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Exempt from envy, but not from disdain

Unless the Lady Bona quit his pain.

K. Lew. Now, sister, let us hear your firm resolve.
Bona. Your grant, or your denial, shall be mine.

[To Warwick.] Yet I confess that often ere this day,
When I have heard your king's desert recounted,
Mine ear hath tempted judgment to desire.

130

K. Lew. Then, Warwick, thus: our sister shall be Edward's;
And now forthwith shall articles be drawn

Touching the jointure that your king must make,
Which with her dowry shall be counterpoised.
Draw near, Queen Margaret, and be a witness
That Bona shall be wife to the English king.
Prince. To Edward, but not to the English king.
Q. Mar. Deceitful Warwick! it was thy device
By this alliance to make void my suit:
Before thy coming Lewis was Henry's friend.

K. Lew. And still is friend to him and Margaret :
But if your title to the crown be weak,
As may appear by Edward's good success,
Then 'tis but reason that I be releas'd
From giving aid which late I promised.
Yet shall you have all kindness at my hand
That your estate requires and mine can yield.
War. Henry now lives in Scotland at his ease,

Where having nothing, nothing can he lose.
And as for you yourself, our quondam queen,
You have a father able to maintain you,

And better 'twere you troubled him than France.

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135

140

145

150

155

129-133. Now, sister . . . Yet I .. this day, When I . . . desert . . . ear hath. desire] 82-86. Then sister I ... deserts . . ⚫eares haue counterpoised] omitted Q.

138-140.

But ere this daie I must confesse, When desire Q. 134-137. Then, Warwick . Draw near . not to the English king] 87-89. Then draw neere... not the English King Q. 141-150. Deceitful Warwick .. mine can yield] omitted Q. 151-155. Henry now.

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(from others), unless the Lady Bona quit his pain. It is quite in Shakespeare's manner to depart from one antecedent, and substitute its neighbour, in the midst of a passage.

128. quit his pain] requite his sorrow or trouble, satisfy him.

153. quondam queen] See above, III. i. 23, and note.

154. You have a father. . .] Johnson said "this seems ironical." Margaret's angry reply shows how it went home.

Q. Mar. Peace, impudent and shameless Warwick, peace,
Proud setter up and puller down of kings!
I will not hence, till, with my talk and tears,
Both full of truth, I make King Lewis behold
Thy sly conveyance and thy lord's false love;
For both of you are birds of self-same feather.

160

[Post blowing a horn within. K. Lew. Warwick, this is some post to us or thee.

Enter a Post.

Post. My lord ambassador, these letters are for you,
Sent from your brother, Marquess Montague :
These from our king unto your majesty ;

And, madam, these for you; from whom I know not.

165

[They read their letters.

Oxf. I like it well that our fair queen and mistress.

Smiles at her news, while Warwick frowns at his.

Prince. Nay, mark how Lewis stamps as he were nettled :

I hope all's for the best.

170

K. Lew. Warwick, what are thy news? and yours, fair queen?
Q. Mar. Mine, such as fill my heart with unhoped joys.
War. Mine, full of sorrow and heart's discontent.

K. Lew. What! has your king married the Lady Grey?
And now, to soothe your forgery and his,

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175

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France] 90-94. Henry now France Q. 156-161. Peace feather] .] Ff (after false love); Sound for a post 162. Warwick . . . thee] 95. Here comes some post 163-166. My lord... these letters are... this · from... not] 96-99. My Lord.. And these to you Madam, from his... Nay, mark. nettled: I And marke

And.

100-102. I like when Warwike frets at his .
171. Warwick
news? Q.
Mine heart full of ioie discontent Q.

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not Q. best] nettled Q.

queen] 103. Now Margaret and Warwike, what are your 172, 173. Mine . . . heart... joys... discontent] 104, 105. 174-178. What! has

157. Proud. . . kings] See 11. iii. 37, above, and note. Malone makes this repetition an argument in his case. This speech of Margaret's is entirely additional to Q.

160. conveyance] jugglery, fraud, deceit. See 1 Henry VI. 1. iii. 2. Spenser has the word in Mother Hubberds Tale. And it is in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy (II. i. 47, ed. Boas): "thy conveiance in Andrea's loue For which thou wert adiudg'd to punishment."

