* And creep into it far before thy time?

* Warwick is chancellor, and the lord of Calais; Stern Faulconbridge commands the narrow feas ;9 The duke is made protector of the realm;

And yet fhalt thou be fafe?* fuch fafety finds *The trembling lamb, environed with wolves. Had I been there, which am a filly woman, The foldiers fhould have tofs'd me on their pikes, 'Before I would have granted to that act. * But thou preferr'ft thy life before thine honour: And feeing thou doft, I here divorce myself,

proach is founded on a pofition long received among politicians, that the lofs of a king's power is foon followed by lofs of life. JOHNSON. Stern Faulconbridge commands the narrow feas ;] So, in Marlowe's Edward II:

“The haughty Dane commands the narrow feas." This may be too flight a circumftance to prove Marlowe the author of The Whole Contention; it is, however, in other refpects, fufficiently probable that he had fome hand in it.

The perfon here meant was Thomas Nevil, baftard fon to the lord Faulconbridge, "a man," fays Hall, "of no leffe corage then audacitie, who for his euel condicions was fuch an apte perfon, that a more meter could not be chosen to fet all the worlde in a broyle, and to put the estate of the realme on an yl hazard." He had been appointed by Warwick vice-admiral of the sea, and had in charge fo to keep the paffage between Dover and Calais, that none which either favoured King Henry or his friends fhould escape untaken or undrowned: fuch at least were his inftructions, with respect to the friends and favourers of King Edward, after the rupture between him and Warwick. On Warwick's death, he fell into poverty, and robbed, both by sea and land, as well friends as enemies. He once brought his fhips up the Thames, and with a confiderable body of the men of Kent and Effex, made a spirited affault on the city, with a view to plunder and pillage, which was not repelled but after a sharp conflict and the lofs of many lives; and, had it happened at a more critical period, might have been attended with fatal confequences to Edward. After roving on the fea fome little time longer, he ventured to land at Southampton, where he was taken and beheaded. See Hall and Holinfhed. RITSON.

<

Both from thy table, Henry, and thy bed, Until that act of parliament be repeal'd, 'Whereby my son is difinherited.1

The northern lords, that have forfworn thy colours, Will follow mine, if once they see them spread:

And spread they fhall be; to thy foul difgrace, 'And utter ruin of the houfe of York.

• Thus do I leave thee :-Come, fon, let's away; 'Our army's ready; come, we'll after them.

K. HEN. Stay, gentle Margaret, and hear me fpeak.

Q. MAR. Thou haft fpoke too much already; get thee gone.

K. HEN. Gentle fon Edward, thou wilt ftay with me?

Q. MAR. Ay, to be murder'd by his enemies.

PRINCE. When I return with victory from the field,

I'll fee your grace: till then, I'll follow her.

Q. MAR. Come, fon, away; we may not linger thus.

[Exeunt Queen MARGARET, and the Prince. "K. HEN. Poor queen! how love to me, and to her fon,

'Hath made her break out into terms of rage!
Reveng'd may the be on that hateful duke;
* Whofe haughty spirit, winged with defire,

Whereby my fon is difinherited.] The correfponding line in the old play is this. The variation is remarkable:

"Wherein thou yieldest to the house of York."

2

from the field,] is found in the old play.

MALONE.

Folio-to the field. The true reading MALOne.

* Will coft my crown, and, like an empty eagle,3

3 Whofe haughty fpirit, winged with defire,

Will cost my crown, and, like an empty eagle, &c.] Read coaft, i. e. hover over it. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton's alteration aims at a distinction without a difference, both cost and coaft being ultimately derivations of the fame original. HENLEY.

The word which Dr. Warburton would introduce, has been fuppofed to violate the metaphor; nor indeed is to coaft ufed as a term of falconry in any of the books profeffedly written on that fubject. To coaft is a fea-faring expreffion, and means to keep along fhore. We may, however, maintain the integrity of the figure, by inferting the word cote, which is ufed in Hamlet, and in a fenfe convenient enough on this occafion :

"We coted them on the way."

