But only (with your patience) that we may Count. With all my heart; and think me honoured To feast so great a warrior in my house. SCENE IV. London. The Temple Garden. [Exeunt. Enter the Earls of SOMERSET, SUFFOLK, and WARWICK; RICHARD PLANTAGENET, VERNON, and another Lawyer. Plan. Great lords, and gentlemen, what means this silence? Dare no man answer in a case of truth? Suf. Within the Temple hall we were too loud; Plan. Then say at once, If I maintain'd the truth; And, therefore, frame the law unto my will. Som. Judge you, my lord of Warwick, then between us. War. Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch, Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth, Between two blades, which bears the better temper, Between two horses, which doth bear him best,* Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye, I have, perhaps, some shallow spirit of judgment: But in these nice sharp quillets of the law, Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw. 2 and another Lawyer.] Read-a lawyer. This lawyer was probably Roger Nevyle, who was afterward hanged. See W. Wyrcester, p. 478. Ritson. 3 Or, else, was wrangling Somerset in the error?] So all the editions. There is apparently a want of opposition between the two questions. I once read: Or else was wrangling Somerset i' th' right? Johnson. Sir T. Hanmer would read: 4 bear him best,] i. e. regulate his motions most adroitly. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "He bears him like a portly gentleman." Steevens. Plan. Tut, tut, here is a mannerly forbearance: Som. And on my side it is so well apparell'd, That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye. And stands upon the honour of his birth, From off this brier pluck a white rose with me." Pluck a red rose from off this thorn with me. War. I love no colours; and, without all colour 5 In dumb significants-] I suspect we should read-signifiMalone. cance I believe the old reading is the true one. So, in Love's Labour's Lost: "Bear this significant [i. e. a letter] to the country maid, Jaquenetta Steevens. כי 6 From off this brier pluck a white rose with me.] This is given as the original of the two badges of the houses of York and Lancaster, whether truly or not is no great matter. But the proverbial expression of saying a thing under the rose, I am persuaded came from thence. When the nation had ranged itself into two great factions, under the white and red rose, and were perpetually plotting and counterplotting against one another, then, when a matter of faction was communicated by either party to his friend in the same quarrel, it was natural for him to add, that he said it under the rose; meaning that, as it concerned the faction, it was religiously to be kept secret. Warburton. This is ingenious! What pity, that it is not learned too!-The rose (as the fables say) was the symbol of silence, and consecrated by Cupid to Harpocrates, to conceal the lewd pranks of his mother. So common a book as Lloyd's Dictionary might have instructed Dr. Warburton in this: "Huic Harpocrati Cupido Veneris filius parentis suæ rosam dedit in munus, ut scilicet si quid licentius dictum, vel actum sit in convivio, sciant tacenda esse omnia. Atque idcirco veteres ad finem convivii sub rosa, Anglicè under the rose, transacta esse omnia ante digressum contestabantur; cujus formæ vis eadem esset, atque ista, Μισώμνα μονα συμποταν. Probant hanc rem versus qui reperiuntur in marmore: "Est rosa flos Veneris, cujus quo furta laterent "Convivæ ut sub ea dicta tacenda sciant." Upton. Of base insinuating flattery, I pluck this white rose, with Plantagenet. Suf. I pluck this red rose, with young Somerset; And say withal, I think he held the right. Ver. Stay, lords, and gentlemen; and pluck no more, Till you conclude that he, upon whose side The fewest roses are cropp'd from the tree, Som. Good master Vernon, it is well objected;" Plan. And I. Ver. Then, for the truth and plainness of the case, I pluck this pale, and maiden blossom here, Giving my verdict on the white rose side. Som. Prick not your finger as you pluck it off; Ver. If I, my lord, for my opinion bleed, Som. Well, well, come on: Who else? Law. Unless my study and my books be false, The argument you held, was wrong in you; [To SOM. In sign whereof, I pluck a white rose too. Plan. Now, Somerset, where is your argument? Som. Here, in my scabbard; meditating that, Shall die your white rose in a bloody red. Plan. Mean time, your cheeks do counterfeit our roses; For pale they look with fear, as witnessing The truth on our side. Som. No, Plantagenet, 'Tis not for fear; but anger,—that thy cheeks 7 I love no colours;] Colours is here used ambiguously for tints and deceits. Johnson. So, in Love's Labour's Lost: " I do fear colourable colours." 