caps,

Then he was urg'd to tell my tale again;-
Thus faith the duke, thus hath the duke inferr'd ;
But nothing spoke in warrant from himself.
When he had done, fome followers of mine own,
At lower end o' the hall, hurl'd
up their
And fome ten voices cry'd, God fave king Richard!
And thus I took the vantage of those few,-
Thanks, gentle citizens, and friends, quoth I;
This general applaufe, and chearful fhout,.
Argues your wifdom, and your love to Richard:
And even here brake off, and came away.

Glo. What tonguelefs blocks were they; Would
they not speak?

Will not, the mayor then, and his brethren, come? Buck. The mayor is here at hand; 2 Intend fome fear;

Be not you spoke with, but by mighty fuit:
And look you get a prayer-book in your hand,
And ftand between two churchmen, good my lord;
For on that ground I'll make a holy defcant:
And be not eafily won to our requests;

Play the maid's part, ftill anfwer nay, and take it.
Glo. Igo; And if you plead as well for them,
3 As I can fay nay to thee for myself;
No doubt we'll bring it to a happy iffue.

2

[Exit Glofter.

intend fome fear] Perhaps, pretend; though intend

will stand in the fense of giving attention. JOHNSON.

One of the ancient fenfes of to intend was certainly to pretend. So, in fc. v. of this act;

7

Tremble and ffart at wagging of a ftraw,

Intending deep fufpicion. STEEVENS.

As I can fay, nay to thee,] I think it must be read:

if you plead as well for them

As I muft fay, nay to them for myself. JOHNSON. Perhaps the change is not neceffary. Buckingham is to plead -for the citizens; and if (fays Richard) you speak for them as plaufibly as I in my own perfon, or for my own purposes, shall feem to deny your fuit, there is no doubt but we shall bring all to a happy issue.

STEEVENS.

Buck.

Buck. Go, go, up to the leads; the lord mayor [Exit Glofter.

knocks.

Enter the Lord Mayor, and Citizens.

Welcome, my lord: I dance attendance here;
I think, the duke will not be fpoke withal.-

Enter Catesby.

Now, Catefby? what fays your lord to my request ?
Catef. He doth entreat your grace, my noble lord,
To vifit him to-morrow, or next day :

He is within, with two right reverend fathers,
Divinely bent to meditation;

And in no worldly fuit would he be mov'd,
To draw him from his holy exercise.

Buck. Return, good Catefby, to the gracious duke;
Tell him, myself, the mayor and aldermen,
In deep defigns, in matter of great moment,
No lefs importing than our general good,

Are come to have fome conference with his grace. Catef. I'll fignify fo much unto him straight. [Exit. Buck. Ah, ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward!

He is not lolling on a lewd day-bed,

But on his knees at meditation;

Not dallying with a brace of courtezans,
But meditating with two deep divines;
Not fleeping, to engrofs his idle body,
But praying, to enrich his watchful foul:
Happy were England, would this virtuous prince
Take on himself the fovereignty thereof;

But, fure, I fear, we fhall ne'er win him to it.
Mayor. Marry, God defend his grace fhould fay

us nay

y!

Buck. I fear, he will: Here Catesby comes again:

to engross] To fatten; to pamper. JOHNSON.

Re-enter

Re-enter Catesby.

Catefby, what fays your lord?

Catef. He wonders to what end you have affembled
Such troops of citizens to come to him,

His grace not being warn'd thereof before:
He fears, my lord, you mean no good to him.
Buck. Sorry I am, my noble cousin should
Sufpect me, that I mean no good to him :
By heaven, we come to him in perfect love;
And fo once more return and tell his grace.

[Exit Catefby.
When holy and devout religious men
Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence;
So fweet is zealous contemplation.

Enter Glofter above, between two Bishops. Catesby re

turns.

Mayor. See, where his grace ftands 'tween two clergymen !

