'WAR. Away, away! Once more, sweet lords,

farewell.

GEO. Yet let us all together to our troops, 'And give them leave to fly that will not stay; And call them pillars, that will stand to us; And, if we thrive, promise them fuch rewards 'As victors wear at the Olympian games : *This may plant courage in their quailing & breasts; *For yet is hope of life, and victory.— *Fore-flow no longer,9 make we hence amain.1 [Exeunt.

8 quailing-] i, e. finking into dejection, So, in Cym beline:

my falfe fpirits

Quail to remember:-" STEEVENS,

9 Fore-flow no longer,] To fore-flow is to be dilatory, to loiter. So, in The Battle of Alcazar, 1594:

Why, king Sebaftian, wilt thou now foreflow?" Again, in Marlowe's Edward II. 1598 :

Foreflow no time; sweet Lancaster, let's march," Again, in Promos and Caffandra, 1578:

Good knight, for time do not my fuit foreflow."

STEEVENS.

make we hence amain.] Inftead of this and the two preceding speeches, we have in the old play the following:

"Geo. Then let us hafte to cheare the fouldiers' hearts, "And call them pillers that will stand to us, "And highly promise to remunerate

"Their truftie service in these dangerous warres.

"Rich. Come, come away, and stand not to debate, "For yet is hope of fortune good enough.

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Brothers, give me your handes, and let us part,

"And take our leaves untill we meete againe;

"Where ere it be, in heaven or in earth.

"Now I that never wept, now melt in woe,
"To fee thefe dire mishaps continue fo.

"Warwick, farewell."

"War. Away, away; once more, fweet lords, farewell." MALONE.

SCENE IV.

The fame. Another Part of the Field.

Excurfions. Enter RICHARD and CLIFFORD.

RICH. NOW, Clifford, I have fingled thee alone:* Suppofe, this arm is for the duke of York, And this for Rutland; both bound to revenge, 'Wert thou environ'd with a brazen wall.3

CLIF. Now, Richard, I am with thee here alone: This is the hand, that stabb'd thy father York; And this the hand that flew thy brother Rutland; And here's the heart, that triumphs in their death, And cheers these hands, that flew thy fire and brother,

To execute the like upon thyself;

And fo, have at thee.

[They fight. WARWICK enters; CLIFFORD flies.

Now, Clifford, I have fingled thee alone: &c.] Thus the folio. The quartos thus:

"Now, Clifford, for York and young Rutland's death,
"This thirsty fword, that longs to drink thy blood,
"Shall lop thy limbs, and flice thy curfed heart,
"For to revenge the murders thou haft made."

STEEVENS.

3 Wert thou environ'd with a brazen wall.] So, in the second Thebaid of Statius, v. 453:

'RICH. Nay, Warwick,+ fingle out fome other

chase;

'For I myself will hunt this wolf to death.

[Exeunt.

SCENE V.

Another Part of the Field.

Alarum. Enter King HENRY.

* K. HEN. This battle fares like to the morning's war,5

* When dying clouds contend with growing light;

4 Nay, Warwick, &c.] We have had two very fimilar lines in the preceding play, p. 384:

See

"Hold, Warwick, seek thee out some other chace;
"For I myself must hunt this deer to death."

p. 102, n.2. MALONE.

5 This battle fares like to the morning's war, &c.] Inftead of this interesting speech, the quartos exhibit only the following: "O gracious God of heaven, look down on us, "And fet fome ends to these inceffant griefs! "How like a mastless ship upon the seas, "This woeful battle doth continue ftill,

"Now leaning this way, now to that fide driven,
"And none doth know to whom the day will fall.
"Oh, would my death might stay these civil* jars!
"Would I had never reign'd, nor ne'er been king!
"Margaret and Clifford chide me from the field,

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Swearing they had best success when I was thence. "Would God that I were dead, fo all were well; 66 Or, would my crown fuffice, I were content "To yield it them, and live a private life!"

The leading thought in both thefe foliloquies is borrowed from Holinfhed, p. 665 :-" This deadly conflict continued ten hours in doubtful state of victorie, uncertainlie heaving and setting on both fides," &c.

*The quarto, 1600, printed by W. W. reads---cruel jars.

* What time the fhepherd, blowing of his nails,* * Can neither call it perfect day, nor night. 'Now sways it this way, like a mighty fea, 'Forc'd by the tide to combat with the wind; Now fways it that way, like the felf-same sea Forc'd to retire by fury of the wind: 'Sometime, the flood prevails; and then, the wind; 'Now, one the better; then, another beft; 'Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast,7 "Yet neither conqueror, nor conquered: 'So is the equal poise of this fell war. *Here on this molehill will I fit me down. * To whom God will, there be the victory! For Margaret my queen, and Clifford too, "Have chid me from the battle; fwearing both, "They profper best of all when I am thence. "'Would I were dead! if God's good will were fo: For what is in this world, but grief and woe? * O God! methinks, it were a happy life,&

Virgil, however, Æn. Lib. X. v. 354, has a fimilar comparison : Expellere tendunt

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"Nunc hi, nunc illi: certatur limine in ipfo
"Aufoniæ. Magno difcordes æthere venti
"Prælia ceu tollunt, animis et viribus æquis:
«Non ipfi inter fe, non nubila, non mare cedunt;

Anceps pugna diu: ftant obnixi omnia contra," &c. This fimile, however, originates with Homer; Iliad, XIV.

STEEVENS. the Shepherd, blowing of his nails,] So, in Love's Labour's Loft:

"When icicles hang by the wall,

"And Dick the Shepherd blows his nail,-." MALONE. 7 Both tugging to be victors, breast to breast,] Hence, perhaps, the vulgarifm that gives fuch acknowledged force to the following line in Lee's Rival Queens:

"When Greeks join'd Greeks, then was the tug of war.' STEEVENS,

8 methinks, it were a happy life,] This fpeech is mournful and foft, exquifitely fuited to the character of the King, and

To be no better than a homely fwain; *To fit upon a hill, as I do now,

*To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
*Thereby to see the minutes how they run:
* How many make the hour full complete,"
* How many hours bring about the day,
* How many days will finish up the year,
* How many years a mortal man may live.
* When this is known, then to divide the times
*So many hours muft I tend my flock;
*So many hours must I take

my reft; *So many hours muft I cóntemplate; * So many hours muft I fport myself;

*So many days my ewes have been with young;
*So many weeks ere the poor fools will yean;1
* So many years 2 ere I fhall fheer the fleece:

makes a pleafing interchange, by affording, amidst the tumult and horror of the battle, an unexpected glimfe of rural innocence and paftoral tranquillity. JOHNSON.

This fpeech ftrongly confirms the remark made by Sir Joshua Reynolds on a paffage in Macbeth, Vol. X. p. 72, n. 3.

9

Thereby to fee the minutes how they run :

MALONE.

How many make the hour full complete,] So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece:

"Stuff up his luft, as minutes fill up hours." MALONE.

ere the poor fools will yean ;] Poor fool, it has already been obferved, is an expreffion of tenderness, often used by our author. MALONE.

So, in King Lear, scene the last :

"And my poor fool is hang'd."

See notes on this paffage, Vol. XVII. STEEVENS.

2 So many years ere I shall sheer the fleece:] i. e. the years which muft elapfe between the time of the yeaning of the ewes, and the lambs arriving to fuch a state as to admit of being fhorn. Mr. Rowe changed years to months; which was followed by the fubfequent editors; and in the next line inserted the word weeks; not observing that hours is used there, and throughout this speech, VOL. XIV.

G