200 C. F. Tucker Brooke, 



" When you disgrac'd me in my embassade, 

 Then I degraded you from being king," 



it seems again probable that Shakespeare preserves Marlowe's 

 text, and that the appearance of " disgraste," instead of " degraded " 

 in the True Tragedy (p. 58, 1. 33) is due to the 1595 printer's inad- 

 vertent repetition of the word used in the previous line. 

 In Act V, scene iii, of 3 Henry VI (11. 4—6) we read 



" I spy a black, suspicious, threat'ning cloud, 

 That will encounter with our glorious sun. 

 Ere he attain his easeful western bed ;" 



whereas the True Tragedy version gives (p. 69, 1. 6—8) : 



" I see a blacke suspitious cloud appeare. 

 That will encounter with our glorious sunne 

 Before he gaine his easefull westerne beames." 



Here there is room for doubt in the case of most of the variants 

 whether Shakespeare is revising the True Tragedy text or merely 

 printing correctly what that text gives in corrupted form. But 

 as regards the last word, it is clear that " bed ", the reading of the 

 Folio, must be the reading of Marlowe's manuscript also, because 

 the alternative, " beames," fails to make sense and confesses itself 

 the perversion of a sleepy compositor. 



Sometimes lines, which seem to be original with the 1623 version, 

 have merely been borrowed from other parts of the earlier text. 

 In II, i, 53 of 3 Henry VI, the messenger reporting York's death 

 uses a line which does not occur in the corresponding passage of the 

 True Tragedy : 



" But Hercules himself must yield to odds." 



One would probably be inclined to regard this line as original with 

 Shakespeare ; but on investigation one discovers that the identical 

 line appears many pages later in the True Tragedy in connection with 

 the death of Warwick (p. 68, 1. 24) : 



" But Hercules himself e must yeeld to ods." 



Instead of inventing, Shakespeare has simply shifted the original 

 matter from one context to another. 



Another instance of the same procedure is found at the beginning 

 of Act V, scene iii, of J Henry VI : 



" Thus far our fortune keeps an upward course, 

 And we are grac'd with wreaths of victory." 



