As brings a thousand-fold more care to keep, Ah, cousin York! 'would thy best friends did know, Q.Mar. My lord, cheer up your spirits; our foes are And this soft courage makes your followers faint heart K.Hen. Edward Plantagenet, arise a knight ; And in that quarrel use it to the death. Clif. Why, that is spoken like a toward prince. Mess. Royal commanders, be in readiness; Clif. I would, your highness would depart the field; Prince. My royal father, cheer these noble lords, And hearten those that fight in your defence: Unsheath your sword, good father; cry, Saint George! March. Enter EDWARD, GEORGE, RICHARD, WARWICK, NORFOLK, MONTAGUE, and Soldiers. Edw. Now, perjur'd Henry! wilt thou kneel for grace, And set thy diadem upon my head; Or bide the mortal fortune of the field? Q.Mar. Go, rate thy minions, proud insulting boy! Becomes it thee to be thus bold in terms, Before thy sovereign, and thy lawful king? Edw. I am his king, and he should bow his knee ; I was adopted heir by his consent : Since when, his oath is broke; for, as I hear, You-that are king, though he do wear the crown, [5] That is, Range yoor host, put your host in order. JOHNS. Have caus'd him, by new act of parliament, Clif. And reason too; Who should succeed the father, but the son? Rich. Are you there, butcher ?-O, I cannot speak! Clif. Ay, crook-back; here I stand, to answer thee, Or any he the proudest of thy sort. Rich. 'Twas you that kill'd young Rutland, was it not? Clif. Ay, and old York, and yet not satisfied. Rich. For God's sake, lords, give signal to the fight. War. What say'st thou, Henry, wilt thou yield the crown? Q.Mar. Why, how now, long-tongu'd Warwick? dare you speak? When you and I met at Saint Alban's last, War. Then 'twas my turn to fly, and now 'tis thine. War. 'Twas not your valour, Clifford, drove me thence. North. No, nor your manhood, that durst make you stay. Rich. Northumberland, I hold thee reverently ;- Upon that Clifford, that cruel child-killer. Clif. I slew thy father: Call'st thou him a child? Rich. Ay, like a dastard, and a treacherous coward, As thou didst kill our tender brother Rutland ; But, ere sun-set, I'll make thee curse the deed. K.Hen. Have done with words, my lords, and hear me speak. Q.Mar. Defy them then, or else hold close thy lips. K.Hen. I pr'ythee, give no limits to my tongue; I am a king, and privileg'd to speak. Clif. My liege, the wound, that bred this meeting here, Cannot be cur'd by words; therefore be still. Rich. Then, executioner, unsheath thy sword: By him that made us all, I am resolv'd, [6] It is my firm persuasion; I am no longer in doubt. JOHNS, 20 VOL. V. For York in justice puts his armour on. Prince. If that be right, which Warwick says is right, There is no wrong, but every thing is right. Rich. Whoever got thee, there thy mother stands ; For, well I wot, thou hast thy mother's tongue. Q.Mar. But thou art neither like thy sire, nor dam ; But like a foul mishapen stigmatic, 7 Mark'd by the destinies to be avoided, As venom toads, or lizards' dreadful stings. (As if a channel should be call'd the sea,) Sham'st thou not, knowing whence thou art extraught, To let thy tongue detect thy base-born heart?9 Edw. A wisp 'of straw were worth a thousand crowns, And tam'd the king, and made the Dauphin stoop; And grac'd thy poor sire with his bridal day; Had slipp'd our claim until another age. Geo. But, when we saw our sunshine made thy spring, [7] "A stigmatic," says J. Bullokar in his English Expositor, 1616, "is a notorious lewd fellow, which hath been burnt with a hot iron, or beareth other marks about him as a token of his punishment." STEEV. [8] A channel, in our author's time, signified what we now call a kénnel. STEEV.-Kennel is still pronounced channel in the North RITSON. [9] To show thy meanness of birth by the indecency of language with which thou railest at my deformity. JOHNS. [1] I believe that a wisp signified some instrument of correction used in the time of Shakspeare. STEEV. [2] Callet, is a lewd woman, a drab, perhaps so called from the French calote, which was a sort of head-dress worn by country girls. GREY. [3] i.e. a cuckold, STEEV. And that thy summer bred us no increase, And though the edge hath something hit ourselves, Since thou deny'st the gentle king to speak.