For ftrokes receiv'd, and many blows repaid, Enter EDWARD, running. EDW. Smile, gentle heaven!1 or strike, ungentle death! For this world frowns, and Edward's fun is clouded. WAR. How now, my lord? what hap? what hope of good? fay) without an hedde [he] was striken into the throte, and incontinent rendered his fpirite, and the erle of Westmerlandes brother, and almost all his company were thare slayn, at a place called Dinting-dale, not farr frō Towton." In the afternoon of the next day (Palm Sunday eve 1461) on a plain field between Towton and Saxton, joined the main battles which continued engaged that night, and the greater part of the following day: upwards of 30,000 men, all English (including many of the nobility and the flower of the gentry, especially of the northern parts) being flain on both fides. This battle, fays Carte, " decided the fate of the house of Lancafier, overturning in one day an ufurpation ftrengthened by fixty-two years continuance, and established Edward on the throne of England." RITSON. An authentick copy of King Edward's account of this battle, together with a lift of the noblemen and knights who were flain in it, may be seen in Sir John Fenn's Collection of the Pafton Letters, Vol. I. p. 216, &c. Henley. 8 Forfpent with toil,] Thus the folio. The quartos read "Sore fpent," &c. STEEVENS. ? And, fpite of fpite,] So, in King John: "And, fpite of Spite, alone holds up the day." STEEVENS. Smile, gentle heaven! &c.] Thus the folio. Inftead of these lines, the quartos give the following: 66 Smile, gentle heavens, or ftrike, ungentle death, STEEVENS. Enter GEORge. *GEO. Our hap is lofs, our hope but fad despair ;2 Our ranks are broke, and ruin follows us : • What counsel give you, whither shall we fly? EDW. Bootlefs is flight, they follow us with wings; And weak we are, and cannot shun pursuit. Enter RICHARD. ' RICH. Ah, Warwick, why haft thou withdrawn thyfelf? Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drunk,3 2 Our hap is lofs, &c.] Thus the folio. The quartos thus : "Come, brother, come, let's to the field again, For yet there's hope enough to win the day: "Then let us back to cheer our fainting troops, "Left they retire now we have left the field. "War. How now, my lords? what hap? what hope of good?" STEEVENS. Our hap is lofs, our hope but fad defpair;] Milton feems to have copied this line: 66 Thus repuls'd, our final hope "Is flat despair." MALONE. 3 Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drunk,] This paffage, from the variation of the copies, gave me no little perplexity. The old quarto applies this defcription to the death of Salisbury, Warwick's father. But this was a notorious deviation from the truth of hiftory. For the Earl of Salisbury in the battle at Wakefield, wherein Richard Duke of York lost his life, was taken prisoner, beheaded at Pomfret, and his head, together with the Duke of York's, fixed over York gates. Then the only brother of Warwick, introduced in this play, is the Marquefs of Montacute (or Montague, as he is called by our author): but he does not die till ten years after, in the battle at Barnet; where Warwick likewife was killed. The truth is, the 'Broach'd with the fteely point of Clifford's lance: And, in the very pangs of death, he cried,— brother here mentioned is no perfon in the drama, and his death is only an accidental piece of hiftory. Confulting the Chronicles, upon this action at Ferrybridge, I find him to have been a natural fon of Salisbury, (in that respect a brother to Warwick,) and esteemed a valiant young gentleman. THEOBALD. Thy brother's blood &c.] Inftead of this fpeech, which is printed, like almost all the rest of the play, from the folio, the quartos give the following: "Thy noble father in the thickest throngs "Cried ftill for Warwick, his thrice valiant fon; STEEVENS. It is here only neceffary to refer to former notes on fimilar variations; See Vol. XIII. p. 210, n. 9; p. 220, n. 6; p. 234, n. 1; p. 317, n. 3; p. 322, n. 3. Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drunk,] In this line, of which there is no trace in the original play, Shakspeare had probably the facred writings in his thoughts: "And now art thou curfed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood." Genefis, iv. 11. The old play (as Theobald has obferved) applies this defcription to the death of Salisbury, contrary to the truth of hiftory, for that nobleman was taken prisoner at the battle of Wakefield, and afterwards beheaded at Pomfret. But both Hall and Holinfhed, in nearly the fame words, relate the circumstance on which this fpeech, as exhibited in the folio is founded; and from the latter our author undoubtedly took it. "The Lord Fitzwalter [who had been ftationed to keep the pass of Ferrybridge] hearing the noise, [made by Lord Clifford and a body of light-horsemen, who attacked by furprize the party stationed at the bridge,] fodainly rofe out of his bedde, and unarmed, with a pollax in his hande, thinking that it had bin a fraye amongst his men, came down to appease the same, but ere he knew what the matter ment, he was flaine, and with him the baftard of Salisbury, death! 'Like to a difmal clangor heard from far,Warwick, revenge! brother, revenge my 'So underneath the belly of their steeds, 'That ftain'd their fetlocks in his fmoking blood, 'The noble gentleman gave up the ghost. 'WAR. Then let the earth be drunken with our blood: I'll kill my horfe, because I will not fly.4. * Were play'd in jeft by counterfeiting actors? EDW. O Warwick, I do bend my knee with thine; brother to the erle of Warwick, a valiant young gentleman, and of great audacitie." Holinfhed, p. 664. In this action at Ferrybridge, which happened on the 28th of March, 1461, the day before the great battle of Towton, Lord Clifford was killed. The author of this play has blended the two actions together. MALONE. 4 I'll kill my horfe, &c.] So, in The Miseries of Queen Margaret, by Drayton : "Refolv'd to win, or bid the world adieu : "Which spoke, the earl his sprightly courfer flew." Again, in Daniel's Civil Wars, B. VIII, ft. xiii. From Hall, Henry VI. p. 102. See p. 71, n. 7. STEEVENS. 5 And look upon,] And are mere fpectators. So, in The Winter's Tale, where I idly fufpected fome corruption in the text: "And look on alike." MALOne. And, in this vow, do chain my foul to thine."* And, ere my knee rife from the earth's cold face, * I throw my hands, mine eyes, my heart to thee, Thou fetter up and plucker down of kings! "Befeeching thee,7-if with thy will it stands, That to my foes this body must be prey,• Yet that thy brazen gates of heaven may ope, 'And give sweet paffage to my finful foul!Now, lords, take leave until we meet again, Where-e'er it be, in heaven, or on earth. RICH. Brother, give me thy hand;-and, gentle Let me embrace thee in my weary arms:- 6 And, in this vow, do chain my foul to thine.] Thus the folio. The quarto as follows: "And in that vow now join my foul to thee." STEEVENS, 7 Befeeching thee,] That is, befeeching the divine power. Shakspeare in new-forming this fpeech may feem, at the first view of it, to have made it obfcure, by placing this line immediately after- "Thou fetter up," &c. What I have now observed is founded on a supposition that the words "Thou fetter up," &c. are applied to Warwick, as they appear to be in the old play. However, our author certainly intended to deviate from it, and to apply this defcription to the Deity; and this is another ftrong confirmation of the observation already made relative to the variations between these pieces and the elder dramas on which they were formed. In the old play the speech runs thus: "Lord Warwick, I do bend my knees with thine, "Or let us die before we lose the day!" The laft two lines are certainly here addreffed to the Deity; but the preceding line, notwithstanding the anachronism, seems to be addreffed to Warwick. MALONE. |