Q.Eliz. To make an act of tragic violence :-
Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead.-
Why grow the branches, when the root is gone?
Why wither not the leaves, that want their sap ?—
If you will live, lament; if die, be brief;

That our swift-winged souls may catch the king's ;
Or, like obedient subjects, follow him

To his new kingdom of perpetual rest.

Duch. Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow,
As I had title in thy noble husband!

I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
And liv'd by looking on his images :6

But now, two mirrors of his princely semblance
Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death :
And I for comfort have but one false glass,
That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
Thou art a widow; yet thou art a mother,
And hast the comfort of thy children left thee:
But death hath snatch'd my husband from my arms,
And pluck'd two crutches from my feeble hands,
Clarence, and Edward. O, what cause have I,
(Thine being but a moiety of my grief,)
To over-go thy plaints, and drown thy cries?

Son. Ah, aunt! you wept not for our father's death; How can we aid you with our kindred tears?

Daugh. Our fatherless distress was left unmoan'd, Your widow-dolour likewise be unwept!

Q. Eliz. Give me no help in lamentation,

I am not barren to bring forth laments:

All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
That I, being govern'd by the watry moon,7

May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world!
Ah, for my husband, for my dear lord Edward!

Chil. Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clarence !
Duch. Alas, for both, both mine, Edward and Cla-

rence !

Q.Eliz. What stay had I, but Edward? and he's gone.
Chil. What stay had we, but Clarence? and he's gone.
Duch. What stays had I, but they? and they are gone.
Q. Eliz. Was never widow, had so dear a loss.
Chil. Were never orphans, had so dear a loss.
Duch. Was never mother, had so dear a loss.

[6] The children by whom he was represented. JOHNS. [7] That I may live hereafter under the influence of the moon, which gov. erns the tides, and by the help of that influence drown the world. The introduction of the moon is not very natural.

JOHNS.

Alas! I am the mother of these griefs:
Their woes are parcell'd, mine are general.
She for an Edward weeps, and so do I;
I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she:
These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I:
I for an Edward weep, so do not they :
Alas! you three, on me, threefold distress'd,
Pour all your tears; I am your sorrow's nurse,
And I will pamper it with lamentations.

Dors. Comfort, dear mother; God is much displeas'd, That you take with unthankfulness his doing;

In common worldly things, 'tis call'd-ungrateful,
With dull unwillingness to repay a debt,

Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
Much more to be thus opposite with heaven,
For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

Riv. Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother, Of the young prince your son: send straight for him, Let him be crown'd: in him your comfort lives: Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward's grave, And plant your joys in living Edward's throne.

Enter GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, RATCLIFF, and others.

Glo. Sister, have comfort all of us have cause
To wail the dimming of our shining star;

But none can cure their harms by wailing them.-
Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy,

I did not see your grace :-Humbly on my knee

I crave your blessing.

Duch. God bless thee; and put meekness in thy breast, Love, charity, obedience, and true duty!

Glo. Amen; and make me die a good old man!

That is the butt-end of a mother's blessing;

I marvel, that her grace did leave it out.

[Aside.

Buck. You cloudy princes, and heart-sorrowing peers,

That bear this mutual heavy load of moan,

Now cheer each other in each other's love:

Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
We are to reap the harvest of his son.

The broken rancour of your high-swoln hearts,
But lately splinted, knit, and join'd together,
Must gently be preserv'd, cherish'd, and kept :
Me seemeth good, that, with some little train,
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fetch'd

8

Hither to London, to be crown'd our king.

Riv. Why with some little train, my lord of Buckingham ?

Buck. Marry, my lord, lest, by a multitude,
The new-heal'd wound of malice should break out;
Which would be so much the more dangerous,

By how much the estate is yet green, and ungovern'd;
Where every horse bears his commanding rein,
And may direct his course as please himself,
As well the fear of harm, as harm apparent,
In my opinion, ought to be prevented.

Glo. I hope, the king made peace with all of us ;
And the compact is firm, and true, in me.

Riv. And so in me; and so, I think, in all : Yet, since it is but green, it should be put

To no apparent likelihood of breach,

Which, haply, by much company might be urg'd :
Therefore, I say, with noble Buckingham,

That it is meet so few should fetch the prince.
Hast. And so say I.

Glo. Then be it so; and go we to determine
Who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow.
Madam, and you my mother, will you go
To give your censures in this weighty business?

[Exeunt all but BUCKINGHAM and GLOSTER. Buck. My lord, whoever journies to the prince. For God's sake, let not us two stay at home : For, by the way, I'll sort occasion,

As index to the story we late talk'd of,

To part the queen's proud kindred from the prince.
Glo. My other self, my counsel's consistory,

My oracle, my prophet! My dear cousin,

I, as a child, will go by thy direction.

