H́nh ảnh trang
PDF
ePub

Now Phaeton hath tumbled from his car,
And made an evening at the noontide prick.3
YORK. My afhes, as the phoenix, may bring forth
A bird that will revenge upon you all:

And, in that hope, I throw mine eyes to heaven, Scorning whate'er you can afflict me with. 'Why come you not? what! multitudes, and fear? CLIF. So cowards fight, when they can fly no further;

'So doves do peck the falcon's piercing talons; So desperate thieves, all hopeless of their lives, Breathe out invectives 'gainst the officers.

YORK. O, Clifford, but bethink thee once again, ' And in thy thought o'er-run my former time: * And, if thou canft for blushing, view this face And bite thy tongue, that flanders im with cowardice,

;

'Whose frown hath made thee faint and fly ere

this.

CLIF. I will not bandy with thee word for word; But buckle with thee blows, twice two for one.

[Draws. Q. MAR. Hold, valiant Clifford! for a thousand

caufes,

I would prolong awhile the traitor's life :Wrath makes him deaf: fpeak thou, Northumberland.

NORTH. Hold, Clifford; do not honour him fo

much,

To prick thy finger, though to wound his heart:

3 · noontide prick.] Or, noontide point on the dial.

JOHNSON.

The fame phrase occurs in Romeo and Juliet, A& II. fc, iv.

STEEVENS.

What valour were it, when a cur doth grin,
For one to thrust his hand between his teeth,
When he might spurn him with his foot away?
It is war's prize 4 to take all vantages;

[ocr errors]

And ten to one is no impeach of valour.

[They lay hands on YORK, who struggles. CLIF. Ay, ay, fo ftrives the woodcock with the gin.

NORTH. So doth the coney ftruggle in the net. [YORK is taken prisoner. YORK. So triumph thieves upon their conquer'd

booty;

So true men yield,5 with robbers fo o'er-match'd. NORTH. What would your grace have done unto him now?

Q. MAR. Brave warriors, Clifford, and Northumberland,

Come make him ftand upon this molehill here; That raught at mountains with outstretched

[ocr errors]

arms,

4 It is war's prize-] Read-praife. WARBURton,

I think the old reading right, which means, that all 'vantages are in war lawful prize; that is, may be lawfully taken and used. JOHNSON.

To take all advantages, is rather to the difcredit than to the praife of war, and therefore Warburton's amendment cannot be right; nor can I approve of Johnson's explanation ;-it appears to me that it is war's prize, means merely that it is the estimation of people at war; the fettled opinion. M. MASON.

[ocr errors]

-dolus, an virtus, quis in hofte requirat?" Virg. MALONE.

So true men yield,] A true man has been already explained to be an honest man, as opposed to a thief. See Vol. VI. p. 349, n. 8. MALOne.

• That raught-] i. e. That reach'd. The ancient preterite and participle paffive of reach. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "The hand of death has raught him." STEEVENS.

Yet parted but the shadow with his hand.—
*What! was it you, that would be England's king?
Was't you that revell'd in our parliament,

And made a preachment of your high descent?
Where are your mefs of fons to back you now?
The wanton Edward, and the lufty George?
And where's that valiant crook-back prodigy,
Dicky your boy, that, with his grumbling voice,
Was wont to cheer his dad in mutinies?

Or, with the reft, where is your darling Rutland ?
Look, York; I ftain'd this napkin with the blood
That valiant Clifford, with his rapier's point,
Made iffue from the bofom of the boy:
And, if thine eyes can water for his death,
I give thee this to dry thy cheeks withal.
Alas, poor York! but that I hate thee deadly,
I should lament thy miferable state.

I pr'ythee, grieve, to make me merry, York;
Stamp, rave, and fret, that I may fing and dance.
What, hath thy fiery heart fo parch'd thine entrails,
That not a tear can fall for Rutland's death?
*Why art thou patient, man? thou fhouldft be

mad;

* And I, to make thee mad, do mock thee thus.
Thou would'st be fee'd, I fee, to make me fport;
York cannot speak, unless he wear a crown.-
A crown for York ;-and, lords, bow low to him.→→→

2 this napkin-] A napkin is a handkerchief.

JOHNSON.

So, in As you like it: "To that youth he calls his Rofalind, he fends this bloody napkin." STEEVENS.

