Go, bear them hence; I will not hear them speak.
Oxf. For my part, I'll not trouble thee with words.
Som. Nor I, but stoop with patience to my fortune.
[Exeunt OxF. and Soм. guarded.

Q. Mar. So part we sadly in this troublous world,
To meet with joy in sweet Jerusalem.

K. Edw. Is proclamation made, that who finds Edward Shall have a high reward, and he his life?

Glo. It is; and, lo, where youthful Edward comes.
Enter Soldiers, with Prince EDWARD.

K. Edw. Bring forth the gallant, let us hear him speak :
What! can so young a thorn begin to prick?
Edward, what satisfaction canst thou make,
For bearing arms, for stirring up my subjects,
And all the trouble thou hast turn'd me to?

Prince. Speak like a subject, proud ambitious York! Suppose, that I am now my father's mouth; Resign thy chair, and, where I stand, kneel thou, Whilst I propose the self-same words to thee, Which, traitor, thou wouldst have me answer to.

Q. Mar. Ah, that thy father had been so resolv'd! Glo. That you might still have worn the petticoat, And ne'er have stol'n the breech from Lancaster.

Prince. Let Esop fable in a winter's night;"
His currish riddles sort not with this place.

Glo. By heaven, brat, I'll plague you for that word.
Q. Mar. Ay, thou wast born to be a plague to men.
Glo. For God's sake, take away this captive scold.
Prin. Nay, take away this scolding crook-back rather.
K. Edw. Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm your tongue.
Clar. Untutor'd lad, thou art too malapert.

Prince. I know my duty, you are all undutiful :
Lascivious Edward,-and thou perjur'd George,-
And thou mis-shapen Dick,-I tell ye all,

I am your better, traitors as ye are ;

And thou usurp'st my father's right and mine.

K. Edw. Take that, the likeness of this railer here."

[Stabs him.

Glo. Sprawl'st thou ? take that, to end thy agony.

[GLO. stabs him.

Clar. And there's for twitting me with perjury.

[CLAR. stabs him.

[5] The Prince calls Richard, for his crookedness, Esop; and the poet, following mature, makes Richard highly incensed at the reproach. JOHNSON. [6] Thou that resemblest thy railing mother. JOHNSON

Q. Mar. Oh, kill me too!
Glo. Marry, and shall.
[Offers to kill her.
K. Edw. Hold, Richard, hold, for we have done too much.
Glo. Why should she live, to fill the world with words?
K. Edw. What! doth she swoon? use means for her

recovery.

Glo. Clarence, excuse me to the king my brother; I'll hence to London on a serious matter:

Ere ye come there, be sure to hear some news

Clar. What? what?

Glo. The Tower, the Tower!

[Exit.

Q. Mar. O, Ned, sweet Ned! speak to thy mother, bov!

Canst thou not speak!-O traitors! murderers !

They, that stabb'd Cæsar, shed no blood at all,
Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame,
If this foul deed were by, to equal it.

-

He was a man; this, in respect, a child;
And men ne'er spend their fury on a child.
What's worse than murderer, that I may name it?
No, no; my heart will burst, an if I speak :-
And I will speak, that so my heart may burst.
Butchers and villains, bloody cannibals!
How sweet a plant have you untimely cropp'd!
You have no children, butchers! if

you had,
The thought of them would have stirr'd up remorse :
But, if you ever chance to have a child,

Look in his youth to have him so cut off,

As, deathsmen! you have rid this sweet young prince!?
K. Edw. Away with her; go, bear her hence perforce.
Q. Mar. Nay, never bear me hence, despatch me here ;.
Here sheath thy sword, I'll pardon thee my death:
What wilt thou not ?-then, Clarence, do it thou.
Clar. By heaven, I will not do thee so much ease.
Q. Mar. Good Clarence, do; sweet Clarence, do thou
do it.

Clar. Didst thou not hear me swear, I would not do it? Q. Mar. Ay, but thou usest to forswear thyself; 'Twas sin before, but now 'tis charity.

What! wilt thou not? where is that devil's butcher,
Hard favour'd Richard? Richard, where art thou?

[7] The condition of this warlike queen would move compassion, could it be for gotten that she gave York, to wipe his eyes in his captivity, a handkerchief stained with his young child's blood. JOHNSON.--But surely it does move our compassion, though that be not forgotten. When we see any of our fellow-creatures involved in deep distress, from a just and tender cause, we attend only to their present sufferings, and not to their former crimes. M. MASON.

Thou art not here: Murder is thy alms-deed;
Petitioners for blood thou ne'er put'st back.

K. Edw. Away, I say; I charge ye, bear her hence.
Q. Mar. So come to you, and yours, as to this prince! [Ex.
K. Edw. Where's Richard gone ?