Towards Ludlow then, for we'll not stay behind.

SCENE III.

[Exeunt.

The same. A Street. Enter two Citizens, meeting.

1 Cit. Good-inorrow, neighbour: Whither away so

fast?

[8] Edward the young prince, in his father's lifetime, and at his demise, kept his household at Ludlow, as Prince of Wales; under the governance of Antony Woodville, Earl of Rivers, his uncle by the mother's side. The intention of his being sent thither was to see justice done in the Marches; and, by the authority of his presence, to restrain the Welshmen, who were wild, dissolute, and ill-disposed, from their accustomed murders and outrages. Vid. Hall, Holinshed, &c. THEOBALD.

2 Cit. I promise you, I scarcely know myself: Hear you the news abroad?

1 Cit. Yes; the king's dead.

2 Cit. Ill news, by'r lady; seldom comes the better: I fear, I fear, 'twill prove a giddy world.

Enter another Citizen.

3 Cit. Neighbours, God speed!

1 Cit. Give you good morrow, sir.

3 Cit. Doth the news hold of good king Edward's death?

2 Cit. Ay, sir, it is too true; God help, the while! 3 Cit. Then, masters, look to see a troublous world. 1 Cit. No, no; by God's good grace, his son shall reign. 3 Cit. Woe to that land, that's govern'd by a child! 2 Cit. In him there is a hope of government; That, in his nonage, council under him,

And, in his full and ripen'd years, himself,
No doubt, shall then, and till then, govern well.

1 Cit. So stood the state, when Henry the Sixth

Was crown'd in Paris but at nine months old.

3 Cit. Stood the state so? no, no, good friends, God wot; For then this land was famously enrich'd With politic grave counsel; then the king Had virtuous uncles to protect his grace.

1 Cit. Why, so hath this, both by his father and

mother.

3 Cit. Better it were, they all came by his father; Or, by his father, there were none at all :

For emulation now, who shall be nearest,

Will touch us all too near, if God prevent not.

O, full of danger is the duke of Gloster;

And the queen's sons, and brothers, haught and proud : And were they to be rul'd, and not to rule,

This sickly land might solace as before:

1 Cit. Come, come, we fear the worst; all will be well. 3 Cit. When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks ;

When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand;
When the sun sets, who doth not look for night?
Untimely storms make men expect a dearth :
All may be well; but, if God sort it so,
'Tis more than we deserve, or I expect.

2 Cit. Truly, the hearts of men are full of fear : You cannot reason almost with a man

That looks not heavily, and full of dread.

3 Cit. Before the days of change, still is it so: By a divine instinct, men's minds mistrust Ensuing danger: as, by proof, we see

The water swell before a boist'rous storm.
But leave it all to God. Whither away?

2 Cit. Marry, we were sent for to the justices. 3 Cit. And so was I.; I'll bear you company. [Exeunt.

The same.

SCENE IV.

A Room in the Palace. Enter the Archbishop of YORK, the young Duke of YORK, Queen ELIZABETH, and the Duchess of YORK.

Arch. Last night, I heard, they lay at Stony-Stratford; And at Northampton they do rest to-night : To-morrow, or next day, they will be here.

Duch. I long with all my heart to see the prince ; I hope, he is much grown since last I saw him. Q.Eliz. But I hear, no; they say, my son of York Hath almost overta'en him in his growth.

York. Ay, mother, but I would not have it so. Duch. Why, my young cousin? it is good to grow. York. Grandam, one night, as we did sit at supper, My uncle Rivers talk'd how I did grow

More than my brother; Ay, quoth my uncle Gloster,
Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace :
And since, methinks, I would not grow so fast,
Because sweet flowers are slow, and weeds make haste.
Duch. Good faith, good faith, the saying did not hold
In him that did object the same to thee:

He was the wretched'st thing, when he was young,9
So long a growing, and so leisurely,

That, if his rule were true, he should be gracious.
Arch. And so, no doubt, he is, my gracious madam.
Duch. I hope, he is; but yet let mothers doubt.
York. Now, by my troth, if I had been remember'd,
1 could have given my uncle's grace a flout,
To touch his growth, nearer than he touch'd mine.
Duch. How, my young York? I pr'ythee, let me
hear it.

York. Marry, they say, my uncle grew so fast,
That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old;
'Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth.

[9] The weakest, most puny, least thriving.

RITSON.

Tobe remember'd is, in Shakspeare, to have one's memory quick, to

have one's thoughts about one. JOHNS.