Betwixt thy begging and my meditation. I am not in the giving vein to-day. Buck. Why, then resolve me whe'r you will, or no. Buck. And is it thus? repays he my deep service To Brecknock,2 while my fearful head is on. [Exit. So, in The Fleire, a comedy, 1610:-" their tongues are, like a Fack o' the clock, still in labour." Again, in The Coxcomb, by Beaumont and Fletcher: Is this your Jack o' the clock-house? "Will you strike, sir?" Again, in a pamphlet by Deckar, called the Guls Hornbook, 1609: "- - but howsoever, if Powles Jacks be once up with their elbowes, and quarrelling to strike eleven, as soon as eve the clock has parted them, and ended the fray with his hammer, let not the duke's gallery conteyne you any longer." Perhaps these figures were called Jacks, because the engines of that name which turn the spit were anciently ornamented with such a puppet. In The Gentleman Usher, a comedy, by Chapman, 1606, they are alluding to a roasting Jack, and a man says: as in that quaint engine you have seen "A little man in shreds stand at the winder, "Yet adds no force to it, nor nothing does." In Lantern and Candle-light, or The Bellman's Second Night-walk, &c. by Deckar, is a passage "of a new and cunning drawing of money from gentlemen," which may tend to a somewhat different explanation of the word-strike: "There is another fraternitie of wandring pilgrims, who merrily call themselves Jackes of the clock-house. The jacke of a clock-house goes upon screws, and his office is to do nothing but strike: so does this noise (for they walke up and down like fidlers) travaile with motions, and whatever their motions get them, is called striking." Steevens. A Jack with such a figure as Chapman hath described, was for many years exhibited, as a sign, at the door of a White-Smith's shop in the narrowest part of the Strand. Henley. These automatons were called Jacks of the clock-house, because Jack in our author's time was a common appellation for a mean, contemptible fellow, employed by others in servile offices. Malone. 2 To Brecknock,] To the Castle of Brecknock in Wales, where the Duke of Buckingham's estate lay. Malone. SCENE III. The same. Enter TYRREL. Tyr. The tyrannous and bloody act is done; " Albeit they were flesh'd villains," bloody" dogs, blooded Melting with tenderness and mild compassion, Su ms. Wept like"two"children, in their death's sad story. mstead of O thus, quoth Dighton, lay the gentle babes,"to" Thus, thus, quoth Forrest, girdling one another fol. 163r Within their alabaster innocent arms: Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, Which, in their summer beauty kiss'd each other. "Which once, quoth Forrest, almost chang'd my mind; Enter King RICHARD. And here he comes:- -All health, my sovereign lord! 30 thus, quoth Dighton, lay the gentle babes, A book of prayers on their pillow lay;] These circumstances It must be owned, however, that there is nothing to assist us in ascertaining the exact date of this and many other of our ancient ballads. Steevens. Tyr. If to have done the thing you gave in charge Beget your happiness, be happy then, For it is done. But didst thou see them dead? And buried, gentle Tyrrel? Tyr. I did, my lord. K. Rich. Tyr. The chaplain of the Tower hath buried them; But where, to say the truth, I do not know. K. Rich. Come to me, Tyrrel, soon at after supper, When thou shalt tell the process of their death. Mean time, but think how I may do thee good, And be inheritor of thy desire. Farewel, till then. Tyr. I humbly take my leave. [Exit, K. Rich. The son of Clarence have I pen'd up close;◄ His daughter meanly have I match'd in marriage; The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom, And Anne my wife hath bid the world good night. Now, for I know the Bretagne Richmond aims At young Elizabeth, my brother's daughter, And, by that knot, looks proudly on the crown, To her go I, a jolly thriving wooer. 4 The son of Clarence have I pen'd up close ;] In Sheriff Hutton Castle, Yorkshire; where he remained 'till the coming of Henry VII, who immediately after the battle of Bosworth sent him to the Tower, and some few years after, most treacherously and barbarously put him to death; being, from a total want of education and commerce with mankind, so ignorant, that he could not, according to Hall, discern a goose from a capon. With this unfortunate young nobleman ended the male line of the illustrious house of Plantagenet. Ritson. 