You have no children, butchers! if you had, As, deathsmen, you have rid this sweet young prince! 65 Here sheathe thy sword, I'll pardon thee my death. 70 What! wilt thou not? Where is that devil's butcher, K. Edw. Away, I say! I charge ye, bear her hence. 75 80 Q. Mar. So come to you and yours, as to this prince! [Exit. K. Edw. Where's Richard gone? butchers . . . would... But . . chance . . . child . . . prince] 94-98. You... Deuils I would then haue rid.. stopt your rage, But Q. ... hope. sonne ... doone ... prince 73-76. 68-72. Away perforce. death. What do it thou... will not .. ease] 99-104. Awaie, and beare her hence. Queen. Nay nere . . . death. Wilt Clarence, doe thou doe it? . . . would not. ease Q. Good... do thou .. Didst . . . do it... charity] 105-108. Good kill me too. Cla. Didst... charity Q. 77-80. What . . . Where is that Thou art... thy thou... put'st back] 109-112. Whears the . He is his he nere put backe Q. 81, 82. Away So... prince] 113, 114. Awaie I saie and take her hence perforce. Queen. So. prince. Ex. Q. 83-85. Where's post; and .. Tower] 115-117. Clarence, whithers Gloster gone? Cla. Marrie my Lord to London, and ... Tower Q. former epoch-making play. For the sentiment, see again in Richard II. v. ii. 51. Probably as old as poetry. Boas notices the parallels here. See earlier in Faerie Queene, II. i. 41: "fiers fate did crop the blossome of his age." 63. You have no children, butchers] Similarly in Macbeth, Iv. iii. 216, Macduff says: "He has no children. All my pretty ones? Did you say all?" Blackstone pointed out this parallel. 67. deathsmen] executioners. See 2 Henry VI. III. ii. 217; Lear, IV. vi. 263; Lucrece, 1001. A favourite word of Greene's and not known before he used it. One of the casus belli perhaps. ... ... 67. rid] cut off, destroyed. See 2 Henry VI. III. i. 233; Richard II. v. iv. II. A word used with much latitude by Shakespeare. "Ridding a place" is in common use for clearing every rubbish, weeds, etc., away from it, in Ireland. Freeing from, getting rid of. 78. Hard-favour'd] Often in Shakespeare. Very ugly, repulsive. See 1 Henry VI. IV. vii. 23: "hardfavour'd death." Peele uses it in the Old Wives Tale (quoted in Part I.). But it is part of Hall's description of Richard, quoted at v. v. 53. 79. alms-deed] act of charity. Not again in Shakespeare. In early use. Clar. To London, all in post; and, as I guess, To make a bloody supper in the Tower. SCENE VI.-London. The Tower. 85 90 [Exeunt. Enter King HENRY and GLOUCESTER, with the Lieutenant, on the walls. Glou. Good day, my lord. What! at your book so hard? 5 [Exit Lieutenant. K. Hen. So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf; ... 86-90. He's... head... sort With pay... let's... And see . . . how By this... me] 118-122. He is ... comes head. Well, discharge souldiers with paie ... now let us towards London, To see doth fare, For by this vs. Exeunt Omnes Q. Scene VI. ... how shee Ff.; Enter 1-4. Good day, my lord . . . alike] 5-9. And both butcher's knife] Enter .] Enter Henry the sixt and Richard, with Gloster to King Henry in the Tower Q. 1-4. Good day... Lord . . . all alike Q. omitted Q. 84. all in post] in post haste. 86. sudden] impulsive, prompt. quent in Shakespeare. SCENE VI. ... in the Tower of London, spoyled of his Fre- life, and all worldly felicitie, by Richard duke of Gloucester (as the constant fame ran) which, to thintent that Kyng Edward his brother should be clere out of all secret suspicion of sodain inuasion murthered the said king with a dagger" (Hall, p. 303). Polydore Vergil says a sword. Halliwell quotes from Warkworth and other contemporaries, with the remark: "the account (in True Tragedie) of Henry's murder is not in all probability far from the truth." One writer asserted Henry died of pure displeasure and melancholy. 1, 2. Gloucester . . . K. Hen.] This scene, the murder of Henry, bears the historic date May 21 or May 22, 1471. That puts it at a fortnight later than Tewkesbury (May 4), in which interval King Edward quelled the bastard Falconbridge's rising of Kentishmen under the pretence of freeing Henry, but in reality to kill and spoil. When this was performed: "Poore Kyng Henry the sixte, a little before depriued of his realme and Imperiall Crowne, was now, 7-9. shepherd... wolf. sheep .. butcher's knife] Poor Henry at And next his throat unto the butcher's knife. The thief doth fear each bush an officer. Where my poor young was limed, was caught, and killed. Glou. Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete, That taught his son the office of a fowl! K. Hen. I, Dædalus; my poor boy, Icarus ; Thy father, Minos, that denied our course; 10, 11. What .. the guilty mind] 5, 6. What . . . Rosius. mind Q. 12. The thief. . . officer] omitted Q. With.. And I .. sweet once limde doth feare the fatall bush, And I ... &kild Q. 18-20. Why. 20 25 . a guiltie 13-17. The bird . . . bush, and killed] 7-10. The birde ... mine eie, where poore. peevish fool fowl for all... drown'd] 11-14. Why . foole... birde, and yet for all that the poore Fowle course; ... thy dagger's course, Thy brother Edward, the sunne that searde his wings, And thou the enuious gulfe that swallowed him. Oh better can my brest abide thy daggers . . . historie Q. once pours out his Biblical similes; his book was likely enough the Book, as the Bible was usually called. 10. Roscius] The great Roman actor (died 62 B.C.), referred to again in Hamlet, II. ii. 410. "Roscius... the best Histrien or buffon that was in his dayes to be found" (Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie (Arber, 48)). He usually played comedy. Burbage, the Elizabethan actor, was known as Roscius, and many allusions to the fact are to be found a little later. Halliwell says here: "It would, perhaps, he going out of the way to conjecture that Burbage played this part, and was called Roscius Richard' on that account." See Collier's Memoirs of Alleyn (Shakespeare Soc. p. 13). Greene often refers to Roscius. And Nashe. See Introduction. 12. The thief... bush an officer] Compare Nashe, The Unfortunate Traveller (Grosart, v. 173), 1594: "A theefe they say mistakes euerie bush for a true man.' "A true man" was an honest man, and " they say "is the usual cognizance of a proverb, which, from the speaker, was to be expected. See again Times Whistle, Sat. 7, 1. 3485 (1615): "takes every bush to be a constable." 13. limed... bush] See note at 2 Henry VI. 1. iii. 87. Shakespeare loved birds in or out of a cage-as he loved flowers in or out of a garden. Compare Kyd, Spanish Tragedy (111. iv. 41, 42, Boas) :— My breast can better brook thy dagger's point Than can my ears that tragic history. But wherefore dost thou come? is 't for my life? 30 Glou. Think'st thou I am an executioner ? K. Hen. A persecutor, I am sure, thou art: Glou. Thy son I kill'd for his presumption. K. Hen. Hadst thou been kill'd when first thou didst presume, Thou hadst not liv'd to kill a son of mine. And thus I prophesy: that many a thousand, Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear, 35 And many an old man's sigh, and many a widow's, And many an orphan's water-standing eye, And orphans for their parents' timeless death, 29. But life?] omitted Q. 30-34. Think'st thou I executing, Why, then thou... presumption] 21-25. Why doest thou thinke I art, And if executions, Then I know thou . . presumption Q. 35-37 Hadst thou been prophesy: that many] 26-29. Hadst thou bin prophesie of thee. That manie Q. omitted Q. 39-41. and many a widow's 37-39. a thousand... sigh] orphan's... husbands'] 291infants. eie, Widowes for 43. Shall rue. born] 32. Shall curse the time that euer thou wert borne Q. 44-52. The owl shriek'd goodly tree] 33-41. The owle shrikt... goodly tree Q. (reading tune for time: tempests: discord: undigest created for indigested and deformed). ... 27. dagger's point] See extract from Hall above. 40. water-standing eye] eye flooded with tears. "Standing water" is still in use. Compare "water-flowing tears above, Iv. viii. 43, when they begin to run over. 42. timeless] untimely. See Part I. v. iv. 5 (note). It occurs in Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, Part I. 11. i. (1578): "To see Andrugio tymeles dye." 43. rue the hour] "Tamburlaine shall rue the day, the hour Wherein etc. (Tamburlaine, Part I. IV. 3 (28, b)). Quoted before at "ignominious" (Part I. IV. i. 97). 