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Clar. The river hath thrice flow'd, no ebb between;
And the old folk, time's doting chronicles,
Say it did so a little time before

That our great-grandsire, Edward, sick'd and died.
War. Speak lower, princes, for the king recovers.
Glou. This apoplexy will certain be his end.
King. I pray you, take me up, and bear me hence
Into some other chamber: softly, pray.

SCENE V.-Another chamber.

125

130

[Exeunt.

The KING lying on a bed: CLARENCE, GLOUCESTER, WARWICK, and others in attendance.

King. Let there be no noise made, my gentle friends;
Unless some dull and favourable hand
Will whisper music to my weary spirit.

125. flow'd] flowed Q. softly, pray] softly 'pray Ff; SCENE V.] Cambridge Edd.

132.

128. great-grandsire] grandsire Ff 3, 4. om. Q. 132. Exeunt.] Cambridge Edd. The King . . .] Cambridge Edd.; om. Q, Ff.

125. The... between] It is recorded by Holinshed that on October 12th, 1411, the Thames flowed thrice without an ebb between. The portent is capable of a purely natural interpretation; a tide and a tidal wave synchronizing in the river Thames is a well-known phenomenon. Lunar eclipses were supposed to cause extraordinary flows and ebbs in the Thames; cf. Nashe, Summer's Last Will (Haz. Dods., viii. 38) "in the year She was eclips'd, when that the Thames was bare."

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and from IV. iv. 131, 132, and iv. v. 239,
that the King was removed on his re-
covery to
66 some other chamber." In
the latter chamber the present scene is
laid. Many editors mark no change
of scene and follow Capell's stage-
direction, according to which the King
is "conveyed into an inner part of the
room and laid upon a bed." Cambridge
Edd. object to this arrangement "that
the King must be lying, not at the back,
but in front of the stage, where he
could be seen and heard by the audi-
ence."

2. dull] " producing dullness, dis-
posing to sleep" (Malone and Schmidt);
"gentle, soothing" (Johnson); "slow"
(Hudson, citing Baret: "Dullness,
slowness"
"
and Slow, dull. . .
drousie. . .").

2. favourable] favouring, gracious. For this epithet Shakespeare was, perhaps, indebted to Kyd, Soliman and Perseda, 1. iv: Thanks, worthy sir, whose favourable hand Hath entered such a youngling in the war."

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3. music to ... spirit] For the remedial or alleviative effects once ascribed to music, see Marlowe, Tamburlaine the Great, Part II. 1. iv:

War. Call for the music in the other room.
King. Set me the crown upon my pillow here.
Clar. His eye is hollow, and he changes much.
War. Less noise, less noise!

5

Enter PRINCE HENRY.

Prince.

Who saw the Duke of Clarence?

Clar. I am here, brother, full of heaviness.

Prince. How now! rain within doors, and none abroad!

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Glou. He alter'd much upon the hearing it.

Prince. If he be sick with joy, he'll recover without physic.
War. Not so much noise, my lords: sweet prince, speak

low;

The king your father is disposed to sleep.

Clar. Let us withdraw into the other room.

War. Will 't please your grace to go along with us?
Prince. No; I will sit and watch here by the king.

Ff.

15

[Exeunt all except the Prince. Why doth the crown lie there upon his pillow, Being so troublesome a bedfellow?

O polish'd perturbation! golden care!

7. Enter .] Enter Harry. Q.

II, 12. Heard vttred Q (Mus., Dev.).

20

9, 10. How now ! . .

king?] as prose him.] one 14. If 19.

II. Glou.] Hum. Q (throughout). line Q. 13. alter'd] altred Q (Cap., Steev.); he... physic.] prose Q; two lines, the first ending loy. in Ff. 15. Not... low;] as in Pope; prose Q; two lines in Ff. Exeunt...] Rowe.

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18. Will't] Wilt Q.

this conceit, cf. Two Italian Gentlemen (c. 1584), II. iv: "whats the cause of these your troubled lookes that I beholde, What rain is threatned by these stormy flawes ? "

13. alter'd] sc. for the worse, sickened. 19. watch. .] To watch by the bedside of a sick relative or friend during sleep was regarded as an office of love; see Middleton, A Mad World, my Masters, III. ii: "we'll both sit here and watch by her " (see context).