5 His daughter meanly have I match'd in marriage;] To Sir Richard Pole, Knt. This lady, at seventy years of age, without any legal process, and for no crime but her relation to the crown, was beheaded in the Tower by that sanguinary tyrant Henry VIII. Her son, Lord Montague, had been put to death a few years before, in the same manner, and for the same crime; and the famous Cardinal Pole, another of her children, only escaped the fate of his mother and brother, by keeping out of the butcher's reach. Ritson. 6 the Bretagne Richmond-] He thus denominates Richmond, because after the battle of Tewksbury he had taken refuge in the court of Francis II, Duke of Bretagne, where by the procurement of King Edward IV, he was kept a long time in a kind of honourable custody. See note on sc. iv. Malone. K. Rich. Good news or bad, that thou com'st in so bluntly? Cates. Bad news, my lord: Morton is fled to Richmond; And Buckingham, back'd with the hardy Welshmen, Is in the field, and still his power encreaseth. K. Rich. Ely with Richmond troubles me more near, Delay leads impotent and snail-pac'd beggary: Jove's Mercury, and herald for a king! We must be brief, when traitors brave the field. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. The same. Before the Palace. Enter Queen MARGARET. Q. Mar. So, now prosperity begins to mellow, And will to France; hoping, the consequence Withdraw thee, wretched Margaret! who comes here? 7 -fearful commenting Is leaden servitor -] Timorous thought and cautious disqui sition are the dull attendants on delay. Johnson. 8- fiery expedition -] So, in Hamlet : 9 66 must send thee hence "With fiery quickness." Steevens. begins to mellow, &c.] The same thought occurs in Marston's Antonio and Mellida, 1602: 1 66 now is his fate grown mellow, "Instant to fall into the rotten jaws "Of chap-fall'n death." Steevens. dire induction -] Induction is preface, introduction, first part. It is so used by Sackville in our author's time. Johnson. Enter Queen ELIZABETH and the Duchess of YORK. Q. Eliz. Ah! my poor princes! ah, my tender babes! My unblown flowers, new-appearing sweets! If yet your gentle souls fly in the air, And be not fix'd in doom perpetual, Hover about me with your airy wings, And hear your mother's lamentation! Q. Mar. Hover about her; say, that right for right2 Hath dimm'd your infant morn to aged night. Duch. So many miseries have craz'd my voice, That my woe-wearied tongue is still and mute,Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead? Q. Mar. Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet, Edward for Edward pays a dying debt. Q. Eliz. Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle lambs, And throw them in the entrails of the wolf? When didst thou sleep,3 when such a deed was done? 2 say, that right for right -] This is one of those conceits which our author may be suspected of loving better than propriety. Right for right is justice answering to the claims of justice. So, in this play: "Where should be branded, if that right were right, -." Johnson. In the third scene of the first Act, Margaret was reproached with the murder of young Rutland, and the death of her husband and son were imputed to the divine vengeance roused by that wicked act: "So just is God to right the innocent." Margaret now perhaps means to say, The right of me, an injured mother, whose son was slain at Tewksbury, has now operated as powerfully as that right which the death of Rutland gave you to divine justice, and has destroyed your children in their turn. Malone. 3 When didst thou sleep, &c.] That is, When, before the present occasion, didst thou ever sleep during the commission of such an action? Thus the only authentick copies now extant; the quarto, 1598, and the first folio. The editor of the second folio changed When to Why, which has been adopted by all the subsequent editors; though Margaret's answer evidently refers to the word found in the original copy. Malone. I have admitted this reading, though I am not quite certain of its authenticity. The reply of Margaret might have been designed as an interrogatory echo to the last words of the Queen. Steevens. This appears to be the true reading, as Margaret's next speech is an answer to that question that was not addressed to her. M. Mason. |