SCENE II.

Saint Albans.

Alarums; Excurfions. Enter WARWICK.

WAR. Clifford of Cumberland, 'tis Warwick calls!

And if thou doft not hide thee from the bear,
Now, when the angry trumpet founds alarm,
And dead men's cries do fill the empty air,—
Clifford, I fay, come forth and fight with me!
Proud northern lord, Clifford of Cumberland,
Warwick is hoarfe with calling thee to arms.

Enter YORK.

8

How now, my noble lord? what, all a-foot? YORK. The deadly-handed Clifford flew my

fteed;

But match to match I have encounter'd him.

And made a prey for carrion kites and crows
Even of the bonny beast he lov'd fo well.'

9

This certainly is the meaning here. A figmatick originally and properly fignified a person who has been branded with a hot iron for fome crime. See Bullokar's English Expofitor, 1616.

MALONE.

8 Warwick is hoarfe with calling thee to arms. ] See Macbeth, Vol. X. p. 373, n. 6.

STEEVENS,

9 And made a prey for carrion kites and crows —

2

-] So, in Hamlet:
"I fhould have fatted all the region kites
"With this flave's offal." STEFVENS.

Even of the bonny beast he lov'd fo well.] In the old play:
"The bonnieft gray, that e'er was bred in North."

MALONE.

Enter CLIFFORD.

WAR. Of one or both of us the time is come. YORK. Hold, Warwick, feek thee out fome other chace,

For I myself3 muft hunt this deer to death.

WAR. Then, nobly, York; 'tis for a crown thou fight'ft.

As I intend, Clifford, to thrive to-day,

It grieves my foul to leave thee unaffail'd.

[Exit WARWICK.

CLIF. What feeft thou in me, York?4 why doft thou paufe?

YORK. With thy brave bearing fhould I be in love,

But that thou art fo faft mine enemy.

CLIF. Nor fhould thy prowefs want praise and esteem,

3 For I myself &c.] This paffage will remind the claffical reader of Achilles' condud in the 22d Iliad, v. 205, where he expreffes his determination that Hedor fhould fall by no other hand than his

What feest thou in me, York? &c.] Inftead of this and the ten following lines, we find thefe in the old play, and the variation is worth noting:

York. Now, Clifford, fince we are fingled here alone,

Be this the day of doom to one of us;

For now my heart hath fworn immortal hate

To thee and all the boufe of Lancafter.

Clif And here I ftand, and pitch my foot to thine,

Vowing ne'er to flir till thou or I be flain;

For never fhall my heart be safe at reft,

Till I have spoil'd the hateful house of York.

[Alarums, and they fight, and York kills Clifford. York. Now Lancafter, fit fure; thy finews fhriuk.

Come, fearful Henry, groveling on thy face,

Yield up thy crown unto the prince of York. [Exit York.

MALONE.

But that 'tis fhown ignobly, and in treafon, YORK. So let it help me now againft thy fword, As I in juftice and true right exprefs it:

CLIF. My foul and body on the action both!YORK. A dreadful lay! 5-addrefs thee inftantly. [They fight, and Clifford falls.

CLIF. La fin couronne les œuvres."

6

[ Dies.' YORK. Thus war hath given thee peace, for thou art ftill.

'Peace with his foul, heaven, if it be thy will !

Enter young CLIFFORD.

[ Exit.

*Y. CLIF. Shame and confufion! all is on the

A dreadful lay!] A dreadful wager; a tremendous stake.

Corrected by the editor of the fecond folio.

MALONE.

JOHNSON.

7 Dies. Our author, in making Clifford fall by the hand of York, has departed from the truth of hiftory; a practice not uncommon to him when he does his utmoft to make, his characters This circumftance however ferves to prepare the confiderable. reader or fpe&ator for the vengeance afterwards taken by Clifford's fon on York and Rutland.

