Hast. False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse, Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.

Q. Mar. Foul shame upon you! you have all mov'd mine.
Riv. Were you well serv'd, you would be taught your duty.
Q. Mar. To serve me well, you all should do me duty,
Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects;
O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty.
Dor. Dispute not with her, she is lunatic.

Q. Mar. Peace, master marquis, you are malapert:
Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current:
O, that your young nobility could judge
What 't were to lose it, and be miserable!

They that stand high have many blasts to shake them;
And if they fall they dash themselves to pieces.

Glo. Good counsel, marry; learn it, learn it, marquis.
Dor. It touches you, my lord, as much as me.

Glo. Ay, and much more: But I was born so high,
Our aiery 1 buildeth in the cedar's top,

And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun.

Q. Mar. And turns the sun to shade ;-alas! alas!
Witness my son, now in the shade of death;
Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath
Hath in eternal darkness folded up.

Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's nest;
O God, that seest it, do not suffer it;
As it was won with blood, lost be it so!

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

And shamefully my hopes by you are butcher'd.
My charity is outrage, life my shame,—

And in that shame still live my sorrow's rage!
Buck. Have done, have done.

Q. Mar. O princely Buckingham, I'll kiss thy hand,

In sign of league and amity with thee:

Now fair befall thee and thy noble house!

Thy garments are not spotted with our blood,
Nor thou within the compass of my curse.

Buck. Nor no one here; for curses never pass
The lips of those that breathe them in the air.

Q. Mar. I will not think but they ascend the sky,
And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace.
O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog;
Look, when he fawns he bites; and, when he bites,

(1) Our aiery. Aiery is here used for an eagle; sometimes it means an eagle's

nest.

His venom tooth will rankle to the death:
Have not to do with him, beware of him;
Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him;
And all their ministers attend on him.

Glo. What doth she say, my lord of Buckingham?
Buck. Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord.

Q. Mar. What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counsel, And soothe the devil that I warn thee from?

O, but remember this another day,

When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow;

And say, poor Margaret was a prophetess.
Live each of you the subjects to his hate,

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

[Exit.

Hast. My hair doth stand on end to hear her curses.

Riv. And so doth mine; I muse why she's at liberty.
Glo. I cannot blame her;

She hath had too much wrong, and I repent

My part thereof, that I have done to her.

Q. Eliz. I never did her any, to my knowledge.

Glo. Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong.

I was too hot to do somebody good,
That is too cold in thinking of it now.
Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid;
He is frank'd up1 to fatting for his pains;
God pardon them that are the cause thereof!
Riv. A virtuous and christianlike conclusion,
To pray for them that have done scath to us.
Glo. So do I ever, being well advis'd :-
For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myself.
Enter CATESBY.

Cate. Madam, his majesty doth call for you,

And for your grace,—and you, my noble lord.

[Aside.

Q. Eliz. Catesby, I come :-Lords, will you go with me? Riv. We wait upon your grace.

[Exit all but GLOSTER.

Glo. I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.

The secret mischiefs that I set abroach

I lay unto the grievous charge of others.

Clarence, whom I, indeed, have cast in darkness,—

I do beweep to many simple gulls;

Namely, to Stanley, Hastings, Buckingham;

And tell them, 'tis the queen and her allies

That stir the king against the duke my brother.

Now they believe it; and withal whet me

(1) He is frank'd up. A frank is an old word for a hogsty. We use a similar expression, viz. "cooped up." Richard here alludes to Clarence being imprisoned after all that he had done for his brother, Edward IV.

To be reveng'd on Rivers, Dorset, Grey:
But then I sigh, and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them, that God bids us do good for evil :
And thus I clothe my naked villany

With odd old ends, stolen forth of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
Enter two Murderers.

But soft, here come my executioners.

How now, my hardy, stout, resolved mates?
Are you now going to despatch this thing?

1 Murd. We are, my lord; and come to have the warrant, That we may be admitted where he is.

Glo. Well thought upon, I have it here about me:

[Gives the warrant.

When you have done, repair to Crosby-place.
But, sirs, be sudden in the execution,
Withal obdurate, do not hear him plead;

For Clarence is well spoken, and, perhaps,

May move your hearts to pity, if you mark him.

1 Murd. Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand to prate; Talkers are no good doers; be assur'd

We go to use our hands, and not our tongues.

