Glo. Margaret.

2. Mar. Richard!

Glo. Ha

2. Mar. I call thee not.

Glo. I cry thee mercy then; for I did think, That thou had'ft call'd me all thefe bitter names. 2. Mar. Why, fo I did; but look'd for no reply. O, let me make the period to my curfe.

Glo. "Tis done by me; and ends in-Margaret. Queen. Thus have you breath'd your curse against yourself.

2. Mar. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune 3!

Why ftrew'st thou fugar on that 4 bottled spider,
Whose deadly web enfnareth thee about?

Fool, fool! thou whet'ft a knife to kill thyself.
The day will come, that thou fhalt with for me
To help thee curfe this pois'nous bunch-back'd toad.
Haft. Falfe-boding woman, end thy frantick curse;
Left, to thy harm, thou move our patience.

2. Mar. Foul fhame upon you! you have all mov'd mine.

i.e. the ruin and deftruction of honour; which, I fuppofe, was first writ rack, and then further corrupted to rag. WARBURTON.

Rag is, in my opinion, right, and intimates that much of his honour is torn away. Patch is, in the fame manner, a contemptuous appellation. JOHNSON.

This word of contempt is used again in Timon :

"If thou wilt curfe, thy father, that poor rag,
"Must be the fubject.”

Again, in this play:

3

"Thefe over-weening rags of France." STEEVENS. flourish of my fortune!] This expreffion is likewife ufed by Maffinger in the Great Duke of Florence:

As flourishings of fortune." STEEVENs.

bottled fpider,] A fpider is called bottled, becaufe, like other infects, he has a middle flender and a belly protuberant. Richard's form and venom, make her liken him to a spider.

JOHNSON.

Riv.

Riv. Were you well ferv'd, you would be taught

your duty.

2. Mar. To ferve me well, you all should do me duty,

Teach me to be your queen, and you my fubjects: O, ferve me well, and teach yourselves that duty. Dorf. Difpute not with her, fhe is lunatic.

2. Mar. Peace, mafter marquis, you are malapert; Your fire-new ftamp of honour is fcarce current: O, that your young nobility could judge, What 'twere to lofe it, and be miferable!

They that ftand high, have many blafts to fhake them;

And, if they fall, they dafh themfelves to pieces. Glo. Good counfel, marry ;-learn it, learn it, marquis.

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

And dallies with the wind, and fcorns the fun."

2. Mar. And turns the fun to fhade;-alas! alas!— Witness my fun, now in the fhade of death; Whofe bright out-fhining beams thy cloudy wrath Hath in eternal darkness folded up.

5 Peace, mafter marquis; you are malapert; &c.] Shakespeare may either allude to the late creation of the marquis of Dorfet, or to the inftitution of the title of marquis here in England, as a special dignity, which was no older than Richard II. Robert Vere, earl of Oxford, was the first, who, as a distinct dignity, received the title of marquis, 1ft December, anno nono Richardi fecundi. See Afhmole's Hiftory of the Order of the Garter, p. 456. GRAY.

Peace, mafter marquis, you are malapert;] As near a hundred years had elapfed between the time when the title of marquis was first inftituted in England, and the creation of this Thomas Grey marquis of Dorfet, I think Shakespeare can hardly allude to the institution of the dignity itfelf; much lefs could he call it a fire-new fiamp of honour fearce current. Robert Vere, the first created marquis received this new title, A. D. 1386. Thomas Grey was created marquis of Dorfet, A. D. 1476. PERCY.

Your

Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's neft:-
O God, that fee'ft it, do not suffer it ;
As it was won with blood, loft be it fo!

Buck. Peace, peace, for fhame, if not for charity. 2. Mar. Urge neither charity nor fhame to me; Uncharitably with me have you dealt,

And fhamefully by you my hopes are butcher'd.
My charity is outrage, life my fhame,-

And in my fhame ftill live my forrow's rage!
Buck. Have done, have done.

