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Clarence married the elder, Ifabella. Though the author of The true Tragedie of the duke of Yorke, &c. was here inaccu rate, and though Shakspeare too negligently followed his fteps, when he wrote his King Richard III. he had gained better information; for there Lady ANNE is rightly reprefented as the widow of the prince of Wales, and the youngest daughter of the earl of Warwick:

"Which done, God take king Edward to his mercy,
"And leave the world to me to buftle in.

"For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter;
"What though I kill'd her hufband, and her fa-
ther," &c.

i. e. Edward prince of Wales, and king Henry VI.

King Richard III. A& L. fc. i.

I have faid that certain paffages in The Second and Third Part of King Henry VI. are afcertained to be Shakspeare's by a peculiar phrafeology. This peculiar phrafeology, without a fingle exception, diftinguishes fuch parts of these plays as are found in the folio, and not in the elder quarto dramas, of which the phrafeology, as well as the verfification, is of a different colour. This obfervation applies not only to the new original matter produced by Shakfpeare, but to his alteration of the old. Our author in his undoubt ed compofitions has fallen into an inaccuracy, of which I do not recollect a fimilar inftance in the works of any other dramatist. When he has occafion to quote the fame paper twice, (not from memory, but verbatim,) from negligence he does not always attend to the words of the paper which he has occafion to quote, but makes one of the perfons of the drama recite them with variations, though he holds the very paper quoted before his eyes. Thus, in All's well that ends well, A&t V. fc. iii. Helena says,

66

- here's your letter; This it fays:
"When from my finger you can get this ring,

"And are by me with child,"

Yet, as I have obferved in Vol. IV. p. 55, n. 6. Helena in A& III. sc. ii. reads this very letter aloud, and there

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the words are different, and in plain profe: "When thou canft get the ring from my finger, which never fhall come off, and fhew me a child begotten of thy body," &c. In like manner, in the first scene of The Second Part of King Henry VI. Suffolk prefents to the duke of Glofter, protector of the realm, the articles of peace concluded between France and England. The protector begins to read the articles, but when he has proceeded no further than these words," Item, that the dutchy of Anjou and the county of Maine fhall be released and delivered to the king her father," he is fuddenly taken ill, and rendered incapable of proceeding; on which the bishop of Winchester is called upon to read the remainder of the paper. He accordingly reads the whole of the article, of which the duke of Glofter had only read a part "Item, It is further agreed between them, that the dutchies of Anjou and Maine fhall be released and delivered over to the king her father, and the fent," &c. Now though Maine in our old chronicles is fometimes called a county, and fometimes a dutchy, yet words cannot thus change their form under the eyes of two readers: nor do they in the original play, entitled The first part of the Contention of the two houses, &c for there the article as recited by the protector corresponds with that recited by the bishop, without the most minute variation. "Item, It is further agreed between them, that the dutchies of Anjou and of Maine shall be released and delivered over to the king her father, and the fent," &c. Thus in the old play fays the duke, and fo fays the cardinal after bim. This one circumftance, in my apprehenfion, is of fuch weight, that though it stood alone, it might decide the prefent queftion. Our author has fallen into a fimilar inaccuracy in the fourth fcene of the fame act, where the duke of York recites from a paper the questions that had been put to the Spirit, relative to the duke of Suffolk, Somerfet, &c.

Many minute marks of Shakspeare's hand may be traced in fuch parts of the old plays as he has new-modelled. I at prefent recollect one that muft ftrike every 9 See p. 141, n.7.

Ff3

reader

reader who is converfant with his writings. He very frequently ufes adjectives adverbially; and this kind of phrafeology, if not peculiar to him, is found more frequently in his writings than thofe of any of his contemporaries. Thus, I am myfelf indifferent honeft;"as difhonourable ragged as an old faced ancient;" equal ravenous ;"" leaves them invifible';" &c. In The true Tragedie of the duke of Yorke, &c. the king, having determined to marry Lady Grey, injoins his brothers to use her honourably. But in Shakspeare's play the words are,-" -" use her honourable," So, in Julius Cæfar :

"Young man, thou could'st not die more honourable.” In like manner, in The Third Part of King Henry VI we find this line:

"Is either flain, or wounded dangerous."

but in the old play the words are wounded dangeroufly."

In the fame play the word handkerchief is used; but in the corresponding fcene in The Third Part of King Henry VI. (p. 270.) Shakfpeare has fubftituted the nor thern term napkin, which occurs fo often in his works, in

its room.

