The Authorship of " King Henry VI." 209 



" Ah ! Montague, 



If thov be here, sweet brother, take my hand, 

 And with thy lips keep in my soul awhile 

 Thou lovs't me not ; for, brother, if thou didst. 

 Thy tears would wash this cold congealed blood 

 That glues my lips and will not let me speak. 

 Come quickly, Montague, or I am dead." 



A good final example of the extent to which the immature Shake- 

 speare sometimes distorted the natural words of Marlowe's speakers 

 in his ambition to work out an elaborate tissue of metaphor and 

 allusion, appears in the revised version of Queen Margaret's address 

 to her followers in 3 Henry VI, V, iv. In the True Tragedy, this 

 speech consists of eleven lines, all quite appropriate to the occasion : 



" Welcome to England, my loving friends of France, 



And welcome Summerset, and Oxford too. 



Once more have we spread our sailes abroad. 



And though our tackling be almost consumde, 



And Warwike as our maine mast overthrowne. 



Yet warlike Lords raise you that sturdie post, 



That beares the sailes to bring vs vnto rest, 



And Ned and I as willing Pilots should 



For once with carefull mindes gvide on the sterne. 



To beare vs through that dangerous gulfe 



That heretofore hath swallowed vp our friends " 



This passage served only as a foundation for the reviser, who 

 rewrote the speech, nearly quadrupling its length and elaborating 

 every suggested figure to such a degree that the feelings of the ill- 

 starred queen are hidden beneath the profusion of ornament. This 

 is the speech as printed in the Folio : 



" Great lords, wise men ne'er sit and wail their loss, 



But cheerly seek how to redress their harms. 



What though the mast be now blowne overboard. 



The cable broke, the holding anchor lost. 



And half our sailors swallowed in the flood ; 



Yet lives our pilot still : is't meet that he 



Should leave the helm and like a fearful lad 



With tearful eyes, add water to the sea. 



And give more strength to that which hath too much ; 



Whiles in his moan the ship splits on the rock. 



Which industry and courage might have saved ? 