22. perturbation cause of agitation. So in R. Taylor, The Hog Hath Lost his Pearl, v. i: "He is not tortur'd there With molten gold. . Or any such molesting perturbation."

...

That keep'st the ports of slumber open wide
To many a watchful night! sleep with it now!
Yet not so sound and half so deeply sweet
As he whose brow with homely biggen bound
Snores out the watch of night. O majesty!
When thou dost pinch thy bearer, thou dost sit
Like a rich armour worn in heat of day,
That scalds with safety. By his gates of breath
There lies a downy feather which stirs not:
Did he suspire, that light and weightless down
Perforce must move. My gracious lord! my father!
This sleep is sound indeed; this is a sleep,
That from this golden rigol hath divorced

30. scalds] Theobald; scaldst Q; scald'st Ff. dowlney Ff 1-3.

My] move my Q.

25

30

35

31. downy] dowlny Q; 32. down] dowlne Q, Ff 1, 2; dowln F 3. 33. move.. 35. rigol] F 4; Rigoll the rest.

23. ports] gates. Cf. Beaumont and Fletcher, Two Noble Kinsmen, v. i: "thine ear... into whose port ne'er entred wanton sound."

24. watchful] wakeful, sleepless. 24. sleep... it] Hanmer read he sleeps with 't, and Vaughan proposed sleep hath he or sleepeth he.

25. and] Capell conjectured nor. 26. whose] Keightley read who, his, and Vaughan proposed who's or he, his. Biggen, a coif or coarse linen cloth bound round the head to serve as a nightcap; so called from the headbands or caps worn by béguines, the members of a religious order, first established at Liège in the early thirteenth century. Cf. Jonson, The Fox, v. vi: "Get you a biggin more, your brain breaks loose"; Fletcher, Monsieur Thomas, III. i: " say the Devil were sick... and his head bound with a Biggin "; Massinger, The Unnatural Combat, IV. ii.

27. watch of night] period of wakefulness (cf. "in the watches of the night"); or the period of night, in which vigilant guard is kept. Craig paraphrases as "all the night," comparing Othello, I. i. 124.

28. pinch] afflict, as in 1 Henry IV. I. iii. 229.

30. scalds ... safety] scorches the wearer while shielding him from danger; cf. The tryall of Cheualry, v. i: "the heat's [so] great It burnes [us] in our Armour as we march." For

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"scalds," scorches, cf. Massinger and
Field, The Fatal Dowry, 1. ii: "The
scalding summer's heat," and T. Hey-
wood, The Fair Maid of the Exchange
(Pearson, ii. 16): "the scalding ardour
of the Sunne."
30. his
breath] Cf. Middleton
and Dekker, The Roaring Girl, Pro-
logue: "her gates of hearing," probably
an imitation of the text; and Dekker,
Old Fortunatus (Pearson, i. 130): "The
Ruby-colourd portals of her speech."
For the transposition of the pronoun,
cf. Peele, Edward I. xxv: "my course
of speech."

31. downy] The spellings dowlny (Q) and dowlney (Ff 1-3) are due to confusion between "down," soft plumage, and "dowle," soft fine feather (as in Tempest, II. iii. 65: "One dowle that's in my plume").

32, 33. Did... move] This test is proposed by Cornelia in reference to Marcello, in Webster, The White Devil, IV. v: "Fetch a looking-glass: see if his breath will not stain it; or pull out some feathers from my pillow, and lay them to his lips." Suspire, draw

breath.

35. golden rigol] Cf. Dekker, Old Fortunatus (Pearson, i. 93): "these browes fill vp The golden circle of rich Portugall," where "golden circle" is perhaps an adaptation of golden rigol" in the text. Rigol, ring, circle, from F. rigole, water-course, furrow,

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So many English kings. Thy due from me.
Is tears and heavy sorrows of the blood,
Which nature, love, and filial tenderness,
Shall, O dear father, pay thee plenteously:
My due from thee is this imperial crown,
Which, as immediate from thy place and blood,
Derives itself to me. Lo, here it sits,

Which God shall guard: and put the world's whole
strength

Into one giant arm, it shall not force

This lineal honour from me; this from thee

Will I to mine leave, as 'tis left to me.

King. Warwick! Gloucester! Clarence!

40

45

[Exit.

Re-enter WARWICK, GLOUCESTER, CLARENCE, and the rest.

Clar. Doth the king call?

