Hauing God, her Conscience, and these bars against me,

261

And I, no Friends to backe my fuite withall,

But the plaine Diuell, and diffembling lookes?

And yet to winne her? All the world to nothing.
Hah!

Hath fhe forgot alreadie that braue Prince,

Edward, her Lord, whom I (some three monthes fince)

261. Hauing] With Pope, +, Cap. Varr. Mal. Steev. Varr.

- 262. no Friends] nothing Qq, Cam.+. no thing Sta.

withall] at all QQ, Cam.+. with all Q (Bodl. ap. Cam.) 263. lookes?] Lookes, Qq.

265

267

264, 265. And... Hah !] One line, Qq, Coll. Wh. i, Hal. Sta.

264. her? All] Ff. her all Qq. her, all Cam.+, Ktly. her-all Rowe et

cet.

to nothing.] to nothing? Q is nothing Q, Q

Suffice it to say

The alteration,

the force of which one feels but might be puzzled to demonstrate. that the reading of the Quarto is poetry, that of the Folio is prose. therefore, is precisely what we might expect from the corrector,—a person, I believe, of fair intelligence, but absolutely devoid of taste. . . . The gross and self-evident blunders which are perpetuated through the whole series of the Qq of this very play, and even the mistakes of the Folio itself, point to the conclusion that the printers of Shakespeare's time were not in the habit of furnishing proofs at all.

261. Hauing] For other examples of ellision, or softening of v, see Walker, Vers., p. 242, or ABBOTT, § 466.

262. no] SPEDDING (Sh. Soc. Trans., 1875-'76; p. 39): It is not improbable that, between the writing of the play and the revision, the modern accentuation of nothing [as in the Qq] had become more general or more marked. [See WALKER (Crit., i, 221) for numerous examples, both in Shakespeare and in his contemporaries, of the shifting accent of something and nothing. See, too: 'And fall something into a slower method,' l. 131 above.-ED.]

262. withall] DELIUS, who considers (Jahrbuch, vii, 148) the Folio text as the original, and the Quarto as one amended by an anonymous corrector, supposes that here the corrector misunderstood 'withal' as used by Shakespeare. He then adds in a foot-note: "That the corrector did not understand "withal" in the Shakespearean sense is shown by another alteration further on, the Folio has, IV, iii, 294: "And bid her wipe her weeping eyes withal"; the Quarto has dry for wipe and therewith for withal.'-WRIGHT thinks the Folio reading was made 'probably to avoid the repetition of nothing two lines below.'

267. three monthes] MALONE: Here we have the exact time of this scene ascertained, namely, August, 1471. King Edward is, however, in the Second Act introduced dying. That King died in April, 1483; so there is an interval between this and the next Act of almost twelve years. Clarence, who is represented in the preceding scene as committed to the Tower before the burial of Henry VI., was, in fact, not confined nor put to death till seven years afterwards, March, 1477–8. -WRIGHT: Three weeks would have been nearer the mark. The battle of Tewkesbury was fought on the 4th of May, 1471, and Henry's body was taken to Chertsey on Ascension Day, May 23.

Stab'd in my angry mood, at Tewkesbury?

268

270

A sweeter, and a louelier Gentleman,
Fram'd in the prodigallity of Nature:

Yong, Valiant, Wife, and (no doubt)right Royal,

268. Tewkesbury] F2, Knt, Coll. iii. Tewxbury Qq. (Tewxbery Q.) Tewkfbury FF, et cet.

271. Valiant, Wife] wise, and valiant Pope, +. valiant, wise, kind S. Walker (Crit. ii, 16).

269-272. A sweeter . . . affoord] SARRAZIN gives (Jahrbuch, xxix, xxx, 1894, p. 92; quoted in Love's Labour's Lost, p. 338 of this edition) a number of passages in L. L. L., whereto parallels in style are to be found in Richard III. and Lucrece. 'Sometimes the parallelism extends to the thought and even to the words as in [the present lines] and thus in the following passage from Love's Labour's Lost, II, i, 12: "Be now as prodigal of all dear grace As nature was in making graces dear When she did starve the general world beside, And prodigally gave them all to you."'

269-272. A sweeter, and a louelier... affoord] VAUGHAN (iii, p. 14): Both Pope's and Walker's changes [see Text. Notes] I believe are wrong. Shakespeare, according to his frequently adopted custom, has here made 'valiant' a trisyllable. There is, however, an incoherence in the sense. It ought to run, in accordance with the modern value of 'again,' either: 'So sweet and lovely a gentleman the world cannot again afford,' or 'A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman the world cannot afford'; otherwise 'again' is out of place, and so also is 'no doubt.' [If I understand VAUGHAN'S objection, it is to the use of ‘again,' meaning a second time, with an adjective in the comparative degree; thus it would be incorrect to say: The world cannot a second time produce a lovelier gentleman; whereas what Richard wishes to say is that the world never produced as lovely a gentleman. Vaughan offers as a substitute for the present line, ‘As sweet and as lovely a gentleman.'-ED.]

