Like to a dismal clangor heard from far,-Warwick, revenge! brother, revenge my death! So underneath the belly of their steeds, 'That stain'd their fetlocks in his smoking blood, 'The noble gentleman gave up the ghost. War. Then let the earth be drunken with our blood: I'll kill my horse, because I will not fly. * Why stand we like soft-hearted women here, * Wailing our losses, whiles the foe doth rage; *And look upon, as if the tragedy * Were play'd in jest by counterfeiting actors? 'Here on my knee I vow to God above, I'll never pause again, never stand still, 'Till either death hath clos'd these eyes of mine, Or fortune given me measure of revenge. Edw. O Warwick, I do bend my knee with thine; And, in this vow, do chain my soul to thine.* And, ere my knee rise from the earth's cold face, *I throw my hands, mine eyes, my heart to thee, Thou setter up and plucker down of kings! 'Beseeching thee,-if with thy will it stands, That to my foes this body must be prey,Yet that thy brazen gates of heaven may ope, And give sweet passage to my sinful soul!-Now, lords, take leave until we meet again, Where'er it be, in heaven, or on earth. Rich. Brother, give me thy hand; and, gentle 'Let me embrace thee in my weary arms:- "Geo. Yet let us all together to our troops, And give them leave to fly that will not stay; And call them pillars, that will stand to us; And, if they thrive, promise them such rewards As victors wear at the Olympian games: *This may plant courage in their quailing breasts; For yet is hope of life, and victory. SCENE V. Another Part of the Field. Alarùm. Enter KING HENRY. *K. Hen. This battle fares like to the morning's war, *When dying clouds contend with growing light; * What time the shepherd, blowing of his nails, *Can neither call it perfect day, nor night. Now sways it this way, like a mighty sea, Forc'd by the tide to combat with the wind; Now sways it that way, like the selfsame sea 'Forc'd to retire by fury of the wind; Sometime, the flood prevails; and then the wind; 'Now, one the better; then, another best; Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast, Yet neither conqueror, nor conquered : Here on this molehill will I sit me down, So is the equal poise of this fell war. *To whom God will, there be the victory! For Margaret my queen, and Clifford too, 'Have chid me from the battle; swearing both, They prosper best of all when I am thence. 'Would, I were dead! if God's good will were so : For what is in this world, but grief and woe? O God! methinks, it were a happy life," To be no better than a homely swain; *To sit upon a hill, as I do now, Thereby to see the minutes how they run: *To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, * How many make the hour full complete, * How many hours bring about the day, How many days will finish up the year, When this is known, then to divide the times: *How many years a mortal man may live. *So many hours must I tend my flock; *So many hours must I take my rest; *So many hours must I contemplate; * So many hours must I sport myself; So many days my ewes have been with young; *So many weeks ere the poor fools will yean; So many years ere I shall shear the fleece: *So minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, * Pass'd over to the end they were created, Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. SCENE IV. The same. Another Part of the Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely! Field. Excursions. Enter RICHARD and CLIF-Gives not the hawthorn bush a sweeter shade * Fore-slow3 no longer, make we hence amain. FORD. [Exeunt. Rich. Now, Clifford, I have singled thee alone : Suppose, this arm is for the duke of York, And this for Rutland; both bound to revenge, 'Wert thou environ'd with a brazen wall.4 Clif. Now, Richard, I am with thee here alone: This is the hand, that stabb'd thy father York; And this the hand that slew thy brother Rutland; And here's the heart that triumphs in their death, And cheers these hands, that slew thy sire and brother, To execute the like upon thyself; have at thee. And so, Statius, Theb. ii. v. 453. 5 Two very similar lines in the preceding play are spoken of Richard's father by Clifford's father:-'Hold, Warwick, seek thee out some other chase; For I myself must hunt this deer to death.' 