action at Ferrybridge, I find him to have been a natural son of Salisbury (in that respect a brother to Warwick), and esteemed a valiant young gentleman. THEOBALD.

401. Thy brother's blood, &c.] Instead of this speech, which is printed, like almost all the rest of the play, from the folio, the quartos give the following:

Thy noble father in the thickest throngs
Cry'd still for Warwick, his thrice valiant son;
Until with thousand swords he was beset,
And, many wounds made in his aged breast.
And as he tottering sat upon his steed,
He waft his hand to me, and cried aloud,
Richard, commend me to my valiant son:
And still he cried, Warwick, revenge my death!
And with these words he tumbled off his horse;
And so the noble Salisbury gave up the ghost.
STEEVENS.

410. I'll kill my horse, &c.] So, in the Miseries of Queen Margaret, by Drayton :

"Resolv'd to win, or bid the world adieur:
"Which spoke, the earl his sprightly courser
slew."
STEEVENS.

420. And, in this vow, do chain my soul to thine.—] Thus the folio. The quarto as follows:

And in that vow now join my soul to the'.

STEEVENS.

442. Fore-slow no longer,- -] To fore-slow is to

be dilatory, to loiter.

Again, in Marlow's Edward II. 1612:

"Foreslow no time; sweet Lancaster, let's

march."

Again, in Promos and Cassandra, 1578:

"Good knight, for time do not my suit foreSTEEVENS.

slow."

443. Now, Clifford, I have singled thee alone, &c.] Thus the folio. The quarto thus:

Now, Clifford, for York and young Rutland's death,

This thirsty sword, that longs to drink thy
blood,

Shall lop thy limbs, and slice thy cursed heart,
For to revenge the murders thou hast made.

STEEVENS. 456. This battle fare's like to the morning's war, &c.] Instead of this interesting speech, the quartos exhibit only the following:

Oh gracious God of heaven, look down on us,
And set some ends to these incessant griefs !
How like a mastless ship upon the seas,
This woeful battle doth continue still,

Now leaning this way, now to that side 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,
Swearing they had best success when I was thence.
Would God that I were dead, so all were well;

Or,

*The quarto 1600 reads cruel jars.

Or, would my crown suffice, I were content
To yield it them, and live a private life!

The leading thought in both these soliloquies is borrowed from Holinshed, p. 665 :-" This deadly con flict continued ten hours in doubtful state of victorie, uncertainlie heaving and setting on both sides," &c. STEEVENS.

476. -methinks it were a happy life.] This speech is mournful and soft, exquisitely suited to the character of the king, and makes a pleasing interchange, by affording, amidst the tumult and horror of the battle, an unexpected glimpse of rural innocence, and pastoral tranquillity. JOHNSON. 492. So many months- -] The old copy reads so many years; and in the next line, weeks was supplied by Mr. Rowe.

STEEVENS. 510. These two horrible incidents are selected to shew the innumerable calamities of a civil war.

JOHNSON.

In the battle of Constantine and Maxentius, by Raphael, the second of these incidents is introduced on a similar occasion. STEEVENS. 532. And let our hearts, and eyes, like civil war,

Be blind with tears, and break o'ercharg'd with

grief.] The meaning is here inaccurately expressed. The king intends to say that the state of their hearts and eyes, shall be like that of the kingdom in a civil war,all shall be destroyed by power formed within themselves.

JOHNSON.

Blown

Blown with the windy tempest of my heart,] This

image had occurred in the preceding act :

"For raging wind blows up incessant show’rs.” STEEVENS.

544. What stratagems,- -] Stratagem seems to stand here only for an event of war, or may intend snares and surprises. JOHNSON.

Stratagem is used by Shakspere, not merely to express the events and surprizes of war.-The word means in this place some dreadful event, as it does also in the second part of Henry IV. where Northumberland says:

"Should be the father of some stratagem.'

MONCK MASON.

574. O boy! thy father gave thee life too soon, and hath bereft thee of thy life too late!] The Oxford editor might have justified the change he made, from the authority of the quarto, according to which I would read; explaining the first line thus: Thy father begot thee at too late a period of his life, and therefore thou wert not old and strong enough to cope with him. The next line can want no explanation. Mr. Tollet thinks, that by too late is meant too lately, as in K. Rich. III. act iii.

"Too late he died that might have kept that title." STEEVENS.

And hath bereft thee of thy life too late!] Too late, without doubt, means too recently, The same quaint expression is found in our author's Rape of Lucrece : “O, quoth

"O, quoth Lucretius, I did give that life, "Which she too early and too late hath spill'd.” The present reading appears to be far the more eli❤ gible. Had the son been younger, he would have been precluded from the levy that brought him into the field; and had the father recognized him before the mortal blow, it would not have been too late to have saved him from death. HENLEY. 556. Wither one rose, and let the other flourish! &c.] Thus the folio. The quarto thus:

For if you strive, a thousand lives must perish. STEEVENS. 562. How will the country, &c.] So the folio. The quarto thus:

How will the country now misdeem their king! Oh, would my death their minds could satisfy! To mis-think is to think ill, unfavourably. So, in the Northern Lass 1633:

66 -and heaven pardon me what I mis-thought every hour of the night!" STEEVENS 573. And so obsequious will thy father be.] Obsequious, is here, careful of obsequies, or of funeral JOHNSON,

rites.

In the same sense it is used in Hamlet:

-to do obsequious sorrow." STEEVENS.

574 -men for the loss, &c. Mr. Rowe made the alteration, but I think we might read man. STEEVENS. 575. As Priam was for all-] I having but one son,

Sad for the loss of thee,] The old copy reads

Ciij

will