*THIRD PART OF KING HENRY VI.] The action of this play (which was at first printed under this title, The True Tra gedy of Richard Duke of York, and the good King Henry the Sixth; or, The Second Part of the Contention of York and Lan cafter,) opens juft after the first battle at Saint Albans, [May 23, 1455,] wherein the York faction carried the day; and clofes with the murder of King Henry VI. and the birth of Prince Edward, afterwards King Edward V. [November 4, 1471.] So that this history takes in the space of full fixteen years. THEOBALD.

I have never seen the quarto copy of the Second part of THE WHOLE CONTENTION, &c. printed by Valentine Simmes for Thomas Millington, 1600; but the copy printed by W. W. for Thomas Millington, 1600, is now before me; and it is not precifely the fame with that defcribed by Mr. Pope and Mr. Theobald, nor does the undated edition (printed in fact, in 1619,) correfpond with their defcription. The title of the piece printed in 1600, by W. W. is as follows: The True Tragedie of Richarde Duke of Yorke, and the Death of good King Henrie the Sixt: With the whole Contention between the Two Houfes Lancaster and Yorke as it was fundry Times acted by the Right Honourable the Earle of Pembrooke his Servants. Printed at London by W. W. for Thomas Millington, and are to be fold at his Shoppe under St. Peter's Church in Cornewall, 1600. On this piece Shakspeare, as I conceive, in 1591 formed the drama before us. Sea Vol. XIII. p. 2, and the Essay at the end of this play.

MALONE. The present historical drama was altered by Crowne, and brought on the ftage in the year 1680, under the title of The Miferies of Civil War. Surely the works of Shakspeare could have been little read at that period; for Crowne, in his Prologue, declares the play to be entirely his own compofition :

"For by his feeble skill 'tis built alone,
"The divine Shakspeare did not lay one ftone."

whereas the very firft fcene is that of Jack Cade copied almoft verbatim from The Second Part of King Henry VI. and feveral others from this third part, with as little variation. STEEVENS.

King Henry the Sixth:

Edward, Prince of Wales, his Son.
Lewis XI. King of France.
Duke of Somerfet. Duke of Exeter.
Earl of Oxford. Earl of Northum-
berland. Earl of Weftmoreland.
Lord Clifford.

Lords on K,
Henry's fide,

Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York:
Edward, Earl of March, afterwards King
Edward IV.

Edmund, Earl of Rutland,
George, afterwards Duke of Clarence,
Richard, afterwards Duke of Glocefter,
Duke of Norfolk,
Marquis of Montague,
Earl of Warwick,
Earl of Pembroke,
Lord Haftings,
Lord Stafford,

his Sons.

of the Duke of York's party.

}

Uncles to the Duke of
York.

Sir John Mortimer,
Sir Hugh Mortimer,
Henry, Earl of Richmond, a Youth.
Lord Rivers, Brother to Lady Grey. Sir William
Stanley. Sir John Montgomery. Sir John So-
merville. Tutor to Rutland. Mayor of York.
Lieutenant of the Tower. A Nobleman. Two
Keepers. A Huntfman. A Son that has killed
his Father. A Father that has killed his Son.
Queen Margaret.

Lady Grey, afterwards Queen to Edward IV.
Bona, Sifter to the French Queen.

Soldiers, and other Attendants on King Henry and King Edward, Meffengers, Watchmen, &c.

SCENE, during part of the third Act, in France; during all the rest of the Play, in England.

Drums. Some Soldiers of York's party break in. Then, Enter the Duke of YORK, EDWARD, RE CHARD, NORFOLK, MONTAGUE, WARWICK, and Others, with white Rofes in their Hats.

KDE

WAR. I wonder, how the king escap'd our hands. YORK. While we purfu'd the horsemen of the north,

He flily ftole away, and left his men:
Whereat the great lord of Northumberland,
Whofe warlike ears could never brook retreat,
• Cheer'd up the drooping army; and himfelf,

C

Lord Clifford, and lord Stafford, all a-breaft, Charg'd our main battle's front, and, breaking in,

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 fcenes of any play more clofely connected than the first scene of this play with the last of the former. JOHNSON.

'Were by the fwords of common foldiers flain.* EDW. Lord Stafford's father, duke of Buckingham,

Is either flain, or wounded dangerous :

I cleft his beaver with a downright blow;

"

That this is true, father, behold his blood. [Showing his bloody Sword. MONT. And, brother, here's the earl of Wiltfhire's blood, [To YORK, Showing his. Whom I encounter'd as the battles join'd..

RICH. Speak thou for me, and tell them what I did.3

[Throwing down the Duke of SOMERSET'S

Head.

2 Were by the fwords of common foldiers ftain.] See the Seond Part of this Play, p. 386, n. 1. REED.

4

This is an inadvertency in our author. The elder Clifford was flain by York, and his fon lives to revenge his death.

M. MASON.

Dr. Percy in a note on the preceding play, has pointed out the inconfiftency between this account, and the reprefentation there, Clifford being killed on the stage by the Duke of York, the prefent fpeaker. Shakspeare was led into this inconfiftency by the author of the original plays: if indeed there was but one author, for this circumftance might lead us to fufpect that the first and Second part of The Contention &c. were not written by the fame hand. However, this is not decifive; for the author, whoever he was, might have been inadvertent, as we find Shakspeare undoubtedly was. MALONE.

3 Rich. Speak thou for me, and tell them what I did.] Here, as Mr. Elderton of Salisbury has obferved to me, is a grofs anachronism. At the time of the first battle of Saint Albans, at which Richard is reprefented in the last scene of the preceding play to have fought, he was, according to that gentleman's calculation, not one year old, having (as he conceives,) been born at Fotheringay Castle, October 21, 1454. At the time to which the third fcene of the firft Act of this play is referred, he was, according to the fame gentleman's computation, but fix years old; and in the fifth Act, in which Henry is reprefented as having

YORE. Richard hath beft deferv'd of all my

fons.

What, is your grace4 dead, my lord of Somerfet? NORF. Such hope have all the line of John of Gaunt!

RICH. Thus do I hope to thake king Henry's head.

WAR. And fo do I.-Victorious prince of York,
Before I fee thee feated in that throne
Which now the houfe of Lancaster ufurps,
I vow by heaven, thefe eyes fhall never clofe.
This is the palace of the fearful king,

And this the regal feat: poffefs it York:
For this is thine, and not king Henry's heirs'.

YORK. Affift me then, fweet Warwick, and I
soibus will;

For hither we have broken in by force.

NORF. We'll all affift you; he, that flies, fhall die.

been killed by him in the Tower, not more than fixteen and eight months.

1

For this anachronism the author or authors of the old plays on which our poet founded thefe two parts of King Henry the Sixth, are answerable. Malone.

4 What, is your grace-] The folio reads-But is your grace, &c. It was evidently a mistake of the tranfcriber, the word in the old play being What, which fuits fufficiently with York's exultation; whereas But affords no sense whatsoever. MALONE.

Though the fenfe and verse is complete without either But or What, I fuppofe we ought to read :

What, 's your grace dead, my lord of Somerfet?

I do not, however, perceive the inefficiency of but. This conjunction is fometimes indeterminately used; and is also infultingly employed in Twelfth-Night: "But, are you not mad indeed, or do you but counterfeit ?" STEEVENS.