"My lord of Gloucefter, and lord Mortimer, 66 "Go mount your courfers, meet him on the way; Pray him to fpur his fteed, minutes and hours, "Untill his mother fee her princely fon, Shining in glory of his fafe return." Edward I. by George Peele, 1593. "Then go thy ways, and clime up to the clouds, "And if he do deny to send me down "The fhirt which Deianira fent to Hercules, Orlando Furiofo, by Robert Greene, printed in "The work that Ninus rear'd at Babylon, * * * Proportion'd as was Paris, when in gray, "He courted Oenon in the vale by Troy." "Who dar'd for Edward's fake cut through the feas, "And venture as Agenor's damfel through the deepe.". "England's rich monarch, brave Plantagenet, "Could not detain the beauteous Eleanor; "But hearing of the fame of Edward's youth, "She dar'd to brave Neptunus' haughty pride, "And brave the brunt of froward Eolus." Daphne, the damfel that caught Phoebus faft, "And lock'd him in the brightness of her looks, "Was not fo beauteous in Apollo's eyes, "As is fair Margaret, to the Lincoln earl." 66 Strange comick fhews, such as proud Roscius "Vaunted before the Roman emperours." Lacy, thou can'st not fhrowd thy traiterous thoughts, "Nor cover, as did Caffius, all his wiles; "For Edward hath an eye that looks as far "As Lynceus from the thores of Greecia." "Pardon, my lord: If Jove's great royalty "Came courting from the beauty of his lodge; "Nor all the wealth heaven's treasury affords * "Shew thee the tree leav'd with refined gold, * * - Margaret, * "That overfhines our damfels, as the moone "Darkens the brightest sparkles of the night." * "Should Paris enter in the courts of Greece, The Honourable Hiftorie of Friar Bacon, &c. by Robert Greene; written before 1592, printed in 1598. King. Thus far, ye English Peers, have we display'd "Our waving enfigns with a happy war; "Thus nearly hath our furious rage reveng'd My daughter's death upon the traiterous Scot; "That mercy thall be banish'd from our fword. King. Scot, ope those gates, and let me enter in. "Submit thyself and thine unto my grace, "Or I will put each mother's fon to death, "And lay this city level with the ground." James IV. by Robert Greene, printed in 1598; "Valeria, attend; I have a lovely bride The Taming of a Shrew, written before 1594. "To leave faire Athens, and to range the world? "Or be fnatcht up, as erft was Ganimede, "Barons of England, and my noble lords, Though God and fortune hath bereft from us "That from this wombe hath fprung a fecond hope, "Succeed his brother in his emperie." The troublefome Raigne of King John, 1591. as fometimes Phaeton, "Mistrufting filly Merops for his fire-." Ibid. "As curfed Nero with his mother did, "So I with you, if you refolve me not." lbid. "Peace, Arthur, peace! thy mother makes thee wings, "To foar with peril after Icarus." Ibid. "How doth Alecto whisper in my ears, "Delay not, Philip, kill the villaine straight." Ibid. * * "Philippus atavis edite regibus, * "What faift thou, Philip, fprung of ancient kings,"Quo me rapit tempeftas ?" Ibid. "Morpheus, leave here thy filent ebon cave, "Befiege his thoughts with dismal phantafies; "And ghaftly objects of pale threatning Mors, "Affright him every minute with ftern looks." Ibid. "Here is the ransome that allaies his rage, Ibid. "This curfed country, where the traitors breathe, "Whose perjurie (as proud Briareus) "Beleaguers all the fky with misbelief." Ibid. "Muft Conftance speak? let tears prevent her talk. "Muft I difcourfe? let Dido figh, and fay, "She weeps again to hear the wrack of Troy." Ibid. "John, 'tis thy fins that make it miferable, Quicquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi." Ibid. * * "King. Robert of Artoys, banish'd though thou be, "From France, thy native country, yet with us "Thou shalt retain as great a fignorie, "For we create thee earle of Richmond, here: "And now go forwards with our pedigree; "Who next fucceeded Philip of Bew? "Art. Three fonnes of his, which, all fuccefsfully, "Did fit upon their father's regal throne; "Yet died, and left no iffue of their loynes. "King. But was my mother fifter unto these? "Art. She was, my lord; and only Ifabel "Was all the daughters that this Philip had." The Raigne of King Edward III. 1596. The tragedies of Marius and Sylla, by T. Lodge, 1594, A Looking Glafs for London and England, by T. Lodge and R. Greene, 1598, Solyman and Perfeda, written before 1592, Selimus, Emperour of the Turks, 1594, The Spanish Tragedy, 1392, and Titus Andronicus, will all furnith examples of a fimilar verfification; a verfification fo exactly correfponding with that of The First Part of King Henry VI. and The Whole Contention of the Two Houfes of Yorke and Lancaster, &c. as it originally appeared, that I have no doubt thefe plays were the production of fome one or other of the authors of the pieces above quoted or enumerated. A paffage in a pamphlet written by Thomas Nafhe, an intimate friend of Greene, Peele, &c. fhows that The First Part of King Henry VI had been on the stage before 1592; and his favourable mention of this piece inclines me to believe that it was written by a friend of his. "How would it have joyed brave Talbot, (fays Nathe in Pierce Pennileffe his Supplication to the Devil, 1592,) the terror of the French, to thinke that after he had lyen two hundred yeare in his tombe, he should triumph again on the ftage; and have his bones new embalmed with the teares of ten thousand fpectators at least, (at feveral times) who in the tragedian that reprefents his perfon behold him fresh bleeding." This paffage was feveral years ago pointed out by my friend Dr. Farmer, as a proof of the hypothefis which I am now endeavouring to establish. That it related to the old play of King Henry VI. or, as it is now called, The First Part of K. Henry VI, cannot, I think, be doubted. Talbot appears in the First part, and not in the second or third part; and is exprefsly spoken of in the play, (as well as in Hall's Chronicle,) as "the terror of the French." Holinfhed, who was Shakspeare's guide, omits the paffage in Hall, in which Talbot is thus defcribed; and this is an additional proof that this play was not our author's. But of this more hereafter. The First Part of King Henry VI. (as it is now called) furnishes us with other internal proofs alfo of its not being the work of Shakspeare. 1. The author of that play, whoever he was, does not seem to have known precifely how old Henry the Sixth was at the time of his father's death. He opens his play indeed with the funeral of Henry the Fifth, but no where mentions exprefsly the young king's age. It is clear, however, from one paffage, that he fup |