PERSONS REPRESENTED.

SIR WILLIAM CATESBY. SIR JAMES TYRREL.
SIR JAMES BLOUNT. SIR WALTER HERBERT.
SIR ROBERT BRAKENBURY, Lieutenant of the

CHRISTOPHER URSWICK, a Priest. Another Priest.
Lord Mayor of London. Sheriff of Wiltshire.

ELIZABETH, Queen of King Edward IV.
DUCHESS of YORK, Mother to King Edward IV.
MARGARET, Widow of King Henry VI.
LADY ANNE, Widow of Edward, Prince of Wales,
Clarence, and Gloster.
Son to King Henry VI.; afterwards married to
the Duke of Gloster.

A young Daughter of Clarence.

Lords, and other Attendants, two Gentlemen, a Pursuivant, Scrivener, Citizens, Murderers, Messengers, Ghosts, Soldiers, &c."

As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up;

SCENE I. London. A Street. Enter GLOSTER. About a prophecy, which says-that G

1 The cognizance of Edward IV. was a sun, in memory of the three suns which are said to have appeared at the battle which he gained over the Lancastrians at Mortimer's Cross.

2 Made glorious by his manly chivalry,
With bruised arms and wreaths of victory.'
Rape of Lucrece.

4 i. e. steeds caparisoned or clothed in the trappings 8 This is from Holinshed. Philip de Comines says of war. The word is properly barded, from equus bar-that the English at that time were never unfurnished datus, Latin of the middle ages.

5 'Is the warlike sound of drum and trump turned to the soft noise of lyre and lute? The neighing of barbed steeds, whose loudness filled the air with terror, and whose breaths dimmed the sun with smoke, converted to delicate tunes and amorous glances.--Lyly's Alex ander and Campaspe, 1581. There is a passage in the

But the queen's kindred, and night-walking heralds
That trudge betwixt the king and Mistress Shore
Heard you not, what an humble suppliant
Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?
Glo. Humbly complaining to her deity
Got my lord chamberlain his liberty.
I'll tell you what,-I think, it is our way,
If we will keep in favour with the king,
To be her men, and wear her livery:
The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,1
Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen,
Are mighty gossips in this monarchy.

Brak. I beseech your graces both to pardon me
His majesty hath straitly given in charge,
That no man shall have private conference,
Of what degree soever with his brother.

Gio. Even so? an please your worship, Braken-
bury,

You may partake of any thing we say:
We speak no treason, man;-We say, the king
Is wise and virtuous; and his noble queen
Well struck in years;2 fair, and not jealous :
We say, that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
A cherry lip,

A bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue;
And that the queen's kindred are made gentlefolks:
How say you, sir? can you deny all this?
Brak. With this, my lord, myself have nought
to do.

Glo. Naught to do with mistress Shore? I tell
thee, fellow,

He that doth naught with her, excepting one,
Were best to do it secretly, alone.

Brak. What one, my lord?

Glo. Her husband, knave :-Would'st thou tray me?

Bruk. I beseech your grace to pardon me; withal,

;

Hast.

He is.

Glo. Go you before, and I will follow you.
[Exit HASTINGS.

He cannot live, I hope; and must not die
Till George be pack'd with posthorse up to heaven.
I'll in, to urge his hatred more to Clarence,
With lies well steel'd with weighty arguments;
And, if I fail not in my deep intent,
Clarence hath not another day to live:
Which done, God take King Edward to his mercy,

And leave the world for me to bustle in!
For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter:*
What though I kill'd her husband, and her father?
The readiest way to make the wench amends,
Is-to become her husband, and her father:
The which will I; not all so much for love,
As for another secret close intent,

By marrying her, which I must reach unto.
be-But yet I run before my horse to market:
Clarence still breathes; Edward still lives, and
reigns;

and,

Forbear your conference with the noble duke.
Clar. We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and
will obey.3

Glo. We are the queen's abjects, and must obey.
Brother, farewell: I will unto the king;
And whatsoever you will employ me in,-
Were it, to call king Edward's widow-sister,-
I will perform it to enfranchise you.
Mean time, this deep disgrace in brotherhood,
Touches me deeper than you can imagine.

