THE first scene exhibits the capture of Henry VI. upon his abandonment of his secure asylum in Scotland. Between that period, 1464, and the accession of Edward, three years had elapsed-years of unavailing struggle on the part of the Lancastrians. The capture of Henry is thus described by Hall:-"Whatsoever jeopardy or peril might be construed or deemed to have ensued by the means of King Henry, all such doubts were now shortly resolved and determined, and all fear of his doings were clearly put under and extinct. For he himself, whether he were past all fear, or was not well stablished in his perfect mind, or could not long keep himself secret, in a disguised apparel boldly entered into England. He was no sooner entered but he was known and taken of one Cantlowe, and brought toward the king, whom the Earl of Warwick met on the way, by the king's commandment, and brought him through London to the Tower, and there he was laid in sure hold. Queen Margaret his wife, hearing of the captivity of her husband, mistrusting the chance of her son, all disconsolate and comfortless, departed out of Scotland and sailed into France, where she remained with Duke Reyner her father till she took her unfortunate journey

into England again, where she lost both husband and son, and also all her wealth, honour, and worldly felicity."

In the second scene the poet, with great dramatic skill, exhibits the course of that wooing which ended in the marriage of Edward with Elizabeth Woodville-an event altogether unpropitious and finally destructive to his house. Hall (whom we still fol low, for Holinshed is almost his literal copyist) tells the story with great quaintness, and Shakspere clearly follows him :-"But now consider the old proverb to be true that sayeth that marriage is des tiny. For during the time that the Earl of Warwick was thus in France concluding a marriage for king Edward, the king, being on hunting in the forest of Wichwood beside Stoney Stratford, came for his recreation to the manor of Grafton, where the duchess of Bedford sojourned, then wife to Sir Richard Woodville, Lord Rivers, on whom then was attending a daughter of hers, called Dame Elizabeth Grey, widow of Sir John Grey, knight, slain at the last battle of Saint Alban's by the power of King Edward. This widow, having a suit to the king, either to be restored by him to something taken from her, or requiring him of pity to have some

augmentation to her living, found such grace in the king's eyes that he not only favoured her suit, but much more phantasied her person; for she was a woman more of formal countenance than of excellent beauty, but yet of such beauty and favour that with her sober demeanour, lovely looking, and feminine smiling (neither too wanton nor too humble), beside her tongue so eloquent, and her wit so pregnant, she was able to ravish the mind of a mean person, when she allured and made subject to her the heart of so great a king. After that King Edward had well considered all the lineaments of her body, and the wise and womanly demeanour that he saw in her, he determined first to attempt if he might provoke her to be his sovereign lady, promising her many gifts and fair rewards; affirming farther, that, if she would thereunto condescend, she might so fortune of his paramour and concubine to be changed to his wife and lawful bedfellow; which demand she so wisely and with so covert speech answered and repugned, affirming that, as she was for his honour far unable to be his spouse and bedfellow, so for her own poor honesty she was too good to be either his concubine or sovereign lady; that, where he was a little before heated with the dart of Cupid, he was now set all on a hot burning fire, what for the confidence that he had in her perfect constancy, and the trust that he had in her constant chastity; and without any farther deliberation he determined with himself clearly to marry with her, after that asking counsel of them which he knew neither would nor once durst impugn his concluded purpose. But the Duchess

of York, his mother, letted it as much as in her lay, alleging a precontract made by him with the Lady Lucy and divers other lettes; all which doubts were resolved, and all things made clear, and all cavillations avoided. And so, privily in a morning, he married her at Grafton, where he first phantasied her visage."

The contemporary historians, with one exception, make no mention of the suit of Edward, through Warwick, for the hand of the sister of the crafty Lewis XI. But the poet had ample authority for the third scene of this act, in the relation of Hall, which Holinshed also adopts:-"The French king and his queen were not a little discontent (as I cannot blame them) to have their sister first demanded and then granted, and in conclusion rejected and apparently mocked, without any cause reasonable. But when the Earl of Warwick had perfect knowledge by the letters of his trusty friends that King Edward had gotten him a new wife, and that all that he had done with King Lewis in his ambassade for the conjoining of this new affinity was both frustrate and vain, he was earnestly moved and sore chafed with the chance, and thought it necessary that King Edward should be deposed from his crown and royal dignity, as an inconstant prince, not worthy of such a kingly office. All men for the most part agree that this marriage was the only cause why the Earl of Warwick bare grudge and made war on King Edward. Other affirm that there were other causes, which, added to this, made the fire to flame which before was but a little smoke."

