their brother Edward had got the crowne and gouernement of the realme.'
II. ii. 76. Why, that's my fortune too; therefore I'll stay. The king was not at the battle of Towton, but attending the Palm Sunday service at York, ten miles away.
II. ii. 89-92. Since when, his oath is broke; for, as I hear, You, that are king, though he do wear the crown, Have caus'd him, by new act of parliament, To blot out me, and put his own son in. These lines throw light upon the reviser's method. In the True Tragedy they are assigned to Clarence, and line 92 reads: 'To blot our brother out, and put his owne son in.' In the Folio 'our brother' is replaced by 'me,' for no obvious reason except to reduce the length of the line; but by inadvertence the abbreviated speaker's name, 'Cla.', is left standing before line 89, and it remained for modern editors to rectify the inconsistency.
II. ii. 144, 145. A wisp of straw were worth a thousand crowns, To make this shameless callet know herself. A wisp of straw was the mark of shame attached to a scold or other female offender.
II. ii. 155. And grac'd thy poor sire with his bridal day. Made a present to your father of the expenses of the wedding. There is a gibe at the condition in the marriage contract (2 Henry VI, I. i. 61) that Margaret be 'sent over of the King of England's own proper cost and charges, without having any dowry.'
II. iii. 1, 2. Forspent with toil, as runners with a race, I lay me down a little while to breathe. The battle of Towton lasted ten hours, on Palm Sunday, 1461; thirty thousand men were slain, and it was in all respects the most terrible conflict of the Wars of the Roses. The present picture of the discouragement of the Yorkist leaders, exaggerated for dramatic purposes, is suggested by a local advantage which the