Clar. I know it pleaseth neither of us well.
Glo. Well, your imprisonment shall not be long;
I will deliver you, or else lie for you :*
Mean time, have patience.
Clar.

I must perforce; farewell.
[Exeunt CLARENCE, BRAKENBURY, and
Guard.

Glo. Go, tread the path that thou shalt ne'er re

But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks,
That were the cause of my imprisonment.

1 The Queen and Shore.

When they are gone, then must I count my gains.

[Exit.

SCENE II. The same. Another Street. Enter the Corpse of KING HENRY THE SIXTH, borne in an open Coffin, Gentlemen bearing Halberds, to guard it; and LADY ANNE as mourner.

Anne. Set down, set down your honourable
load,-

If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,-
Whilst I a while obsequiously lament
The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster-
Poor keycold figure of a holy king!
Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster!
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood!
Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost,
To hear the lamentations of
poor Anne,
Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughter'd son,
Stabb'd by the self-same hand that made these

I

wounds!

Lo, in these windows, that let forth thy life,
pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes:-
O, cursed be the hand that made these holes!
Cursed the heart, that had the heart to do it!
Cursed the blood, that let this blood from hence!
More direful hap betide that hated wretch,
That makes us wretched by the death of thee,
Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,
Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives!
If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Whose ugly and unnatural aspect

To lie signified anciently to reside, or remain in a place,
as appears by many instances in these volumes.
6 A mew was a place in which falcons, were kept;

2 This odd expression was preceded by others and being confined therein, while moulting, was metaequally singular, expressing what we now call' an ad-phorically used for any close place or places of confine ment. The verb to mew was formed from the substan tive.

vanced age.'

3 This and the three preceding speeches were probably all designed for prose. It is at any rate impossible that this line could have been intended for metre.

4 i. e. the lowest of her subjects. This substantive is found in Psalm xxxv. 15:- Yea the very abjects came together against me unawares, making mouths at me, and ceased not.'

5 He means, or else be imprisoned in your stead.'

7 Lady Anne, the betrothed widow of Edward prince of Wales. See King Henry VI. Part III 8 Funereal.

9 A key, on account of the coldness of the metal of which it is composed, was often employed to stop any slight bleeding. The epithet is common to many old writers.

May fright the hopeful mother at the view;
And that be heir to his unhappiness!!
If ever he have wife, let her be made
More miserable by the death of him,

Than I am made by my young lord, and thee!-
Come, now, toward Chertsey with your holy load,
Taken from Paul's to be interred there;
And, still as you are weary of the weight,
Rest you, whilst I lament King Henry's corpse.
(The Bearers take up the Corpse, and advance.
Enter GLOSTER.

Glo. Stay you, that bear the corse, and set it

down.

Anne. What black magician conjures up this fiend,

To stop devoted charitable deeds?

Glo. Villains, set down the corse; or, by Saint
Paul,

I'll make a corse of him that disobeys.2

1 Gent. My lord, stand back, and let the coffin pass.

Glo. Unmanner'd dog! stand thou when I com-
mand:

Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,
Or, by Saint Paul, I'll strike thee to my foot,
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

me too,

Thou may'st be damned for that wicked deed!

[The Bearers set down the Coffin., he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.
Glo. The fitter for the King of heaven that hath

Anne. What, do you tremble? are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not; for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.-
Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body,
His soul thou canst not have; therefore, be gone.
Glo. Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.
Anne. Foul devil, for God's sake, hence, and
trouble us not:

For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Fill'd it with cursing cries, and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern3 of thy butcheries ;-
O, gentlemen, see, see! dead Henry's' wounds
Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh!4-
Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity;
For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells;
Thy deed, inhuman and unnatural,
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.-

O God, which this blood mad'st, revenge his death!
O earth, which this blood drink'st, revenge his death!
Either, heaven, with lightning strike the murderer
dead,

Or, earth, gape open wide, and eat him quick;
As thou dost swallow up this good king's blood,
Which his hell-govern'd arm hath butchered!

Glo. Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.
Anne. Villain, thou know'st no law of God nor

man;

No beast so fierce, but knows some touch of pity.
Glo. But I know none, and therefore am no
beast.

