Divinely bent to meditation;

And in no worldly suit would he be mov'd,
To draw him from his holy exercise.

Buck. Return, good Catesby, to the gracious
duke;

Tell him, myself, the mayor and aldermen,
In deep designs, in matter of great moment,
No less importing than our general good,
Are come to have some conference with his grace.
Cate. I'll signify so much unto him straight.

Exit. Buck. Ah, ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward!

He is not lolling on a lewd day-bed,'
But on his knees at meditation;
Not dallying with a brace of courtezans,
But meditating with two deep divines;
Not sleeping, to engross his idle body,
But praying, to enrich his watchful soul:
Happy were England, would this virtuous prince
Take on himself the sovereignty thereof:
But, sure, I fear, we shall ne'er win him to it.
May. Marry, God defend, his grace should say

us nay

Buck. I fear, he will: Here Catesby comes again:

Re-enter CATESBY.

Now, Catesby, what says his grace?

Your state of fortune, and your due of birth,
The lineal glory of your royal house,
To the corruption of a blemish'd stock:
Whilst, in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts
(Which here we waken to our country's good,)
The noble isle doth want her proper limbs ;
Her face defac'd with scars of infamy,
Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants,
And almost shoulder'd' in the swallowing gulf
Of dark forgetfulness and deep oblivion.
Which to recure, we heartily solicit
Your gracious self to take on you the charge
And kingly government of this your land:
Not as protector, steward, substitute,
Or lowly factor for another's gain:
But as successively, from blood to blood,
Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
For this, consorted with the citizens,
Your very worshipful and loving friends,
And by their vehement instigation,
In this just suit come I to move your grace.
Glo. I cannot tell, if to depart in silence,
Or bitterly to speak in your reproof,
If, not to answer,-you might haply think,
Best fitteth my degree or your condition:
Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded
To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty,
Which fondly you would here impose on me;
If to reprove you for this suit of yours,

Cate. He wonders to what end you have assem- So season'd with your faithful love to me,

bled

Such troops of citizens to come to him,
His grace not being warn'd thereof before.
He fears, my lord, you mean no good to him.
Buck. Sorry I am, my noble cousin should
Suspect me, that I mean no good to him:
By heaven, we come to him in perfect love;
And so once more return and tell his grace.

[Exit CATESBY.

When holy and devout religious men
Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence;
So sweet is zealous contemplation.
Enter GLOSTER, in a Gallery above, between two
Bishops. CATESBY returns.

May. See, where his grace stands 'tween two
clergymen!

Buck. Two props of virtue for a christian prince,
To stay him from the fall of vanity:
And, see, a book of prayer in his hand;
True ornaments to know a holy man.-
Famous Plantagenet, most gracious prince,
Lend favourable ear to our request;
And pardon us the interruption

Of thy devotion, and right-christian zeal.

Glo. My lord, there needs no such apology;
I rather do beseech you pardon me,
Who, earnest in the service of my God,
Neglect the visitation of my friends.

But, leaving this, what is your grace's pleasure?
Buck. Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God
above,

And all good men of this ungovern'd isle.

Glo. I'do suspect, I have done some offence,
That seems disgracious in the city's eye;
And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.
Buck. You have, my lord; Would it might please

your grace,

On our entreaties, to amend your fault!
Glo. Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?
Buck. Know, then, it is your fault, that you resign
The supreme seat, the throne majestical,
The sceptred office of your ancestors,

desert

Then, on the other side, I check'd my friends.
Therefore, to speak, and to avoid the first;
And, then in speaking, not to incur the last,-
Definitely thus I answer you.
Your love deserves my thanks; but my
Unmeritable, shuns your high request.
First, if all obstacles were cut away,
And that my path were even to the crown,
As my ripe revenue and due of birth;
Yet so much is my poverty of spirit,
So mighty, and so many, my defects,
That I would rather hide me from my greatness,-
Being a bark to brook no mighty sea,
Than in my greatness covet to be hid,
But, God be thank'd, there is no need of me;
And in the vapour of my glory smother'd.
The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,
(And much I need to help you, if need were ;)
Which, mellow'd by the stealing hours of time,
Will well become the seat of majesty,
And make, no doubt, us happy by his reign.
On him I lay what you would lay on me,
The right and fortune of his happy stars,-
Which, God defend, that I should wring from him!
Buck. My lord, this argues conscience in your
grace;

But the respects thereof are nice and trivial,
All circumstances well considered.

