The splitting rocks cower'd in the sinking sands,
And would not dash me with their ragged sides,
Because thy flinty heart, more hard than they,
Might in thy palace perish Margaret.
As far as I could ken thy chalky cliffs,
When from the shore the tempest beat us back,
I stood upon the hatches in the storm;
And when the dusky sky began to rob
My earnest-gaping sight of thy land's view,
I took a costly jewel from my neck,-

A heart it was, bound in with diamonds,

And threw it towards thy land. The sea receiv'd it,
And so, I wish'd, thy body might my heart:
And even with this I lost fair England's view,
And bid mine eyes be packing with my heart,
And call'd them blind and dusky spectacles,
For losing ken of Albion's wished coast.
How often have I tempted Suffolk's tongue
(The agent of thy foul inconstancy)

To sit and witch me, as Ascanius did',

When he to madding Dido would unfold

His father's acts, commenc'd in burning Troy?

Am I not witch'd like her? or thou not false like him?

Ah me! I can no more. Die, Margaret,

For Henry weeps that thou dost live so long'.

Noise within. Enter WARWICK and SALISBURY. The
Commons press to the door.

War. It is reported, mighty sovereign,

That good duke Humphrey traitorously is murder'd
By Suffolk and the cardinal Beaufort's means.
The commons, like an angry hive of bees
That want their leader, scatter up and down,
And care not who they sting in his revenge.
Myself have calm'd their spleenful mutiny,
Until they hear the order of his death.

K. Hen. That he is dead, good Warwick, 'tis too true;

To sit and WITCH me, as Ascanius did,] The folio, 1623, has watch; but the misprint is detected (as Theobald pointed out) in the next line but two, “Am I not witch'd like her?" According to Virgil, as every body is aware, Ascanius did not witch Dido, but Cupid witch'd her in the shape of Ascanius.

7 - that thou dost live so long.] It may be fit to note that the whole of this speech, after the fifth line, is struck out in the corr. fo. 1632.

But how he died, God knows, not Henry.
Enter his chamber, view his breathless corpse,
And comment then upon his sudden death.

War. That I shall do, my liege.-Stay, Salisbury,
With the rude multitude, till I return.

[WARWICK goes into an inner room, and SALISBURY retires.

K. Hen. Oh, thou that judgest all things, stay my thoughts! My thoughts, that labour to persuade my soul

Some violent hands were laid on Humphrey's life.
If my suspect be false, forgive me, God,
For judgment only doth belong to thee.
Fain would I go to chafe his paly lips
With twenty thousand kisses, and to rain'
Upon his face an ocean of salt tears,
To tell my love unto his dumb deaf trunk,
And with my fingers feel his hand unfeeling;
But all in vain are these mean obsequies,
And to survey his dead and earthy image,

What were it but to make my sorrow greater?

The doors of an inner chamber are thrown open, and GLOSTER is discovered dead in his bed; WARWICK and others standing by it 10

War. Come hither, gracious sovereign, view this body. K. Hen. That is to see how deep my grave is made; For with his soul fled all my worldly solace,

For seeing him', I see my life in death.

• Warwick goes into an inner room,] In the simplicity of our old stage the different apartments were only separated by a curtain; therefore, in the 4to. "Contention," 1594, the stage-direction is, "Warwick draws the curtains, and shows Duke Humphrey in his bed."

9- and to RAIN] So the corr. fo. 1632; and Mr. Singer was quite right in availing himself of an emendation which Steevens had conjectured.

10 - Warwick and others standing by it.] In the old "Contention," there is here no new stage-direction; but in the folio, 1623, we have merely “ Bed put forth." Malone and others (including Mr. Singer) inform us that the stagedirection in the folio is, "A bed with Gloster's body put forth;" but there is no authority for the words in Italic, one modern editor having taken the word of another in this and many other instances, without reference to the original. In the 4to. edition of the "Contention," 1594, it was unnecessary to put forth a bed, because Warwick, by drawing the curtains (as above stated), had discovered duke Humphrey's body to the King already.

1 FOR seeing him,] "And seeing him," in the corr. fo. 1632, but though the change is plausible, it is by no means unavoidable.

War. As surely as my soul intends to live

With that dread King, that took our state upon him
To free us from his Father's wrathful curse,

I do believe that violent hands were laid
Upon the life of this thrice-famed duke.

Suf. A dreadful oath, sworn with a solemn tongue!— What instance gives lord Warwick for his vow?

War. See, how the blood is settled in his face.
Oft have I seen a timely-parted ghost',

Of ashy semblance, meagre, pale, and bloodless,
Being all descended to the labouring heart;
Who, in the conflict that it holds with death,
Attracts the same for aidance 'gainst the enemy;
Which with the heart there cools, and ne'er returneth
To blush, and beautify the cheek again.