Anne. O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
Glo. More wonderful, when angels are so angry.—
Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these supposed evils, to give me leave,
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

Anne. Vouchsafe, diffus'd' infection of a man,
For these known evils, but to give me leave,
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.
Glo. Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me

have

Some patient leisure to excuse myself.
Anne. Fouler than heart can think thee, thou

canst make

No excuse current, but to hang thyself.

1 i. e. disposition to mischief.

2 I'll make a ghost of him that lets me.'--Hamlet. 3 Example.

4 This is from Holinshed. It is a tradition very generally received, that the murdered body bleeds on the touch of the murderer. This was so much believed Sir Kenelm Digby, that he has endeavoured to explain

him.

Anne. He is in heaven, where thou shalt never

come.

Glo. Let him thank me, that holp to send him
thither;

For he was fitter for that place, than earth.
Anne. And thou unfit for any place but hell.
Glo. Yes, one place else, if you will hear me

name it.

Anne. Some dungeon.

Glo.

Your bed-chamber.

Anne. Il rest betide the chamber where thou

liest!

Glo. So will it, madam, till I lie with you.
Anne. I hope so.

Glo. I know so.-But, gentle Lady Anne,-
To leave this keen encounter of our wits,
And fall somewhat into a slower method;-
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths
Of these Plantagenets, Henry, and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

Anne. Thou wast the cause, and most accurs'd
effect.

Glo. Your beauty was the cause of that effect;
Your beauty, which did haunt me in my sleep,
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.
Anne. If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.
Glo. These eyes could not endure that beauty's

wreck,

You should not blemish it, if I stood by ;
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that; it is my day, my life.

Anne. Black night o'ershade thy day, and death
thy life!

Glo. Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art
both.

Anne. I would I were, to be reveng'd on thee.
Glo. It is a quarrel most unnatural,

To be reveng'd on him that loveth thee.

Anne. It is a quarrel just and reasonable, To be reveng'd on him that kill'd my husband.

Glo. He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband, Did it to help thee to a better husband.

Anne. His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

the reason. The opinion seems to be derived from the ancient Swedes, or northern nations, from whom we descended; for they practised this method of trial in dubious cases. See Pitt's Allas; Sweden, p. 20.

5 Diffus'd anciently signified dark, obscure, strange, uncouth, or confused.

6 i. e. the crime of my brothers. He has just charged the murder of Lady Anne's husband on Edward.

Glo. He lives, that loves you better than he could.
Anne. Name him.

Glo

Anne.

Plantagenet.

Why, that was he.
Glo. The self-same name, but one of better nature.
Anne. Where is he?
Glo.

Here: [She spits at him.]
Why dost thou spit at me
Anne. 'Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake!
Glo. Never came poison from so sweet a place.
Anne. Never hung poison on a fouler toad.
Out of my sight! thou dost infect mine eyes.
Glo. Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.
Anne. 'Would they were basilisks, to strike thee
dead!!

Glo. I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.2
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Sham'd their aspects with store of childish drops:
These eyes, which never shed remorseful3 tear,-
No,-when my father York and Edward wept,
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made,
When black-fac'd Clifford shook his sword at him:
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father's death;

And twenty times made pause, to sob, and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks,
Like trees bedash'd with rain :-in that sad time,
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear ;4
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;

My tongue could never learn sweet soothing word;
But now thy beauty is propos'd my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to
speak. [She looks scornfully at him.
Teach not thy lip such scorn; for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,

Lo! here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword;
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast,
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,

I lay it naked to the deadly stroke,
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

[He lays his breast open; she offers at it with
his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry ;-
But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me.5
Nay, now despatch; 'twas I that stabb'd young
Edward ;--

[She again offers at his breast.
But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on.
[She lets fall the sword.
ake up the sword again, or take up me.
Anne. Arise, dissembler: though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.

Glo. Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.
Anne. I have already.

Glo.
That was in thy rage:
Speak it again, and, even with the word,
This hand, which, for thy love, did kill thy love,
Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

1 See notes on King Henry V. Act v. Sc. 2. ; and King Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2.

2 We have the same expression in Venus and Adonis applied to love :

For I have heard it is a life in death

That laughs and weeps, and all but with a breath.' Pope adopts it:

a living death I bear,

Says Dapperwit, and sunk beside his chair.'

