Or live in peace, abandon'd, and despis'd! [Exeunt NORTHUMBERLAND, CLIFFORD, and WESTMORELAND. *WAR. Turn this way, Henry, and regard them not. EXE. They feek revenge,3 and therefore will not yield. K. HEN. Ah, Exeter! WAR. Why should you figh, my lord? K. HEN. Not for myself, lord Warwick, but my fon, Whom I unnaturally fhall difinherit. 'The crown to thee, and to thine heirs for ever; 3 They feek revenge,] They go away, not because they doubt the juftice of this determination, but because they have been conquered, and feek to be revenged. They are not influenced by principle, but paffion. JOHNSON. 4 And neither-] Neither, either, whether, brother, rather, and many fimilar words, were used by Shakspeare as monofyllables. So, in A Midfummer-Night's Dream: "Either death or you I'll find immediately." The editor of the fecond folio, who appears to have been entirely ignorant of our author's metre and phraseology, not knowing this, omitted the word And. MALONE. My ignorance must be content to accompany that of the editor of the fecond folio; for how-either, brother, neither, or rather, can be pronounced as monofyllables, I am yet to learn. The verfification, however, in this and the preceding play is often fo irregular, that I leave the paffage before us as it stands in the first folio. STEEVENS. YORK. This oath I willingly take, and will per[Coming from the Throne. form. WAR. Long live king Henry !-Plantagenet, embrace him. 'K. HEN. And long live thou, and these thy forward fons! YORK. Now York and Lancaster are reconcil'd. WAR. And I'll keep London, with my foldiers. 1 *K. HEN. And I, with grief and forrow, to the court. Enter Queen MARGARET and the Prince of Wales. EXE. Here comes the queen, whofe looks bewray' her anger: I'll fteal away. ક K. HEN. Exeter, fo will I. [Going. I'll to my castle.] Sandal Caftle near Wakefield, in Yorkshire. MALONE. 6 bewray] i. e. betray, difcover. So, in K. Lear: "Mark the high noifes, and thyself bewray." Again, ibid: "He did bewray his practice." STEEVENS. * Q. MAR. Nay, go not from me, I will follow thee. K. HEN. Be patient, gentle queen, and I will stay. 'Q. MAR. Who can be patient in fuch extremes ? Ah, wretched man! 'would I had died a maid, * And never seen thee, never borne thee son, * Seeing thou haft prov'd so unnatural a father! *Hath he deferv'd to lose his birthright thus? *Hadft thou but lov'd him half fo well as I ; * Or felt that pain which I did for him once; * Or nourish'd him, as I did with my blood; * Thou wouldst have left thy dearest heart-blood there, * Rather than made that favage duke thine heir, * And difinherited thine only fon. * PRINCE. Father, you cannot difinherit me: *If you be king, why fhould not I fucceed? *K. HEN. Pardon me, Margaret ;-pardon me, fweet fon; *The earl of Warwick, and the duke, enforc'd me. * Q. MAR. Enforc'd thee! art thou king, and wilt be forc'd? I fhame to hear thee fpeak. Ah, timorous wretch ! Thou haft undone thyfelf, thy fon, and me; 'And given unto the house of York fuch head, * As thou fhalt reign but by their sufferance. *To entail him and his heirs unto the crown, * What is it, but to make thy fepulchre,8 7 Rather than made-] Old copy-Rather than have made. The compofitor inadvertently repeated the word-have, from the preceding line. STEEVENS. Rather is here used as a monofyllable. See p. 17, n. 4. 8 MALONE. What is it, but to make by fepulchre,] The Queen's re * And creep into it far before thy time? * Warwick is chancellor, and the lord of Calais; Stern Faulconbridge commands the narrow feas ;9 The duke is made protector of the realm; And yet fhalt thou be fafe?* such safety finds * The trembling lamb, environed with wolves. • Had I been there, which am a filly woman, The foldiers fhould have tofs'd me on their pikes, 'Before I would have granted to that act. * But thou preferr'ft thy life before thine honour: And seeing thou doft, I here divorce myself, proach is founded on a pofition long received among politicians, that the lofs of a king's power is foon followed by lofs of life. JOHNSON. Stern Faulconbridge commands the narrow feas ;] So, in Marlowe's Edward II: "The haughty Dane commands the narrow feas." This may be too flight a circumstance to prove Marlowe the author of The Whole Contention; it is, however, in other refpects, fufficiently probable that he had fome hand in it. On The perfon here meant was Thomas Nevil, bastard fon to the lord Faulconbridge," a man," fays Hall, "of no leffe corage then audacitie, who for his euel condicions was such an apte person, that a more meter could not be chosen to set all the worlde in a broyle, and to put the estate of the realme on an yl hazard." He had been appointed by Warwick vice-admiral of the sea, and had in charge fo to keep the paffage between Dover and Calais, that none which either favoured King Henry or his friends should escape untaken or undrowned: fuch at least were his inftructions, with respect to the friends and favourers of King Edward, after the rupture between him and Warwick. Warwick's death, he fell into poverty, and robbed, both by fea and land, as well friends as enemies. He once brought his fhips up the Thames, and with a confiderable body of the men of Kent and Effex, made a spirited affault on the city, with a view to plunder and pillage, which was not repelled but after a fharp conflict and the lofs of many lives; and, had it happened at a more critical period, might have been attended with fatal confequences to Edward. After roving on the fea fome little time longer, he ventured to land at Southampton, where he was taken and beheaded. See Hall and Holinfhed. RITSON. Both from thy table, Henry, and thy bed, Until that act of parliament be repeal'd, 'Whereby my fon is difinherited.1 The northern lords, that have forfworn thy colours, • Thus do I leave thee:-Come, fon, let's away; 'Our army's ready; come, we'll after them. K. HEN. Stay, gentle Margaret, and hear me speak. Q. MAR. Thou haft fpoke too much already; get thee gone. K. HEN. Gentle fon Edward, thou wilt stay with me? Q. MAR. Ay, to be murder'd by his enemies. PRINCE. When I return with victory from the field,2 I'll fee your grace: till then, I'll follow her. Q. MAR. Come, fon, away; we may not linger thus. [Exeunt Queen MARGARET, and the Prince. "K. HEN. Poor queen! how love to me, and to her fon, 'Hath made her break out into terms of rage! I Whereby my fon is difinherited.] The correfponding line in the old play is this. The variation is remarkable: "Wherein thou yieldest to the house of York." MALONE. Folio-to the field. The true reading MALOne. |