But see, his face is black, and full of blood;
His eye-balls farther out than when he liv'd,
Staring full ghastly like a strangled man:

His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretch'd with struggling;
His hands abroad display'd, as one that grasp'd,
And tugg'd for life, and was by strength subdued.
Look on the sheets his hair, you see, is sticking;
His well-proportion'd beard made rough and rugged,
Like to the summer's corn by tempest lodg'd.

It cannot be but he was murder'd here;
The least of all these signs were probable.

Suf. Why, Warwick, who should do the duke to death? Myself, and Beaufort, had him in protection,

And we, I hope, sir, are no murderers.

War. But both of you were vow'd duke Humphrey's foes, And you, forsooth, had the good duke to keep:

'Tis like you would not feast him like a friend,

And 'tis well seen he found an enemy.

Q. Mar. Then you, belike, suspect these noblemen

As guilty of duke Humphrey's timeless death.

War. Who finds the heifer dead, and bleeding fresh, And sees fast by a butcher with an axe,

But will suspect 'twas he that made the slaughter?

2

a timely-parted ghost,] The Rev. Mr. Dyce has a note and quotation ("Remarks," p. 129) to show that "a timely-parted ghost" means a recently dead body. He blames us that we had no note upon the point in our first edition; but surely the passage speaks for itself: why are we to explain words the meaning of which the context makes so obvious?

Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest,
But may imagine how the bird was dead,
Although the kite soar with unbloodied beak?
Even so suspicious is this tragedy.

Q. Mar. Are you the butcher, Suffolk? where's your knife?

Is Beaufort term'd a kite ? where are his talons?

Suf. I wear no knife to slaughter sleeping men;
But here's a vengeful sword, rusted with ease,
That shall be scoured in his rancorous heart,
That slanders me with murder's crimson badge.-
Say, if thou dar'st, proud lord of Warwickshire,
That I am faulty in duke Humphrey's death.

[Exeunt Cardinal, Soм., and others. War. What dares not Warwick, if false Suffolk dare him?

Q. Mar. He dares not calm his contumelious spirit, Nor cease to be an arrogant controller,

Though Suffolk dare him twenty thousand times.

War. Madam, be still, with reverence may I say;

For every word you speak in his behalf

Is slander to your royal dignity.

Suf. Blunt-witted lord, ignoble in demeanour, If ever lady wrong'd her lord so much,

Thy mother took into her blameful bed

Some stern untutor'd churl, and noble stock

Was graft with crab-tree slip; whose fruit thou art,
And never of the Nevils' noble race.

War. But that the guilt of murder bucklers thee,
And I should rob the deathsman of his fee,
Quitting thee thereby of ten thousand shames,
And that my sovereign's presence makes me mild,
I would, false murderous coward, on thy knee
Make thee beg pardon for thy passed speech,
And say,
it was thy mother that thou meant'st;
That thou thyself wast born in bastardy:
And, after all this fearful homage done,
Give thee thy hire, and send thy soul to hell,
Pernicious bloodsucker of sleeping men.

Suf. Thou shalt be waking while I shed thy blood,

If from this presence thou dar'st go with me.

War. Away even now, or I will drag thee hence. Unworthy though thou art, I'll cope with thee,

And do some service to duke Humphrey's ghost.

[Exeunt SUFFOLK and WARWICK.

K. Hen. What stronger breast-plate than a heart un

tainted?

Thrice is he arm'd, that hath his quarrel just';
And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,
Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted.

Q. Mar. What noise is this?

[A noise within'.

Re-enter SUFFOLK and WARWICK, with their weapons drawn. K. Hen. Why, how now, lords! your wrathful weapons drawn

Here in our presence! dare you be so bold?

Why, what tumultuous clamour have we here?

Suf. The traitorous Warwick, with the men of Bury, Set all upon me, mighty sovereign. [Noise of a Crowd within.

Re-enter SALISBURY.

Sal. Sirs, stand apart; [Speaking to those within.] the king shall know your mind.—

Dread lord, the commons send you word by me,
Unless lord Suffolk straight be done to death,
Or banished fair England's territories,
They will by violence tear him from your palace,
And torture him with grievous lingering death.
They say, by him the good duke Humphrey died;
They say, in him they fear your highness' death;
And mere instinct of love, and loyalty,
Free from a stubborn opposite intent,

As being thought to contradict your liking,
Makes them thus forward in his banishment.

3 Thrice is he arm'd, &c.] With reference to this passage the commentators quote what they call, and was then believed to be, Marlowe's "Lust's Dominion." Marlowe, as already observed, was dead five years before the events in that play occurred; yet although that fact was pointed out thirty years ago, and has since been repeatedly mentioned, we find Mr. Singer again falling into the error. It is important, because it shows that here Shakespeare was not the imitator, but the poet imitated. See particularly our note, Vol. iii. p. 206.

A noise within.] So the folio, 1623; but the 4to. "Contention," 1594, is more explanatory: "Then all the Commons within cry, Down with Suffolk! down with Suffolk! And then enter again the duke of Suffolk, and Warwick, with their weapons drawn."