9

You say, that Edward is your brother's son;
So say we too, but not by Edward's wife:
For first he was contract to Lady Lucy,
Your mother lives a witness to his vow;
And afterwards by substitute betroth'd
To Bona, sister to the king of France.
These both put by, a poor petitioner,
A care-craz'd mother to a many sons,
A beauty-waning and distressed widow,
Even in the afternoon of her best days,
Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye,
To base declension and loath'd bigamy:10
Seduc'd the pitch and height of all his thoughts

5 Shoulder'd in has the same meaning as rudely thrust into.

6 Recover. The word is frequently used by Spenser ; and both as a verb and a substantive by Lyly.

help, if help were needed.
7 And I want much of the ability requisite to give you

8 Weak, silly.

9 See King Henry VI. Part III. Act iii.

1274 (adopted by a statute in 4 Edw. I.,) was made un10 Bigamy, by a canon of the council of Lyons, A. D. lawful and infamous. It differed from Polygamy, or having two wives at once; as it consisted in either mar

By her, in his unlawful bed, he got
This Edward, whom our manners call-the prince.
More bitterly could I expostulate,
Save that, for reverence to some alive,1
I give a sparing limit to my tongue.
Then, good my lord, take to your royal self
This proffer'd benefit of dignity:

If not to bless us and the land withal,
Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry
From the corruption of abusing time,
Unto a lineal true-derived course.

May. Do, good my lord; your citizens entreat you.
Buck. Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffer'd love.
Cate. O, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit.
Glo. Alas, why would you heap those cares on me?
I am unfit for state and majesty :-
I do beseech you, take it not amiss;
I cannot, nor I will not, yield to you.

Buck. If you refuse it, as in love and zeal,
Loath to depose the child, your brother's son;
As well we know your tenderness of heart,
And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,2
Which we have noted in you to your kindred,
And equally, indeed, to all estates,-
Yet know, whe'r you accept our suit or no,
Your brother's son shall never reign our king;
But we will plant some other in your throne;
To the disgrace and downfall of your house.
And, in this resolution, here we leave you;
Come, citizens, we will entreat no more.

If

[Exeunt BUCKINGHAM and Citizens. Cate. Call them again, sweet prince, accept their suit;

you deny them, all the land will rue it.

Glo. Will you enforce me to a world of cares? Well, call them again; I am not made of stone, But penetrable to your kind entreaties,

[Exit CATESBY. Albeit against my conscience and my soul.

Re-enter BUCKINGHAM and the rest.

Cousin of Buckingham,-and you sage, grave men,—
Since you will buckle fortune on my back,
To bear her burden, whe'r I will, or no,
I must have patience to endure the load:
But if black scandal, or foul-fac'd reproach,
Attend the sequel of your imposition,

Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
From all the impure blots and stains thereof;
For God he knows, and you may partly see,
How far I am from the desiro of this.

May. God bless your grace! we see it, and will

say it.

Glo. In saying so, you shall but say the truth. Buck. Then I salute you with this royal title,Long live King Richard, England's worthy king! All. Amen.

Buck. To-morrow may it please you to be crown'd?

Glo. Even when you please, since you will have it so. Buck. To-morrow then we will attend your grace; And so, most joyfully, we take our leave. Glo. Come, let us to our holy work again.[To the Bishops. Farewell, good cousin ;-farewell, gentle friends. [Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. Before the Tower. Enter on one side, QUEEN ELIZABETH, DUCHESS of YORK, and MARQUIS of DORSET; on the other, rying two virgins successively, or once marrying a widow. This is from Sir T. More, as copied by Hall and Holinshed.

1 The duke here hints at the pretended bastardy of Edward and Clarence. By 'some alive' is meant the duchess of York, the mother of Edward and Richard. This is very closely copied from Sir Thomas More. 2 Pity.

3 To this act should probably be added the next pcene, so will the coronation pass between the acts; and

And I'll salute your grace of York as mother,
And reverend looker-on of two fair queens.-
Come, madam, you must straight to Westminster,
[To the DUCHESS of GLOSTER.
There to be crowned Richard's royal queen.
Q. Eliz. Ah, cut my lace asunder!
That my pent heart may have some scope to beat,
Or else I swoon with this dead-killing news.

Anne. Despiteful tidings! O unpleasing news!
Dor. Be of good cheer:-Mother, how fares your
grace?