6 The leading thought in both these soliloquies is bor. rowed from Holinshed, p. 665. "This deadly conflict continued ten hours in doubtful state of victorie, uncercainlie heaving and setting on both sides,' &c. Steevens points out a similar comparison in Virgil, En. lib. x. ver. 354, which originates with Homer, Iliad xiv. 7 This speech is mournful and soft, exquisitely suited to the character of the king, and makes a pleasing inter * *To shepherds, looking on their silly sheep, *Than doth a rich embroider'd canopy *To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery? * O, yes it doth; a thousand fold it doth. *And to conclude,-the shepherd's homely curds, *His cold thin drink out of his leather bottle, * His wonted sleep under a fresh tree's shade *All which secure and sweetly he enjoys, *Is far beyond a prince's delicates, * His viands sparkling in a golden cup, His body couched in a curious bed," *When care, mistrust, and treason wait on him. Alarum. Enter a Son that has killed his Father," dragging in the dead Body. Son. Ill blows the wind, that profits nobody.This man, whom hand to hand I slew in fight, change, by affording, amidst the tumult and horror of the battle, an unexpected glimpse of rural innocence and pastoral tranquillity.-Johnson. There are some verses preserved of Henry VI. which are in a strain of the same pensive moralizing character. The reader may not be displeased to have them here subjoined, that he may compare them with the congenial thoughts the poet has attributed to him: 'Kingdoms are but cares; Who meaneth to remove the rock Shall mire himself, and hardly scape The swelling of the flood." 8 These two horrible instances are selected to show May be possessed with some store of crowns: My tears shall wipe away these bloody marks; K. Hen. O piteous spectacle! O bloody times! Whilst lions war, and battle for their dens, 'Poor harmless lambs abide their enmity. Weep, wretched man, I'll aid thee tear for tear; Enter a Father, who has killed his Son, with the 'Fath. Thou that so stoutly hast resisted me, O, that my death would stay these ruthful deeds! *O pity, pity, gentle heaven, pity! The red rose and the white are on his face, The fatal colours of our striving houses: The one, his purple blood right well resembles; Son. How will my mother, for a father's death, Fath. How will my wife, for slaughter of my son, Misthink the king, and not be satisfied! 'Much is your sorrow; mine, ten times so much. * My heart, sweet boy, shall be thy sepulchre; *For from my heart thine image ne'er shall go. My sighing breast shall be thy funeral bell; *And so obsequious will thy father be, *Sad for the loss of thee, having no more, * As Priam was for all his valiant sons. I'll bear thee hence; and let them fight that will, For I have murder'd where I should not kill. [Exit, with the Body. 'K. Hen. Sad-hearted men, much overgone with care, Here sits a king more woful than you are. 'And Warwick rages like a chafed bull: Edward and Richard, like a brace of greyhounds Nay, stay not to expostulate, make speed; K. Hen. Nay, take me with thee, good sweet Not that I fear to stay, but love to go SCENE VI. The same. A loud Alarum. Enter CLIFFORD, wounded." Clif. Here burns my candle out, ay, here it dies, And, now I fall, thy tough commixtures melt. And what makes robbers bold, but too much lenity? Bootless are plaints, and cureless are my wounds; No way to fly, nor strength to hold out flight: The foe is merciless, and will not pity; For at their hands I have deserv'd no pity. * Fath. These arms of mine shall be thy winding-The air hath got into my deadly wounds, sheet; the innumerable calamities of civil war. Raphael has introduced the second of these incidents in his picture of the battle of Constantine and Maxentius. I The king intends to say that the state of their hearts and eyes shall be like that of the kingdom in a civil war; all shall be destroyed by power formed within themselves. 2 Stratagems here means direful events. And much effuse of blood doth make me faint : 5 Think unfavourably of. 6 Obsequious is here careful of obsequies or funeral rites. See Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 1. 7 In the old play the stage direction adds, with an arIt is thought that Beaumont and row in his neck. Fletcher ridiculed this, by introducing Ralph, the gro cer's prentice, in the Knight of the Burning Pestle, with 3 Of these obscure lines the following explanation by a forked arrow through his head. The circumstance is Henley is the most probable which has been offered:-related by Holinshed, p. 664 :-The Lord Clifford, eiHad the son been younger he would have been precluded from the levy which brought him to the field; and had the father recognized him before their mortal encounter, it would not have been too late to have saved him from death. 