Buck. Two props of virtue for a christian prince, To ftay him from the fall of vanity :

And, fee, a book of prayer in his hand;

True ornaments to know a holy man.-
Famous Plantagenet, moft gracious prince,
Lend favourable ear to our requests;
And pardon us the interruption

Of thy devotion, and right-christian zeal.

Glo. My lord, there needs no fuch apology; I rather do befeech you pardon me,

Who, earnest in the fervice of my God,

5 two bishops.] It should feem from a former paffage that these two clergymen, here called bishops, were Dr. Shaw, and Friar Penker already mentioned.

Go, Lovel, with all speed to Doctor Shaw:

Go thou to Friar Penker; bid them both

Meet me within this hour at Baynard's caftle. STEEVENS.

VOL. VII.

H

De

Deferr'd the vifitation of my friends.

But, leaving this, what is your grace's pleasure? Buck. Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above, And all good men of this ungovern'd ifle.

Glo. I do fufpect, I have done fome offence, That feems difgracious in the city's eye; And that you come to reprehend my ignorance. Buck. You have, my lord; Would it might please your grace,

On our entreaties, to amend your fault!

Glo. Elfe wherefore breathe I in a Christian land? Buck. Know, then, it is your fault, that you refign The fupreme feat, the throne majestical, The fcepter'd office of your ancestors, Your ftate of fortune, and your due of birth, The lineal glory of your royal house, To the corruption of a blemish'd stock: Whilft, in the mildnefs of your fleepy thoughts, (Which here we waken to our country's good) The noble ifle doth want her proper limbs ; Her face defac'd with fears of infamy, Her royal flock graft with ignoble plants, And almoft fhoulder'd in the swallowing gulph Of dark forgetfulness and deep oblivion.

And almofi fhoulder'd in the fwallowing gulf

Of dark forgetfulness

-]

What it is to be shoulder'd in a gulph, Hanmer is the only editor who feems not to have known: for the rest let it pass without obfervation. He reads:

Almoft shoulder'd into th' fwallowing gulph.

I believe we should read:

And almoft fmoulder'd in the fwallowing gulph,

That is, almoft mother'd, covered and loft. JOHNSON.

I fuppofe the old reading to be the true one. So, in the Barons' Wars, by Drayton, canto I:

"Stoutly t'affront and shoulder in debate." STEEVENS. Shoulder'd is, I believe, the true reading.-Not, thrust in by the fhoulders, but, immerfed up to the shoulders.

So, in Othello:

"Steep me in poverty to the very lips." MALONE.

Which to recure 7, we heartily folicit
Your gracious felf to take on you the charge
And kingly government of this your land:
Not as protector, fteward, fubftitute,
Or lowly factor for another's gain;
But as fucceffively, from blood to blood,
Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
For this, conforted with the citizens,
Your very worshipful and loving friends,
And by their vehement inftigation,

In this juft fuit come I to move your grace.
Glo. I cannot tell, if to depart in filence,
Or bitterly to speak in your reproof,
Beft fitteth my degree, or your condition :
For, not to answer, you might haply think,
Tongue-ty'd ambition, not replying, yielded
To bear the golden yoke of fovereignty,
Which fondly you would here impose on me;
If to reprove you for this fuit of yours,
So feafon'd with your faithful love to me,
Then, on the other fide, I check'd my friends.
Therefore, to speak, and to avoid the first;
And then, in speaking, not to incur the last,→
Definitively thus I answer you.

Your love deferves my thanks; but my defert
Unmeritable, fhuns your high request.

First, if all obstacles were cut away,
And that my path were even to the crown,
As the ripe revenue and due of birth;
Yet fo much is my poverty of fpirit,
So mighty, and fo many, my defects,

That I would rather hide me from my greatnefs,-
Being a bark to brook no mighty fea,-
Than in my greatness covet to be hid,

This word is fre

7. Which to recure,] To recure is to recover. quently used by Spenfer; and both as a verb and a fubftantive in Lylly's Endymion, 1591. STEEVENS.