Wilt thou go dig a grave to find out war,
And shame thine honourable age with blood?
Why art thou old, and want'st experience?
Or wherefore dost abuse it, if thou hast it?
For shame! in duty bend thy knee to me,
That bows unto the grave with mickle age.
Sal. My lord, I have considered with myself
The title of this most renowned duke;
And in my conscience do repute his grace
The rightful heir to England's royal seat.

K. Hen. Hast thou not sworn allegiance unto me?
Sal. I have.

K. Hen. Canst thou dispense with heaven for
such an oath?

Sal. It is great sin, to swear unto a sin;
But greater sin, to keep a sinful oath.
Who can be bound by any solemn vow
To do a murderous deed, to rob a man,
*To force a spotless virgin's chastity,

To reave the orphan of his patrimony,
To wring the widow from her custom'd right;
And have no other reason for this wrong,
But that he was bound by a solemn oath?
Q. Mar. A subtle traitor needs no sophister.
K. Hen. Call Buckingham, and bid him arm
himself.

York. Call Buckingham, and all the friends thou
hast,

Tam resolv'd for death, or dignity.

Clif. The first I warrant thee, if dreams prove

true.

War. You were best to go to bed, and dream

again,

To keep thee from the tempest of the field.
Clif. I am resolv'd to bear a greater storm,
Than any thou canst conjure up to-day;
canst ca

And that I'll write upon thy burgonet,

Might I but know thee by thy household badge. War. Now, by my father's badge, old Nevil's crest,

The rampant bear chain'd to the ragged staff,
This day I'll wear aloft my burgonet
(As on a mountain top the cedar shows,
That keeps his leaves in spite of any storm
Even to affright thee with the view thereof.
Clif. And from thy burgonet I'll rend thy bear,
And tread it under foot with all contempt,

Despight the bearward that protects the bear.
Y. Clif. And so to arms, victorious father,

To quell the rebels, and their 'complices.
Rich. Fye! charity, for shame! speak not in spite,
For you shall sup with Jesu Christ to-night.

Y. Clif. Foul stigmatic10, that's more than thou canst tell.

Rich. If not in heaven, you'll surely sup in hell. [Exeunt severally.

SCENE II. Saint Albans.

Alarums: Excursions. Enter WARWICK.

War. Clifford of Cumberland, 'tis Warwick calls! And if thou dost not hide thee from the bear, Now, when the angry trumpet sounds alarm, And dead men's cries do fill the empty air, Clifford, I say, come forth and fight with me! Proud nothern lord, Clifford of Cumberland, Warwick is hoarse with calling thee to arms.

Enter YORK.

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

steed;
steed;

But match to match I have encounter'd him,

9 A burgonet is a helmet; a Burgundian's steel

10 One on whom nature has set a mark of deformity casque.

with as

a hot iron for some crime.

or

a stigma. It originally and properly a person who had been branded One notably defamed for naughtiness. See Bullokar's Expositor, 1616; or Blount's Glossography, 1674.

And made a prey for carrion kites and crows Even of the bonny beast he lov'd so well1.

Enter CLIFFORD. MA

• War. Of one or both of us the ti is come. York. Hold, Warwick, seek thee out some other out som chase,

For I myself must hunt this deer to death2. War. Then, nobly, York; 'tis for a crown thou fight'st

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

It grieves my soul to leave thee unassail'd.

[Exit WARWICK. Clif. What seest thou in me, York? why dost thou pause?

York. With thy brave bearing should I be in love, But that thou art so fast mine enemy.

Clif. Nor should thy prowess want praise and esteem,

But that 'tis shown ignobly, and in treason.

York. So let it help me now against thy sword, As I in justice and true right express it! bed Clif. My soul and body on the action both!York. A dreadful lay3!-address thee instantly. [They fight, and CLIFFORD falls. Clif. La fin couronne les œuvres. vodom [Dies1.

1 In the old play :

The bonniest gray, that e'er was bred in north."