Q. Eliz. O Dorset, speak not to me, get thee

gone,

Death and destruction dog thee at the heels;
Thy mother's name is ominous to children:
If thou wilt outstrip death, go cross the seas,
And live with Richmond from the reach of hell.
Go, hie thee, hie thee, from this slaughter-house,
Lest thou increase the number of the dead;
And make me die the thrall of Margaret's curse,—
Nor mother, wife, nor England's counted queen.
Stan. Full of wise care is this your counsel, ma-
dam:-

Take all the swift advantage of the hours;
You shall have letters from me to my son
In your behalf, to meet you on the way:
Be not ta'en tardy by unwise delay.

Duch. O ill-dispersing wind of misery!-
there will not only be a proper interval of action, but the
conclusion will be more forcible.-Johnson.

4 We have not seen this lady since the second scene of the first act, in which she promised to meet Richard at Crosby Place. She was married to him about the year 1472.

5 i. e. grand-daughter. The words grandson or grand-daughter never occur in Shakspeare.

6 This was the phraseology of Shakspeare's time. 7 i. e. I may not so resign my office.'

O my accursed womb, the bed of death;
A cockatrice' hast thou hatch'd to the world,
Whose unavoided eye is murderous!

Stan. Come, madam, come; I in all haste was

sent.

Anne. And I with all unwillingness will go.-
0, would to God, that the inclusive verge
Of golden metal, that must round my brow,
Were red-hot steel, to sear2 me to the brain!
Anointed let me be with deadly venom;
And die, ere men can say-God save the queen!
Q. Eliz. Go, go, poor soul, I envy not thy glory;
To feed my humour, wish thyself no harm.

Anne. No! why?-When he, that is my husband

Which issu'd from my other angel husband,
And that dead saint which then I weeping follow'd;
O, when, I say, I look'd on Richard's face,
This was my wish,-Be thou, quoth I, accurs'd,
For making me, so young, so old a widow!

And, when thou wed'st, let sorrow haunt thy bed;
And be thy wife (if any be so mad,)
More miserable by the life of thee,

Than thou hast made me by my dear lord's death!
Lo, ere I can repeat this curse again,
Even in so short a space, my woman's heart
Grossly grew captive to his honey words,

And prov'd the subject of mine own soul's curse :
Which ever since hath held mine eyes from rest;
For never yet one hour in his bed

Did I enjoy the golden dew of sleep,

But with his timorous dreams was still awak'd.
Besides, he hates me for my father Warwick;
And will, no doubt, shortly be rid of me.

Q. Eliz. Poor heart, adieu; I pity thy complain-
ing.

Anne. No more than with my soul I mourn for

yours.

Dor. Farewell, thou woful welcomer of glory! Anne. Adieu, poor soul, that tak'st thy leave of it!

Duch. Go thou to Richmond, and good fortune
guide thee!
[To DORSET.
Go thou to Richard, and good angels tend thee!-
[To ANNE.
Go thou to sanctuary, and good thoughts possess
thee!
[To Q. ELIZABETH.
I to my grave, where peace and rest lie with me!
Eighty odd years of sorrow have I seen,
And each hour's joy wreck'd with a week of teen."
Q. Eliz. Stay yet; look back, with me, unto the
Tower.-

Pity, you ancient stones, those tender babes,
Whom envy hath immur'd within your walls!
Rough cradle for such little pretty ones!
Rude ragged nurse! old sullen playfellow
For tender princes, use my babies well!
So foolish sorrow bids your stones farewell.

[Exeunt.

his

SCENE II. A Room of State in the Palace. Flourish of Trumpets. RICHARD, as King upon throne; BUCKINGHAM, CATESBY, a Page, and

others.

Buck. My gracious sovereign.

K. Rich. Give me thy hand. Thus high, by thy
advice,

And thy assistance, is King Richard seated:-
But shall we wear these glories for a day?
Or shall they last, and we rejoice in them?

Buck. Still live they, and for ever let them last!
K. Rich. Ah, Buckingham, now do I play the
touch,

To try if thou be current gold, indeed :-
Young Edward lives;-Think now what I would
speak.

Buck. Say on, my loving lord.

K. Rich. Why, Buckingham, I say, I would be king.

Buck. Why, so you are, my thrice-renowned liege.

K. Rich. Ha! am I king? "Tis so: but Edward
lives.

Buck. True, noble prince.
K. Rich.

O bitter consequence,
That Edward still should live,-true, noble prince!
Cousin, thou wast not wont to be so dull:
Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead;
And I would have it suddenly perform'd.
What say'st thou now? speak suddenly, be brief.
Buck. Your grace may do your pleasure.

