*

was Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March, whom King Richard had proclaimed heir to the crown, and who was, according to hereditary right, now entitled to it. The Earl of March was at this time a child: it was his uncle, Sir Edmund Mortimer (second son of the first Earl of March)+ whose adventures Shakspeare relates and misapplies. "Hotspur.......Did King Richard, then,

Proclaim my brother, Edmund Mortimer,
Heir to the crown?

"North. He did."

Hotspur calls Mortimer his brother, because he married his sister Elizabeth.§

For one scene in this play I can find no authority. It is that || in which Hotspur reads a letter from a correspondent, who endeavours to dissuade him from his enterprise. Nothing shows more curiously how these historical plays have taken

* Tyler, i. 130. I cannot find any ancient authority for supposing the prisoner to have been the Earl of March. + By Philippa, heiress of Lionel Duke of Clarence, third son of Edward the Third. Act i. Sc. 3.

§ Shakspeare (Act ii. Sc. 3, &c.) calls this lady Kute; Hall and Holinshed call her Elinor, and mention that she was aunt to the Earl of March, on which account Shakspeare, apparently forgetting that he had correctly styled Lady Percy Mortimer's sister, in another place (Act iii. Sc. 1.) makes Mortimer speak of her as his aunt. There is throughout a confusion between uncle and nephew. Act ii. Sc. 3.

the place of history, than the pains taken to trace this letter by tradition to a particular person. One commentator,* against all probability, ascribes it to the Scottish Lord March; while Mr. Morritt of Rokeby, the friend of Scott, traces it to a Rokeby, who was sheriff of Northumberland; † but this Rokeby fought against the rebels.

Of the wife of Hotspur, history furnishes nothing but the name. I am therefore not called upon to exercise the ungracious duty of calling in question Mrs. Jamieson's beautiful and judicious sketch of her.§

Shakspeare is borne out by the Chronicles in calling Owen Glendower a magician, and introducing the wonders which preceded his birth.

66

was

"This Owen Glendower," says Holinshed,|| son to an esquire of Wales, named Griffith Vichen (Vaughan ?); ¶ he dwelled in the parish of Conway, within the county of Merioneth, in North Wales, in a place called Glindourwie, which is as much as to say in English, as the valley by the side of the water of Dee, by occasion of which he was surnamed Glendour

§ Characteristics of Women, ii. 238.

|| iii. 17. Owen was born in 1359.

I do not know whether the amiable, honest, and hospitable Sir Robert Vaughan, late member for Merionethshire, is of this house.

Dew. He was first set to study the laws of the realm, and became an utter barrister, or an apprentice of the law, as they termed him, and served King Richard at Flint Castle, when he was taken by Henry Duke of Lancaster; though others have written that he served this King Henry the Fourth before he came to attend the Crown in the room of an esquire."

......

66

In the month of March (1402) appeared a blazing star, first between the east part of the firmament and the north, flashing forth fire and flames round about it, and lastly, shooting forth fiery beams towards the north, foreshowing (as was thought) the great effusion of blood that followed about the parts of Wales and Northumberland. In much about the same time, Owen Glendower, with his Welshmen, fought with the Lord Grey of Ruthin, coming forth to defend his possessions, which the same Owen wasted and destroyed.". "About mid August, the King, to chastise the presumptuous attempt of the Welshman, went with a great power of men into Wales, to pursue the captain of the Welsh rebels, Owen Glendower; but in effect he lost his labour, for Owen conveyed himself out of the way into his known lurking-places, and, as was thought, through art magic,* he caused such foul weather of winds, tempests, rain, snow, and hail to be raised, for the annoyance of

* Wals. 365. Hardying, p. 360, says—

........

"The King had nothing but tempest foul, and rain,
As long as he was ay in Wales ground,

Rocks and mists, winds and storms certain,

All men trowed that witches it made that stourde."

66

the King's army, that the King was constrained to return home, having caused his people yet to spoil and burn first a great part of the country.". Strange wonders happened, as men reported, at the nativity of this man, for the same night he was born all his father's horses in the stable were found to stand in blood up to their bellies."*

With a little amplification, and some transposition of dates, these passages justify our poet.

The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes,

Of burning cressets; and, at my birth,

The frame and huge foundation of the earth
Shaked like a coward."

But, while Owen thus boasted of preternatural incidents, he took pains also to impress upon his English friend Hotspur that he was familiar with the arts of gentle life.

"I can speak English, lord, as well as you,

For I was train'd up in the English court;
Where, being but young, I framed to the harp
Many an English ditty, lovely well,
And gave the tongue a helpful ornament ;
A virtue that was never seen in you."

I do not understand why the Welsh chieftain is made to boast of his musical accomplishments (of

Hol. 17, 19, 20, 21. This is all from Walsingham,

p. 367.

which history knows nothing), rather than of the law studies which are recorded by the Chronicler. Perhaps it was to introduce Hotspur's disclaimer of such effeminate practices.

I had rather be a kitten, and cry-mew,

Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers.
I'd rather hear a brazen canstick turn'd,

Or a dry wheel grate on the axle-tree ;
And that would set my teeth nothing on edge,
Nothing so much as mincing poetry;

'Tis like the forc'd gait of a shuffling nag.”

I know not whether it is accidentally or by design that these unpoetical sentiments are put into stiff and prosaic verse. I shall quote no more of such heresies: what follows is very characteristic of Shakspeare's Hotspur :

I'll give thrice so much land

To any well-deserving friend;

But, in the way of bargain, mark ye me,

I'll cavil on the ninth part of a hair.”

The contrast in regard to music should have been made between the two Henries, since Henry Plantagenet was undoubtedly a musician.* Perhaps the character of the Welsh hero is less clearly developed than either of the others. But Campbell has forgotten that this mountain chief was bred in Lincoln's Inn, and followed the court of Richard the * Elmham, as noted in p. 5.