CATE. O, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit. GLO. Alas, why would you heap those cares on me? I am unfit for state and majesty :

I do beseech you, take it not amiss;
I cannot, nor I will not, yield to you.

BUCK. If you refuse it,-as in love and zeal,
Loath to depose the child, your brother's son ;
As well we know your tenderness of heart,
And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse",
Which we have noted in you to your kindred,
And equally, indeed, to all estates,-

Yet know, whe'r you accept our suit or no,
Your brother's son shall never reign our king;
But we will plant some other in your throne,
To the disgrace and downfal of your house.
And, in this resolution, here we leave you ;-
Come, citizens, we will entreat no more".

[Exeunt BUCKINGHAM and Citizens. CATE. Call them again, sweet prince, accept their suit ;

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

GLO. Will you enforce me to a world of cares? Well, call them again; I am not made of stone", But penetrable to your kind entreaties,

[Exit CATESBY. Albeit against my conscience and my soul.

Re-enter BUCKINGHAM, and the Rest. Cousin of Buckingham, and you, sage, grave men',

6 - effeminate REMORSE,] i. e. pity. See our author, passim. Thus also, in The Miseries of Enforced Marriage, 1607: "Be all his days, like winter, comfortless; "Restless his nights, his wants remorseless."

i. e. unpitied. STEEVENS.

7 Come, citizens, &c.] The quarto:

"Come, citizens, zounds, I'll intreat no more.

"Glo. O, do not swear, my lord of Buckingham." BoswELL. * — I am not made of STONE,] The quarto and folio have— stones. Mr. Pope made the emendation. MALOne.

9 — YOU sage, grave men.] So the quarto 1597. In the

Since you will buckle fortune on my back,
To bear her burden, whether I will, or no,
I must have patience to endure the load:
But if black scandal, or foul-fac'd reproach,
Attend the sequel of your imposition,
Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
From all the impure blots and stains thereof;
For God he knows, and you may partly see,
How far I am from the desire of this.

MAY. God bless your grace! we see it, and will say it.

GLO. In saying so, you shall but say the truth. BUCK. Then I salute 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. Even when you please, since you will have

it so.

BUCK. To-morrow then we will attend

grace;

And so, most joyfully, we take our leave.
GLO. Come, let us to our holy work again :

your

[To the Bishops. Farewell, good cousin ;-farewell, gentle friends 1. [Exeunt.

folio, the word you is omitted probably with a view to metre; but the reviser does not seem to have been aware that cousin and many similar words were employed as monosyllables. MALONE.

Farewell, good cousin ;-farewell, gentle friends.] To this Act should, perhaps, be added the next scene, so will the coronation pass between the Acts; and there will not only be a proper interval of action, but the conclusion will be more forcible.

JOHNSON.

ACT IV. SCENE I.

Before the Tower.

Enter, on one side, Queen ELIZABETH, Duchess of YORK, and Marquis of DORSET; on the other, ANNE, Duchess of GLOSTER', leading Lady MARGARET PLANTAGENET, CLARENCE'S young Daughter.

DUCH. Who meets us here ?-my niece Plantagenet

Led in the hand of her kind aunt of Gloster 2 ? Now, for my life, she's wand'ring to the Tower, On pure heart's love, to greet the tender prince.Daughter, well met.

ANNE.

God give your graces both

A happy and a joyful time of day!

Q. ELIZ. As much to you, good sister! Whither away *?

ANNE. No further than the Tower; and, as I

guess,

Upon the like devotion as yourselves,

* For these seven lines quarto 1597 has only

Duch. Who meets us here ?-my niece Plantagenet.
Queen. Sister, well met; whither away so fast?"

1

Anne, Duchess of Gloster,] We have not seen this lady since the second scene of the first Act, in which she promised to meet Richard at Crosby-place. She was married about the year 1472. MALONE.

2 Who meets us here!-my niece Plantagenet

Led in the hand of her kind aunt of Gloster?] Here is a manifest intimation, that the Duchess of Gloster leads in somebody in her hand; but there is no direction marked in any of the copies, from which we can learn who it is. I have ventured to guess it must be Clarence's young daughter. The old Duchess of York calls her niece, i. e. grand-daughter; as grand-children are frequently called nephews. THEOBALD.

So, in Othello, nephews for grand-children: "- you'll have your daughter covered with a Barbary horse, you'll have your nephews neigh to you." MALONE.

See note on Othello, Act I. Sc. I. STEEVENS.

To gratulate the gentle princes there.

Q. ELIZ. Kind sister, thanks; we'll enter all together:

Enter BRAKENBURY.

And, in good time, here the lieutenant comes.—
Master lieutenant, pray you, by your leave,
How doth the prince, and my young son of York?
BRAK. Right well, dear madam: By your pati-

ence,

I may not suffer

not suffer you to visit them;

The king hath strictly charg'd the contrary.

Q. ELIZ. The king! who's that?

BRAK.
I mean, the lord protector.
Q. ELIZ. The Lord protect him from that kingly

title!

Hath he set bounds between their love, and me?
I am their mother, who shall bar me from them?
DUCH. I am their father's mother, I will see

them.

ANNE. Their aunt I am in law, in love their mother:

Then bring me to their sights; I'll bear thy blame*, And take thy office from thee, on my peril.

BRAK. No, madam, no, I may not leave it so1; I am bound by oath, and therefore pardon me. [Exit BRAKENbury.

Enter STANLEY.

STAN. Let me but meet you, ladies, one hour hence,

And I'll salute your grace of York as mother,

3

time.

* Quarto 1597, Then fear not thou; I'll bear thy blame.

their sights;] This was the phraseology of Shakspeare's So, in Macbeth :

"And night's black agents to their preys do rouse." See note on that passage, vol. xi. p. 160, n. 5. MALONE. -I may not leave it so:] That is, I may not so resign my office," which you offer to take on you at your peril. JOHNSON.

66

And reverend looker-on of two fair queens.

Come, madam, you must straight to Westminster. [To the Duchess of Gloster. There to be crowned Richard's royal queen.

Q. ELIZ. Ah, cut my lace asunder!

That my pent heart may have some scope to beat, Or else I swoon with this dead-killing news.

ANNE. Despiteful tidings! O unpleasing news! DOR. Be of good cheer:-Mother, how fares your grace?

Q. ELIZ. O Dorset, speak not to me, get thee
gone,

Death and destruction dog thee at the heels;
Thy mother's name is ominous to children:
If thou wilt outstrip death, go cross the seas,
And live with Richmond, from the reach of hell.
Go, hie thee, hie thee, from this slaughter-house,
Lest thou increase the number of the dead;
And make me die the thrall of Margaret's curse,-
Nor mother, wife, nor England's counted queen.
STAN. Full of wise care is this your counsel,
madam:

Take all the swift advantage of the hours;
You shall have letters from me to my son
In your behalf, to meet you on the way:
Be not ta'en tardy by unwise delay.

DUCH. O ill-dispersing wind of misery!-
O my accursed womb, the bed of death;
A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world,
Whose unavoided eye is murderous 5!

STAN. Come, madam, come; I in all haste was

sent.

4 Nor mother, wife, &c.] See p. 45. STEEVENS.

5 A COCKATRICE

Whose unavoided EYE is murderous!] So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"the death-darting eye of cockatrice."

The cockatrice is a serpent supposed to originate from a cock's egg. STEEVENS.