ANNOTATIONS

UPON

THIRD PART OF

KING HENRY VI.

Third Part of King Henry VI.] THIS play is only divided from the former for the convenience of exhibition; for the series of action is continued without interruption, nor are any two scenes of any play more closely connected than the first scene of this play with the last of the former.

2

JOHNSON.

They seek revenge,] They go away, not because they doubt the justice of this determination, but because they have been conquered, and seek to be revenged. They are not influenced by principle, but passion.

JOHNSON.

3 No quarrel, but a slight contention.] Thus the players, first, in their edition; who did not understand, I presume, the force of the epithet in the old quarto, which I have restored-sweet contention, i. e.

the argument of their dispute was upon a grateful topic; the question of their father's immediate right to the crown.

THEOBALD.

So looks the pent-up lion- -] That is, The lion that hath been long confined without food, and is let out to devour a man condemned.

JOHNSON.

5 Dü faciant, &c.] This line is in Ovid's Epistle from Phillis to Demophoon.

6 My uncles both are slain in rescuing me ;] These were two bastard uncles by the mother's side, sir John and sir Hugh Mortimer. See Grafton's Chronicle, p. 649.

7

PERCY.

-noontide prick.] The noontide prick, means the point marked by the sun on the dial at noon.

O speak no more!] The generous tenderness of Edward, and the savage fortitude of Richard, are well distinguished, says Dr. Johnson, by their different reception of their father's death.

-done to death] Done to death, for killed, was a common expression long before Shakspeare's time: Thus Chaucer:

"And seide, that if ye done us both to dien." GREY. 10 like the night-owl's lazy flight,] This image is not very congruous to the subject, nor was it necessary to the comparison, which is happily enough completed by the thresher.

JOHNSON.

Dr. Johnson objects to this comparison as incongruous to the subject; but, I think, unjustly. Warwick compares the languid blows of his soldiers, to the lazy

strokes which the wings of the owl give to the air in its flight, which is remarkably slow. M. MASON.

11 Darraign your battle-] Darraign, is to put in order. The expression is the same as the scripture phrase, to set the battle in urray.

12 misshapen stigmatic,] A stigmatic is a notorious lewd fellow, which hath been burnt with a hot iron, or beareth other marks about him as a token of punishment. Vide J. Bullokar's English Expositor, printed in 1616.

13 To make this shameless callet-] Shakspeare uses the word callet likewise in The Winter's Tale, act ii. sc. iii.

"A callat

"Of boundless tongue; who late hath beat her husband,

"And now baits me."

Callet, a lewd woman, a drab, perhaps so called from the French calote, which was a sort of headdress worn by country girls. See Glossary to Urry's Chaucer. So, in Chaucer's Remedy of Love, ver. 307. "A cold old knave cuckolde himself wenyng, "And of calot of lewd demenyng."

So, Skelton, in his Elinour Rumming, Works, p. 133: "Then Elinour said, ye callettes,

"I shall break your palettes."

Again, in Ben Jonson's Volpone:

14

66

Why the callet you told me of here,

"I have tane disguis'd."

GREY.

-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.

15 O boy, thy father gave thee life too soon,

And hath bereft thee of thy life too late!] That is, "This unnatural war has brought on both thee and me not only a miserable but an irremediable fate. Thou, by my giving thee life so early, hast lost it in a battle which thy mature age has caused thee to be levied into and I, by slaying my only son at so late a period of my life, am precluded from the hope, even if I should beget another, of seeing him grow up to thy stature, and of his becoming, as thou wert, the staff of my age."

16 this laund-] Laund is the same as lawn.

17the noise of thy cross-bow-] Shakspeare's old trick of deer-stealing shews itself here. Indeed, whenever he uses any of the terms of the field, whether of hunting or hawking, he manifests all the accuracy of a profound sportsman.

18

POPE.

-Sir John Grey,] Vid. Hall, Third Year of Edward IV. folio 5. It was hitherto falsely printed Richard. 19 Widow, we will consider-] This is a very lively and spritely dialogue; the reciprocation is quicker than is common in Shakspeare.

JOHNSON.

20unlick'd bear-whelp,] It was an opinion which, in spite of its absurdity, prevailed long, that

the bear brings forth only shapeless lumps of animated flesh, which she licks into the form of bears.

1 2

3

JOHNSON.

4 5 6 7 8 21 Until my misshap'd trunk that bears this head, Be round impal'd, &c.] A transposition seems to be necessary:

3

4 6

1 2 8 5 7 "Until my head, that this misshap'd trunk bears." Otherwise the trunk that bears the head is to be encircled with the crown, and not the head itself.

STEEVENS.

22 Exempt from envy, but not from disdain,] Envy is always supposed to have some fascinating or blasting power; and to be out of the reach of envy is therefore a privilege belonging only to great excellence. I know not well why envy is mentioned here, or whose envy can be meant; but the meaning is, that his love is superior to envy, and can feel no blast from the lady's disdain. Or, that if Bona refuse to quit or requite his pain, his love may turn to disdain, though the consciousness of his own merit will exempt him from the pangs of envy.

JOHNSON.

23 Did I let pass the abuse done to my niece ?] Thus Holinshed, p. 668: "King Edward did attempt a thing once in the earles house, which was much against the earles honestie (whether he would have defloured his daughter or his niece, the certainty was not for both their honours revealed) for surely such a thing was attempted by king Edward." STEEVENS.