• For, did I but suspect a fearful man,
He should have leave to go away betimes;
Left, in our need, he might infect another,
• And make him of like spirit to himself."
If any fuch be here, as God forbid !

Let him depart, before we need his help.

Oxf. Women and children of so high a courage!
And warriors faint! why, 'twere perpetual fhame.-
Oh, brave young prince! thy famous grandfather
Doth live again in thee; Long may'ft thou live,
To bear his image, and renew his glories!

Som. And he, that will not fight for such a hope,
Go home to bed, and, like the owl by day,
If he arife, be mock'd and wonder'd at '.'

2. Mar. Thanks, gentle Somerfet ;-fweet Oxford,
thanks.

• Prince. And take his thanks, that yet hath nothing else.

Enter a Meffenger.

• Mef. Prepare you, lords, for Edward is at hand, Ready to fight; therefore be refolute.

Oxf, I thought no lefs: it is his policy,

To hafte thus faft, to find us unprovided.

Som. But he's deceiv'd, we are in readiness.

2. Mar. This cheers my heart, to fee your forwardness, Oxf. Here pitch our battle, hence we will not budge.

If be arife, be mock'd and wonder'd at.] So the folio. The old Jay thus:

tkus:

Be bifs'd and wonder'd at, if he arife. MALONE.
Prepare you, lords, &c.] In the old play these speeches ftand

Mef. My lordes, duke Edward with a mightie power
Is marching hitherward to fight with you.

Oxf. I thought it was his policy to take us unprovided,
But here will we ftand, and fight it to the death, MALONE.

March.

March. Enter, at a diftance, King EDWARD, CLARENCE, GLOSTER, and forces.

K. Edw. Brave followers 3, yonder ftands the thorny. wood,

Which, by the heavens' affistance, and your strength, • Muft by the roots be hewn up yet ere night. * I need not add more fuel to your fire,

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

2. Mar. Lords, knights, and gentlemen, what I should
fay,

My tears gainfay; for every word I speak, • Ye fee, I drink the water of my eyes ".

• Therefore, no more but this :-Henry, your fovereign, Is prisoner to the foe; his ftate ufurp'd,

His realm a flaughter-house, his fubjects flain,
His ftatutes cancell'd, and his treasure spent ;
And yonder is the wolf, that makes this fpoil.
You fight in juftice: then, in God's name, lords,
Be valiant, and give fignal to the fight.

[Exeunt both Armies. SCENE

3 K. Edw. Brave followers, &c.] This fcene is ill-contrived, in which the king and queen appear at once on the ftage at the head of oppofite armies. It had been eafy to make one retire before the other entered. JOHNSON.

4 My tears gainfay;] To gainfay is to unfay, to deny, to contradict. STEEVENS.

5 Ye fee, Idrink the water of my eyes.] So, in our authour's Venus and Adonis:

"Doft thou drink tears, that thou provok'st such weeping?" These paffages were probably recollected by Rowe, when he wrote in his Jane Sbore,

"Feed on my fighs, and drink my falling tears." So alfo Pope, in the Epiftle from Eloifa to Abelard:

"And drink the falling tears each other fhed."

The folio has eye; but I imagine it was rather an error in the Ranfcriber than an alteration by Shakspeare. The old play reads-eyes. MALONE.

6 Henry, your fovereign, &c.] Inftead of this and the following lines, the original play has thefe:

Henry

SCENE V.

Another part of the fame.

Alarums; Excurfions; and afterwards a Retreat. Then
Enter King EDWARD, CLARENCE, GLOSTER, and
forces; with Queen MARGARET, OXFORD, and So-
MERSET, prisoners.

K. Edw. Now, here a period of tumultuous broils.
Away with Oxford to Hammes' caftle7 ftraight:
For Somerset, off with his guilty head.

• Go, bear them hence; I will not hear them speak,
Oxf. For
my part, I'll not trouble thee with words.
• Som. Nor I, but ftoop with patience to my fortune.
[Exeunt OXFORD and SOMERSET, guarded.
*2. Mar. So part we fadly in this troublous world,
To meet with joy in fweet Jerufalem.

K. Edw. Is proclamation made,-that, who finds
Edward,

Shall have a high reward, and he his life?

Glo. It is; and, lo, where youthful Edward comes.

