And Bolingbroke my sorrow's dismal heir":
Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy;
And I, a gasping new-deliver'd mother,
Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow join'd".
BUSHY. Despair not, madam.

QUEEN.

Who shall hinder me?

I will despair and be at enmity

With cozening hope; he is a flatterer,
A parasite, a keeper-back of death,

Who gently would dissolve the bands of life,
Which false hope lingers in extremity.

Enter YORK.

GREEN. Here comes the duke of York. QUEEN. With signs of war about his aged neck; O, full of careful business are his looks!

Uncle,

For heaven's sake speak comfortable words.

6

my sorrow's dismal heir:] The author seems to have used heir in an improper sense, an heir being one that inherits by succession, is here put for one that succeeds, though he succeeds but in order of time, not in order of descent. JOHNSON.

Johnson has mistaken the meaning of this passage also. The Queen does not in any way allude to Bolingbroke's succession to the crown, an event, of which she could at that time have had no idea. She had said before, that "some unborn sorrow, ripe in fortune's womb, was coming towards her." She talks afterwards of her unknown griefs "being begotten; " she calls Green "the midwife of her woe; and then means to say, in the same metaphorical jargon, that the arrival of Bolingbroke was the dismal offspring that her foreboding sorrow was big of; which she expresses by calling him her "sorrow's dismal heir," and explains more fully and intelligibly in the following line :

"Now hath my soul brought forth her prodigy."
M. MASON.

7-thou art the MIDWIFE to my woe,-
And I, a gasping new-DELIVER'D mother,

Have woe to woe, sorrow to sorrow join'd.] So, in Pericles :
"I am great with woe, and shall deliver weeping."

MALONE.

YORK. Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts':

Comfort's in heaven; and we are on the earth,
Where nothing lives but crosses, care, and grief.
Your husband he is gone to save far off,

Whilst others come to make him lose at home:
Here am I left to underprop his land;
Who, weak with age, cannot support myself:--
Now comes the sick hour that his surfeit made;
Now shall he try his friends that flatter'd him.

Enter a Servant.

SERV. My lord, your son was gone before I came.
YORK. He was ?-Why, so !-go all which way

it will!

The nobles they are fled, the commons they are cold,

And will, I fear, revolt on Hereford's side.

Sirrah, get thee to Plashy, to my sister Gloster; Bid her send me presently a thousand pound:Hold, take my ring.

SERV. My lord, I had forgot to tell your lordship:

To-day, as I came by, I called there ;

But I shall grieve you to report the rest.
YORK. What is it, knave?

SERV. An hour before I came, the duchess died.
YORK. God for his mercy! what a tide of woes

7 Should I do so, I should belie my thoughts:] This line is found in the three eldest quartos, but is wanting in the folio. STEEVENS. 8 The nobles they are fled, the commons cold,] The old copies, injuriously to the metre, read:

The nobles they are fled, the commons they are cold.”
STEEVENS.

9 Get thee to PLASHY,] The lordship of Plashy, was a town of the dutchess of Gloster's in Essex. See Hall's Chronicle, THEOBALD.

p. 13.

Comes rushing on this woeful land at once!
I know not what to do:-I would to God,

(So my untruth' had not provok'd him to it,) The king had cut off my head with my brother's 2.

What, are there no posts dispatch'd for Ireland 3?How shall we do for money for these wars ?Come, sister,-cousin, I would say: pray, pardon

me.

Go, fellow, [To the Servant.] get thee home, provide some carts,

And bring away the armour that is there.—

Exit Servant. Gentlemen, will you go muster men? if I know How, or which way, to order these affairs, Thus disorderly thrust into my hands,

5

- untruth-] That is, disloyalty, treachery. JOHNSON. 2 The king had cut off my head with my brother's.] None of York's brothers had his head cut off, either by the King or any one else. The Duke of Gloster, to whose death he probably alludes, was secretly murdered at Calais, being smothered between two beds. RITSON.

3 What, are there POSTS dispatch'd for Ireland?] Thus the folio. The quartos-two posts-and-no posts. STEEVENS. This line furnishes another specimen of the progress of corruption. In the second quarto, 1598, no being corrupted into two, the line appeared thus:

"What, are there two posts dispatch'd for Ireland ?" and so it was exhibited in the quarto of 1608, and in that of 1615. The corrector of the press, by whom the sheets of the folio, 1623, were revised while they were printing, meeting with what doubtless appears very absurd, instead of looking out for the oldest copy, cut the knot, instead of attempting to untie it, and left out the substituted word two; and thus the verse became quite different from what the poet intended.

"What, are there posts dispatch'd for Ireland? What is still more extraordinary, this unquestionably erroneous reading is adopted by Mr. Steevens. MALONE.

4 Come, sister,-cousin, I would say:] This is one of Shakspeare's touches of nature. York is talking to the Queen his cousin, but the recent death of his sister is uppermost in his mind. STEEVENS.

5-disorderly thrust -] So all the old copies. Mr. Steevens silently altered it to "thrust disorderly." BoswELL.

Never believe me. Both are my kinsmen ;-
The one's my sovereign, whom both my oath
And duty bids defend; the other again,

Is my kinsman, whom the king hath wrong'd'; Whom conscience and my kindred bids to right. Well, somewhat we must do.-Come, cousin, I'll Dispose of you :-Gentlemen, goo, muster up your

men,

And meet me presently at Berkley-castle *.
I should to Plashy too;——

But time will not permit :-All is uneven.
And every thing is left at six and seven.

[Exeunt YORK and Queen. BUSHY. The wind sits fair for news to go to Ire

land,

But none returns.

For us to levy power,

Proportionable to the enemy,
Is all impossible.

GREEN. Besides, our nearness to the king in love, Is near the hate of those love not the king.

BAGOT. And that's the wavering commons: for their love

Lies in their purses; and whoso empties them,
By so much fills their hearts with deadly hate.
BUSHY. Wherein the king stands generally con-
demn'd.

BAGOT. If judgment lie in them, then so do we, Because we ever have been near the king.

GREEN. Well, I'll for refuge straight to Bristol castle;

The earl of Wiltshire is already there.

*So folio; quartos omit castle. + Quartos, for Ireland.

5 Is my kinsman, whom the king hath wrong'd;] Sir T. Hanmer has completed this defective line, by reading :

6

"My kinsman is, one whom the king hath wrong'd." STEEVENS. Gentlemen, go muster up your men.] The word gentlemen, which is found both in the quarto 1597, and the folio, is omitted by Mr. Steevens without any notice to the reader. MALONE.

BUSHY. Thither will I with you: for little office Will the hateful commons perform for us; Except like curs to tear us all to pieces.Will you go along with us?

BAGOT. NO; I'll to Ireland to his majesty. Farewell if heart's presages be not vain,

We three here part, that ne'er shall meet again. BUSHY. That's as York thrives to beat back Bo

lingbroke.

GREEN. Alas, poor duke! the task he undertakes

Is-numb'ring sands, and drinking oceans dry; Where one on his side fights, thousands will fly. BUSHY. Farewell at once; for once, for all, and

Enter BOLINGBROKE and NORTHUMBERLAND, with Forces.

BOLING. How far is it, my lord, to Berkley

now?

NORTH. Believe me, noble lord,

I am a stranger here in Glostershire.

These high wild hills, and rough uneven ways,
Draw out our miles, and make them wearisome :
And yet your fair discourse hath been as sugar,
Making the hard way sweet and délectable.
But, I bethink me, what a weary way

7 Will the hateful commons-] So all the old copies. Mr. Steevens reads, without notice, "The hateful commons will."

BOSWELL.