Thou art not here: murder is thy alms-deed; Petitioners for blood thou ne'er put'st back. 80 K. Edw. Away, I say; I charge ye, bear her hence. Q. Mar. So come to you and yours, as to this [Exeunt, led out forcibly.

prince!

K. Edw. Where's Richard gone?

Clar. 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

sort

With pay and thanks, and let's away to Lon

don,

And see our gentle queen how well she fares:
By this, I hope, she hath a son for me.

90

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI

London. The Tower.

Enter King Henry and Gloucester, with the Lieutenant, on the walls.

Glou. Good day, my lord. What, at your book so hard?

K. Hen. Aye, my good lord:-my lord, I should say rather;

'Tis sin to flatter; 'good' was little better:

'Good Gloucester' and 'good devil' were alike, And both preposterous; therefore, not 'good lord.'

Glou. 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? 10 Glou. 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 limed, was caught
and kill'd.

Glou. 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;

21

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! My breast can better brook thy dagger's point, Than can my ears that tragic history. But wherefore dost thou come? is 't for Glou. Thinkst thou I am an executioner? K. Hen. A persecutor, I am sure, thou art:

20. "fool"; Seymour conj. (from Qq.), "fowl."-I. G.

my life?

30

21. Dædalus, who, being detained in Crete by Minos, made wings for himself and his son Icarus. Icarus' wings were "sear'd" by the sun, and he was drowned.-C. H. H.

If murdering innocents be executing,

Why, then thou art an executioner.

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

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

Thou hadst not lived to kill a son of mine.
And thus I prophesy, that many a thousand,
Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear,
And many an old man's sigh and many a wid-
ow's,

And many an orphan's water-standing eye— 40
Men for their sons, wives for their husbands,
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 tempest 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 indigested and deformed lump,

50

41. "Men for their sons, wives for their husbands"; Anon. conj. (from Qq.), "Wives for their husbands, fathers for their sons”; F. 1, "sonnes, husbands"; F. 2, “sonnes, husbands fate”; husbands fate"; Warburton, “sons husbands," &c.-I. G.

Ff. 3, 4, "sons
husbands' fate"; Knight, "sons”

45. "aboding luckless time"; Qq., "aboding

bald, "a boding

tune."-I. G.

48. “discords”; Grant White (from Qq.), “discord.”—I. G.

51. "To wit, an indigested and deformed lump"; Capell (from Qq.), “to wit an indigest deformed lump”; Dyce (Capell conj.) omits “to wit."-I. G.

Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree.

Teeth hadst thou in thy head when thou wast born,

To signify thou camest to bite the world:

And, if the rest be true which I have heard,
Thou camest-

Glou. I'll hear no more: die, prophet, in thy speech:

[Stabs him. For this, amongst the rest, was I ordain'd. K. Hen. Aye, and for much more slaughter after

this.

O, God forgive my sins, and pardon thee!

60

[Dies.

Glou. 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,

Down, down to hell; and say I sent thee thither:

[Stabs him again.

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 cried
'O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth!'

70

And so I was; which plainly signified

That I should snarl and bite and play the dog.
Then, since the heavens have shaped my body

So,

80

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 di-
vine,

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 buz 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, 90
Counting myself but bad till I be best.

I'll throw thy body in another room,

And triumph, Henry, in thy day of doom.

[Exit, with the body.

79. After this line, Theobald inserts from Qq., “I had no father, I am like no father."-I. G.

93. The following is Holinshed's account of Henry's death: "Here is to be remembered, that poore king Henrie the sixt, a little before deprived of his realme and imperiall crowne, was now in the Tower spoiled of his life by Richard duke of Glocester, as the constant fame ran; who, to the intent that his brother king Edward might reigne in more suretie, murthered the said king Henrie with a dagger. Howbeit, some writers of that time, favouring altogither the house of Yorke, have recorded, that after he understood what losses had chanced unto his freends, and how not onelie his sonne, but also all other his cheefe partakers were dead and despatched, he tooke it so to hart, that of pure displeasure, indignation, and melancholie, he died the three and twentith of Maie."-H. N. H.