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ACT III S CENE I.

In LONDON.

The Trumpets found. Enter Prince of Wales, the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham, Archbishop, with others.

BUCKINGHAM..

WELCOME, fweet Prince, to London, to

chamber. (6)

Glo. Welcome, dear Coufin, my thought's Sovereign,

"The weary way hath made you melancholy.

Prince. No, Uncle, but our croffes on the way Have made it tedious, wearifome, and heavy.

I want more Uncles here to welcome me.

Glo. Sweet Prince, th' untainted virtue of your years Hath not yet div'd into the world's deceit,

Nor more can you diftinguish of a man,

Than of his outward fhew, which, God he knows,
Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.

Thofe Uncles, which you want, were dangerous;
Your Grace attended to their fugar'd words,
But look'd not on the poifon of their hearts.

God keep you from them, and from fuch false friends!
Prince. God keep me from false friends! but they

were none.

Glo. My lord, the Mayor of London comes to greet you.

Enter Lord Mayor.

Mayor. God bless your Grace with health and happy days!

(6)

Gamera regia.

-to your Chamber.] London was anciently called

POPE. Prince.

Prince. I thank you, good my lord, and thank you all:

I thought my mother and my brother York,
Would long ere this have met us on the way.
Fie, what a flug is Haftings? that he comes not
To tell us, whether they will come or no.

Enter Lord Haftings;

Buck. And in good time here comes the fweating. lord.

Prince. Welcome, my lord; what will our mother,

come?

Haft. On what occafion God he knows, not I, The Queen your mother and your brother York, Have taken Sanctuary; the tender Prince Would fain have come with me to meet your Grace,. But by his mother was perforce with-held.

Buck. Fie, what an indirect and peevish courfe
Is this of hers? Lord Cardinal, will your Grace
Perfuade the Queen to fend the Duke of York
Unto his Princely Brother prefently?

If the deny, lord Haftings, you go with him,
And from her jealous arms pluck him perforce.

Arch. My lord of Buckingham, if my weak oratory
Can from his mother win the Duke of York,
Anon expect him here; but if the be
Obdurate to entreaties, God forbid,
We fhould infringe the holy privilege
Of Sanctuary! not for all this land
Would I be guilty of fo deep a fin.

Buck. You are too fenfelefs-obftinate, my lord; Too ceremonious and traditional. (7) Weigh it but with the 'Groffnefs of this age, (8)

You

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(7) Too ceremonious and traditional.] Ceremonious for fuperftitious; traditional for adherent to old cuftoms. WARBURTON.

(8) Weigh it but with the GROSSNESS of THIS age,] But the more grofs, that is, the more fuperftitious the age was, the ftronger would be the imputation of violated fanctuary. The queftion, we fee, by what follows, is whether fanctuary could be claimed by an infant. The fpeaker refolves it in the negative, because it could be claimed by thofe only whofe actions ne

You break not fanctuary in seizing him;
The benefit thereof is always granted

To thofe, whofe dealings have deferv'd the place;
And thofe, who have the wit to claim the place;
This Prince hath neither claim'd it, nor deferv'd it;
Therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it;
Then taking him from thence, that is not there,
You break no Privilege nor Charter there.
Oft have I heard of Sanctuary-men,

But Sanctuary-children ne'er till now.

Arch. My lord, you shall o'er-rule my mind for

once.

Come on, Lord Haftings, will you go with me?
Haft. Igo, my Lord.

Prince. Good Lords, make all the speedy hafte you
[Exeunt Archbifbop and Haftings.

may.

Say, Uncle Glofter, if our brother come,

Where fhall we fojourn till our Coronation ?
Glo. Where it seems beft unto your royal felf:
may counfel you, fome day or two

If I

Your Highnefs fhall repofe you at the Tower:
Then, where you pleafe, and fhall be thought moft fit
For your beft health and recreation.

Prince. I do not like the Tower of any place.
Did Julius Cæfar build that place, my Lord?
Buck. He did, my gracious Lord, begin that place,
Which fince, fucceeding ages have re-edify'd.
Prince. Is it upon record, or elfe reported

ceffitated them to fly thither; or by thofe who had an understanding to demand it; neither of which could be an infant's cafe : It is plain then, the first line, which introduces this reasoning, fhould be read thus,

Weigh it but with the GREENNESS of his age.

i.e. the young Duke of York's, whom his mother had fled with to fanctuary. The corrupted reading of the old quarto is fomething nearer the true.

WARBURTON.

-the greatnefs of his age. This emendation is received by Hanmer, and is very plaufible; yet the common reading may ftand. Weigh it but with the groffness of this age, you break not fanctuary. That is, compare the act of feizing him with the grofs, and licentious practices of thefe times, it will not be confidered as a violation of fanctuary, for you may give fuch reafons as men are now ufed to admit.