The next circumftance to which I wish to call the attention of thofe who do not think the prefent investigation wholly incurious, is, the Tranfpofitions that are found in these plays. In the preceding notes I have frequently obferved that not only feveral lines, but fometimes whole fcenes, were tranfpofed by Shakspeare.

In p. 270, a Meffenger, giving an account of the death of the duke of York, fays,

"Environed he was with many foes;

"And flood against them, as the hope of Troy

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Againft the Greeks, that would have enter'd Troy, "But Hercules himself muft yield to odds ;”

When this paffage was printed, not finding any trace

* See Vol. V. p. 233, n. 3; Vol. IV. p. 564, n. 6; Vel. III.

P. 441, n. 2.

* See p. 335, n.9; p. 340, n. 6; p. 344, n. 5.

of

of the last three lines in the correfponding part of the old play, I marked them inadvertently as Shakspeare's original compofition; but I afterwards found that he had borrowed them from a fubfequent scene on a quite different fubject, in which Henry, taking leave of Warwick, fay's to him,

"Farewell my Hector, and my Troy's true hope!" and the laft line, " But Hercules," &c. is fpoken by Warwick near the conclufion of the piece, after he is mortally wounded in the battle of Barnet.

So, in The true Tragedie of Richard duke of Yorke, &c. after the duke has flain Clifford, he says,

"Now, Lancaster, fit fure :-thy finews fhrink." Shakspeare has not made ufe of that line in that place, but availed himself of it afterwards, where Edward brings forth Warwick wounded; King Henry VI. P. III. A& V. fc. ii.

"Now, Mountague, fit faft: I seek for thee," &c. Many other tranfpofitions may be traced in these plays, to which I fhall only refer in a note 3.

Such tranfpofitions as I have noticed, could never have arifen from any careleffness or inaccuracy of tranfcribers or copyifts; and therefore are to be added to the many other circumstances which prove that The Second and Third Parts of King Henry VI., as exhibited in the folio, were formed from the materials of a preceding writer.

It is alfo obfervable, that many lines are repeated in Shakspeare's Second and Third Part of King Henry VI.^, but no fuch repetitions are found in the old quarto plays. The repetition undoubtedly arofe from Shakspeare's not always following his original ftrictly, but introducing expreffions which had struck him in other parts of the old plays; and afterwards, forgetting that he had be fore used fach expreffions, he fuffered them to remain in their original places alfo."

3 See p. 193, n.9; p.211, n.g; p. 245, n.8; p. 33o, n. 4; P. 354, n. 8, and n. 9; p. 359, n. 9.

4 See p, 287, n. 6; p. 301, n. 9; p. 313, n. 2 ; p. 317, n.*.

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Another proof that Shakspeare was not the author of The Contention of the two houses, &c. is furnished by the inconfiftencies into which he has fallen, by fometimes adhering to, and fometimes deviating from, his original: an inaccuracy which may be fometimes obferved in his undifputed plays.

One of the most remarkable inftances of this kind of inconfiftency is found in The Second Part of K. Henry VI. p. 217, where he makes Henry say,

"I'll fend fome holy bishop to entreat," &c.

a circumftance which he took from Holinfhed's Chronicle; whereas in the old play no mention is made of a bishop on this occafion. The king there fays, he will himfelf come and parley with the rebels, and in the mean time he orders Clifford and Buckingham to gather an army. In a fubfequent fcene, however, Shakspeare forgot the new matter which he had introduced in the former; and Clifford and Buckingham only parley with Cade, &c. conformably to the old plays.

In Romeo and Juliet he has fallen into a fimilar inaccuracy. In the poem on which that tragedy is founded, Romeo, in his interview with the Friar, after fentence of banishment has been pronounced against him, is defcribed as paffionately lamenting his fate in the following

terms:

First nature did he blame, the author of his life, "In which his joys had been fo fcant, and forrows aye fo rife;

"The time and place of birth he fiercely did reprove; "He cryed out with open mouth against the stars "above.

"On fortune eke he rail'd," &c.

The friar afterwards reproves him for want of patience. In forming the correfponding fcene Shakspeare has omitted Romeo's invective against his fate, but inadvertently copied the friar's remonftrance as it lay before him: "Why rail'ft thou on thy birth, the heaven, and earth!"

See alfo p. 139, n. 6; p. 316, n. 6; and p. 317, n.

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