— Q.Mar. Stay, Edward. Edw. No, wrangling woman; we'll no longer stay: These words will cost ten thousand lives to-day. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A Field of Battle between Towton and Saxton in Yorkshire: Alarums: Excursions. Enter WARWICK. War. Forspent with toil, as runners with a race, I lay me down a little while to breathe : For strokes receiv'd, and many blows repaid, [4] When we saw that by favouring thee we made thee grow in fortune, but that we received no advantage from thy fortune flourishing by our_fa. vour, we then resolved to destroy thee, and determined to try some other means, though our first efforts have failed. JOHNS. [5] We should read near Towton. Shakspeare has here, perhaps, intentionally thrown three different actions into one. The Lord Fitzwater, be. ing stationed by King Edward, to defend the pass of Ferrybridge, was assaulted by the Lord Clifford, and immediately slain, "and with hym" says Hall the bastard of Salisbury, brother to the earl of Warwycke, a valeaunt young gentleman, and of great audacitie. When the earl of Warwicke," adds he, "was informed of this feate, he lyke a man desperated, mounted on his hackeney, and came blowing to kynge Edwarde, saiyng: Syr, I praye God have mercy of their soules, which in the beginning of your enterprise bath lost their lyfes, and because I se no succors of the world, I remit the vengeance and punishment to God our creator and Redeemer ; and with that lighted doune, and slewe his horse with his swourde, saiyng: let them flye that wyl, for surely I wil tarye with him that wil tarye with me, and kissed the crosse of his swourde." Clifford, in his retreat, was beset with a party of Yorkists, when "eyther," says the historian, "for heat or payne, putting of his gorget, sodainly with an arrowe (as some say) without an hedde the] was striken into the throte, and incontinent rendered his spirite, and the erle of Westmerlandes brother, and almost all his company were thare slayn, at a place called Dinting dale, not farr fro Towton." In the afternoon of the next day (Palm Sunday eve 1461) on a plain field between Towton and Saxton, joined the main battles which continued engaged that night, and the greater part of the following day: upwards of 30,000 men, all English (including many of the nobility and the flower of the gentry, especially of the northern parts) being slain on both sides. This battle, says Carte, decided the fate of the house of Lancaster, overturning in one day Enter EDWARD, running. Edw. Smile, gentle heaven! or strike, ungentle death! For this world frowns, and Edward's sun is clouded. War.How now, my lord? what hap? what hope of good? Enter GEORGE. Geo. Our hap is lost, our hope but sad despair ; Our ranks are broke, and ruin follows us : What counsel give you? whither shall we fly ? Edw. Bootless is flight, they follow us with wings; And weak we are, and cannot shun pursuit. Enter RICHARD. Rich. Ah, Warwick, why hast thou withdrawn thyself? Thy brother's blood the thirsty earth hath drunk, Broach'd with the steely point of Clifford's lance: And, in the very pangs of death, he cry'd,Like to a dismal clangor heard from far,Warwick, revenge! brother, revenge my death So underneath the belly of their steeds, That stain'd their fetlocks in his smoaking blood, War. Then let the earth be drunken with our blood: I'll kill my horse, because I will not fly. Why stand we like soft-hearted women here, Wailing our losses, whiles the foes doth rage; Were play'd in jest by counterfeiting actors? Till either death hath clos'd these eyes of mine, Edw. O Warwick, I do bend my knee with thine; And, in this vow, do chain my soul to thine.- an usurpation strengthened by sixty-two years continuance, and established Edward on the throne of England." RITSON. The royal army consisted, according to Hall, of about forty thou. sand men; and the young duke of York's forces were 48,760. In this combut which lasted fifteen hours, and in the actions of the two following days, thirty-six thousand seven hundred and seventy six persons are said to have been killed, the greater part of whom were undoubtedly Lancastrians. The total number of persons who fell in the contest between the houses of York and Lancaster, was ninety-one thousand and twenty-six. MAL. |