And time, that takes.

survey

of all the world,

Hot. O, Harry, thou hast robbed me of my youth:
I better brook the loss of brittle life
Than those proud titles thou hast won of me;
They wound my thoughts worse than the sword my flesh-
my dongue:-No, Percy, thou art dust,
But thoughts the slave of life, and life time's foots; Prince Henry, Hotspur, and Falstaff. And food for

Must have a stop. O, I could prophesy,

King Henry the Fourth. But that the earthy and cold hand of death

Plain near Shrewsbury.

Lies.

on

KING HENRY VI.

A C T I. SCENE I.

London. The Parliament-Houfe.

Drums. Some Soldiers of York's party break in. Then, Enter the Duke of YORK, EDWARD, RICHARD, NORFOLK, MONTAGUE, WARWICK, and Others, with white rofes in their hats.

WAR. I wonder, how the king escap'd our hands. YORK. While we purfa'd the horsemen of the north,

He flily ftole away, and left his men:

Whereat the great lord of Northumberland, Whose warlike ears could never brook retreat, • Cheer'd up the drooping army; and himself, • Lord Clifford, and lord Stafford, all a-breast, Charg'd our main battle's front, and, breaking in, • Were by the fwords of common foldiers flain.

Third Part of King Henry VI.] This play is only divided from the former for the convenience of exhibition; for the series of action is continued without interruptiou, nor are any two fcenes of any play more closely connected than the firft scene of this play with the laft of the former. JOHNSON.

3

REED.

Were by the Swords of common foldiers flain.] See the Second part of this play, Vol. XIV. p. 365, n. 7. This is an inadvertency in our author. The elder Clifford was flain by York, and his fon lives to revenge his death. M. MASON. Dr. Percy in a note on the preceding play, has pointed out the inconfiftency between this account, and the reprefentation there, Clifford being killed, on the ftage by the duke of York, the prefent fpeaker. Shakspeare was led into this inconfiftency by the author

EDW. I ord Stafford's father, duke of Buckingham,

Is either flain, or wounded dangerous:
I cleft his beaver with a downright blow;
That this is true, father, behold his blood.

[Showing his bloody fword.

MONT. And, brother, here's the carl of Wiltfhire's blood, To York, showing his.

Whom I encounter'd as the battles join'd.

RICH. Speak thou for me, and tell them what I did. 4

[Throwing down the duke of Somerset's head, YORK. Richard' hath beft deferv'd of all my fons.--

What, is your grace5 dead, my lord of Somerfet?

of the original plays: if indeed there was but one author, for this circumftance might lead us to fufpe&t that the first and second part of The Contention, &c. were not written by the fame hand. - However, this is not decifive; for the author, whoever he was, might have been inadvertent, as we find Shakspeare undoubtedly was.

MALONE.

4 Rich. Speak thou for me, and tell them what I did.] Here, as Mr. Elderton of Salisbury has observed to me, is a grofs anachronism. At the time of the first battle of Saint Albans, at which Richard is reprefented in the laft scene of the preceding play to have fought, he was, according to that gentleman's calculation, not one year old, having (as he conceives) been born at Fotheringay caftle, October 21, 1454. At the time to which the third fcene of the firft a&t of this play is referred, he was, according to the fame gentleman's computation, but fix years old; and in the fifth act, in which Henry is reprefented as having been killed by him in the Tower, not more than fixteen and eight months.

For this anachronism the author or authors of the old plays on which our poet founded these two parts of King Henry the Sixth, are answerable. MALONE.

5 What, is your grace- -] The folio reads-But is your grace,

kc. It was evidently a mistake of the tranfcriber, the word in the old play being What, which fuits fufficiently with York's exultation; whereas But affords no sense whatsoever. MALONE.

NORK. Such hope have all the line of John of
Gaunt!

RICH. Thus do I hope to fhake king Henry's
head.

WAR. And fo do I.-Victorious prince of York, Before I fee thee feated in that throne

Which now the house of Lancaster ufurps,
I vow by heaven, these eyes fhall never close,
This is the palace of the fearful king,

And this the regal feat: poffefs it, York;
For this is thine, and not king Henry's heirs'.
YORK. Affift me then, fweet Warwick, and I
will;

For hither we have broken in by force.

NORF. We'll all affift you; he, that flies, fhall

die.

YORK. Thanks, gentle Norfolk,

my lords;

Stay by me,

And, foldiers, ftay, and lodge by me this night. WAR. And, when the king comes, offer him no

violence,

Unless he seek to thruft you out by force,

[They retire. *YORK. The queen, this day, here holds her parliament;

But little thinks, we shall be of her council: * By words, or blows, here let us win our right.

Though the fenfe and verfe are complete without either But or What, I fuppofe we ought to read

What, 's your grace dead, my lord of Somerfet?

I do not, however, perceive the inefficiency of - but. This con junction is fometimes indeterminately used; and is alfo infultingly employed in Twelfth-Night: "But, are you not mad indeed, or do you but counterfeit?" STELVENS.