That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble. 1

Q. Eliz. By him that rais'd me to this careful
height

From that contented hap which I enjoy'd,
I never did incense his majesty

Against the duke of Clarence, but have been

An earnest advocate to plead for him.

My lord, you do me shameful injury,
Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.

Glo. To fight on Edward's party, for the crown; And, for his meed, poor lord, he is mew'd up:

I would to heaven, my heart were flint like Edward's,

Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine;

I am too childish-foolish for this world.

Q. Mar. Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this world.

Riv. My lord of Gloster, in those busy days, Which here you urge to prove us enemies,

Glo. You may deny that you were not the cause We follow'd then our lord, our lawful king;
Of my lord Hastings' late imprisonment.
Riv. She may, my lord; for

So should we you, if you should be our king.
Glo. If I should be?—I had rather be a pedlar.

Glo. She may, lord Rivers? why, who knows Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof!

not so?

She may do more, sir, than denying that:
She may help you to many fair preferments;
And then deny her aiding hand therein,
And lay those honours on your high desert.

Q. Eliz. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose
You should enjoy, were you this country's king;
As little joy you may suppose in me,
That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.

Q. Mar. A little joy enjoys the queen thereof;

What may she not? She may, ay, marry may For I am she, and altogether joyless.

she.

Riv. What, marry, may she?

I can no longer hold me patient. [Advancing.
Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out

Glo. What, marry, may she? marry with a king, In sharing that which you have pill'd3 from me : A bachelor, a handsome stripling too:

I wis2, your grandam had a worser match.

Q. Eliz. My lord of Gloster, I have too long borne
Your blunt upbraidings, and your bitter scoffs:
By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty,
Of those gross taunts I often have endur'd.
I had rather be a country servant-maid,
Than a great queen with this condition
To be so baited, scorn'd, and stormed at:
Small joy have I in being England's queen.

Enter QUEEN MARGARET, behind.

Which of you trembles not, that looks on me :
If not, that I being queen, you bow like subjects
Yet that, by you depos'd, you quake like rebels?—
Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away!

Glo. Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou in
my sight?

Q. Mar. But repetition of what thou hast marr'd; That will I make, before I let thee go.

Glo. Wert thou not banished on pain of death? Q. Mar. I was; but I do find more pain in banishment,

Than death can yield me here by my abode.

Q. Mar. And lessen'd be that small, God, I be- | A husband, and a son, thou ow'st to me, —

seech thee!

Thy honour, state, and seat, is due to me.

Glo. What? threat you me with telling of the
king?

Tell him, and spare not: look, what I have said
I will avouch, in presence of the king:
I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower.
'Tis time to speak, my pains are quite forgot.

Q. Mar. Out, devil! I remember them too well:
Thou kill'dst my husband Henry in the Tower,
And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury.

Glo. Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband
king,

I was a pack-horse in his great affairs;
A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,
A liberal rewarder of his friends;

To royalize his blood, I spilt mine own.

Q. Mar. Ay, and much better blood than his, or
thine.

Glo. In all which time, you, and your husband
Grey,

Were factious for the house of Lancaster?

And thou, a kingdom;

- all of you, allegiance ;
This sorrow that I have, by right is yours;
And all the pleasures you usurp are mine.

Glo. The curse my noble father laid on thee,
When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper,
And with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes;
And then, to dry them, gav'st the duke a clout,
Steep'd in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland;
His curses, then from bitterness of soul
Denounc'd against thee, are all fall'n upon thee;
And God, not we, hath plagu'd thy bloody deed.

And, Rivers, so were you: - Was not your hus- Did York's dread curse prevail so much with heaven,

Die in his youth, by like untimely violence!
Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,
Outlive thy glory like my wretched self!
Long mayst thou live, to wail thy children's loss;
And see another, as I see thee now,

Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine!
Long die thy happy days before thy death;
And after many lengthen'd hours of grief,
Die neither mother, wife, nor England's queen!
Rivers, - and Dorset, you were standers by,
And so wast thou, lord Hastings, when my son
Was stabb'd with bloody daggers; God, I pray him,
That none of you may live your natural age,
But by some unlook'd accident cut off!

Glo. Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd hag.

Glo. Good counsel, marry;— learn it, learn it,

marquis.

Dors. It touches you, my lord, as much as me. Glo. Ay, and much more: But I was born so high, Our aiery 6 buildeth in the cedar's top,

And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun.