Cla. To London, all in post; and, as I guess,
To make a bloody supper in the Tower.

K. Edw. He's sudden, if a thing comes in his head.
Now march we hence: discharge the common sor
With pay and thanks, and let's away to London,
And see our gentle queen how well she fares ;
By this, I hope, she hath a son for me.

SCENE VI.

[Exeunt.

London. A Room in the Tower. King HENRY is discovered sitting with a book in his Hand, the Lieutenant attending. Enter GLOSTer.

Glo. Good day, my lord! What, at your book so hard? K. Hen. Ay, my good lord: my lord, I should say rather ; 'Tis sin to flatter, good was little better:

Good Gloster, and good devil, were alike,

And both preposterous; therefore, not good lord.

Glo. Sirrah, leave us to ourselves: we must confer. [Exit Lieutenant. K. Hen. So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf: So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece, And next his throat unto the butcher's knife.What scene of death hath Roscius now to act?

Glo. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.

K. Hen. The bird, that hath been limed in a bush,
With trembling wings misdoubteth every bush :
And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird,

Have now the fatal object in my eye,

Where my poor young was lim'd, was caught, and kill'd. Glo. Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete,

That taught his son the office of a fowl?

And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd.
K. Hen. I, Dædalus; my poor boy, Icarus;
Thy father, Minos, that denied our course;
The sun, that sear'd the wings of my sweet boy,
Thy brother Edward; and thyself, the sea,
Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life.
Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words!
VOL. VI.

23

My breast can better brook thy dagger's point,
Than can my ears that tragic history.-
But wherefore dost thou come? is't for my life?
Glo. Think'st thou, I am an executioner?

K. Hen. A persecutor, I am sure, thou art;
If murdering innocents be executing,

Why, then thou art an executioner.

Glo. Thy son I kill'd for his presumption.

K. Hen. Hadst thou been kill'd, when first thou didst presume,

Thou hadst not liv'd to kill a son of mine.

And thus I prophecy,-that many a thousand,
Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear;9

And many an old man's sigh, and many a widow's,
And many an orphan's water-standing eye,-
Men for their sons, wives for their husbands' fate,
And orphans for their parents' timeless death,-
Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born.
The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil sign;
The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time;

Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempests shook down trees;
The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top,
And chattering pies, in dismal discords sung.
Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain,
And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope;
To wit, an indigest deformed lump,

Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree.

Teeth hadst thou in thy head, when thou wast born,
To signify,-thou cam'st to bite the world:

And, if the rest be true which I have heard,

Thou cam'st

Glo. I'll hear no more ;-Die, prophet, in thy speech;

For this, amongst the rest, was I ordain'd.

[Stabs him.

K. Hen. Ay, and for much more slaughter after this.

O God! forgive my sins, and pardon thee!

[Dies.

Glo. What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster Sink in the ground? I thought it would have mounted See, how my sword weeps for the poor king's death' O, may such purple tears be always shed From those that wish the downfall of our house!If any spark of life be yet remaining,

[9] Who suspect no part of what my fears presage.

JOHNSON.

Down, down to hell; and say-I sent thee thither,
[Stabs him agai

I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear.-
Indeed, 'tis true, that Henry told me of;
For I have often heard my mother say,
I came into the world with my legs forward:
Had I not reason, think ye, to make haste,
And seek their ruin that usurp'd our right?
The midwife wonder'd; and the women cry'd,
O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!
And so I was; which plainly signified,-
That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog.
Then, since the heavens have shap'd my body so,
Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it.
I have no brother, I am like no brother:

And this word-love, which greybeards call divine,
Be resident in men like one another,

And not in me; I am myself alone.-
Clarence, beware; thou keep'st me from the light;
But I will sort a pitchy day for thee :'
For I will buzz abroad such prophecies,
That Edward shall be fearful of his life;

And then, to purge his fear, I'll be thy death.
King Henry, and the prince his son, are gone :
Clarence, thy turn is next, and then the rest;
Counting myself but bad, till I be best.-
I'll throw thy body in another room,
And triumph, Henry, in thy day of doom.

SCENE VII.

[Exit.

The same. A Room in the Palace. King EDWARD is discovered sitting on his Throne; Queen ELIZABETH with the infant Prince, CLARENCE, GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and others, near him.

K. Edw. Once more we sit in England's royal throne. Re-purchas'd with the blood of enemies.

What valiant foe-men, like to autumn's corn,
Have we mow'd down, in tops of all their pride?
Three dukes of Somerset, threefold renown'd

For hardy and undoubted champions :

Two Cliffords, as the father and the son,
And two Northumberlands; two braver men

Ne'er spurr'd their coursers at the trumpet's sound:

[1] But I will choose out an hour whose gioom shall be as fatal to you. To sort is to select.

STEEVENS.