Clar. Tell him, when that our princely father
York

Bless'd his three sons with his victorious arm,
And charg'd us from his soul to love each other,
He little thought of this divided friendship:
Bid Gloster think on this, and he will weep.

1 Murd. Ay, mill-stones; as he lesson'd us to weep.

Clar. O! do not slander him, for he is kind. 1 Murd. Right; as snow in harvest.-Come, you deceive yourself;

'Tis he that sends us to destroy you here.

Clar. It cannot be; for he bewept my fortune, And hugg'd me in his arms, and swore, with sobs, That he would labour my delivery.

1 Murd. Why, so he doth, when he delivers

you

From this earth's thraldom to the joys of heaven. 2 Murd. Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord.

Clar. Have you that holy feeling in your souls, To counsel me to make my peace with God, And are you yet to your own souls so blind, That you will war with God by murdering me?O! sirs, consider, they that set you on To do this deed, will hate you for the deed. 2 Murd. What shall we do?

Clar. Relent, and save your souls. Which of you, if you were a prince's son, Being pent from liberty, as I am now, If two such murderers as yourselves came to you,

164*

Would not entreat for life, as you would beg
Were you in my distress?

1 Murd. Relent! no: 'tis cowardly, and womanish.
Clar. Not to relent, is beastly, savage, devilish.-
My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks;
O! if thine eye be not a flatterer,

Come thou on my side, and entreat for me.
A begging prince what beggar pities not?
2 Murd. Look behind you, my lord.

1 Murd. Take that, and that: if all this will not
do,
[Stabs him.

I'll drown you in the malmsey-butt within.

[Exit, with the body. 2 Murd. A bloody deed, and desperately despatch'd!

How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands
Of this most grievous guilty murder done.

Re-enter first Murderer.

SCENE 1.-London. A Room in the Palace.

Enter King EDWARD, led in sick, Queen ELIZABETH, DORSET, RIVERS, HASTINGS, BUCKINGHAM, GREY, and others.

K. Edw. Why, so:-now have I done a good day's work.

You peers, continue this united league:
I every day expect an embassage

From my Redeemer to redeem me hence;
And now 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
king,

Lest he, that is the supreme King of kings,
Confound your hidden falsehood, and award
Either of you to be the other's end.

Hast. So prosper I, as I swear perfect love.
Riv. And I, as I love Hastings with my heart.
K. Edw. Madam, yourself are not exempt from
this,-

Nor you, son Dorset,-Buckingham, nor you:
You have been factious one against the other.
Wife, love lord Hastings, let him kiss your hand;
And what you do, do it unfeignedly.

Q. Eliz. There, Hastings:-I will never more remember

Our former hatred, so thrive I, and mine.

K. Edw. Dorset, embrace him,-Hastings, love lord marquess.

Dor. This interchange of love, I here protest, Upon my part shall be inviolable.

Hast. And so swear I.

With hate in those where I expect most love.
When I have most need to employ a friend,
And most assured that he is a friend,
Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile,
Be he unto me. This do I beg of heaven,
When I am cold in love to you, or yours.

K. Edw. A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham,

Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.
There wanteth now our brother Gloster here,
To make the blessed period of this peace.
Buck. And, in good time, here comes the noble
duke.

Enter GLOSTER.

Glo. Good-morrow to my sovereign king, and

queen;

And, princely peers, a happy time of day!

K. Edw. Happy, indeed, as we have spent the day.

Gloster, we have done deeds of charity;
Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate,
Between these swelling wrong-incensed peers.

Glo. A blessed labour, my most sovereign lord.-
Among this princely heap, if any here,
By false intelligence, or wrong surmise,
Hold me a foe;

If I unwittingly, or in my rage,

Have aught committed that is hardly borne
By any in this presence, I desire

To reconcile me to his friendly peace:
'Tis death to me, to be at enmity;

I hate it, and desire all good men's love.-
First, madam, I entreat true peace of you,
Which I will purchase with my duteous service;
Of you, my noble cousin Buckingham,

If ever any grudge were lodg'd between us;
Of you, and you, lord Rivers, and of Dorset,
That all without desert have frown'd on me;
Of you, lord Woodville, and lord Scales, of you;
Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen; indeed, of all.
I do not know that Englishman alive,
With whom my soul is any jot at odds,
More than the infant that is born to-night:
I thank my God for my humility.