War. What would your majesty? How fares your grace?
King. Why did you leave me here alone, my lords?
Clar. We left the prince my brother here, my liege,

Who undertook to sit and watch by you.

50

King. The Prince of Wales! Where is he? let me see him:

He is not here.

War. This door is open; he is gone this way.

Glou. He came not through the chamber where we stay'd.
King. Where is the crown? who took it from my pillow?
War. When we withdrew, my liege, we left it here.

36. due] deaw Q.

55

42. here] where Q. 43-46. Which... to me] divided as in Q; as five lines, ending guard: Arme, from me. leaue, to me., in Ff. 43. God] Heauen Ff. 47. Re-enter. . .] Capell (subst.); Enter Warwicke,

Gloucester, Clarence. Q, Ff (before line 47). 49. How grace?] as in Rowe; prose Ff; om. Q. 51-53. We here.] prose Q. here] om. Ff. 57. Where... pillow ?] as prose in Ff.

drill, groove; whence in English the meanings "rill, groove running round a thing, ring, circle." Cf. Rape of Lucrece, 1745: "About . . . a watery rigol [= rill of water] goes "; Hollyband: "the chine of the Hoggeshead in the which the rigoll is indented." Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (Grosart, v. 284): "the ringoll, or ringed circle"; C. Cotton, Scarronides, 1664 (ed. 1715, p. 58): "a Rigil with one Stone."

37. the blood] natural feeling; cf. Revenge for Honour, III. i: "our father Is so severe a justicer, not blood Can

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54. He..

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make a breech upon his faith to justice."

41. immediate] passing in direct succession; or "next in succession" (to). 42. Derives itself] passes by descent, as in Much Ado, Iv. i. 137.

43-46. Which... to me.] Cf. Peele, Battle of Alcazar, v. i, where Argerd Zareo gives the crown to Muly Mahamet: "From him to thee... as true-succeeding prince. . . We give this kingly crown..." and Mahamet replies, "as my lawful right, With God's defence... shall I it keep!"

King. The prince hath ta'en it hence: go, seek him out.
Is he so hasty that he doth suppose

My sleep my death?

Find him, my Lord of Warwick; chide him hither.

This part of his conjoins with my disease,

60

[Exit Warwick.

And helps to end me. See, sons, what things you

are!

How quickly nature falls into revolt

When gold becomes her object!

For this the foolish over-careful fathers

Have broke their sleep with thoughts, their brains

with care,

Their bones with industry;

For this they have engrossed and piled up

The canker'd heaps of strange-achieved gold;

65

70

59-64. The prince... are!] arranged as by Capell; as five lines, ending out: death? hither. disease, are in Q; as seven lines, ending hence: out. suppose Warwick conioynes me. are: in Ff. 62. Exit...] Capell. 68, 69. Have industry;] arranged as by Pope; as two lines, the first ending thoughts, in 68. sleep. thoughts] sleepes... thoughts Ff. 70. piled] pilld 71. strange-achieved] hyphen Ff; strange atcheeued Q.

Ff.

63. part] the part of a disloyal son -a metaphor from the theatre; cf. Jonson, Staple of News, 1. ii: "he was to be drunk by his part"; Beaumont and Fletcher, The Custom of the Country, III. ii: “I . . act that part belongs to you"; The Puritan, III. i: "'twas out of my part . . . to bee hurt on the leg"; The Merry Devil of Edmonton, v. ii. Schmidt explains as "characteristic action," and Onions as "piece of conduct, act, action," as in Twelfth Night, v. i. 373. Conjoins with, joins forces with a military metaphor; cf. Cæsar's Revenge, iv. iv: 46 our armies both conioyned in one," and T. Heywood, Edward the Fourth, Part II. (Pearson, i. 99): "King Edward's hope of my conioining with him."

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71. strange-achieved] strangely won, whether (1) in distant lands, (2) in extraordinary ways, or (3) by arts or means beyond the reach of ordinary men. These senses, all of which may be included in the use of "strangein the text, occur separately; cf. (1) Love's Labour's Lost, IV. ii. 136, and Mayne, The City Match, 11. ii: “We took him [a man-fish] strangely [= abroad] in the Indies, near the mouth of Rio de la Plata "; (2) Much Ado, IV. i. 254: "to strange sores strangely they strain the cure"; (3) Middleton, A

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