Hold you his hands, whilst I do set it on. [Putting a paper Crown on his Head. 9 Putting a paper Crown on his Head.] Shakspeare has on this occasion deviated from history, if such of our English Chronicles as I have occasionally looked into, may be believed. According to these, the paper crown was not placed on the Duke of York's head till after it had been cut off. Rutland likewise was not killed by Clifford, till after his father's death. STEEVENS. The ingenious commentator is most certainly mistaken. Shakspeare, so far from having deviated from history, has followed it with the utmost precision. Whethamstede expressly tells us, that the Lancastrians, in direct breach of a mutual agreement, and before the day appointed for the battle, fell suddenly upon the Duke's army, and took him and the Earl of Salisbury prisoners; treating both, but especially the Duke, in the most shameful manner: Nam, says he, statuentes eum super unum parvum formicarium colliculum, et quoddam sertum vile, ex palustri gramine confectum, imponentes, per modum coronæ, super caput suum, non aliter quam Judæi coram domino incurvaverunt genua sua coram ipso, dicentes illusorie: Ave rex, sine regimine; ave rex, absque hereditate; ave dux et princeps, absque omni populo penitus et possessione. Ex his una cum aliis variis, in eum probrose opprobrioseque dictis, coegerunt ipsum demum per capitis abs abscissionem clameum relinquere ere suæ justiciæ vendicacionis, p. 489. Not a single circumstance is omitted, or varied in the scene. It is not, however, imagined that Shakspeare had ever consulted Whethamstede: he found the same story no doubt in some old black letter Chronicle, or he might possibly have it from a popular tradition. RITSON. According to Hall the paper crown was not placed on York's head till after he was dead; but Holinshed after giving Hall's narration of this business almost verbatim, adds :-" Some write, that the Duke was taken alive, and in derision caused to stand upon a mole-hill, on whose heade they put a garland instead of a crowne, which they had fashioned and made of segges or bulrushes, and having so crowned him with that garlande, they kneeled downe afore him, as the Jewes did to Christe in scorne, saying to him, byle king without rule, hayle king without heritage, hayle duke and prince without people or possessions. And at length having thus scorned hym with these and dyverse other the like despitefull woordes, they stroke off his heade, which (as yee have heard) they presented to the queen." Both the chroniclers say, that the Earl of Rutland was killed Ay, marry, sir, now looks he like a king! Is crown'd so soon, and broke his solemn oath? CLIF. That is my office, for my father's sake. makes. YORK. She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France, Whose tongue more poisons than the adder'stooth! How ill-beseeming is it in thy sex, To triumph like an Amazonian trull, by Clifford during the battle of Wakefield; but it may be presumed that his father had first fallen. The Earl's tutor probably attempted to save him as soon as the rout began. MALONE. Till our king Henry had shook hands with death.] On York's return from Ireland, at a meeting of parliament it was settled, that Henry should enjoy the throne during his life, and that York should succeed him. See Hall, Henry VI. fol. 98. MALONE. * And will you pale-] i, e. impale, encircle with a crown. MALONE. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: "Whate'er the ocean pales, or sky inclips." STEEVENS. 3-to do him dead.] To kill him. See Vol. VI. p. 170, n. 3. MALONE. See this play, p. 53, n. 9. STEEVENS. Upon their woes, whom fortune captivates? But that thy face is, visor-like, unchanging, Made impudent with use of evil deeds, I would assay, proud queen, to make thee blush: To tell thee whence thou cam'st, of whom deriv'd, Were shame enough to shame thee, wert thou not shameless. Thy father bears the types of king of Naples, That beggars, mounted, run their horse to death. Or as the south to the septentrion." 4 6 Upon their woes,] So, the folio. The quarto reads-Upon his woes. STEEVENS. 5 - the type-] i. e. the distinguishing mark; an obsolete use of the word. So again, in King Richard III : "The high imperial type of this earth's glory." STEEVENS. 'Tis government, that makes them seem divine ;] Government, in the language of that time, signified evenness of temper, and decency of manners. JOHNSON. 7 So, in King Henry IV. P. I. Falstaff says: "Let men say, we be men of good government." STEEVENS. septentrion.] i. e. the North. uses the same word as an adjective: 66 cold septentrion blasts." Septentrio, Lat. Milton STEEVENS. O, tiger's heart, wrapp'd in a woman's hide! How could'st thou drain the life-blood of the child, To bid the father wipe his eyes withal, And yet be seen to bear a woman's face? Women are soft, mild, pitiful, and flexible; 'Thou stern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorseless. 'Bid'st thou me rage? why, now thou hast thy wish: 9 ' Would'st have me weep? why, now thou hast thy will: 'For raging wind blows up incessant showers, 1 And, when the rage allays, the rain begins.2 These tears are my sweet Rutland's obsequies; 8 O, tiger's heart, wrapp'd in a woman's hide!] We find almost the same line in Acolastus his Afterwitte, 1600: 9 "O woolvish heart, wrapp'd in a woman's hide!" MALONE. - thy wish: &c.] So the folio: The quarto reads thy will in the first line, and thy wish in the second. STEEVENS. For raging wind blows up incessant showers,] Thus the folio. The quartos read For raging winds blow up a storm of tears. STEEVENS. 2 Would'st have me weep? why, now thou hast thy will : For raging wind blows up incessant showers, And, when the rage allays, the rain begins.] We meet with the same thought in our author's Rape of Lucrece: " This windy tempest, till it blows up rain, " Held back his sorrow's tide, to make it more; "At last it rains, and busy winds give o'er. " Then son and father weep with equal strife, " Who should weep most for daughter or for wife." Again, in Macbeth : 66 that tears shall drown the wind." Again, in Troilus and Cressida : " Where are my tears? rain, rain, to lay this wind?” Again, in King John: " This shower, blown up by tempest of the soul-." MALONE. ' And every drop cries vengeance for his death, ''Gainst thee, fell Clifford, and thee, false French woman. NORTH. Beshrew me, buthis passions move me so, That hardly can I check my eyes from tears. YORK. That face of his the hungry cannibals Would not have touch'd, would not have stain'd with blood:4 But you are more inhuman, more inexorable,— 3 And every drop cries vengeance for his death,] So the folio. The quarto thus : 4 And every drop begs vengeance as it falls, would not have stainʼd with blood:] Thus the first folio. would not have stain'd the roses just with blood:] So the second folio nonsensically reads the passage; but the old quarto, &c. of better authority, have it thus: That face of his the hungry cannibals Would not have touch'd, would not have stain'd with blood. And this is sense. Could any one now have believed that an editor of common understanding should reject this, and fasten upon the nonsense of the later edition, only because it afforded matter of conjecture? and yet Mr. Theobald will needs correct, roses just with blood, to roses juic'd with blood, that is, change one blundering editor's nonsense for another's. But if there ever was any meaning in the line, it was thus expressed: Would not have stain'd the roses just in bud. As, without correction, the words the roses just, do not make good sense, there is very little reason to suspect their being interpolated, and therefore it is most probable they were preserved among the players by memory. The correction is this: That face of his the hungry cannibals Would not have stain'd the roses just i' th' bloom. The words [the roses just] were, I suppose, left out by the first editors, in order to get rid of the superfluous hemistich. MUSGRAVE. |