Buck. Nor no one here; for curses never pass

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The lips of those that breathe them in the air. Q. Mar. I will not think but they ascend the sky, And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace. [Aside to Buck.] O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog!

Look, when he fawns, he bites; and when he bites,

His venom tooth will rankle to the death.

Have not to do with him, beware of him;

290

Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him,
And all their ministers attend on him.

Glou. What doth she say, my Lord of Buckingham?
Buck. Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord. 296
Q. Mar. What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle
counsel,

And soothe the devil that I warn thee from?
O, but remember this another day,

When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow,

And say poor Margaret was a prophetess !
Live each of you the subjects to his hate,

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And he to yours, and all of you to God's!

Exit.

Buck. My hair doth stand on end to hear her curses.
Riv. And so doth mine. I muse why she's at liberty.
Glou. I cannot blame her. By God's holy mother, 306
She hath had too much wrong; and I repent
My part thereof that I have done to her.

Q. Eliz. I never did her any, to my knowledge.

Glou. Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong. 310

I was too hot to do somebody good,
That is too cold in thinking of it now.
Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid;
He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains.

God pardon them that are the cause thereof! 315 Riv. A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion,

To pray for them that have done scath to us.

Glou. So do I ever, being well advis'd.

Speaks to himself. For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myself.

Enter Catesby.

320

Cates. Madam, his Majesty doth call for you;
And for your Grace; and yours, my noble lord.
Lords, will you go with me?

Q. Eliz. Catesby, I come.
Riv. We wait upon your Grace.

Exeunt all but Gloucester.

Glou. I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.
The secret mischiefs that I set abroach
I lay unto the grievous charge of others.
Clarence, who I, indeed, have cast in darkness,
I do beweep to many simple gulls,

325

Namely, to Derby, Hastings, Buckingham;
And tell them 'tis the Queen and her allies
That stir the King against the Duke my brother.
Now, they believe it; and withal whet me

330

To be reveng'd on Rivers, Dorset, Grey.

But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil;
And thus I clothe my naked villainy

335

With odd old ends stolen forth of holy writ,
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

Enter two Murderers.

But, soft! here come my executioners.

How now, my hardy, stout, resolved mates! 340
Are you now going to dispatch this thing?

1. Murd. We are, my lord; and come to have the warrant,

That we may be admitted where he is.

Glou. Well thought upon; I have it here about me.
[Gives the warrant.]

When you have done, repair to Crosby Place. 345
But, sirs, be sudden in the execution,
Withal obdurate, do not hear him plead;
For Clarence is well-spoken, and perhaps

May move your hearts to pity, if you mark him.

1. Murd. Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand to

prate.

Talkers are no good doers; be assur'd

We go to use our hands and not our tongues.

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Glou. Your eyes drop millstones, when fools' eyes fall

tears.

I like you, lads; about your business straight.

Enter Clarence and Keeper.

Keep. Why looks your Grace so heavily to-day?
Clar. O, I have pass'd a miserable night,

So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,
That, as I am a Christian faithful man,
I would not spend another such a night,
Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days,
So full of dismal terror was the time.

Keep. What was your dream, my lord? I pray you,

tell me.

Clar. Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower, And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy;

10

And, in my company, my brother Gloucester,
Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
Upon the hatches. There we look'd toward

England,

And cited up a thousand heavy times,

During the wars of York and Lancaster
That had befallen us. As we pac'd along
Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,

15

Methought that Gloucester stumbled, and, in
falling,

Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard,
Into the tumbling billows of the main.

20

O Lord! methought, what pain it was to drown!
What dreadful noise of water in mine ears!
What sights of ugly death within mine eyes!
Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon;
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,

All scatt'red in the bottom of the sea.

25

Some lay in dead men's skulls; and, in the holes
Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept, 30
As 'twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems,
That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep,
And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatt'red by.
Keep. Had you such leisure in the time of death
To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?
Clar. Methought I had. And often did I strive

To yield the ghost; but still the envious flood
Stopp'd in my soul, and would not let it forth
To find the empty, vast, and wandering air ;
But smother'd it within my panting bulk,

Who almost burst to belch it in the sea.
Keep. Awak'd you not in this sore agony?
Clar. No, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life.
O, then began the tempest to my soul.

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