269. louelier Gentleman] WRIGHT: Hall describes Prince Edward as 'a goodly feminine & a wel feautered yonge gentleman,' which Holinshed changes to ‘a faire and well proportioned yoong gentleman.'

271. and... Royal] JOHNSON: Of the degree of Royalty belonging to Henry VI. there could be no doubt, nor could Richard have mentioned it with any such hesitation: he could not, indeed, very properly allow him royalty. I believe we should read: loyal, that is, true to her bed. He enumerates the reasons for which she should love him. He was young, wise, and valiant; these were apparent and indisputable excellencies. He then mentions another not less likely to endear him to his wife, but which he had less opportunity of knowing with certainty, 'and, no doubt, right loyal.'—STEEVENS: Richard is not speaking of King Henry, but of Edward his son, whom he means to represent as full of all the noble properties of a king. 'No doubt, right royal,' may, however, be ironically spoken. [From Fabyan's Chronicle we learn that: "This prynce beynge with all honour and reuerence sacryd & crystened, was named Edwarde, whose noble mother susteyned not a little dysclaunder and obsequy of the comon people, saying he was not the natural sone of Kynge Henrye, but chaungyd in the cradell, to hyr dishonour and heuynesse, which I ouerpasse.' Septima pars Henrici VI., p. 628, ed. Ellis.-ED.]

...

The spacious World cannot againe affoord :

272

And will the yet abase her eyes on me,

That cropt the Golden prime of this sweet Prince,
And made her Widdow to a wofull Bed?

275

On me, whose All not equals Edwards Moytie ?
On me, that halts, and am mishapen thus ?
My Dukedome, to a Beggerly denier !

278

277. mishapen] vnshapen Qq, Sta. Cam.+. mis-shapen Pope et cet.

(subs.)

thus?] thus. Q, Q

Beggerly denier] Widow's chas

tity Cib.

275. Bed?] bed, Q,

278. to a] to be a Q5.

272. affoord] SKEAT (Dict.): This word should have but one ƒ. The double † is due to a supposed analogy with words that begin with aff- in Latin, where aff is put for adj-; but the word is not Latin and the prefix is not ad-. Besides this, the pronunciation has been changed at the end. Rightly it should be aforth, but the th has changed as in other words; cf. murther, further, provincially furder. Middle English aforthen to afford, suffice, provide. 'And thereof was Piers proude, and put hem to worke, And yaf him mete as he myghte aforth [i. e., could afford or provide], and mesurable huyre.'-P. Plowman, vi, 200.

276. not equals] For other examples of omission of do before 'not,' see ABBOTT, § 305.

276. Moytie] WALKER (Vers., 122): The spelling in the Folio here indicates the pronunciation; indeed, the word is frequently, perhaps usually, spelt moity. [In the majority of passages wherein the word occurs in the Folio it is spelt 'moity.'-ED.]

277. halts] This third person singular is probably due to a species of attraction caused by 'equals' in the preceding line.

278. Beggerly] For examples of ellision of the vowel at end of syllable, see GUEST, p. 59.

278. denier] MURRAY (N. E. D.): A French coin, the twelfth of the sou; originally like the Roman denarius and English penny, of silver; but from 16th century a small copper coin. Hence used as the type of a very small sum.`c 1425 Wyntoun Cronicle, VI, v, 6o. To the kyrk ilka yhere Of Rome he heychte a denere. 1580 H. Gifford Gilloflowers (1875) 132. And in his purse to serve his neede, Not one deneere he had. 1611 Cotgrave, Denier a penny, a deneere; a small copper coin valued at the tenth part of an English pennie. [From these examples we may, I think, infer that it was pronounced as a disyllable, even if the metre did not suggest it in the present line.-ED.]-WARBURTON: This may be right, but perhaps Shakespeare wrote Taniere, French, a hut or cave.-EDWARDS (Canons, p. 95): It is more than 'perhaps,' that Shakespeare never thought of 'taniere'; which is a den; caverne ou les bêtes sauvage se retirent: and when it is used figuratively for the habitation of a man, it is considering him as living, not

I do mistake my person all this while :
Vpon my life she findes(although I cannot)
My felfe to be a maru'llous proper man.
Ile be at Charges for a Looking-glasse,
And entertaine a score or two of Taylors,
To study fashions to adorne my body:
Since I am crept in fauour with my felfe,
I will maintaine it with fome little coft.
But first Ile turne yon Fellow in his Graue,
And then returne lamenting to my Loue.

