Enter EDWARD, running. Edw. Smile, gentle heaven! or strike, ungentle death! Geo. Our hap is lost, our hope but sad despair; 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 Ah, Warwick, why hast thou withdrawn thyself?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, The noble gentleman gave up the ghost. 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 foe 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 The royal army consisted, according to Hall, of about forty thousand men; and the young duke of York's forces were 48,760. In this combat 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. MALONE And give sweet passage to my sinful soul! Rich. Brother, give me thy hand, and, gentle Warwick, Let me embrace thee in my weary arms:→→ I, that did never weep, now melt with woe, War. Away, away! Once more, sweet lords, farewell. This may plant courage in their quailing breasts ;6 Fore-slow no longer, make we hence amain. SCENE IV. [Exeunt. The same. Another part of the Field. Excursions. Enter Rich. Now, Clifford, I have singled thee alone : Clif. Now, Richard, I am with thee here alone : And so, have at thee. [They fight. WARWICK enters; CLIFFORD flies. Rich. Nay, Warwick, single out some other chase; For I myself will hunt this wolf to death. SCENE V. [Exeunt, Another part of the Field. Alarum. Enter King HENRY. Quailing-that is, sinking into dejection. STEEVENS. STEEVENS Can neither call it perfect day, nor night. Sometime, the flood prevails; and then, the wind; To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, So many days my ewes have been with young; So minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years, [8] Hence, perhaps, the vulgarism that gives such acknowledged force to the following lines in Lee's Rival Queens: "When Greeks join'd Greeks, then was the tug of war." STEEVENS. [9] This speech is mournful and soft, exquisitely suited to the character of the king, and makes a pleasing interchange, by affording, amidst the tumult and horror of the battle, an unexpected glimpse of rural innocence and pastoral tranquillity. JOHNSON. This speech strongly confirms the remark made by sir Joshua Rey nolds on a passage in Macbeth, Act I. sc. vi. MALONE. [1] Poor fool, it has already been observed, is an expression of tenderness, often used by our author. MALONE. Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave. Ah, what a life were this! how sweet! how lovely! To kings, that fear their subjects' treachery? And to conclude,-the shepherd's homely curds, When care, mistrust, and treason wait on him. Alarum. Enter a Son that had killed his Father, dragging in the dead body. Son. Ill blows the wind, that profits nobody.- Weep, wretched man, I'll aid thee tear for tear ;` [2] These two horrible incidents are selected to show the innumerable calamities of civil war. JOHNSON.In the battle of Constantine and Maxentius, by Raphael, the second of these incidents is introduced on a similar occasion. STEEVENS Be blind with tears, and break o'ercharg'd with grief." Enter a Father, who has killed his Son, with the Body in his arms. Fath. Thou, that so stoutly hast resisted me, Throw up thine eyes; see, see, what showers arise, Upon thy wounds, that kill mine eye and heart !— What stratagems, how fell, how butcherly, And hath bereft thee of thy life too late! K. Hen. Woe above woe! grief more than common grief! The red rose and the white are on his face, The one, his purple blood right well resembles ; Take on with me, and ne'er be satisfied? Fath. How will my wife, for slaughter of my son, Shed seas of tears, and ne'er be satisfied ?3 K. Hen. How will the country, for these woful chances, Mis-think the king, and not be satisfied! Son. Was ever son, so ru'd a father's death? Fath. Was ever father, so bemoan'd a son ? K. Hen. Was ever king, so griev'd for subjects' woe? Much is your sorrow; mine, ten times so much. [2] The meaning is here inaccurately expressed. The king intends to say that the state of their hearts and eyes shall be like that of the kingdoms in a civil war, all shall be joined by power formed within themselves. JOHNSON. [3] I think the meaning of the line, And hath bereft thee of thy life too soon, to be this: Thy father exposed thee to danger by giving thee life too soon, and hath bereft thee of life by living himself too long. JOHNSON. [4] To take on is a phrase still in use among the vulgar, and signifies-to persist in clamorous lamentation. STEEVENS. [5] To mis-think is to think ill, unfavourably. STEEVENS. |