Q. Mar. Ay, and much better blood than his, or

thine.

Glo. In all which time you and your hufband Gray Were factious for the houfe of Lancaster; And, Rivers, fo were you

was not your husband, (9) In Margret's battle, at St. Albans flain? Let me put in your minds, if you forget, What you have been ere now, and what you are: Withal what I have been, and what I am.

*

Q. Mar. A murd'rous villain, and fo ftill thou art. Glo. Poor Clarence did forfake his father Warwick, Ay, and forfwore himself, which, Jefu pardon!Q. Mar. Which God revenge !

Glo. To fight on Edward's party for the crown; And, for his meed, poor Lord, he is mew'd up: I would to God, my heart were flint, like Edward's; Or Edward's foft and pitiful, like mine;

I am too childish-foolish for this world.

Q. Mar. Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this world,

Thou Cacodæmon, there thy kingdom is.

Riv. My Lord of Glofter, in thofe bufy days,
Which here you urge to prove us enemies,
We follow'd then our Lord, our lawful King,
So fhould we you, if you should be our King.

Glo. If I fhould be!-I had rather be a pedlar:
Far be it from my heart the thought thereof.

Queen. As little joy, my Lord, as you fuppofe You should enjoy, were you this country's King, As little joy you may fuppofe in me,

That I enjoy, being the Queen thereof.

Q. Mag. A little joy enjoys the Queen thereof; For I am the, and altogether joyless.

I can no longer hold me patient.

Hear me, ye wrangling pirates, that fall out (1)
In fharing that which you have pill'd from me;

(9)- Was not your husband,

In Margaret's battle,] It is faid in Henry VI. that he died in quarrel of the House of York

(1) Hear me, ye wrangling pirates, &c.] This fcene of Margaret's imprecations is fine and artful. She prepares the audience, like another Caffandra, for the following tragic revolutiWARBURTON.

ons.

Which of you trembles not that looks on me?
If not that I being Queen, you bow like fubjects;
Yet that by you depos'd, you quake like rebels?
Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away! (2)

Gla. Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'it thou in my fight?

Q. Mar. But repetition of what thou haft marr'd, That will I make, before I let thee go.

A husband and a fon thou ow'ft to me;

[To Glo.

And thou, a kingdom; [To the Queen.] all of you allegiance;

The forrow that I have, by Right is yours;

And all the pleafures, you ufurp, are mine.

Glo. The curfe my noble father laid on thee, When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper, And with thy fcorns drew't rivers from his eyes And then, to dry them, gav'ft the Duke a clout, Steep'd in the faultlefs blood of pretty Rutland; His curfes, then from bitterness of foul Denounc'd against thee, are now fall'n upon thee, And God, not we, has plagu'd thy bloody deed. Queen. So juft is God to right the innocent. (3) Haft. O, 'twas the fouleft deed to flay that babe, And the moft merciless, that e'er was heard of. Riv. Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.

Dorf. No man but prophefy'd revenge for it.

Buck. Northumberland, then prefent, wept to fee it.
Q Mar. What! were you fnarling all before I

came,

Ready to catch each other by the throat,

And turn you all your hatred now on me?

Did York's dread curfe prevail fo much with heav'n,

(2) Ab, gentle villain,] We fhould read UNGENTLE villain. WARBURTON

The meaning of gentle is not, as the commentator imagines, tender or courteous, but high-born. An oppofition is meant between that and villain, which means at once a wicked and a lego-born wretch. So before,

Since ev'ry Jack is made a gentleman,
There's many a gentle perfon made a Jack.

(3) Mar. So juft is God, &c.] This line fhould be given

to Edward IVth's Queen.

That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death,
Their Kingdom's lofs, my woful banishment,
Could all but anfwer for that peevish brat?
Can curfes pierce the clouds, and enter heav'n ?
Why, then give way, dull clouds, to my quick curfes!
If not by war, by furfeit die your King, (4)
As ours by murder, to make him a King!
Edward thy fon, that now is Prince of Wales,
For Edward our fon, that was Prince of Wales,
Die in his youth by like untimely violence!
Thyfelf a Queen, for me that was a Queen,
Out-live thy glory, like my wretched felf;
Long may'ft thou live to wail thy children's lofs,
And fee another, as I fee thee now,

Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art ftall'd in mine:
Long die thy happy days before thy death,
And after many length'ned hours of grief,
Die, neither mother, wife, nor England'Queen!
Rivers and Dorfet, you were ftanders-by,

And fo waft thou, Lord Haftings, when my fon
Was ftabb'd with bloody daggers: God, I pray him,
That none of you may live your natural age,
But by fome unlook'd accident cut off!

Glo. Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd hag.

