Nay, do not pause; for I did kill king Henry ;-
Bettwas thy beauty that provok'd me.
Nay, now despatch; 'twas I that stabb'd young Ed-
ward;- She again offers at his Breast.
But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on.
[She lets fall the Sword.
Take up the sword again, or take up me.
Anne. Arise, dissembler; though I wish thy death.
I will not be thy executioner.
Gle. Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.
Anne. I have already.
Gin.
That was in thy rage:
Seak it again, and, even with the word,

This hand, which for thy love, did kill thy love,
Sall, for thy love, kill a far truer love;

To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.
Anne, I would. I knew thy heart.
Go. 'Tis figur'd in my tongue.
Anne. I fear me, both are false.

Glo. Then man was never true.
Anne. Well, well, put up your sword.
Glo. Say then, my peace is made.
Anne. That shall you know hereafter.
Gio. But shall I live in hope?
Anne. All men, I hope, live so.
Glo. Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
Anne. To take, is not to give.

[She puts on the Ring. Glo. Look, how this ring encompasseth thy

finger,

To him that hath more cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby-place:7
Where-after I have solemnly interr'd,
At Chertsey monastry this noble king,

And wet his grave with iny repentant tears,—
I will with all expedient duty see you.

For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you,
Grant me this boon.

Anne. With all my heart; and much it joys me too,

I see you are become so penitent.-
Tesel, and Berkley, go along with me.
Glo. Bid me farewell.
Anne.
'Tis more than you deserve;
But, since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

Exeunt Lady ANNE, TRESSEL, and BERKLEY.
G. Take up the corse, sirs,
Gent.
Towards Chertsey, noble lord?
Gio. No, to White Friars; there attend my com-
ing. [Exeunt the rest, with the Corpse.
Wes ever woman in this humor woo'd!
Was ever woman in this humor won?

Lave her, but I will not keep her long. What! I, that kill'd her husband, and his father, To take her in her heart's extremest hate; With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes, The bleeding witness of her hatred by;

With God, her conscience, and these bars against

Ine.

And I no triends to back my suit withal,
But the plain devil and dissembling looks,
And yet to win her,-all the world to nothing!
Ha!

Jath she forgot already that brave prince.
Edward, her lord, whom I some three months since
abb'd in my angry mood at Tewksbury!
A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,--
Frained in the prodigality of nature,

Loung, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,-
The spacious world cannot again afford:
And will she yet abase her eyes on me,

That cropp'd the golden prime of this sweet

Myself to be a marvellous proper man.
I'll be at charges for a looking-glass;
And entertain a score or two of tailors,
To study fashions to adorn my body;
Since I am crept in favor with myself,
I will maintain it with some little cost.
But, first, I'll turn von fellow in his grave;
And then return lamenting to my love.-
Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,
That I may see my shadow as I pass. [Exr

SCENE III-A Room in the Palace.
Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, LORD RIVERS, and LORD
GREY.

Riv. Have patience, madam; there's no doubt his majesty

Will soon recover his accustom'd health.

Grey. In that you brook it ill, it makes him

Grey. No other harm, but loss of such a lord.
Q. Eliz The loss of such a lord includes all harms.
Grey. The heavens have bless'd you with a
goodly son,

To be your comforter, when he is gone.

Q. Eliz. Ah, he is young; and his minority
Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloster,
A man that loves not me, nor none of you.
Riv. Is it concluded, he shall be protector?
Q. Eliz. It is determin'd, not concluded yet:
But so it must be, if the king miscarry.

Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY.

Grey. Here come the lords of Buckingham and Stanley.

Buck. Good time of day unto your royal grace! Stan. God make your majesty joyful as you

have been!

Q. Eliz. The countess Richmond, good my lord

of Stanley,

To your good prayer will scarcely say-amen.
Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she's your wife,
And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd,
I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

Stan. I do beseech you, either not believe
The envious slanders of her false accusers;
Or, if she be accus'd on true report,
Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds
From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.
Q. Eliz. Saw you the king to-day, my lord of
Stanley!

