And that you come to reprehend my ignorance. Buck. You have, my Lord; would it might please your Grace,

On our entreaties, to mend your fault.

Glo. Elfe wherefore breathe I in a Chriftian Land?. Buck. Know then, it is your fault that you refign The fupream Seat, the Throne majestical,

The fcepter'd Office of your Ancestors,
Your State of fortune, and your
due of Birth,
The lineal Glory of your royal Houfe,
To the corruption of a blemish'd Stock,
While in the mildnefs of your fleepy thoughts,
Which here we waken to our Country's Good,
The noble Ifle doth want her proper limbs ;
Her face defac'd with fears of Infamy,
Her royal Stock graft with ignoble plants,
And almost shoulder'd in the fwallowing gulph (2)
Of dark forgetfulnefs, and deep oblivion;
Which to re-cure, we heartily follicit
Your gracious felf to take on you the Charge
And kingly Government of this your Land,
Not as Protector, Steward, Substitute,
Or lowly Factor for another's gain,
But as fucceffively, from blood to blood,
Your Right of Birth, your Empery, your own.
For this, conforted with the Citizens,
Your very worshipful and loving friends,
And by their vehement inftigation,
In this juft fuit come I to move your Grace.
Glo. I cannot tell, if to depart in filence,
Or bitterly to speak in your reproof,
Beft fitteth my degree, or your condition.
For not to anfwer, you might, haply, think,
Tongue-ty'd Ambition, not replying, yielded
To bear the golden yoke of Sov'reignty,

(2) And almost shoulder'd in the fwallowing gulf

Of dark forgetfulness,] What it is to be boulder'd in a gulph, Hanmer is the only Editor who feems not to have known: for the reft let it pass without obfervation. He reads, Almoft boulder'd into th' fwallowing gulph.

I believe we should read, i

And almoft fmouldered in the fwallowing gulph. That is, almoft fmother'd, covered and loft.

D 3

Which

Which fondly you would here impofe on me.
If to reprove you for this fuit of yours,
So feafon'd with your faithful love to me,sov
Then, on the other fide, I check'd my friends.
Therefore to fpeak, and to avoid the first,
And then, in fpeaking, not incur the last,
Definitively thus I answer you.
Your love deferves my thanks; but
my defert,
Unmeritable, fhuns your high request.
Firft, if all obftacles were cut away,
And that my path were even to the Crown,
As the ripe revenue and due of birth
Yet fo much is my poverty of spirit,
So mighty and fo many my defects,

;

That I would rather hide me from my Greatness,
Being a Bark to brook no mighty Sea,

Than in my Greatness covet to be hid,

And in the vapour of my Glory fmother'd.

But, God be thank'd, there is no need of me,

And much I need to help you, were there Need: (3)

The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,

Which, mellow'd by the stealing hours of time,
Will well become the feat of Majefty;
And make us, doubtlefs, happy by his Reign.
On him I lay what you would lay on me,
The Right and Fortune of his happy ftars;
Which, God defend, that I fhould wring from him!
Buck. My Lord, this argues confcience in your
Grace, roy

But the refpects thereof are nice and trivial,

All circumftances well confidered.

You fay, that Edward is your brother's fon;
So fay we too, but not by Edward's wife,
For firft was he contract to Lady Lucy,
Your mother lives a witness to that Vow;
And afterward by Subftitute betroth'd
To Bona, filter to the King of France.
Thefe both put off, a poor Petitioner,
A care-craz'd mother of a many children,
A beauty-waining, and diftreffed Widow,

(3) And much I need to help you,] And I want much of the ability requifite to give you help, if help were needed.

Ev'n in the afternoon of her beft days,
Made prize and purchafe of his wanton eye;
Seduc'd the pith and height of all his thoughts
To bafe declenfion and loath'd bigamy.
By her, in his unlawful bed, he got

This Edward, whom our manners call the Prince.
More bitterly could I expoftulate,

Save that, for reverence of fome alive,

I give a fparing limit to my tongue.