8 - well objected;] Properly thrown in our way, justly proposed. Johnson. 9 but anger, that thy cheeks &c.] i. e. it is not for fear that my cheeks look pale, but for anger; anger produced by this circumstance, namely, that thy cheeks blush, &c. Malone. Blush for pure shame, to counterfeit our roses; Plan. Now, by this maiden blossom in my hand, Suf. Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet. Plan. Proud Poole, I will; and scorn both him and thee. Suf. I'll turn my part thereof into thy throat. Som. Away, away, good William De-la-Poole! We grace the yeoman, by conversing with him. War. Now, by God's will, thou wrong'st him, Somer set; His grandfather was Lionel, duke of Clarence,2 1I scorn thee and thy fashion,] So the old copies read, and rightly. Mr. Theobald altered it to faction, not considering that by fashion is meant the badge of the red rose, which Somerset said he and his friends would be distinguished by. But Mr. Theobald asks, If faction was not the true reading, why should Suffolk immediately reply Turn not thy scorns this way, Plantagenet. Why? because Plantagenet had called Somerset, with whom Suffolk sided, peevish boy. Warburton. Mr. Theobald, with great probability, reads-faction. Plantagenet afterwards uses the same word: this pale and angry rose. "Will I for ever, and my faction, wear." In King Henry V, we have pation for paction. We should undoubtedly read-and thy faction. The old spelling of this word was faccion, and hence fashion easily crept into the text. So, in Hall's Chronicle, EDWARD IV, fol. xxii: “ whom we ought to beleve to be sent from God, and of hym onely to bee provided a kynge, for to extinguish both the faccions and partes [i. e. parties] of Kyng Henry the VI, and of Kyng Edward the fourth." Malone. As fashion might have been meant to convey the meaning assigned to it by Dr. Warburton, I have left the text as I found it, allowing at the same time the merit of the emendation offered by Mr. Theobald, and countenanced by Mr. Malone. Steevens. 2 His grandfather was Lionel, duke of Clarence,] The author Third son to the third Edward king of England; Plan. He bears him on the place's privilege,4 Som. By him that made me, I'll maintain my words On any plot of ground in Christendom: Was not thy father, Richard, earl of Cambridge, mistakes. Plantagenet's paternal grandfather was Edmund of Langley, Duke of York. His maternal grandfather was Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, who was the son of Philippa the daughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence. That duke therefore was his maternal great great grandfather. Malone. 3 Spring crestless yeomen ] i. e. those who have no right to arms. Warburton. He bears him on the place's privilege,] The Temple, being a religious house, was an asylum, a place of exemption, from violence, revenge, and bloodshed. Johnson. It does not appear that the Temple had any peculiar privilege at this time, being then, as it is at present, the residence of lawstudents. The author might, indeed, imagine it to have derived some such privilege from its former inhabitants, the Knights Templars, or Knights Hospitalers, both religious orders: or blows might have been prohibited by the regulations of the Society: or what is equally probable, he might have neither known nor cared any thing about the matter. Ritson. 5 For treason executed in our late king's days?] This unmetrical line may be somewhat harmonized by adopting a practice common to our author, and reading-execute instead of executed. Thus, in King Henry V, we have create instead of created, and contaminate instead of contaminated. Steevens. 7 6 Corrupted and exempt-] Exempt for excluded. Warburton. time once ripen'd-] So, in The Merchant of Venice: stay the very riping of the time." Steevens. 66 For your partaker Poole,] Partaker in ancient language, signifies one who takes part with another, an accomplice, a confederate, |