*And the premised1 flames of the last day * Knit earth and heaven together!

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

* To cease! 2-Wast thou ordained, dear father,
*To lose thy youth in peace, and to achieve
*The silver livery of advised age;

* And, in thy reverence, and thy chair-days, thus
*To die in ruffian battle?-Even at this sight,
*My heart is turned to stone; and, while 'tis mine,
* It shall be stony. York not our old men spares;
*No more will 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 did:

* In cruelty will I seek out my fame.

6

'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 underneath an alehouse' paltry sign,

The castle in Saint Albans, Somerset

Hath made the wizard famous in his death.3—

1 Premised is sent before their time.

2 To cease is to stop; a verb active.

3 The death of Somerset here accomplishes that equivocal prediction of Jourdain, the witch, in the first act.

*

Sword, hold thy temper; heart, be wrathful still; *Priests pray for enemies, but princes kill.

[Exit.

Alarums: Excursions. Enter KING HENRY, QUEEN MARGARET, and others, retreating.

Q. Mar. Away, my lord! you are slow; for shame,

away!

*K. Hen. Can we outrun the heavens? good Mar

*

garet, stay.

Q. Mar. What are you made of? you'll not fight,

nor fly.

*Now is it manhood, wisdom, and defence,

*To give the enemy way; and to secure us

*

By what we can, which can no more but fly.

[Alarum afar off *If you be ta'en, we then should see the bottom * Of all our fortunes; but if we haply scape, *(As well we may, if not through your neglect,) * We shall to London get, where you are loved; *And where this breach, now in our fortunes made, *May readily be stopped.

Enter Young CLIFFORD.

*Y. Clif. But that my heart's on future mischief

set,

* I would speak blasphemy ere bid you fly;
*But fly you must; uncurable discomfit
*Reigns in the hearts of all our present parts.1
*Away, for your relief! and we will live

*To see their day, and them our fortune give.
Away, my lord, away!

*

1

[Exeunt.

1 Parts may stand for parties; it may be also an error for party.

SCENE III. Fields near Saint Albans.

Alarum: Retreat. Flourish; then enter YORK, RICHARD PLANTAGENET, WARWICK, and Soldiers, with drum and colors.

York. Of Salisbury, who can report of him;

* That winter lion, who, in rage, forgets

*

Aged contusions and all brush of time;1

* And, like a gallant in the brow of youth,2
* Repairs him with occasion? This happy day
Is not itself, nor have we won one foot,
*If Salisbury be lost.

• Rich.

My noble father

'Three times to-day I holp him to his horse,
'Three times bestrid him, thrice I led him off,
'Persuaded him from any further act;

· But still, where danger was, still there I met him;

* And like rich hangings in a homely house,

*

So was his will in his old feeble body.

* But, noble as he is, look where he comes.

Enter SALISBURY.

Sal. Now, by my sword, well hast thou fought to-day;

By the mass, so did we all.-I thank you, Richard. 'God knows how long it is I have to live;

• And it hath pleased him that three times to-day

• You have defended me from imminent death.

* Well, lords, we have not got that which we have ;*

* 'Tis not enough our foes are this time fled,

* Being opposites of such repairing nature.

3

1 Warburton would substitute "all bruise of time;" but, as Steevens

observes, "the brush of time” is the gradual detrition of time.

2 i. e. the height of youth; the brow of a hill is its summit.

3 i. e. we have not secured that which we have acquired.

· York. I know our safety is to follow them;

For, as I hear, the king is fled to London,

To call a present court of parliament.

Let us pursue him, ere the writs go forth.—

• What says lord Warwick? shall we after them?
War. After them! nay, before them, if we can.
Now, by my faith, lords, 'twas a glorious day;
Saint Albans' battle won by famous York,
Shall be eternized in all age to come.-
Sound, drums and trumpets,—and to London all;
And more such days as these to us befall!

[Exeunt.