208 C. F. Tucker Brooke, 



Against his brother and his lawful king ? 



Perhaps thou wilt object my holy oath : 



To keep that oath were more impiety 



Than Jephthah's, when he sacrificed his daughter. 



I am so sorry for my trespass made 



That, to deserve well at my brother's hands, 



I here proclaim myself thy mortal foe ; 



With resolution, wheresoe'er I meet thee — 



As I will meet thee if thou stir abroad — 



To plague thee for thy foul misleading me. 



And so, proud-hearted Warwick, I defy thee. 



And to my brother turn my blushing cheeks." 



Clearly, the rhetorical question and the allusion to Jephthah detract 

 from the candor of Clarence's avowal of the claims of blood. Clearly, 

 too, the following diatribe against Warwick, who is the offended 

 not the offending party, smacks of hollow declamation and deprives 

 the speech of the tone of manly frankness which the early version 

 gives it. 



Throughout this part of the play the reviser robs Warwick's 

 figure of much of the charm which it has in the True Tragedy. Even 

 in trifling details the warmth of the original is frequently lost, as 

 where in recasting Edward's line : " Tis even so, and yet you are 

 olde Warwike still " (V, i, 47 ; True Tragedy, p. 66, 1. 36), the 

 omission of the adjective " olde " takes away the friendliness of the 

 king's implied offer of reconcihation. The death of Warwick is 

 very strongly and pathetically treated in the True Tragedy. It 

 seems to me that the scene (V, ii) is rather spoiled in the revision. 

 Whereas Marlowe has Warwick enter alone, wounded, with the words : 



" Ah, who is nie ? Come to me, friend or foe, 

 And tell me who is victor, Yorke or Warwike ? " 



Shakespeare, in the interests of stage effect, has Edward himself 

 drag in the fallen warrior and speak four heartless lines over his 

 body (V, ii, 1 ff.) : 



" So, lie thou there : die thou, and die our fear ; 

 For Warwick was a bug that fear'd us all 

 Now Montague, sit fast ; I seek for thee. 

 That Warwicks' bones may keep thine company." 



The new lines given to Warwick in this scene are all superfluous, 

 and the most important added speech, conceived in a tone of 

 weak sentimentahty, is, I think, glaringly unbecoming (11. 33—39) : 