281. maru' llous] Ff, Rowe, +. marvailous Qq. marvelous Cap. et cet. (subs.)

282. Charges] charge Q

-283. a] fome Qq, Varr. Sta. Cam. +. 284. adorne] adore Q3-5

286. fome] a Q3-8, Sta.

280

285

288

287. yon Fellow in] you fellow in Q4-6. yon fellow into Han. yon' fellow in Cap. Varr. Mal. Steev. Varr. Knt, Coll. Wh. i, Hal.

like a poor man, in a cottage, but like a beast. What put Warburton upon this emendation, I suppose, was that he thought a dukedom to a penny was no fair bet; and that the wager would be more equal, if the beggar were to impone, as Osric says, his cottage.

279. I do mistake... while] COLERIDGE (Lect., p. 127): The inferiority of his person made Richard seek consolation and compensation in the superiority of his intellect; he thus endeavored to counterbalance this deficiency. . . . It was the same pride of intellect, or the assumption of it, that made John Wilkes vaunt that, although he was so ugly, he only wanted, with any lady, ten minutes' start of the handsomest man in England.

281. maru'llous] For the contraction, compare Jonson, Every Man out, etc.: 'I marle in what cold nook he found this lady out,' p. 63, ed. Gifford. For examples of adjectives used as adverbs, see Shakespeare passim.—ED.

281. proper] That is, handsome, well formed.

282. at Charges] WRIGHT: Baret, Alvearie, has: 'To be at part of the charges. In partem impensæ venire.' Compare Acts, xxi, 24: 'Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them'; that is, lay out money upon them, or as Tyndale expresses it, 'do cost on them.' And I Corinthians, ix, 7: 'Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges?'

283. entertaine] That is, take into service.

285, 286. I am crept . . . little cost] ABBOTT (§ 193): The obvious interpretation is: since I have crept into the good graces of myself; but the second line shows the 'I' to be superior to 'myself' which is to be maintained by the 'I.' The true explanation is: since I have crept into (Lady Anne's) favour with the aid of my personal appearance, I will pay some attention to my person. Compare, probably, Hamlet, III, ii, 207.

287. in] For examples of 'in' used for into, see ABBOTT, § 159, or Shakespeare passim.

Shine out faire Sunne, till I haue bought a glasse,

Riu. Haue patience Madam, ther's no doubt his Maiefty
Will foone recouer his accustom'd health.

Gray. In that you brooke it ill, it makes him worse,
Therefore for Gods fake entertaine good comfort,
And cheere his Grace with quicke and merry eyes

290. Shadow] body Mansfield.

1. Scena Tertia.] Scene continued, Qq. Act II, Sc. i. Irving.

Changes to the Palace. Theob. +. A Room in the Palace. Cap. et seq. (subs.)

2, 3. the Queene...Lord Gray.] Ff. Queene, Lord Riuers, and Gray. Qq, Rowe,+ (... and Dorset. Han.) the

5

8

289, 290. Shine... passe] This rhyme is, I think, an echo of the lines in the first soliloquy, 'Why I (in this weak piping time of Peace) Have no delight to pass away the time Unless to see my shadow in the sun And descant on mine own deformity.' I, i, 30-32.—ED.

1. Scena Tertia] WRIGHT: The scene is laid in the palace at Westminster, which formerly stood on the south side of Westminster Hall. "This hath been,' says Stow, 'the principal seat and palace of all the kings of England since the Conquest; for here have they in the great hall kept their feasts of coronation especially, and other solemn feasts, as at Christmas and such like, most commonly' (Survey, etc., pp. 172-174). The date of this scene is April, 1483.

3. Lord Gray] See FRENCH, Dram. Person., l. 15.

4. Maiesty] For examples of softening unaccented syllables of a polysyllable, see ABBOTT, § 468.

6. In... worse] TAWNEY: There appears to be a confusion of two constructions, 'the fact that you take it ill makes him worse' and 'in that you take it ill, you make him worse.' The line may be literally paraphrased, 'Because you take it ill, the fact that you do so makes him worse.'

8. eyes] R. G. WHITE: It would seem that if words [of the Qq] were the original reading, the change was made in the revision. It was because the Queen appeared despondingly, 'brook'd it ill,' that the king was worse, as Gray would make it appear; and therefore he begs her to look upon her husband with lively, cheerful eyes.