44. The owl] See 1 Henry VI. IV. ii. 15; and "night-owl" above, 11. i. 130. Cf. Halliwell's quotation from Chaucer (Shakespeare Library, p. 99, The True Tragedie) :— "The jilous swan, ayenst hys deth that singeth, The owle eke, that of deth the bode bringeth." See Vergil's Eneid, iv. 462. 45. night-crow] or night-raven, a bird of superstition incapable of exact identification, Nycticorax. In Spenser he is constantly night-raven (followed by Peele). In the description of Horror (Faerie Queene, 11. vii. 23): "And after him Owles and Nightravens flew, The hatefull messengers of heauy things, Of death and dolor telling sad tidings." Pliny (translated by Holland, xviii. 1) Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempest shook down trees; And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope; 50 Teeth hadst thou in thy head when thou wast born, 53-56. Teeth hadst thou ... Thou camest] 42-45. Teeth hadst thou . . . I have heard, Thou camst into the world. He stabs him Q. says: "Are not some men . . . well and fitly compared to those cursed foules flying in the darke, which . . . bewray their spight and enuie euen to the night." And in the tenth Book, chap. xii. is devoted to "unluckie birds, and namely, the Crow, Raven and Scritch-owl." "The worst token of illluck that they give (Ravens), is when in their crying they seeme to swallow in their voice as though they were choked. . . . The Scritch-owle alwaies betokeneth some heauie newes . . . he is the verie monster of the night." But Pliny says he knew these things were not always true. 45. aboding] foreboding. "Abodement" has occurred above. Compare Henry VIII. 1. i. 92-94; and the "boding screech owl" in 2 Henry VI. III. ii. 327. 46. Dogs howl'd] Compare Golding's Ovid, xv. 895: "The doggs did howle, and every where appeered gastly sprights; And with an earthquake shaken was the towne." The screechowl appears here likewise, at the murder of Julius Cæsar. See note at 1 Henry VI. 1. i. 55. And see Part II. 1. iv. 18, 19. 47. rook'd] Generally explained by the "north county word," "ruck," signifying to squat or settle down, to lurk in a place. Steevens quotes twice from Chaucer, from Stanyhurst's Vergil, from Warner's Albion's England, and from Golding's Ovid: "on the house did rucke A cursed Owle the messenger of yll successe and lucke" (vi. 555, 556). But it does not seem satisfactory. We want here a noise, a note, or a croak, such as Pliny describes: "I would croak like a raven; I would bode, I would bode," says Thersites. 48. chattering pies] The magpie is that an unlucky bird in all the northern folklore. Compare the Nymphs that are turned into Pies, "the scolds of woods" that are "chattering still" at the end of the Fifth Book of Golding's Ovid. 51. an indigested and] So Folio 1. Capell altered to the Quarto reading, "undigest created." See Part II. v. i. 157: "indigested lump" (note). Compare Sonnet 114. "To wit" has been retained from Q by mistake. 53. Teeth hadst thou ... born] Halliwell confirmed this from Ross of Warwick: "exiens cum dentibus et capillis ad humeros." All Richard's characteristics are in Hall, p. 342-3: "Richard .. . was litle of stature, euill featured of limmes, croke backed, the left shulder muche higher than the righte, harde fauoured of visage, such as in estates is called a warlike visage, and emonge commen persones a crabbed face. He was malicious, wrothfull, and enuious, and it is reported, his mother the duches had much a dooe in her trauaill, that she could not be deliuered of hym uncut, and that he came into the worlde the fete forwarde, as menne bee borne outward [out of the world, coffined?] and as the fame ranne, not untothed." For the "legs forward," see below, line 71. Pliny has a chapter (vii. 8) "of those that be called Agrippæ.' "To be borne with the feet forward is unnatural and unkind . . . as if a man should say, Born hardly and with much adoe. · Agrippina hath left in writing, That her sonne Nero also... enemie to all mankind, was borne with his feet forward" (Holland). See Nashe's Anatomie of Absurditie (Grosart, i. 53): "preposterously borne with their feete forward" (evidently referring to Pliny, 1589). |