Speak, Clifford, doft thou know who speaks to

thee?

Dark cloudy death o'erfhades his beams of life,
And he nor fees, nor hears us what we fay.

RICH. O, 'would he did! and fo, perhaps, he doth;

'Tis but his policy to counterfeit,

'Because he would avoid fuch bitter taunts 'Which in the time of death he gave our father.

GEO. If fo thou think'ft, vex him with eager

words."

RICH. Clifford, afk mercy, and obtain no grace.
EDW. Clifford, repent in bootless penitence.
WAR. Clifford, devife excufes for thy faults.
GEO. While we devife fell tortures for thy faults.
'RICH. Thou didft love York, and I am fon to
York.

EDW. Thou pitied'ft Rutland, I will pity thee.
GEO. Where's captain Margaret, to fence you

now?

WAR. They mock thee, Clifford ! fwear as thou waft wont.

RICH. What, not an oath? nay, then the world goes hard,

'When Clifford cannot spare his friends an oath :I know by that, he's dead; And, by my foul, 'If this right hand would buy two hours' life, That I in all despite might rail at him,

eager words.] Sour words; words of afperity.

So, in Hamlet:

JOHNSON

"It is a nipping and an eager air." STEEVENS,

This hand fhould chop it off; and with the iffuing blood

Stifle the villain, whose unftaunched thirst
York and young Rutland could not fatisfy.

WAR. Ay, but he's dead: Off with the traitor's
head,

And rear it in the place your father's stands.-
And now to London with triumphant march,
There to be crowned England's royal king.
From whence fhall Warwick cut the fea to France,
And ask the lady Bona for thy queen :

So fhalt thou finew both these lands together;
And, having France thy friend, thou fhalt not
dread

The scatter'd foe, that hopes to rife again;
For though they cannot greatly fting to hurt,
Yet look to have them buz, to offend thine ears.
First, will I fee the coronation;

And then to Britany I'll cross the fea,"

To effect this marriage, fo it please my lord.

EDW. Even as thou wilt, fweet Warwick, let it

be:

feat;

* For on thy fhoulder do I build my
* And never will I undertake the thing,

* Wherein thy counfel and confent is wanting.-
Richard, I will create thee duke of Glofter;-
"And George, of Clarence ;-Warwick, as ourself,
Shall do, and undo, as him pleaseth best.

RICH. Let me be duke of Clarence; George, of Glofter;

7 And then to Britany I'll cross the fea,] Thus the folio. The quartos thus :

"And afterward I'll cross the feas to France."

STEEVENS.

For Glofter's dukedom is too ominous.8

WAR. Tut, that's a foolish obfervation; Richard, be duke of Glofter: Now to London, To fee these honours in poffeffion.

[Exeunt.

ACT III. SCENE 1.

A Chace in the North of England.

Enter Two Keepers, with Cross-bows in their Hands.

1 KEEP. Under this thick-grown brake' we'll fhroud ourselves;

stoo ominous.] Alluding, perhaps, to the deaths of Tho mas of Woodstock, and Humphrey, Dukes of Glofter.

STEEVENS.

The author of the original play, in which this line is found, probably had here a paffage in Hall's Chronicle in his thoughts: "It feemeth to many men that the name and title of Gloucefter hath bene unfortunate and unluckie to diverse, whiche for their honor have bene erected by creation of princes to that stile and dignitie; as Hugh Spencer, Thomas of Woodstocke, fon to kynge Edwarde the thirde, and this duke Humphrey, [who was killed at Bury;] whiche three perfons by miferable death finished their daies; and after them king Richard the iii. alfo duke of Gloucefter, in civil warre was flaine and confounded; fo that this name of Gloucefter is taken for an unhappie and unfortunate ftile, as the proverbe speaketh of Sejanes horfe, whofe ryder was ever unhorfed, and whofe poffeffor was ever brought to miferie." MALONE.

