But now, two mirrors of his princely femblance
Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death";
And I for comfort have but one falfe glafs,
That grieves me when I fee my shame in him.
Thou art a widow; yet thou art a mother,
And haft the comfort of thy children left thee:
But death hath fnatch'd my husband from mine arms,
And pluck'd two crutches from my feeble hands,
Clarence, and Edward. O, what cause have I,
(Thine being but a moiety of my grief,)
To over-go thy plaints, and drown thy cries?
Son. Ah, aunt! you wept not for our father's death;
How can we aid you with our kindred tears?
Daugh. Our fatherless distress was left unmoan'd,
Your widow-dolour likewise be unwept!

2. Eliz. Give me no help in lamentation,

I am not barren to bring forth laments:
All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
That I, being govern'd by the watry moon',
May fend forth plenteous tears to drown the world!
Ah, for my husband, for my dear lord Edward!

Chil. Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clarence! Dutch. Alas, for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!

2. Eliz. What ftay had I, but Edward? and he's gone. Chil. What ftay had we, but Clarence? and he's gone. Dutch. What flays had I, but they? and they are gone.

9 But now, two mirrors of bis princely femblance

Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death;] So, in our authour's Rape of Lucrece:

"Poor broken glass, I often did behold

In thy fweet femblance my old age new born; "But now, that fair fresh mirror, dim and old, "Shows me a bare-bon'd death by time out-worn." Again, in his Third Sonnet:

"Thou art thy mother's glafs," &c. MALONE.

1-being govern'd by the watry moon,] That I may live hereafter under the influence of the moon, which governs the tides, and by the help of that influence drown the world. The introduction of the moon is not very natural. JOHNSON.

2. Eliz.

Q. Eliz. Was never widow, had fo dear a lofs.
Chil. Were never orphans, had fo dear a loss.
Dutch. Was never mother, had fo dear a lofs.
Alas! I am the mother of thefe griefs;
Their woes are parcell'd, mine are general.
She for an Edward weeps, and fo do I;
I for a Clarence weep, fo doth not she:
These babes for Clarence weep, and fo do I2:
I for an Edward weep, fo do not they 3:-
Alas! you three, on me, threefold diftrefs'd,

and fo do I;] So the quarto. The variation of the folio is remarkable. It reads-so do not they. MALONE.

3 I for an Edward weep, Jo do not they :-] The text is here made out partly from the folio and partly from the quarto. In the quarto this and the preceding line ftand thus:

Thefe babes for Clarence weep, and fo do I;

I for an Edward weep, and fo do they.

The end of the fecond line is evidently corrupted. In the Mf. from which the folio was printed, or in a corrected quarto copy, the two lines undoubtedly were right:

These babes for Clarence weep, [and so do I;

I for an Edward weep,] to do NOT they.

But the compofitor's eye palling over two half lines, the paffage was printed thus in the folio, in one line :

Thefe babes for Clarence weep, fo do not they.

I have stated this matter thus particularly, because it confirms an obfervation that I have more than once had occafion to make in revifing thefe plays; that there is reafon to fufpect that many of the difficulties in our authour's works have arifen from the omiffion of either fingie words, fingle lines, or the latter half of one line with the half of the next: a folution which readers are very flow to admit, and generally confider as chimerical. One week's acquaintance with the bufinefs of the prefs (without those proofs which a collation of the quartos with each other and with the first folio affords) would foon convince them that my fuppofition is not a mere offspring of imagination. In the plays of which there is no authentick copy but the first folio, there is no means of proving fuch omiffions to have happened; but the prefent and other proofs of their having actually happened in the other plays, lay furely a reasonable ground for conjecturing that fimilar errors have happened in thofe pieces of which there is only a fingle ancient copy extant, and entitle fuch conjectures to indulgence. See Vol. II. p. 4. n. 4; Vol. IV. p. 322, n.1; Vol. V. p. 36, n. 5, and p. 228, n. 8; Vol. VI. p. 202, n. 5; and Vol. VII. p. 216, n. 4, and p. 555, n. 9. MALONE.

Pour

Pour all your tears; I am your forrow's nurse,
And I will pamper it with lamentations.

Dor. Comfort, dear mother; God is much difpleas'd,
That you take with unthankfulness his doing:
In common wordly things, 'tis call'd-ungrateful,
With dull unwillingness to repay a debt,
Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
Much more, to be thus oppofite with heaven",
For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

Riv. Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother, Of the young prince your fon : fend ftraight for him, Let him be crown'd; in him your comfort lives: Drown defperate forrow in dead Edward's grave, And plant your joys in living Edward's throne.

Enter GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, RATCLIFF, and Others.