Q. Eliz. A holy day shall this be kept hereafter:

I would to God, all strifes were well compounded.-
My sovereign lord, I do beseech your highness
To take our brother Clarence to your grace.

Glo. Why, madam, have I offer'd love for this, To be so flouted in this royal presence? Who knows not, that the gentle duke is dead? [They all start. You do him injury to scorn his corse. K. Edw. Who knows not, he is dead! who knows he is?

Q. Eliz. All-seeing heaven, what a world is this! Buck. Look 1 so pale, lord Dorset, as the rest? Dor. Ay, my good lord; and no man in the presence,

But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.

K. Edw. Is Clarence dead? the order was revers'd.

Glo. But he, poor man, by your first order died,
And that a winged Mercury did bear;
Some tardy cripple bare the countermand,
That came too lag to see him buried.

God grant, that some, less noble, and less loyal,
Nearer in bloody thoughts, and not in blood,
Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,
And yet go current from suspicion.

Enter STANLEY.

Stan. A boon, my sovereign, for my service done! K. Edw. I pr'ythee, peace: my soul is full of

sorrow.

Stan. I will not rise, unless your highness hear

me.

K. Edw. Then say at once, what is it thou request❜st.

Stan. The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant's life;

Who slew to-day a riotous gentleman,
Lately attendant on the duke of Norfolk.

K. Edw. Have I a tongue to doom my brother's death,

And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave?
My brother kill'd no man, his fault was thought,
And yet his punishment was bitter death.
Who sued to me for him? who, in my wrath,
Kneel'd at my feet, and bade me be advis'd?
Who spoke of brotherhood? who spoke of love?
Who told me, how the poor soul did forsake
The mighty Warwick, and did fight for me?
Who told me, in the field at Tewksbury,
When Oxford had me down, he rescu'd me,
And said, "Dear brother, live, and be a king?"
Who told me, when we both lay in the field,
Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
Even in his garments; and did give himself,
All thin and naked, to the numb-cold night?
All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
Sinfully pluck'd, and not a man of you
Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
But when your carters, or your waiting-vassals,
Have done a drunken slaughter, and defac'd
The precious image of our dear Redeemer,
You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon;
And I, unjustly too, must grant it you.
But for my brother not a man would speak,

Nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself
For him, poor soul.-The proudest of you all
Have been beholding to him in his life,
Yet none of you would once beg for his life.-
O God! I fear, thy justice will take hold

On me, and you, and mine, and yours, for this.-
Come, Hastings, help me to my closet. Ah, poor
Clarence!

[Exeunt King, Queen, HASTINGS, RIVERS, DORSET, and GREY.

Glo. This is the fruit of rashness.-Mark'd you

not,

How that the guilty kindred of the queen
Look'd pale, when they did hear of Clarence' death?

Duch. Peace, children, peace! the king doth love you well.

Incapable and shallow innocents,

You cannot guess who caus'd your father's death.
Son. Grandam, we can; for my good uncle
Gloster

Told me, the king, provok'd to it by the queen,
Devis'd impeachments to imprison him:
And when my uncle told me so, he wept,

And pitied me, and kindly kiss'd my cheek;
Bade me rely on him, as on my father,
And he would love me dearly as a child.
Duch. Ah! that deceit should steal such gentle
shape,

And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice!
He is my son, ay, and therein my shame,
Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.
Son. Think you, my uncle did dissemble, gran-
dam?
Duch. Ay, boy.

Son. I cannot think it. Hark! what noise is this! Enter Queen ELIZABETH, distractedly; RIVERS, and DORSET, following her.

Q. Eliz. Ah! who shall hinder me to wail and weep,

To chide my fortune, and torment myself?
I'll join with black despair against my soul,
And to myself become an enemy.

Duch. What means this scene of rude impatience? Q. Eliz. To make an act of tragic violence:Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead!

Why grow the branches, when the root is gone?
Why wither not the leaves, that want their sap?-
If you will live, lament; if die, be brief;
That our swift-winged souls may catch the
king's;

Or, like obedient subjects, follow him

To his new kingdom of ne'er changing night.
Duch. Ah! so much interest have I in thy sorrow,
As I had title in thy noble husband.