4 To take on is a phrase still in use in common par. lance, and signifies to persist in clamorous lamentation. ther for heat or paine, putting off his gorget suddenlie, with an arrow (as some saie) without a head, was strick. en into the throte, and immediately rendered his spirit." 8 Hence perhaps originated the following passage in The Bard of Gray : The swarm that in thy noontide beam were born, Gone to salute the rising morn.' Edw. Thou pitied'st Rutland, I will pity thee. Geo. Where's Captain Margaret, to fence you now? Come, York, and Richard, Warwick, and the rest; diers. Edw. Now breathe we, lords; good fortune bids us pause, And smooth the frowns of war with peaceful looks.' * Some troops pursue the bloody-minded queen ;- But think you, lords, that Clifford fled with them? [CLIFFORD groans, and dies. Edw. Whose soul is that which takes her heavy leave? Rich. A deadly groan, like life and death's departing.2 Edw. See who it is: and now the battle's ended, If friend, or foe, let him be gently us'd. Rich. Revoke that doom of mercy, for 'tis Clif- 'Who not contented that he lopp'd the branch 'I mean our princely father, duke of York. War. They mock thee, Clifford! swear as thou wast wont. 'Rich. What, not an oath? nay, then the world When Clifford cannot spare his friends an oath : goes hard, If this right hand would buy two hours' life, know by that, he's dead; And, by my soul, That I in all despite might rail at him, I This hand should chop it off; and with the issuing blood Stifle the villain, whose unstanched thirst War. Ay, but he's dead: Off with the traitor's head, And rear it in the place your father's stands.- And ask the Lady Bona for thy queen. dread For though they cannot greatly sting to hurt, sea, And then to Britany I'll cross the To effect this marriage, so it please my lord. Edw. Even as thou wilt, sweet Warwick, let it be: *For on thy shoulder do I build my seat; War. From off the gates of York fetch down the✶ And never will I undertake the thing, head, Your father's head, which Clifford placed there: 'Instead whereof, let this supply the room; Measure for measure must be answered. Edw. Bring forth that fatal screechowl to our house, That nothing sung but death' to us and ours: 'Now death shall stop his dismal threatening sound, And his ill-boding tongue no more shall speak. [Attendants bring the Body forward. War. I think his understanding is bereft :Speak, Clifford, dost thou know who speaks to thee? Dark cloudy death o'ershades his beams of life, Rich, O, 'would he did! and so, perhaps, he doth; ''Tis but his policy to counterfeit, Because he would avoid such bitter taunts, 'Which in the time of death he gave our father. Geo. If so thou think'st, vex him with eager words.4 Rich. Clifford, ask mercy, and obtain no grace. SCENE I. A Chase in the North of England. Enter Two Keepers, with Crossbows in their Hands. 1 Keep. Under this thick-grown brake' we'll shroud ourselves; For through this laund" anon the deer will come; And in this covert will we make our stand, Culling the principal of all the deer. * 2 Keep. I'll stay above the hill, so both may shoot. 1 Keep. That cannot be; the noise of thy crossbow Will scare the herd, and so my shoot is lost. *Here stand we both, and aim we at the best: *And, for the time shall not seem tedious, presented these characters, Sineklo and Humphrey. Humphrey was probably Humphrey Jeaffes, mentioned Thus in King Richard III. :Grim-visaged war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front. * Departing for separation. To depart, in old lan-in Mr. Henslowe's manuscript; Sinch to we have before guage, is to part. Thus in the old marriage service: Till death us depart.' 3 We have this also in King Richard III. :Out on you, owls! nothing but songs of death. 4 Sour words; words of asperity. Verie eagre or Bowre: peracerous.'-Baret. 5 Alluding to the deaths of Thomas of Woodstock and Humphrey, duke of Gloster. The author of the play, in which this line is found, had a passage of Hall's Chronicle in his thoughts, in which the unfortubate ends of those who had borne the title is recounted: be thus concludes:- So that this name of Gloucester is taken for an unhappie and unfortunate stile, as the proverb speaks of Segane's horse, whose ryder was ever unhorsed, and whose possessor was ever brought miserie.' 