(says Steevens,) while they adjust a coffin in a family vault, will abundantly illustrate the preceding simile. Such a peculiar hubbub of inarticulate sounds might have attracted our author's notice; it has too often forced itself on mine.'

2 Arriv'd is here used in an active form.

3 This speech in the original play is expressed in eleJohnson observes that Warwick's mention of his ven lines. Malone thinks its extraordinary expansion parks and manors diminishes the pathetic of these lines. into thirty-seven lines a decisive proof that the old play It is true that it is something in the strain of the whin-was the production of some writer who preceded Shaking ghosts of the Mirror for Magistrates; but it was the popular style of the time: Cavendish, in his Metrical Legends, introduces Wolsey's shade lamenting to leave his palaces and gardens.

speare.

4 Thus Jaques moralizing upon the weeping stag in As You Like It, Act i. Sc. 2-

I cannot but think that cannon is an error of the press A similar thought is found in Shakpeare's Lover's Comin the first folio. 'The indistinct gabble of undertakers plaint.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. Prepare you, lords, for Edward is at hand,

'Ready to fight; therefore be resolute.

Orf. I thought no less it is his policy,
To haste thus fast, to find us unprovided.
Som. But he's deceiv'd, we are in readiness.

Q. Mar. This cheers my heart, to see your for-
wardness.

Orf. Here pitch our battle, hence we will not
budge.

March. Enter, at a distance, KING EDWARD,
CLARENCE, GLOSTER, and Forces.

K. Edw. Brave followers,' yonder stands the
thorny wood,

Which, by the heavens' assistance, and your strength,

Must by the roots be hewn up yet ere night. *I need not add more fuel to your fire,

* For, well I wot,2 ye blaze to burn them out: *Give signal to the fight, and to it, lords.

Q. Mar. Lords, knights, and gentlemen, what I should say,

My tears gainsay; for every word I speak, 'Ye see, I drink the water of mine eyes. 'Therefore, no more but this :-Henry, your sovereign,

'Is prisoner to the foe; his state usurp'd,

His realm a slaughterhouse, his subjects slain, His statutes cancell'd, and his treasure spent ; And yonder is the wolf, that makes this spoil. You fight in justice: then, in God's name, lords, 'Be valiant, and give signal to the fight. [Exeunt both Armies. SCENE V. Another part of the same. Excursions: and afterwards a Retreat. enter KING EDWARD, CLARENCE, GLOSTER, and Forces; with QUEEN MARGARET, OXFORD, and SOMERSET, Prisoners.

Alarums:

Then

Enter Soldiers, with PRINCE EDWARD.

*K. Edw. Bring forth the gallant, let us hear
him speak:

What! can so young a thorn begin to prick?
Edward, what satisfaction canst thou make,
For bearing arms, for stirring up my subjects,
*And all the trouble thou hast turn'd me to ?6
Prince. Speak like a subject, proud ambitious

York!

Suppose, that I am now my father's mouth;
Resign thy chair, and, where I stand, kneel thou,
Whilst I propose the self-same words to thee,
Which, traitor, thou wouldst have me answer to.

1 This scene is ill contrived, in which the king and queen appear at once on the stage at the head of oppoEg armies. It had been easy to make one retire before the other entered.-Johnson.

2 Know.

3 Unsay, deny.

Q. Mar. Ah, that thy father had been so resolv'd!
Glo. That you might still have worn the petti-

coat,

And ne'er have stol'n the breech from Lancaster.
Prince. Let Æsop' fable in a winter's night;
His currish riddles sort not with this place.
Glo. By heaven, brat, I'll plague you for that
word.

Q. Mar. Ay, thou wast born to be a plague to

men.

Glo. For God's sake, take away this captive scold.

Prince. Nay, take away this scolding crook-back rather.

'K. Edw. Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm your tongue.

Clar. Untutor'd lad, thou art too malapert.
Prince. I know my duty, you are all undutiful:
Lascivious Edward,-and thou perjur'd George,
And thou misshapen Dick, I tell ye all,

I am your better, traitors as ye are:-
*And thou usurp'st my father's right and mine.
K. Edu. Take that, the likeness of this railer
here.9

[Stabs him. *Glo. Sprawl'st thou? take that, to end thy

agony.

[GLO. stabs him.

*Cla. And there's for twitting me with perjury.

Q. Mar. O, kill me too!
Glo. Marry, and shall.

[CLA. stabs him.

[Offers to kill her.

