Therefore, no more but this :-Henry, your fove→ reign,'

Is prifoner to the foe; his ftate ufurp'd, His realm a Daughterhouse, his fubjects flain, 'His ftatutes cancell'd, and his treasure spent ; And yonder, is the wolf, that makes this spoil. "You fight in justice then, in God's name, lords, Be valiant, and give fignal to the fight.

[Exeunt both Armies.

SCENE V.

Another Part of the fame.

Alarums: Excurfions: and afterwards a Retreat. Then Enter King EDWARD, CLARENCE, GLOSTER, and Forces; with Queen MARGARET, OXFORD, and SOMERSET, Prifoners.

'K. Edw. Now, here a period of tumultuous broils.

Away with Oxford to Hammes' caftles ftraight:

The folio has-eye: but I imagine it was rather an error in the transcriber than an alteration by Shakspeare. The old play reads-eyes. MALONE.

7

Henry, your fovereign, &c.] Inftead of this and the following lines, the original play has these :

Henry your king is prifoner in the Tower;

"His land and all our friends are quite diftreft,
"And yonder stands the wolfe that makes all this,
"Then in God's name, lords, together crie faint George."

MALONE.

·to Hammes' caftle-] A caftle in Picardy, where Oxford was confined for many years. MALONE.

For Somerfet," off with his guilty head.

'Go, bear them hence; I will not hear them speak. OXF. For my part, I'll not trouble thee with words.

SOM. Nor I, but floop with patience to my fortune.

[Exeunt OXFORD and SOMERSET, guarded. * Q. MAR. So part we fadly in this troublous world,

* To meet with joy in sweet Jerufalem.

*K. EDW. Is proclamation made,-that, who finds Edward,

* Shall have a high reward, and he his life? *GLO. It is: and, lo, where youthful Edward

comes.

Enter Soldiers, with Prince Edward.

* K. EDW. Bring forth the gallant, let us hear him speak:

What! can fo young a thorn begin to prick ?1 'Edward, what fatisfaction canst thou make, 'For bearing arms, for ftirring up my fubjects, * And all the trouble thou haft turn'd me to ?2

9 For Somerset,] Edmond Beaufort, Duke of Somerset, the fecond fon of Edmond Duke of Somerfet who was killed at the battle of Saint Albans. MALONE.

1 What! can fo young a thorn begin to prick?] This is a proverbial obfervation, which I find verfified in “ A Preaty Interlude, called Nice Wanton"

"Early fharpe that wyll be thorne,
"Soone yll that wyll be naught," &c.

2 And all the trouble thou haft turn'd me to ?] one of Shakspeare's additions to the original play. moft the fame words in The Tempest:

VOL. XIV.

STEEVENS.

This line was
We have

PRINCE. Speak like a fubject, proud ambitious York!

Suppose, that I am now my father's mouth; Refign thy chair, and, where I ftand, kneel thou, Whilft I propose the self-fame words to thee, Which, traitor, thou wouldst have me answer to. Q. MAR. Ah, that thy father had been fo refolv'd!

GLO. That you might still have worn the petticoat,

And ne'er have ftol'n the breech from Lancaster.

PRINCE. Let Æfop 3 fable in a winter's night; His currifh riddles fort not with this place.

GLO. By heaven, brat, I'll plague you for that word.

Q. MAR. Ay, thou waft born to be a plague to

men.

GLO. For God's fake, take away this captive

fcold.

PRINCE. Nay, take away this scolding crook-back rather.

'K. Epw. Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm your tongue.4

"To think of the teen [i. e. trouble] that I have turn'd

you to."

In the old play Prince Edward is not brought forth as here, but enters with his mother; and after Oxford and Somerset are carried off, he is thus addressed by the King:

"Now, Edward, what fatisfaction canft thou make, "For ftirring up my fubjects to rebellion ?" MALONE. 3 Let Efop &c.] The Prince calls Richard, for his crookednefs, fop; and the poet, following nature, makes Richard highly incenfed at the reproach. JOHNSON.

4 charm your tongue.] The quarto reads-tame your tongue.

CLAR. Untutor'd lad, thou art too malapert.

PRINCE. I know my duty, you are all undutiful: Lafcivious Edward,-and thou perjur'd George,And thou misfhapen Dick,-I tell ye all,

I am your better, traitors as ye are ;

* And thou ufurp'ft my father's right and mine. K. EDW. Take that, the likeness of this railer

here.5

[Stabs him.

The former is beft. So, in Sir A. Gorges' tranflation of Lucan, 1614 :

"In hope that thy victorious arme

"Their dunghill crowing fo will charme." STEEVENS. This is the right reading. So, in Cynthia's Revels, Mercury fays to Cupid :

How now, my dancing braggart! charm your tongue." And, in The Taming of the Shrew, Lucentio fays:

"But I will charm him firft to keep his tongue."

M. MASON. The expreffion which our author substituted, is one that he has often used. See Vol. XIII. p. 314, n. 1. The meaning is, I will compel you to be as filent, as you would be, if you were charm'd, if you were deprived of speech by the power of inchantment.

3

MALONE.

the likeness of this railer here. &c.] That thou refembleft thy railing mother. JOHNSON.

That is, thou who art the likeness, &c. Mr. Rowe and the other modern editors read-thou likeness, and fo we should now write; but the other was the phraseology of Shakspeare's time. So, in Julius Cæfar :

"The laft of all the Romans, fare thee well."

In that paffage, as in the prefent, Mr. Rowe fubftituted thou for the, though Shakspeare has employed the very words he found in North's tranflation of Plutarch. MALONE.

The old copies defcribe Edward as ftriking the first blow, and Glofter the next; and, I believe, rightly, for hiftory informs us that Edward fmote the Prince with his gauntlet, on which the reft despatch'd him. The words fprawlft thou? feem evidently to belong to Richard; and I have therefore continued them to him on the authority of ancient editions, in preference to the allotment of modern innovation. See edit. 1765, Vol. V. p. 217. STEEVENS.

*GLO. Sprawl'ft thou? take that, to end thy [GLO. ftabs him. * CLAR. And there's for twitting me with per

agony.

jury.

Q. MAR. O, kill me too!

GLO. Marry, and fhall.

[CLAR. ftabs him.

[Offers to kill her.

K. EDW. Hold, Richard, hold, for we have done

too much.

GLO. Why fhould fhe live, to fill the world with

words ?6

'K. EDW. What! doth the fwoon? ufe means for her recovery.

GLO. Clarence, excufe me to the king my brother; I'll hence to London on a ferious matter;

'Ere ye come there, be sure to hear fome news. CLAR. What? what?

"GLO. The Tower, the Tower !"

[Exit.

'Q. MAR. O, Ned, fweet Ned! fpeak to thy mother, boy!

'Canft thou not speak!-O traitors! murderers! They, that ftabb'd Cæfar, fhed no blood at all, Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame, * If this foul deed were by, to equal it. 'He was a man; this, in refpect, a child; And men ne'er fpend their fury on a child.

• What's worse than murderer, that I may name it?

with words ] i. e. difpute, contention. So, in a former of these plays :

"Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me."

STEEVENS.

The Tower, the Tower!] The quarto adds-I'll root them out; but, perhaps, injudiciously and yet, without these words the metre is imperfect. STEEVENS.