Let me put in your mindes, if you forget Q.M. A murth'rous Villaine, and so still thou art. Rich. Poore Clarence did forfake his Father Warwicke, I, and forfwore himselfe (which Iefu pardon.) 140 145 Q.M. Which God reuenge. Rich. To fight on Edwards partie, for the Crowne, And for his meede, poore Lord, he is mewed vp: I would to God my heart were Flint, like Edwards, Or Edwards foft and pittifull, like mine; 150 I am too childish foolish for this World. Q.M.High thee to Hell for fhame, & leaue this World Thou Cacodemon, there thy Kingdome is. 153 140. mindes] minde Q5 you] yours Qq. 141. this] now Qq, Var. '78, '85, Mal. Ran. Steev. Varr. Cam. +, Huds. 143. murth' rous] Ff, Rowe, +, Wh. i. murtherous Qq, Knt. murderous Cam. +, Huds. murd'rous Johns. et cet. 148. Lord] Lo: Q1Q2 151. childish foolish] Ff, Rowe. childish, foolish QQ,, Pope, Han. childish-foolish Theob. et cet. 152. High] F, Hye Q3QF3F. Hie Q,Q, et cet. this] the Qq, Sta. Cam. +. 153. Cacodemon] Cacodamon F,F, cacadamon Cap. (corrected in Errata). circumstances that prove incontestably, in my apprehension, that he was not the original author of 2 and 3 Henry VI. 139. Margarets Battaile] RITSON: That is, Margaret's army.-WRIGHT: It is called 'Margaret's battle' because she was victorious in it, to distinguish it from the first battle, fought on Thursday, 22 May, 1455, in which Henry was defeated. No doubt there are plenty of instances in which 'battle' means army, but this is not one. 140. Let me... forget] CAPELL (ii, 176): The numbers of this line are so remarkable in themselves (three trochees with intervention of one iambus) and so accommodated to the passion and character, a reader's notice is due to them. 144. Clarence... Warwicke] See 3 Hen. VI: V, i, or Boswell-Stone, p. 335. Clarence married Isabel Neville, Warwick's elder daughter. 147. on Edwards partie] Compare: 'hopes to find you forward Upon his party.'-III, ii, 54; also IV, iii, 565. 148. meede] That is, reward. See I, iv, 282. 148. mewed] WRIGHT: The pun is exceedingly bad, though perhaps not worse than those which abound in the three parts of Henry VI. 151. childish foolish] For other examples of compound adjectives, see Walker, Crit. i, 21, or ABBOTT, § 2. See 'eluish-mark'd,' 1. 237; gentle-sleeping, 1. 300 post. 153. Cacodemon] WRIGHT: That is, evil demon, evil spirit. The word occurs Riu. My Lord of Glofter: in those busie dayes, Qu. As little ioy (my Lord) as you fuppofe Q.M. A little ioy enioyes the Queene thereof, 154, 156. Lord] Lo: Q1Q2• 156. follow'd] follow Q, Soueraigne] lawfull Qq, Theob. Warb. Johns. Var. '78, '85, Ran. Steev. Varr. Sta. Cam. +, Dyce ii, iii, Huds. sov' reign Pope, Han. 157. we you] we now QQ. you, if you if Q, fhould] would F3F4 155 160 165 159. thereof] of it Qq, Sta. Cam. +, Dyce ii, iii, Huds. Coll. iii. 160. Qu.] Q. M. Q3Q. Qu. Nar. Q5. Qu. Mar. QQ, Q. Mar. Qg 162. you may] may you Qq, Cap. Sta. Cam.+, Dyce ii, iii, Huds. 164. Q.M.] Om. Q, Qa A] As Heath, Dyce, Sta. Wh. ii, Marshall. And Wh. i. nowhere else in Shakespeare, and savours rather of a playwright who had been to the University. It had made its way into Italian. Florio (A Worlde of Words, 1598) gives: 'Cacodemone, an euill spirit or diuell.' It appears also to have been used in the language of astrology, ‘Mars with the dragon's tail in the third house, .. Then Jupiter in the twelfth the Cacodemon,' Beaumont and Fletcher, The Bloody Brother, IV, ii. 156. Soueraigne King] KNIGHT: The correction of the Folio was certainly necessary; for Rivers would hardly have ventured to use the epithet lawful (legitimate) in the presence of Gloucester.-MARSHALL: Compare, for a like sentiment, 3 Henry VI: III, i, 95, 96, also Heywood, 2 Edward IV., (Works, p. 133). [The lines from 3 Henry VI: appear, but with slight variation, in the older play, The True Tragedie of Richard Duke of Yorke, III, iii, 50-52, ed. Cam.