to see if ShakeThe notes to

y.

1. ii. 148. and be immortalized. Compare Faerie Queene, 11. viii. 13: "Whose living handes immortalizd his name."

liefest pelfe.

1. iii. 14. dunghill grooms. Compare Faerie Queene, III. X. 15: “his The dearest to his dounghill minde." And see Faerie

...

Queene, II. xii. 87.

52:

I. iii. 22. Faint-hearted Woodville.

66

Compare Faerie Queene, 1. ix.

Fie, fie faint hearted knight! What meanest thou?"

1. iii. 63. One that still motions war and never peace. Compare Spenser, Mother Hubberd's Tale (1. 124): “Now surely brother (said the Foxe anon) Ye have this matter motioned in season." This very unusual verb (to propose) does not occur in Shakespeare again nor, I think, in Spenser. I. iv. 43. scarecrow that affrights our children. See note at II. i. 79. 1. vi. 6. Adonis' garden. Compare Spenser, Faerie Queene, III. vi.

29-42.

II.

ACT 11. Nat from Spencer but from

*

II. i. 79. The cry of Talbot serves me for a sword. Compare Spenser, Shepheards Calender, June, Glosse: "the Frenchmen used to say of that valiant captain, the very scourge of Fraunce, the Lorde Thalbot great armies were defaicted and put to flyght at the onely hearing of hys name. In somuch that the French women to affray theyr chyl

dren would tell them that the Talbot commeth."

18

xxviii

THE FIRST PART (

ACT IV.

IV. 1. 189. This shouldering of each other in the co Queene, II. vii. 47 (describing the Court of Ambition) raise themselves to high degree By riches and u Some by close shouldring: some by flatterie.”

IV. i. 185. rancorous spite. Faerie Queene, 11. Despight."

Iv. ii. 15. owl of death. Compare Faerie Quee messenger of death, the ghastly owle." Golding deathfull owle."

IV. vii. 88. proud commanding spirit, and 1. ii. 1 ship" (see note). Compare Faerie Queene, 1. viii. 12: ous gate" (gait). And 1. ix. 12: "proud avenging b 1. xii. 14: “proud luxurious pompe,” etc.

I take the expression "Well I Wot" to occurs in this play (IV. vi. 32) and three tim Elsewhere Shakespeare uses it in Richard I Night's Dream, and three times in Titus Andro pression has naturally been cited as evidence of since he was very fond of the tag. But it is o I think, that is to say in his late work, and earlier prose. "Well I wot" is an old ph northern. It occurs many times in The Tow (circa 1460). In the first hundred pages (Sur it is on pp. 4, 31, 62, 74, 82. At p. 62 "Full Greene and Titus) is the form. In Grafton's it in Richard II.'s deposition speech, and since S it in that play (v. vi. 18), that reference would Greene out of court. But it is also in Peele's times in A Farewell to the General (1589), in Po twice in Jack Straw; and Peele as well as Sha

OF

court. Compare Pari on): "some thought to unrighteous reward:

I. vii. 22: "rancorous

ueene, 1. v. 40: "The ng calls the bird "the

138 "proud insulting 2:"proud presumptu boy" (Cupid). And

ie Queene, 1. vii. 17:

But there is a ted particularly in eare's work, which penser's help. I influence on the 1. I propose to

Greene) all picked it up from Spenser, who re-introduced it to popularity. It will be found in Faerie Queene, I. x. 65; “For well I wote, thou springst from ancient race," II. Introduction, st. i. (“Right well I wote"), II. ix. 6; 1II. iv. 57; Colin Clout's Come Home Again (three times); Mother Hubberd's Tale ; " For well I wot (compar'd to all the rest Of each degree) that Beggers life is best" (1 590, "long sithens composed"). Spenser has it frequently elsewhere. Spenser naturally shows much familiarity with northern dialect. See his Shepheards Calender throughout.

On the relationship of these plays, in date of appearance, to Spenser's Faerie Queene, see further in my Introduction to Part II.

I. TRANSPOSITIONS SUCH AS "GO WE," ETC.

The subjunctive of the present followed by we, expressing an invitation (Schmidt). This structure is found in many of Shakespeare's plays, but it is very much commoner in the early ones. Schmidt gives about a dozen references to the three Parts of Henry VI. alone, in the present play at II. i. 13: "Embrace we then the opportunity"; at III. ii. 102: "But gather we our forces out of hand"; and at III. iii. 68: "Call we to mind, and mark but this for proof." I have not noted if Greene affects it, but I give it from Selimus (Greene and Peele), "But go we, Lords, and solace in our campe" (Grosart, xiv. 209). Shakespeare very wisely dropt this ineffectual method which easily. becomes silly. It is an archaism, and without claiming its reintroduction for Spenser, it may be shown that he used it freely. "Go, we" appears to be the parental form. It is in Towneley Mysteries (p. 68): "Go we to land now merely"; and at p. 221: "Go we to it, and be we strong" and "Set we the tre on the mortase ; and P. 315: "Go we now, we two." And in Mankind (Early English Dramatists) "Go we hence" occurs several times. It is not uncommon with Spenser: "Turne we our steeds," Faerie Queene, III. viii. 18; "Sit we downe here under the hill," Shepheards Calender, September (Globe ed. 473, b). In (Peele's) Jack Straw, of which more will be said in Introduction (Part II.), "Stay we no longer prating here" occurs (Hazlitt's Dodsley, v. 383). See 3 Henry VI. II. i. 199. No doubt the verb and its pronoun are readily transposed for ac

