To give the enemy way; and to secure us
By what we can, which can no more but fly.

[Alarum afar off.

If you be ta'en, we then should see the bottom
Of all our fortunes: but if we haply scape,
(As well we may, if not through your neglect,)
We shall to London get; where you are lov'd;
And where this breach, now in our fortunes made,
May readily be stopp'd.

Enter Young CLIFFORD.

Y. Clif. But that my heart's on future mischief set,
I would speak blasphemy ere bid you fly;
But fly you must; uncurable discomfit

Reigns in the hearts of all our present parts.9
Away, for
your relief! and we will live

To see their day, and them our fortune give :
Away, my lord, away!

[Exeunt

SCENE III.

Fields near Saint Albans Alarum: Retreat. Flourish: then enter YORK, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, WARWICK, and Soldiers, with Drum and Colours.

ક

York. Of Salisbury, who can report of him ;
That winter lion, who, in rage, forgets
Aged contusions and all brush of time ;'
And, like a gallant in the brow of youth,
Repairs him with occasion? this happy day
Is not itself, nor have we won one foot,
If Salisbury be lost.

Rich. My noble father,

Three times to-day I holp him to his horse,
Three times bestrid him, thrice I led him off,
Persuaded him from any further act:

But still, where danger was, still there I met him,
And like rich hangings in a homely house,
So was his will in his old feeble body.
But, noble as he is, look where he comes.

Part and party were synonymously used. 1 Read, bruise of time. WARBURTON.

detrition of time. STEEVENS.

STEEVENS.

The brush of time, is the gradual

[2] I read, the blow of youth; the blossom, the spring. JOHNSON.

The brow of youth is the height of youth, as the brow of a hill is its summit.

STEEVENS.

THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI.] The action of this play (which was at first printed under this title, The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York, and the good King Henry the Sixth; or, The Second Part of the Contention of Yorke and Lancaster,) opens just after the first battle at Saint Albans, [May 23, 1455,] wherein the York faction carried the day; and closes with the murder of King Henry VI. and the birth of Prince Edward, afterwards King Edward V. [November 4, 1471.] So that this history takes in the space of full sixteen years. THEOBALD.

I have never seen the quarto copy of the Second part. of THE WHOLE CONTENTION, &c. printed by Valentine Simmes for Thomas Millington, 1600; but the copy printed by W. W. for Thomas Millington, 1600, is now before me; and it is not precisely the same with that described by Mr. Pope and Mr. Theobald, nor does the undated edition (printed in fact, in 1619,) correspond with their description. The title of the piece printed in 1600, by W. W. is as follows: The True Tragedie of Richarde Duke of Yorke, and the death of good King Henrie the Sixt: With the whole Contention between the Two Houses Lancaster and Yorke : as it was sundry times acted by the Right Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke his Servants. Printed at London by W. W. for Thomas Millington, and are to be sold at his Shoppe under St. Peter's Church in Cornewall, 1600. On this piece Shakespeare, as I conceive, in 1591, formed the drama before us. MALONE.

The present historical drama was altered by Crowne, and brought on the stage in the year 1680, under the title of The Miseries of Civil War. Surely the works of Shakespeare could have been little read at that period; for Crowne, in his Prologue, declares the play to be entirely his own composition:

"For by his feeble skill 'tis built alone,

"The divine Shakespeare did not lay one stone."

whereas the very first scene is that of Jack Cade copied almost verbatim from The Second Part of King Henry VI and several others from this third part, with as little va riation. STEEVENS.

PERSONS REPRESENTED.

King HENRY the Sixth:

EDWARD, prince of Wales, his son.
LEWIS XI. king of France.

Duke of SOMERSET. Duke of EXETER.

Earl of OXFORD. Earl of NORTHUM-Lords on K BERLAND. Earl of WESTMORELAND. Henry's side Lord CLIFFord.

RICHARD PLANTAGENET, duke of York:

EDWARD, earl of March, afterwards king

Edward IV.

EDMUND, earl of Rutland,

GEORGE, afterwards duke of Clarence,
RICHARD, afterwards duke of Glocester,

Duke of NORFOLK,

Marquis of MONTAGUE,

Earl of WARWICK,

Earl of PEMBROKE,

Lord HASTINGS,

Lord STAFFOrd,

his sons.

of the duke of York's party.

Sir JOHN MORTIMER, uncles to the duke of York.
Ser HUGH MORTIMER,

HENRY, earl of Richmond, a youth.

Lord RIVERS, brother to Lady Grey. Sir WILLIAM STAN

LEY.

Sir JOHN MONTGOMERY.

Sir JOHN SOMERVILLE.

Tutor to RUTLAND. Mayor of York. Lieutenant of the Tower. A Nobleman.

Two Keepers. A Huntsman.

A Son that has killed his Father. A Father that has killed his Son.

Queen MARGARet.

Lady GREY, afterwards queen to Edward IV.

BONA, sister to the French queen.

Soldiers, and other Attendants on king Henry and king Edward, Messengers, Watchmen, &c.

SCENE, during part of the third Act, in France; during all the rest of the Play, in England.