Glo. Sifter, have comfort: all of us have caufe
To wail the dimming of our fhining star;

But none can cure their harms by wailing them.-
Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy,

I did not fee your grace :-Humbly on my knee
I crave your blefling.

Dutch. God bless thee; and put meeknefs in thy breaft, Love, charity, obedience, and true duty!

Glo. Amen; and make me die a good old man!—

That is the butt-end of a mother's bleffing;

I marvel, that her grace did leave it out.

[Afide.

Buck. You cloudy princes, and heart-forrowing peers, That bear this mutual heavy load of moan,

Now cheer each other in each other's love:

Though we have spent our harvest of this king,

We are to reap the harvest of his fon.

The broken rancour of your high-fwoln hearts,

4 Comfort, dear mother, &c.] This line and the following eleven lines are found only in the folio. MALONE.

5-to be thus oppofite with beaven,] This was the phrafeology of the time. See Vol. IV. p. 57, n. 5. MALONE.

But

But lately splinted, knit, and join'd together,
Muft gently be preferv'd, cherish'd, and kept:
Me feemeth good, that, with fome little train,
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fetch'd
Hither to London, to be crown'd our king.

Riv. Why with fome little train, my lord of Buckingham?

Buck. Marry, my lord, left, by a multitude, The new-heal'd wound of malice should break out; Which would be fo much the more dangerous, By how much the eftate is green, and yet ungovern'd: Where every horse bears his commanding rein, And may direct his courfe as please himself, . As well the fear of harm, as harm apparent, In my opinon, ought to be prevented.

Glo. I hope, the king made peace with all of us; And the compact is firm, and true, in me.

Riv. And fo in me; and fo, I think, in all: Yet, fince it is but green, it should be put

To no apparent likelihood of breach,

Which, haply, by much company might be urg'd:
Therefore I fay, with noble Buckingham,

That it is meet fo few fhould fetch the prince.

Haft. And fo fay I.

The broken sancour of your bigb-fwoln bearts,

But lately fplinted, knit, and join'd together,

Must be preferv'd, &c.] Their broken rancour recently splinted and knit, the poet confiders as a new league of amity and concord; and this it is that Buckingham exhorts them to preferve. MALONE.

6 Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fetch'd-] Edward the young prince, in his father's life-time, and at his demife, kept bis houshold at Ludlow, as prince of Wales; under the governance of Antony Woodville, earl of Rivers, his uncle by the mother's fide. The intention of his being fent thither was to fee juftice done in the Marches; and, by the authority of his prefence, to reftrain the Welshmen, who were wild, diffolute, and ill-difpofed, from their accustomed murders and outrages. Vid. Hall, Holinshed, &c. THEOBALD.

7 Why with &c.] This line and the following feventeen lines are found only in the folio. MALONE.

$ Riv. And so in me;] This speech (as a modern editor has observed) feems rather to belong to Haftings, who was of the duke of Glofter's party, The next speech might be given to Stanley.

MALONE

Glo.

Glo. Then be it fo; and go we to determine
Who they fhall be that straight shall poft to Ludlow.
Madam, and you my mother, will you go
To give your cenfures in this weighty bufinefs?

[Exeunt all but BUCKINGHAM and GLOSTER.
Buck. My lord, whoever journeys to the prince,
For God's fake, let not us two stay at home:
For, by the way, I'll fort occafion,

As index to the story we late talk'd of',

To part the queen's proud kindred from the prince.
Glo. My other felf, my counfel's confiftory,

My oracle, my prophet!-My dear coufin,
I, as a child, will go by thy direction.

Towards Ludlow then, for we'll not ftay behind.

SCENE III.

The fame. A Street.

Enter two Citizens, meeting.

[Exeunt.

1. Cit. Good morrow, neighbour: Whither away fo faft?

2. Cit. I promise you, I scarcely know myself:

Hear you the news abroad?

1. Cit. Yes, that the king is dead.

2. Cit. Ill news, by'r lady; feldom comes the better3: I fear, I fear, 'twill prove a giddy world.

9

Enter

your cenfures-] To cenfure formerly meant to deliver an opinion. So, in Marius and Sylla, 1594:

"Cinna affirms the fenate's cenfure juft,

"And faith, let Marius lead the legions forth." STEEVENS. See Vol. I. p. 113, n. 8. MALONE.

As index to the ftory-] i. e. preparatory,-by way of prelude. So, in Hamlet:

"That ftorms fo loud, and thunders in the index." See the note on that paffage. MALONE.

2 Towards Ludlow then,] The folio here and a few lines higher, for Ludlow reads-London. Few of our authour's plays ftand more in need of the affistance furnished by a collation with the quartos, than that before us. MALONE.

3-feldom comes the better :] A proverbial faying, taken notice of in The English Courtier and Country Gentleman, quarto, bl. l. 1586,