—ED.] 160-162. As... As] VAUGHAN: Either the second 'as,' it seems, should be altered into so, or the second 'as little joy,' omitted. If the present form is to be preserved, I have suspected that Shakespeare wrote 'A little joy.' This suggestion is confirmed by the language in which Margaret echoes this sentiment of Elizabeth. [According to the text of the Quartos and Ff, where a comma follows 'King,' Vaughan's grammatical criticism is, of course, just; but with a period after 'King,' as in the Ff, his criticism is, I think, needless. In the present text we have two parallel sentences: 'You suppose you would have little joy were you King; with equal right you may suppose that I would have little joy in being Queen.' There is no exact proportion intimated, as there would be in 'just as little joy as you would feel just so little joy I would feel'; but merely a parallel is implied in the Ff.-ED.] I can no longer hold me patient. 166 168 Heare me, you wrangling Pyrates, that fall out, 166. patient.] patient: Q, patient. [advancing. Cap. et seq. (subs.) patient. [She advances. They all start. Coll. (MS). 167. you] ye Johns. 168. In sharing] In sharing out Qq. (Ifhaking out QQ8). you] yon F, 166. I can... patient] WARBURTON: This scene of Margaret's imprecations is fine and artful. She prepares the audience, like another Cassandra, for the following tragic revolutions.-STEEVENS: Surely the merits of this scene are insufficient to excuse its improbability. Margaret, bullying the court of England in the royal palace, is a circumstance as absurd as the courtship of Gloster in a public street.-GERVINUS (i, 386): The excess and repetition of Margaret's revengeful curses alone are to be blamed, not the thing itself. We must be on our guard of appearing on the side of those interpreters who consider the introduction of Margaret, and her reproaches at court, absurd, as well as Richard's wooing in the street. It is a wise contrast, which necessitates the part assigned to Margaret, and even the glaring prominence given to her curses and their fulfilment has its wise intention. The more secretly the sins of this brood of hypocrites were practised, the more visibly and notoriously would punishment overtake them; the manifest retribution of God should appear all the more evident against the secrecy and the deceit of men; and the interference of eternal justice ought plainly to appear against the evil-doers who think to ensnare heaven itself; who believe not in an avenging power, nor in the curse, which rests on evil deeds themselves.— WRIGHT: The extravagance of the situation is in harmony with the exaggeration of the principal character. If we once accept Richard as a reality, nothing else in the play is out of proportion. In his world such things would not appear incongruous.-COLLIER (Emendations, etc., p. 325): Manuscript stage-directions are hardly as numerous in this as in some other plays; but still on all occasions they are sufficient for the due conduct of the representation; when, for instance, ‘old Queen Margaret' arrives, a note of behind is made against every sentence she utters, until she comes forth with 'I can no longer,' etc. Start all is then added in the margin, to indicate the surprise, if not alarm, her sudden appearance created. 168. In] That is, while, during. For other examples, see, if needful, Abbott, § 164. 168. sharing] WRIGHT: For this earlier and literal (Anglo-Saxon sceren, to divide) sense, compare Timon, IV, ii, 23: 'The latest of my wealth I'll share amongst you.' Also Henry IV: II, ii, 104. 168. pill'd] SKEAT: Also spelt peel. But the words peel, to strip, and peel, to plunder, are from different sources, though much confused; we even find 'pill' used in the sense to strip. The sense of stripping goes back to Latin pellis, skin, or to pilare, to deprive of hair.-WRIGHT quotes, as an illustration of this use of 'pill,' Richard II: II, i, 246: 'The commons hath he pill'd with grievous taxes,' and Hall, Edward IV: p. 302: 'But what soeuer their outward words were, their Which off you trembles not, that lookes on me? (fight? Rich.Foule wrinckled Witch, what mak'ft thou in my Rich. Wert thou not banished, on paine of death? 170 175 172. Ah gentle] O gentle Qq. (gentile Q,.) Sta. Cam. +. 