For Somerset, off with his guilty head. Go, bear them hence; I will not hear them speak. Orf. For my part, I'll not trouble thee with words. Som. Nor I, but stoop with patience to my fortune. [Exeunt Oxf. and Som. guarded. Q. Mar. So part we sadly in this troublous world, To meet with joy in sweet Jerusalem. *K. Edw. Is proclamation made,-that, who finds Edward, Shall have a high reward, and he his life? * Glo. It is: and, lo, where youthful Edward comes. Enter Soldiers with Prince Edward. • K. Edw. Bring forth the gallant, let us hear him speak: * What! can so young a thorn begin to prick! 'Edward, what satisfaction canst thou make, For bearing arms, for stirring up my subjects, * And all the trouble thou hast turn'd me to? Prince. Speak like a subject, proud ambitious York? Suppose that I am now my father's mouth; Resign thy chair, and, where I stand, kneel thou, Whilst I propose the self-same words to thee, Which, traitor, thou wouldst have me answer to. Q. Mar. Ah, that thy father had been so resolv'd! Glo. That you might still have worn the petticoat, And ne'er have stol'n the breech from Lancaster. Prince. Let Esop' fable in a winter's night; His currish riddles sort not with this place. Glo. By heaven, brat, I'll plague you for that word. Q. Mar. Ay, thou wast born to be a plague to men. Glo. For God's sake, take away this captive scold. Prince. Nay, take away this scolding crookback rather. K. Edw. Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm2 your tongue. Clar. Untutor'd lad, thou art too malapert. Prince. I know my duty, you are all undutiful: Lascivious Edward,-and thou perjur'd George,And thou misshapen Dick,-I tell ye all, I am your better, traitors as ye are ; And thou usurp'st my father's right and mine. K. Edw. Take that, the likeness of this railer here. [Stabs him. *Glo. Sprawl'st thou? take that, to end thy [Glo. stabs him. agony. * Clar. And there's for twitting me with perjury. Q. Mar. O, kill me too! K. Edw. Hold, Richard, done too much. [Clar. stabs him. [Offers to kill her. hold, for we have Glo. Why should she live, to fill the world with words? 'K. Edw. What! doth she swoon? use means for her recovery. Glo. Clarence, excuse me to the king my brother: "I'll hence to London on a serious matter: 'Ere ye come there, be sure to hear some news. Clar. What? what? 'Glo. The Tower, the Tower! [Exit. 'Q. Mar. O, Ned, sweet Ned! speak to thy mother, boy! 'Canst thou not speak?-O raitors! murderers!They, that stabb'd Cæsar, shed no blood at all, Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame, If this foul deed were by, to equal it. 'He was a man; this, in respect, a child; (1) The prince calls Richard, for his crookedness, sop. (2) i. e. I will compel you to be as silent as if you were deprived of speech by enchantment. And men ne'er spend their fury on a child. What's worse than murder, that I may name it? No, no; my heart will burst, an if I speak:* And I will speak, that so my heart may burst.'Butchers and villains, bloody cannibals! How sweet a plant have you untimely cropp'd! 'You have no children, butchers! if you had, 'The thought of them would have stirr'd up re morse: But, if you ever chance to have a child, Look in his youth to have him so cut off, 'As deathsmen! you have rid this sweet young prince! K. Edw. Away with her; go, bear her hence perforce. Q. Mar. Nay, never bear me hence, despatch me here; Here sheath thy sword, I'll pardon thee my death: What! wilt thou not ?-then, Clarence, do it thou. Clar. By heaven, I will not do thee so much ease. Q. Mar. Good Clarence, do; sweet Clarence, do thou do it. Clar. Didst thou not hear me swear, I would not do it? Q. Mar. Ay, But thou usest to forswear thyself; 'Twas sin before, but now 'tis charity. What! wilt thou not? where is that devil's butcher, Hard-favour'd Richard? Richard, where art thou? Thou art not here: Murder is thy alms-deed; Petitioners for blood thou ne'er put'st back. K. Edw. Away, I say; I charge ye, bear her Now march we hence: discharge the common sort With pay and thanks, and let's away to London, And see our gentle queen how well she fares; 'By this, I hope, she hath a son for me. [Exeunt. SCENE VI.-London. A room in the Tower. King Henry is discovered sitting with a book in his hand, the Lieutenant attending. Enter Gloster. Glo. Good day, my lord! What, at your book so hard? K. Hen. Ay, my good lord: My lord, I should say rather; 'Tis sin to flatter, good was little better: Good Gloster, and good devil, were alike, And both preposterous; therefore, not good lord. * Glo. Sirrah, leave us to ourselves: we must confer. [Exit Lieutenant. *K. Hen. So flies the reckless' shepherd from the wolf: So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece, And next his throat unto the butcher's knife.What scene of death hath Roscius now to act? Glo. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; The thief doth fear each bush an officer. 'K. Hen. The bird, that hath been limed in a bush, With trembling wings misdoubteth every bush, And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird, Have now the fatal object in my eye, (3) Dispute, contention. (4) She alludes to the desertion of Clarence. (5) Careless. (6) To misdoubt is to suspect danger, to fear. Where my poor young was lim'd, was caught and kill'd. 'Glo. Why, what a peevish' fool was that of Crete, Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it. I have no brother, I am like no brother: 'And this word-love, which greybeards call divine Be resident in men like one another, And not in me; I am myself alone.Clarence, beware; thou keep'st me from the light; But I will sort a pitchy day for thee: For I will buzz abroad such prophecies, boy,That Edward shall be fearful of his life; That taught his son the office of a fowl? And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd. 'K. Hen. I, Dædalus; my poor boy, Icarus; Thy father, Minos, that denied our course; 'The sun, that sear'd the wings of my sweet Thy brother Edward; and thyself, the sea, "Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life. Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words! 'My breast can better brook thy dagger's point, Than can my cars that tragic history.*But wherefore dost thou come? is't for my life? 'Glo. Think'st thou I am an executioner? K. Hen. A persecutor, I am sure, thou art; 'If murdering innocents be executing, 'Why, then thou art an executioner. Glo. Thy son I kill'd for his presumption. K. Hen. Hadst thou been kill'd, when first thou didst presume, Thou hadst not liv'd to kill a son of mine. And thus I prophesy,-that many a thousand, "Which now mistrust no parcel2 of my fear; And many an old man's sigh, and many a widow's, And many an orphan's water-standing eye, 'Men for their sons, wives for their husbands' fate, And orphans for their parents' timeless death,'Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born. The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil sign; 'The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time; Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempests shook down trees; The raven rook'd' her on the chimney's top, Glo. I'll hear no more ;-Die, prophet, in thy For this, amongst the rest, was I ordain'd. K. Hen. Ay, and for much more slaughter after this. O God! forgive my sins, and pardon thee! [Dies. See, how my sword weeps for the poor king's death! Childish. No part of what my fears presage. And then, to purge his fear, I'll be thy death. 'King Henry, and the prince his son, are gone; 'Clarence, thy turn is next, and then the rest; Counting myself but bad, till I be best.'I'll throw thy body in another room, And triumph, Henry, in thy day of doom. [Exil. SCENE VII.-The same. A room in the pal ace. King Edward is discovered sitting on his throne; Queen Elizabeth with the infant prince, Clarence, Gloster, Hastings, and others, near him. K. Edw. Once more we sit in England's royal throne, Re-purchas'd with the blood of enemies. That in their chains fetter'd the kingly lion, Glo. I'll blast his harvest, if your head were laid, Work thou the way,—and thou shalt execute. [Aside. K. Edw. Clarence, and Gloster, love my lovely And hither have they sent it for her ransom. And now what rests, but that we spend the time The three parts of King Henry VI. are suspected, by Mr. Theobald, of being suppositious, and are declared, by Dr. Warburton, to be certainly not Shakspeare's. Mr. Theobald's suspicion arises from some obsolete words; but the phraseology is like the rest of our author's style, and single words, of which however I do not observe more than two, can conclude little. matter itself will defeat the artist. Of every author's works one will be the best, and one will be the worst. The colours are not equally pleasing, nor the attitudes equally graceful, in all the pictures of Titian or Reynolds. Dissimilitude of style and heterogeneousness of sentiment, may sufficiently show that a work does not really belong to the reputed author. But in these plays no such marks of spuriousness are found. The