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Thefe, as I learn, and fuch like toys as these 4,
Have mov'd his highness to commit me now.

Glo. Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by

women:

'Tis not the king, that fends you to the Tower;
My lady Grey his wife, Clarence, 'tis fhe,
That tempts him to this harsh extremity.
Was it not fhe, and that good man of worship,
Anthony Woodeville, her brother there,
That made him fend lord Haftings to the Tower;
From whence this present day he is deliver❜d?
We are not safe, Clarence, we are not safe.

Clar. By heaven, I think, there is no man fecure,
But the queen's kindred, and night-walking heralds
That trudge betwixt the king and miftrefs Shore.
Heard you not, what an humble fuppliant
Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?
Glo. Humbly complaining to her deity
Got my lord chamberlain his liberty.
I'll tell you what, I think, it is our way,
If we will keep in favour with the king,
To be her men, and wear her livery:

The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself, Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen, Are mighty goffips in this monarchy.

Brak. I befeech your graces both to pardon me; His majesty hath ftraitly given in charge, That no man fhall have private conference, Of what degree foever, with his brother.

Glo. Even fo? an please your worship, Brakenbury, You may partake of any thing we say:

We speak no treason, man;-We say, the king
Is wife, and virtuous; and his noble queen

4 -toys-] Fancies, freaks of imagination. JOHNSON. 5 Humbly complaining &c.] I think these two lines might be better given to Clarence. JOHNSON.

• The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,] That is, the queen and Shore. JOHNSON.

Well

Well ftruck in years 7; fair, and not jealous
We fay, that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a paffing pleafing tongue;
That the queen's kindred are made gentle-folks;
How fay you, fir? can you deny all this?

Brak. With this, my lord, myself have nought to do.

Glo. Naught to do with mistress Shore? I tell thee, fellow,

He that doth naught with her, excepting one,
Were beft to do it fecretly, alone.

Brak. What one, my lord?

Glo. Her husband, knave :-Would'st thou betray me?

Brak. I beseech your grace to pardon me; and,

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withal,

Forbear your conference with the noble duke.

Clar. We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will

obey.

8

Glo. We are the queen's abjects, and must obey. Brother, farewel: I will unto the king; And whatfoe'er you will employ me in,Were it, to call king Edward's widow-fifter,—

I will

7 Well ftruck in years ;] This odd expreffion in our language was preceded by one as uncouth though of a fimilar kind.

"Well thot in years he feem'd &c.] Spenfer's F. Queen, B. V. c. vi: The meaning of neither is very obvious; but as Mr. Warton has obferved in his Effay on the Faery Queen, by an imperceptible progreffion from one kindred fenfe to another, words at length obtain a meaning entirely foreign to their original etymology. STEEVENS.

-the queen's abjects- ] That is, not the queen's Subjects, whom she might protect, but her abjects, whom she drives away. JOHNSON.

9 Were it to call king Edward's widow-fifter,] This is a very covert and fubtle manner of infinuating treafon. The natural expreffion would have been, avere it to call king Edward's wife, fifter. I will folicit for you, though it fhould be at the expence of fo much degradation and constraint, as to own the low-born wife of King Edward for a fifter. But by flipping, as it were

cafually,

I will perform it, to enfranchise you.
Mean time, this deep difgrace in brotherhood,
Touches me deeper than you can imagine.

Clar. I know, it pleaseth neither of us well.
Glo. Well, your imprisonment fhall not be long;
I will deliver you, or elfe lye for you:

Mean time, have patience.

Clar. I muft perforce'; farewel.

[Exeunt Clarence and Brakenbury. Glo. Go, tread the path that thou fhalt ne'er return, Simple, plain Clarence !-I do love thee fo, That I will fhortly fend thy foul to heaven, If heaven will take the prefent at our hands. But who comes here? the new-deliver'd Haftings?

Enter Haftings.

Haft. Good time of day unto my gracious lord Glo. As much unto my good lord chamberlain ! Well are you welcome to this open air. How hath your lordship brook'd imprisonment? Haft. With patience, noble lord, as prifoners muft: But I fhall live, my lord, to give them thanks, That were the caufe of my imprisonment.

Glo. No doubt, no doubt; and fo fhall Clarence

too;

For they, that were your enemies, are his,
And have prevail'd as much on him, as you."

Haft. More pity, that the eagle fhould be mew'd2,

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cafually, widow, into the place of wife, he tempts Clarence with an oblique propofal to kill the king. JOHNSON.

King Edward's widow is, I believe, only an expreffion of contempt, meaning the widow Grey, whom Edward had chosen for his queen. Glofter has already called her, the jealous o'erworn widow. STEEVENS.

1 I must perforce.] Alluding to the proverb, "Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog." STEEVENS.

-hould be mew'd,] A mew was the place of confinement where a hawk was kept till he had moulted. So, in Albumazar:

"Stand

While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.

Glo. What news abroad?

Haft. No news fo bad abroad, as this at home ;The king is fickly, weak, and melancholy, And his phyficians fear him mightily.

Glo. Now, by faint Paul 3, that news is bad indeed.

O, he hath kept an evil diet long,

And over-much confum'd his royal perfon; "Tis very grievous to be thought upon. What, is he in his bed?

Haft. He is.

Glo. Go you before, and I will follow you.

[Exit Haftings.

He cannot live, I hope; and must not die,

'Till George be pack'd with post-horse up to heaven.
I'll in, to urge his hatred more to Clarence,
With lies well fteel'd with weighty arguments;
And, if I fail not in my deep intent,
Clarence hath not another day to live:

Which done, God take king Edward to his mercy,
And leave the world for me to buftle in!

For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter: What though I kill'd her husband, and her father? The readiest way to make the wench amends,

Is to become her husband, and her father:
The which will I; not all fo much for love,
As for another fecret close intent,

By marrying her, which I must reach unto.
But yet I run before my horfe to market:
Clarence still breathes; Edward ftill lives, and reigns;
When they are gone, then muft I count my gains.

"Stand forth, transform'd Antonio, fully mew'd
"From brown foar feathers of dull yeomanry,

"To the glorious bloom of gentry.

3 Now, by faint Paul,

Now, by faint John,

[Exit.

STEEVENS.

-] The folio reads:
STEEVENS,

SCENE

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Enter the corfe of Henry the fixth, with halberds to guard it; Lady Anne being the mourner.

Anne. Set down, fet down your honourable load,
If honour may be fhrouded in a hearse,-
Whilft I a while obfequioufly lament
The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.-
Poor key-cold figure of a holy king!
Pale afhes of the house of Lancaster!
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood!
Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost,
To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
Wife to thy Edward, to thy flaughter'd' fon,
Stabb'd by the felf-fame hand that made thefe
wounds!

Lo, in these windows, that let forth thy life,
I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes :-
O, curfed be the hand, that made these holes!
Curfed the heart, that had the heart to do it!
Curfed the blood, that let this blood from hence!
More direful hap betide that hated wretch,
That makes us wretched by the death of thee,
Than I can wifh to adders, fpiders, toads,

4

-obfequioufly lament] Obfequious, in this inftance, means funereal. So, in Hamlet, act I. fc. ii: STEEVENS.

5

"To do obfequious forrow." STEEvens.

-key-cold] A key, on account of the coldness of the metal of which it is compofed, was anciently employed to stop

any flight bleeding. The epithet is common to many old writers; among the reft, it is used by Decker in his Satiromaftix :

"It is beft you hide your head, for fear your wife brains take key-cold."

Again, in the Country Girl, by T. B. 1647:

"The key-cold figure of a man." STEEVENS.

Or

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