H́nh ảnh trang
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

Unfheath your fword, and dub him presently. Edward, kneel down.

K. HEN. Edward Plantagenet, arise a knight; And learn this leffon,-Draw thy fword in right. PRINCE. My gracious father, by your kingly leave,

I'll draw it as apparent to the crown,
And in that quarrel use it to the death.

CLIF. Why, that is spoken like a toward prince.

Enter a Meffenger.

MESS. Royal commanders, be in readiness : 6 For, with a band of thirty thousand men, Comes Warwick, backing of the duke of York; And, in the towns as they do march along, Proclaims him king, and many fly to him: "Darraign9 your battle, for they are at hand.

CLIF. I would, your highness would depart the field;

The queen 1 hath beft fuccefs when you are abfent.

8

-thirty thoufand-] The quarto reads fifty thousand. STEEVENS.

• Darraign-] That is, Range your hoft, put your hoft in order. JOHNSON.

Chaucer, Skelton, and Spenfer, ufe this word.

Thus alfo, in Guy Earl of Warwick, a Tragical History,

1661:

"Darraign our battles, and begin the fight." The quartos read-Prepare your battles, &c. STEEVENS.

I would, your highness would depart the field;

The queen &c.] This fuperftitious belief, relative to the fortunes of our unhappy prince, is yet more circumftantially introduced by Drayton in The Miseries of Queen Margaret:

Q. MAR. Ay, good my lord, and leave us to our fortune.

K. HEN. Why, that's my fortune too; therefore I'll stay.

NORTH. Be it with resolution then to fight.

PRINCE. My royal father, cheer these noble lords,

And hearten those that fight in your defence: Unsheath your sword, good father; cry, Saint George!

March.

Enter EDWARD, GEORGE, RICHARD, WARWICK, NORFOLK, MONTAGUE, and Soldiers.

EDW. Now, perjur'd Henry! wilt thou kneel for grace,

And set thy diadem upon my head;

Or bide the mortal fortune of the field?

Q. MAR. Go, rate thy minions, proud infulting boy!

'Becomes it thee to be thus bold in terms,
'Before thy fovereign, and thy lawful king?

"Some think that Warwick had not loft the day,
"But that the king into the field he brought;
"For with the worse that fide went ftill away

"Which had king Henry with them when they fought:

66

Upon his birth fo fad a curse there lay,

"As that he never prospered in aught.

"The queen wan two, among the lofs of many,
"Her husband abfent; prefent, never any."

STEEVENS.

So, Hall: " Happy was the queene in her two battayls, but unfortunate was the king in al his enterprises; for where his perfon was prefent, the victorie fledde ever from him to the other parte." Henry VI. fol. C. MALONE.

EDW. I am his king, and he should bow his knee;

I was adopted heir by his confent :

Since when, his oath is broke; for, as I hear,
You that are king, though he do wear the crown,-
Have caus'd him, by new act of parliament,
'To blot out me, and put his own fou in.

• CLIF. And reason too;

Who fhould fucceed the father, but the fon?

RICH. Are you there, butcher ?—O, I cannot fpeak!

CLIF. Ay, crook-back; here I ftand, to answer thee,

'Or any he the proudeft of thy fort.

RICH. 'Twas you that kill'd young Rutland, was it not?

2 I am his king, and he should bow his knee;

I was adopted heir by his confent:

Since when, his oath is broke ;] Edward's argument is founded on the following article in the compact entered into by Henry and the Duke of York, which the author found in Hall's Chronicle, but which I believe made no part of that agreement: "Provided alwaye, that if the king did closely or apertly studye or go about to breake or alter this agreement, or to compafs or imagine the death or destruction of the fayde duke or his bloud, then he to forfet the crowne, and the duke of Yorke to take it.' If this had been one of the articles of the compact, the Duke having been killed at Wakefield, his eldest son would have now a title to the crown. MALONE.

Since when, &c.] The quartos give the remainder of this fpeech to Clarence, and read:

To blot our brother out, &c. STEEVENS.

Here is another variation of the fame kind with those which have been noticed in the preceding play, which could not have arifen from a tranfcriber or printer.-Though Shakspeare gave the whole of this speech to Edward by fubftituting me for brother, the fame divifion which is found in the quarto, is inadvertently retained in the folio. MALOne.

CLIF Ay, and old York, and yet not fatisfied, RICH. For God's fake, lords, give fignal to the fight.

WAR. What fay'ft thou, Henry, wilt thou yield the crown?

'Q. MAR. Why, how now, long-tongu'd Warwick? dare you speak?

When you and I met at Saint Alban's laft,
Your legs did better service than

your hands.3

WAR. Then 'twas my turn to fly, and now 'tis

thine.

CLIF. You faid fo much before, and yet you

fled.

WAR. 'Twas not your valour, Clifford, drove me thence.

'NORTH. No, nor your manhood, that durft make you stay.

RICH. Northumberland, I hold thee reverently;Break off the parle; for scarce I can refrain The execution of my big-fwoln heart

Upon that Clifford, that cruel child-killer.

CLIF. I flew thy father: Call'ft thou him a child?

RICH. Ay, like a dastard, and a treacherous coward,

As thou didst kill our tender brother Rutland;
But, ere fun-fet, I'll make thee curfe the deed.

K. HEN. Have done with words, my lords, and hear me speak.

3 Your legs did better fervice than your hands.] An allufion to the proverb: "One pair of heels is worth two pair of hands." STEEVENS.

[blocks in formation]

Q. MAR. Defy them then, or elfe hold close thy lips.

K. HEN. I pr'ythee, give no limits to my tongue; I am a king, and privileg'd to speak.

CLIF. My liege, the wound, that bred this meeting here,

Cannot be cur'd by words; therefore be still.

RICH. Then, executioner, unfheath thy fword: By him that made us all, I am refolv'd,4 That Clifford's manhood lies upon his tongue.

EDW. Say, Henry, shall I have my right, or no? A thousand men have broke their faits to-day, That ne'er fhall dine, unless thou yield the crown. WAR. If thou deny, their blood upon thy head; For York in juftice puts his armour on.

'PRINCE. If that be right, which Warwick fays is right,

There is no wrong, but every thing is right.

RICH. Whoever got thee,5 there thy mother ftands;

For, well I wot, thou haft thy mother's tongue. Q. MAR. But thou art neither like thy fire, nor dam;

But like a foul misfhapen ftigmatick,"

I am refolv'd,] It is my firm perfuafion; I am no longer in doubt. JOHNSON.

5 Rich. Whoever got thee, &c.] In the folio this speech is erroneously affigned to Warwick. The answer shows that it belongs to Richard, to whom it is attributed in the old play.

6

MALONE.

-misshapen ftigmatick,] "Aftigmatic," fays J. Bullokar in his English Expofitor, 1616, " is a notorious lewd fellow, which hath been burnt with a hot iron, or beareth other marks about him as a token of his punishment."

« TrướcTiếp tục »