Q. Mar. And leave out thee? Stay, dog, for thou fhalt hear me.

If heav'ns have any grievous plague in ftore,
Exceeding thofe that I can wish upon thee,
O, let them keep it till thy fins be ripe,
And then hurl down their indignation

On thee, thou troubler of the poor world's peace!
The worm of confcience ftill be-gnaw thy foul !
Thy friends fufpect for traitors while thou liv'ft,
And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends:
No fleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
Unless it be while fome tormenting dream
Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!
Thou elvish-markt abortive, rooting hog! (5)

Thou

(4) By furfeit die your King.] Alluding to his luxurious life. -rooting hog'] The expreffion is fine, allud

Thou that waft feal'd in thy nativity
The flave of nature, and the fon of hell! (6)
Thou flander of thy mother's womb!
Thou loathed iffue of thy father's loins!
Thou rag of honour, thou detefted-
Glo. Margaret.

Q. Mar. Richard.-
Glo. Ha?

Q. Mar. I call thee not.

(7)

Glo. I cry thee mercy then! for, I did think,
That thou had'ft call'd me all these bitter names.
Q. Mar. Why fo I did; but look'd for no reply.
Oh, let me make the period to my curfe.

Glo. 'Tis done by me, and ends in Margaret.

ing (in memory of her young fon) to the ravage which hogs make, with the finest flowers, in gardens; and intimating that Elizabeth was to expect no other treatment for her fons.

WARBURTON.

She calls him bog as an appellation more contemptuous than bear, as he is elfewhere termed from his enfigns armorial. There is no fuch heap of allufion as the Commentator imagines.

(6) The flave of nature,-] The expreffion is ftrong and noble, and alludes to the antient cuftom of masters branding their profligate flaves: by which it is infinuated that his mishapen perfon was the mark that nature had fet upon him to ftigmatize his ill conditions. Shakespeare expreffes the fame thought in The Comedy of Errors.

He is deformed, crooked, &c.
Stigmatical in making-

But as the speaker rifes in her refentment, fhe expresses this contemptuous thought much more openly, and condemns him to a ftill worfe ftate of flavery.

Sin, Death, and Hell, have fet their marks upon him.

Only, in the first line, her mention of his moral condition infi nuates her reflections on his Deformity; and, in the laft, her mention of his deformity infinuates her reflections on his moral condition: And thus he has taught her to fcold in all the elegance of figure. WARBURTON. (7) Thou RAG of boncur, &c.] We fhould certainly read, Thou WRACK of honour

i. e. the ruin and deftruction of honour; which I fuppofe was first writ rack, and then further corrupted to rag.

WARBURTON. Rag is, in my opinion, right, and intimates that much of his honour is torn away.

OVO L.VII.

Queen. Thus have you breath'd your curfe against yourself.

Q. Mar..Poor painted Queen, vain flourish of my fortune!

Why ftrew'st thou fugar on that bottled fpider, (8)
Whofe deadly web enfnareth thee about?
Fool, fool, thou whet'ft a knife to kill thyself:
The day will come, that thou shalt wish for me
To help thee curfe this pois'nous bunch-back'd toad.
Haft. Falfe-boding woman, end thy frantic curse;
Left to thy harm thou move our patience.

Q. Mar. Foul fhame upon you! you have all mov'd mine.

Riv. Were you well ferv'd, you would be taught your duty.

Q. Mar. To ferve me well, you all should do me duty,

Teach me to be your Queen, and you my Subjects:
O, ferve me well, and teach yourselves that duty.
Dorf. Difpute not with her, she is lunatick.

Q. Mar. Peace, mafter Marquis, you are malapert; (9)

Your fire new ftamp of honour is fcarce current.
O, that your young nobility could judge

What 'twere to lose it, and be miferable!

They that stand high, have many blafts to fhake them; And, if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.

Glo. Good counsel, marry, learn it, learn it, Mar-
quis.

Dorf. It touches you, my Lord, as much as me.
Glo. Ay, and much more; but I was born fo high,

(8) Bottled Spider.] A Spider is called bottled, because, like other infects, he has a middle flender, and a belly protuberant. Richard's form and venom make her liken him to a spider. •(9) Peace, mafter marquis, you are malapert;

Your fire-new ftamp of honour is fcarce current.] Shakespeare may either allude to the late creation of the marquis of Dorset, or to the inftitution of the title of marquis here in England, as a fpecial dignity; which was no older than Richard II. Robert Vere, earl of Oxford was the first, who, as a diftinct dignity, received the title of marquis, 1st December, anno nono Ricardi Secundi. See Afbmole's Hiftory of the Order of the Garter, p. 456.

Our