No; God forbid that I should wish them sever'd ! Whom God hath join'd together: ay, and 't were pity

To sunder them that yoke so well together.

K. Edw. Setting your scorns and your mislike aside,

Tell me some reason, why the lady Grey
Should not become my wife, and England's

queen:

And you too, Somerset and Montague,
Speak freely what you think.

Clar. Then this is mine opinion, that king
Lewis

Becomes your enemy, for mocking him
About the marriage of the lady Bona.

Glo. And Warwick, doing what you gave in charge,

Is now dishonoured by this new marriage.

K. Edw. What, if both Lewis and Warwick be appeas'd

By such invention as I can devise?

Mont. Yet, to have join'd with France in such alliance,

Would more have strengthen'd this our commonwealth

'Gainst foreign storms, than any home-bred marriage.

Hast. Why, knows not Montague that of itself England is safe, if true within itself?

Mont. Yes, but the safer when it is back'd with France.

Hast. 'Tis better using France than trusting
France:

Let us be back'd with God, and with the seas,
Which he hath given for fence impregnable,
And with their helps only defend ourselves;
In them, and in ourselves, our safety lies.

Clar. For this one speech, lord Hastings well deserves

To have the heir of the lord Hungerford. K. Edw. Ay, what of that? it was my will and grant;

And, for this once, my will shall stand for law. Glo. And yet, methinks, your grace hath not

done well

To give the heir and daughter of lord Scales
Unto the brother of your loving bride ;
She better would have fitted me, or Clarence:
But in your bride you bury brotherhood.

Clar. Or else you would not have bestow'd

the heir

Of the lord Bonville on your new wife's son, And leave your brothers to go speed elsewhere. K. Edw. Alas, poor Clarence! is it for a wife That thou art malcontent? I will provide thee.

Clar. In choosing for yourself you show'd your judgment;

Which being shallow, you shall give me leave
To play the broker in mine own behalf;
And, to that end, I shortly mind to leave you.
K. Edw. Leave me, or tarry, Edward will be
king,

And not be tied unto his brother's will.

Q. Eliz. My lords, before it pleas'd his majesty To raise my state to title of a queen,

Do me but right, and you must all confess
That I was not ignoble of descent,

And meaner than myself have had like fortune.
But as this title honours me and mine,

So your dislikes, to whom I would be pleasing, Do cloud my joys with danger and with sorrow

K. Edo. My love, forbear to fawn upon their frowns:

What danger or what sorrow can befall thee,
So long as Edward is thy constant friend,
And their true sovereign, whom they must obey?
Nay, whom they shall obey, and love thee too,
Unless they seek for hatred at my hands:
Which if they do, yet will I keep thee safe,
And they shall feel the vengeance of my wrath.
Glo. I hear, yet say not much, but think the
[Aside.

more.

Enter a Messenger.

K. Edw. Now, messenger, what letters or what news

From France ?

Mess. My sovereign liege, no letters; and few words,

But such as I, without your special pardon,
Dare not relate.

K. Edw. Go to, we pardon thee: therefore, in brief:

Tell me their words as near as thou canst guess them.

What answer makes king Lewis unto our letters? Mess. At my depart, these were his very

words:

'Go tell false Edward, the supposed king, That Lewis of France is sending over maskers To revel it with him and his new bride.'

K. Edw. Is Lewis so brave? belike, he thinks

me Henry.

But what said lady Bona to my marriage?

Mess. These were her words, utter'd with mild

disdain:

'Tell him, in hope he'll prove a widower shortly, I'll wear the willow garland for his sake.'

K. Edo. I blame not her, she could say little less;