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WAR. What anfwers 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 must I be

content:

* We'll yoke together, like a double shadow * 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 confifcate.2

CLAR. What else? and that fucceffion be determin'd.

*WAR. Ay, therein Clarence fhall 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 sent for, to return from France with speed: * For, till I fee them here, by doubtful fear *My joy of liberty is half eclips'd.

2 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 difagreeable repetition of the auxiliary verb-be. STEEVENS.

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CLAR. It fhall be done, my fovereign, with all fpeed.

'K. HEN. My lord of Somerfet, what youth is that,

Of whom

you seem to have fo 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. Suggest but truth to my divining thoughts, This pretty lad3 will prove our country's blifs.

3 This pretty lad-] He was afterwards Henry VII. a man who put an end to the civil war of the two houses, 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 poffeffion 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."

STEEVENS.

Holinfhed tranfcribed this paffage almoft verbatim from Hall, whom the author of the old play, as I conceive, copied. This fpeech originally ftood thus:

"Come hither, pretty lad. If heavenly powers
"Do aim aright, to my divining foul,

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Thou, pretty boy, fhalt prove this country's blifs
Thy head is made to wear a princely crown;

s;

"Thy looks are all replete with majefty:

"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 son of that King's mother Queen

<His looks are full of peaceful majesty;

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• His head by nature fram'd to wear a crown, "His hand to wield a scepter; and himself

Likely, in time, to blefs a regal throne.

Make much of him, my lords; for this is he,
• Must help you more than you are hurt by me.

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 ambush on the foreft fide,

* And from the bishop's huntsmen rescued him; * For hunting was his daily exercise.

*WAR. My brother was too careless of his charge.

Catharine, by her fecond husband Owen Teuther or Tudor, who was taken prifoner 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, lest 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.

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attended him - i. e. waited for him. So, in Co

riolanus:
"I am attended at the cypress grove." STEEVENS.

* But let us hence, my fovereign, to provide * A falve for any fore that may betide.

[Exeunt King HENRY, WAR. CLAR. Lieut. and Attendants.

* Soм. My lord, I like not of this flight of Edward's:

* For, doubtless, Burgundy will yield him help; * And we fhall have more wars, before't be long. * As Henry's late prefaging prophecy

* Did glad my heart, with hope of this young Richmond;

* So doth my heart mifgive me, in these conflicts *What may befall him, to his harm, and ours: * Therefore, lord Oxford, to prevent the worst, *Forthwith we'll fend him hence to Britany, * Till storms be past of civil enmity.

* OXF. Ay; for, if Edward repoffefs the crown, * "Tis like, that Richmond with the reft fhall down. *SOM. It fhall be fo; he fhall to Britany. * Come therefore, let's about it fpeedily.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VII.5

Before York.

Enter King EDWARD, GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and Forces.

'K. EDW. Now, brother Richard, lord Haftings, and the reft;

5 Scene VII.] This fcene in the old play precedes that which Shakspeare has made the fixth of the prefent Act. MALONE.

6 Now, brother Richard, &c.] Inftead of this and the three following speeches, the quartos read only :

Yet thus far fortune maketh us amends,
And fays-that once more I fhall interchange
My waned ftate for Henry's regal crown.

• Well have we pass'd, and now repafs'd the feas, * And brought defired help from Burgundy: 'What then remains, we being thus arriv'd From Ravenfpurg haven before the gates of York, "But that we enter, as into our dukedom?

"Enter Edward and Richard, with a troop of Hollanders. "Edw. Thus far from Belgia have we past the feas, "And march'd from Raunfpur-haven unto York: "But foft! the gates are fhut; I like not this.

"Rich. Sound up the drum, and call them to the walls."

STEEVENS. lord Mr. M. Mason recommends the omiffion of this word. REED.

lord Haftings, and the reft ;] "Leave out the word lord," fays one of our author's commentators. If we do not closely attend to his phrafeology and metre, and fhould think ourselves at liberty to fubftitute modern phrafeology and modern metre, almost every line in his plays might be altered. Brother, like many fimilar words, (rather, whether, either, &c.) is here used by Shakspeare, as a monofyllable, and the metre was to his ear perfect. MALONE.

That there is a marked discrimination between ancient and modern phrafeology, no man will deny; but, furely, ancient and modern five-foot verses can have no correfponding difference. Where, in general, fhall we find more perfect and harmonious metre than that of Shakspeare? His irregular lines are therefore juftly fufpected of having fuffered from omiffion or interpolation. As to the latter part of Mr. Malone's note, in which brother is faid to be used as a monofyllable,-valeat quantum valere poteft. STEEVENS.

Malone fays that brother is to be pronounced as one fyllable ; but that alone will not be fufficient to complete the metre. We must also lay the accent on the last fyllable of the word Richard, and the line muft run thus:

"Now bro'r Richárd, Lord Haftings and the rest.” which would not be very harmonious. M. MASON.

From Ravenfpugh haven before the gates of York,] We may infer from the old quarto (See note 6, in the preceding page,) VOL. XIV.

M

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