'K. Edw. Hold, Richard, hold, for we have done

too much.

Glo. Why should she live, to fill the world with words ?10

K. Edw. What! doth she swoon? use means for
her recovery.

Glo. Clarence, excuse me to the king my brother:
'I'll hence to London on a serious matter:
Ere ye come there, be sure to hear some news.
Clar. What? what?

'Glo. The Tower, the Tower!

[Exit.

Canst thou not speak?-O traitors! murderers!-
Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame,
They, that stabb'd Caesar, shed no blood at all,
*If this foul deed were by, to equal it.

And men ne'er spend their fury on a child.
He was a man; this, in respect, a child;

What's worse than murderer, that I may name it?
No, no; my heart will burst, an if I speak ;-
*And I will speak, that so my heart may burst.-
* Butchers and villains, bloody cannibals!
*How sweet a plant have you untimely cropp'd!
You have no children, butchers! if you had,"
But if you ever chance to have a child
The thought of them would have stirr'd up remorse:

Look in his youth to have him so cut off,
As, deathsmen! you have rid12 this sweet young
prince!

K. Edw. Away with her; go, bear her hence
perforce.

Q. Mar. Nay, never bear me hence, despatch me

here;

Here sheath thy sword, I'll pardon thee my death:
What! wilt thou not ?-then, Clarence, do it thou.
Clar. By heaven, I will not do thee so much ease.
Q. Mar. Good Clarence, do; sweet Clarence, do
thou do it.

Clar. Didst thou not hear me swear, I would not
do it?

ness; and the poet following nature makes Richard highly incensed at the reproach.

8 See King Henry VI. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 1.

9 That is, thou who art the likeness,' &c. The old copies describe Edward as striking the first blow, and Gloster the next; and this is according to history, which

4 A castle in Picardy, where Oxford was confined for informs us that Edward smote the prince with his

Now march we hence: discharge the common sort
With pay and thanks, and let's away to London,
And see our gentle queen how well she fares;
By this, I hope, she hath a son for me. [Exeunt.
SCENE VI. London. A Room in the Tower.
KING HENRY is discovered sitting with a Book
in his Hand, the Lieutenant attending. Enter
GLOSTER.

Glo. Good day, my lord: What, at your book
so hard?

K. Hen. Ay, my good lord: My lord, I should
say rather;

'Tis sin to flatter, good was little better:
Good Gloster, and good devil, were alike,
And both preposterous; therefore, not good lord.
* Glo. Sirrah, leave us to ourselves: we must
[Exit Lieutenant.
*K. Hen. So flies the reckless shepherd from

confer.

the wolf:

*So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece,
And next his throat unto the butcher's knife.-
What scene of death hath Roscius now to act?
Glo. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.

K. Hen. The bird, that hath been limed in a
bush,

With trembling wings misdoubteth2 every bush:
And I, the hapless male3 to one sweet bird
Have now the fatal object in my eye,

Where my poor young was lim'd, was caught, and
kill'd.

Glo. Why, what a peevish fool was that of
Crete,

That taught his son the office of a fowl?
And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd.
K. Hen. I, Dædalus; my poor boy, Icarus;
Thy father, Minos, that denied our course;
The sun, that sear'd the wings of my sweet boy,
Thy brother Edward; and thyself, the sea,
Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life.
Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words!
My breast can better brook thy dagger's point,
Than can my ears that tragic history.-

But wherefore dost thou come? is't for my life?
'Glo. Think'st thou, I am an executioner?
K. Hen. A persecutor, I am sure, thou art;
If murdering innocents be executing,

Why, then thou art an executioner.
Glo. Thy son I kill'd for his presumption.

'Men for their sons, wives for their husbands' fate,
And orphans for their parents' timeless death,-
Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born.
The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil sign;
The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time;
Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempests shook down

trees;

The raven rook'de her on the chimney's top,
And chattering pies in dismal discords sung.
Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain,
And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope;
To wit,-an indigest deformed lump,"
Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree.
Teeth hadst thou in thy head, when thou wast born,
To signify,-thou cam'st to bite the world:
And, if the rest be true which I have heard,
'Thou cam'st-

Glo. I'll hear no more ;-Die, prophet, in thy
speech;

[Stabs him.
For this, amongst the rest, was I ordain'd.
K. Hen. Ay, and for much more slaughter after
this.

