Scarce serves to quench my furnace-burning heart: *Nor can my tongue unload my heart's great burden;

*For self-same wind, that I should speak withal, * Is kindling coals, that fire all my breast,

* And burn me up with flames, that tears would quench.

* To weep, is to make less 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 consuming wrath," &c.
STEEVENS.

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.

7 Show thy descent by gazing 'gainst the sun:] So, in Spenser's Hymn of Heavenly Beauty:

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

As air-bred eagles, if they once perceive
"That any of their brood but close their sight,
"When they should gaze against the glorious sun;
"They straitway seize upon him with their talons,

For chair and dukedom, throne and kingdom say; Either that is thine, or else 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 should 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 anguish than the wounds.
O valiant lord, the duke of York is slain.

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

، That on the earth it may untimely die,
"For looking but askew at heaven's bright eye."

STEEVENS.

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

9 Is by the stern lord Clifford done to death.] Done to death for killed, was a common expression 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:

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

"I am the man that did the slave 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 since then befall'n.
After the bloody fray at Wakefield fought,
Where your brave father breath'd his latest gasp,
Tidings, as swiftly as the posts could run,
Were brought me of your loss, and his depart.
I then in London, keeper of the king,
Muster'd my soldiers, gather'd flocks of friends,
And very well appointed, as I thought,'
March'd towards Saint Alban's to intercept the
queen,

Bearing the king in my behalf along :
For by my scouts I was advértised,
That she was coming with a full intent
To dash our late decree in parliament,
"Touching king Henry's oath, and your succession.
Short tale to make, wé at Saint Alban's met,
Our battles join'd, and both sides fiercely fought:
But, whether 'twas the coldness of the king,
Who look'd full gently on his warlike queen,
That robb'd my soldiers of their hated spleen;
Or whether 'twas report of her success;
Or more than common fear of Clifford's rigour,
• Who thunders to his captives2-blood and death,
I cannot judge: but, to conclude with truth,
Their weapons like to lightning came and went;
Our soldiers'-like the night-owl's lazy flight,3

1 And very well &c.] This necessary 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 necessary to the comparison, which is happily enough completed by the thrasher. JOHNSON.

'Or like a lazy thrasher with a flail,*~

Fell gently down, as if they struck their friends.
I cheer'd them up with justice of our cause,
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 haste, post-haste, are come to join with you;
For in the marches here, we heard, you were,
Making another head to fight again.

• EDW. Where is the duke of Norfolk, gentle
Warwick?

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

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 present play, will best prove how far our author has, either intentionally or otherwise, deviated, in this particular, from historical truth.

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

RITSON.

1

And when came George from Burgundy to Eng

land?

WAR. Some six miles off the duke is with the soldiers :

And for your brother, he was lately sent From your kind aunt, duchess of Burgundy, • With aid of soldiers to this needful war."

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

Oft have I heard his praises in pursuit,

But ne'er, till now, his scandal of retire.

WAR. Nor now my scandal, Richard, dost thou

hear:

For thou shalt know, this strong right hand of mine
Can pluck the diadem from faint Henry's head,
And wring the awful scepter from his fist;
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.when came George from Burgundy to England? War. he was lately sent

From your kind aunt, duchess of Burgundy,

With aid of soldiers to this needful war.] This circumstance is not warranted by history. Clarence and Gloster (as they were afterwards created) were sent into Flanders immediately after the battle of Wakefield, and did not return until their brother Edward got possession of the crown. Besides, Clarence was not now more than twelve years old.

Isabel, Duchess 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 cousins. RITSON.