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Enter on one side, QUEEN ELIZABETH, DUCHESS OF YORK, and MARQUIS OF
DORSET; on the other, ANNE DUCHESS OF GLOSTER, leading LADY MAR-
GARET PLANTAGENET, CLARENCE's young daughter.

DUCH. Who meets us here?-my niecea Plantagenet,
Led in the hand of her kind aunt of Gloster?
Now, for my life, she 's wand'ring to the Tower,
On pure heart's love, to greet the tender prince.
Daughter, well met.

ANNE.

God give your graces both

A happy and a joyful time of day!

■ Niece-grand-daughter. In 'Othello' nephews are put for grandchildren.

Q. ELIZ. As much to you, good sister! Whither away?
ANNE. No further than the Tower; and, as I guess,
Upon the like devotion as yourselves,

To gratulate the gentle princes there.

Q. ELIZ. Kind sister, thanks; we 'll enter all together:

Enter BRAKENBURY.

And, in good time, here the lieutenant comes.
Master lieutenant, pray you, by your leave,

How doth the prince, and my young son of York?
BRAK. Right well, dear madam: By your patience,
I may not suffer you to visit them;

The king hath strictly charg'd the contrary.
Q. ELIZ. The king! who 's that?

BRAK.
I mean the lord protector.
Q. ELIZ. The Lord protect him from that kingly title!
Hath he set bounds between their love and me?
I am their mother, who shall bar me from them?
DUCH. I am their father's mother, I will see them.
ANNE. Their aunt I am in law, in love their mother:
Then bring me to their sights; I'll bear thy blame,
And take thy office from thee, on my peril.
BRAK. No, madam, no, I may not leave it so;
I am bound by oath, and therefore pardon me.

Enter STANLEY.

STAN. Let me but meet you, ladies, one hour hence,
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,

There to be crowned Richard's royal queen.

Q. ELIZ. Ah, cut my lace asunder!

[Exit BRAKENBURY.

[To the DUCHESS OF GLOSTER.

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

STAN. Come, madam, come; I in all haste was sent.
ANNE. And I with all unwillingness will go.

O, would to God that the inclusive verge
Of golden metal that must round my brow
Were red-hot steel, to sear 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 now
Came to me, as I follow'd Henry's corse;

When scarce the blood was well wash'd from his hands,
Which issued from my other angel husband,

And that dear 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 wedd'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,

Within so small a time", my woman's heart
Grossly grew captive to his honey words,

And prov'd the subject of mine own soul's curse;
Which hitherto hath held mine eyes from rest:

a Dear, in the folio; the quartos, dead.

So the folio; the quartos, even in so short a space.

• We print this line as in the folio; in the quartos it stands

"Which ever since hath kept my eyes from sleep."

The plain course for the modern editors to have pursued would have been to take the line as it stands in one or the other edition, according to their belief in its authenticity. But in this, as in many other instances, they make up a text from each copy

"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 complaining.
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!

Go thou to Richard, and good angels tend thee!
Go thou to sanctuary, and good thoughts possess thee!
I to my grave, where peace and rest lie with me!
Eighty odd years of sorrow have I seen,

And each hour's joy wracked with a week of teena.
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 ".

[TO DORSET. [To ANNE. [To Q. ELIZABETH.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-A room of State in the Palace.

Flourish of trumpets.

RICHARD, as King, upon his throne; BUCKINGHAM,
CATESBY, a Page, and others.

K. RICH. Stand all apart.

Cousin of Buckingham,—

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",

a Teen-sorrow.

This speech is not in the quartos. It bears the mark of Shakspere's later years, in its bold imagery.

"Rude ragged nurse! old sullen playfellow!"

possesses all the highest attribute of poetry-that of suggesting a long train of thought by some short and powerful allusion, far more effective than the most skilful elaboration. And yet Johnson with the most ludicrous solemnity says, "To call the Tower nurse and playfellow is very harsh: perhaps part of this speech is addressed to the Tower, and part to the Lieutenant." • Touch-touchstone.

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 lord.

K. RICH. Ha! am I king? "T is so: but Edward lives.
BUCK. True, noble prince.

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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 ice, thy kindness freezes :
Say, have I thy consent that they shall die?

BUCK. Give me some little breath, some pause, dear lorda,
Before I positively speak in this:

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K. RICH. Know'st thou not any whom corrupting gold
Would tempt unto a close exploit of death?

PAGE. I know a discontented gentleman,

[Exit Веск. [Aside.

[Descends from his throne.

Whose humble means match not his haughty spirita:
Gold were as good as twenty orators,

And will, no doubt, tempt him to anything.

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.
The deep-revolving witty Buckingham

с

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.—

a So the folio; one of the quartos,

"Give me some breath, some little pause, dear lord."

b So the folio; the quartos, your grace immediately.

Unrespective inconsiderate. In 'Romeo and Juliet' we have

"Away to heaven respective lenity."

Spirit, in the folio; the quartos, mind.

[Exit PAGE.

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