K. Rich. Tut, tut, thou art all íce, thy kindness
freezes:

Say, have I thy consent, that they shall die?
Buck. Give me some breath, some little pause,
dear lord,

Before I positively speak in this:

I will resolve your grace immediately.

[Exit BUCKINGHAM. Cate. The king is angry; see, he gnaws his lip."

[Aside.

K. Rich. I will converse with iron-witted fools,
Descends from his Throne.
And unrespective boys: none are for me,
That look into me with considerate eyes ;-
High-reaching Buckingham grows circumspect.-
Boy,

Page. My lord.

K. Rich. Know'st thou not any, whom corrupting
gold

Would tempt unto a close exploit of death?
Page. I know a discontented gentleman,
Whose humble means match not his haughty mind:
Gold were as good as twenty orators,
And will no doubt tempt him to any thing.
K. Rich. What is his name?
Page.
His name, my lord, is-Tyrrel.
K. Rich. I partly know the man; Go, call him
hither, boy.-
[Exit Page.

The deep-revolving witty10 Buckingham
No more shall be the neighbour to my counsels :
Hath he so long held out with me untir'd,
And stops he now for breath?-well, be it so.-
Enter STANLEY.

Stan.

How now, lord Stanley? what's the news?
The marquis Dorset, as I hear, is fled
Know, my loving lord,
To Richmond, in the parts where he abides.
K. Rich. Come hither, Catesby: rumour it abroad,
That Anne, my wife, is very grievous sick;

K. Rich. Stand all apart.-Cousin of Bucking- I will take order11 for her keeping close.
ham,-

i A serpent supposed to originate from a cock's egg. 2 She seems to allude to the ancient mode of punishing a regicide, or other criminals, by placing a crown of iron heated red hot upon his head.

3 It is recorded by Polydore Virgil that Richard was frequently disturbed by terrible dreams. The veracity of that historian has been called in doubt; but Shakspeare followed the popular histories.

4 Shakspeare seems here to have spoken at random. The present scene is in 1483. Richard duke of York, the husband of this lady, had he been then living, would have been but seventy-three years old, and we may reasonably suppose she was not older: nor did she go speedily to her grave; she lived tiil 1495.

Inquire me out some mean-born gentleman,
Whom I will marry straight to Clarence' daughter:

5 Sorrow.

6 To play the touch' is to resemble the touchstone. 7 Several of our ancient historians observe that this was an accustomed action of Richard's, whether he was pensive or angry.

8 Unrespective, i. e. devoid of cautious and pruden. tial consideration, inconsiderate, unregardful. 9 Secret act.

10 Witty was not at this time employed to signify a man of fancy, but was used for sagacity, wisdom, or judgment; or, as Baret defines it, having the sensee sharp, perceiving or foreseeing quicklie.' 11 i. e. take measures

The boy is foolish,' and I fear not him.→→→
Look, how thou dream'st!-I say again, give out,
That Anne my queen is sick, and like to die :
About it: for it stands me much upon,2
To stop all hopes, whose growth may damage me.
[Exit CATESBY.
I must be married to my brother's daughter,
Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass :-
Murder her brothers, and then marry her!
Uncertain way of gain! But I am in
So far in blood, that sin will pluck on sin.3
Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.—

Re-enter Page, with TYRREL.

Is thy name-Tyrrel?4

Tyr. James Tyrrel, and your most obedient sub-
ject.

K. Rich. Art thou, indeed?
Tyr.

Prove me, my gracious lord. K. Rich. Dar'st thou resolve to kill a friend of mine?

Tyr. Please you; but I had rather kill two ene

mies.

K. Rich. Why, then thou hast it; two deep ene-
mies,

Foes to my rest, and my sweet sleep's disturbers,
Are they that I would have thee deals upon :
Tyrrel, I mean those bastards in the Tower.

Tyr. Let me have open means to come to them,
And soon I'll rid you from the fear of them.

K. Rich. Thou sing'st sweet music. Hark, come
hither, Tyrrel;

Go, by this token :-Rise, and lend thine ear:
[Whispers.

There is no more but so ;-Say, it is done,
And I will love thee, and prefer thee for it."
Tyr. I will despatch it straight.

Re-enter BUCKINGHAM.

[Exit.

Buck. My lord, I have consider'd in my mind
The late demand that you did sound me in.
K. Rich. Well, let that rest. Dorset is fled to

Richmond.