Then, good my Lord, take to your royal felf
This proffer'd benefit of Dignity,

If not to blefs Us and the Land withal,.
Yet to draw forth your noble Ancestry
From the corruption of abufing time,
Unto a lineal, true-derived courfe.

Mayor. Do good, my Lord, your Citizens intreat

you.

Buck. Refufe not, mighty Lord, this proffer'd love. Catef. O make them joyful, grant their lawful fuit. Glo. Alas, why would you heap thefe cares on me? I am unfit for State and Majefty,

I do befeech you, take it not amifs;

I cannot, nor I will not yield to you..

Buck. If you refufe it, as, in love and zeal,
Loth to depofe the Child, your brother's fon,
(As well we know your tenderness of heart,
And gentle, kind, effeminate remorfe,
Which we have noted in you to your kindred,
And equally, indeed, to all eftates)!
Yet know, whether you accept our fuit or no,.
Your brother's fon fhall never reign our King;
But we will plant fome other in the Throne,
To the difgrace and downfal of your House;
And in this refolution here we leave you.

-Come, Citizens, we will intreat no more. [Exeunt.
Catef. Call them again, fweet Prince, accept their

fuit;

If you deny them, all the Land will. rue it.

Glo. Will you inforce me to a world of cares?
-Call them again; I am not made of stone,
But penetrable to your kind entreaties;
Albeit against my confcience and my foul.

D 4

Exit. Re-enter Buckingham, and the Reft.

-Coufin of Buckingham, and fage, grave men,
Since you will buckle fortune on my back
To bear her burthen, whether I will or no,
I must have patience to endure the load.
But if black Scandal, or foul-fac'd Reproach,
Attend the fequel of your impofition,
Your meer enforcement fhall acquittance me
From all the impure blots and stains thereof.
For God doth know, and you may partly fee,
How far I am from the defire of this.

Mayor. God bless your Grace; we fee it, and will fay it.

Glo. In faying fo, you shall but fay the truth. Buck. Then I falute you with this royal Title, Long live King Richard, England's worthy King! All. Amen.

Buck. To morrow may it please you to be crown'd? Glo. Ev'n when you pleafe, for you will have it fo. Buck. To morrow then we will attend your Grace, And fo moft joyfully we take our leave.

Glo. [To the Clergymen.] Come, let us to our holy Work again.

-Farewel, my Coufin; farewel, gentle friends. (4)

[Exeunt.

(4) To this act should, perhaps, be added the next fcene, fo will the coronation pafs between the acts; and there will not only be a proper interval of action, but the Conclufion will be more forcible.

ACT

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Before the ToWER.

Enter Queen, Dutchess of York, and Marquis of Dorfet, at one Door; Anne, Dutchess of Gloucefter, leading Lady Margaret Plantagenet, Clarence's young Daughter, at the other.

W

DUTCHESS.

HO meets us here?-my niece Plantagenet,
Led in the hand of her kind Aunt of
Glofter ?(5)

Now, for my life fhe's wandering to the Tower,
On pure heart's love, to greet the tender Princes.
Daughter, well met.

Anne. God give your Graces both

A happy and a joyful time of day.)

Queen. Sifter, well met; whither away fo faft? Anne. No farther than the Tower; and as I guess, Upon the like devotion as ourselves,

To gratulate the gentle Princes there.

Queen. Kind fifter, thanks; we'll enter all together,

Enter the Lieutenant.”

And in good time here the Lieutenant comes.
Mafter Lieutenant, pray you, by your leave,
How doth the Prince, and my young fon of York?

(5) Who meets us here? my Niece Plantagenet,

Led in the hand of her kind Aunt of Glofter?] Here is manifeft intimation, that the Dutchefs of Glofter leads in fomebody in her hand; but there is no direction mark'd in any of the Copies, from which we can learn who it is. I have ventur'd to guefs, it must be Clarence's young Daughter. The old Dutchefs of York calls her Niece, i. e. Grand daughter: as Grand children are frequently called Nephews.

D 5

THEOPALD.
Lient