ACT III.....SCENE I.

The same. A Street.

The Trumpets sound. Enter the Prince of Wales, GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM, Cardinal BOURCHIER,6 and

Buck. Welcome, sweet prince, to London, to your chamber.7

Glo. Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts' sovereign: The weary way hath made you melancholy. Prince. No, uncle; but our crosses on the way Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy: I want more uncles here to welcome me.

Glo. Sweet prince, the untainted virtue of your years
Hath not yet div'd into the world's deceit :
No more can you distinguish of a man,

Than of his outward show; which, God he knows,
Seldom, or never, jumpeth with the heart.
Those uncles, which you want, were dangerous;
Your grace attended to their sugar'd words,
But look'd not on the poison of their hearts:

God keep you from them, and from such false friends!
Prince. God keep me from false friends! but they

were none.

Glo. My lord, the mayor of London comes to greet

you.

Enter the Lord Mayor, and his Train. May. God bless your grace with health and happy days!

6 Cardinal Bourchier,] Thomas Bourchier was made a Cardinal, and elected Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1464. He died in 1486. Malone.

7—to your chamber.] London was anciently called Camera regis. Pope.

So, in Heywood's If you know not me you know Nobody, 1633, Part II:

"This city, our great chamber." Steevens.

This title it began to have immediately after the Norman conquest. See Coke's 4 Inst. 243, where it is styled Camera Regis; Camden's Britannia, 374; Ben Jonson's Account of King James's Entertainment in passing to his Coronation, &c. Reed.

8

- jumpeth with the heart.] So, in Soliman and Perseda, 1599: "Wert thou my friend, thy mind would jump with mine." Steevens.

all.

Prince. I thank you, good my lord;-and thank you
[Exeunt Mayor, &c.
I thought, my mother, and my brother York,
Would long ere this have met us on the way :—
Fy, what a slug is Hastings! that he comes not
To tell us, whether they will come, or no.

Enter HASTINGS.

Buck. And, in good time, here comes the sweating lord.

Prince. Welcome, my lord: What, will our mother

come?

Hast. On what occasion, God he knows, not I,
The queen your mother, and your brother York,
Have taken sanctuary: The tender prince
Would fain have come with me to meet your grace,
But by his mother was perforce withheld.

Buck. Fy! what an indirect and peevish course
Is this of hers?-Lord cardinal, will your grace
Persuade the queen to send the duke of York
Unto his princely brother presently?

If she deny, lord Hastings, go with him,
And from her jealous arms pluck him perforce.

Card. My lord of Buckingham, if my weak oratory

Can from his mother win the duke of York,

Anon expect him here:1 But if she be obdurate
To mild entreaties, God in heaven forbid
We should infringe the holy privilege

Of blessed sanctuary! not for all this land,
Would I be guilty of so deep a sin.

"

Buck. You are too senseless-obstinate, my lord, strict abstine Too ceremonious, and traditional :

Weigh it but with the "grossness of this age,3

9

goodness of his

in good time,] De bonne heure. Fr. Steevens.

abstinent

1 Anon expect him here: &c.] The word-anon, may safely be omitted. It only serves to vitiate the measure. Steevens.

2 Too ceremonious, and traditional:] Ceremonious for superstitious; traditional for adherent to old customs. Warburton.

3 Weigh it but with the grossness of this age,] But the more gross, that is, the more superstitious the age was, the stronger would be the imputation of violated sanctuary. The question, we see by what follows, is whether sanctuary could be claimed by an infant. The speaker resolves it in the negative, because it could

You break not sanctuary in seizing him.
The benefit thereof is always granted

To those whose dealings have deserv'd the place,
And those who have the wit to claim the place:
This prince hath neither claim'd it, nor deserv'd it;
And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it:
Then, taking him from thence, that is not there,
You break no privilege nor charter there.
Oft have I heard of sanctuary men;

But sanctuary children, ne'er till now.4

Card. My lord, you shall o'er-rule my mind for once.Come on, lord Hastings, will you go with me?

Hast. I go, my lord.

Prince. Good lords, make all the speedy haste you

may.

[Exeunt Card. and HAST.

Say, uncle Gloster, if our brother come,

Where shall we sojourn till our coronation?
Glo. Where it seems best unto your royal self.

be claimed by those only whose actions necessitated them to fly thither; or by those who had an understanding to demand it; neither of which could be an infant's case: It is plain then, the first line, which introduces this reasoning, should be read thus:

Weigh it but with the greenness of his age,

i. e. the young Duke of York's, whom his mother had fled with to sanctuary. The corrupted reading of the old quarto is something nearer the true:

the greatness of his age. Warburton.

This emendation is received by Hanmer, and is very plausible; yet the common reading may stand:

1

Weigh it but with the grossness of this age,

You break not sanctuary,

That is, compare the act of seizing him with the gross and licentious practices of these times, it will not be considered as a violation of sanctuary, for you may give such reasons as men are now used to admit. Johnson.

