Sinfully pluck'd, and not a man of you
Had fo much grace to put it in my mind.
But when your carters, or your waiting vaffals
Have done a drunken flaughter, and defac'd
The precious image of our dear Redeemer;
You ftrait are on your knees for pardon, pardon,→→→
And I, unjustly too, muft grant it you;
But for my brother not a man would speak,
Nor I, ungracious, fpake unto myself

For him, poor foul. The proudest of you all
Have been beholden to him in his life,
Yet none of you would once plead for his life.
-O God! I fear, thy justice will take hold
On me, and you, and mine, and yours, for this.
-Come, Haftings, help me to my closet. Ah!
Poor Clarence!

[Exeunt fome with the King and Queen. Glo. Thefe are the fruits of rafhnefs.

not,

How that the guilty kindred of the Queen

Mark'd

you

Look'd pale, when they did hear of Clarence' death?
O! they did urge it ftill unto the King.

God will revenge it. Come, Lords, will you go
To comfort Edward with our company?

SCENE II.

[Exeunt.

Enter the Dutchefs of York, with the two children of Clarence.

Son. Good Grandam, tell us, is our father dead? Dutch. No, boy.

Daugh. Why do you weep fo oft? and beat your breaft?

And cry-O Clarence! my unhappy fon!

Son. Why do you look on us, and shake your head,

And call us orphans, wretches, caft-aways,

If that our noble father be alive?

Dutch. My pretty Coufins, you mistake me both. I do lament the fickness of the King,

As

As loth to lose him

jonot your father's death; It were loft forrow to wail one that's loft.

Son. Then you conclude, my Grandam, he is dead. The King, mine uncle, is to blame for this.. God will revenge it, whom I will importune With daily earneft prayers.

Daugh. And fo will I,

Dutch. Peace, children, peace! the King doth love you well.

Incapable and fhallow Innocents!

You cannot guess who caus'd your father's death.
Son. Grandam, we can; for my good uncle Glofter
Told me, the King, provok'd to't by the Queen,
Devis'd Impeachments to imprifon him;
And when my uncle told me fo, he wept,
And pitied me, and kindly kift my cheek,
Bad me rely on him, as on my father,
And he would love me dearly as his child.

Dutch. Ah! that deceit fhould fteal fuch gentle
hape,

And with a virtuous vizor hide deep vice!
He is my fon,

ay, and therein my fhame; Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.

Son. Think you, my uncle did diffemble, Grandam?

Dutch. Ay, boy.

Son. I cannot think it. Hark, what noife is this?

Enter the Queen with her hair about her ears, Rivers and Dorset after her.

Queen. Ah! who fhall hinder me to wail and weep,' To chide my fortune, and torment myself?

I'll join with black defpair against my foul,

And to myself become an enemy.

Dutch, What means this fcene of rude impatience? Queen. To make an act of tragic violence. Edward, my lord, thy fon, our king, is dead. Why grow the branches, when the root is gone? Why wither not the leaves, that want the fap? If you will live, lament; if die, be brief;

That our fwift-winged fouls may catch the King's;

Or, like obedient Subjects, follow him
To his new Kingdom of perpetual reft.

Dutch. Ah! fo much interest have I in thy forrow, As I had title to thy noble husband.

I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
And liv'd by looking on his images. (7)
But now two mirrours of his Princely femblance
Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death
And I for comfort have but one falfe glass,
That grieves me when I fee my shame in him.
Thou art a widow, yet thou art a mother,
And haft the comfort of thy children left:
But death hath snatch'd my husband from mine arms,
And pluckt two crutches from my feeble hands,
Clarence and Edward. O, what cause have I,
Thine being but a moiety of my grief

To over-go thy plaints, and drown thy cries.

Son. Ah, Aunt! [to the Queen] you wept not for our father's death;

How can we aid you with our kindred Tears?
Daugh. Our fatherlefs diftrefs was left unmoan'd,
Your widow dolours likewise be unwept!

