Then yield, my lords; and here conclude with me,
That Margaret shall be queen, and none but she.
K. Hen. Whether it be through force of your report,
My noble lord of Suffolk; or for that
My tender youth was never yet attaint
With any passion of inflaming love,
I cannot tell; but this I am assur'd,
I feel such sharp dissention in my breast,
Such fierce alarums both of hope and fear,
As I am sick with working of my thoughts.
Take, therefore, shipping; post, my lord, to France;
Agree to any covenants; and procure

That lady Margaret do vouchsafe to come
To cross the seas to England and be crown'd
King Henry's faithful and anointed queen :
For your expenses and sufficient charge,
Among the people gather up a tenth.
Be gone, I say; for, till you do return,
I rest perplexed with a thousand cares.
And you, good uncle, banish all offence:
If you do censure me by what you were,
Not what you are, I know it will excuse
This sudden execution of my will.
And so conduct me, where, from company,
I may revolve and ruminate my grief.

a

Glo. Ay, grief, I fear me, both at first and last.

[Exit.

[Exeunt Glos. and Exeter. Suf. Thus Suffolk hath prevail'd; and thus he goes, As did the youthful Paris once to Greece;

With hope to find the like event in love,

But prosper better than the Trojan did.

Mar a et s all ow b que n, nd ru e t e king

But I w ll ru e b th her, t e k ng, nd ealm.

[Exit.

a Censure—judge.

End of King Henrs Vi.—$att I.

KING HENRY VI.

PART II.

Introduction.

THIS drama appears in the original folio edition of Shakspere's plays under the title of The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, with the Death of the Good Duke Humfrey. In the form in which it has been transmitted to us by the editors of that first collected edition of our author, it had not been previously printed. But in l594 there appeared a separate play, in quarto, under the following title:- The First Part of the Contention betwixt the two famous Houses of Yorke and Lancaster, with the Death of the Good Duke Humphrey, and the Banishment and Death of the Duke of SuiVolke, and the Tragical End of the proud Cardinall of Winchester, with the notable Rebellion of Jack Cade, and the Duke of Yorkes first Claime unto the Croune. Printed by Thomas Creede for Thomas Millington.' This play, in the entire conduct of the scenes, and in a great measure in the dialogue, is 'The Second Part of Henry the Sixt.' But the alterations and additions are so considerable in amount that it has been doubted whether the original authorship belongs to Shakspere. The whole dramatic conception is in the original play, and we, therefore, lave no doubts upon the matter.

Sir Walter Scott somewhere speaks, through one of Ins characters, of the "Lancastrian prejudices" of Shakspere. The great novelist had probably in his mind the delineation of Richard. But it would be

difficult, we think, to have conducted the entire chronicle history of the Contention between the two famous Houses of York and Lancaster' with more rigid impartiality. This just and tolerant view of human events and characters constitutes one of the most remarkable peculiarities of the mind of Shakspere. Let us turn to the very first scenes of these dramas, and we shall find the character of the Lancastrian Margaret gradually displaying itself in an aptitude for bold and dangerous intrigue, founded upon her pride and impatience of a rival iu authority. The Duchess of Gloster is tempted by her own weak ambition to meddle with the "limetwigs" that have been set for her. But it is the passionate hatred of Margaret, lending itself to schemes of treachery and bloodshed, that drives on the murder of the "good Duke Humphrey." With the accomplices of Margaret the retribution is instant and terrible. The banished Suffolk falls, not by the hand of the law, but by some mysterious agency which appears to have armed against him a power mightier than the law, which seizes upon its victim with an obdurate ferocity, and hurries him to death in the name of a wild and irregular justice. To the second great conspirator against the Protector the retribution is even more fearful—the death, not of violence, but of mental torture, far more terrible than any bodily pain. The justice which followed the other conspirator against Humphrey had not yet unsheathed its sword. His punishment was postponed till the battle-day of Wakefield.

The scenes of the first four acts of the Second Part of 'Henry VI.' may appear to a superficial observation to