O God! forgive my sins, and pardon thee! [Dies.
Glo. What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster
Sink in the ground? I thought it would have mounted.
See, how my sword weeps for the poor king's death!
O, may such purple tears be always shed
From those that wish the downfal of our house!
If any spark of life be yet remaining,
Down, down to hell; and say-I sent thee thither.
I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear.—
[Stabs him again.
Indeed, 'tis true, that Henry told me of;
For I have often heard my mother say,
Had I not reason, think ye, to make haste,
I came into the world with my legs forward:

And seek their ruin that usurp'd our right?
The midwife wonder'd; and the women cried,
O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth.

That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog.
And so I was; which plainly signified-
Then, since the heavens have shap'd my body so,
Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it.

1 have no brother, I am like no brother:

nd this word-love, which greybeards call divine,
Be resident in men like one another,
And not in me; I am myself alone.-
Clarence, beware; thou keep'st me from the light;
But I will sort a pitchy day for thee:
For I will buz abroad such prophecies,

That Edward shall be fearful of his life;
And then, to purge his fear, I'll be thy death.
King Henry, and the prince his son, are gone:
Clarence, thy turn is next, and then the rest;
Counting myself but bad, till I be best.-

[Exit.

I'll throw thy body in another room,
And triumph, Henry, in thy day of doom.
SCENE VII. The same. A Room in the Palace.
KING EDWARD is discovered sitting on his Throne;
QUEEN ELIZABETH with the infant Prince, CLA-
RENCE, GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and others, near
him.

K. Edw. Once more we sit in England's royal
throne,

K. Hen. Had'st thou been kill'd, when first thou Repurchas'd with the blood of enemies.

didst presume,

Thou hadst not liv'd to kill a son of mine.
And thus I prophecy,-that many a thousand,
Which now mistrust no parcels of my fear;
And many an old man's sigh, and many a widow's,
And many an orphan's water-standing eye,-

1 She alludes to the desertion of Clarence.
2 To misdoubt is to suspect danger, to fear.

3 The word male is here used in an uncommon sense, for the male parent: the sweet bird is evidently his son Prince Edward.

4 Peevish, in the language of our ancestors, was used to signify mad or foolish. See note on Comedy of Errors, Act iv. Sc. 1.

6 Who suspect no part of what my fears presage. 6 To rook, or ruck, is to cower down like a bird at roost or on its nest. The word is of very ancient use in our language

What valiant foemen, like to autumn's corn,
Have we mow'd down,1° in tops of all their pride?
Three dukes of Somerset, threefold renown'd
Two Cliffords, as the father and the son,
For hardy and undoubted champions:
And two Northumberlands; two braver men
Ne'er spurr'd their coursers at the trumpet's sound:

7- rudis indigestaque moles.'

Ovid. Met. i. 7.
8 Dryden seems to have had this line in his mind
when writing his Edipus:-

It was thy crooked mind hunch'd out thy back,
And wander'd in thy limbs.'

9 Select, choose out.

SCENE VII.

87

With them, the two brave bears, Warwick and | THE three parts of King Henry VI. are suspected, by

Montague,

That in their chains fetter'd the kingly lion,
And made the forest tremble when they roar'd.
Thus have we swept suspicion from our scat,
And made our footstool of security.-

Come hither, Bess, and let me kiss my boy :-
Young Ned, for thee, thine uncles, and myself,
Have in our armours watch'd the winter's night;
'Went all a foot in summer's scalding heat,
That thou might'st repossess the crown in peace;
And of our labours thou shalt reap the gain.
Glo. I'll blast his harvest, if your head were laid;
For yet I am not look'd on in the world.
This shoulder was ordain'd so thick, to heave;
And heave it shall some weight, or break my back:-
Work thou the way,-and thou shalt execute.'

K. Edw. Clarence, and Gloster, love my lovely

queen;

And kiss your princely nephew, brothers both.
Clar. The duty, that I owe unto your majesty,
I seal
upon the lips of this sweet babe.

Mr. Theobald, of being supposititious, and are declared by Dr. Warburton, to be certainly not Shakspeare's. Mr. Theobald's suspicion arises from some obsolete words; but the phraseology is like the rest of the author's style; and single words, of which, however, I do not observe more than two, can conclude little.

Dr. Warburton gives no reason; but I suppose him to judge upon deeper principles and more comprehensive views, and to draw his opinion from the general effect and spirit of the composition, which he thinks inferior to the other historical plays.

From mere inferiority nothing can be inferred: in the productions of wit there will be inequality. Sometimes judgment will err, and sometimes the matter itself will defeat the artist. Of every author's works, one will be the best, and one will be the worst. The colours are not equally pleasing, nor the attitudes equally graceful, in all the pictures of Titian or Reynolds.