Enter foldiers, with Prince EDWARD.

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

What! can fo young a thorn begin to prick?• Edward, what fatisfaction canft thou make,

Henry your king is prifoner in the Tower;
His land and all our friends are quite diftreft,
And yonder stands the wolfe that makes all this,
Then in God's name, lords, together crie faint George.

MALONE

7 to Hammes caftle-] A caftle in Picardy, where Oxford was confined for many years. MALONE.

8 For Somerset] Edmond Beaufort, duke of Somerset, the second fon of Edmond duke of Somerfet who was killed at the battle of Saint Albans. See p. 351, n. 7. MALONE.

• For

For bearing arms, for ftirring up my subjects, * And all the trouble thou haft turn'd me to??

Prince. Speak like a subject, proud ambitious York! Suppose, that I am now my father's mouth; Refign thy chair, and, where I ftand, kneel thou, Whilft I propose the self-fame words to thee, Which, traitor, thou would't have me answer to. 2. Mar. Ah, that thy father had been fo refolv'd! Glo. That you might ftill have worn the petticoat, And ne'er have ftol'n the breech from Lancaster. Prince. Let Elop fable' in a winter's night; His currifh riddles fort not with this place.

Glo. By heaven, brat, I'll plague you for that word. 2. Mar. Ay, thou waft born to be a plague to men. Glo. For God's fake, take away this captive fcold. Prince. Nay, take away this fcolding 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: Lafcivious Edward,and thou perjur'd George,And thou mishapen Dick,-I tell ye all,

9 And all the trouble thou hast turn'd me to.] This line was one of Shakspeare's additions to the original play. We have almost the fame words in the Tempest:

O, my heart bleeds,

"To think of the teen [i. e. trouble] that I have turn'd you to.” In the old play Prince Edward is not brought forth as here, but enters with his mother; and after Oxford and Somerfet are carried off, he is thus addreffed by the king:

"Now, Edward, what fatisfaction canst thou make,

"For ftirring up my fubjects to rebellion?" MALONE.

Let Afop, &c. The prince calls Richard, for his crookedness, fop; and the poet, following nature, makes Richard highly incenfed at the reproach. JoHNSON.

2 charm your tongue.] The quarto reads-tame your tongue. The former is beft. STEEVENS.

The expreffion which our authour fubftituted, is one that he has often ufed. See p. 203, n.. The meaning is, I will compel you to be as filent, as you would be, if you were charm'd, if you were deprived of speech by the power of inchantment. MALONE,

I am

I am your better, traitors as ye are ;

And thou ufurp'ft my father's right and mine.

K. Edw. Take that, the likeness of this railer here3.

• Glo. Sprawl'ft thou? take that, to

• Clar. And there's for twitting me

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

[Stabs bim. end thy agony. [Glo. ftabs bim. with perjury.

[Clar. ftabs him.

[Offers to kill her.

• K. Edw. Hold, Richard, hold, for we have done too

much.

Glo. Why should fhe live, to fill the world with words? K. Edw. What! doth fhe fwoon? use means for her

recovery.

Glo. Clarence, excufe me to the king my brother;
I'll hence to London on a serious matter:

Ere ye come there, be fure to hear fome news.

Clar. What? what?

Glo. The Tower, the Tower 4 !

[Exit.

2. Mar. O, Ned, fweet Ned! fpeak to thy mother,

boy!

Canft thou not speak?-O traitors! murderers!—

They, that stabb'à Cæfar, shed no blood at all,
Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame,
* If this foul deed were by, to equal it.
⚫ He was a man; this, in refpect, a child;
And men ne'er spend their fury on a child.

3 the likeness of this railer bere.] That is, thou who art the like nefs, &c. Mr. Rowe and the other modern editors read-tbou likenefs, and fo we should now write; but the other was the phrafeology of Shakspeare's time. So, in Julius Cæfar:

"The last of all the Romans, fare thee well."

In that paffage, as in the prefent, Mr. Rowe fubftituted theu for the, though Shakspeare has employed the very words he found in North's Tranflation of Plutarch. MALONE.

the likeness of this railer bere.] Thou that refembleft thy railing mother. JOHNSON.

4 The Tower, the Tower!] The quarto adds-I'll root them out; but, perhaps, injudiciously. STEVENS,

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