Q. Mar. And turns the sun to shade; — alas!
alas! -

Witness my son, now in the shade of death;
Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath
Hath in eternal darkness folded up.
Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's nest: -
O God, that seest it, do not suffer it;
As it was won with blood, lost be it so!
Buck. Peace, peace, for shame, if not for charity.
Q. Mar. Urge neither charity nor shame to me;

Q. Mar. And leave out thee ? stay, dog, for thou Uncharitably with me have you dealt,

shalt hear me.

If heaven have any grievous plague in store,
Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
O, let them keep it, till thy sins be ripe,
And then hurl down their indignation
On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace !
The worm of conscience still be-gnaw thy soul!
Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,
And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!
No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
Unless it be while some tormenting dream
Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!
Thou elvish mark'd, abortive, rooting hog!
Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity
The slave of nature, and the son of hell!
Thou rag of honour! thou detested
Glo. Margaret.

Q. Mar.

Glo.

Q. Mar.

Richard!

Ha?

I call thee not.

Q. Mar. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my
fortune !

Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider1,
Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?
Fool, fool ! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself.
The day will come, that thou shalt wish for me
To help thee curse this pois'nous hunch-back'd toad.
Hast. False-boding woman, end thy frantick curse;
Lest, to thy harm, thou move our patience.

Q. Mar. Foul shame upon you! you have all
mov'd mine.

Rw. Were you well serv'd, you would be taught your duty.

Q. Mar. To serve me well, you all should do me duty,

Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects: 0, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty. Dors. Dispute not with her, she is lunatick.

:

Q. Mar. Peace, master marquis, you are malapert:
Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current ;
O, that your young nobility could judge,
What 'twere to lose it and be miserable!
They that stand high, have many blasts to shake them;
And, if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.

4 Alluding to Gloster's form and venom.
> He was just created marquis of Dorset,

|

|

And shamefully by you my hopes are butcher'd.
My charity is outrage, life my shame, -
And in my shame still live my sorrow's rage!
Buck. Have done, have done.

Q. Mar. Oprincely Buckingham, I kiss thy hand,
In sign of league and amity with thee:
Now fair befall thee, and thy noble house!
Thy garments are not spotted with our blood,
Nor thou within the compass of my curse.

Buck. Nor no one here; for curses never pass
The lips of those that breathe them in the air.

Q. Mar. I'll not believe but they ascend the sky
O Buckingham, beware of yonder dog;
Look, when he fawns, he bites; and, when he bites,
His venom tooth will rankle to the death:
Have not to do with him, beware of him;
Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him;
And all their ministers attend on him ;

Glo. What doth she say, my lord of Buckingham?
Buck. Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord.
Q. Mar. What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle
counsel ?

And soothe the devil that I warn thee from ?
O, but remember this another day,

When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow ;
And say, poor Margaret was a prophetess.
Live each of you the subjects to his hate,
And he to yours, and all of you to God's!
Hast. My hair doth stand on end to hear her

curses.

[Exit.

Riv. And so doth mine; I muse 7, why she's at

liberty.

Glo. I cannot blame her,

She hath had too much wrong, and I repent
My part thereof, that I have done to her.

Q. Elis. I never did her any, to my knowledge.
Glo. Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong.
I was too hot to do some body good,
That is too cold in thinking of it now.
Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid;
He is frank'ds up to fatting for his pains; .
Heaven pardon them that are the cause thereof!

Riv. A virtuous and a christian-like conclusion,
To pray for them that have done scath 9 to us.
Glo. So do I ever, being well advis'd;

For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myself. [Aside.
Enter CATESBY.

Cates. Madam, his majesty doth call for you,
And for your grace, - and you, my noble lords.
Q. Eliz. Catesby, I come; — Lords, will you go

What sights of ugly death within mine eyes!
Methought, I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
A thousand men, that fishes knaw'd upon;
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalu'd jewels,

whom I, indeed, have laid in dark- All scattered in the bottom of the sea.

1 Murd. We are, my lord; and come to have With that grim ferryman which poets write of,

Brak. What, so brief?

hilts of thy sword, and then throw him into the

2 Murd. O, sir, 'tis better to be brief than te- malmsey-butt, in the next room.

dious:

Let him see our commission; talk no more.
[4 Paper is delivered to BRAKENBURY,
who reads it.

Brak. I am, in this, commanded to deliver
The noble duke of Clarence to your hands: -
I will not reason what is meant hereby,
Because I will be guiltless of the meaning.
Here are the keys;- there sits the duke asleep :
I'll to the king; and signify to him,
That I thus have resign'd to you my charge.

