Long die thy happy days before thy death; Glo. Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd hag. 2. Mar. And leave out thee? ftay, dog, for thou fhalt hear me. If heaven have any grievous plague in ftore, On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace! Thou selvish-mark'd] The common people in Scotland (as I learn from Kelly's Proverbs) have still an averfion to those who have any natural defect or redundancy, as thinking them mark'à out for mifchief. STEEVENS. 6 -rooting hog!] The expreffion is fine, alluding (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 boar, as he is elfewhere termed from his enfigns armorial. There is no fuch heap of allufion as the commentator imagines. JOHNSON. In the Mirror for Magiftrates (a book already quoted) is the following Complaint of Collingbourne, who was cruelly executed for making a rime. For Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity 2. Mar. Richard! For where I meant the king by name of bog, To Lovel's name I added more,our dog; As cat and rat, the half-names of the reft, To hide the fenfe that they fo wrongly wreft. That Lovel was once the common name of a dog, may be likewife known from a paffage in The Hiftorie of Jacob and Efau, an interlude, 1568: "Then come on at once, take my quiver and my bowe; "Fette lovell my hounde, and my horne to blowe." The rhime for which Collingbourne fuffered, was: "A cat, a rat, and Lovel the dog, "Rule all England under a hog." STEEVENS. 1 The flave of nature,- -] The expreffion is ftrong and noble, and alludes to the ancient custom 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. Shakspeare expreffes the fame thought in The Comedy of Errer's: "He is deformed, crooked, &c. Stigmatical in making, But as the fpeaker rifes in her refentment, fhe expreffes this contemptuous thought much more openly, and condemns him to a ftill worfe ftate of slavery: "Sin, death, and hell, have fet their marks on him.” Only, in the first line, her mention of his moral condition infinuates 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. 3 Thou rag of honour, &c.] This word of contempt is ufed again in Timon: "If thou wilt curfe, thy father, that poor rag, Again, in this play : "Thefe over-weening rags of France," STEEVENS. VOL. VII. D Glo. Glo. Ha? 2. Mar. I call thee not. Glo. I cry thee mercy then; for I did think, That thou had'ft call'd me all these bitter names. 2. Mar. Why, fo I did; but look'd for no reply. O, let me make the period to my curfe. Glo. 'Tis done by me; and ends in- Margaret. Queen. Thus have you breath'd your curse against yourself. 2. Mar. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune 9! Why ftrew'st thou fugar on that' bottled spider, Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself. 2. Mar. Foul fhame upon you! you have all mov'd mine. Riv. Were you well ferv'd, you would be taught your duty. 2. 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, fhe is lunatic. 2. Mar. Peace, mafter marquis, you are malapert; Your fire-new ftamp of honour is fcarce current: O, that your young nobility could judge, What 'twere to lofe it, and be miferable! 9 flourish of my fortune!] This expreffion is likewife ufed by Maflinger in the Great Duke of Florence: -I allow thefe "As flourishings of fortune." STEEVENS. -bottled fpider,] A spider is called bottled, because, like other infects, he has a middle flender and a belly protube-Richard's form and venom, made her liken him to a rant. fpider. JOHNSON. 2, They They that stand high, have many blafts to fhake them; And, if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. Glo. Good counfel, marry;-learn it, learn it, marquis. Dorf. It touches you, my lord, as much as me. Glo. Ay, and much more: But I was born fo high, Our aiery buildeth in the cedar's top, And dallies with the wind, and fcorns the fun. 2. Mar. And turns the fun to fhade; -alas! alas!* Witness my fun, now in the shade of death; Whofe bright out-fhining beams thy cloudy wrath Hath in eternal darkness folded up. Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's neft3:- Buck. Peace, peace, for fhame, if not for charity. 2. Mar. Urge neither charity nor shame to me; Uncharitably with me have you dealt, And shamefully by you my hopes are butcher'd. 2. Mar. O princely Buckingham, I'll kifs thy hand, In fign of league and amity with thee: 2 Witness my fun, &c.] The folio's read: Witnefs my fonne Her diftrefs cannot prevent her quibbling. It may be here remarked, that the introduction of Margaret in this place, is against all hiftorical evidence. She was ranfomed and fent to France foon after Tewkesbury fight, and there paffed the remainder of her wretched life. REMARKS. Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's neft:-] An aiery is a hawk's or an eagle's net. So, in Green's Card of Fancy, 1608: "It is a fubtle bird that breeds among the aiery of hawks.' Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: "His high-built aiery thall be drown'd in blood." Again, in Maffinger's Maid of Honour : "One aiery, with propertion, ne'er difclofes "The eagle and the wren." D 2 STEEVENS. Now Now fair befal thee, and thy noble house! Buck. Nor no one here; for curfes never pafs 2. Mar. I'll not believe but they ascend the sky, And there awake God's gentle-fleeping peace. O Buckingham, beware of yonder dog; Look, when he fawns, he bites; and, when he bites, 4 Sin, death, and hell, have fet their marks upon him; Glo. What doth fhe fay, my lord of Buckingham? Buck. Nothing that I refpect, my gracious lord. 2. Mar. What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counfel? And footh the devil that I warn thee from? When he shall split thy very heart with forrow; 4 Sin, death, and hell] Poffibly Milton took from hence. the hint of his famous Allegory. BLACKSTONE. 5 Live each of you the fubjects to his hate, And he to yours, and all of you to God's!] It is evident from the conduct of Shakspeare, that the houfe of Tudor retained all their Lancaftrian prejudices, even in the reign of queen Elizabeth. In this play of Richard the Third, he seems to reduce the woes of the house of York from the curfes which queen Margaret had vented against them; and he could not give that weight to her curfes, without fuppofing a right in her to utter them. WALPOLE. 6 "I wonder he's at liberty.] Thus the quarto. The folio reads: I mufe, why fhe's at liberty.. STEVENS. She |