EDW. No quarrel, but a flight contention. YORK. About what? "RICH. About that which concerns your grace, and us; The crown of England, father, which is yours. "YORK. Mine, boy? not till king Henry be dead. *RICH. Your right depends not on his life, or death. * EDW. Now you are heir, therefore enjoy it now: By giving the house of Lancaster leave to breathe, * It will outrun you, father, in the end. "YORK. I took an oath, that he should quietly reign. EDW. But, for a kingdom, any oath may be broken: 'I'd break a thousand oaths, to reign one year. RICH. No; God forbid, your grace should be forfworn.9 again in this scene addreffes Montague by the title of brother, and Montague ufes the fame to York, Dr. Johnfon's conjecture cannot be right. Shakspeare certainly fuppofed them to be brothers-in-law. MALONE. No quarrel, but a flight contention.] Thus the players, first, in their edition; who did not understand, I prefume, the force of the epithet in the old quarto, which I have reftored-sweet contention, i. e, the argument of their difpute was upon a grateful topick; the queftion of their father's immediate right to the crown. THEOBALD. Sweet is, I think, the better reading of the two; and I should certainly have received it had it been found in the folio, which Mr. Malone fuppofes to be the copy of this play, as reformed by Shakspeare. STEEVENS. 9 Rich. No; God forbid, &c.] Inftead of this and the three following speeches, the old play has these lines: • YORK. I fhall be, if I claim by open war. "RICH. I'll prove the contrary, if you'll hear me fpeak. "YORK. Thou canst not, fon; it is impoffible. RICH. An oath is of no moment,' being not took Before a true and lawful magiftrate, "That hath authority over him that swears: 'Henry had none, but did ufurp the place; Then, feeing 'twas he that made you to depofe, "Your oath, my lord, is vain and frivolous. "Therefore, to arms. * And, father, do but think, * How sweet a thing it is to wear a crown; * Within whofe circuit is Elyfium, * And all that poets feign of blifs and joy. Why do we linger thus? I cannot rest, "Rich. An if it please your grace to give me leave, "I'll fhew your grace the way to fave your oath, "And difpoffefs King Henry from the crown. "York. I pr'ythee, Dick, let me hear thy devife." MALONE. An oath is of no moment,] The obligation of an oath is here eluded by very defpicable fophiftry. A lawful magistrate alone has the power to exact an oath, but the oath derives no part of its force from the magiftrate. The plea against the obligation of an oath obliging to maintain a ufurper, taken from the unlawfulness of the oath itself in the foregoing play, was rational and just. JOHNSON: This fpeech is formed on the following one in the old play : "Rich. Then thus, my lord. An oath is of no mo ment, "Being not fworn before a lawful magiftrate; Henry is none, but doth ufurp your right; "And yet your grace ftands bound to him by oath : "Refolve yourself, and once more claim the crown." MALONE. * Until the white rofe, that I wear, be died YORK. Richard, enough; I will be king, or die. 'Brother, thou fhalt to London presently, 2 And whet on Warwick to this enterprife.'Thou, Richard, fhalt unto the duke of Norfolk, "And tell him privily of our intent. 'You, Edward, fhall unto my lord Cobham, Brother, thou shalt to London prefently,] Thus the original play: "Edward, thou fhalt to Edmond Brooke, lord Cobham, "And bid Richard Nevil Earl of Warwick Both men and money, to further our attempts." MALONE: 3 Witty and courteous, liberal, full of spirit.] What a bleffedharmonious line have the editors given us! and what a promifing epithet, in York's behalf, from the Kentifhmen being io witty! I cannot be fo partial, however, to my own county, as to let this compliment pafs. I make no doubt to read: for they are foldiers, Wealthy and courteous, liberal, full of spirit. Now these five characteristicks answer to Lord Say's defcription of them in the preceding play : "Kent, in the commentaries Cæfar writ, "Is term'd the civil'ft place in all this isle; THEOBALD. This is a conjecture of very little import. JOHNSON. While you are thus employ'd, what refteth more, But that I feek occafion how to rife; And yet the king not privy to my drift, Nor any of the houfe of Lancaster? Enter a Meffenger.+ But, ftay; What news? Why com'ft thou in fuch poft ? 'MESS. The queen, with all the northern earls and lords,5 I fee no reason for adopting Theobald's emendation. Witty anciently fignified, of found judgment. The poet calls Buckingham," the deep revolving, witty Buckingham." STEEVENS. Enter a Meffenger.] Thus the quartos; the folio reads, Enter Gabriel. STEEVENS. Gabriel was the actor who played this inconfiderable part. He is mentioned by Heywood, in his Apology for Actors, 1612. The correction has been made [by Mr. Theobald] from the old play. MALONE. The queen, with all &c.] I know not whether the author intended any moral inftruction, but he that reads this has a ftriking admonition against that precipitancy by which men often use unlawful means to do that which a little delay would put honeftly in their power. Had York ftaid but a few moments, he had faved his caufe from the stain of perjury. JOHNSON. It will be no more than juftice to York, if we recollect that this scene, fo far as respects the oath, and his refolution to break it, proceeds entirely from our author's imagination. Neither the Earl of March nor Richard was then at Sandal; the latter being likewife a mere child, barely turned of eight years old. His appearance, therefore, and actions in this, and, at least, the two firft Acts of the following play, are totally unfupported by his tory and truth.. It may be likewife obferved that the Queen was not actually prefent at this battle, not returning out of Scotland till some little time after. This infurrection, which the Duke, not in breach of, but in ftrict conformity with his oath to the King, and in dif Intend here to befiege you in your caftle: She is hard by with twenty thousand men ;6 'And therefore fortify your hold, my lord. charge of his duty as protector of the realm, had marched from London to fupprefs, was headed by the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Northumberland, and the Lord Nevil, who in direct violation of a mutual agreement, and before the day prefixed for the battle, fell fuddenly upon the Duke's army, made him and Salisbury prifoners, and treated him in the manner here described. See Whethamftede. Salisbury was next day killed at Pontefract by a bastard fon of the Duke of Exeter, and beheaded, with York, Rutland, and others, after death. W. Wyrcefier. RITSON, In October 1460, when it was established in parliament that the Duke of York fhould fucceed to the throne after Henry's death, the Duke and his two fons, the Earl of March, and the Earl of Rutland, took an oath to do no act whatsoever that might "found to the abridgement of the natural life of King Henry the Sixth, or diminishing of his reign or dignity royal." Having perfuaded the King to fend for the Queen and the Prince of Wales, (who were then in York,) and finding that she would not obey his requifition, he on the fecond of December fet out for his caftle in Yorkshire, with fuch military power as he had; a meffenger having been previously dispatched to the Earl of March, to defire him to follow his father with all the forces he could procure. The Duke arrived at Sandal Castle on the 24th of December, and in a fhort time his army, amounted to five thousand men. An anonymous Remarker, [the author of the preceding note,] however, very confidently afferts, that "this fcene, fo far as refpe&ts York's oath and his refolution to break it, proceeds entirely from the author's imagination." His oath is on record; and what his refolution was when he marched from London at the head of a large body of men, and fent the meffage above stated to his fon, it is not very difficult to conjecture. MALONE. with twenty thousand men ;] In the quarto this fpeech ftands as follows: 66 My lord, the queene with thirty thousand men "Accompanied with the earles of Cumberland, Northumberland, and Westmerland, "With others of the houfe of Lancaster, "Are marching towards Wakefield, To befiedge you in your caftle heere." STEEVENS. |