9

two Keepers,] In the folio, instead of two keepers, we have, through negligence, the names of the perfons who reprefented these characters; Sinklo and Humphrey. See Vol. IX. p. 23, n.7.

MALONE.

For through this laund anon the deer will come;

Dr. Grey obferves from Hall and Holinfhed, that the name of the perfon who took King Henry, was Cantlowe. See Mr. Tyrwhitt's note on the first scene in The Taming of a Shrew.

I learn alfo from one of the Pafton Letters, Vol. I. p. 249, that Giles Senctlowe was among the perfons then in Scotland with the Queen. STEEVENS.

One Giles Santlowe, Efquire, is among thofe attainted by King Edward's firft parliament, and may poflibly be here meant, but no perfon of that name feems to have been any way concerned in the capture of the late king; who, according to W. Wyrcefter, was actually taken in Lancashire, by two knights named John Tallois and Richard Tunftall,-July, 1464. Drummond of Hawthornden obferves, it was recorded " that a fon of Sir Edward Talbots apprehended him as he fat at dinner in Waddingtown-hall; and like a common malefactor, with his legs under the horfe's belly, guarded him toward London." It is a more certain fact, which I have from records in the Duchy Office, that King Edward granted to Sir James Harrington a rent-charge of one hundred pounds out of his lordship of Rowland in Lancashire, in recompence of his great and laborious diligence about the capture and detention of the king's great traitor, rebel and enemy, lately called Henry the Sixth, made by the faid James; and likewife annuities to Richard Talbot, Thomas Talbot, Efquires,Talbot, and—Livefey, for their fervices in the fame capture. See alfo, Rymer's Foedera, xi. 548. Henry had for fome time been harboured by James Maychell of Crakenthorpe, Weftmoreland, Ib. 575. It feems clear, however, that the prefent scene is to be placed near the Scottish border. The King himself says:

From Scotland am I ftol'n, even of pure love;"

And Hall (and Holinfhed after him) tells us " He was no fooner entered [into England,] but he was knowen and taken of one Cantlow, and brought toward the king." RITSON.

I

brake-] A brake anciently fignified a thicket. So, in A Midfummer-Night's Dream: "This green plot fhall be our flage, this hawthorn brake our tiring houfe." Again: "Enter into that brake, and fo every one according to his cue.' See the latter part of a note on Measure for Meajure, Vol. VI. p. 232. STEEVENS.

2

this laund-] Laund means the fame as lawn; a plain extended between woods.

So, in the old play of Orlando Furiofo, 1594:
"And that they trace the fhady lawnds," &c.

6

And in this covert will we make our stand,
Culling the principal of all the deer.

2 KEEP. I'll ftay above the hill, fo both may fhoot.

*1 KEEP. That cannot be; the noife of thy cross-bow 3

* Will feare the herd, and fo my fhoot is loft.
* Here stand we both, and aim we at the best :
* And, for the time fhall not seem tedious,
*I'll tell thee what befell me on a day,

* In this felf-place where now we mean to ftand.
2 KEEP. Here comes a man, let's ftay till he be
past.4

Enter King HENRY, difguifed, with a Prayer-book.

K. HEN. From Scotland am I ftol'n, even of pure

love,

To greet mine own land with my wifhful fight.5 "No, Harry, Harry, 'tis no land of thine; * Thy place is fill'd, thy fcepter wrung from thee,

Again :

3

"Tread the thefe lawnds, kind Flora boafts her pride." STEEVENS.

the noife of thy cross-bow-] The poet appears not to

have forgot the fecrets of his former profeffion. So, in The Merry Devil of Edmonton, 1608:

4

read:

66

Did I not hear a bow go off, and the buck bray?"
STEEVENS.

let's Stay till he be paft.] So the folio. The quartos

let's liften him a while." STEEVENS.

To greet mine own land with my wifhful fight.] So the folio. The quartos perhaps better, thus:

"And thus difguis'd to greet my native land."

STERVENS.