> start with. It mes in Part III. II., Midsummer nicus. This exf Greene's work, nly in his plays, nowhere in his hrase, probably neley Mysteries tees Soc. 1836 well I wot" (of Chronicle I find hakespeare has suffice to put writings, four yhymnia, and kespeare (and

18

XXX

THE FIRST PART

centuation's sake in the metre-take such a we to the final text" and the alteration ups tirely-but this does not cover the whole ca this inversion frequently in Tamburlaine, connections.

II. TRANSPOSITIONS SUCH

"Hung be the heavens with black" (I.
Orleans from the English" (1. vi. 2); and “
I derived am” (II. v. 74). See notes at I. vi
The two vary slightly but may be considered

This inversion occurs several times in P of Paris as I have noted (1584):

Done be the pleasure of the powers above (Prole Fair Lady Venus, let me pardon'd be (111. ii. 36; And heaven and earth shall both confounded be The man must quited be by heaven's laws (IV. Her name that governs there Eliza is (v. 1. 369, Bequeathed is unto thy worthiness (v. p. 370, b) And search will reveal more examples work, as in Sir Clyomon, "But cover'd will (521, b), and "They forced me through batteri and frequently in that production.

In Marlowe I find :

Discomfited is all the Christian host (Tamburlain So honour, heaven, (till heaven dissolved be) (v. ii Later, "Cut is the branch that might have gr at the end of Doctor Faustus occurs. Marlo not attracted by the construction. Mr. Woo with only two from him: "Erected is a castl (Faustus, vii. 38), and “Broken is the league” ( v. (164, b)) both too late to be of service here. Part I. (II. i. 1): "Thus far are we towards weak example. There may be better. But n as is in Peele.

Mr. Woollett drew my attention to the a version had for Spenser, who has it a numbe Ruines of Time; Teares of the Muses; Virgil's mos and other poems. None of these, howev so they are not historically effective. He

wth a goodly list from Greene's Alphonsus. But the prevalence
it Peele militates against this being an evidence of Spenser's
inluence in Greene. Not so with Spenser's influence in Peele's
Araignment of Paris, where I have already mentioned the
obvous evidence of his admiration for The Shepheards Calender
(159). These examples are of more interest, such as:—
Then if by mee thou list advised bee (June).

For he nould warned be (May).

Here wander may thy flocke early or late (June).
Ystabled hath his steedes in lowlye laye (November).

And it occurs often in

No doubt search would yield more.
the first books of Faerie Queene. Spenser appears again to have
popularised and revived an archaism, for I imagine it to be com-
mon in early writers, especially in the Miracle plays. It is closely
paralleled by the last noted transposition, “ Go we
Com-
pare The Towneley Mysteries again; "Crownyd was with thorn"
(232); "borne was of a madyn fre" (270); "in heaven lowsyd
shall be" (285); "that now rehersyd is" (297); "Dampnyd be
we in helle fulle depe" (305). It is very common.
Mr.
Woollett tells me he noted it in Gower. The only note I have
met with upon this grammatical construction, in Abbott (425),
cites 1 Henry VI. I. vi. 26: “Then the rich jewell'd coffer of
Darius transported shall be at high festivals," of which he says,
"it is rare to find such transpositions" so that a note is needful.
A reference to the York, Chester, Coventry and Digby mysteries
showed me at once that this inversion is found in and charac-
terises all of them. It seems to or was deemed to lend a sort
of solemn stiffness to the style. "When I perhaps compounded
am with clay" is a good instance in Shakespeare's Sonnets.

III. LINES CONSTRUCTED WITH "NEVER" AND
A COMPARATIVE.

"A stouter champion never handled sword" (III. iv. 19).
And see III. ii. 134, 135. With this may be classed the forma-
tion with "ever" and the superlative,
"and the superlative, as in 2 Henry VI. I. i.
15, 16: "The happiest gift that ever marquess gave, The
fairest queen that ever king received"; and see also 3 Henry
VI. II. i. 67. And a very similar method is also prevalent in
these plays and other earliest Shakespearian ones: "Was ever
son so rued a father's death? Was ever father," etc. (3 Henry

C