baftard fon of Salisbury) that fell at Ferrybridge. The earl of Salisbury, Warwick's father, was beheaded at Pomfret. In the fame old play a fon is introduced who has killed his father, and afterwards a father who has killed his fon. King Henry, who is on the ftage, fays not a word till they have both appeared, and spoken; he then pronounces a fpeech of feven lines. But in Shakspeare's play (p. 290.) this fpeech is enlarged, and two fpeeches formed on it; the first of which the king fpeaks after the fon has appeared, and the other after the entry of the father. In our author's play, (p. 322,) after Edward's marriage with Lady Grey, his brothers enter, and converfe on that event. The king, queen, &c. then join them, and Edward afks Clarence how he approves his choice. In the elder play there is no previous dialogue between Glofter and Clarence; but the fcene opens with the entry of the king, &c. who defires the opinion of his brothers on his recent marriage. In our author's play (p. 311,) the following line is found: "And fet the murderous Machiavel to school." This line in The true Tragedie of Richarde duke of Yorke, sac, ftood thus: "And fet the afpiring Cataline to school." Cataline was the perfon that would naturally occur to Peele or Greene, as the moft fplendid claffical example of inordinate ambition; but Shakspeare, who was more converfant with English books, fubftituted Machiavel, whofe name was in fuch frequent ufe in his time that it became a fpecifick term for a confummate politician; and accordingly he makes his hoft in The Merry Wives of Windfor, when he means to boast of his own fhrewdness, exclaim, "Am I fubtle? am I a Machiavel?” Many other variations befide those already mentioned might be pointed out; but that I may not weary the reader, I will only refer in a note to the most striking diversities that 4 See p. 104, n. 5. of this volume, are are found between Shakspeare's Second and Third Part of King Henry VI. and the elder dramas printed in quarto 5. The fuppofition of imperfect or fpurious copies cannot account for fuch numerous variations in the circumftances of thefe pieces; (not to infift at prefent on the language in which they are clothed;) fo that we are compelled (as I have already obferved) to maintain, either that Shakspeare wrote two plays on the ftory which forms his Second Part of King Henry VI. a hafty sketch, and an entirely diftinct and more finished performance; or elfe we must acknowledge that he formed that piece on a foundation laid by another writer, that is, upon the quarto copy of The First Part of the Contention of the Houfes of Yorke and Lancaster, &c.—And the fame argument precifely applies to The Third Part of King Henry VI. which is founded on The true Tragedie of Richard duke of Yorke, &c. printed in quarto, 1600. Let us now advert to the Refemblances that are found in these pieces as exhibited in the folio, to paffages in our author's undifputed plays; and alfo to the Inconfiftencies that may be traced between them; and, if I do not deceive myself, both the one and the other will add confiderable fupport to the foregoing obfervations. In our author's genuine plays, he frequently borrows from himself, the fame thoughts being found in nearly the fame expreffions in different pieces. In The Second and Third Part of King Henry VI. as in his other dramas, these coincidencies with his other works may be found; and this was one of the circumftances that once weighed much in my mind, and convinced me of their authenticity. But a collation of thefe plays with the old pieces on which they are founded, has fhewn me the fallacy by which I was de p. 139, n. 3; p. 140, n. 8; n.6; n. 6; n. 5; p. 178, n. 2; p. 199, n. 7; n. 7; p. 231, n. 4; p. 267, n. 2; n. 2; p. 275, p. 290, n. 5; n. 4; p. 278, p. 311, n.9; p. 193, n. 1; 5 See p. 127, n. 2; p. 137, n. 1; p. 154, n.*; p. 170, n. 2; p. 174, n. 8; p. 201, n, 2; p. 205, p. 242, n. 9, and n.*; p. 255, p. 268, n. 7; p. 272, n. 9; p. 274, n. 4; p. 283, n. 8; p. 286, n. 4; p. 321, n.4; p. 328, n. 8, and n.9; p. 350, n. 8. 6 See p. 127, n. 7; p. 131, n. 7; p. 206, n. 8; p. 227, n. 7; p. 256, n. 9; p. 287, n. 8; p. 358, n. 8; and p. 363, n. 9. p. 197, n. ceived; ceived; for the paffages of these two parts of K. Henry VI. which correfpond with others in our author's undisputed plays, exift only in the folio copy, and not in the quarte; in other words, in thofe parts of these new-modelled pieces, which were of Shakspeare's writing, and not in the origi nals by another hand, on which he worked. This, I believe, will be found invariably the cafe, except in three inftances. The firft is, " You have no children, butchers;" which is, it must be acknowledged, in The true Tragedie of Richarde duke of Yorke, &c. 1600; (as well as in The Third Part of King Henry VI.) and is alfo introduced with a flight variation in Macbeth". Another inftance is found in K. John. That king, when charged with the death of his nephew, afks, "Think you, I bear the fhears of destiny? "Have I commandment on the pulse of life?" which bears a ftriking resemblance to the words of Cardinal Beaufort in The firft part of the Contention of the two houses, &c. which Shakspeare has introduced in his Second Part of King Henry VI. Died he not in his bed? "Can I make men live whe'r they will or no?" The third inftance is found in The true Tragedie of Richarde duke of Yorke, &c. In that piece are the following lines, which Shak fpeare adopted with a very flight variation, and inferted in his Third Part of King Henry VI.: doves will peck in rescue of their brood.