If you do cenfure me 7, by what you were, 8 Suf. Thus Suffolk hath prevail'd, and thus he goes, As did the youthful Paris once to Greece, We hope to find the like event in love; But profper better than the Trojan did : Margret fhall now be Queen, and rule the King: But I will rule both her, the King, and realm. [Exit. If you do cenfure me, &c.] To cenfure is here fimply to judge. If in judging me you confider the paft frailties of your own youth. ruminate my grief.] Grief in the first line is taken generally for pain or uneafinefs; in the fecond specially for forrow. Of this play there is no copy earlier than that of the folio in 1623, though the two fucceeding parts are extant in two editions in quarto. That the fecond and third parts were publifhed without the first may be admitted as no weak proof that the copies were furreptitiously obtained, and that the printers of that time gave the publick thofe plays not fuch as the authour defigned, but fuch as they could get them. That this play was written before the two others is indubitably collected from the feries of events; that it was written and played before Henry the fifth is apparent, because in the epilogue there is mention made of this play, and not of the other parts. Henry the fixth in fwaddling bands crown'd king, Whofe state so many had i'th' managing That they left France, and made all England rue, Which oft our stage hath shewn. France is loft in this play. The two following contain, as the old title imports, the contention of the houfes of York and Lancafier. The two firft parts of Henry VI. were printed in 1600. When Henry V. was written we know not, but it was printed likewise in 1600, and therefore before the publication of the first and fecond parts, the first part of Henry VI. had been often shown on the fage, and would certainly have appeared in its place had the authour been the publisher. The END of the FOURTH VOLUME. |