Glo. Your eyes drop millstones, when fools' eyes fall tears : I like you, lads;-about your business straight;

Go, go, despatch.

2 Murd.

We will, my noble lord.

SCENE IV.-The same.-A Room in the Tower.

Enter CLARENCE and BRAKENBURY.

Brak. Why looks your grace so heavily to-day?
Clar. O, I have pass'd a miserable night,
So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,
That, as I am a christian faithful man,1
I would not spend another such a night,

Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days;

So full of dismal terror was the time.

[Exeunt.

Brak. What was your dream, my lord? I pray you, tell me. Clar. Methought that I had broken from the Tower,

And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy;

And in my company my brother Gloster:

Who from my cabin tempted me to walk

Upon the hatches; there we look'd toward England,
And cited up a thousand heavy times,

During the wars of York and Lancaster

(1) Faithful man. One of the true faith; not an infidel.

That had befall'n us. As we pac'd along
Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,

Methought that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling,
Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard,
Into the tumbling billows of the main.

O Lord! methought what pain it was to drown!
What dreadful noise of water in mine ears!
What sights of ugly death within mine eyes!
Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon;
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,1

All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea.

Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in those holes
Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept,
As 'twere in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems,
That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep,
And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatter'd by.
Brak. Had you such leisure in the time of death
To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?

Clar. Methought I had; and often did I strive
To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood
Stopt in my soul, and would not let it forth
To find the empty, vast, and wand'ring air;
But smother'd it within my panting bulk,
Which almost burst to belch it in the sea.

Brak. Awak'd you not in this sore agony?
Clar. No, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life;
O, then began the tempest to my soul!

I pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood
With that sour ferryman2 which poets wrote of,
Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.

The first that there did greet my stranger soul
Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick;
Who spake aloud,-"What scourge for perjury 3
Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?"
And so he vanish'd: Then came wandering by
A shadow like an angel, with bright hair
Dabbled in blood; and he shriek'd out aloud,--

(1) Unvalued jewels. Unvalued is here used for invaluable. (2) With that sour ferryman. Charon, whom mythological writers assert to be the keeper of the boat which carries the dead over the river Styx into hell.

(3) What scourge for perjury? Clarence, who had married one of the daughters of Warwick, pretended to take part with him and Queen Margaret, but the night before the battle of Barnet he deserted to Edward IV. with all his men, and through this the Lancastrians were defeated, and Warwick slain.

(4) A shadow like an angel. Edward, prince of Wales, the son of Henry VI. and Margaret, who was killed after the battle of Tewkesbury, is here intended.

"Clarence is come, false, fleeting,1 perjur'd Clarence,-
That stabb'd me in the field by Tewkesbury;
Seize on him, furies, take him unto torment!'
With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends
Environ'd me, and howled in mine ears
Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise
I trembling wak'd, and, for a season after,
Could not believe but that I was in hell;
Such terrible impression made my dream.
Brak. No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you;
I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.

Clar. O, Brakenbury, I have done these things,—
That now give evidence against my soul,-
For Edward's sake; and see how he requites me!
O God! if my deep prayers cannot appease thee,
But thou wilt be aveng'd on my misdeeds,
Yet execute thy wrath on me alone:

O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children!

I pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me;

My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.

Brak. I will, my lord: God give your grace good rest!—

Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours,—

[CLAR. retires.

Makes the night morning, and the noontide night.
Princes have but their titles for their glories,2
An outward honour for an inward toil;

And, for unfelt imaginations3

They often feel a world of restless cares:
So that, between their titles, and low name,
There's nothing differs but the outward fame.

Enter the two Murderers.

1 Murd. Ho! who's here?

Brak. What wouldst thou, fellow? and how cam'st thou hither?

1 Murd. I would speak with Clarence, and I came hither on my legs.

Brak. What, so brief?

2 Murd. 'Tis better, sir, than to be tedious :--let him see our commission, and talk no more.

[A paper is delivered to BRAK., who reads it.

Brak. I am, in this, commanded to deliver The noble duke of Clarence to your hands:

(1) Fleeting means changing sides.

(2) Have but their titles for their glories; i. e. the glories of princes are nothing

but mere titles.

(3) And for unfelt imaginations; &c., i. e. they suffer real miseries for imaginary and unreal gratifications.