* To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind * Still ride in triumph over all mischance.

* Be plain, queen Margaret, and tell thy grief; * It shall be eased, if France can yield relief.

*

Q. Mar. Those gracious words revive my drooping
thoughts,

*And give my tongue-tied sorrows leave to speak.
*Now, therefore, be it known to noble Lewis,
*That Henry, sole possessor of my love,

* Is, of a king, become a banished man,
*And forced to live in Scotland a forlorn ;
*While proud, ambitious Edward, duke of York,
*Usurps the regal title, and the seat

* Of England's true, anointed, lawful king.
*This is the cause, that I, poor Margaret,

* With this my son, prince Edward, Henry's heir, Am come to crave thy just and lawful aid; 'And, if thou fail us, all our hope is done Scotland hath will to help, but cannot help; * Our people and our peers are both misled, * Our treasure seized, our soldiers put to flight, * And, as thou seest, ourselves in heavy plight. *K. Lew. Renowned queen, with patience calm the storm,

* While we bethink a means to break it off.

* Q. Mar. The more we stay, the stronger grows our

foe.

*K. Lew. The more I stay, the more I'll succor thee.

* Q. Mar. O, but impatience waiteth on true sorrow: * And see, where comes the breeder of my sorrow.

Enter WARWICK,1 attended.

K. Lew. What's he, approacheth boldly to our presence ?

1 This nobleman's embassy and commission, the insult he receives by the king's hasty marriage, and his consequent resolution to avenge it, with the capture, imprisonment, and escape of the king, Shakspeare found in Hall and Holinshed; but later as well as earlier writers of better au

Q. Mar. Our earl of Warwick, Edward's greatest

friend.

K. Lew. Welcome, brave Warwick! What brings thee to France ?

[Descending from his state, Queen MARGARET rises.

* Q. Mar. Ay, now begins a second storm to rise ; *For this is he that moves both wind and tide.

War. From worthy Edward, king of Albion,
My lord and sovereign, and thy vowed friend,
I come,—in kindness, and unfeigned love,-
First, to do greetings to thy royal person;
And, then, to crave a league of amity;
And, lastly, to confirm that amity

With nuptial knot, if thou vouchsafe to grant
That virtuous lady Bona, thy fair sister,

To England's king in lawful marriage.

Q. Mar. If that go forward, Henry's hope is done. War. And, gracious madam, [To BONA.] in our king's behalf,

• I am commanded, with your leave and favor,
Humbly to kiss your hand, and with my tongue
To tell the passion of my sovereign's heart;
Where fame, late entering at his heedful ears,
Hath placed thy beauty's image, and thy virtue.

Q. Mar. King Lewis, and lady Bona, hear me speak,

'Before you answer Warwick. His demand
*Springs not from Edward's well-meant, honest love,
*But from deceit, bred by necessity;

*For how can tyrants safely govern home,
* Unless abroad they purchase great alliance?
* To prove him tyrant, this reason may suffice,-

thority incline us to discredit the whole; and to refer the rupture between the king and his political creator to other causes. The king was privately married to the lady Elizabeth Widville, in 1463, and in February, 1465, Warwick actually stood sponsor to the princess Elizabeth, their first child. It should seem from the Annales of W. of Wyrcester, that no open rupture had taken place between the king and Warwick, up to the beginning of November, 1468; at least, nothing appears to the contrary in that historian, whose work is, unfortunately, defective from that period.

* That Henry liveth still; but were he dead, *Yet here prince Edward stands, king Henry's son. * Look therefore, Lewis, that by this league and marriage,

*Thou draw not on thy danger and dishonor; *For though usurpers sway the rule awhile,

* Yet Heavens are just, and time suppresseth wrongs. War. Injurious Margaret!

Prince.

And why not queen? War. Because thy father Henry did usurp; And thou no more art prince, than she is queen. Oxf. Then Warwick disannuls great John of Gaunt, Which did subdue the greatest part of Spain; And, after John of Gaunt, Henry the Fourth, • Whose wisdom was a mirror to the wisest ; And, after that wise prince, Henry the Fifth, Who by his prowess conquered all France: From these our Henry lineally descends.