161. birds... above, and note.

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169. nettled] Not again in Shakespeare, except metaphorically: "Nettled and stung with pismires" (1 Henry IV. 1. iii. 240). Compare Greene's Pinner of Wakefield (Grosart, xiv. 139): "so netled with loue."

175. soothe] enter into the humour of it, act in agreement or conformity with. Often used by Shakespeare, in our sense of "to humour."

175. forgery] deceit. Spenser has "womanish fine forgery (Faerie feather] See II. i. 170 Queene, II. xii. 28). And compare Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, 1. iii. 72 (ed. Boas),

Sends me a paper to persuade me patience?

Is this the alliance that he seeks with France?
Dare he presume to scorn us in this manner?

Q. Mar. I told your majesty as much before:

This proveth Edward's love and Warwick's honesty. 180
War. King Lewis, I here protest, in sight of heaven,
And by the hope I have of heavenly bliss,

That I am clear from this misdeed of Edward's;
No more my king, for he dishonours me;
But most himself, if he could see his shame.
Did I forget that by the house of York
My father came untimely to his death?
Did I let pass the abuse done to my niece?
Did I impale him with the regal crown?
Did I put Henry from his native right?
And am I guerdon'd at the last with shame?
Shame on himself! for my desert is honour:
And to repair my honour lost for him,
I here renounce him and return to Henry.
My noble queen, let former grudges pass,

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185

190

195

to excuse himselfe 179, 180.

to soothe... in this manner?] 106-108. What hath sends vs a post of papers How dares he presume to vse us thus? Q. I told... before: This honesty] 109. This honesty (179 omitted) Q. 181-190. King Lewis But most. Did I put native right] 110-119. King Lewis .. And most. Q. 191-194. And am I

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doth he vse me thus? Q.

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And thrust King Henry from his natiue home return to Henry] 120. And most ungratefull 195-198. My pass, And... his wrong to state] 121-124. My gratious Queene pardon what is past, And wrongs done to state Q.

...

...

ante 1589: "O wicked forgerie: O traiterous miscreant."

176. persuade me patience] advise me patience. An unusual construction for this verb. "To" or "into" is omitted.

186, 187. Did I ... death] We have here Warwick's reasons, as Shakespeare viewed the subject, for his abandoning the king. Ritson's collection, alluded to above, are all different: see note at III. iii. 43; and extract from Hall, at the first line of this scene. Warwick's father (Earl of Salisbury in this play) was taken prisoner at the battle of Wakefield and executed by the Lancastrians at Pomfret. See Hall, p. 251; the passage is already quoted at the setting of York's head on a pole at York (1. iv. 179, 180). See Boswell Stone, p. 247, on this Warwick. See also Malone's note here, where he derives "another proof," to

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And henceforth I am thy true servitor.

I will revenge his wrong to Lady Bona,
And replant Henry in his former state.

Q. Mar. Warwick, these words have turn'd my hate to love; And I forgive and quite forget old faults,

And joy that thou becom'st King Henry's friend.

War. So much his friend, ay, his unfeigned friend,
That if King Lewis vouchsafe to furnish us
With some few bands of chosen soldiers,
I'll undertake to land them on our coast,
And force the tyrant from his seat by war.
'Tis not his new-made bride shall succour him :
And as for Clarence, as my letters tell me,
He's very likely now to fall from him,
For matching more for wanton lust than honour,
Or than for strength and safety of our country.
Bona. Dear brother, how shall Bona be reveng'd

But by thy help to this distressed queen?

Q. Mar. Renowned prince, how shall poor Henry live,
Unless thou rescue him from foul despair?

Bona. My quarrel and this English queen's are one.
War. And mine, fair Lady Bona, joins with yours.
K. Lew. And mine with hers, and thine and Margaret's.
Therefore at last I firmly am resolv'd

You shall have aid.

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205

210

215

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199-201. Warwick becom❜st friend] 125, 126. Yes Warwicke I doe quite forget thy former Faults, if now thou wilt become friend Q. 202207. So much succour him:] 127-132. So much succour him. Q. 208-218. And as for Clarence and Margaret's] omitted Q. 219-225. Therefore . . . aid. Q. Mar. Let me once. K. Lew. Then, England's masquers bride] 133-137. Then at the aide: and English .. Maskers. bride (Queen's speech omitted) Q.

