BUCK. Such as my heart doth tremble to unfold. A fort of naughty perfons, lewdly bent, 5Under the countenance and confederacy Of lady Eleanor, the protector's wife, The ringleader and head of all this rout.- edge; 6 'Tis like, my lord, you will not keep your hour. [Afide to GLOSter. GLO. Ambitious churchman, leave to afflict my heart! 4 Such as my heart doth tremble to unfold. &c.] In the original play the corresponding speech ftands thus; and the variation is worth noting: "Ill news for some, my lord, and this it is, And here's the answer the devil did make to them." MALONE. 6 A fort-lewdly bent,] Lewdly, in this place, and in fome others, does not fignify wantonly, but wickedly. STEEVENS. The word is fo ufed in old acts of parliament. A fort is a company. See Vol. VII. p. 90, n. 8. MALONE. • Your lady is forthcoming-] That is, Your lady is in cuftody. JOHNSON, * Sorrow and grief have vanquifh'd all my powers: * And, vanquifh'd as I am, I yield to thee, * Or to the meanest groom. * K. HEN. O god, what mifchiefs work the wicked ones; Heaping confufion on their own heads thereby! * Q. MAR. Glofter, fee here the tainture of thy neft; * And, look, thyfelf be faultlefs, thou wert best. 'GLO. Madam, for my felf,' to heaven I do appeal, • How I have lov'd my king, and commonweal: And, for my wife, I know not how it ftands; 'Sorry I am to hear what I have heard: Noble fhe is; but, if fhe have forgot I banifh her, my bed, and company; K. HEN. Well, for this night, we will repofe us here: 'To-morrow, toward London, back again, ↑ Madam, for myself, &c.] Thus in the original play: * Unless the clear herfelf of this foul deed." MALONË. And poife the cause in juftice' equal fcales, Whose beam ftands fure, whofe rightful caufe [Flourish. [Exeunt. prevails. SCENE II. London. The Duke of York's Garden. Enter YORK, SALISBURY, and WARWICK. YORK. Now, my good lords of Salisbury and Our fimple fupper ended, give me leave, • In craving your opinion of my title, • Which is infallible, to England's crown. *SAL. My lord, I long to hear it all full. WAR. Sweet York, begin: and if thy claim be good, The Nevils are thy fubjects to command. YORK. Then thus :- • Edward the Third, my lords, had seven sons : The firft, Edward the Black Prince, prince of Wales; • The second, William of Hatfield; and the third, 'Lionel, duke of Clarence; next to whom, Was John of Gaunt, the duke of Lancaster: The fifth, was Edmond Langley,* duke of York; And poife the cause in juftice' equal fcales, Whofe beam fands fure, whofe rightful caufe prevails.] The fenfe will, I think, be mended if we read in the optative mood: - juftice equal fcale, Whofe beam ftand fure, whofe rightful cause prevail!" JOHNSON. 9 Which is infallible,] I know not well whether he means the opinion or the title is infallible. JOHNSON. Surely he means his title. MALONE. The fifth, was Edmond Langley, &c.] The author of the ori The fixth, was Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Glofter; William of Windfor was the feventh, and laft. Edward, the Black Prince, died before his father: And left behind him Richard, his only son, Who, after Edward the Third's death, reign'd as king; Till Henry Bolingbroke, duke of Lancafler, The eldest fon and heir of John of Gaunt, Crown'd by the name of Henry the Fourth, Seiz'd on the realm; depos'd the rightful king; Sent his poor queen to France, from whence the came, And him to Pomfret; where, as all you know,3 . Harmless Richard was murder'd traiteroufly. WAR. Father, the duke hath told the truth; * Thus got the houfe of Lancafter the crown. YORK. Which now they hold by force, and not by right; For Richard, the first fon's heir, being dead, The iffue of the next fon fhould have reign'd. *SAL. But William of Hatfield died without an heir. YORK. The third fon, duke of Clarence, (from whofe line * I claim the crown,) had iffue daughter, Philippe, a ginal play has ignorantly enumerated Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, Edward's fifth fon; and reprefented the duke of York as Edward's fecond fon. MALONE. 3 as all you know, ] In the original play the words are, as you both know." This mode of phrafeology, when the fpeaker addreffes only two persons, is peculiar to Shakspeare. In King Henry IV. P. II. A& III. fc. i. the king addreffing Warwick and Surrey, fays, "Why then good morrow to you all, my lords. MALONE. VOL. XIV. * Who married Edmund Mortimer, earl of March. Edmund had iffue- Roger, earl of March: Roger had iffue- Edmund, Anne, and Eleanor. SAL. This Edmund, in the reign of Bolingbroke, As I have read, laid claim unto the crown; And, but for Owen Glendower, had been king, Who kept him in captivity, till he died." * But, to the reft. 4 This Edmund, &c.] In A& II. fc. v. of the laft play, York, to whom this is fpoken, is prefent at the death of Edmund Mortimer in prifon; and the reader will recollect him to have been married to Owen Glendower's daughter, in The First Part of King Henry IV. RITSON. Who kept him in captivity, till he died. I have obferved in a former note, Firft Part, Act II. fc. v.) that the hiftorians as well as the dramatick poets have been strangely miflaken concerning this Edmond Mortimer, Earl of March, who was so far from being "kept in captivity till he died, that he appears to have been at liberty during the whole reign of King Henry V. and to have been trufted and employed by him; and there is no proof that he ever was confined, as a fiate-prifoner, by King Henry IV. Being only fix years of age at the death of his father in 1398, he was delivered by Henry in ward to his fon Henry Prince of Wales; and during the whole of that reign, being a minor and related to the family on the throne, both he and his brother Roger were under the particular care of the king. At the age of ten years, iu 1402, he headed a body of Hereford fhire men againft Owen Glendower; and they being routed, he was taken prifoner by Owen, and is faid by Walfingham to have contraded a marriage with Glendower's daughter, and to have been with him at the battle of Shrewsbury; but I believe the ftory of his being affianced to Glendower's daughter is a miftake, and that the hiftorian bas confounded Mortimer with Lord Gray of Ruthvin, who was likewife taken prifoner by Glendower, and actually did marry his daughter. Edmond Mortimer Earl of March married Anne Stafford, the daughter of Edmond Earl of Stafford. If he was at the battle of Shrewsbury he was probably brought there againft his will, to grace the caufe of the rebels. The Percies in the Manifefto which they published a little before that battle, speak of him, not as a confederate of Owen's, but as the rightful heir to the crown, whom Owen had confined, and whom, £nding that the king for political reafons would not ransom him, |