Hold you his hands, whilft I do fet it on.

[Putting a paper Crown on his Head.

• Putting a paper crown on his Head.] Shakspeare has on this occafion deviated from hiftory, if fuch of our English Chronicles as I have occafionally looked into, may be believed. According to thefe, the paper crown was not placed on the Duke of York's head till after it had been cut off. Rutland likewife was not killed by Clifford, till after his father's death. STEEVENS.

The ingenious commentator is moft certainly mistaken. Shakfpeare, fo far from having deviated from hiftory, has followed it with the utmoft precifion. Whethamftede exprefsly tells us, that the Lancaftrians, in direct breach of a mutual agreement, and before the day appointed for the battle, fell fuddenly upon the Duke's army, and took him and the Earl of Salisbury prifoners; treating both, but especially the Duke, in the moft hameful manner: Nam, fays he, ftatuentes eum fuper unum parvum formicarium colliculum, et quoddam fertum vile, ex palufiri gramine confectum, imponentes, per modum coronæ, fuper caput Juum, non aliter quam Judæi coram domino incurvaverunt genua fua coram ipfo, dicentes illuforie: Ave rex, fine regimine; ave rex, abfque hereditate; ave dux et princeps, abfque omni populo penitus et poffeffione. Ex hiis una cum aliis variis, in eum probrofe opprobriofeque dictis, coegerunt ipfum demum per capitis abfciffionem clameum relinquere fuæ jufticiæ vendicacionis, p. 489. Not a fingle circumftance is omitted, or varied in the fcene. It is not, however, imagined that Shakspeare had ever confulted Whethamstede: he found the fame ftory no doubt in fome old black letter Chronicle, or he might poffibly have it from a popular tradition. RITSON.

According to Hall the paper crown was not placed on York's head till after he was dead; but Holinfhed after giving Hall's narration of this business almoft verbatim, adds :-" Some write, that the Duke was taken alive, and in derifion caused to stand upon a mole-hill, on whofe heade they put a garland instead of a crowne, which they had fashioned and made of fegges or bulrushes, and having fo crowned him with that garlande, they kneeled downe afore him, as the Jewes did to Chrifte in fcorne, faying to him, hayle king without rule, hayle king without heritage, hayle duke and prince without people or poffeffions. And at length having thus fcorned hym with these and dyverfe other the like despitefull woordes, they ftroke off his heade, which (as yee have heard) they prefented to the queen."

Both the chroniclers fay, that the Earl of Rutland was killed

Ay, marry, fir, now looks he like a king!
Ay, this is he that took king Henry's chair;
And this is he was his adopted heir.-

But how is it that great Plantagenet

Is crown'd fo foon, and broke his folemn oath ?
As I bethink me, you should not be king,

Till our king Henry had fhook hands with death." And will you pale your head in Henry's glory And rob his temples of the diadem,

Now in his life, against your holy oath?

O, 'tis a fault too too unpardonable!

Off with the crown; and, with the crown, his head; And, whilst we breathe, take time to do him dead.3 CLIF. That is my office, for my father's fake.

Q. MAR. Nay, ftay; let's hear the orifons he makes.

YORK. She-wolf of France, but worse than wolves of France,

'Whose tongue more poisons than the adder's tooth! How ill-befeeming is it in thy fex,

To triumph like an Amazonian trull,

by Clifford during the battle of Wakefield; but it may be prefumed that his father had first fallen. The Earl's tutor probably attempted to fave him as soon as the rout began. MALONE.

1 Till our king Henry had fhook hands with death.] On York's return from Ireland, at a meeting of parliament it was fettled, that Henry should enjoy the throne during his life, and that York fhould fucceed him. See Hall, Henry VI. fol. 98. MALONE. 2 And will you pale-] i. e. impale, encircle with a crown. MALONE.

So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"Whate'er the ocean pales, or íky inclips." STEEVENS.

3 to do him dead,] To kill him. See Vol. VI. p. 170, MALONE.

n. 3.

See this play, p. 53, n. 9. STEEVENS.

Upon their woes, whom fortune captivates ? But that thy face is, vifor-like, unchanging, Made impudent with ufe of evil deeds,

I would affay, proud queen, to make thee blush:
To tell thee whence thou cam'ft, of whom deriv'd,
Were fhame enough to fhame thee, wert thou not
fhameless.

Thy father bears the type 5 of king of Naples,
Of both the Sicils, and Jerufalem;

Yet not fo wealthy as an English yeoman.

Hath that poor monarch taught thee to infult?
It needs not, nor it boots thee not, proud queen;
Unless the adage must be verified,-

That beggars, mounted, run their horfe to death.
'Tis beauty, that doth oft make women proud;
But, God he knows, thy fhare thereof is fmall:
'Tis virtue, that doth make them most admir'd;
The contrary doth make thee wonder'd at :
'Tis government, that makes them feem divine ;6
The want thereof makes thee abominable:
Thou art as oppofite to every good,

As the Antipodes are unto us,

Or as the fouth to the feptentrion."

Upon their woes,] So, the folio. The quarto reads-Upon
STEEVENS.

his woes.

the type-] i, e. the diftinguishing mark; an obsolete ufe of the word. So again, in King Richard III :

"The high imperial type of this earth's glory."

STEEVENS.

• 'Tis government, that makes them feem divine;] Government, in the language of that time, fignified evennefs of temper, and decency of manners. JOHNSON.

So, in King Henry IV. P. I. Falstaff says:

"Let men fay, we be men of good government."

feptentrion.] i. e. the North.

ufes the fame word as an adjective:

STEEVENS.

Septentrio, Lat. Milton

cold feptentrion blafts."

STEEVENS.

O, tiger's heart, wrapp'd in a woman's hide!8 How could'ft thou drain the life-blood of the child, To bid the father wipe his eyes withal,

And yet be seen to bear a woman's face? Women are foft, mild, pitiful, and flexible; 'Thou stern, obdurate, flinty, rough, remorfeless. Bid'st thou me rage? why, now thou haft thy with :9

'Would'st have me weep? why, now thou haft thy will:

For raging wind blows up inceffant showers,' And, when the rage allays, the rain begins.2 These tears are my fweet Rutland's obfequies;

8

O, tiger's heart, wrapped in a woman's hide!] We find almoft the fame line in Acolaftus his Afterwitte, 1600:

"O woolvish heart, wrapp'd in a woman's hide!"

MALONE.

thy with: &c.] So the folio: The quarto reads→→→ thy will in the first line, and thy wish in the second.

STEEVENS.

For raging wind blows up incessant showers,] Thus the folio. The quartos read

For raging winds blow up a storm of tears. STEEVENS. * Would have me weep? why, now thou haft thy will : For raging wind blows up inceffant showers,

And, when the rage allays, the rain begins.] We meet with the fame thought in our author's Rape of Lucrece :

"This windy tempeft, till it blows up rain,
"Held back his forrow's tide, to make it more;
"At last it rains, and bufy winds give o'er.
"Then fon and father weep with equal ftrife,

"Who should weep most for daughter or for wife."

Again, in Macbeth:

that tears fhall drown the wind."

Again, in Troilus and Crefida:

"Where are my tears ? rain, rain, to lay this wind ?" Again, in King John:

"This shower, blown up by tempeft of the foul-."

MALONE.

And every drop cries vengeance for his death,3''Gainst thee, fell Clifford,-and thee falfe French

woman.

NORTH. Befhrew me, but his paffions move me fo, That hardly can I check my eyes from tears.

YORK. That face of his the hungry cannibals Would not have touch'd, would not have ftain'd with blood :4

But you are more inhuman, more inexorable,

3 And every drop cries vengeance for his death,] So the folio. The quarto thus:

And every drop begs vengeance as it falls,

would not have ftain'd with blood :] Thus the first folio.

STEEVENS.

would not have ftain'd the roses just with blood:] So the fecond folio nonfenfically reads the paffage; but the old quarto, &c. of better authority, have it thus:

That face of his the hungry cannibals

Would not have touch'd, would not have ftain'd with blood. And this is fenfe. Could any one now have believed that an editor of common understanding fhould reject this, and fasten upon the nonfenfe of the later edition, only because it afforded matter of conjecture? and yet Mr. Theobald will needs correct, rofes juft with blood, to rofes juic'd with blood, that is, change one blundering editor's nonfenfe for another's. But if there ever was any meaning in the line, it was thus expreffed:

Would not have ftain'd the roses just in bud.
And this the Oxford editor hath efpoufed. WARBURTON.

As, without correction, the words—the rofes juft; do not make good fenfe, there is very little reason to suspect their being interpolated, and therefore it is most probable they were preserved among the players by memory. The correction is this: That face of his the hungry cannibals

Would not have touch'd:

Would not have fiain'd the rofes juft i' th' bloom.

The words [the roses juft] were, I fuppofe, left out by the first editors, in order to get rid of the fuperfluous hemiftich.

MUSGRAVE.