Stan. But now the duke of Buckingham, and I, Are come from visiting his majesty.

Q. Eliz. What likelihood of his amendment, lords!

Buck. Madam, good hope; his grace speaks cheerfully.

Q. Eliz. God grant him health! Did you confer with him?

Buck. Ay, madam, he desires to make atonement Between the duke of Gloster and your brothers, And between them and my lord chamberlain; And sent to warn them to his royal presence. Q. Eliz. Would all were well!-But that wil never be ;

I fear, our happiness is at the height.

Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET.
Glo. They do me wrong, and I will not endure
it.-

Who are they, that complain unto the king,
That I, forsooth, am stern, and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly,
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumors.
Because I cannot flatter, and speak fair,

Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,
! Duck with French nods, and apish courtesy,
I must be held a rancorous enemy.
Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm,
But thus his simple truth must be abus'd
By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks ??

Grey. To whom, in all this presence speaks your
grace?

Glo. To thee, that hast nor honesty, nor grace. When have I injur'd thee? when done thee wrong1

Low fellows.

Q. Ma. And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me.

If heaven have any grievous plague in store,
Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,'
let them keep it, till thy sins be ripe,
And then hurl down their indignation

In thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!
The worm of conscience still be-gnaw thy soul!
Thy fiends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,
And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!
No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
Unless it be white some tormenting dream
Alights thee with a hell of ugly devils!
Thon elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog!
Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity
The slave of nature, and the son of hell!
Toou slander of thy mother's heavy womb!
Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins!
Thou rag of honor! thou detested-
Gl. Margaret!

Q. Mar. Glo.

Q. Mar.

Richard!

Ha?

I call thee not. Go. I ery thee mercy then; for I did think, That thou hadst call'd me all these bitter names. Q. Mar. Why, so I did; but look'd for no reply: let me make the period to my curse. Glo. 'Tis done by me; and ends in-Margaret. Q. Eliz. Thus have you breath'd your curse against yourself.

Q. Mar. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my

fortune!

Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider,6
Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?
Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself.
The day will come, that thou shalt wish for me
To help thee curse this pois'nous hunch-back'd toad.
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.

Rir. 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: 0, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty. Durs. Dispute not with her, she is lunatic. Q.Mar. Peace, master marquis, you are malapert: Your tire-new stamp of honor is scarce current:7 , that your young nobility could judge, What 'twere 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.

Dors. It touches you, my lord, as much as me. Glo. Ay, and much more: But I was born so high, Our aiery 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 :-
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.
4. Mar. Urge neither charity nor shame to me;
Uncharitably with me have you dealt,

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

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

Q.Mar. O princely Buckingham, I kiss thy hand, sign of league and amity with thee:

Now air 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.
2. Mar. I'll not believe but they ascend the sky,
Alluding to Gloster's form and venom.
lle was just created marquis of Dorset

And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace.
O Buckingham, beware of yonder deg;
Look, when he fawns, he bites; and, when he bite,
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 ine for my gentl
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!
Hast. My hair doth stand on end to hear Le-

curses.

[Eri.

Riv. And so doth mine; I muse, why she's a liberty.

Glo. I cannot blame her, by God's holy mother, She bath had too much wrong, and I repent My part thereof, that I have done to her.

Q. Eiz. I never did her any, to my knowledge. Glo. Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong I was too hot to do some body good, That is too cold in thinking of it now. Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid; He is frank'd' up to fatting for his pains;God pardon them that are the cause thereof! Ri. A virtuous and a christian-like conclusion, To pray for them that have done scath2 to us. Glo. So do I ever, being well advis'd;For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myself. [Aside Enter CATESBY.

Cates. Madam, his majesty doth call for you,And for your grace,-and you, my noble lords. Q. Eliz. Catesby I come;--Lords, will you go with me?

