ing up both his hands for mercy (for his speech was gone for fear), could move the cruel heart of the Lord Clifford to take pity upon him; so that he was noted of great infamy for that his unmerciful murder of that young gentleman."*

In the play, the eyes are closed from fear, but much use is made of the speech in vain supplications to Clifford, who always answers, according to the fiction of the play,

"Thy father slew my father, therefore die."

This address of Clifford to Rutland is in Hall,† but not in Holinshed; a circumstance overlooked by Malone, to whose theory it is unfavourable, if we suppose Shakspeare to have written the old play, from what it is taken.

Rutland, who is here described as a mere child, was above seventeen years old, only one year younger than his brother Edward, and several years older than George and Richard. He had been associated with his elder brother in the acts for attainting the Yorkists, while the younger brothers were unnoticed. Not only Clifford's reference to his father's death by the hand of York, but all that is pitiful in the story, all that is

*Hol., 269. Wethamstede says particularly, that Rutland was slain by Clifford.

† P. 251.

Rolls, v. 349.

beyond the simple fact that Rutland was slain by Clifford, appears to me to rest on the insufficient authority of Hall alone.*

The second act places Edward and Richard Plantagenet, on "a plain near Mortimer's Cross in Herefordshire." I can make nothing of this first scene. It is true enough, that Edward (not Richard) was in Gloucestershire, at the time of the battle of Wakefield, and soon afterwards+ obtained a victory at Mortimer's Cross over the Earl of Pembroke. But here he is made to talk as if he had been present in the battle of Wakefield, and to have come away without knowing the fate of his father! Of this, however, he is soon apprized by a messenger. And the play describes not any victory or battle. § Johnson has remarked, that Shakspeare has judiciously discriminated between "the generous tenderness of Edward, and the savage fortitude of Richard, in their different reception of their father's death;"

"Edw. Oh! speak no more for I have heard too much. Rich. Say how he died, for I will bear it all."

* Not only the old writers to whom I have referred, but Fabyan and P. Vergil are silent.

† Feb. 2, 1461.

Jasper Tudor, half-brother to Henry VI.

§ Mortimer's Cross, as the heading of the scene, is not in the old play. It was probably added by some half-informed commentator. || Bosw., 405.

× and so he was, according to the Play.

And,

Edw. Never, oh! never shall I see more joy. Rich. I cannot weep for all my body's moisture Scarce serves to quench my furnace-burning heart. Richard, I bear thy name, I'll 'venge thy death, Or die renowned by attempting it."

The critic is led by the common prejudice to be very unfair towards Richard. He displays more energy of character, but there is nothing savage in his resolution to avenge the death of his father. However, as the whole is imaginary, I leave it. The appearance in the heavens of

"Three glorious suns, each one a perfect sun," is not a creation of Shakspeare's imagination, as it is to be found in Holinshed, who, as well as the poet, transfers the suns to Edward's shield.

Warwick and Montagu with their troops, now join the brothers; and announce their ill success in the second battle of St. Alban's.* Warwick and Edward did at that time meet and unite their forces, at Chipping Norton, but the battle was fought after the meeting at York; not before it, as in the play.

The introduction of "Lord George your brother," is gratuitous. That prince was seven years

* Feb. 15, 1461. Hol., 272; Wyrc., 486-488. The Duke of Exeter is mentioned as now with the queen.

younger than Edward, and thus only twelve years old at the present time. Edward, too, is made to ask,

Where is the Duke of Norfolk, gentle Warwick,

And when came George from Burgundy to England?" To which the earl answers,

"Some six miles off the duke is with the soldiers,
And for your brother,—he was lately sent
From your kind aunt, Duchess of Burgundy,
With aid of soldiers to this needful war."

The Duchess of Burgundy was not Edward's aunt, nor did she send over Clarence, who, as a boy, had been sent to Flanders with his brother Richard, to be out of the way.*

Warwick adds, that the king and his friends are going to London, to put an end to the settlement to which he had sworn. He advised that Henry's movement should be anticipated: and so it was.

But Shakspeare now brings the king and queen with Clifford, Northumberland, and the Prince of Wales, "before York."+ Here they are met by Edward and the Yorkists, and a long colloquy ensues. The new Duke of York reproaches Henry with perjury.

"I was adopted heir by his consent,

Since when his oath is broke; for, as I hear,

You, that are king, though he do wear the crown,
Have caused him by new act of parliament,

To blot out me, and put his own son in."

No parliament had sat, but Henry had by proclamation declared that the agreement for York's succession to the crown was void.* And though there might be no specific article to the effect, † such a departure from the agreement clearly put the Yorkists in the right.

In the play, the battle of Towton follows; but previously to this, the army which had been victorious at St. Alban's refused to march to London. Henry announced by proclamation that his assent to the late compromise had been extorted by violence; and he gave orders for arresting the young Duke of York; but Edward, as I have said, marched with all his friends to that important place. And now, with the apparent consent of the people, as well as of the "great council of lords spiritual and temporal," Henry was declared to have forfeited the crown, by breaking the award, and Edward was placed upon the throne. This important event occurred early in March, 1461, between the battles of St. Alban's (the second) and Towton; but although it is related by Holinshed,‡ it is unnoticed by our poet.

*Lingard, 166; Rolls, 465.
+ See Bosw., 417.

+ P. 272.