SCENE VI. A Room in the Tower. Enter King HENRY, CLARENCE, WARWICK, SoMERSET, young RICHMOND, OXFORD, MONTAGUE, Lieutenant of the Tower, and Attend ants. *K. HEN. Mafter lieutenant, now that God and friends * Have fhaken Edward from the regal feat; * And turn'd my captive state to liberty, My fear to hope, my forrows unto joys; At our enlargement what are thy due fees? *LIEU. Subjects may challenge nothing of their fovereigns; * But, if an humble prayer may prevail, * I then crave pardon of your majesty. *K. HEN. For what, lieutenant? for well ufing me? Nay, be thou fure, I'll well requite thy kindness, * For that it made my imprisonment a pleasure: Ay, fuch a pleasure as incaged birds * * Conceive, when, after many moody thoughts, * At last, by notes of household harmony, *They quite forget their lofs of liberty.*But, Warwick, after God, thou fet'ft me free, * And chiefly therefore I thank God, and thee; *He was the author, thou the instrument. * *Therefore, that I may conquer fortune's fpite, By living low, where fortune cannot hurt me; * And that the people of this blessed land *May not be punish'd with my thwarting flars; Warwick, although my head ftill wear the crown, 'I here refign my government to thee, For thou art fortunate in all thy deeds. *WAR. Your grace hath still been fam'd for vir tuous; * And now may feem as wife as virtuous, * By fpying, and avoiding, fortune's malice, *For few men rightly temper with the stars :9 * Yet in this one thing let me blame your grace, *For choofing me, when Clarence is in place.' *CLAR. NO, Warwick, thou art worthy of the fway, *To whom the heavens, in thy nativity, * WAR. And I choofe Clarence only for protector. *K. HEN. Warwick, and Clarence, give me both your hands; *Now join your hands, and, with your hands, your hearts, * That no diffention hinder government : 'I make you both protectors of this land; 'While I myself will lead a private life, And in devotion spend my latter days, To fin's rebuke, and my Creator's praise. 9 few men rightly temper with the ftars:] I fuppofe the meaning is, that few men conform their temper to their destiny; which King Henry did, when finding himself unfortunate he gave the management of publick affairs to more profperous hands. JOHNSON. in place.] i. e. here prefent. See p. 140, n. 3. STEEVENS. WAR. What answers Clarence to his fovereign's will? * CLAR. That he confents, if Warwick yield confent ; * For on thy fortune I repofe myself. * WAR. Why then, though loath, yet muft I be content: * We'll yoke together, like a double fhadow *To Henry's body, and fupply his place; * I mean, in bearing weight of government, * While he enjoys the honour, and his ease. * And, Clarence, now then it is more than needful, * Forthwith that Edward be pronounc'd a traitor, * And all his lands and goods be confiscate.2 CLAR. What elfe? and that fucceffion be determin'd. *WAR. Ay, therein Clarence shall not want his part. * K. HEN. But, with the first of all your chief affairs, * Let me entreat, (for I command no more,) * That Margaret your queen, and my fon Edward, * Be fent for, to return from France with speed: *For, till I fee them here, by doubtful fear My joy of liberty is half eclips'd. And all his lands and goods be confifcate.] For the infertion of the word be, which the defect of the metre proves to have been accidentally omitted in the old copy, I am answerable. MALONE. Mr. Malone's emendation is countenanced by the following paffage in The Comedy of Errors: "Left that thy goods too foon be confiscate." The fecond folio, however, reads-confifcated; and perhaps this reading is preferable, because it excludes the disagreeable repetition of the auxiliary verb-be. STEEVENS. CLAR. It fhall be done, my fovereign, with all speed. K. HEN. My lord of Somerfet, what youth is that, "Of whom you seem to have so tender care? SOM. My liege, it is young Henry, earl of Richmond. 'K. HEN. Come hither, England's hope: If fecret powers [Lays his Hand on his Head. Suggeft but truth to my divining thoughts, This pretty lad3 will prove our country's blifs. This pretty lad-] He was afterwards Henry VII. a man who put an end to the civil war of the two houfes, but no otherwife remarkable for virtue. Shakspeare knew his trade. Henry VII. was grandfather to Queen Elizabeth, and the King from whom James inherited. JOHNSON. Shakspeare only copied this particular, together with many others, from Holinfhed :-" whom when the king had a good while beheld, he said to fuch princes as were with him: Lo, furelie this is he, to whom both we and our adverfaries, leaving the poffeflion of all things, fhall hereafter give roome and place." P. 678. This pretty lad will prove our country's bliss.] Thus the folio. The quartos thus : Thou, pretty boy, fhalt prove this country's blifs." Holinfhed tranfcribed this paffage almost verbatim from Hall, whom the author of the old play, as I conceive, copied. This fpeech originally stood thus: "Come hither, pretty lad. If heavenly powers "Do aim aright, to my divining foul, "Thou, pretty boy, halt prove this country's blifs; 66 Thy head is made to wear a princely crown; Thy looks are all replete with majesty : "Make much of him, my lords," &c. Henry Earl of Richmond was the fon of Edmond Earl of Richmond, and Margaret, daughter to John the first Duke of Somerset. Edmond Earl of Richmond was half-brother to King Henry the Sixth, being the fon of that King's mother Queen His looks are full of peaceful majesty; Enter a Meffenger. * WAR. What news, my friend? *MESS. That Edward is escaped from your brother, * And fled, as he hears fince, to Burgundy. *WAR. Unfavoury news: But how made he escape? * MESS. He was convey'd by Richard duke of Glofter, * And the lord Haftings, who attended him 4 *In fecret ambufh on the foreft fide, * And from the bishop's huntsmen rescued him; * For hunting was his daily exercise. *WAR. My brother was too carelefs of his charge. Catharine, by her second husband Owen Teuther or Tudor, who was taken prisoner at the battle of Mortimer's Cross, and foon afterwards beheaded at Hereford. Henry the Seventh, to fhow his gratitude to Henry the Sixth for this early prefage in his favour, folicited Pope Julius to canonize him as a faint; but either Henry would not pay the money demanded, or, as Bacon fuppofes, the Pope refused, left "as Henry was reputed in the world abroad but for a fimple man, the estimation of that kind of honour might be diminished, if there were not a distance kept between innocents and faints." MALONE. attended him-] i. e. waited for him. So, in Co riolanus: |