2. Mar. O princely Buckingham, I'll kifs thy hand,
In fign of league and amity with thee:
Now fair befal thee, and thy noble house!
Thy garments are not fpotted with our blood,
Nor thou within the compafs of my curfe.
Buck. Nor no one here; for curfes never pafs
The lips of those that breathe them in the air.
2. Mar. I'll not believe but they afcend the fky,
And there awake God's gentle-fleeping peace.
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 fet their marks
And all their minifters attend on him.
Glo. What doth fhe fay, my lord of Buckingham?
Buck. Nothing that I refpect, my gracious lord.
2. Mar. What, doft thou fcorn me for my gentle
counsel ?

upon

And footh the devil that I warn thee from ?

him;

Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's neft :-] An aiery is a hawk's or an eagle's neft. So, in Green's Card of Fancy, 1608:

It is a fubtle bird that breeds among the aiery of hawks." Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630:

"His high-built diery fhall be drown'd in blood."

Again, in Maffinger's Maid of Honour :

"One aiery, with proportion, ne'er difclofes

"The eagle and the wren.'

D 2

STEEVENS.

O, but

O, but remember this another day,

When he fhall split thy very heart with forrow;
And fay, poor Margaret was a prophetefs.-
Live each of you the fubjects to his hate,

8

And he to yours, and all of you to God's! [Exit.
Buck. My hair doth ftand on end to hear her curfes.
Riv. And fo doth mine; I wonder, fhe's at liberty
Glo. I cannot blame her, by God's holy mother;
She hath had too much wrong, and I repent.
My part thereof, that I have done to her.

Queen. I never did her any, to my knowledge.
Glo. Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong.
I was too hot to do fome body good,
That is too cold in thinking of it now.
Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repay'd;
"He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains;-
God pardon them that are the cause thereof!
Riv. A virtuous and a chriftian-like conclufion,

7 Live each of you the fubjects to his hate,

And he to yours, and all of you to God's!]

It is evident from the conduct of Shakespeare, that the house of Tudor retained all their Lancaftrian prejudices, even in the reign of queen Elizabeth. In this play of Richard, the Third, he feems to reduce the woes of the house of York from the curfes which queen Margaret had vented against them; and he could not give that weight to her curfes, without fuppofing a right in ⚫her to utter them. WALPOLE.

8

reads:

I wonder she's at liberty.] Thus the quarto. The folio

I mufe, why fhe's at liberty. STEEVENS. 9 He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains ;-] A frank is an old English word for a bog-fly. 'Tis poffible he ufes this metaphor to Clarence, in allufion to the creft of the family of York, which was a boar, Whereto relate those famous old verses on Richard III:

The cat, the rat, and Lovel the dog,
Rule all England under a hog.

He uses the fame metaphor in the laft fcene of act IV. POPE. A frank was not a common hog-ftye, but the pen in which those hogs were confined of whom brawn was to be made.

STEEVENS.

To

To pray for them that have done fcathe to us'.
Glo. So do I ever, being well advis'd;-
For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myfelf. [Afide.

Enter Catesby.

Catef. Madam, his majefty doth call for you,And for your grace,—and you, my noble lords. Queen. Catefby, I come :-Lords, will you go with me?

Riv. Madam, we will attend your grace.

Exeunt all but Glofter.
Glo. I do the wrong, and firft begin to brawl.
The fecret mifchiefs that I fet abroach,
I lay unto the grievous charge of others.
Clarence,-whom I, indeed, have laid in darkness,-
I do beweep to many fimple gulls;

Namely, to Stanley, Haftings, Buckingham;
And tell them-'tis the queen and her allies,
That ftir the king against the duke my brother.
Now they believe it; and withal whet me
To be reveng'd on Rivers, Vaughan, Grey:
But then I figh, and, with a piece of fcripture,
Tell them-that God bids us do good for evil :
And thus I clothe my naked villainy

With old odd ends, ftol'n forth of holy writ;
And seem à faint, when most I play the devil.

Enter two Murderers.

But foft, here come my executioners.-
How now, my hardy, ftout, refolved mates?
Are you now going to difpatch this thing?

-done fcathe to us.] Scathe is harm, mischief. So, in Soliman and Perfeda:

Again:

"Whom now that paltry island keeps from feath."

"Millions of men oppreft with ruin and feath."

D 3

STEEVENS.

I Mur.