You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes. Stan. No, mighty liege; therefore mistrust me not. K. Rich. Where is thy power then, to beat him back? Where be thy tenants, and thy followers? Are they not now upon the western shore, Stan. No, my good lord, my friends are in the north. K. Rich. Cold friends to me: What do they in the north, When they should serve their sovereign in the west? Stan. They have not been commanded, mighty king: Pleaseth your majesty to give me leave, I'll muster up my friends; and meet your grace, I will not trust you, sir.2 Stan. K. Rich. Well, go, muster men. But, hear you, leave behind Your son, George Stanley: look your heart be firm, Stan. So deal with him, as I prove true to you. Enter a Messenger. [Exit STAN. Mess. My gracious sovereign, now in Devonshire, As I by friends am well advértised, Sir Edward Courtney, and the haughty prelate, With many more confederates, are in arms. Enter another Messenger. 2 Mess. In Kent, my liege, the Guildfords are in arms; And every hour more competitors3 1 No, mighty liege;] So, the quarto. Folio-No, my good lord. Malone. 2 I will not trust you, sir.] So, the quarto. Folio-But I'll not trust thee. Malone. See a 3 more competitors -] That is, more opponents. Johnson. Competitors do not here mean opponents, but associates note on this subject in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, where Str Proteus, speaking of Valentine, says: Flock to the rebels, and their power grows strong. Enter another Messenger. 3 Mess. My lord, the army of great BuckinghamK. Rich. Out on ye, owls! nothing but songs of death? [He strikes him. There, take thou that, till thou bring better news. 3 Mess. The news I have to tell your majesty, Is, that, by sudden floods and fall of waters, Buckingham's army is dispers'd and scatter'd; And he himself wander'd away alone, No man knows whither. K. Rich. O, I cry you mercy: There is my purse, to cure that blow of thine. Hath any well-advised friend proclaim'd Reward to him that brings the traitor in? 3 Mess. Such proclamation hath been made, my liege. Enter another Messenger. 4 Mess. Sir Thomas Lovel, and lord marquis Dorset, 'Tis said, my liege, in Yorkshire are in arms. But this good comfort bring I to your highness, The Bretagne navy is dispers'd by tempest: Richmond, in Dorsetshire, sent out a boat Unto the shore, to ask those on the banks, If they were his assistants, yea, or no; Who answer'd him, they came from Buckingham Upon his party: he, mistrusting them, Hois'd sail, and made his course again for Bretagne. 66 Myself in council his competitor." That is, his associate. M. Mason. See Vol. II, p. 183, n. 4. Steevens. 4 The news I have &c.] So, the folio. The quarto reads : "Your grace mistakes; the news I bring is good; My news is," &c. Malone. 5 and made his course again for Bretagne.] Henry Tudor Earl of Richmond, the eldest son of Edmund of Hadham Earl of Richmond, (who was half-brother to King Henry VI) by Margaret, the only daughter of John the first Duke of Somerset, who was grandson to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, was carried by his uncle Jasper Earl of Pembroke immediately after the battle of Tewksbury into Britany, where he was kept in a kind of honourable custody by the Duke of Bretagne, and where he remained till the year 1484, when he made his escape and fled for protection to the French court. Being considered at that K. Rich. March on, march on, since we are up in arms; If not to fight with foreign enemies, Yet to beat down these rebels here at home. Enter CATESBY. Cates. My liege, the duke of Buckingham is taken, That is the best news; That the earl of Richmond Is with a mighty power landed at Milford," Is colder news, but yet they must be told," K. Rich. Away towards Salisbury; while we reason here, 8 A royal battle might be won and lost:9 Some one take order, Buckingham be brought [Exeunt. time as nearest in blood to King Henry VI, all the Lancastrian party looked up to him even in the life-time of King Edward IV, who was extremely jealous of him; and after Richard usurped the throne, they with more confidence supported Richmond's claim. The claim of Henry Duke of Buckingham was in some respects inferior to that of Richmond; for he was descended by his mother from Edmund the second Duke of Somerset, the younger brother of Duke John; by his father from Thomas Duke of Gloster, the younger brother of John of Gaunt: but whatever priority the Earl of Richmond might claim by his mother, he could not plead any title through his father, who in fact had no Lancastrian blood whatsoever: nor was his maternal title of the purest kind, for John the first Earl of Somerset was an illegitimate son of John of Gaunt. Malone. 