Enter a Meffenger.

MESS. My lord ambaffador, these letters are for

you;

Sent from your brother, marquis Montague.
These from our king unto your majesty.-

And, madam, thefe for you; from whom, I know

not.

[To MARGARET. They all read their Letters. OXF. I like it well, that our fair queen and miftrefs

Smiles at her news, while Warwick frowns at his. PRINCE. Nay, mark, how Lewis ftamps as he were nettled: * I hope, all's for the best.

'K. LEW. Warwick, what are thy news? and yours, fair queen?

Q. MAR. Mine, fuch as fill my heart with unhop'd joys.

WAR. Mine, full of forrow and heart's difcontent. K. LEW. What! has your king married the lady Grey?

And now, to footh your forgery and his,4 'Sends me a paper to perfuade me patience? "Is this the alliance that he feeks with France ? Dare he presume to scorn us in this manner? * Q. MAR. I told your majesty as much before : This proveth Edward's love, and Warwick's honesty. WAR. King Lewis, I here proteft,-in fight of heaven,

too footh your forgery and his,] To soften it, to make it more endurable: or perhaps, to footh us, and to prevent our being exasperated by your forgery and his.

MALONE.

And by the hope I have of heavenly blifs,-
That I am clear from this mifdeed of Edward's;
No more my king, for he difhonours me;
But moft himself, if he could fee his fhame.-
Did I forget, that by the house of York
My father came untimely to his death ?5
Did I let pafs the abuse done to my niece?
Did I impale him with the regal crown?
Did I put Henry from his native right ;7
And am I guerdon'd' at the last with shame?
* Shame on himself! for my defert is honour.
* And, to repair my honour loft for him,

Did I forget, that by the house of York

My father came untimely to his death ?] Warwick's father came untimely to his death, being taken at the battle of Wakefield, and beheaded at Pomfret. But the author of the old play imagined he fell at the action at Ferry-bridge, and has in a former fcene, to which this line refers, (See p. 74, n. 3,) described his death as happening at that place. Shakspeare very properly rejected that defcription of the death of the Earl of Salisbury, of whofe death no mention is made in this play, as it now flands; yet he has inadvertently retained this line which alludes to a preceding defcription that he had struck out, and this is another proof of his falling into inconfiftencies, by sometimes following, and fometimes deferting, his original. MALONE.

• Did I let pafs the abufe done to my niece?] Thus Holinfhed, p. 668: King Edward did attempt a thing once in the earles houfe, which was much against the earles honeftie (whether he would have defloured his daughter or his niece, the certaintie was not for both their honours revealed,) for surely such a thing was attempted by king Edward." STEEVENS.

7 Did I put Henry from his native right; &c.]. Thus the folio. The quartos read:

8

play:

"And thrust king Henty from his native home?
"And (moft ungrateful) doth he use me thus ?"

STEEVENS.

guerdon'd-] i. e. rewarded. So, in P. II. of this

"See you well guerdon'd for these good deferts."

STEEVENS.

* I here renounce him, and return to Henry:
My noble queen, let former grudges pafs,
And henceforth I am thy true fervitor;
I will revenge his wrong to lady Bona,
And replant Henry in his former state.

Q. MAR. Warwick, these words have turn'd my hate to love;

'And I forgive and quite forget old faults,

'And joy that thou becom'ft king Henry's friend. WAR. So much his friend, ay, his unfeigned

friend,

That, if king Lewis vouchfafe to furnish us
With fome few bands of chosen foldiers,
I'll undertake to land them on our coaft,
And force the tyrant from his feat by war.
"Tis not his new-made bride fhall fuccour him :
* And as for Clarence, as my letters tell me,
* He's very likely now to fall from him;

* For matching more for wanton luft than honour, * Or then for strength and safety of our country.

* BONA. Dear brother, how fhall Bona be reveng'd,

* But by thy help to this diftreffed queen ? *Q. MAR. Renowned prince, how shall poor Henry live,

* Unless thou rescue him from foul despair?

* BONA. My quarrel, and this English's queen's,

are one.

* WAR. And mine, fair lady Bona, joins with

*K. LEW. And mine, with hers, and thine, and

Margaret's.

Therefore, at laft, I firmly am refolv'd,

* Q. MAR. Let me give humble thanks for all

at once.

K. LEW. Then England's meffenger, return in

poft;

And tell falfe Edward, thy fuppofed king,

That Lewis of France is fending over maskers,
To revel it with him and his new bride:

* Thou feeft what's paft, go fear thy king withal. BONA. Tell him, In hope he'll prove a widower fhortly,

I'll wear the willow garland for his fake.

Q. MAR. Tell him, My mourning weeds are laid afide,

And I am ready to put armour on.1

WAR. Tell him from me, That he hath done me

wrong;

And therefore I'll uncrown him, ere't be long.

There's thy reward; be gone.

K. LEW.

[Exit Meff.

But, Warwick, thou, And Oxford, with five thousand men,

Shall cross the feas, and bid falfe Edward battle :3

9 — gofear thy king-] That is, fright thy king. JOHNSON. So, in King Henry IV. P. II :

I

"The people fear me" &c. STEEVENS.

to put armour on.] It was once no unusual thing for queens thenfelves to appear in armour at the head of their forces. The fuit which Elizabeth wore, when the rode through the lines at Tilbury to encourage the troops, on the approach of the armada, may be ftill feen in the Tower. STEEVENS,

2thy reward;] Here we are to fuppofe that, according to ancient custom, Warwick makes a prefent to the Herald or Meffenger, whom the original copies call-a Poft. See Vol. XII. p. 405, n. 8. STEEVENS.

3

and bid falfe Edward battle :] This phrafe is common to many of our ancient writers. So, in The Misfortunes of Arthur, a dramatick performance, 1587:

And, as occafion ferves, this noble queen-
* And prince shall follow with a fresh supply.
Yet, ere thou go, but anfwer me one doubt ;-
What pledge have we of thy firm loyalty?

WAR. This fhall affure my conftant loyalty
That if our queen and this young prince agree,
I'll join mine eldest daughter, and my joy,
To him forthwith 4 in holy wedlock bands.

"

my flesh abhors

"To bid the battle to my proper blood." STEEVENS.

4 I'll join mine eldest daughter, and my joy,

To him forthwith-] Surely this is a mistake of the copyifts. Hall, in the ninth year of King Edward IV. fays:" Edward prince of Wales wedded Anne fecond daughter to the earl of Warwick." And the Duke of Clarence was in love with the elder, the Lady Ifabel; and in reality was married to her five years before Prince Edward took the Lady Anne to wife. And, in King Richard the Third, Glofter, who married this Lady Anne when a widow, fays:

"For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter. "What though I kill'd her husband and her father?” i. e. Prince Edward, and King Henry VI. her father-in-law. See likewife Holinfhed, in his Chronicle, p. 671 and 674.

THEOBALD.

This is a departure from the truth of history, for Edward Prince of Wales (as Mr. Theobald has obferved,) was married to Anne, fecond daughter of the Earl of Warwick.

But notwithstanding this, his reading [youngest daughter] has, I think, been improperly adopted by the fubfequent editors; for though in fact the Duke of Clarence married Ifabella, the eldest daughter of Warwick, in 1468, and Edward Prince of Wales married Anne, his fecond daughter, in 1470; neither of his daughters was married at the time when Warwick was in France negociating a marriage between Lady Bona and his King: fo that there is no inconfiftency in the prefent proposal. Suppofing, however, that the original author of this play made a mistake, and imagined that the youngest daughter of Warwick was mar