Page:Henry VI Part 2 (1923) Yale.djvu/131



 The last word is written 'Sixt' in the early editions, that being the regular Elizabethan form of the numeral.

 It is further agreed between them, etc. Editors have not failed to observe that the wording of the document here differs from what Gloucester has just read, ll. 50 ff. Such inconsistency is very common in Shakespeare. Compare I. iv, lines 35 ff. and 67 ff. It is not necessary to explain that Gloucester's eyes were dim, or that his agitation prevented him from getting more than the general import of the passage. The author was writing for auditors, who would not compare the two texts.

 We here create thee the first Duke of Suffolk. The Earl of Suffolk was created Marquis, September 14, 1444, and was made Duke, June 2, 1448, three years after the coronation of Queen Margaret (May, 1445). The earlier dignity is the one which chronologically belongs in this scene; but the author is doubtless thinking of Holinshed's account of the later one: 'the marquesse of Suffolke, by great fauour of the king, & more desire of the queene, was erected to the title and dignitie of duke of Suffolke, which he a short time inioied.'

 till term of eighteen months Be full expir’d. York is discharged for the term of the truce with the French king. Cf. line 42 above.

 ''Anjou and Maine! myself did win them both. An entirely unhistoric statement (found in the Contention'' version also). The earliest military service that Warwick saw was at the first battle of St. Albans, with which this play concludes (May 22, 1455). The present Earl of Warwick, the