6 landed at Milford,] The Earl of Richmond embarked with about 2000 men at Harfleur in Normandy, August 1st, 1485, and landed at Milford Haven on the 7th. He directed his course to Wales, hoping the Welsh would receive him cordially, as their countryman, he having been born at Pembroke, and his grandfather being Owen Tudor, who married Katharine of France, the widow of King Henry V. Malone. 71 - they must be told.] This was the language of Shakspeare's time, when the word news was often considered as plural. See note on Antony and Cleopatra, Act I, sc. i, Vol. XIII. 8 All the modern editors, however, read-it must be told. Malone. while we reason here,] i. e. while we talk here. See Vol. IV, p 356, n. 8. Malone. 9 A royal battle might be won and lost:] So, in Macbeth: "When the battle 's lost and won.' This antithetical phrase is found in several of our ancient writers. Steevens. SCENE V. A Room in Lord Stanley's House. Enter STANLEY and Sir CHRISTOPHER URSWICK. Stan. Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me :1— That, in the sty of this most bloody boar, My son George Stanley is frank'd up in hold; 1 Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me : ] The person, who is called Sir Christopher here, and who has been styled so in the Dramatis Persona of all the impressions, I find by the Chronicles to have been Christopher Urswick, a bachelor in divinity; and chaplain to the Countess of Richmond, who had intermarried with the Lord Stanley. This priest, the history tells us, frequently went backwards and forwards, unsuspected, on messages betwixt the Countess of Richmond, and her husband, and the young Earl of Richmond, whilst he was preparing to make his descent on England. Theobald. This Christopher Urswick was afterwards Almoner to King Henry VII, and retired to Hackney, where he died in 1521. On his tomb, still to be seen in that church, it is said "Ad exteros reges undecies pro patria Legatus; Deconatum Eboracensem, Archidia conatum Richmundie, Decanatum Windesoriæ, habitos vivens reliquit. Episcopatum Norwicensem oblatum recusavit."Weaver, who has printed this inscription, concludes his eulogium thus: "here let him rest as an example for all our great prelates to admire, and for few or none to imitate." Reed. This circumstance is also recorded by Burton in his Anatomy of Melancholy, 4th edit. p. 187: “But most part they are very shamefast; and that makes them with Pet. Blesensis, Christopher Urswick, and many such, to refuse honours, offices, and preferment." Dr. Johnson has observed, that Sir was anciently a title assumed by graduates. This the late Mr. Guthrie disputes; and says, it was a title sold by the pope's legates, &c. that his holiness might be on the same footing with the king. Steevens. In The Scornful Lady of Beaumont and Fletcher, Welford says to Sir Roger, the curate, "I acknowledge you to be your art's master.""I am but a bachelor of art, sir," replies Sir Roger. Mr. Guthrie would have done well to have informed us, how Sir Roger could possibly have bought his title of the pope's nuncio; when, as Abigail tells us, he had only "twenty nobles de claro, besides his pigges in posse." Farmer. See Vol. III, p. 9, n. 1. Steevens. The title of Sir is still appropriated to Bachelors of Arts in the University of Dublin; and the word Bachelor evidently derived from the French bas Chevalier, that is, a lower kind of Knight. --This accounts for the title of Sir being given to Bachelors. M. Mason. If I revolt, off goes young George's head; Chris. At Pembroke, or at Ha'rford-west, in Wales. Stan. What men of name resort to him? Chris. Sir Walter Herbert, a renowned soldier; Sir Gilbert Talbot, sir William Stanley; Oxford, redoubted Pembroke, sir James Blunt, And Rice ap Thomas, with a valiant crew;3 And many other of great fame and worth: And towards London do they bend their course, If by the way they be not fought withal. Stan. Well, hie thee to thy lord; commend me to him; Tell him, the queen hath heartily consented He shall espouse Elizabeth her daughter. ACT V..... SCENE I. Salisbury. An open Place. Enter the Sheriff, and Guard, with BUCKINGHAM, led to Execution. 2 Buck. Will not king Richard let me speak with him? 4 my present aid.] Thus the quarto. After these words three lines are added in the folio, in substance the same as the first three lines of Stanley's concluding speech. Instead of the concluding speech of the quarto, which is here followed, the foho reads thus: 3 •valiant crew ; Malone. w;] This expression (which sounds but meanly in modern ears) has been transplanted by Dryden into his Alexander's Feast: "Give the vengeance due "To the valiant crew." Steevens. 4 Will not king Richard let me speak with him?] The reason why the Duke of Buckingham solicited an interview with the King, is explained in King Henry VIII, Act I: |