Buck. My lord,

K. Rich. How chance, the prophet could not at
that time,

Have told me, I being by, that I should kill him?
Buck. My lord, your promise for the earldom,-
K. Rich. Richmond!-When last I was at Exe-
ter,

The mayor in courtesy show'd me the castle,
And call'd it-Rouge-mont: at which name, I
started;

Because a bard of Ireland told me once,

I should not live long after I saw Richmond.
Buck. My lord,-

K. Rich.
Buck.

Ay, what's o'clock ?

I am thus bold

To put your grace in mind of what you promis'd me.
K. Rich. Well, but what is't o'clock?
Buck.

Of ten.

K. Rich. Well, let it strike.
Buck.

Upon the stroke

Why, let it strike? K. Rich. Because that, like a Jack, 10 thou keep'st the stroke

Betwixt thy begging and my meditation.
I am not in the giving vein to-day.
Buck. Why, then resolve me whe'r you will, or no.
K. Rich. Thou troublest me; I am not in the vein.
[Exeunt KING RICHARD and Train.
Buck. And is it thus ? repays he my deep service
With such contempt? made I him king for this?
O, let me think on Hastings; and be gone
To Brecknock, while my fearful head is on. [Exit.

SCENE III. The same. Enter TYRREL.
Tyr. The tyrannous and bloody act is done;
The most arch deed of piteous massacre,
That ever yet this land was guilty of
Dighton, and Forrest, whom I did suborn
To do this piece of ruthless butchery,
Albeit they were flesh'd villains, bloody dogs,
Buck. My lord, I claim the gift, my due by pro-Wept like two children, in their death's sad story.
Melting with tenderness and mild compassion,

Buck. I hear the news, my lord.

K. Rich. Stanley, he's your wife's son:-Well,

look to it.

mise,

For which your honour and your faith is pawn'd;
The earldom of Hereford, and the moveables,"
Which you have promised I shall possess.

K. Rich. Stanley, look to your wife; if she convey
Letters to Richmond, you shall answer it.

1 Shakspeare has here perhaps anticipated the folly of this youth. He was at this time, I believe, about ten years old, and we are not told by any historian that he had then exhibited any symptoms of folly. Being confined by King Henry VII. immediately after the battle of Bosworth, and his education being entirely neglected, he is described by Polydore Virgil, at the time of his death, in 1499, as an idiot; and his account, which is copied by Holinshed, was certainly a sutficient authority for Shakspeare's representation. 2 i. e. it is incumbent upon me. I am in blood

3

O thus, quoth Dighton, lay the gentle babes,—
Thus, thus, quoth Forrest, girdling one another
Within their alabaster innocent arms:
Their lips were four red roses on a stalk,

in 1386, by King Richard II.; his only daughter Anne
having married Edmund earl of Stafford. The duke of
Buckingham, (who was the grandson of this Edmund
of the title, but he had not a shadow of right to the
and Anne,) had some pretensions to claim a new grant
moiety of the estate, which, if it devolved to King Ed-
ward IV. with the crown, was now the property of his
children, or otherwise belonged to the right heirs of
King Henry IV. Many of our historians, however,
ascribe the breach between him and Richard, to Rich-
ard's refusing to restore him the moiety of the Hereford
estate; and Shakspeare has followed them.

8 The duke of Gloster, according to the former play, was not by when King Henry uttered the prophecy, but the poet does not often trouble himself about such miopi-nute points of accuracy.

Step'd in so far, that should I wade no more
Returning were as tedious,' &c.
Macbeth.

4 The best part of our chronicles, in all men's nions, is that of Richard III. written as I have heard by Moorton, but as most suppose by Sir Thomas More, Sometime lord chancellor of England, where it is said, how the king was devising with Tyrril to have his nephews privily murdered; and it is added, he was then sitting on a draught; a fit carpet for such a counsel.' Sir James Tyrrel was executed for treason in the begin ning of King Henry VII.

5 We should now say 'deal with,' but the other was the phraseology of Shakspeare's time.

6 The quarto has the following very characteristic

line:

'King. Shall we hear from thee, Tirril, ere we sleep?

7 King Henry IV. married one of the daughters and coheirs of Humphrey Bohun, earl of Hereford; and the other was married to Thomas duke of Gloster, fifth son of King Edward III., who was created earl of Hereford,

his description of Exeter, mentions this as a very old 9 Hooker, who wrote in Queen Elizabeth's time, in and antient castle, named Rugemont; that is to say, Red Hill, taking the name of the red soil or earth whereupon it is situated.' It was first built, he adds, as some think, by Julius Caesar, but rather, and in truth, by the Romans after him.

