that shoulde be sacrificed, in the Bishops palace of London adioyninge to Poules churche.'
V. i. 73, 74. Two of thy name, both Dukes of Somerset, Have sold their lives unto the house of York. Edmund, the second Duke of Somerset, was killed at the first battle of St. Albans (cf. I. i. 16). His son Henry, the third duke, was beheaded after the battle of Hexham, May 15, 1464. (This last battle is not mentioned in the play.) The person addressed in the present lines is Edmund, the fourth duke, younger brother of Duke Henry, who was captured and beheaded after Tewkesbury (cf. V. iv.).
V. i. 81 S. d. Taking the red rose out of his helmet. The revised play has no stage direction at this point, but the True Tragedy inserts the following: 'Sound a Parlie, and Richard and Clarence whispers togither, and then Clarence takes his red Rose out of his hat, and throwes it at Warwike.' The word 'hat' illustrates the fact that the actors were dressed in Elizabethan costume, not in mediæval armor as in modern performances.
V. ii. 31. The queen from France hath brought a puissant power. Queen Margaret's forces landed at Weymouth on the very day on which the battle of Barnet was fought, Easter Day (April 14), 1471. Somerset made his escape from Barnet and soon joined her. (Cf. note on V. i. 73, 74.)
V. ii. 50 S. d. Here they bear away his body. The removal of the bodies of those supposedly slain was an important detail on stages which lacked front curtains.
V. iv. 1-38. A particularly noteworthy example of the reviser's work. In the True Tragedy Margaret's speech consists of but eleven lines, and is less resolute as well as much less ornate. The reviser has deviated from the chroniclers, who report that, on hearing the news of Barnet, Margaret 'like a woman al dismaied
