WAR. Because thy father Henry did ufurp; And thou no more art prince, than the is queen.

OXF. Then Warwick difannuls great John of Gaunt,

2

Which did fubdue the greatest part of Spain;
And, after John of Gaunt, Henry the fourth,
• Whose wisdom was a mirror to the wifeft ;*
And, after that wife prince, Henry the Fifth,
Who by his prowefs conquered all France :
From these our Henry lineally defcends.

WAR. Oxford, how haps it, in this smooth difcourse,

You told not, how Henry the fixth hath loft
All that which Henry the fifth had gotten?
Methinks, these peers of France fhould fmile at

that.

But for the reft,-You tell a pedigree

Of threefcore and two years; a filly time
To make prescription for a kingdom's worth.

OXF. Why, Warwick, canft thou speak against thy liege,

Whom thou obeyd'ft thirty and fix years,3 And not bewray thy treafon with a blufh?

WAR. Can Oxford, that did ever fence the right, Now buckler falfehood with a pedigree?

For fhame, leave Henry, and call Edward king. OXF. Call him my king, by whofe injurious doom

world.

3

to the wifeft;] So the folio. The quartos-to the STEEVENS.

thirty and fix years,] So the folio. The quartos-thirty and eight years. STEEVENS.

The number in the old play is right. The alteration, however, is of little confequence. MALONE.

My elder brother, the lord Aubrey Vere,

Was done to death? and more than fo, my father, Even in the downfall of his mellow'd years,

• When nature brought him to the door of death ?4 No, Warwick, no; while life upholds this arm, This arm upholds the house of Lancaster.

WAR. And I the house of York.

K. LEW. Queen Margaret, prince Edward, and Oxford,

'Vouchfafe, at our requeft, to stand afide, "While I use further conference with Warwick. * Q. MAR. Heaven grant, that Warwick's words bewitch him not!

[Retiring with the Prince and OXFORD. • K. LEW. Now, Warwick, tell me, even upon thy conscience,

Is Edward your true king? for I were loath,
To link with him that were not lawful chofen.3

When nature brought him to the door of death ?] Thus the folio. The quartos :

"When age did call him to the door of death."

STEEVENS. This paffage unavoidably brings before the mind that admirable image of old age in Sackville's Induction :

"His withered fift still knocking at deathe's dore," &c. FARMER.

S that were not lawful chofen.] Thus the folio. The quarto as follows:

66

that is not lawful heir. STEEevens.

Here we have another inftance of an impropriety into which Shakspeare has fallen by fometimes following and fometimes deferting his original. After Lewis has afked in the old play whether Henry was lawful heir to the crown of England, and has been answered in the affirmative; he next enquires whether he is gracious, that is, a favourite with the people. Shakspeare has preserved this latter question, though he made a variation in the former; not adverting that after a man has been chofen by the voices of the people to be their king, it is quite superfluous to ask

WAR. Thereon I pawn my credit and mine honour.

K. LEW. But is he gracious in the people's eye? WAR. The more, that Henry was unfortunate." K. LEW. Then further,-all diffembling fet afide, 'Tell me for truth the meafure of his love Unto our fifter Bona.

WAR.

Such it seems,

As may befeem a monarch like himself.
Myfelf have often heard him say, and swear,-
That this his love was an eternal plant;"
Whereof the root was fix'd in virtue's ground,
The leaves and fruit maintain'd with beauty's fun;

whether he is popular or no.-Edward was in fact chosen king, both by the parliament and by a large body of the people affem-" bled in St. John's fields. See Fabian, who wrote about fifty years after the time, p. 472, and Stowe, p. 688, edit. 1605. MALONE.

I do not perceive the impropriety of the King's queftion, or the cogency of the remark founded on it. Is it impoffible that á king, elected by his people, fhould foon afterwards become unpopular? STEEVENS.

that Henry was unfortunate.] He means, that Henry was unsuccessful in war, having loft his dominions in France, &c. MALONE.

7 That this his love was an eternal plant;] The old quarto reads rightly eternal; alluding to the plants of Paradise. WARBURTON.

In the language of Shakspeare's time, by an eternal plant was meant what we now call a perennial one. STEEVENS.

The folio reads an external plant; but as that word seems to afford no meaning, and as Shakspeare has adopted every other part of this fpeech as he found it in the old play, without alteration, I fuppofe external was a mistake of the tranfcriber or printer, and have therefore followed the reading of the quarto. MALONE.

Exempt from envy, but not from difdain,8
Unless the lady Bona quit his pain.

K. LEW. Now, fifter, let us hear your firm refolve.

BONA. Your grant, or your denial, fhall be mine :

Yet I confefs, [TO WAR.] that often ere this day, When I have heard your king's desert recounted, Mine ear hath tempted judgment to defire.

* K. LEW. Then, Warwick, thus,-Our fifter fhall be Edward's ;

*And now forthwith fhall articles be drawn * Touching the jointure that your king must make, *Which with her dowry fhall be counterpois'd :Draw near, queen Margaret; and be a witness, That Bona fhall be wife to the English king.

PRINCE. To Edward, but not to the English king. * Q. MAR. Deceitful Warwick! it was thy de

vice

*By this alliance to make void my fuit; *Before thy coming, Lewis was Henry's friend. *K. LEW. And ftill is friend to him and Margaret:

* But if your title to the crown be weak,

8 Exempt from envy, but not from difdain,] Envy is always fuppofed to have fome fafcinating or blafting power; and to be out of the reach of envy is therefore a privilege belonging only to great excellence. I know not well why envy is mentioned here, or whose envy can be meant; but the meaning is, that his love is fuperior to envy, and can feel no blast from the lady's difdain. Or that, if Bona refufe to quit or requite his pain, his love may turn to disdain, though the confciousness of his own merit will exempt him from the pangs of envy. JOHNSON.

I believe envy is in this place, as in many others, put for malice or hatred... His fituation places him above these, though it cannot secure him from female difdain. STEEVENS.

*As may appear by Edward's good fuccefs,-
* Then 'tis but reafon, that I be releas'd
* From giving aid, which late I promised.
* Yet fhall you have all kindness at my hand,
*That your estate requires, and mine can yield.

WAR. Henry now lives in Scotland, at his ease;
Where having nothing, nothing he can lose.
And as for you yourfelf, our quondam queen,-
You have a father able to maintain you;

And better 'twere, you troubled him than France. * Q. MAR. Peace, impudent and fhameless Warwick, peace;

* Proud fetter-up and puller-down of kings!2 *I will not hence, till with my talk and tears, * Both full of truth, I make king Lewis behold * Thy fly conveyance, and thy lord's falfe love; * For both of you are birds of felf-fame feather. [A Horn founded within.

K. LEW. Warwick, this is fome poft to us, or

thee.

9 You have a father able-] This feems ironical. The poverty of Margaret's father is a very frequent topick of reproach.

JOHNSON.

Peace, impudent and shameless Warwick, peace ;] The word peace, at the end of this line, is wanting in the first folio, but is supplied by the fecond. STEEVENS.

2 Proud Jetter-up and puller-down of kings!] The Queen here applies to Warwick, the very words that Edward, p. 76, addreffes to the Deity. M. MASON.

See p. 76, n. 7. The repetition has been already accounted for, in p. 102, n. 2, &c. MALONE.

3 Thy Лy conveyance,] Conveyance is juggling, and thence is taken for artifice and fraud. JOHNSON.

conveyers are you all,

"That rife thus nimbly by a true king's fall."

STEEVENS.