10 This alludes to the jack of the clock house, mentioned before in King Richard II. Act v. Sc. 5. It was a figure made in old public clocks to strike the bell on the outside; of the same kind as those still preserved at St. Dunstan's church in Fleet Street. Richard compares Buckingham to one of the automatons, and bids him not to suspend the stroke on the clock bell, but strike, that the noise may be past, and himself at liberty to pursue his meditations. Jack was a term of contempt, occurring before in this play.

11 His castle in Wales

Than Buckingham and his rash levied strength.
Come,-I have learn'd, that fearful commenting
Is leaden servitor to dull delay;3

Delay leads impotent and snail pac'd beggary:
Then fiery expedition be my wing,
Jove's Mercury, and herald for a king!
Go, muster men: My counsel is my shield;
We must be brief, when traitors brave the field.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. The same. Before the Palace. En-
ter QUEEN MARGARET.

Q. Mar. So, now prosperity begins to mellow,
And drop into the rotten mouth of death.4
Here in these confines slily have I lurk'd,
To watch the waning of mine enemies.

A dire induction' am I witness to,
And will to France; hoping, the consequence
Will prove as bitter, black, and tragical.
Withdraw thee, wretched Margaret! who comes
here?

Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH and the DUCHESS of
YORK.

Q. Eliz. Ah, my poor princes! ah, my tender
babes!

My unblown flowers, new appearing sweets!
If yet your gentle souls fly in the air,
And be not fix'd in doom perpetual,
Hover about me with your airy wings,
And hear your mother's lamentation!

Q. Mar. Hover about her; say, that right for
right

Hath dimm'd your infant morn to aged night.

Duch. So many miseries have craz'd my voice, That my woe-wearied tongue is still and mute,— Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead?

Q. Mar. Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet, Edward for Edward pays a dying debt.

Q. Eliz. Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle
lambs,

And throw them in the entrails of the wolf?
When didst thou sleep, when such a deed was done?
Q. Mar. When holy Harry died, and my sweet

son.

Duch. Dead life, blind sight, poor mortal-living
Woe's scene, world's shame, grave's due by life
ghost,
usurp'd,

Brief abstract and record of tedious days,
Rest thy unrest on England's lawful earth,

[Sitting down.
Unlawfully made drunk with innocent blood!
Q. Eliz. Ah, that thou would'st as soon afford a
grave,

As thou canst yield a melancholy seat;
Then would I hide my bones, not rest them here!
Ah, who hath any cause to mourn, but we?

[Sitting down by her.
Q. Mar. If ancient sorrow be most reverent,
Give mine the benefit of seniory,"
And let my griefs frown on the upper hand.
If sorrow can admit society,

[Sitting down with them.
Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine :-
I had an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him;
I had a husband, till a Richard kill'd him:
Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him:
Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard kill'd him.
Duch. I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill

him;

I had a Rutland too, thou holp'st to kill him.
Q. Mar. Thou hadst a Clarence too, and Richard
kill'd him;

From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept
A hell hound, that doth hunt us all to death:
That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes,
To worry lambs, and lap their gentle blood;
That foul defacer of God's handy work;
That excellent grand tyrant of the earth,
That reigns in galled eyes of weeping souls,
Thy womb let loose, to chase us to our graves.~~~
O upright, just, and true disposing God,

He thus denominates Richmond, because after the How do I thank thee, that this carnal cur

baule of Tewksbury he had taken refuge in the court of Francis II. duke of Bretagne, where by the procurement of Edward IV. he was kept a long time in honourable custody.

2 Bishop of Ely.

proached with the murder of young Rutland, and the death of her husband and son were imputed to divine vengeance roused by that wicked act. So just is God to right the innocent. Margaret now, perhaps, means

3 Timorous thought and cautious disquisition are the to say, The right of me, an injured mother, whose son dull attendants on delay.

now is his fate grown mellow,

Instant to fall into the rotten jaus
Of chap-fall'n death.

Marston's Antonio und Mellida, 1602. King Richard III. was printed in 1597, Marston is therefore the imitator.

5 Induction is preface, introduction, or prologue.

was slain at Tewksbury, has now operated as powerfully as that right which the death of Rutland gave you to divine justice, and has destroyed your children in their turn.'

7 Seniority.

8 Vide Hamlet, Act v. Sc. 2:

'Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts.' Its apparent signification is cruel, sanguinary, fleshly.

6 In the third scene of the first act Margaret was re- I minded.

P