diction, the versification, and the figures, are Shakspeare's. These plays, considered without retives in verse, are more happily conceived, and gard to characters and incidents, merely as narramore accurately finished, than those of King John, Richard II. or the tragic scenes of King Henry IV. and V. If we take these plays from Shak speare, to whom shall they be given? What au thor of that age had the same easiness of expres sion and fluency of numbers? Of these three plays I think the second the best. Dr. Warburton gives no reason, but I suppose The truth is, that they have not sufficient variety him to judge upon deeper principles and more of action, for the incidents are too often of the same comprehensive views, and to draw his opinion from kind; yet many of the characters are well disthe general effect and spirit of the composition, criminated. King Henry, and his Queen, King which he thinks inferior to the other historical plays. Edward, the Duke of Gloucester, and the Earl of From mere inferiority nothing can be inferred; Warwick, are very strongly and distinctly painted. in the productions of wit there will be inequality. Sometimes judgment will err, and sometimes the VOL. II. 2 A JOHNSON. And hate the idle pleasures of these days. Plots have I laid, inductions3 dangerous, SCENE I.-London. A street. Enter Gloster. By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams, Gloster. Now is the winter of our discontent I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty, To set my brother Clarence, and the king, Dive, thoughts, down to my soul! here Clarence cones. Enter Clarence, guarded, and Brakenbury. Brother, good day: What means this armed guard That waits upon your grace? His majesty, Tendering my person's safety, hath appointed This conduct to convey me to the Tower. Glo. Upon what cause? Clar. Clar. Because my name is-George. Glo. Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours; He should, for that, commit your godfathers:O, belike, his majesty hath some intent, That you shall be new christen'd in the Tower. But what's the matter, Clarence? may I know? Clar. Yea, Richard, when I know; for I protest, As yet I do not: But, as I can learn, He hearkens after prophecies, and dreams; And from the cross-row plucks the letter G, And says-a wizard told him, that by G His issue disinherited should be; And, for my name of George begins with G, It follows in his thought, that I am he: These, as I learn, and such like toys as these, Have mov'd his highness to commit me now. (8) Preparations for mischief. (4) Fancies Glo. Why, this it is, when men are ruled by women: Tis not the king that sends you to the Tower; Was it not she, and that good man of worship, Clar. By heaven, I think, there is no man secure, Glo. Humbly complaining to her deity The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,' Enter Hastings. Hast. Good time of day unto my gracious lord! must: But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks, Glo. No doubt, no doubt; and so shall Clarence For they, that were your enemies, are his, Glo. What news abroad? Hast. No news so bad abroad, as this at home:- Glo. Now, by saint Paul, this news is bad indeed. Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen,, he hath kept an evil diet long, Are mighty gossips in this monarchy. Hast. He is. And over-much consum'd his royal person; Glo. Go you before, and I will follow you. You may partake of any thing we say: A bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue; to do. Glo. Naught to do with mistress Shore? I tell He that doth naught with her, excepting one, Brak. What one, my lord? Glo. Her husband, knave:-Would'st thou betray me? Brak. I beseech your grace to pardon me; and, Forbear your conference with the noble duke. Glo. We are the queen's abjects, and must obey. Clar. I know it pleaseth neither of us well. I must perforce; farewell. [Exeunt Clarence, Brakenbury, and Guard. Glo. Go, tread the path that thou shalt ne'er return. Simple, plain Clarence!-I do love thee so, (1) The queen and Shore. Till George be pack'd with posthorse up to heaven. By marrying her, which I must reach unto. When they are gone, then must I count my gains. [Exit. SCENE II.-The same. Another street. Enter the corps of King Henry the Sixth, borne in an open coffin, Gentlemen bearing halberds, to guard it; and Lady Anne as mourner. Anne. Set down, set down, your honourable load, 4 If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,- Lo, in these windows, that let forth thy life, |