We shall begin our ancient bickerings." Lordings, farewell; and fay, when I am gone, I prophefy'd-France will be loft ere long. [ Exit. CAR. So, there goes our protector in a rage. 'Tis known to you, he is mine enemy: *Nay, more, an enemy unto you all; And no great friend, I fear me, to the king, Confider, lords, he is the next of blood, And heir apparent to the English crown; *Had Henry got an empire by his marriage, *And all the wealthy kingdoms of the weft. 6 There's reafon he fhould be difpleas'd at it. *Look to it, lords; let not his fmoothing words Bewitch your hearts; be wife, and circumfpect. What though the common people favour him, Calling him-Humphrey, the good duke of Glofter; Clapping their hands, and crying with loud voice د bickerings. To bicker is to skirmish. In the ancient metrical romance of Guy E. of Warwick, bl. 1. no date, the heroes confult whether they should bicker on the walls, or defcend to battle on the plain. Again, in the genuine ballad of Chevy Chace : "Bomen bickarte upon the bent "With their browd aras cleare." Again, in Drayton's Polyolbion, Song IX: "From bickering with his folk to keep us Britains back." Again, in The Spanish Masquerado, by Greene, 1589: 66 fundry times bickered with our men, and gave them the foyle." Again, in Holinfhed, p. 537: "At another bickering alfo it chanced that the Englishmen had the upper hand." Again, p. 572: At firft there was a fharp bickering betwixt them, but in the end victorie remained with the Englishmen." Levi pugna congredior is the expreffion by which Barrett in his Alvearie, or Quadruple Dict. 1580, explains the verb to bicker. STEEVENS. And all the wealthy kingdoms of the weft,] Certainly Shakspeare wrote-east. WARBURTON. There are wealthy kingdoms in the west as well as in the caft, and the western kingdoms were more likely to be in the thought of the speaker. JOHNSON. Jefu maintain your royal excellence! With-God preferve the good duke Humphrey! • I fear me, lords, for all this flattering gloss, He will be found a dangerous protector. *BUCK. Why should he then protect our fovereign, He being of age to govern of himself?— ⚫ Coufin of Somerfet, join you with me, And all together,—with the duke of Suffolk,. We'll quickly hoife duke Humphrey from his feat. * CAR. This weighty bufinefs will not brook de lay; I'll to the duke of Suffolk presently. [Exit. SOM. Coufin of Buckingham, though Hum- And greatnefs of his place be grief to us, ⚫ Than all the princes in the land befide; BUCK. Or thou, or I, Somerfet, will be protector, * Defpight duke Humphrey, or the cardinal. [Exeunt BUCKINGHAM and SOMERSET. SAL. Pride went before, ambition follows him. While thefe do labour for their own preferment, Behoves it us to labour for the realm. I never faw but Humphrey duke of Glofter • Did bear him like a noble gentleman • Oft have I feen the haughty cardinal • More like a foldier, than a man o'the church, " As ftout, and proud, as he were lord of all,- • Unlike the ruler of a common-weal. Warwick my fon, the comfort of my age! Hath won the greatest favour of the commons; Thy late exploits done in the heart of France, • Have made thee fear'd, and honour'd, of the ple: Join we together, for the publick good; In what we can, to bridle and suppress The pride of Suffolk, and the cardinal, peo With Somerfet's and Buckingham's ambition; And, as we may, cherish duke Humphrey's deeds, While they do tend the profit of the land, * WAR. SO God help Warwick, as he loves the land, * And common profit of his country! 7 And, brother York, ]. Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York, married Cicely, the daughter of Ralf Nevil, Earl of Weftmoreland. Richard Nevil, Earl of Salisbury, was fon to the Earl of Weftmoreland by a fecond wife. He married Alice, the only daughter of Thomas Montacute, Earl of Salisbury, who was killed at the fiege of Orleans [See this play, Part I. A& I. fc. iii.]; and in confequence of that alliance obtained the title of Salisbury in 1428. His eldeft fon Richard, having married the fifter and heir of Henry Beauchamp Earl of Warwick, was created Earl of Warwick, in 1449. MALONE. 8 to civil discipline;] This is an anachronism. The present fcene is in 1445, but Richard Duke of York was not viceroy of Ireland till 1449. MALONE. 9 the profit of the land. ] .I think we might read, more clearly -to profit of the land-i. e. to profit themfelves by it; unless 'tend be written for attend, as in King Richard 11: They tend the crowne, yet ftill with me they ftay." STEEVENS. Perhaps tend has here the fame meaning as tender in a fubfequent fcene: "I tender fo the fafety of my liege." Or it may have been put for intend; while they have the advantage of the commonwealth as their objecl. MALONE. *YORK. And fo fays York, for he hath greatest cause. SAL. Then let's make hafte away, and look unto the main. 2 WAR. Unto the main! O father, Maine is loft; That Maine, which by main force Warwick did win, * And would have kept, so long as breath did last : Main chance, father, you meant; but I meant Maine; Which I will win from France, or else be flain. [Exeunt WARWICK and SALISBURY. YORK. Anjou and Maine are given to the French; * Paris is loft; the state of Normandy *Stands on a tickle point, now they are gone: Suffolk concluded on the articles'; * The peers agreed; and Henry was well pleas'd, * To change two dukedoms for a duke's fair daugh ter. * I cannot blame them all; What is't to them? 'Tis thine they give away, and not their own. Pirates may make cheap pennyworths of their pillage, And purchase friends, and give to courtezans, *Still revelling, like lords, till all be gone: * While as the filly owner of the goods * Weeps over them, and wrings his hapless hands, * And fhakes his head, and trembling ftands aloof, Then let's &c.] The quarto-without fuch redundancy_ Come, fonnes, away, and looke unto the maine. STEEVENS. 3 on a tickle point, Tickle is very frequently used for ticklish by poets contemporary with Shakspeare. So, Heywood in his Epigrams on Proverbs, 1562: "Time is tickell, we may matche time in this, "For be even as tickell as time is." Again, in Jeronymo, 1605: "Now ftands our fortune on a tickle point." Again, in Soliman and Perfeda, 1599: The reft by turning of my tickle wheel." STEEVENS. *While all is fhar'd, and all is borne away; * Ready to ftarve, and dare not touch his own. *So York muft fit, and fret, and bite his tongue, * While his own lands are bargain'd for, and fold. Methinks, the realms of England, France, and Ireland, *Bear that proportion to my flesh and blood, As did the fatal brand Althea burn'd, * Unto the prince's heart of Calydon. 3 Anjou and Maine, both given unto the French! A day will come, when York fhall claim his own; Whofe church-like humours fit not for a crown. Till Henry, furfeiting in joys of love, With his new bride, and England's dear-bought queen, And Humphrey with the peers be fall'n atjars: With whose sweet smell the air fhall be perfum'd; 3 the prince's heart of Calydon.] Meleager. STEEVENs. According to the fable, Meleager's life was to continue only fo long as a certain firebrand fhould laft. His mother Althea having thrown it into the fire, he expired in great torments. MALONE. |