Page images
PDF
EPUB

March on, join bravely, let us to't pell-mell;
If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.-

What shall I say more than I have infer'd?
Remember whom you are to cope withal;-
A fort of vagabonds, rafcals, and run-aways,
A scum of Brittains, and base lackey peafants,
Whom their o'er-cloyed country vomits forth
To defperate ventures and assur'd destruction,
You fleeping safe, they bring you to unreft;
You having lands, and blest with beauteous wives,
They would distrain the one, diftain the other.
And who doth lead them, but a paltry fellow,

Long

4 A fort of vagabonds, A fort, that is, a company, a collection. See notes on Midsummer Night's Dream, a. iii. f. z. JOHNSON.

5 They would restrain the one, distain the other.] The one means the lands; the other, their wives. It is plain then we should read:

They would distrain.
į, e. seize upon. WARBURTON.

6 And who dotb lead them but a paltry fellow,
Long kept in Britaine at our mother's cost?]

1

This is spoken by Richard, of Henry earl of Richmond: but they were far from having any common mother, but England: and the earl of Richmond was not subsisted abroad at the nation's public charge. During the greatest part of his refidence abroad, he was watched and restrained almost like a captive; and subsisted by supplies conveyed from the countess of Richmond, his mother. It seems probable, therefore, that we must read:

Long kept in Bretagne at his mother's cost. THEOBALD. Our mother's cost?] Mr. Theobald perceives to be wrong: he reads therefore, and all the editors after him:

Long kept in Bretagne at his mother's cost.

But give me leave to transcribe a few more lines from Holinshed, and you will find at once, that Shakspeare had been there before

me.

"Ye see further, how a companie of traitors, theeves, outlaws and runnagates be aiders and partakers of his feat and enterprise. And to begin with the erle of Richmond captaine of this rebellion, he is a Welch milkfop-brought up by my moother's meanes and mine, like a captive in a close cage in the court of Francis duke of Britaine." p. 759.

[blocks in formation]

e

Long kept in Brittaine at our brother's cost?
A milk-fop", one that never in his life
Felt fo much cold as over shoes in snow?
Let's whip these stragglers o'er the seas again;
Lash hence these over-weening rags of France,
These famish'd beggars, weary of their lives;
Who, but for dreaming on this fond exploit,
For want of means, poor rats, had hang'd themselves;
If we be conquer'd, let men conquer us,
And not these bastard Brittains; whom our fathers
Have in their own land beaten, bobb'd, and thump'd,
And, on record, left them the heirs of shame.
Shall these enjoy our lands? lie with our wives ?
Ravish our daughters?-Hark, I hear their drum.
[Drum afar off.
Fight, gentlemen of England! fight, bold yeomen!
Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head!

Spur your proud horfes hard, and ride in blood;

8

Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!

Enter a Messenger.

What says lord Stanley? will he bring his power? Mes. My lord, he doth deny to come.

Holinshed copies this verbatim from his brother chronicler Hall, edit. 1548. fol. 54. but his printer has given us by accident the word moother instead of brother; as it is in the original, and ought to be in Shakspeare. FARMER.

A milkfop, &c.] So, in the Mirror of Magistrates already quoted:

" First with our foe-mens captaine to begin,
"A weake Welch milksop, one that I do know
Was ne'er before, &c.?" STEEVENS.

* Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!] That is, fright the skies with the shivers of your lances. JOHNSON. So, in Soliman and Perfeda:

"Now by the marble face of the welkin."

The fame idea is more tamely expressed in W. Smith's Palsgrave, 1613:

"Spears flew in splinters half the way to heaven."

STEEVENS..

K. Rich, K. Rich. Off with his fon George's head. Nor. My lord, the enemy hath past the marsh; After the battle let George Stanley die.

K. Rich. A thousand hearts are great within my

bofom:

Advance our standards, set upon our foes;
Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!

Upon them! Victory fits on our helms. (Exeunt,

SCENE IV,

Another part of the field,

Alarum. Excursions. Enter Catesby.

Cates. Rescue, my lord of Norfolk! rescue! ref

cue!

The king enacts more wonders than a man,
Daring an opposite to every danger';

His

9 Advance our standards, &c.] So again, in the Mirror for Magistrates;

" Advance then captaines, forward to the fight, "Draw forth your swords, each man address his sheeld; "Hence faint conceites, die thoughts of coward flight, "To heaven your hearts, to fight your valours yeeld: "Behold our foes do brave us in the field.

[ocr errors]

Upon them, friends; the cause is yours and mine; "Saint George and conquest on our helmes doth shine." STEEVENS.

Daring an opposite to every danger;] Perhaps the poet wrote: Daring and opposite to every danger. TYRWHITT. Perhaps the following passage in Chapman's version of the eighth book of Homer's Odyssey may countenance the old reading:

[ocr errors]

a most dreadful fight

" Daring against him." STEEVENS.

The old reading is probably right. An oppofite is frequently used by Shakspeare and the contemporary writers, for an adverfary. So, in Twelfth Night : "your oppofite hath in him what youth, strength, skill, and wrath, can furnish man withal."

His horse is lain, and all on foot he fights,
Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death;
Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is loft!

Alarum, Enter King Richard.

K. Rich. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

Cates. Withdraw, my lord, I'll help you to a horse,
K. Rich. Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,

And I will stand the hazard of the dye:
I think, there be fix Richmonds in the field;
Five have I flain to-day, instead of him 3;
A horfe a horse! my kingdom for a horfe!

[Exeunt,

Again:"and his opposite the youth, bears in his visage no presage of cruelty." So, in The Fawn, by Marston, 1605: "A most protested apposite to the match." The sense then, should feem to be, that king Richard enacts wonders, daring the adverfary he meets with to every danger attending fingle combat.

MALONE.

In the Battle of Alcazar, 1598, the Moor calls out in the

fame manner:

"A horfe, a horse, villain a horse!

"That I may take the river strait, and fly!

"Here is a horse, my lord,

"As fwiftly pac'd as Pegasus."

This passage in Shakspeare appears to have been imitated by feveral of the old writers, if not stolen. So, Heywood, in the Second Part of his Iron Age, 1632:

تب

"a horfe, a horse!

"Ten kingdoms for a horse to enter Troy!"

STEEVENS.

Mariton seems to have imitated this line in his Satires, 1599:

A man, a man, a kingdom for a man!" MALONE. 3 Five have I flain to day instead of him:-) Shakspeare had employ'd this incident with historical propriety in the first Part of K. Henry IV. STEEVENS..

A horse! a horse! &c.] This line is introduced into MarRon's What you will, a. ii. fc. 1. 4to. 1607:

"Ha! he mounts Chirall on the wings of fame.
"A borse! a bherse! my kingdome for a horse!
"Locke thee, I speake play scraps, &c." EDITOR.

Alarums.

Alarums. Enter King Richard and Richmond, they fight, Richard is flain.

Retreat, and flourish. Enter Richmond, Stanley, bearing the crown, with divers other Lords.

Richm. God, and your arms, be prais'd, victorious friends;

The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead.

Stanl. Courageous Richmond, well haft thou ac

quit thee!

Lo, here, these long-ufurped royalties,
From the dead temples of this bloody wretch
Have I pluck'd off, to grace thy brows withal;
Wear it, enjoy it, 5 and make use of it.

{

Richm. Great God of heaven, fay, amen, to all!But, tell me, is young George Stanley living?

Stanl. He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town; Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us. Richm. What men of name are flain on either fide? Stanl. John duke of Norfolk, Walter lord Ferrers, Sir Robert Brakenbury, and fir William Brandon. Rich. Interr their bodies as becomes their births.

Proclaim a pardon to the foldiers fled,
That in fubmission will return to us;
And then, as we have ta'en the facrament,

sand make use of it.] Some old books read:

_ make much of it:

We

and therefore Mr. Theobald reads so too: but very foolishly. Without doubt Shakspeare himself thus corrected it to

make use of it.

Which signifies, don't abuse it like the tyrant you have destroyed: whereas the other reading:

make much of it,

fignifies be fond of it; a very ridiculous moral for the conclufion of the play. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton's reading may receive support from a passage in K. Henry VIII. where Wolfey is giving advice to Cromwell: Neglect him not; make use now, and provide " For thine own future safety." STEEVENS.

as we have ta'en the facrament:] So, in Holinshed, p. 745: "The earle himselfe first tooke a corporall oth on his honor,

« PreviousContinue »