Edw. II, III, i, 30:

'As though your highness were a schoolboy still,
And must be awed and govern'd like a child.'

3 Hen. VI, I, i, I:

'I wonder how the king escaped our hands.' Edw. II, II, v, 1:

'Yet, lusty lords, I have escaped your hands.

2 Hen. VI, II, iv, 86:

'I cannot stay to speak.'

3 Hen. VI, I, i, 180:

'I cannot stay to hear these articles.'

Edw. II, II, iv, 56:

'I cannot stay to answer.'

2 Hen. VI, IV, i, 120:

'My gracious lord, entreat him, speak him fair.' Edw. II, II, ii, 221:

'My lord, dissemble with her, speak her fair.'

1 Hen. VI, V, v, end :

'Margaret shall now be queen, and rule the king;
But I will rule both her, the king, and realm.'

Edw. II, V, iv, 64:

'The queen and Mortimer

Shall rule the realm, the king; and none rules us.'

3 Hen. VI, I, ii, 61:

' And thus most humbly do I take my leave.'

Edw. II, V, i, 124:

'And thus most humbly do we take our leave.'

Still stronger instances of similarity are quoted by Dyce :

2 Hen. VI, I, iii, 53 (quarto edition):

'I tell thee, Poole, when thou didst run at tilt
And stol'st away our ladies' hearts of France.'

Edw. II, V, v, 64:

'Tell Isabel the queen, I lookt not thus
When for her sake I ran at tilt in France.'

2 Hen. VI, III, i, 282 (quarto):

'The wild O'Neil, my lords, is up in arms,
With troops of Irish kerns that uncontrol'd
Doth plant themselves within the English pale.'
Edw. II, II, ii, 156:

The wild O'Neil, with swarms of Irish kerns,
Lives uncontrol'd within the English pale.'

3 Hen. VI, V, ii, 11:

'The cedar

Whose arms gave shelter to the princely eagle.'

Edw. II, II, ii, 16:

6 A cedar tree

On whose top-branches kingly eagles perch.'

3 Hen. VI, V, vi, 61:

'What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster

Sink into the ground? I thought it would have mounted.'

Edw. II, I, i, 90; V, i, 13:

Aspiring Lancaster'

Scorning that the lowly earth

Should drink his blood, mounts up into the air.'

2 Hen. VI, I, iii, 83 (folio only):

'She bears a duke's revenues on her back.'

Edw. II, I, iv, 406:

'He wears a lord's revenues on his back.'

These similarities are sufficient to my mind, to prove identity of authorship in a large portion of these plays; but these are only a few selected out of many. If the student reads the historical plays in the list given above in the chronological order in which they were written, he will be as much surprised at the similarities between Edward II and Henry VI, as he will at the difference between Henry VI and any of the undoubted plays of Shakespeare. He cannot take up a better problem for critical investigation than the authorship of these disputed plays.

B

EXTRACTS FROM FABYAN'S 'CHRONICLE' [EDITION 1559].

‘Edward, the second of that name, and son of Edward I, born at Carnarvon, in a town of Wales, began his reign over England, in the month of July, and the 8 day of the said month, in the year of our Lord 1307, . . the which was crowned at Westminster the 14 day of December. . . . This Edward was fair of body and great of strength, but unsteadfast of manners and vile in conditions: for he would refuse the company of lords and men of honour, and haunt him with villains and vile persons. He also gave him to great drink, and lightly he would discover things of great counsel. With these and many other disallowable conditions he was exercised, which turned him to great dishonour, and his lords to great unrest, as by the sequel of this history shall appear.

Anon as his father was buried and his exequy scantly finished, he, forgetting the high and chargeable commandment of his said father, sent in all haste for his old compere, Piers of Gauestone, the which he received with all joy and gladness, and advanced him to much honour.

"The said King Edwarde, in the month of December [1307], sailed into France, and the 15 day of January [1308] following at Bolein in Pacardy, married Isabell, the daughter of Philip le Bew, then King of France, and soon after returned with her into England, and so unto London.

Then the king gave shortly after unto Piers of Gauestone the earldom of Cornwayle and the lordship of Walynforde, and was ruled all by his wanton counsel, and followed the appetite and pleasure of his body, nothing ordering by sadness, nor yet by order of the law or justice.

'And in the second year* [1309] King Edward, calling to mind the displeasure done unto him and to his familiar Piers of Gauestone by the Bishop of Chester, Master Walter Lancton, commanded him unto the Tower of London, where he was straitly kept many days after.

'Then the lords of the land, and specially Sir Henry Lacy, Sir Guy, and Sir Aymer de Valence, Earl[s] of Lincoln, of Warwick, and Penbroke, to whom the noble prince Edward I had given so great charge that Piers of Gauestone should no more come into England, saw the rule of the land, and how the king's treasury, by means of the said

* These years are Lord Mayor's years, from 29th October to 29th October (old style).

Piers, was wasted, assembled them in counsel, and of one assent, with aid of other lords of the realm, spake so with the king that, contrary his pleasure, he was avoided the land and banished into Ireland for that year. But the king sent unto him oftentimes secret_messengers, and comforted him with many rich gifts, or [sic] made him his chief ruler of the country.

'And in the third year [1310] divers grudges began to move and spring between the king and his lords for the exiling of Pyers Gauestone; wherefore to contain amity between him and them, the said Pyers, about the Feast of the Nativity of our Lady, was fet home again, and so continued to the more mischief of the realme.

'And in the 4 year [1310-11] the rule and power of Pyers Gauestone more and more increasing, insomuch that he, having the guiding of all the king's jewels and treasure, yode upon a day to Westminster, and there out of the king's jewel-house took a table and a pair of trestles of gold, and conveyed them, with other jewels, out of the land, to the great impoverishing of the same; and over that brought the king, by mean of his wanton conditions, to manifold vices, as advoutry, and other. Wherefore the foresaid lords, seeing the mischief that daily increased by reason of this unhappy man, took their counsel together at Lincoln, and there concluded to void him again out of England, so that shortly after he was exiled into Flanders, to the king's great displeasure.

'And in the 5 year [1311-12], upon the day of St Bryce, or the 13 day of November, was born at Winsore the first or eldest son of King Edward, that after his father was King of England, and named Edward III. And this year was again revoked by the king Piers Gauestone out of Flanders, which, after his again coming, demeaned him worse than he before did.

'Insomuch that he disdained the lords of England, and of them had many dispitious and slanderous words, whereof the lords of one mind assented to put this Piers to death, and soon after assembled their powers and besieged him in the castle of Scarburgh, and in process won that castle, and took him and brought him unto Gaversede beside Warwick, and there the 19 day of June smote off his head. Whereof when the king had knowledge, he was grievously displeased against the said lords, and made his avow that his death should be revenged. By mean of this, rancour, that before between the king and his lords was kindled, now began

further to spread, so that after this day the king sought occasion against his lords how he might put them to grievance and displeasure.

'And in the 6 year [1312-13]

word was brought

When he

unto the king how Robert le Bruze was turned into Scotland, and had caused the Scots to rebel of new. had heard of the misguiding of the realm of England, and specially of the division between the king and his lords, he anon, with a small aid of the Normans or Norways, returned into Scotland. Where he demeaned him in such wise to the lords of Scotland, that he in short process was again made king of that realm, and warred strongly upon the king's friends, and wan from them castles and strongholds, and wrought unto Englishmen much sorrow and tene.

'In the seventh year [1313-14], for to oppress the malice of the Scots, the king assembled a great power, and by water entered the realm of Scotland, and destroyed such villages and towns as lay or stood in his way. Whereof hearing, Robert le Bruze, with the power of Scotland, coasted toward the Englishmen, and upon the day of the Nativity of St Jhon the Baptist met with King Edward and his host at a place called Estryvelin, near unto a fresh river that was then called Bannockisbourne, where between the English and the Scots that day was foughten a cruel battle. But in the end the Englishmen were constrained to forsake the field. Then the Scots chased so eagerly the Englishmen, that many of them were drowned in the forenamed river, and many a nobleman of England that day was slain in that battle. And the king himself from that battle scaped with great danger, and so with a few of his host that with him escaped, came unto Berwike and there rested him a season. Then the Scots, inflamed with pride, in derision of the Englishmen made this rime as followeth :

"Maydens of Englande, sore may ye morne,

For your lemmans ye haue loste at Bannockysborne,
Wyth heue a lowe.

What weneth the King of England

So soone to haue wone Scotland

Wyth rumbylowe."

This song was after many days sung in dances in the carols of the maidens and minstrels of Scotland, to the reproof and disdain of Englishmen, with divers other which I overpass. And when King Edward had a season tarried in Barwike,