8 Pitiful.

4 Here is an apparent reference to King Henry VI. Part III. Act. ii. Sc. 1.

5 Shakspeare countenances the observation that no woman can ever be offended with the mention of her beauty.

Anne. I would, I knew thy heart.
Glo. 'Tis figur'd in my tongue.
Anne. I fear me, both are false.
Glo. Then never man was true.
Anne. Well, well, put up your sword.
Glo. Say then, my peace is made.
Anne. That shall you know hereafter.
Glo. But shall I live in hope?
Anne. All men, I hope, live so.
Glo. Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
Anne. To take, is not to give.

[She puts on the ring.
Glo. Look, how this ring encompasseth thy finger,
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart;
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted servant may
But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,
Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever.
Anne. What is it?

6 Crosby Place is now Crosby Square, in Bishopsgate Street. This magnificent house was built in 1466, by Sir John Crosby, grocer and woolman. He died in 1475. The ancient hall of this fabric is still remaining, though divided by an additional floor, and encumbered with mo. dern galleries, having been converted into a place of worship for Antinomians, &c. The upper part of it was

Glo. That it may please you leave these sad
designs

To him that hath more cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby-place :
Where-after I have solemnly interr'd,
At Chertsey monast'ry this noble king,
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,-
I will with all expedient" duty see you:
For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you,
Grant me this boon.

Anne. With all my heart; and much it joys me
too,

To see you are become so penitent.-
Tressel, and Berkley, go along with me.
Glo. Bid me farewell.
Anne.
'Tis more than you deserve.
But, since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already."

[Exeunt LADY ANNE, TRESSEL, and
BERKLEY.

Glo. Sirs, take up the corse.

Gent.
Towards Chertsey, noble lord?
Glo. No,to White Friars; there attend my coming.
[Exeunt the rest, with the Corse.
Was ever woman in this humour woo'd?
Was ever woman in this humour won?
I'll have her, but I will not keep her long.
What! I, that kill'd her husband, and his father,
To take her in her heart's extremest hate;
With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,
The bleeding witness of her hatred by;
With God, her conscience, and these bars against
me,

And I no friends to back my suit withal,
But the plain devil, and dissembling looks,
And yet to win her,--all the world to nothing!
Ha!

Hath she forgot already that brave prince,
Edward, her lord, whom I some three months since,
Stabb'd in my angry mood at Tewksbury?"
A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,--
Fram'd in the prodigality of nature,
Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,-
The spacious world cannot again afford:

lately the warehouse of an eminent packer. Sir J.
Crosby's tomb is in the neighbouring church of St. He-
len the Great.

7 i. e. expeditious.

8 Cibber, who altered King Richard III. for the stage, was so thoroughly convinced of the improbability of this scene, that he thought it necessary to make Tressel say:

When future chronicles shall speak of this, They will be thought romance, not history. The embassy under Lord Macartney to China witnessed the representation of a play in a theatre at Tien-sing with a similar incongruous plot.

9 This fixes the exact time of the scene to August, 1471. King Edward, however, is introduced in the se cond act dying. That king died in April, 1483; consequently there is an interval between this and the next act of almost twelve years. Clarence, who is represented in the preceding scene as committed to the Tower before the burial of King Henry VI. was in fact not confined nor put to death till March, 1477-8, seven years afterwards.

And will she yet abase her eyes on me,
That cropp'd the golden prime of this sweet prince,
And made her widow to a woful bed?

On

me,

whose all not equals Edward's moiety?
On me, that halt, and am misshapen thus ?
My dukedom to a beggarly denier,'
I do mistake my person all this while:
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper man."
I'll be at charges for a looking-glass;
And entertain a score or two of tailors,
To study fashions to adorn my body:
Since I am crept in favour with myself,
I will maintain it with some little cost.

[Exit.

But, first, I'll turn yon fellow in his grave;
And then return lamenting to love.-
my
Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,
That I may see my shadow as I pass.
SCENE III. The same. A Room in the Palace.
Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, LORD RIVERS, and
LORD GREY.

Buck. Ay, madam: he desires to make atone

ment

Between the duke of Gloster and your brothers,
And between them and my lord chamberlain ;
And sent to warn them to his royal presence.
Q. Eliz. 'Would all were well!-But that will
never be ;-

I fear, our happiness is at the height.

Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET.

Glo. They do me wrong, and I will not endure
it:-

Who are they, that complain unto the king,
That I, forsooth, am stern, and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his
but lightly,
grace
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.
Because I cannot flatter, and speak fair,
Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,
Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,
I must be held a rancorous enemy.
Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm,
But thus his simple truth must be abus'd

Riv. Have patience, madam; there's no doubt By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?
his majesty

Will soon recover his accustom'd health.

Grey. Inthat you brook it ill, it makes him worse:
Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort,
And cheer his grace with quick and merry words.
Q. EL. If he were dead, what would betide of

me?

Gre. No other harm, but loss of such a lord.
Q. Eliz. The loss of such a lord includes all
harms.

Gry. The heavens have bless'd you with a
goodly son,

To be your comforter when he is gone.

Is

Q. Eliz. Ah, he is young; and his minority
put unto the trust of Richard Gloster,

A man that loves not me, nor none of you.
Riv. Is it concluded, he shall be protector?
Q. Eliz. It is determin'd, not concluded yet:4
But so it must be, if the king miscarry.

Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY.S

Greg. Here come the lords of Buckingham and
Stanley.

Buck. Good time of day unto your royal grace!
Stan. God make your majesty joyful as you have
been!

6

Q. Eliz. The Countess Richmond, good my
lord of Stanley,

To your good prayer will scarcely say-amen.
Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she's your wife,
And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd,
I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

Stan. I do beseech you, either not believe
The envious slanders of her false accusers;
Or, if she be accus'd on true report,

Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds
From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.
Q. Eliz. Saw

Grey. To whom in all this presence speaks your
grace?

When have I injured thee? when done thee wrong?
Glo. To thee, that hast nor honesty, nor grace.
A plague upon you all! His royal grace,—
Or thee?-or thee?-or any of your faction?
Whom God preserve better than you would wish!—
But you must trouble him with lewds complaints.
Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing while,
Q. Eliz. Brother of Gloster, you mistake the

matter:

The king, of his own royal disposition,
And not provok'd by any suitor else;
Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred,
That in your outward action shows itself,
Against my children, brothers, and myself,
Makes him to send that thereby he may gather
The ground of your ill will, and so remove it.

Glo. I cannot tell ;-The world is grown so bad,
That wrens may prey where eagles dare not perch:
There's many a gentle person made a Jack.
Since every Jacki" became a gentleman,

Q. Eliz. Come, come, we know your meaning,
You envy my advancement, and my friends';
brother Gloster;
God grant, we never may have need of you!"
Glo. Meantime, God grants that we have need
of you:

Our brother is imprison'd by your means,
Myself disgrac'd, and the nobility

Held in contempt; while great promotions
Are daily given, to ennoble those

That scarce, some two days since, were worth a
noble.

Q. Eliz. By Him, that rais'd me to this careful height,

From that contented hap which I enjoy'd,

Stanley the king to-day, my lord of I never did incense his majesty

Stan. But now, the duke of Buckingham, and I, Are come from visiting his majesty.

Q. Eliz. What likelihood of his amendment, lords? Buck. Madam, good hope; his grace speaks cheerfully.

Q. Eliz. God grant him health! Did you confer with him?

1 A small coin, the twelfth part of a French sous. 2 Marvellous is here used adverbially. A proper man, in old language, was a well-proportioned one. 3 In for into.

4 Determin'd signifies the final conclusion of the will: concluded, what cannot be altered by reason of some act, consequent on the final judgment.

put for

5 By inadvertence, in the old copies Derby is Stanley. The person meant was Thomas Lord Stanley, lord steward of King Edward the Fourth's household. Bat he was not created earl of Derby, till after the accession of King Henry VII. In the fourth and fifth acts of this play, he is every where called Lord Stanley. 6 Margaret, daughter to John Beaufort, first duke of

An earnest advocate to plead for him.
Against the duke of Clarence, but have been
Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.
My lord, you do me shameful injury,

Glo. You may deny that you were not the cause
Of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment.
Riv. She may, my lord; for-

Glo. She may, Lord Rivers?-why, who knows
not so?