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196. servitor] See 1 Henry VI. II. i. 5. The word occurs in Hall in this connection. Warwick "obtained license of the king, to depart to hys Castel of Warwycke . . with diuers of the kyngs familar servitors as though none inward grudge. had been hidden . . . during which tyme, the quene was deliuered of a yonge (!) and fayre lady, named Elizabeth which afterward was wyfe to Henry the VII. and mother to Kyng Henry the VIII." (p. 266). So far from Warwick at once declaring against King Edward, he "determined himself, couertly dissimulyng, to suffer

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all such wronges til he might
spye a time conuenient . . . he sayled
into England, and with reuerence,
saluted the kyng as he was wont to do,
and declared his Ambassade
though he were ignorant of the new
matrimony" (pp. 255-266).

.. as

200. forgive and quite forget] Compare Winter's Tale, III. iii. 125: "I have forgotten and forgiven all." These words occur in the famous speech in Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, that begins : "It is not now as when Andrea lived

We have forgotten and forgiven that" (III. xiv. III). But the collocution is likely to be older.

Q. Mar. Let me give humble thanks for all at once.
K. Lew. Then, England's messenger, return in post,
And tell false Edward, thy supposed king,
That Lewis of France is sending over masquers
To revel it with him and his new bride.

Thou seest what's past; go fear thy king withal.
Bona. Tell him, in hope he'll prove a widower shortly,
I'll wear the willow garland for his sake.

Q. Mar. Tell him, my mourning weeds are laid aside,
And I am ready to put armour on.

War. Tell him from me that he hath done me wrong,
And therefore I'll uncrown him ere't be long.
There's thy reward: be gone.

K. Lew.

225

230

[Exit Post.

But, Warwick,

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223-225. tell false Edward masquers To revel] This is developed later into the tennis ball speech in Henry V. 1. ii. 249 et seq. of the First Ambassador :

"the prince our master . . . bids you be advised there's nought in France

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227-233. Tell him
him .. heele be
fresh supply] omitted Q.

...

expression is in Peele's David and Bethsabe (473, b); and in Locrine (near the end).

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234-243. Oxford, with five thousand men. eldest daughter holy wedlock] Here we are to skip everything for several years until Warwick proclaims open war and roll the doings then backwards to this juncture. In the ix. year (1470), Hall, 281: "WarYou cannot revel into dukedoms wicke and the Duke of Clarence . .

That can be with a nimble galli-
ard won,

there." The passages here are repeated below, IV. i. 104, etc. From Q here.

226. fear] fright, scare.

228. I'll wear the willow garland] Compare Othello, IV. iii. 51: "Sing all a green willow shall be my garland'; and see my note in Arden edition on line 42. Spenser has "The willow worne of forlorne Paramours" (Faerie Queene, 1. i. 9). The willow and poplar were hardly discriminated. Peele has, "Enone entereth with a wreath of poplar on her head" (Arraignment of Paris, III. i. 42 (360, a), 1584). Elsewhere in Peele's play it is "willow." See, too, Lodge's Euphues Golden Legacie (Shakespeare Library, rept. p. 133), 1390: "apparelled all in tawny, to signifie that he was forsaken: on his heade hee wore a garland of willow."

229. mourning weeds] Again below; and in Titus Andronicus, 1. i. 70. The

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came to the kyngs (Lewis') presence
... at Amboyse, and... was with all
kyndes of curtesie and humanitie re-
ceiued... when Margaret, which so-
iorned with Duke Reyner her father..
harde tell that the erle of Warwicke and
the Duke... wer come to the Frenche
Court hopyng of neue comforte
with all diligence came to Amboyse,
with her onely son Prince Edward.
And with her came Jasper erle of Pem-
broke, and Ihon erle of Oxenford,
whiche after diuerse long imprison-
mentes lately escaped
to this assembly . . . they determined
to conclude a league And first to
begin withal, for the more sure founda-
cion of the newe amitie, Edward.
wedded Anne second daughter to therle
of Warwicke . . . After this marriage
the duke and therles took a solempne
othe that they shoulde neuer leaue the
warre, until . . . Henry or his sonne,

and came

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