- "Who hath not feen them even with thofe fame wings "Which they have fometime ufed in fearful flight, "Make war with him that climb'd unto their nest, Offering their own lives in their young's defence?" So, in our author's Macbeth: the poor wren "The most diminutive of birds, will fight, 7 See p. 364, of this volume, and Vol. IV. p. 411. But But whoever recollects the various thoughts that Shak fpeare has borrowed from preceding writers, will not be furprised that in a fimilar fituation, in Macbeth, and King. John, he fhould have ufed the expreffions of an old dramatift, with whose writings he had been particularly converfant; expreffions too, which he had before embodied in former plays: nor can, I think, these three inftances. much diminish the force of the foregoing obfervation. That it may have its full weight, I have in the prefent edition diftinguished by afterifks all the lines in The Second and Third Part of King Henry VI. of which there is no trace in the old quarto plays, and which therefore I fuppofe to have been written by Shak fpeare. Though this has not been effected without much trouble, yet, if it shall tend to fettle this long- agitated queftion, I fhall not confider my labour as wholly thrown away. Perhaps a fimilar coincidency in The First Part of King Henry VI. may be urged in oppofition to my hypothefis relative to that play. "Lean famine, quartering fteel, and climbing fire," are in that piece called the attendants on the brave lord Talbot; as in Shakspeare's King Henry V. famine, fword, and fire, are leath'd in like hounds, crouching under the martial Henry for employment." If this image had procceded from our author's imagination, this coincidency might perhaps countenance the fuppofition that he had fome hand at leaft in that scene of The First Part of King Henry VI. where these attendants on war are perfonified. But that is not the cafe for the fact is, that Shakspeare was furnished with this imagery by a paffage in Holinfbed, as the author of the old play of King Henry VI. was by Hall's Chronicle: "The Goddeffe of warre, called Bellonas-hath these three hand-maides ever of neceflitie attendynge on her; bloud, fyre, and famine 3." In our prefent inquiry, it is undoubtedly a very striking circumftance that almost all the paffages in The Second and Third Part of King Henry VI. which refemble others in Shak fpeare's undisputed plays, are not found in the original pieces in quarto, but in his Rifacimento published in * Hall's Chron. Henry VI. fol. xxix. folio folio. As thefe Refemblances to his other plays, and a pecu liar Shakspearian phrafeology, afcertain a confiderable portion of these difputed dramas to be the production of Shakspeare, fo on the other hand certain paffages which are difcordant (in matters of fact) from his other plays, are proved by this Difcordancy, not to have been compofed by him; and thefe difcordant paffages, being found in the original quarto plays, prove that thofe pieces were composed by another writer. Thus, in The Third Part of King Henry VI. (p. 303,) Sir John Grey is faid to have loft" his life in quarrel of the houfe of York;" and king Edward ftating the claim of his widow, whom he afterwards married, mentions, that his lands after the battle of Saint Albans (February 17, 1460-1) "were feized on by the conqueror." Whereas in fact they were feized on by Edward himself after the battle of Towton, (in which he was conqueror,) March 29, 1461. The conqueror at the fecond battle of Saint Albans, the battle here meant, was Queen Margaret. This ftatement was taken from the old quarto play; and, from careleffnefs was adopted by Shakspeare without any material alteration. But at a fubfequent period when he wrote his King Richard III. he was under a neceffity of carefully examining the English chronicles; and in that play, Act I. fc. iii. he has reprefented this matter truly as it was: "In all which time, you, and your husband Grey, "Were faltious for the house of Lancaster ;— "(And, Rivers, fo were you ;)-Was not your husband "In Margaret's battle at Saint Albans flain ?" It is called "Margaret's battle," becaufe fhe was there victorious. An equally decifive circumftance is furnished by the fame play. In The Third Part of King Henry VI. (p. 320.) Warwick propofes to marry his eldest daughter (Isabella) to Edward prince of Wales, and the propofal is accepted by Edward; and in a fubfequent fcene Clarence fays, he will marry the younger daughter (Anne). In thefe particulars Shakspeare has implicitly followed the elder drama. But the fact is, that the prince of Wales married Anne the younger daughter of the earl of Warwick, and the duke of Ff2 Clarence |