Succeffively

Succeffively from age to age, he built it?
Buck. Upon record, my gracious Lord.
Prince. But fay, my Lord, it were not register'd.
Methinks the truth fhould live from age to age,
As 'twere retail'd to all Pofterity; (9)

Even to the general all-ending day.

Glo. So wife, fo young, they fay, do ne'er live long.

Prince. What fay you, Uncle?

[Afide.

Glo. I fay, without characters fame lives long.

Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity, (1)

I moralize: Two Meanings in one word.

} Afide.

Prince.

(9) As 'twere RETAIL'D to all Pofterity;] And fo it is: Audi by that means, like moft other retail'd things, became adulterated. We fhould read,

INTAIL'd to all Poflerity;

which is finely and fenfibly expreffed, as if truth was the natural' inheritance of our children; which it is impiety to deprive them of. WARBURTON.

Retail'd may fignify diffufed, difperfed. (1) Thus like the formal Vice, Iniquity,

I moralize two Meanings in one Word.] By Vice, the Author means not a Quality, but a Perfon. There was hardly an old Play till the Period of the Reformation, which had not in it a Devil, and a droll Character, a jefter; (who was to play upon the Devil;) and this Buffoon went by the name of a Vice. This Buffon was at firft accoutred with a long Jerkin, a Cap with a Pair of Afs's Ears, and a wooden Dagger, with which (like another harlequin) he was to make Sport in belabouring the Devil. This was the conftant Entertainment in the Times of Popery, whilft Spirits, and Witchcraft, and exorcifing held their own. When the Reformation took place, the Stage shook off fome Groffities, and encreafed in Refinements. The Mafter-Devil then was foon difmiffed from the Scene; and this Buffoon was changed into a fubordinate Fiend, whofe Bufinefs was to on Earth, and feduce poor Mortals into that perfonated vicious Quality, which he occafionally fupported; as, Iniquity, in general, Hypocrify, Ufury, Vanity, Prodigality, Gluttony, &c. Now as the Fiend, (or Vice,) who perfonated Iniquity (or Hypocrify, for Inftance) could never hope to play his Game to the Purpose but by hiding his cloven Foot, and affuming a Semblance quite different from his real Character; he muft certainly put on a formal Demeanour, moralize and prevaricate in his Words, and pretend a Meaning directly oppofite to his genuine and primitive Intention. If this does not explain the Pallage in Question, 'tis all that I can at prefent fuggeft upon it.

[graphic]

Prince. That Julius Cæfar was a famous man; With what his valour did enrich his wit,

Thus like the formal VICE, INIQUITY,

His

I moralize: two Meanings in one Word.] That the buffoon, or jefter of the old English farces, was called the Vice is certain: and that, in their moral reprefentations, it was common to bring in the deadly fins, is as true. Of these we have yet feveral remains. But that the Vice ufed to affume the perfonage of these fins, is a fancy of Mr. Theobald's, who knew nothing of the matter. The truth is, the Vice was always a fool or jefter; and, (as the Woman in the Merchant of Venice, calls the Clown, alluding to this Character,) a merry Devil. Whereas thefe mortal fins were so many fad, ferious ones. But what misled our

editor was the name Iniquity, given to this Vice: but it was only on account of his unhappy tricks and rogueries. That it was given to him, and for the reafon I mention, appears from the following paffage of Johnson's Staple of News, second inter

meane.

M. How like you the Vice i'the play?

T. Here is never a fiend to carry him away. Befides he bas never a wooden dagger.

M. That was the old way, Goffip, when Iniquity came in like Hicas Pocas, in a Jugler's Jerkin, with falfe fkirts like the Knave of Clubs.

And, in The Devil's an Afs, we fee this old Vice, Iniquity, defcribed more at large.

From all this, it may be gather'd, that the text, where Richard compares himself to the formal Vice, Iniquity, must be corrupt, and the interpolation of fome foolish player. The Vice or Iniquity, being not a formal, but a merry, buffoon character. Befides, Shakespeare could never make an exact speaker refer to this character, because the fubject he is upon is Tradition and Antiquity, which have no relation to it; and because it appears from the turn of the paffage, that he is apologizing for his equivocation by a reputable practice. To keep the reader no longer in fufpenfe my conjecture is, that Shakespeare wrote and pointed the lines in this manner,

Thus like the FORMAL-WISE Antiquity

I moralize: Two meanings in one word.

Alluding to the Mythologic learning of the ancients, of whom they are all here fpeaking. So that Richard's ironical apology is to this effect, You men of morals who so much extol your allwife antiquity, in what am I inferior to it? which was but an equivocator as I am. And it is remarkable, that the Greeks themselves called their remote antiquity, Aixóuubos or the equivocator. So far as to the general fenfe; as to that which arifes particularly out of the corrected expreffion, I fhall only obferve that formal-wife is a compound epithet, an extreme fine one, and admirably fitted to the character of the speaker, who thought

all

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