I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
And liv'd with looking on his images;

But now, two mirrors of his princely semblance
Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death,
And I for comfort have but one false glass,
That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
Thou art a widow; yet thou art a mother,
And hast the comfort of thy children left:

But death hath snatch'd my husband from mine

arms,

And pluck'd two crutches from my feeble hands,
Clarence, and Edward. O! what cause have I,
(Thine being but a moiety of my moan,)
To over-go thy woes, and drown thy cries?

Son. Ah, aunt! you wept not for our father's death;

How can we aid you with our kindred tears? Daugh. Our fatherless distress was left unmoan'd;

Your widow-dolour likewise be unwept.

Q. Eliz. Give me no help in lamentation; I am not barren to bring forth complaints. All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes, That I, being govern'd by the watry moon, May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world! Ah, for my husband, for my dear lord, Edward! Chil. Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clarence!

Duch. Alas, for both! both mine, Edward and Clarence.

Q. Eliz. What stay had I, but Edward? and he's gone.

Chil. What stay had we, but Clarence? and

Q. Eliz. Was never widow had so dear a loss. Chil. Were never orphans had so dear a loss. Duch. Was never mother had so dear a loss. Alas! I am the mother of these griefs: Their woes are parcell'd, mine are general. She for an Edward weeps, and so do I; I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she: These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I: I for an Edward weep, so do not they :Alas! you three on me, threefold distress'd, Pour all your tears, I am your sorrow's nurse, And I will pamper it with lamentation.

Dor. Comfort, dear mother: God is much displeas'd,

That you take with unthankfulness his doing.
In common worldly things, 'tis call'd ungrateful,
With dull unwillingness to repay a debt,
Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
Much more to be thus opposite with heaven,
For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

Riv. Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother, Of the young prince your son: send straight for him,

Let him be crown'd; in him your comfort lives. Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward's grave, And plant your joys in living Edward's throne.

Enter GLOSTEr, Buckingham, Stanley, HaSTINGS, RATCLIFF, and others.

Glo. Sister, have comfort: all of us have cause
To wail the dimming of our shining star;
But none can help our harms by wailing them.—
Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy;

I did not see your grace.-Humbly on my knee
I crave your blessing.

Duch. God bless thee; and put meekness in thy breast,

Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.

Glo. Amen;-[Aside.]—and make me die a good old man!—

That is the butt-end of a mother's blessing;

I marvel, that her grace did leave it out.
Buck. You cloudy princes, and heart-sorrowing

peers,

That bear this heavy mutual load of moan,
Now cheer each other in each other's love:
Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
We are to reap the harvest of his son.
The broken rancour of your high-swoln hates,
But lately splinter'd, knit, and join'd together,
Must gently be preserv'd, cherish'd, and kept:
Me seemeth good, that, with some little train,
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fet
Hither to London, to be crown'd our king.

Riv. Why with some little train, my lord of
Buckingham?

Buck. Marry, my lord, lest, by a multitude,
The new-heal'd wound of malice should break out;
Which would be so much the more dangerous,
By how much the estate is green, and yet un-
govern'd:

Where every horse bears his commanding rein,
And may direct his course as please himself,
As well the fear of harm, as harm apparent,
In my opinion, ought to be prevented.

Glo. I hope the king made peace with all of us ; And the compact is firm, and true, in me.

Riv. And so in me; and so, I think, in all: Yet, since it is but green, it should be put To no apparent likelihood of breach, Which, haply, by much company might be urg'd: Therefore, I say with noble Buckingham, That it is meet so few should fetch the prince. Hast. And so say I.

Glo. Then be it so; and go we to determine Who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow. Madam, and you my sister,-will you go To give your censures in this business?

[Exeunt all but BUCKINGHAM and GLOSTER.
Buck. My lord, whoever journeys to the prince,
For God's sake, let not us two stay at home:
For by the way I'll sort occasion,

As index to the story we late talk'd of,
To part the queen's proud kindred from the prince.
Glo. My other self, my counsel's consistory,
My oracle, my prophet!-My dear cousin,
I, as a child, will go by thy direction.
Towards Ludlow then, for we'll not stay behind.
[Excunt.

SCENE III.-The Same. A Street.

Enter two Citizens, meeting.

1 Cit. Good morrow, neighbour: whither away so fast?

2 Cit. I promise you, I scarcely know myself. Hear you the news abroad?