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For raging wind blows up incessant showers,
And when the rage allays, the rain begins.
These tears are my sweet Rutland's obsequies,
And every drop cries vengeance for his death,

145

'Gainst thee, fell Clifford, and thee, false Frenchwoman.

North. Beshrew me, but his passions move me so

/ 150

That hardly can I check my eyes from tears.

York. That face of his the hungry cannibals

Would not have touch'd, would not have stain'd with blood;
But you are more inhuman, more inexorable,

O, ten times more than tigers of Hyrcania.

155

See, ruthless queen, a hapless father's tears:

This cloth thou dipp'dst in blood of my sweet boy,
And I with tears do wash the blood away.
Keep thou the napkin, and go boast of this;
And if thou tell'st the heavy story right,

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tears] 135, 136. Beshrew 152-155. That face. Could not

Hyrcania] 137-140. That face

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160

· passions Would Arcadia Q.

156-166. See, ruthless . . . And I . do wash . . . of this . . tell'st . . .

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And poure forthe fountaines of incessant teares? " (Daphnaida, st. 36, 1591). Quarto has "a storme of teares." 152. cannibals] Again in Othello, 1. iii. 143. See note in this edition. 153. Would . blood] The second folio reads "Would not have stayn'd the roses just with blood after "toucht," dividing the lines differently. This variation has caused many conjectural readings, all departing from the original texts.

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154. inexorable] Again in Romeo and Juliet, and (as a modern reading of inexecrable") in Merchant of Venice. The word is in Puttenham : "An inexorable and unfaithful mistress" (Arber, p. 226).

155. tigers of Hyrcania] "the Hyrcan tiger" occurs in Macbeth, III. iv. IOI, and "the Hyrcanian beast" in Hamlet, 11. ii. 472. Also in Selimus (Grosart's Greene, xiv. 239) :

"But thou wast borne in desart Caucasus,

And the Hircanian tygres gaue thee sucke."

Earlier than these is Sylvester's Du Bartas: "African Panthers, Hyrcan Tigres fierce, Cleonian Lions, and Pannonian Bears " (The Sixth Day of the First Week, p. 123, 1591). And earlier in Timothie Kendall, Flowers of Epigrammes, 1577: “A Tiger of the Hyrcan stocke" (rept. p. 20). Eden pointed out the confusion_between Hyrcania and Herecynia. The Caspian Sea was known as Hyrcanum. See Richard Eden's Of the North-east Frostie Seas, 1555 (Hakluyt Soc. 1852). Chiefly from Paulus Jovius. The Quarto reading is an odd misprint.

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Upon my soul, the hearers will shed tears;

Yea, even my foes will shed fast-falling tears,

And say "Alas! it was a piteous deed."

There, take the crown, and with the crown my curse,

And in thy need such comfort come to thee
As now I reap at thy too cruel hand!

165

Hard-hearted Clifford, take me from the world;
My soul to heaven, my blood upon your heads!
North. Had he been slaughter-man to all my kin,

I should not for my life but weep with him,
To see how inly sorrow gripes his soul.

Q. Mar. What, weeping-ripe, my Lord Northumberland ?
Think but upon the wrong he did us all,

And that will quickly dry thy melting tears.

170

Clif. Here's for my oath; here's for my father's death. 175

[Stabbing him.

Q. Mar. And here's to right our gentle-hearted king.

[Stabbing him.

York. Open thy gate of mercy, gracious God!
My soul flies through these wounds to seek out Thee.

right. Yea

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too cruel hand !] 141-151. See ruthlesse I wash. of that.. tell .. well... I (Ay) · Here, take. two cruell hands Q. 167, 168. Hard-hearted . . . heads] 152, 153. Hard-harted 169-171. Had . . . soul] 154-156. Had

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he bin....
of all... I could not chuse but weep
172-180. What, weeping-ripe . thy melting
And here's... gentle-hearted king
town of York] 157-165. What weeping ripe.
thears .. And thears gentle hearted kind

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his hart Q. here's Thee

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foorth to meet with thee towne of York. Exeunt Omnes Q. [Stabbing Stabbing . . . Dies] omitted Q, Ff.

Richard III. 1. ii. 155-166 on these lines, and note in this edition. The standers-by, at the story, 66 wet their cheeks like trees bedash'd with rain."

169. slaughter-man] See Part I. III. iii. 75 (note). In Q. It occurs in A Manifest Detection of the ... use of Dice-play (Percy reprint, p. 8), 1532 (?): "Go to; say on; lo! how gentle lambs are led to the slaughterman's fold."

171. inly] inward. Occurs again Two Gentlemen of Verona, 11. vii. 18. Elsewhere an adverb. But the distinction is not a sound one.