173. mak'] makest Huds. 174. marr'd] mard Qq. Qq. 176-178. Rich. Wert... abode] Om. 176. banished] banished Dyce. inward cogitacions were onlye hope of spoyle, and desyre to robbe and pyll.' [Compare also Timon, IV, i, 12.] 170. I am Queene] R. G. WHITE: The sense is clear enough in the Folio, and the construction preferable in respect to the impressiveness of the speech. I am convinced that the change [from the Quarto] was made by the author partly for these reasons, partly to avoid the very unpleasant cacophony being queen.— SPEDDING: This is one of those slight changes which easily make themselves in the process of printing. The meaning is clear enough, but the wording (though not altogether unlike the style in which Margaret sometimes expresses herself) is so unusual as to provoke conjectural emendation. 172. gentle Villaine] WARBURTON: We should read ungentle villain.-JOHNSON: The meaning of 'gentle' is not, as the commentator imagines, tender or courteous, but high-born. An opposition is meant between that and ‘villain,' which means at once a wicked and a low-born wretch. So before: 'Since every Jack is made a gentleman There's many a gentle person made a Jack.'—J. M. MASON: 'Gentle' appears to me to be taken in its common acceptation, but to be used ironically.-The COWDEN-CLARKES: By the epithet 'gentle' we think is involved many significant and taunting allusions. She means he is high by birth, low by nature; a supreme or arch villain, a smooth-tongued or stealthy villain, who would creep away from her presence to avoid her reproaches. 173. mak'st] WRIGHT: That is, what dost thou? The temptation to pun upon 'make' and 'mar' seems to have been irresistible. Compare Love's Labour's Lost, IV, iii, 190-192; also As You Like It, I, i, 31-34. 176. Wert thou not banished] MALONE: Margaret fled into France after the battle of Hexham in 1464, and Edward soon afterwards issued a proclamation prohibiting any of his subjects from aiding her to return, or harbouring her should she attempt to revisit England. She remained abroad till the 14th of April, 1471, when she landed at Weymouth. After the battle of Tewkesbury, May, 1471, she was confined in the Tower until 1475. She died in France in 177 Q.M. I was but I doe find more paine in banishment, : Then death can yeeld me here, by my abode. 180 And all the Pleasures you vfurpe, are mine. Rich. The Curfe my Noble Father layd on thee, 177. I was] One line, Dyce ii, iii. 178. my] Om. Ff. 179. ow'st] owest Qq, Cam. +, Huds. to] vnto QQqQ8 181. This] The Qq, Pope, +, Sta. Cam.+, Dyce ii, iii, Huds. 182. Pleafures] pleasure Q are] is Q3-8. 183. my] me Q6 183. on] one Q, Q8 185 190 1482. The present scene is in 1477; so that her introduction here is a mere poetical fiction. 183-187. The Curse... Rutland] See 3 Henry VI: I, iv, 78-95.—MOULTON (p. 113): The key-note struck by Gloucester is taken up in chorus by the rest, who find relief from the crushing effect of Margaret's curses by pressing the charge home upon her. This is only a detail, but it is enough to carry the effect of the enveloping action a degree further back in time: the events of the play are a nemesis on York for wrongs done to Lancaster, but now it seems these old wrongs against Lancaster were retribution for yet older crimes Lancaster had committed against York. As in architecture the vista is contrived so as to carry the general design of the building into indefiniteness, so here, while the grand nemesis, of which Margaret's presence is the representative, shuts in the play like a veil, the momentary lifting of the veil opens up a vista of nemeses receding further and further back into history. 185. scornes] WRIGHT: The singular of the Quartos is less dissonant in a line already abounding in sibilants. Otherwise 'scorns' in the sense of scoffs, expressions of scorn, has plenty of authority. Compare Hamlet, III, i, 70: 'For who would bear the whips and scorns of time?' Also Othello, IV, i, 83. 190. plagu'd] MURRAY (N. E. D. s. v. verb, 1. transit.): To afflict with plague or calamity (especially in reference to divine punishment); to torment, harass. Perhaps sometimes like Latin plūgāre, to strike. Now rare or archaic. |