Dissimilitude of style and heterogeneousness of sen[Aside.timent, may sufficiently show that a work does not really belong to the reputed author. But in these plays no such marks of spuriousness are found. The diction, the versification, and the figures, are Shakspeare's. These plays, considered, without regard to characters and incidents, merely as narratives in verse, are more happily conceived, and more accurately finished than those of King John, King Richard II. or the tragic scenes of King Henry IV. and V. If we take these plays from Shakspeare, to whom shall they be given? What author of that age had the same easiness of expression and fluency of numbers ?*

K. Edw. Thanks, noble Clarence; worthy brother, thanks.2

'Glo. And, that I love the tree from whence thou
sprang'st,

'Witness the loving kiss I give the fruit:-
To say the truth,so Judas kiss'd his master;
'And cried-all hail! when as he meant

all harm.

Aside.

K. Edw. Now am I seated as my soul delights,
Having my country's peace, and brothers' loves.
Clar. What will your grace have done with Mar-
garet?

Reignier, her father, to the king of France
Hath pawn'd the Sicils and Jerusalem,
And hither have they sent it for her ransom.

K. Edw. Away with her, and waft her hence to
France.

And now what rests, but that we spend the time
With stately triumphs, mirthful comic shows,
Such as befit the pleasures of the court?
Sound, drums and trumpets!-farewell, sour annoy!
For here, I hope, begins our lasting joy. [Exeunt.
1 Gloucester may be supposed to touch his head and
look significantly at his hand.

2 The old quarto play appropriates this line to the queen. The first and second folio, by mistake, have given it to Clarence. In Steevens's copy of the second folio, which had belonged to King Charles the First, his majesty had erased Cla. and written King in its stead. Shakspeare, therefore, in the catalogue of his restorers, may boast a royal name.

Of these three plays I think the second is the best. The truth is, that they have not sufficient variety of action, for the incidents are too often of the same kind; yet many of the characters are well discriminated. King Henry, and his Queen, King Edward, the Duke of Gloster, and the Earl of Warwick, are very strongly and distinctly painted.

The old copies of the two latter parts of King Henry VI. and of King Henry V. are so apparently mutilated and imperfect, that there is no reason for supposing them the first draughts of Shakspeare. I am inclined to believe them copies taken by some auditor, who wrote down during the representation what the time would permit; then, perhaps, filled up some of his omissions at a second or third hearing, and, when he had by this method formed something like a play, sent it to the printer. JOHNSON.

THIS Tragedy, though called in the original edition | The Life and Death of King Richard the Third,' comprises only fourteen years. The second scene commences with the funeral of King Henry VI, who is said to have been murdered on the 21st of May, 1471. The imprisonment of Clarence, which is represented previ ously in the first scene, did not, in fact, take place till

* A complete copy of Creed's edition of this curious ley. The title is as follows:-'Epigrammes in the oldInterlude, (which upon comparison proved to be a dif- est Cut and newest Fashion. A twise seven Houres ferent impression from that in Mr. Rhodes's collection,) (in so many Weekes) Studie. No longer (like the was sold by auction by Mr. Evans very lately. The ti- Fashion) not unlike to continue. The first seven, John tle was as follows:- The true Tragedie of Richard Weever. Sit voluisse sit valuisse. At London: printthe Third, wherein is showne the death of Edward the ed by V. S. for Thomas Bushele; and are to be sold at Fourth, with the smothering of the two yoong Princes his shop, at the great north doore of Paules. 1599. 12. in the Tower: With a lamentable end of Shore's wife, There is a portrait of the author, engraved by Cecill, an example for all wicked women; and lastly, the con-prefixed. According to the date upon this print, Weejunction of the two noble Houses Lancaster and Yorke, as it was playd by the Queenes Maiesties players. London, printed by Thomas Creede; and are to be sold by William Barley at his shop in Newgate Market, neare Christ Church door, 1594; 4to.' It is a circumstance sufficiently remarkable that but a single copy of each of the two editions of this piece should be known to exist. This very curious little volume, which is supposed to be unique, is in the possession of Mr Comb, of Hen. p. 246.

ver was then twenty-three years old; but he tells us, in some introductory stanzas, that when he wrote the Epigrams, which compose the volume, he was not twenty years old; that he was one

That twenty twelvemonths yet did never know.' Consequently, these Epigrams must have been written

in 1595.