ANNE. If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide, Thefe nails fhould rend that beauty from my cheeks.

GLO. Thefe eyes could not endure that beauty's wreck,

You should not blemish it, if I ftood by:
As all the world is cheered by the fun,
So I by that; it is my day, my life.

ANNE. Black night o'erfhade thy day, and death thy life!

GLO. Curfe not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.

ANNE. I would I were, to be reveng'd on thee. GLO. It is a quarrel moft unnatural,

To be reveng'd on him that loveth thee.

ANNE. It is a quarrel juft and reasonable, To be reveng'd on him that kill'd my hufband.

GLO. He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband, Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE. His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

GLO. He lives, that loves you better than he could.

ANNE. Name him.

GLO.

ANNE.

Plantagenet.

Why, that was he.

GLO. The felf-fame name, but one of better

nature.

ANNE. Where is he?

GLO.

Here: [She Spits at him.] Why

doft thou fpit at me?

ANNE. 'Would it were mortal poifon, for thy

fake!

GLO. Never came poifon from fo fweet a place. ANNE. Never hung poifon on a fouler toad. Out of my fight! thou doft infect mine eyes. GLO. Thine eyes, fweet lady, have infected mine. ANNE. 'Would they were bafilifks, to strike thee dead!1

GLO. I would they were, that I might die at once; For now they kill me with a living death.2

'Would they were bafilifks, to firike thee dead !] " Among the ferpents the Bafilifke doth infecte and kill people with his looke." Summary of Secret Wonders, &c. bl. 1. by John Alday, no date. STEEVENS.

So, in The Winter's Tale:

"Make me not fighted like the bafilifk;

"I have look'd on thousands, who have sped the better By my regard, but kill'd none fo."

See alfo, King Henry VI. P. II. Vol. XIII. p. 281, n. 1.

MALONE. In Cornucopia, &c. 1596, Sign. B. 4: "The eye of the Bafilifke is fo odious to man, that it fleeth man before he come nere him, even by looking upon him." REED.

2

they kill me with a living death.] In imitation of this paffage, and, I fuppofe, of a thousand more, Pope writes: a living death I bear,

66

"Says Dapperwit, and funk befide his chair."

JOHNSON.

The fame conceit occurs in The trimming of Thomas Nafh, 1597: "How happy the rat, caught in a trap, and there dies a living death?"

Again, in Phineas Fletcher's, Locufts, or Apollyonists, 4to. 1627:

"It lives, yet's death: it pleafes full of paine;
"Monster! ah who, who can thy beeing faigne ?
"Thou fhapeleffe fhape, live death, paine pleasing,
fervile raigne." STEEVENS.

So, in Watson's Sonnets, printed about 1580 :
"Love is a fowre delight, a fugred griefe,
"A living death, an ever-dying life."

We have again the fame expreflion in Venus and Adonis :

Thofe eyes of thine from mine have drawn falt tears,

Sham'd their afpécts with ftore of childish drops:
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear,
Not, when my father 4 York and Edward wept,
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made,
When black-fac'd Clifford fhook his fword at him:
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the fad story of my father's death;
And twenty times made paufe, to sob, and weep,
That all the ftanders-by had wet their cheeks,
Like trees bedash'd with rain: in that sad time,
My manly eyes did fcorn an humble tear;5
And what these forrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never fu'd to friend, nor enemy;

My tongue could never learn sweet foothing word;6

"For I have heard it [love] is a life in death,

"That laughs and weeps, and all but with a breath."

MALONE.

Thefe eyes, which never &c.] The twelve following beautiful lines added after the first editions. POPE.

They were added with many more. JOHNSON.

Not, when my father-] The old copies read-No, when, &c. The correction was made by Mr. Pope. I am not sure that it is neceffary.

This doubt derives ftrength from a fubfequent paffage :

"Duch. I hope he is much grown fince laft I saw him. "Q. Eliz. But I hear, no." MALONE.

5 My manly eyes did fcorn &c.] Here is an apparent reference to King Henry VI. P. III. A& II. fc. i. See p. 52, n. 5. STEEVENS, -fweet foothing word;] Thus the quarto, 1598. The folio has-fweet Smoothing word. MALONE. Smooth is, probably, the true reading. So again, p. 301, line ult:

Smile in men's faces, fmooth, deceive, and cog."

See alfo, Pericles, A& I. fc. ii. STEEVENS.

But now thy beauty is propos'd my fee,

My

proud heart fues, and prompts my tongue to fpeak. [She looks fcornfully at him. Teach not thy lip fuch fcorn; for it was made For kiffing, lady, not for fuch contempt. If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive, Lo! here I lend thee this fharp-pointed fword; Which if thou pleafe to hide in this true breast, And let the foul forth that adoreth thee,

I lay it naked to the deadly ftroke,

And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

[He lays his Breaft open; fhe offers at it with his Sword.

Nay, do not paufe; for I did kill king Henry ;But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me.

Nay, now despatch; 'twas I that stabb'd

ward ;

young Ed

[She again offers at his Breaft.

But 'twas thy heavenly face that fet me on.

[She lets fall the Sword.

Take up the fword again, or take up me.

ANNE. Arife, diffembler: though I wish thy death,

I will not be thy executioner.

GLO. Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.
ANNE. I have already.

GLO.

That was in thy rage:

Speak it again, and, even with the word,

This hand, which, for thy love, did kill thy love, Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love;

To both their deaths fhalt thou be acceffary.

7 But 'twas thy beauty-] Shakspeare countenances the obfervation, that no woman can ever be offended with the mention of her beauty. JOHNSON.

ANNE. I would, I knew thy heart.

GLO. Say then, my peace is made.

'Tis figur'd in

Then man

Well, well, put up your fword.

GLO. Look, how this ring encompaffeth thy finger,
Even fo thy breaft enclofeth my poor heart;
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted servant may

But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,
Thou doft confirm his happiness for ever.

ANNE. What is it?

GLO. That it may please you leave these fad defigns

To him that hath more caufe9 to be a mourner,

For the fake of measure, I have hazarded this flight tranfpofition. STEEVENS.

more caufe-] The folio-most cause. STEEVENS.