Enter another Citizen. 3. Cit. Neighbours, God speed! 1. Cit. Give you good morrow, fir. 3. Cit. Doth the news hold of good king Edward's death? 3. Cit. Woe to that land, that's govern'd by a child+! 2. Cit. In him there is a hope of government; That, in his nonage, council under him ", Was crown'd in Paris but at nine months old. 3. Cit. Stood the state so? no, no, good friends, God wot; For then this land was famously enrich'd With politick grave counfel; then the king Had virtuous uncles to protect his grace. 1. Cit. Why, fo hath this, both by his father and mother. 3. Cit. Better it were, they all came by his father; Or, by his father, there were none at all: For emulation now, who shall be nearest, Will touch us all too near, if God prevent_not. Sig. B. as the proverb fayth, feldome comes the better. VALL. That proverb indeed is auncient, and for the most part true," &c. REED. The modern editors read-a better. The paffage quoted above proves that there is no corruption in the text; and fhews how very dangerous it is to disturb our authour's phrafeology, merely because it is not familiar to our ears at prefent. MALONE. 4 Woe to that land that's govern'd by a child!] "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child." Ecclefiaftes, ch. x. STEEVENS. s That, in bis nonage, council under bim,] So the quarto. The folio reads-Which in his nonage.-Which is frequently ufed by our authour for who, and is ftill to ufed in our Liturgy. But neither reading affords a very clear fenfe. Dr. Johnfon thinks a line loft before this. I fufpect that one was rather omitted after it. MALONE. O, full O, full of danger is the duke of Glofter; And the queen's fons, and brothers, haught and proud: And were they to be rul'd and not to rule, This fickly land might folace as before. 1. Cit. Come, come, we fear the worft; all will be well. 3. Cit. When clouds are feen, wife men put on their cloaks; When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand; 2. Cit. Truly, the hearts of men are full of fear: You cannot reafon almoft with a man 6 That looks not heavily, and full of dread. 3. Cit. Before the days of change', ftill is it fo: 2. Cit. Marry, we were fent for to the juftices. 6 You cannot reafon-] i. e. converfe. See Vol. IV. p. 546, n. 1. MALONE. ? Before the days of change, &c.] This is from Holinfhed's Chronicle, Vol. III. p. 721. "Before fuch great things, men's hearts of a fecret inftinct of nature mifgive them; as the fea without wind fwelleth of himself fome time before a tempeft." TOLLET. It is evident in this paffage that both Holinfhed and Shakspeare allude to St. Luke. See Chap. xxi. 25, &c. HENLEY. It is manifeft that Shakspeare here followed Holinfhed, having adopt. ed almoft his words. Being very converfant with the facred writings, he perhaps had the Evangelist in his thoughts when he wrote, above, "Truly, the hearts of men are full of fear." MALONE. SCENE SCENE IV. The fame. A Room in the Palace. Enter the Archbishop of York, the young Duke of York, To Archbishop of York-] was Thomas Rotheram. He was made Lord Chancellor by King Edward IV. in 1475. MALONE. 8 Laft night, I bear, they lay at Northampton; At Stony-Stratford will they be to-night :] Thus the quarto, 1598. The folio reads: Last night, I heard, they lay at Stony-Stratford, And at Northampton they do reft to-night. An anonymous Remarker, who appears not to have inspected a fingle quarto copy of any of thefe plays, is much furprized that editors fhould prefume to make fuch changes in the text, (without authority, as he intimates,) and affures us the reading of the folio is right, the fact being, that "the prince and his company did in their way to London actually lye at Stony-Stratford one night, and were the next morning taken back by the duke of Glocefter to Northampton, where they lay the following night. See Hall, Edw. V. fol. 6." Shakspeare, it is clear, either forgot this circumftance, or did not think it worth) attending to.-According to the reading of the original copy in quarto, at the time the archbishop is fpeaking the king had not reached Stony-Stratford, and confequenly his being taken back to Northampton on the morning after he had been at Stratford, could not be in the authour's contemplation. Shakspeare well knew that Stony-Stratford was nearer to London than Northampton; therefore in the first copy the young king is made to fleep on one night at Northampton, and the archbishop very naturally fuppofes that on the next night, that is, on the night of the day on which he is fpeaking, the king would reach Stony Stratford. It is highly improbable that the editor of the folio fhould have been apprized of the hiftorical fact above stated; and much more likely that he made the alteration for the fake of improving the metre, regardless of any other circumstance. How little he attended to topography appears from a preceding scene, in which Glofter, though in London, talks of sending a meilenger to that town, instead of Ludlow. See p. 510, n. 2. By neither reading can the truth of history be preferved, and therefore we may be fure that Shakspeare did not mean in this inftance to adhere to it. According to the prefent reading, the fcene is on the day on which the king was journeying from Northampton to Stratford; and of course the meffenger's account of the peers being feized, &c. VOL. VI. which LI To-morrow, or next day, they will be here. Dutch. I long with all my heart to fee the prince; I hope, he is much grown fince last I saw him. 2 Eliz. But I hear, no; they fay, my son of York Hath almoft overta'en him in his growth. York. Ay, mother, but I would not have it fo. Dutch. Why, my young coufin? it is good to grow. York. Grandam, one night as we did fit at fupper, My uncle Rivers talk'd how I did grow More than my brother; Ay, quoth my uncle Gloster, which was on the next day after the king had lain at Stratford, is inaccurate. If the folio reading be adopted, the scene is indeed placed on the day on which the king was feized; but the archbishop is supposed to be apprized of a fact which before the entry of the Messenger he manifeftly does not know, and which Shakspeare did not intend he fhould appear to know; namely, the duke of Glofter's coming to StonyStratford the morning after the king had lain there, taking him forceably back to Northampton, and feizing the lords Rivers, Grey, &c. The truth is, that the queen herself, the perfon moft materially interested in the welfare of her fon, did not hear of the king's being carried back from Stony-Stratford to Northampton till about midnight of the day on which this violence was offered him by his uncle. See Hall, Edward V. fol. 6. Hiftorical truth being thus deviated from, we have a right to prefume that Shakspeare in this inftance did not mean to pay any attention to it, and that the reading furnished by the quarto was that which came from his pen: nor is it poffible that be could have made the alteration which the folio exhibits, it being utterly inconfiftent with the whole tenour and scope of the prefent fcene. If the archbishop had known that the young king was carried back to Northampton, he muft alfo have known that the lords who accompanied him, were fent to prison; and instead of eagerly asking the Meffenger in p. 515, " Whai news?" might have informed him of the whole transaction. The truth of history is neglected in another inftance alfo. The meffenger fays, the lords Rivers, Grey, &c. had been fent by Glofter to Pomfret, whither they were not fent till fome time afterwards, they being fent at first, according to Sir Thomas More, (whose relation Hall and Holinfhed transcribed) "into the North country, iato diverie places to prifon, and afterwards all to Pontefract." MALONE. He He was the wretched'ft thing?, when he was young, That, if his rule were true, he should be gracious. Dutch. I pr'ythee, pretty York, who told thee this? Dutch. His nurfe! why, she was dead ere thou waft born. York. If 'twere not fhe, I cannot tell who told me. 2. Eliz. A parlous boy:-Go to, you are too fhrewd. Arch. Good madam, be not angry with the child. 2. Eliz. Pitchers have ears. Enter a Meffenger'. Arch. Here comes a meffenger: What news? Mef. Well, madam, and in health. Dutch. What is thy news? Mef. Lord Rivers, and lord Grey, are fent to Pomfret, With them fir Thomas Vaughan, prifoners. Dutch. Who hath committed them? Mef. The mighty dukes, Glofter, and Buckingham. 9-the wretched'ft thing,] Wretched is here ufed in a fenfe yet retained in familiar language, for paltry, pitiful, being below expectation. JOHNSON. 1-been remember'd,] To be remembered is in Shakspeare, to have one's memory quick, to have one's thoughts about one. JOHNSON. A parlous boy:] Parlous is keen, fhrewd. So, in Law Tricks, 1608: "A parlous youth, sharp and fatirical." STEEVENS, 3 Enter a Messenger.] The quarto reads-Enter Dorfet. STEVENS. 2. Elix. Liz |