6 In the folio copy, instead of two keepers, we have through negligence the names of the persons who re mentioned, his name being prefixed to some speeches in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew. Hall and Holinshed tell us that Henry VI. was no sooner entered into England but he was known and taken of one Cantlow, and brought to the king. It appears, however, from records in the duchy office, that King Edward granted a rent-charge of one hundred pound to Sir James Harington, in recompense of his great and labo. rious diligence about the capture and detention of the king's great traitor, rebel, and enemy, lately called Henry the Sixth, made by the said James and like. wise annuities to Richard and Thomas Talbot, Esquires,-Talbot, and Levesey, for their services in the same capture. Henry had been for some time harboured by James Maychell of Crakenthorpe, Westmoreland. See Rymer's Fœdera, xi. 548, 575. 7 Thicket. SA plain extended between woods, a lawn. I'll tell thee what befell me on a day, *In this self-place where now we mean to stand. 2 Keep. Here comes a man, let's stay till he be past. Enter KING HENRY, disguised, with a Prayer-book. K. Hen. From Scotland am I stol'n, even of pure love, To greet mine own land with my wishful sight. No, Harry, Harry, 'tis no land of thine; Thy place is fill'd, thy sceptre wrung from thee, *Thy balm wash'd off,' wherewith thou wast anointed: No bending knee will call thee Cæsar now, No humble suitors press to speak for right, * No, not a man comes for redress of thee; For how can I help them, and not myself? 1 Keep. Ay, here's a deer whose skin's a keeper's fee: This is the quondam king; let's seize upon him. *K. Hen. Let me embrace these our adversities; *For wise men say, it is the wisest course. *2 Keep. Why linger we? let us lay hands him. upon K. Hen. My crown is in my heart, not on my * Not deck'd with diamonds, and Indian stones, 2 Keep. Well, if you be a king crown'd with Your crown content, and you, must be contented You are the king, King Edward hath depos'd; *K. Hen. But did you never swear, and break an oath? * 2 Keep. No, never such an oath, nor will not now. *K. Hen. Where did you dwell, when I was king of England? *2 Keep. Here in this country, where we now remain. * K. Hen. I was anointed king at nine months *My father and my grandfather were kings; * 1 Keep. Forbear awhile; we'll hear a little* more. K. Hen. My queen, and son, are gone to France for aid; And, as I hear, the great commanding Warwick Is thither gone, to crave the French king's sister To wife for Edward: If this news be true, 'Poor queen, and, son, your labour is but lost; 'For Warwick is a subtle orator, 'And Lewis a prince soon won with moving words. By this account, then, Margaret may win him; For she's a woman to be pitied much : *Her sighs will make a battery in his breast; *Her tears will pierce into a marble heart; *The tiger will be mild, while she doth mourn; *And Nero will be tainted with remorse, *To hear, and see, her plaints, her brinish tears. Ay, but she's come to beg; Warwick, to give: She, on his left side, craving aid for Henry; He, on his right, asking a wife for Edward. She weeps, and says-her Henry is depos'd; He smiles, and says-his Edward is install'd; That she, poor wretch, for grief can speak no more: *Whiles Warwick tells his title, smooths the wrong, *Inferreth arguments of mighty strength;2 * And, in conclusion, wins the king from her, *With promise of his sister, and what else, *To strengthen and support King Edward's place. *O Margaret, thus 'twill be; and thou, poor soul, * Art then forsaken, as thou went'st forlorn.3 2 Keep. Say, what art thou, that talk'st of kings and queens? 'K. Hen. More than I seem, and less than I was born to: 'A man at least, for less I should not be ; And men may talk of kings, and why not I? 2 Keep. Ay, but thou talk'st as if thou wert a king. 'K. Hen. Why, so I am, in mind:4 and that's enough. 2 Keep. But, if thou be a king, where is thy crown? 1 Thus also in King Richard II. :- Not all the water in the rough rude sea Can wash the balm from an anointed king.' It is observable that this line is one of those additions to the original play which are found in the folio and not in the quarto. 2 This line has already occurred in the former Act: Inferring arguments of mighty force.' In the old play the line occurs but once. For we were subjects, but while you were king. man? * Ah, simple men, you know not what you swear. *Look, as I blow this feather from my face, * And as the air blows it to me again, And yielding to another when it blows, 1 Keep. We are true subjects to the king, King Edward. *K. Hen. So would you be again to Henry, *If he were seated as King Edward is. 1 Keep. We charge you, in God's name, and in the king's, To go with us unto the officers. ་ 'K. Hen. In God's name, lead; your king's name be obey'd: *And what God will, then let your king perform; *And what he will, I humbly yield unto. [Exeunt. SCENE II. London. A Room in the Palace. Enter KING EDWARD, GLOSTER, CLARENCE, and LADY GREY. 