Rir. Madam, we will attend upon your grace. [Exeunt 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 1, indeed, have laid in dark-

ness,

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
To be revenged on Rivers, Vaughan, 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 old odd ends, stol'n 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,

me:

That we may be admitted where he is
Glo. Well thought upon, I have it here about
[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 assured.
We go to use our hands, and not our tongues.
Glo. Your eyes drop mill-stones, when fools'
eyes drop tears:

I like you, lads;-about your business straight;
Go, go, despatch.
1 Murd.

We will, my noble lord.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-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, Put in a sty.

• Nest.

• Wonder.

• Harm.

So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,
That as I am a Christian faithful man,
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.

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

2 Murd. O, sir, 'tis better to be brief than te dious:

Let him see our commission; talk no more.
A Paper is delivered to BRAKENBURY, who reads it.
Brak. I am, in this, commanded to deliver

land,

And cited up a thousand heavy times,
Daring the wars of York and Lancaster
That had befallen us. As we paced 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 heaven! 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, unvalu'd jewels,

All scattered 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) redecting 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
Kept in my soul, and would not let it forth
To seek the empty, vast, and wand'ring air
But smother'd it within my panting bulk,
Which almost burst to belch it in the sea.

Bruk. Awak'd you not with this sore agony? Clar. (), 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 grim ferryman which poets write 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 cry'd aloud-What scourge for perjury
Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?
And so he vanish'd: Then came wand'ring by
A shadow like an angel, with bright hair
Dabbled in blood; and he shriek'd out aloud,-
Clarence is come,-fulse, fleeting, perjur'd Cla-

rence,

That stad me in the field by Tewksbury ;-
Seize on him, furies, take him to your torments!
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 waked, and, for a season after,
Could not believe but that I was in hell;
Such terrible impression made my dream.
Bruck. No marvel, lord, that 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! it my deep prayers cannot appease thee,
But thou wilt be avenged on my misdeeds,
Yet execute thy wrath on me alone:

I will not reason what is meant hereby, Because I will be guiltless of the meaning. Here are the keys;-there sits the duke asleep: I'll to the king; and signify to him, That I thus have resign'd to you my charge. 1 Murd. You may, sir; 'tis a point of wisdom Fare you well. (Exit BRAKENBURT. 2 Murd. What, shall we stab him as he sleeps? 1 Murd. No; he'll say, 'twas done cowardly, when he wakes.

2 Murd. When he wakes! why fool, he shal never wake until the great judgment day,

1 Murd. Why, then he'll say, we stabb'd him sleeping.

2 Murd. The urging of that word, judgment, hath bred a kind of remorse in me.

1 Murd. What! art thou afraid?

2 Murd. Not to kill him, having a warrant for it, but to be damn'd for killing him, from the whica no warrant can defend me.

1 Murd. I thought, thou hadst been resolute. 2 Murd. So I am, to let him live.

1 Murd. I'll back to the duke of Gloster, and tell him so.

2 Murd. Nay, I pr'ythee, stay a little: I hope, this holy humor of mine will change; it was went to hold me but while one would tell twenty, 1 Murd. How dost thou feel thyself now! 2 Murd. 'Faith some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.

1 Murd. Remember our reward, when the deed's done.

2 Murd. Come, he dies; I had forgot the reward. 1 Murd. Where's thy conscience now!

2 Murd. In the duke of Gloster's purse. 1 Murd. So when he opens his purse to give us our reward, thy conscience flies out,

2 Murd. 'Tis no matter; let it go; there's lew, or none, will entertain it.

1 Murd. What, if it come to thee again!

2 Murd. I'll not meddle with it, it is a danger ous thing, it makes a man a coward; a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man cannot swea but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his neighbor's wife, but it detects him: 'Tis a blushen shame-faced spirit, that mutimes in a man's basem it fills one full of obstacles: it made me once es store a purse of gold, that by chance I found; 4 beggars any man that keeps it: it is turned out c all towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man, that means to live well, endeavors i trust to himself, and live without it.

