A milksop, one that never in his life

Felt so much cold as over shoes in snow?
Let's whip these stragglers o'er the seas again;
Lash hence these overweening rags of France,
These famish'd beggars, weary of their lives;
Who, but for dreaming on this fond exploit,
For want of means, poor rats, had hang'd themselves.
If we be conquer'd, let men conquer us,

And not these bastard Bretagnes, whom our fathers
Have in their own land beaten, bobb'd, and thump'd,
And, on record, left them the heirs of shame.
Shall these enjoy our lands? lie with our wives?
Ravish our daughters?-Hark, I hear their drum.

[Drum afar off.
Fight, gentlemen of England! fight boldly, yeomen!
Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head!
Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood;
Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!

Enter a Messenger.

What says lord Stanley? will he bring his power?
MESS. My lord, he doth deny to come.

K. RICH. Off with his son George's head!
NOR. My lord, the enemy is pass'd the marsh;
After the battle let George Stanley die.

K. RICH. A thousand hearts are great within my bosom Advance our standards, set upon our foes;

Our ancient word of courage, fair saint George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!
Upon them! Victory sits on our helms.

SCENE IV. Another Part of the Field.

Alarum: Excursions.

[Exeunt.

Enter NORFOLK, and Forces; to him
CATESBY.

CATE. Rescue, my lord of Norfolk, rescue, rescue!
The king enacts more wonders than a man,

Daring an opposite to every danger;

His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights,

Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death:
Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost!

Alarum. Enter K. RICHARD.

K. RICH. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!
CATE. Withdraw, my lord, I 'll help you to a horse.
K. RICH. Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
And I will stand the hazard of the die:

I think there be six Richmonds in the field,
Five have I slain to-day, instead of him:

A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

[Exeunt.

Alarums. Enter KING RICHARD and RICHMOND; they fight; RICHARD is slain.

Retreat and flourish. Then enter RICHMOND, STANLEY bearing the crown, with divers other Lords, and Forces.

RICH. God, and your arms, be prais'd, victorious friends; The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead.

STAN. Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee! Lo, here, these long-usurped royalties,

From the dead temples of this bloody wretch

Have I pluck'd off, to grace thy brows withal;
Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it.

RICHM. Great God of heaven, say, amen, to all!
But, tell me, is young George Stanley living?

STAN. He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town;
Whither, if you please, we may withdraw us.

RICHM. What men of name are slain on either side?
STAN. John duke of Norfolk, Walter lord Ferrers,
Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon.
RICHM. Inter their bodies as becomes their births.
Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled
That in submission will return to us;
And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament,
We will unite the white rose and the red;
Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,
That long hath frown'd upon their enmity!
What traitor hears me, and says not amen?
England hath long been mad, and scarr'd herself;

The brother blindly shed the brother's blood,
The father rashly slaughter'd his own son,
The son, compell'd, been butcher to the sire;
All this divided York and Lancaster,
Divided, in their dire division.

O, now let Richmond and Elizabeth,
The true succeeders of each royal house,
By God's fair ordinance conjoin together!
And let their heirs (God, if thy will be so)
Enrich the time to come with smooth-fac'd peace,
With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days!
Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
That would reduce these bloody days again,
And make poor England weep in streams of blood!
Let them not live to taste this land's increase,

That would with treason wound this fair land's peace!
Now civil wounds are stopp'd, peace lives again;
That she may long live here, God say-Amen!

[Exeunt.

VARIOUS READINGS.

"I, that am curtail'd thus of fair proportion." ACT I., Sc. 1.

Richard has described himself as wanting "love's majesty;" and he adds

"I, that am curtail'd of this fair

proportion."

But then comes one who understands the "sportive tricks" of the stage; and makes the crook-back point to his hump-thus. So the Corrector.

"The stain of nature and the The original has "slave of nature," and "son of hell." They "sound so flatly and tamely near the conclusion of the curse," says Mr. Collier, "that an impression rises at once in the mind that Shakspere must have written something more fierce and vigorous. Stain and scorn must surely have been the language of our great dramatist."

Gray, in a letter to West, has quoted the passage in which this line occurs as an example of the beauties of Shakspere's language -66 "Every word in him is a picture." The stage-manager Corrector has turned the picture into a caricature.

"You are too strict and abstinent, my lord,

Too ceremonious and traditional:
Weigh it but with the goodness of his age,

You break not sanctuary in seizing him." ACT III., Sc. 1.

The original has "senseless-obstinate," which is called a "strange and unmannerly compound." We are also to change the " grossness of this age," to the above reading, which, says Mr. Collier, "refers to the youth and innocence of the prince."

The "compound" adjective is one of Shakspere's mint-marks, which such correctors try to rub out. In the other line, is it not clear that Buckingham means by "the grossness of this age," the practical way in which what is "ceremonious and traditional" is set aside?

"Make haste, the hour of death is expirate." ACT III., Sc. 3.

The first folio has, "the hour of death is expiate;" the second folio -"the hour of death is now expired." It is clear that the original expiate was not understood. Expirate is the reading of Stee

vens.

We believe Steevens was right. Maione relies upon the authority of the 22nd Sonnet:

"My glass shall not persuade me I am old,

So long as youth and thou are of one date;

But when in thee time's furrows I behold,

Then look I death my days should cxpiate."

BARBED. Act I., Sc. 1.

GLOSSARY.

"Instead of mounting barbed steeds."

Barbed or barded was applied indifferently to a caparisoned horse. The barde, from the barbarous Latin bardare, was a sort of defensive armour for the horse, and thence applied to the ornamental trappings.

Boot, from the Anglo-Saxon bote, is something added. We retain the phrase to boot.

CHARACTERS. Act III., Sc. 1.

"I say, without characters, fame lives long." Without characters is without the help of letters. COCK-SHUT. Act V., Sc. 3.

"Much about cock-shut time."

Cock-shut time we think is equivalent to cock-roost time, the hour at which the cock goes to rest, twilight. As morning is cock-crow, evening may, by a parallel image, be cock-shut. COMPETITORS. Act IV., Sc. 4.

"And every hour more competitors."

Competitors are associates.

COUSINS. Act II., Sc. 2. "My pretty cousins."

Cousins is here used in the sense of kindred, relations. The duchess was grandmother to the children.