
O, 'tis a fault too too unpardonable !—
Off with the crown; and, with the crown, his head;
And, whilst we breathe, take time to do him dead.

CLIF. That is my office, for my father's sake.
Q. MAR. Nay, stay; let's hear the orisons he
makes.

3

YORK. She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France,

'Whose tongue more poisons than the adder's tooth! How ill-beseeming is it in thy sex,

To triumph like an Amazonian trull,

by Clifford during the battle of Wakefield; but it may be presumed that his father had first fallen. The Earl's tutor probably attempted to save him as soon as the rout began. MALONE.

Till our king Henry had shook hands with death.] On York's return from Ireland, at a meeting of parliament it was settled, that Henry should enjoy the throne during his life, and that York should succeed him. See Hall, Henry VI. fol. 98. MALONE.

T

2 And will you pale—] i. e. impale, encircle with a crown. MALONE.

So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Whate'er the ocean pales, or sky inclips." STEEVENS. to do him dead.] To kill him. See Vol. VI. p. 170, n. 3. MALone.

3

See this play, p. 53, n. 9. STEEVENS.