171. Sorrow gripes his soul] Recalls a line in The First Part of Contention,

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Q. Mar. Off with his head, and set it on York gates: So York may overlook the town of York.

not to speake." Earliest in Contention, and due to Shakespeare. Greene has the phrase in Selimus.

179, 180. Off with his head... York]" After this victory by ye Quene and her parte obteyned, she caused the erle of Salisbury, with all the other prisoners, to bee sent to Pomfret and

180

[Flourish. Exeunt.

there to be behedded, and sent all their heddes, and the dukes head of Yorke, to be set upon poles, ouer the gate of the citie of Yorke in despite of them and their lignage " (Hall, p. 251, ed. 1809). See II. i. 65. And see extract at II. v. 125 for more about York's head.

ACT II

SCENE I.-A Plain near Mortimer's Cross in
Herefordshire.

A March. Enter EDWARD, RICHARD, and their power.

Edw. I wonder how our princely father 'scaped,

Or whether he be 'scaped away or no

From Clifford's and Northumberland's pursuit.
Had he been ta'en we should have heard the news;
Had he been slain we should have heard the news;
Or had he 'scaped, methinks we should have heard
The happy tidings of his good escape.
How fares my brother? why is he so sad?

Rich. I cannot joy until I be resolv'd

Where our right valiant father is become.

A March] Ff; omitted Q. with drum and Souldiers Q.

8. How .

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Enter. .] Ff; Enter Edward and Richard, 1-7. I wonder how good escape] omitted Q. sad?] 1, 2. Edw. After this dangerous fight and haplesse warre How doth my noble brother Richard fare? Q. 9, 10. Rich. I cannot become] 3, 4. Rich. I cannot . . is become Q.

1. I wonder . . .] When Shakespeare wrote a new opening for the older one, in this scene, as he frequently does in these two plays, he perhaps forgot the almost identical first line of the first Act-which was in Q. 4-6. Had he Had he Or had he] The repetition of the initial words in poetical lines was carried to great excess at this time and earlier. In this play see Act ii., Scene v., where (as here) it is part of the finished play, not the Quarto version. For examples see Hawes' Pastime of Pleasure (1509), p. 102, reprint, where fourteen lines have same beginnings. Gascoigne's Steel Glas is loaded with the trick. Spenser abounds in iterations and repetitions, but in a more measured manner, and with due regard to eloquence.

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I saw him in the battle range about,

And watch'd him how he singled Clifford forth.
Methought he bore him in the thickest troop

As doth a lion in a herd of neat ;

Or as a bear, encompass'd round with dogs,
Who having pinch'd a few and made them cry,
The rest stand all aloof and bark at him.
So fared our father with his enemies;
So fled his enemies my war-like father:
Methinks 'tis prize enough to be his son.
See how the morning opes her golden gates,

II-14. I saw him . . . As doth . . see him beare himselfe, As doth .

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enemies] omitted Q.

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19, 20.

in a midst So fled

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son] 7, 8. So fled. our valiant... pride..
in the aire Q. 21-25. See how
suns?] 9-11. Edw. Loe

Dazzle suns? Q.

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To winne renowne did wondrous feats of armes (Spanish Tragedy, 1. iii. 61). The passage in Marlowe, in Tamburlaine, Part II. III. ii. (Dyce, 56, a) :—

66

run desperate through the thickest throngs, Dreadless of blows;" and in Iv. i. (61, a) :

"he himself amidst the thickest troops,

Beats down our foes."
14. lion in an herd] So Spenser,
Faerie Queene, VI. xi. 49:-
"Like as a lion mongst an heard
of dere...

So did he fly amongst them here
and there."

"A heirde of Neate" occurs in Gold-
ing's Ovid, ii. 1051. Neat are oxen.
16. pinch'd] bitten. See note at the
substantive, I Henry VI. IV. ii. 49.
Spenser uses this verb. Golding has:-

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20

neat] 5, 6. How often did I neat Q.

my war-like

15-18. Or as a

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sonne. Three sonnes appeare glorious sun; How . . love. Edw. how glorious sun, Dasell

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20. prize] "pride" of Quartos is preferable. But compare "prize" (privilege) above, I. iv. 59.

21-24. the morning. . . prancing to his love] A variously put metaphor. See Psalm xix. 4, 5, and Faerie Queene, I. v. 2, where the "golden orientall gate" occurs:

"And Phoebus, fresh as brydegroome to his mate, Came dauncing forth." And Peele, David and Bethsabe (473, a), where Dyce gives the reference to Spenser, as Jortin does on Faerie Queene to the Psalm, a reference given much earlier by Sylvester (1621 ed. p. 85) in a marginal note to the lines in Fourth Day of the First Week of Du Bartas (1591):—

"Thou seem'st (O Titan) like a Bride-groome brave,

Who from his chamber early issuing out

In rich array," etc.

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