That he should be so abject, base and poor,
To choose for wealth and not for perfect love.
Henry is able to enrich his queen,

And not to seek a queen to make him rich:
So worthless peasants bargain for their wives,
As market-men for oxen, sheep, or horse.
Marriage is a matter of more worth
Than to be dealt in by attorneyship;

Not whom we will, but whom his grace affects,
Must be companion of his nuptial bed:
And therefore, lords, since he affects her most,
It most of all these reasons bindeth us,
In our opinions she should be preferr❜d.
For what is wedlock forced but a hell,
An age of discord and continual strife?
Whereas the contrary bringeth bliss,
And is a pattern of celestial peace.

Whom should we match with Henry, being a king,
But Margaret, that is daughter to a king?
Her peerless feature, joined with her birth,
Approves her fit for none but for a king:
Her valiant courage and undaunted spirit,
More than in women commonly is seen,
Will answer our hope in issue of a king;
For Henry, son unto a conqueror,
Is likely to beget more conquerors,
If with a lady of so high resolve

As is fair Margaret he be link'd in love.

Then yield, my lords; and here conclude with me
That Margaret shall be queen, and none but she.

55 Marriage] F1. But marriage F2F3F4.

60 It most] Rowe. Most Ff. The most Keightley (Collier MS.).

64 bringeth] F. bringeth forth F2F3F4.

71 women] woman Rowe (ed. 2).

72 Will answer] Ff. Answer Pope. will Answer Capell.

our] om. Hudson (Steevens conj.).

King. Whether it be through force of your report, My noble Lord of Suffolk, or for that My tender youth was never yet attaint With any passion of inflaming love, I cannot tell; but this I am assured, I feel such sharp dissension in my breast, Such fierce alarums both of hope and fear,

As I am sick with working of my thoughts.

Take, therefore, shipping; post, my lord, to France;
Agree to any covenants, and procure

That Lady Margaret do vouchsafe to come
To cross the seas to England, and be crown'd
King Henry's faithful and anointed queen :
For your expenses and sufficient charge,
Among the people gather up a tenth.
Be gone, I say; for, till you do return,
I rest perplexed with a thousand cares.
And you, good uncle, banish all offence:
If you do censure me by what you were,
Not what you are, I know it will excuse
This sudden execution of my will.

And so, conduct me where, from company,
I revolve and ruminate my grief.

may

Glou. Ay, grief, I fear me, both at first and last.

[Exit.

[Exeunt Gloucester and Exeter.

Suf. Thus Suffolk hath prevail'd; and thus he goes,
As did the youthful Paris once to Greece,
With hope to find the like event in love,
But prosper better than the Trojan did.

Margaret shall now be queen, and rule the king;
But I will rule both her, the king and realm.

82 love] Ioue F1.

90 To cross] Across Hudson (S. Walker conj.).

105

[Exit.

102 [Exeunt...] Capell. Exit Gloces

ter. Ff.

106 Trojan] Troian F1.

NOTES.

NOTE I.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ Mr G. R. French writes to us: 'In 1 Henry VI., it is generally said of the Duke of York: "Richard Plantagenet, eldest son of Richard, late Earl of Cambridge." But he was an only son. "Eldest" should therefore be left out.'

We have made other changes in the 'Dramatis Personæ' of the following plays, in accordance with suggestions from Mr French, to whom we beg to repeat our acknowledgements.

[Mr French afterwards embodied a great deal of valuable information on the historical characters in Shakespeare's English plays in a volume called Shakespeareana Genealogica, which has been treated with undeserved neglect. W. A. W.]

NOTE II.

I. 1. 60. The word Rheims, spelt 'Rheimes' in the Folios, must be pronounced as a disyllable, otherwise the metre halts. Capell's interpolation, the credit of which is claimed as usual by Steevens, derives some support from the fact that Roan, i.e. Rouen, is mentioned by Gloucester in line 65. Possibly we should read Rheimes for Roan in

the latter passage.

NOTE III.

1. 3. 59. The insertion made by the Editor of the second Folio for the sake of the metre shows that a change had already taken place in the pronunciation of the word Mayor,' which in Shakespeare's day was sometimes written and pronounced 'Major.' See 1 Henry IV. 11. 4. 478: 'I deny your major: if you will deny the Sheriff, so; if not, let him enter.' In line 85 of the present scene, however, the 'Maior' of the first Folio becomes Major' in the second-probably from inadvertence,

NOTE IV.

1. 4. 16-18. We leave this corrupt passage as it stands in the first Folio. In the second Folio, which is followed as usual by the third and fourth, it is thus given:

'And fully even these three dayes have I watcht,

If I could see them. Now Boy doe thou watch,
For I can stay no longer.'

Pope omits the words 'For...longer.'

Malone has :

'And even these three days have I watched,
If I could see them.

Now do thou watch, for I can stay no longer.'

Mr Collier :

'And even these three days have I watch'd, if I
Could see them.

Now, do thou watch, for I can stay no longer.'

Mr Kinnear conjectures:

Aim'd fully even; these three days &c.

reading what follows with the second Folio.

NOTE V.

III. 2. 18. All editors previous to Capell, except Hanmer, follow the Folios in making Reignier speak without having brought him on the stage, and all subsequent editors follow Capell in giving Reignier's speeches to Alençon, without noting that he had made any change. Hanmer altered Alençon to Reignier in the stage-direction, line 18, and Reignier to Alençon in the stage-direction, line 41.

NOTE VI.

we

v. 1. 17. However plausible the emendation kin may seem, leave knit, the reading of the Folios, as the conceit suggested by the 'knot of amity,' in the preceding line, is not alien from the author's manner. Mr Collier, in a note to his second edition, says: "Mr Singer

is obliged to admit that it has been proposed to read 'near kin to Charles.' Where has it been so proposed? In the corrected Folio, 1632, which Mr Singer has always such a wish to ignore. The emendation was never suggested (not even in Mr Singer's corrected Folio, 1632) until it appeared in our volume of Notes and emendations,' p. 277."

In fact, it was first suggested by Pope, and adopted by Theobald, Hanmer, Warburton, and Johnson. Capell restored knit, in which he was followed by Steevens and Malone,

NOTE VII.

v. 3. 75. This and other speeches which follow are marked by Pope and subsequent editors as spoken aside, but this is so obvious that we have not thought it necessary to encumber our pages with marginal directions.

NOTE VIII.

v. 4. 121. Malone, followed by Singer, Mr Collier, and Herr Delius, attributes the emendation 'prison'd' for 'poison'd' to Pope, rightly assigns it to Theobald,

Mr Staunton