Queen. Give me no help in Lamentation,
I am not barren to bring forth complaints:
All fprings reduce their currents to mine eyes,
That I, being govern'd by the wat'ry moon, (8)
May fend 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!
Dutch. Alas, for both, both mine, Edward and
Clarence!

Queen. What ftay had I, but Edward? and he's
gone.

Chil. What ftay had we, but Clarence? and he's

gone.

Dutch. What ftays had 1, but they? and they are gone.

(7) His images.] The children by whom he was represented. (8) Being govern'd by the wat'ry moon,] That I may live hereafter under the influence of the moon, which governs the tides, and, by the help of that influence, drown the world. The introduction of the moon is not very natural.

Queen.

Queen. Was never widow, had fo dear a lofs.
Chil. Were never orphans, had fo dear a loss.
Dutch. 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 fo do I;
I for a Clarence weep, fo doth not she;
These babes for Clarence weep, and fo do I;
Alas! you three, on me threefold-distrest
Pour all your tears; I am your forrow's nurse,
And I will pamper it with lamentations.

Dor. Comfort, dear mother, God is much difpleafed,

That with unthankfulness you take his doing. AA
In common worldly things 'tis call'd ungrateful
With dull unwillingness to pay a debt,

Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent,
Much more to be thus oppofite with heaven;
For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

Riv. Madam, bethink you like a careful mother, Of the young Prince your fon; fend ftrait for him, Let him be crown'd; in him your comfort lives. Drown defp'rate forrow in dead Edward's grave, And plant your joys in living Edward's throne.

SCENE III.

Enter Gloucester, Buckingham, Stanley, Haftings, and Ratcliff.

Glo. Sifter, have comfort. All of us have caufe To wail the dimming of our fhining ftar;

But none can help our harms by wailing them.
Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy;
I did not fee you.-
-Humbly on my knee

I crave your Blefling.

Dutch. God blefs thee, and put meeknefs in thy

breast,

Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.

Glo. Amen, and make me die a good old man;

That is the butt end of a mother's Bleffing;

I marvel

I marvel that her Grace did leave it out.

Buck. You cloudy Princes, and heart-forrowing
Peers,

That bear this mutual heavy load of moan,
Now chear each other in each other's love;
Though we have spent our harveft of this King,
We are to reap the harvest of his fon.

The broken rancour of your high-fwoln hearts,
But lately splinter'd, knit, and join'd together,
Muft gently be preferv'd, cherish'd, and kept:
Me feemeth good, that, with fome little train,
Forthwith from Ludlow the young Prince be fetch'd,(1)
Hither to London, to be crown'd our King.

Riv. Why with fome little train, my Lord of Buckingham?

Buck. Marry, my Lord, left by a multitude

The new-heal'd wound of malice should break out;
Which would be fo much the more dangerous,
By how much the estate is yet ungovern'd.
Where every horse bears his commanding rein,
And may direct his courfe 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 fo in me; and fo, I think, in all.
Yet fince it is but green, it fhould be put
To no apparent likelihood of breach,

Which, haply, by much company might be urg'd;
Therefore, I fay, with noble Buckingham,

That it is meet fo few fhould fetch the Prince.
Haft. And fo fay I.

Glo. Then be it fo; and go we to determine,

(1) Forthwith from Ludlow the young Prince be fetch'd,] Edward the young Prince in his Father's Life-time and at his Demife, kept his Houshold at Ludlow as Prince of Wales; under the Governance of Antony Woodville Earl of Rivers, his Uncle, by the Mother's fide. The Intention of his being fent thither was to fee Juftice done in the Marches; and, by the Authority of his Prefence, to reftrain the Welshmen, who were wild, diffolute, and ill-difpofed, from their accustomed Murders and Outrages. Vid. Hall, Holing head, &c. THEOBALD.

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