Scarce ferves to quench my furnace-burning heart: * Nor can my tongue unload my heart's great bur

den;

* For felf-fame wind, that I fhould speak withal,
*Is kindling coals, that fire all my breast,
*And burn me up with flames,4 that tears would
quench.

*To weep, is to make lefs the depth of grief:5
*Tears, then, for babes; blows, and revenge, for

me!

Richard, I bear thy name, I'll venge thy death, 'Or die renowned by attempting it.

EDW. His name that valiant duke hath left with thee;

'His dukedom and his chair with me is left."

RICH. Nay, if thou be that princely eagle's bird, Show thy descent by gazing 'gainst the sun :7

And burn me up with flames, &c.] So, in King John:
France, I am burn'd up with confuming wrath," &c.
STEEVENS.

5 To weep, &c.] Here, in the original play, instead of these two lines, we have

"I cannot joy, till this white rose be dy'd
"Even in the heart-bloud of the house of Lancaster."

MALONE.

• His dukedom and his chair with me is left.] So the folio. The quarto thus:

"His chair, and dukedom, that remains for me.”

STEEVENS,

Show thy defcent by gazing 'gainst the fun :] So, in Spenser's Hymn of Heavenly Beauty:

like the native brood of eagle's kind, "On that bright fun of glory fix thine eyes." Again, in Solyman and Perfeda:

"As air-bred eagles, if they once perceive
"That any of their brood but close their fight,
"When they should gaze against the glorious fun;
"They ftraitway feize upon him with their talons,

4.

For chair and dukedom, throne and kingdom fay; Either that is thine, or elfe thou wert not his.

March. Enter WARWICK and MONTAGUE, with Forces.8

WAR. How now, fair lords? What fare? what news abroad?

RICH. Great lord of Warwick, if we fhould re

count

Our baleful news, and, at each word's deliverance, Stab poniards in our flesh till all were told,

The words would add more anguifh than the wounds. O valiant lord, the duke of York is flain.

EDW. O Warwick! Warwick! that Plantagenet, Which held thee dearly, as his foul's redemption, Is by the ftern lord Clifford done to death.

"That on the earth it may untimely die,

"For looking but afkew at heaven's bright eye."

STEEVENS.

8 Enter Warwick &c.] This meeting was at Chipping-Norton. W. Wyrcefter, p. 488. RITSON.

9 Is by the stern lord Clifford done to death.] Done to death for killed, was a common expreffion long before Shakspeare's time. Thus Chaucer :

"And seide, that if ye done us both to dien." GRAY. Spenser mentions a plague "which many did to dye."

JOHNSON.

Faire mourir, a French phrase. So, in The Battle of Alcazar,

1594:

"We understand that he was done to death."

Again, ibid:

done to death with many a mortal wound." Again, in Orlando Furiofo, 1599:

"I am the man that did the flave to death."

STEEVENS.

WAR. Ten days ago I drown'd these news in

tears:

And now, to add more measure to your woes,
I come to tell you things fince then befall'n.
After the bloody fray at Wakefield fought,
Where your brave father breath'd his latest gasp,
Tidings, as fwiftly as the pofts could run,
Were brought me of your lofs, and his depart.
I then in London, keeper of the king,
Mufter'd my foldiers, gather'd flocks of friends,
And very well appointed,
well appointed, as I thought,'

March'd towards Saint Alban's to incercept the queen,

Bearing the king in my behalf along:
For by my scouts I was advértifed,
That the was coming with a full intent
To dafh our late decree in parliament,

'Touching king Henry's oath, and your fucceffion.
Short tale to make, we at Saint Alban's met,
Our battles join'd, and both fides fiercely fought:
But, whether 'twas the coldness of the king,
Who look'd full gently on his warlike queen,
That robb'd my foldiers of their hated spleen;
Or whether 'twas report of her fuccefs;
Or more than common fear of Clifford's rigour,
'Who thunders to his captives blood and death,
I cannot judge: but, to conclude with truth,
Their weapons like to lightning came and went ;
Our foldiers'-like the night-owl's lazy flight,3

And very well &c.] This neceffary line I have restored from the old quartos. STEEVENS.