War. Oxford, how haps it, in this smooth discourse, You told not, how Henry the Sixth hath lost. All that which Henry the Fifth had gotten?

Methinks these peers of France should smile at that. But for the rest,-you tell a pedigree

Of threescore and two years; a silly time

To make prescription for a kingdom's worth.

6

Oxf. Why, Warwick, canst thou speak against thy liege,

• Whom thou obey'dst thirty and six years,

And not bewray thy treason with a blush?
War. Can Oxford, that did ever fence the right,
Now buckler falsehood with a pedigree?

For shame, leave Henry, and call Edward king.

6

Oxf. Call him my king, by whose injurious doom 'My elder brother, the lord Aubrey Vere,

Was done to death? and more than so, my father,
Even in the downfall of his mellowed years,

• When nature brought him to the door of death?
No, Warwick, no; while life upholds this arm,
This arm upholds the house of Lancaster

War. And I the house of York.

K. Lew. Queen Margaret, prince Edward, and

Oxford,

'Vouchsafe, at our request, to stand aside,

'While I use further conference with Warwick.

* Q. Mar. Heaven grant that Warwick's words bewitch him not!

[Retiring with the Prince and Oxford. • K. Lew. Now, Warwick, tell me, even upon thy conscience,

Is Edward your true king? for I were loath • To link with him that were not lawful chosen. War. Thereon I pawn my credit and mine honor. K. Lew. But is he gracious in the people's eye? War. The more, that Henry was unfortunate.' K. Lew. Then further,—all dissembling set aside,

6

• Tell me for truth the measure of his love

• Unto our sister Bona.

War.

Such it seems,

As may beseem a monarch like himself.

Myself have often heard him say, and swear,-
That this his love was an eternal plant;

Whereof the root was fixed in virtue's ground,
The leaves and fruit maintained with beauty's sun;
Exempt from envy, but not from disdain,

Unless the lady Bona quit his pain.

K. Lew. Now, sister, let us hear your firm resolve. Bona. Your grant, or your denial, shall be mine; Yet I confess, [To WAR.] that often ere this day, When I have heard your king's desert recounted, Mine ear hath tempted judgment to desire.

* K. Lew. Then, Warwick, thus-Our sister shall be Edward's;

*And now forthwith shall articles be drawn *Touching the jointure that your king must make, * Which with her dowry shall be counterpoised.Draw near, queen Margaret; and be a witness, That Bona shall be wife to the English king. Prince. To Edward, but not to the English king.

1 He means, "that Henry was unsuccessful in war."

*

* Q. Mar. Deceitful Warwick! it was thy device By this alliance to make void my suit;

* Before thy coming Lewis was Henry's friend.

*K. Lew. And still is friend to him and Margaret;

* But if your title to the crown be weak,— * As may appear by Edward's good success,*Then 'tis but reason that I be released *From giving aid, which late I promised. * Yet shall you have all kindness at my hand, * That your estate requires, and mine can yield. War. Henry now lives in Scotland, at his ease; Where having nothing, nothing he can lose. And as for you yourself, our quondam queen,— You have a father able to maintain you;1And better 'twere, you troubled him than France. *Q. Mar. Peace, impudent and shameless Warwick, peace;

*

3

1

*Proud setter-up and puller-down of kings! 2 * I will not hence, till with my talk and tears, *Both full of truth, I make king Lewis behold Thy sly conveyance, and thy lord's false love; *For both of you are birds of self-same feather. [A horn sounded within. K. Lew. Warwick, this is some post to us, or thee.

Enter a Messenger.

you,

Mess. My lord ambassador, these letters are for Sent from your brother, marquis Montague. These from our king unto your majesty.And, madam, these for you; from whom I know not. [TO MARGARET. They all read their letters. Oxf. I like it well, that our fair queen and mistress Smiles at her news, while Warwick frowns at his.

1 Johnson is inclined to think this ironical. The poverty of Margaret's father was a frequent topic of reproach.

2 The queen here applies to Warwick the very words that king Edward, p. 469, addresses to the Deity. It seems doubtful whether these words in the former instance are not in the old play addressed to Warwick also.

3 Conveyance is used for any crafty artifice. The word has already been explained,