1 Murd. You may, sir; 'tis a point of wisdom:
Fare you well.
[Exit BRAKENBURY.
2 Murd. What, shall we stab him as he sleeps?
1 Murd. No; he'll say, 'twas done cowardly,
when he wakes.

2 Murd. When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never wake until the great judgment day.

1 Murd. Why, then he'll say, we stabb'd him sleeping.

2 Murd. The urging of that word, judgment, hath bred a kind of remorse in me.

1 Murd. What? art thou afraid?

2 Murd. Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; but to be damn'd for killing him, from the which no warrant can defend me.

1 Murd. I thought, thou hadst been resolute. 2 Murd. So I am, to let him live.

1 Murd. I'll back to the duke of Gloster, and tell him so.

2 Murd. Nay, I pr'ythee, stay a little: I hope, this holy humour of mine will change; it was wont to hold me but while one would tell twenty.

1 Murd. How dost thou feel thyself now? 2 Murd. 'Faith some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.

2 Murd. O excellent device! and make a sop of him.

Clar. You scarcely have the hearts to tell me so, And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it. Wherein, my friends, have I offended you?

1 Murd. Offended us you have not, but the king.
Clar. I shall be reconcil'd to him again.

2 Murd. Never, my lord; therefore prepare to die.
Clar. Are you call'd forth from out a world of men,
To slay the innocent? What is my offence?
Where is the evidence that doth accuse me?
What lawful quest ? have given their verdict up
Unto the frowning judge? or who pronounc'd
The bitter sentence of poor Clarence' death?

1 Murd. Remember our reward, when the deed's Before I be convict by course of law, done.

2 Murd. Come, he dies; I had forgot the reward. 1 Murd. Where's thy conscience now? 2 Murd. In the duke of Gloster's purse. 1 Murd. So when he opens his purse to give us our reward, thy conscience flies out.

2 Murd. 'Tis no matter; let it go; there's few, or none, will entertain it.

1 Murd. What, if it come to thee again?

2 Murd. I'll not meddle with it, it is a dangerous thing, it makes a man a coward; a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man cannot swear, but it checks him. 'Tis a blushing shame-faced spirit, that mutinies in a man's bosom; it fills one full of obstacles: it made me once restore a purse of gold, that by chance I found; it beggars any man that keeps it: it is turned out of all towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man, that means to live well, endeavours to trust to himself, and live without it.

1 Murd. 'Zounds, it is even now at my elbow, persuading me not to kill the duke.

2 Murd. Take the devil in thy mind, and believe him not he would insinuate with thee, but to make thee sigh.

1 Murd. I am strong-fram'd, he cannot prevail with me.

2 Murd. Spoke like a tall 9 fellow, that respects his reputation. Come, shall we fall to work? 1 Murd. Take him over the costard with the

To threaten me with death is most unlawful.
I charge you, as you hope for any goodness,
By Christ's dear blood shed for our grievous sins
That you depart, and lay no hands on me;
The deed you undertake is damnable.

1 Murd. What we will do, we do upon command.
2 Murd. And he, that hath commanded, is our king.
Clar. Erroneous vassal! the great King of kings
Hath in the table of his law commanded,
That thou shalt do no murder: Wilt thou then
Spurn at His edict, and fulfil a man's?
Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his hand,
To hurl upon their heads that break his law.
2 Murd. And that same vengeance doth he hurl
on thee,

For false forswearing, and for murder too:
Thou didst receive the sacrament, to fight
In quarrel of the house of Lancaster.

1 Murd. And like a traitor to the name of God, Didst break that vow; and, with thy treacherous blade,

Unrip'dst the bowels of thy sovereign's son.

2 Murd. Whom thou wast sworn to cherish and

defend.

1 Murd. How canst thou urge God's dreadful law

to us,

When thou hast broke it in such dear degree?

Clar. Alas! for whose sake did I that ill deed? For Edward, for my brother, for his sake: He sends you not to murder me for this; 2 Inquest, jury. 3. On the part.

ACT II.

K. Edw. Why, so: - now have I done a good Nor your son Dorset, day's work;

You peers continue this united league :

I every day expect an embassage
From my Redeemer to redeem me hence;
And more in peace my soul shall part to heaven,
Since I have made my friends at peace on earth.
Rivers, and Hastings, take each other's hand;
Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love.
Riv. By heaven, my soul is purg'd from grudging
hate!

And with my hand I seal my true heart's love.
Hast. So thrive I, as I truly swear the like!
K. Edw. Take heed, you dally not before your