The truth is, the quarto 1598, and the two subsequent quartos, as well as the folio, all read-grossness. Greatness is the corrupt reading of a late quarto of no authority, printed in 1622. Malone.

4 Oft have I heard of sanctuary men; &c.] These arguments against the privilege of sanctuary are taken from Sir Thomas More's Life of King Edward the Fifth, published by Stowe: And verily, I have heard of sanctuary men, but I never heard earst of sanctuary children," &c. Steevens.

More's Life of King Edward V was published also by Hall and Holinshed, and in the Chronicle of Holinshed Shakspeare found: this argument. Malone.

If I may counsel you, some day, or two,

Your highness shall repose you at the Tower:

Then where you please, and shall be thought most fit. For your best health and recreation.

Prince. I do not like the Tower, of any place :-
Did Julius Cæsar build that place, my lord?

Glo. He did, my gracious lord, begin that place;
Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edify'd.5
Prince. Is it upon record? or else reported
Successively from age to age, he built it?
Buck. Upon record, my gracious lord.
Prince. But say, my lord, it were not register'd;
Methinks, the truth should live from age to age,
As 'twere retail'd to all posterity,

Even to the general all-ending day.

Glo. So wise so young, they say, do ne'er live long.7

[Aside.

5 He did &c.] I suppose, this and the following line, (the useless epithet-gracious, omitted,) should be read thus:

He did, my lord, begin that place; which, since,
Succeeding ages have re-edify'd. Steevens.

6 As 'twere retail'd to all posterity,] And so it is; and, by that means, like most other retail'd things, became adulterated. We should read:

intail'd to all posterity;

which is finely and sensibly expressed, as if truth was the natural inheritance of our children: which it is impiety to deprive them of. Warburton.

Retailed may signify diffused, dispersed. Johnson.

Retailed means handed down from one to another.-Goods retailed, are those which pass from one purchaser to another.Richard uses the word retailed in the same sense in the fourth Act, where speaking to the Queen of her daughter, he says

"To whom I will retail my conquests won." M. Mason. Minsheu in his Dictionary, 1617, besides the verb retail in the mercantile sense, has the verb "to retaile or retell, G. renombrer, a Lat. renumerare ;" and in that sense, I conceive, it is employed here. Malone.

7 So wise so young, they say, do ne'er live long.]

"Is cadit ante senem, qui sapit ante diem," a proverbial line. Steevens.

Bright, in his Treatise on Melancholy, 1586, p. 52, says "I have knowne children languishing of the splene, obstructed and altered in temper, talke with gravitie and wisdome, surpassing those tender yeares, and their judgement carrying a marvellous imitation of the wisdome of the ancient, having after a sorte attained that

Prince. What say you, uncle?

Glo. I say, without characters, fame lives long. Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,

I moralize two meanings in one word.

Aside.

by disease, which other have by course of yeares: whereon I take it, the proverbe ariseth, that they be of short life who are of wit so pregnant." Reed.

8 Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,

I moralize two meanings in one word.] By vice, the author means not a quality, but a person. There was hardly an old play, till the period of the Reformation, which had not in it a devil, and a droll character, a jester; (who was to play upon the devil;) and this buffoon went by the name of a Vice. This buffoon was at first accoutred with a long jerkin, a cap with a pair of ass's ears, and a wooden dagger, with which (like another Harlequin) he was to make sport in belabouring the devil. This was the constant entertainment in the times of popery, whilst spirits, and witchcraft, and exorcising held their own. When the Reformation took place, the stage shook off some grossities, and encreased in refinements. The master-devil then was soon dismissed from the scene; and this buffoon was changed into a subordinate fiend, whose business was to range on earth, and seduce poor mortals into that personated vicious quality, which he occasionally supported; as, iniquity in general, hypocrisy, usury, vanity, prodigality, gluttony, &c. Now, as the fiend, (or vice) who personated Iniquity, (or Hypocrisy, for instance,) could never hope to play his game to the purpose but by hiding his cloven foot, and assuming a semblance quite different from his real character; he must certainly put on a formal demeanour, moralize and prevaricate in his words, and pretend a meaning directly opposite to his genuine and primitive intention. If this does not explain the passage in question, 'tis all that I can at present suggest upon it. Theobald.

That the buffoon, or jester of the old English farces, was called the vice, is certain: and that, in their moral representations, it was common to bring in the deadly sins, is as true. Of these we have yet several remains. But that the vice used to assume the personages of those sins, is a fancy of Mr. Theobald's, who knew nothing of the matter. The truth is, the vice was always a fool or jester: and, (as the woman, in The Merchant of Venice, calls the Clown, alluding to the character,) a merry devil. Whereas these mortal sins were so many sad serious ones. But what misled our editor was the name, Iniquity, given to this vice: But it was only on account of his unhappy tricks and rogueries. That it was given to him, and for the reason I mention, appears from the following passage of Jonson's Staple of News, second inter

meane:

"M How like you the vice i' the play?

"T. Here is never a fiend to carry him away. Besides he has never a wooden dagger.