• Stamp, rave, and fret, &c.] I have placed this line as it ftands in the old play. In the folio it is introduced, I believe, by the careleffness of the tranfcriber, fome lines lower, after the words" do mock thee thus;" where it appears to me out of its place. MALONE.

ᎠᏎ

Hold you his hands, whilft I do fet it on.—

[Putting a paper Crown on his Head.9

Putting a paper crown on his Head.] Shakspeare has on this occafion deviated from hiftory, if fuch of our English Chronicles as I have occafionally looked into, may be believed. According to thefe, the paper crown was not placed on the Duke of York's head till after it had been cut off. Rutland likewife was not killed by Clifford, till after his father's death. STEEVENS.

The ingenious commentator is moft certainly mistaken. Shakfpeare, fo far from having deviated from hiftory, has followed it with the utmost precifion. Whethamftede exprefsly tells us, that the Lancaftrians, in direct breach of a mutual agreement, and before the day appointed for the battle, fell fuddenly upon the Duke's army, and took him and the Earl of Salisbury prifoners; treating both, but especially the Duke, in the moft fhameful manner: Nam, fays he, ftatuentes eum fuper unum parvum formicarium colliculum, et quoddam fertum vile, ex paluftri gramine confectum, imponentes, per modum coronæ, fuper caput fuum, non aliter quam Judæi coram domino incurvaverunt genua fua coram ipfo, dicentes iliuforie: Ave rex, fine regimine; ave rex, abfque hereditate; ave dux et princeps, abfque omni populo penitus et poffeffione. Ex hiis una cum aliis variis, in eum probrofe opprobriofeque dictis, coegerunt ipfum demum per capitis alfciffionem clameum relinquere fuæ jufticiæ vendicacionis, p. 489. Not a fingle circumftance is omitted, or varied in the fcene. It is not, however, imagined that Shakspeare had ever confulted Whethamftede: he found the fame ftory no doubt in fome old black letter Chronicle, or he might poffibly have it from a popular tradition. RITSON.

According to Hall the paper crown was not placed on York's head till after he was dead; but Holinfhed after giving Hall's narration of this business almost verbatim, adds :-" Some write, that the Duke was taken alive, and in derifion caused to stand upon a mole-hill, on whofe heade they put a garland instead of a crowne, which they had fashioned and made of fegges or bul, rufhes, and having fo crowned him with that garlande, they kneeled downe afore him, as the Jewes did to Chrifte in scorne, faying to him, hayle king without rule, hayle king without heritage, hayle duke and prince without people or poffeffions. And at length having thus fcorned hym with thefe and dyverfe other the like despitefull woordes, they ftroke off his heade, which (as yee have heard) they prefented to the queen."

Both the chroniclers fay, that the Earl of Rutland was killed

Ay, marry, fir, now looks he like a king!
Ay, this is he that took king Henry's chair;
And this is he was his adopted heir.-
But how is it that great Plantagenet

Is crown'd fo foon, and broke his folemn oath?
As I bethink me, you should not be king,

2

Till our king Henry had fhook hands with death.'
And will you pale 2 your head in Henry's glory
And rob his temples of the diadem,

Now in his life, against your holy oath?
O, 'tis a fault too too unpardonable !—

Off with the crown; and, with the crown, his head;
And, whilst we breathe, take time to do him dead.3
CLIF. That is my office, for my father's fake.
Q. MAR. Nay, ftay; let's hear the orifons he
makes.

YORK. She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France,

'Whose tongue more poisons than the adder's tooth! How ill-befeeming is it in thy fex,

To triumph like an Amazonian trull,

by Clifford during the battle of Wakefield; but it may be prefumed that his father had first fallen. The Earl's tutor probably attempted to fave him as soon as the rout began. MALONE.

1 Till our king Henry had shook hands with death.] On York's return from Ireland, at a meeting of parliament it was fettled, that Henry fhould enjoy the throne during his life, and that York should fucceed him. See Hall, Henry VI. fol. 98. MALONE. 2 And will you pale-] i. e. impale, encircle with a crown. MALONE.

So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Whate'er the ocean pales, or fky inclips." STEEVENS. to do him dead,] To kill him. See Vol. VI. p. 170, n. 3. MALONE.

3

See this play, p. 53, n. 9. STEevens.

« TrướcTiếp tục »