2 This passage will remind the classical reader of Achilles' conduct in the twenty-second Iliad, v. 205, where he expresses his determination that Hector should fall by no other hand than his own.

3 A dreadful wager; a tremendous stake.

The author, in making Clifford fall by the hand of York, has departed from the truth of history, a practice not uncommon with him when he does his utmost to make his characters considerable. This circumstance, however, serves to prepare the reader or spectator for the vengeance afterwards taken by Clifford's son on York and Rutland. At the beginning of the third part of this drama the poet has forgot this circumstance, and there represents Clifford's death as it really happened:

York. Thus war hath given thee peace, for thou art still.

Peace with his soul, heaven, if it be thy will!

Enter young CLIFFORD,

[Exit.

*Y. Clif. Shame and confusion! all is on the rout:
Fear frames disorder, and disorder wounds.
Where it should guard. O war, thou son of hell,
Whom angry heavens do make their minister,
Throw in the frozen bosoms of our part
Hot coals of vengeance! Let no soldier fly:
He that is truly dedicate to war,

Hath no self-love; nor he, that loves himself, *Hath not essentially, but by circumstance, The name of valour.-O, let the vile world end, [Seeing his dead Father. And the premised5 flames of the last day Knit earth and heaven together!

Now let the general trumpet blow his blast, * Particularities and petty sounds

To cease!-Wast thou ordain'd, dear father, To lose thy youth in peace, and to achieve? The silver livery of advised8 age;

And, in thy reverence, and thy chair-days, thus To die in ruffian battle?-Even at this sight,

Lord Clifford, and Lord Stafford, all abreast,

Charg'd our main battle's front, and, breaking in, weld *** Were by the swords of common soldiers slain."stat These lines were adopted by Shakspeare from The True Tragedy of Richard Duke of York, upon which the Third Part of King Henry V1. is founded.

5 Premised is sent before their time. The sense is let the flames reserved for the last day be sent now,'

To cease is to stop, a verb active. So in Timon of Athens :be not ceas'd

With slight denial.'

To achieve is to arrive at, or accomplish.

8 i. e. circumspect, cautious.

9 In that period of life which is entitled to command reverence. Reverenda canities. Shakspeare has used the word in the same manner in As You Like It, where Orlando says to his brother (speaking of their father) thou art indeed nearer to his

reverence.

My heart is turn'd to stone: and, while 'tis mine, It shall be stony. York not our old men spares; No more wil! 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 house of York, *Into as many gobbets will I cut it, As wild Medea young Absyrtus did1o: In cruelty will I seek out my fame.

Come, thou new ruin of old Clifford's house;
[Taking up the Body.
As did Æneas old Anchises bear,

So bear I thee upon my manly shoulders:
But then Æneas bare a living load,

Nothing so heavy as these woes of mine. [Exit.

Enter RICHARD PLANTAGENET and SOMERSET, fighting, and SOMERSET is killed.

Rich. So, lie thou there;

For

The

underneath an alehouse' paltry sign, Castle in Saint Albans, Somerset

Hath made the wizard famous in his death11.Sword, hold thy temper; heart, be wrathful still: Priests pray for enemies, but princes kill. [Exit.

10 When Medea fled with Jason from Colchos, she murdered her brother Absyrtus, and cut his body into several pieces, that her father might be prevented for some time from pursuing her.. See Ovid Trist. 1. iii El. 9:-

divellit, divulsaque membra per agros

Dissipat, in multis invenienda locis:gent
Ut genitor luctuque novo tardetur, et artus
Dum legit extinctos, triste moretur iter.'

11 The death of Somerset here accomplishes that equivocal prediction of Jourdain the witch in the first act :~ Let him shun castles:

Safer shall he be upon the sandy plains

Than where castles mounted stand."

such equivocal predictions were much in vogue in early times, and the fall of many eminent persons is by the Chronicles represented as accomplishing them being delivered in obscure terms, any fortuitous event was the more readily supposed to verify them.