EXE. But when the duke is flain, they'll quickly fly.7 K. HEN. Far be the thought of this from Henry's heart, To make a shambles of the parliament-house ! Coufin of Exeter, frowns, words, and threats, Shall be the war that Henry means to use. [They advance to the Duke. Thou factious duke of York, descend my throne, 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 ufurping Henry. 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 affigned 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. - 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 afferts 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 fame 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 fit 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 forget, That we are those, which chas'd you from the field, And flew your fathers, and with colours spread March'd through the city to the palace gates. NORTH. Yes, Warwick, I remember it to my And, by his foul, thou and thy house shall rue it. '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 threats! 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 acci dentally 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; WAR. Talk not of France, fith 4 thou hast loft it all. K. HEN. The lord protector loft it, and not I; When I was crown'd, I was but nine months old. RICH. You are old enough now, and yet, methinks you lose : Father tear the crown from the ufurper's head. EDW. Sweet father, do fo; set it on your head. MONT. Good brother, [To YORK.] as thou lov'ft and honour'st arms, Let's fight it out, and not stand cavilling thus. 2 RICH. Sound drums and trumpets, and the king will fly. YORK. Sons, peace! Thy father was, as thou art, duke of York ;) This is a miftake, 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 fon of Henry the fifth,] The military reputation of Henry the Fifth is the fole support of his fon. Henry the Fifth dispersed the followers of Cade. 4 The name of -Sith-] i. e. fince. So, in Measure for Measure: STEEVENS. K. HEN. Peace thou! and give king Henry leave to fpeak. WAR. Plantagenet shall speak first :-hear him, lords; And be you filent and attentive too, K. HEN. Think'st thou, that I will leave my kingly throne,5 Wherein my grandfire, and my father, fat? 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 forrow, Shall be my winding sheet.6-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 tranfcriber, and therefore they must be added to the many other circumftances that have been already urged, to show that these plays were not originally the production of Shakspeare: "Ah Plantagenet, why seek'ft thou to depose me? "And from two brothers lineally discent? " Suppose by right and equity thou be king, "Think'st thou," &c. MALONE. • Shall be my winding-sheet.] Perhaps Mr. Gray had this paffage 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 neceffary word-But. STEEVENS. Henry is frequently used by Shakspeare and his contemporaries as-a word of three fyllables. MALONE. But not as in the present instance, where such a trifyllable must prove offenfive 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 fovereign, And made him to resign his crown perforce. WAR. Suppose, my lords, he did it unconstrain'd, Think you, 'twere prejudicial to his crown ?8 EXE. No; for he could not so resign his crown, But that the next heir should fucceed 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 confcience tells me he is lawful king. * 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 fon, to his next heir. JOHNSON. Dr. Percy observes on Dr. Johnson's note, that fon 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. |