2

to his captives - So the folio. The old play readscaptaines. MALONE.

3

like the night-owl's lazy flight,] This image is not very congruous to the subject, nor was it neceffary to the comparison, which is happily enough completed by the thrasher. JOHNSON.

"Or like a lazy thrafher with a flail,4

Fell gently down, as if they ftruck their friends.
I cheer'd them up with juftice of our caufe,
With promise of high pay, and great rewards:
But all in vain; they had no heart to fight,
And we, in them, no hope to win the day,
So that we fled; the king, unto the queen;
Lord George your brother, Norfolk, and myself,
In hafte, post-hafte, are come to join with you;
For in the marches here, we heard, you were,
Making another head to fight again.

'Epw.5 Where is the duke of Norfolk, gentle Warwick?

Dr. Johnson objects to this comparison as incongruous to the fubject; but I think, unjustly. Warwick compares the languid blows of his foldiers, to the lazy ftrokes which the wings of the owl give to the air in its flight, which is remarkably flow.

M. MASON. Or like a lazy thrasher-] The old play more elegantly reads-Or like an idle thrasher, &c. MALONE.

Edw. &c.] The exact ages of the Duke of York's children, introduced in the prefent play, will beft prove how far our author has, either intentionally or otherwise, deviated, in this particular, from hiftorical truth.

Edward, Earl of March, afterwards Duke of York, and King of England, his fecond fon, was born at Rouen, on Monday the 27th or 28th of April, 1442; Edmund, Earl of Rutland, his third fon, at the fame place, on Monday the 17th of May, 1443; George of York, afterwards Duke of Clarence, his fixth fon, in Dublin, on Tuesday the 21ft of October, 1449; and Richard of York, afterwards Duke of Glofter, and King of England, his eighth fon, at Fotheringay, on Monday the 2d of October, 1452; Henry, the first fon born in 1441, William, the fourth, in 1447. John. the fifth, in 1448, and Thomas, the feventh, in 1451, died young. He had likewife four daughters. The battle of Wakefield was fought the 29th of December, 1460, when Edward, of courfe, was in his nineteenth year. Rutland in his eighteenth, George in his twelfth, and Richard in his ninth.

EA

RITSON.

And when came George from Burgundy to Eng

land?

'WAR. Some fix miles off the duke is with the foldiers:

And for your brother, he was lately fent From your kind aunt, duchess of Burgundy, "With aid of foldiers to this needful war.6

RICH. 'Twas odds, belike, when valiant Warwick fled:

Oft have I heard his praises in pursuit,

But ne'er, till now, his fcandal of retire."

WAR. Nor now my fcandal, Richard, doft thou

hear:

For thou fhalt know, this strong right hand of mine
Can pluck the diadem from faint Henry's head,
And wring the awful scepter from his fift;
Were he as famous and as bold in war,
As he is fam'd for mildness, peace, and prayer.

RICH. I know it well, lord Warwick: blame me

not;

'Tis love, I bear thy glories, makes me speak. But, in this troublous time, what's to be done? Shall we go throw away our coats of steel,

• Edw.

War.

when came George from Burgundy to England? he was lately fent

From your kind aunt, duchess of Burgundy,

With aid of foldiers to this needful war.] This circumstance is not warranted by hiftory. Clarence and Glofter (as they were afterwards created) were fent into Flanders immediately after the battle of Wakefield, and did not return until their brother Edward got poffeffion of the crown. Befides, Clarence was not now. more than twelve years old.

Ifabel, Duchefs of Burgundy, whom Shakspeare calls the Duke's aunt, was daughter of John I. King of Portugal, by Philippa of Lancaster, eldest daughter of John of Gaunt. They were, therefore, no more than third coufins. RITSON.