'K. Edw. Brother of Gloster, at Saint Albans field "This lady's husband, Sir John Grey, was slain, Glo. Your highness shall do well, to grant her suit; * It were dishonour, to deny it her. fighting on the side of King Henry; and so far is it for being true that his lands were seized by the conqueror (Queen Margaret) that they were in fact seized by King Edward after his victory at Towton, 1461. The present scene is laid in 1464. Shakspeare followed the old play in this instance; but when he afterwards had occasion to mention this matter in writing his King Richard III he stated it truly as he found it in the Chronicles. In Act i. Sc. 2 of that play, Richard, addressing himself to Queen Elizabeth (the Lady Grey of the present 3 The piety of Henry scarce interests us more for his misfortunes than this his constant solicitude for the wel-scene,) says:-fare of his deceitful queen.-Steevens. 4 Malone thinks that there is an allusion here to an old poem by Sir Edward Dyer, beginning-My mind to me a kingdom is.' See it in Percy's Reliques, 3d edition, vol. i. p. 293. 5 This is in every particular a falsification of history. Sir John Grey fell in the second battle of St. Albans In all which time you and your husband Grey Were factious for the house of Lancaster; (And, Rivers, so were you :)-was not your husband In Margaret's battle at Saint Albans slain?" Malone says that this circumstance, among numerous others, proves incontestably that Shakspeare was not the original author of this and the preceding play. 'K. Edw. Widow, we will consider of your suit ;1 'And come some other time, to know our mind. 'L. Grey. Right gracious lord, I cannot brook delay: 'May it please your highness to resolve me now; And what your pleasure is, shall satisfy me. Glo. [Aside.] Ay, widow? then I'll warrant you all your lands, And if what pleases him, shall pleasure you. "Fight closer, or, good faith, you'll catch a blow. * Clar. I fear her not, unless she chance to fall. * Glo. God forbid that! for he'll take vantages. [Aside. [Aside. 'K. Edw. How many children hast thou, widow? tell me. Clar. I think, he means to beg a child of her. Glo. Nay, whip me then; he'll rather give her two. [Aside. [Aside. L. Grey. Three, my most gracious lord. Glo. You shall have four, if you'll be rul'd by him. Aside. K. Edw. "Twere pity, they should lose their father's land. L. Grey. Be pitiful, dread lord, and grant it then. K. Edw. Lords, give us leave; I'll try this wi dow's wit. Glo. Ay, good leave? have you; for you will have leave, Till youth take leave, and leave you to the crutch. [GLOSTER and CLARENCE retire to the other side. *K. Edw. Now tell me, madam, do you love your children? *L. Grey. Ay, full as dearly as I love myself. *K. Edw. And would you not do much, to do them good? * L. Grey. To do them good, I would sustain some harm. *K. Edw. Then get your husband's lands, to do them good. *L. Grey. Therefore I came unto your majesty. K. Edw. I'll tell you how these lands are to be got. * L. Grey. So shall you bind me to your high ness' service. to ask. *L. Grey. Why, then I will do what your grace commands. * Glo. He plies her hard; and much rain wears the marble. * Clar. As red as fire! nay, then her melt. [Aside. wax must [Aside. L. Grey. Why stops my lord? shall I not hear my task? K. Edw. An easy task; 'tis but to love a king. L. Grey. That's soon perform'd, because I am a subject. K. Edw. Why then, thy husband's lands I freely give thee. Glo. The match is made; she seals it with a curt'sy. 'K. Edw. But stay thee, 'tis the fruits of love I mean. *L. Grey. The fruits of love I mean, my loving liege. *K. Edw. Ay, but I fear me, in another sense. What love, think'st thou, I sue so much to get? L. Grey. My love till death, my humble thanks, my prayers; "That love, which virtue begs, and virtue grants. K. Edw. No, by my troth, I did not mean such love. *L. Grey. Why, then you mean not as I thought you did. *K. Edw. But now you partly may perceive my mind. * Her words do show her wit incomparable; I am a subject fit to jest withal, K. Edw. Sweet widow, by my state I swear to thee, I speak no more than what my soul intends; L. Grey. And that is more than I will yield unto: K. Edw. You cavil, widow; I did mean, my K. Edw. Brothers, you muse what chat we two have had. 2 This phrase implies readiness of assent. 3 i. e. seriousness. K |