To cote, is to come up with, to overtake, to reach. So, in The Return from Parnaffus, a comedy, 1606:

marry, we presently coted and outstript them." Yet, on further inquiry, I am become lefs certain, that to coaft is merely a fea-faring expreffion. It is ufed in the following inftance to denote speed:

"And all in hafte the coafteth to the cry."

Shakspeare's Venus and Adonis.

Again, in The Loyal Subject, by Beaumont and Fletcher :

"Take you thofe horse, and coaft them."

Again, in The Maid of the Mill, by the fame authors, two gentlemen are entering, and a lady aiks:

who are thofe that coaft us?"

Mr. Tollet therefore obferves, that Dr. Warburton's interpretation may be right, as Holinfhed often ufes the verb to coaft, i. e. to hover, or range about any thing. So, in Chapman's verfion of the fifth Iliad:

"Atrides yet coafts through the troops, confirming men

fo ftay'd."

See Holinfhed, Vol. III. p. 352: "William Douglas ftill coafted the Englishmen, doing them what damage he might." So again, p. 387, and 404, and in other writers. STEEVENS,

I have no doubt but coaft is the true reading. To coaft is to keep along fide of it, and watch it. In King Henry VIII. the Chamberlain fays of Wolfey:

66

the king perceives him how he coafts "And hedges his own way."

* Tire on the flesh of me, and of my fon !4 * The lofs of those three lords 5 torments my heart: *I'll write unto them, and entreat them fair;

*

Come, coufin, you fhall be the messenger.6

* Exɛ. And I, I hope, fhall reconcile them all.

[Exeunt.

And in the laft A&t of The Loyal Subject, Archas fays:

Lord Barris,

"Take you thofe horse, and coaft them." M. MASON. Will cofl my crown,] i. e. will coft me my crown; will induce on me the expence or lofs of my crown. MALONE.

Had this been our author's meaning, he would have otherwise formed his verfe, and written "coft me my crown." So, in King Lear:

"The dark and vicious place where thee he got,
Coft him his eyes."

Tire on the flesh of me,] lons, from the French tirer.

To tire is to peck.

1631:

STEEVENS.

To tire is to faften, to fix the ta-
JOHNSON.

So, in Decker's Match me in London,

the vulture tires

"Upon the eagle's heart.". STEEVENS.

sthofe three lords-] That is, of Northumberland, Weftmoreland, and Clifford, who had left him in disgust.

JOHNSON.

-you shall be the messenger.] Instead of the fix laft lines

of this fpeech, the firft copy presents these :

"Come, coufin of Exeter, stay thou here,

"For Clifford and those northern lords be gone,
"I fear towards Wakefield, to disturb the duke."

See p. 16, n. 2, and the notes there referred to, MALONE,

CA

SCENE II.

A Room in Sandal Caftle, near Wakefield, in Yorkfhire.

Enter EDWARD, RICHARD, and MONTAGUE.

RICH. Brother, though I be youngest, give me
leave.

EDW. No, I can better play the orator.
MONT. But I have reasons strong and forcible.

Enter YORK.

"YORK. Why, how now, fons and brother," at a ftrife?

'What is your quarrel? how began it first?

7

-fons, and brother,] I believe we should read-coufin inftead of brother, unless brother be used by Shakspeare as a term expreffive of endearment, or because they embarked, like brothers, in one caufe. Montague was only coufin to York, and in the quarto he is fo called. Shakspeare uses the expreffion, brother of the war, in King Lear. STEEVENS.

It fhould be fons and brothers; my fons, and brothers to each other. JOHNSON.

Brother is right. In the two fucceeding pages York calls Montague brother. This may be in respect to their being brothers of the war, as Mr. Steevens obferves, or of the fame council as in King Henry VIII. who fays to Cranmer: "You are brother of us.' Montague was brother to Warwick; Warwick's daughter was married to a fon of York: therefore York and Montague were brothers. But as this alliance did not take place during the life of York, I embrace Mr. Steevens's interpretation rather than fuppofe that Shakspeare made a mistake about the time of the marriage. ToLLET.

The third folio reads as Dr. Johnson advises. But as York