A

It is remarkable, that at the beginning of the third part of this hiftorical play, the poet has forgot this occurrence, and there reprefents Clifford's death as it really happened:

"Lord Clifford and lord Stafford all abreast

Charg'd our main battle's front; and breaking in,

"Were by the fwords of common foldiers flain." PERCY. For this inconfiftency the elder poet must answer; for these lines are in The True tragedie of Richard Duke of York, &c. on which, as I conceive, the third part of King Henry VI. was founded.

MALONE.

Shame and confufion! all is on the rout; &c.] Inftead of this long fpeech, we have the following lines in the old play:

Fear frames diforder, and diforder wounds *Where it should guard. O war, thou fon of hell, * Whom angry heavens do make their minifter, Throw in the frozen bofoms of our part

* Hot coals of vengeance! Let no foldier fly: He, that is truly dedicate to war,

*Hath no felf-love; nor he, that loves himself,

* Hath not effentially, but by circumftance, *The name of valour.-O, let the vile world end,

[feeing his dead father. *And the premifed flames of the last day

* Knit earth and heaven together!

Now let the general trumpet blow his blaft, *Particularities and petty founds

To ceafe! -Waft thou ordain'd, dear father,

Y. Clifford. Father of Cumberland!
Where may I feek my aged father forth?

O difmal fight! fee where he breathlefs lies.
All fmear'd and welter'd in his luke-warm blood!
Ah, aged pillar of all Cumberland's true house!
Sweet father, to thy murder'd ghoft I fwear
Immortal hate unto the houfe of York;
Nor never shall I fleep fecure one night,,
Till I have furioully reveng'd thy death,

And left not one of them to breathe on earth.

He takes him up on his back.

And thus as old Anchifes' fon did bear
His aged father on his manly back,
And fought with him against the bloody Greeks,
Even fo will I;-but ftay, here's one of them,
To whom my foul hath fworn immortal hate.

MALONE.

9 Hot coals of vengeance!] This phrafe is fcriptural. So, in the 140th Pfalm: Let hot burning coals fall upon them." STEEVENS. 2.And the premifed flames ——] Premifed, for fent before their time. The fenfe is, let the flames referved for the laft day be fent

WARBURTON.

3 To ceafe! I to flop, a verb active. So, in Timon of Athens:

be not ceas'd

แ

*To loose thy youth in peace, and to achieve 4 * The filver livery of advised age;

6

5

* And, in thy reverence, and thy chair-days, thus To die in ruffian battle?-Even at this fight, * My heart is turn'd to flone:' and, while 'tis

mine,

*It fhall be ftony.". York not our old men fpares;
* No more will I their babes: tears virginal
*Shall be to me even as the dew to fire;

And beauty, that the tyrant oft reclaims,
Shall to my flaming wrath be oil and flax.

* Henceforth, I will not have to do with pity:
Meet I an infant of the houfe of York,

*

* Into as many gobbets will I cut it,

2

* As wild Medea young Abfyrtus did: "

4 to achieve - Is, to obtain. JOHNSON. The filver livery of advised age;]

Advifed is wife, experienced.

Advifed is cautious, confiderate. So before in this play:
And bid me be advised how I tread." STEEVENS.

MALONE.

And, in thy reverence, ] In that period of life, which is entitled to the reverence of others. Our author has ufed the word in the fame manner in As you like it, where the younger brother fays to the elder, (fpeaking of their father,)" thou art indeed nearer to his reverence." MALONE.

7 My heart is turn'd to fone: ] So, in Othello: turn'd to ftone, I ftrike it, and it burts my hand."

It shall be flony.] So again, in Othello: a
"Thou doft tone my heart."

my heart is MALONE.

And, in King Richard III. we have "fone-hard heart."

9

STEEVENS.

to my flaming wrath be oil and flax.] So, in Hamlet:
"To flaming youth let virtue be as wax,
"And melt in her own fire." STEEVENS.

As wild Medea &c.] When Medea fled with Jafon from Colchos, the murdered her brother Abfyrtus, and cut his body into feveral pieces, that her father might be prevented for fome time from purfuing her. See Ovid. Trit. Lib. III. El. g: