company,

And so conduct me, where from

I may revolve and ruminate my grief."

[Exit.

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

Margaret shall now be queen, and rule the king;
But I will rule both her, the king, and realm.

[Exit.

ruminate my grief.] Grief in the first line is taken generally for pain

or uneasiness: in the second specially for sorrow.

b Of this play, whoever may have been the author, it is certain that it was once extremely popular. It is evidently alluded to by Nashe, in a tract entitled Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication, &c. 1592, where he says, "How would it have joyed brave Talbot, the terror of the French, to think that after he had lain two hundred years in his tomb, he should triumph again on the stage, and have his bones new embalmed with teares of ten thousand spectators at least, at several times, who, in the tragedian that represents his person, imagine they behold him fresh bleeding."

1

SECOND PART OF

KING HENRY VI.

THIS play, which was first printed in its present form in the folio of 1623, was founded on an old play of Marlowe's, called The First Part of the Contention of the two famous houses of York and Lancaster. In what year this meagre original was produced, is, perhaps, now impossible to be discovered. It was published in 1594; but Shakspeare is supposed to have amplified and improved the rude sketch of his predecessor two or three years earlier.

Mr. Malone has been at the trouble of carefully comparing the play of Marlowe with the drama which Shakspeare formed out of it; and distinguishing by different marks the alterations made by our great poet. These marks are continued in the present edition. The lines which Shakspeare adopted from the old play, without any alteration, are printed in the usual manner; those speeches which he altered or expanded, are distinguished by inverted commas ; and to all the lines entirely composed by himself, asterisks are prefixed.

This play opens with Henry's marriage, which was in the twenty-third year of his reign, A. D. 1445; and closes with the first battle fought at St. Alban's and won by the York faction, in the thirty-third year of his reign, A. D. 1455: so that it comprizes the history and transactions of ten years.

King HENRY the Sixth.

HUMPHREY, duke of GLOSTER, his uncle.

Cardinal BEAUFORT, bishop of Winchester, great uncle to the king.

RICHARD PLANTAGENET, duke of York.

EDWARD and RICHARD, his sons.

Duke of SOMERSET,

Duke of SUFFOLK,

Duke of BUCKINGHAM,

Lord CLIFFORD,

Earl of SALISBURY,

Earl of WARWICK,

Young CLIFFORD, his son,

of the king's party.

}

of the York faction.

Lord SCALES, governor of the Tower. Lord SAY.
Sir HUMPHREY STAFFORD, and his brother.

STANLEY.

Sir JOHN

A Sea-Captain, Master, and Master's Mate, and WALTER

WHITMORE.

Two Gentlemen, prisoners with Suffolk.

A Herald.

VAUX.

HUME and SOUTHWELL, two priests.

BOLINGBROKE, a conjurer. A Spirit raised by him.
THOMAS HORNER, an armourer. PETER, his man.
Clerk of Chatham. Mayor of Saint Alban's.
SIMPCOX, an impostor. Two Murderers.

JACK CADE, a rebel.

GEORGE, JOHN, DICK, SMITH, the weaver, MICHAEL,

&c. his followers.

ALEXANDER IDEN, a Kentish gentleman.

MARGARET, queen to King Henry.

ELEANOR, duchess of Gloster.

MARGERY JOURDAIN, a witch. Wife to Simpcox.

Lords, Ladies, and Attendants; Petitioners, Aldermen, a Beadle, Sheriff, and Officers; Citizens, Prentices, Falconers, Guards, Soldiers, Messengers, &c.

SCENE, dispersedly in various parts of England.

SECOND PART OF

KING HENRY VI.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-London. A Room of State in the Palace.

Flourish of Trumpets: then Hautboys. Enter, on one side,
King HENRY, Duke of GLOSTER, SALISBURY, War-
WICK, and Cardinal BEAUFORT; on the other, Queen
MARGARET, led in by SUFFOLK; YORK, SOMERSET,
BUCKINGHAM, and others following.

Suf. As by your higha imperial majesty,
I had in charge at my depart for France,
As procurator to your excellence,

To marry princess Margaret for your grace;
So, in the famous ancient city, Tours,-

In presence of the kings of France and Sicil,

The dukes of Orleans, Calaber, Bretaigne, and Alençon, 'Seven earls, twelve barons, twenty reverend bishops,'I have perform'd my task, and was espous'd:

'And humbly now' upon my bended knee,

In sight of England and her lordly peers,
Deliver up my title in the queen

To your most gracious hands, that are the substance
Of that great shadow I did represent;

The happiest gift that ever marquess gave,

The fairest queen that ever king receiv'd.

K. Hen. Suffolk, arise.-Welcome, queen Margaret :

⚫ I can express no kinder sign of love,

Than this kind kiss.-O Lord, that lends me life,

As by your high, &c.] It is apparent that this play begins where the former ends, and continues the series of transactions of which it presupposes the first part already known. This is a sufficient proof that the second and third parts were not written without dependance on the first, though they were printed as containing a complete period of history.-JOHNSON.