1 Murd. 'Zounds, it is even now at my el, persuading me not to kill the duke.

2 Murd. Take the devil in thy mind, and beleve him not: he would insinuate with thee, but i make thee sigh.

1 Murd. I am strong-framed, he cannot preva with me.

2 Murd. Spoke like a tall3 fellow, that reseS his reputation. Come, shall we fall to work

1 Murd. Take him over the costard with the

dren!

malmsey-butt, in the next room.

2 Murd. O excellent device! and make a s of him.

1 Murd. Soft! he wakes.

2 Murd. Strike.

To slay the innocent? What is my offence?
Where is the evidence that doth accuse me?
What lawful quest have given their verdict up
Unto the frowning judge? or who pronounced
The bitter sentence of poor Clarence' death?
Before I be convict by course of law,

To threaten me with death is most unlawful.
I charge you, as you hope for any goodness,
By Christ's dear blood shed for our grievous sins,
That you depart, and lay no hands on me;
The deed you undertake is damnable.

1 Murd. What we will do, we do upon command. 2 Murd. And he, that hath commanded, is our king.

Clar. Erroneous vassal! the great King of kings Hath in the table of his law commanded,

That thou shalt do no murder: Wilt thou then
Spurn at His edict, and fulfil a man's?
Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his hand,
To url upon their heads that break his law.

2 Murd. And that same vengeance doth he hurl on thee,

For false forswearing, and for murder too:
Thou didst receive the sacrament, to fight

In quarrel of the house of Lancaster.

1 Murd. And like a traitor to the name of God, Didst break that vow; and, with thy treacherous blade,

Unrip'dst the bowels of thy sovereign's son.

2 Murd, Whom thou wast sworn to cherish and

delend.

1 Murd. How canst thou urge God's dreadful

law to us.

When thou hast broke it in such dear degree?
Ciur. Alas! for whose sake did I that ill deed?
For Edward, for my brother, for his sake:
Be sends you not to murder me for this;
For in that sin he is as deep as 1.
If God will be avenged for the deed,
0. know you, that he doth it publicly;
Take not the quarrel from his powerful arm;
He needs no indirect nor lawless course,
To cut off those that have offended him.
Murd. Who made thee then a bloody minister,
When gallant-springing, brave Plantagenet,
That princely novice, was struck dead by thee?
Cur. My brother's love, the devil, and my rage.
1 Murd. Thy brother's love, our duty, and thy

fault.

Provoke us hither now to slaughter thec.

Clar. If you do love my brother, hate not me; I am his brother, and I love him well. If you are hired for meed, go back again, And I will send you to my brother Gloster Who shall reward you better for my life, Than Edward will for tidings of my death. 2 Murd. You are deceiv'd, your brother Gloste hates you.

Clar. O, no; he loves me, and he holds me dear⚫ Go you to him from ine. Both Murd. Ay, so we will. Clar. Tell him, when that our princely father York Bless'd his three sons with his victorious arm, And charged 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 hugged me in his arms, and swore, with sobs, That he would labor 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. Hast thou that holy feeling in thy soul,
To counsel me to make my peace with God,
And art thou yet to thy own soul so blind,
That thou wilt war with God, by murd'ring me?
Ah, sirs, consider, he 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.
1 Murd. Relent! 'tis cowardly, and womanish.
Clar. Not to relent, is beastly, savage, devilish.-
Which of you, if you were a prince's son,
Being pents from liberty, as I am now.—
Iftwo such murderers as yourselves came to you,-
Would not entreat for life!--

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,
As you would beg, were you in my distress.
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.

Since I have made my friends at peace on earth.
Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love.
Rivers, and Hastings, take each other's hand;
Riv. By heaven, my soul is purged from grudging
hate!
And with my hand I seal my true heart's love.

Hust. So thrive I, as I truly swear the like!
K. Edw. Take heed, you dally not bore your king.
Lest he, that is the supreme King of kings,
Confound your hidden falsehood, ar a awar
Either of you to be the other's end.