The Authorship of "King Henry VI." 201 



These lines are quite different from those in the corresponding passage 

 in the True Tragedy. Moreover, since the second hne is identical 

 with a verse in the Massacre at Paris, '^ the couplet has even been 

 cited by Miss Lee as proof, that Marlowe collaborated with Shake- 

 speare in revising the plays subsequent to the composition of the 

 text preserved in the Contention and Trve Tragedy. However, the 

 precise lines in question are found in an earlier part of the True 

 Tragedy (p. 39, 1. 30). Again the Mario vian material has merely 

 been transferred in the Folio text from one scene to another. 



The passages from J Henry VI just instanced illustrate the 

 difficulty of determining with absolute precision the respective 

 amovnts of Marlovian and Shakespearean verse in the plays we are 

 discussing. In the case of 2 Henry VI, where ]\Iillington's text is 

 particularly imperfect, the problem is yet more obscure. Exactly 

 how many lines Shakespeare added from his own imagination and 

 how many he altered from the manuscript of Marlowe must doubt- 

 less remain unsettled. There are, however, in both plays a number 

 of passages in which the impact of Shakespeare's mind upon the 

 conceptions of Marlowe can be clearly traced. The study of these 

 passages throws very valuable light upon the character of Shake- 

 speare's early verse and upon the ideals by which he was governed in 

 his first attempts at dramatizing English history. 



An excellent example of the contrasted styles of Marlowe and 

 Shakespeare is furnished by the soliloquy of York at the close of 

 the first scene of 2 Henry VI. In the Contention this fine speech 

 runs as follows {Facsimile, p. 7, 1. 143 ff.) : 



" Anioy and Maine both giuen vnto the French, 



Cold newes for me, for I had hope of France, 



Euen as I haue of fertiU England. 



A day will come when Yorke shall claime his owne, 



And therefore I wiU take the Neuels parts. 



And make a show of loue to proud Duke Humphrey : 



And when I spie aduantage, claime the Crowne, 



For thats the golden marke I seeke to hit : 



Nor shall proud Lancaster vsurpe my right, 



Nor hold the scepter in his childish fist, 



Nor weare the Diademe vpon his head. 



Whose church-like humours fits not for a Crowne : 



Then Yorke be still a while till time do serue. 



Watch thou, and wake when others be asleepe, 



'■ See above, p. 108, parallel 21. 



