Whofe arms gave shelter to the princely eagle; To fearch the fecret treafons of the world. For who liv'd king, but I could dig his grave? the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters. 8. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir-trees were not like his boughs, and the chefnut-trees were not like his branches; not any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty, &c. 12. And ftrangers, the terrible of the nations have cut him off, and have left him: upon the mountains, and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the rivers of the land, and all the people of the earth are gone down from his fhadow, and have left him. 13. Upon his ruin fhall all the fowls of the heaven remain, and all the beasts of the field shall be upon his branches, S. See the chapter. The fcriptures, and more especially the prophets, abound' with many fimilar paffages, fublime and exalted as this, which it would be endless to produce here. 66 (11) My parks, &c.] "I won't venture to affirm, fays" Mr. Theobald, our author is imitating Horace here: but furely this paffage is very much of a caft with that which I am about to quote." Linquenda tellus, & domus, & placens Ulla brevem dominum fequetur. Thy fpacious fields, thy fplendid house, B. 2. ode 14 E 2 Except Ev'n now forfake me; and of all my lands Queen Margaret's Speech before the Battle of Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen, what I shou'd say, Therefore no more but this: Henry, your fovereign His 'realm a flaughter-house, his fubjects flain, SCENE VII. Omens on the Birth of Richard III. (12) The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil fign; The night-crow cry'd, a boding luckless tune; Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempefts fhook down trees; The raven croak'd hoarse on the chimney's top, And chattering pyes in difmal difcords fung: Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain, And yet brought forth lefs than a mother's hope, To wit, an indigefted, deform'd lump, Not like the fruit of fuch a goodly tree. Except the baleful cypress boughs, Shall one attend their fhort-liv'd lord below. Teeth Dryden has beautifully copied the laft line in his Antony and Cleopatra, where he makes the defponding hero, throwing himfelf on the ground, thus lament, Lie there, the shadow of an emperor, The place thou preffeft on thy mother earth Is all thy empire now. A. I. (12) The owl, &c.] See an account of the prodigies on the birth of Glendower, p. 7. n. 6. Teeth hadft thou in thy mouth when thou waft born, General Obfervations. THE scene of this play opens (fays Mrs. Lenox) just after the battle of St. Albans, wherein the York faction was victorious, and closes with the murder of King Henry the Sixth and the birth of Prince Edward, afterwards King Edward the Fifth; fo that this hiftory takes in the space of fixteen years. The facts are all extracted from Holing fhed, and most of the incidents very clofely copied. The ftruggle between the two houfes of York and Lancafter for the crown being the subject pursued in this drama, every scene almost presents us with a new battle, a flying army, or the carnage of a bloody field; where the inhuman conquerors, unfated with the flaughters of the fight, facrifice their defenceless enemies to the fury of their revenge, and exult over them, when dying, with a cruelty truly diabolical. For many of the murders which the followers of each party commit on thofe of the other in this play, Shakespear had no foundation in the hiftory; but that of the young Earl of Ruiland by Clifford, is copied with all its circumftances from Holingfbed. The character of King Henry the Sixth, whofe unfortunate reign makes the subject of these three plays, is drawn by Shakespear exactly conformable to that given him by the hiftorians. As to the manner of his death, feveral different opinions prevailed; but the poet, by making the Duke of Gloucefter murder him in the Tower, has followed that which was most probable and most generally believed. The E 3 L. XI. The Life of HENRY VIII. ACT I SCENE IL T Anger. O climb steep hills Requires flow pace at firft. Anger is like A full-hot horfe, who, being allow'd his way, Self mettle tires him. SCENE IV. Action to be carried on with Refolution. If I'm traduc'd by tongues, which neither know Το cope malicious cenfurers; which ever, As As rav'nous fishes, do a vessel follow That is new trimm'd: but benefit no further For our best act: if we stand still, in fear, We should take root here, where we fit; or fit Though they be never fo ridiculous, ACT II. SCENE II. The Duke of Buckingham's Prayer for the King. -May he live Longer than I have time to tell his years! Dependents not to be too much trusted by great Men. away Like water from ye, never found again But where they mean to fink ye. |