Here sheath thy sword, I'll pardon thee my death: What! wilt thou not ?-then, Clarence, do it thou. Clar. By heaven, I will not do thee so much ease. Q. Mar. Good Clarence, do; sweet Clarence, do thou do it. Clar. Didst thou not hear me swear, I would not do it. Q. Mar. Ay, but thou usest to forswear thyself; 'Twas sin before, but now 'tis charity. "What! wilt thou not? where is that devil's butcher, Hard-favour'd Richard? Richard, where art thou? Thou art not here: Murder is thy alms-deed; Petitioners for blood thou ne'er put'st back. K. Edw. Away, I say; I charge ye, bear her hence. Q. Mar. So come to you, and yours, as to this [Exit, led out forcibly. K. Edw. Where's Richard gone? prince! 'Clar. To London, all in post; and, as I guess, To make a bloody supper in the Tower. K. Edw. He's sudden, if a thing comes in his head. 'Now march we hence: discharge the common sort • With pay and thanks, and let's away to London, 'And see our gentle queen how well she fares; By this, I hope, she hath a son for me. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. London. A Room in the Tower. King HENRY is discovered sitting with a Book in his Hand, the Lieutenant attending. Enter GLOSTER. Glo. Good day, my lord! What, at your book so hard? 7'Twas sin before,] She alludes to the desertion of Clarence. Henry, the Lieutenant of the Tower: Publish'd by C.& F. Rivington Londen Dec.1.1803. K. Hen. Ay, my good lord: My lord, I should say rather; 'Tis sin to flatter, good was little better: Good Gloster, and good devil, were alike, * And both preposterous; therefore, not good lord. *Glo. Sirrah, leave us to ourselves: we must Exit Lieutenant. *K. Hen. So flies the reckless shepherd from the confer. wolf: *So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece, * And next his throat unto the butcher's knife.What scene of death hath Roscius now to act? Glo. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; The thief doth fear each bush an officer. 'K. Hen. The bird, that hath been limed in a bush, 'With trembling wings misdoubteth every bush: And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird, Have now the fatal object in my eye, Where my poor young was lim'd, was caught, and kill'd. Glo. Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete, 'That taught his son the office of a fowl? And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd. 'K. Hen. I, Dædalus; my poor boy, Icarus; Thy father, Minos, that denied our course; The sun, that sear'd the wings of my sweet boy, Thy brother Edward; and thyself, the sea, 'Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life. * Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words! My breast can better brook thy dagger's point, Than can my ears that tragick history. * But wherefore dost thou come? is't for my life? 'Glo. Think'st thou, I am an executioner? 8 K. Hen. A persecutor, I am sure, thou art; hapless male-] The word male is here used in a very uncommon sense, not for the male of the female, but for the male parent: the sweet bird is evidently his son Prince Edward. If murdering innocents be executing, "Why, then thou art an executioner. Glo. Thy son I kill'd for his presumption. K. Hen. Hadst thou been kill'd, when first thou didst presume, Thou hadst not liv'd to kill a son of mine. And thus I prophecy,-that many a thousand, Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear;9 'And many an old man's sigh, and many a widow's, And many an orphan's water-standing eye,'Men for their sons, wives for their husbands' fate, And orphans for their parents' timeless death,— 'Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born. The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil sign; 'The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time; Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempests shook down trees; The raven rook'd her' on the chimney's top, And chattering pies in dismal discords sung. Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain, And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope; To wit,-an indigest deformed lump, Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree. Teeth hadst thou in thy head, when thou wast born, To signify, thou cam'st to bite the world: And, if the rest be true which I have heard, 'Thou cam'st Glo. I'll hear no more;-Die, prophet, in thy speech: [Stabs him. For this, amongst the rest, was I ordain'd. K. Hen. Ay, and for much more slaughter after this. O God! forgive my sins, and pardon thee! [Dies. 9 Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear;] Who suspect no part of what my fears presage. 1 The raven rook'd her -] To rook, or rather to ruck, is a north-country word, signifying to squat down, or lodge on any thing. |