EXE. But, when the duke is slain, they'll quickly fly." K. HEN. Far be the thought of this from Henry's heart, To make a shambles of the parliament-house! [They advance to the Duke. YORK. Thou art deceiv'd, I am thine. EXE. For shame, come down; he made thee duke of York. YORK. 'Twas my inheritance, as the earldom was.9 EXE. Thy father was a traitor to the crown. WAR. Exeter, thou art a traitor to the crown, In following this usurping Henry. 7 Exe. But, when &c.] This line is by the mistake of the compositor given to Westmoreland. The king's answer shows that it belongs to Exeter, to whom it is assigned in the old play. MALONE. * Thou art deceiv'd,] These words, which are not in the folio, were restored from the old play. The defect of the metre in the folio, makes it probable that they were accidentally omitted. The measure is, however, still faulty. MALONE. 9 -as the earldom was.] Thus the folio. The quarto 1600, and that without date, read-as the kingdom is. STEEVENS. York means, I suppose, that the dukedom of York was his inheritance from his father, as the earldom of March was his inheritance from his mother, Anne Mortimer, the wife of the Earl of Cambridge; and by naming the earldom, he covertly asserts his right to the crown; for his title to the crown was not as Duke of York, but Earl of March. In the original play the line stands [as quoted by Mr. Steevens;] and why Shakspeare altered it, it is not easy to say; for the new line only exhibits the same meaning more obscurely. MALONE. CLIF. Whom should he follow, but his natural king? WAR. True, Clifford; and that's Richard, duke of York. K. HEN. And shall I stand, and thou sit in my throne? 'YORK. It must and shall be so. Content thyself. WAR. Be duke of Lancaster, let him be king. WEST. He is both king and duke of Lancaster; And that the lord of Westmoreland shall maintain. WAR. And Warwick shall disprove it. You for get, That we are those, which chas'd you from the field, And slew your fathers, and with colours spread March'd through the city to the palace gates. NORTH. Yes, Warwick, I remember it to my grief; And, by his soul, thou and thy house shall rue it. 'WEST. Plantagenet, of thee, and these thy sons, Thy kinsmen, and thy friends, I'll have more lives, Than drops of blood were in my father's veins. 'CLIF. Urge it no more; lest that, instead of words, I send thee, Warwick, such a messenger, WAR. Poor Clifford! how I scorn his worthless YORK. Will you, we show our title to the crown? 'If not, our swords shall plead it in the field. and that's Richard,] The word and, which was accidentally omitted in the first folio, is found in the old play. MALONE. K. HEN. What title hast thou, traitor, to the crown? Thy father was, as thou art, duke of York; 2 WAR. Talk not of France, sith thou hast lost it all. K. HEN. The lord protector lost it, and not I; When I was crown'd, I was but nine months old. RICH. You are old enough now, and yet, me thinks you lose : Father, tear the crown from the usurper's head. EDW. Sweet father, do so; set it on your head. MONT. Good brother, [To YORK.] as thou lov'st and honour'st arms, Let's fight it out, and not stand cavilling thus. RICH. Sound drums and trumpets, and the king 2 will fly. YORK. Sons, peace! Thy father was, as thou art, duke of York; This is a mistake, into which Shakspeare was led by the author of the old play. The father of Richard Duke of York was Earl of Cambridge, and was never Duke of York, being beheaded in the life-time of his elder brother Edward Duke of York, who fell in the battle of Agincourt. The folio, by an evident error of the press, reads -My father. The true reading was furnished by the old play. MALONE. 3 I am the son of Henry the fifth,] The military Henry the Fifth is the sole support of his son. Henry the Fifth dispersed the followers of Cade. 4 reputation of The name of JOHNSON. - sith-] i. e. since. So, in Measure for Measure: STEEVENS. 1 K. HEN. Peace thou! and give king Henry leave to speak. WAR. Plantagenet shall speak first: -hear him, lords; And be you silent and attentive too, 'K. HEN. Think'st thou, that I will leave my kingly throne, Wherein my grandsire, and my father, sat? No: first shall war unpeople this my realm; 'Ay, and their colours often borne in France; And now in England, to our heart's great sorrow,Shall be my winding-sheet. -Why faint you, lords? 'My title's good, and better far than his. WAR. But prove it, Henry, and thou shalt be king." 5 Think'st thou, &c.] The old play here exhibits four lines that are not in the folio. They could not have proceeded from the imagination of the transcriber, and therefore they must be added to the many other circumstances that have been already urged, to show that these plays were not originally the production of Shakspeare: "Ah Plantagenet, why seek'st thou to depose me? 6 Shall be my winding-sheet.] Perhaps Mr. Gray had this passage in his mind, when he wrote: "Weave the warp, and weave the woof, "The winding-sheet of Edward's race-." STEEVENS. But prove it, Henry, and thou shalt be king.] Thus the second folio. The first omits the necessary word-But. STEEVENS. Henry is frequently used by Shakspeare and his contemporaries as a word of three syllables. MALONE. But not as in the present instance, where such a trisyllable must prove offensive to the ear. STEEVENS. K. HEN. Henry the fourth by conquest got the crown. YORK. 'Twas by rebellion against his king. K. HEN. I know not what to say; my title's weak. Tell me, may not a king adopt an heir? YORK. What then? K. HEN. An if he may, then am I lawful king: For Richard, in the view of many lords, Resign'd the crown to Henry the fourth; Whose heir my father was, and I am his. YORK. He rose against him, being his sovereign, And made him to resign his crown perforce. 8 WAR. Suppose, my lords, he did it unconstrain'd, Think you, 'twere prejudicial to his crown ? EXE. No; for he could not so resign his crown, But that the next heir should succeed and reign. K. HEN. Art thou against us, duke of Exeter? EXE. His is the right, and therefore pardon me. * YORK. Why whisper you, my lords, and answer not? EXE. My conscience tells me he is lawful king. 8 Think you, 'twere prejudicial to his crown?] The phrase prejudicial to his crown, if it be right, must mean, detrimental to the general rights of hereditary royalty; but I rather think that the transcriber's eye caught crown from the line below, and that we should read-prejudicial to his son, to his next heir. JOHNSON. Dr. Percy observes on Dr. Johnson's note, that son could not have been the right word, as Richard the Second had no issue; and our author would hardly have used it simply for heir general. Prejudicial to the crown, is right, i. e. to the prerogative of the crown. STEEVENS. |