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Besides, he hates me for my father Warwick;
And will, no doubt, shortly be rid of me.

Q. ELIZ. Poor heart, adieu; I pity thy complaining.

ANNE. No more than with my soul I mourn for

'yours.

DOR. Farewell, thou woful welcomer of glory! ANNE. Adieu, poor soul, that tak'st thy leave of

it!

DUCH. Go thou to Richmond, and good fortune guide thee!To DORSET. Go thou to Richard, and good angels tend thee !

thee!

[TO ANNE. Go thou to sanctuary, and good thoughts possess [To Q. ELIZABeth. I to my grave, where peace and rest lie with me! Eighty odd years of sorrow have I seen,

8

And each hour's joy wreck'd with a week of teen9.

Virgil, that Richard was frequently disturbed by terrible dreams: this is therefore no fiction. JOHNSON.

'Perhaps the narratives of Polydore Virgil, like those of Hector Boethius, are of slight authority. Such at least, respecting the former of these writers, was the opinion of Owen, our epigrammatist :

18

Virgilii duo sunt; alter Maro; tu, Polydore,

Alter; tu mendax, ille poeta fuit. STEEVENS.

Eighty odd years, &c.] Shakspeare has here, I believe, spoken at random. The present scene is in 1483. Richard, Duke of York, the husband of this lady, had he been then living, would have been but seventy-three years old, and we may Teasonably suppose that his Duchess was younger than he was. Nor did she go speedily to her grave. She lived till 1495.

'MALONE.

9 And each HOUR'S JOY WRECK'D WITH A WEEK of TEEN,] Teen is sorrow. So, in Romeo and Juliet :

"And yet to my teen be it spoken," &c.

Again, in The Return from Parnassus, 1606:

"Flies have their spleen, each silly ant his teens."

STEEVENS.

So, in The Rape of Lucrece :

Q. ELIZ. Stay yet'; look back, with me, unto the Tower.

Pity, you ancient stones, those tender babes,
Whom envy hath immur'd within your walls!
Rough cradle for such little pretty ones!
Rude ragged nurse! old sullen play-fellow 2
For tender princes, use my babies well!
So foolish sorrow bids your stones farewell".

[Exeunt.

"Who buys a minute's mirth, to wail a week? "Short pleasure, long lament," is one of Ray's proverbial sentences. MALONE.

Stay yet; &c.] This speech is not in the quarto. MALONE. 2 Rude ragged NURSE! old sullen PLAY-FELLOW -] To call the Tower nurse and play-fellow is very harsh : perhaps part of this speech is addressed to the Tower, and part to the Lieutenant. JOHNSON.

The last line of this speech

"So foolish sorrow bids your stones farewell," proves that the whole of it is addressed to the Tower, and apologizes for the absurdity of that address, by attributing it to sorrow. M. MASON.

When Shakspeare described the Tower as the nurse and playfellow of these children, he was only thinking of the circumstance of their being constrained to carry on their daily pastime, and to receive their daily nutriment within its walls; and hence, with his usual licentiousness of metaphor, calls the edifice itself their playfellow and nurse.

I may add, that the poet never could intend to apologize for a practice, of which numerous examples are found in his plays, and in which, assuredly, he perceived no impropriety. MALONE.

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3 So foolish sorrow bids YOUR STONES farewell.] Hither the third Act should be extended, and here it very properly ends with a pause of action. JOHNSON.

The folio has-sorrows.

Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALOne.

SCENE II.

A Room of State in the Palace.

Flourish of Trumpets. RICHARD, as King upon his Throne; BUCKINGHAM, CATESBY, a Page, and Others.

K. RICH. Stand all apart.-Cousin of Buckingham,

BUCK. My gracious sovereign.

K. RICH. Give me thy hand. Thus high, by thy advice,

And thy assistance, is king Richard seated :-
But shall we wear these glories for a day?
Or shall they last, and we rejoice in them?
BUCK. Still live they, and for ever let them last!
K. RICH. Ah, Buckingham, now do I play the
touch 4,

To try if thou be current gold, indeed :—
Young Edward lives;-Think now what I would
speak.

BUCK. Say on, my loving lord.

K. RICH. Why, Buckingham, I say, I would be king.

BUCK. Why, so you are, my thrice-renowned liege.

4 — now do I PLAY THE TOUCH,] To "play the touch" is to 'represent the touchstone.

So, in the 16th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion :

"With alabaster, tuch, and porphyry adorn'd." Again, in the epistle of Mary the French Queen to Charles Brandon, by Drayton :

"Before mine eye, like touch, thy shape did prove."

Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. i. c. iii. :

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Though true as touch, though daughter of a king."

STEEVENS.

K. RICH. Ha! am I king? 'Tis so: but Edward

lives.

BUCK. True, noble prince.

K. RICH.

O bitter consequence,

That Edward still should live,true, noble prince!-
Cousin, thou wast not wont to be so dull:-
Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead;
And I would have it suddenly perform'd.
What say'st thou now? speak suddenly, be brief.
BUCK. Your grace may do your pleasure.

K. RICH. Tut, tut, thou art all ice, thy kindness freezes:

Say, have I thy consent, that they shall die? BUCK. Give me some breath, some little pause, dear lord,

Before I positively speak in this:

I will resolve your grace immediately.

[Exit BUCKINGHAM.

CATE. The king is angry; see, he gnaws his lip 5.

[Aside

K. RICH. I will converse with iron-witted fools,

[Descends from his Throne.

And unrespective boys; none are for me,
That look into me with considerate eyes ;-

5

- see, he gnaws his lip.] Several of our ancient historians observe, that this was an accustomed action of Richard, whether he was pensive or angry. STEevens.

6 And UNRESPECTIVE boys;] Unrespective is inattentive to consequences, inconsiderate.

So, in Daniel's Cleopatra, 1599:

"When dissolute impiety possess'd

"The unrespective minds of prince and people."

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STEEVENS. "Unrespective" is, devoid of cautious and prudential consi deration: MALONE.

See note on the following passage in the Rape of Lucrece, edit. 1790, p. 102:

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Respect and reason wait on wrinkled age." STEEVENS.

High reaching Buckingham grows circumspect.
Boy,-

PAGE. My lord.

A

K. RICH. Know'st thou not any, whom corrupting gold

Would tempt unto a close exploit of death?
PAGE. I know a discontented gentleman,

Whose humble means match not his haughty mind:
Gold were as good as twenty orators,

And will, no doubt, tempt him to any thing.

K. RICH. What is his name?

PAGE.

His name, my lord, is Tyrrel.

K. RICH. I partly know the man; Go, call him [Exit Page.

hither, boy.

8

The deep-revolving witty Buckingham

No more shall be the neighbour to my counsels:
Hath he so long held out with me untir'd,
And stops he now for breath ?-well, be it so.-
Enter STANLEY.

How now, lord Stanley? what's the news?
STAN. Know, my loving lord,

The marquis Dorset, as I hear, is fled
To Richmond, in the parts where he abides.

7- close exploit-] Is secret act. JOHNSON.

8-witty In this place signifies judicious or cunning. A wit was not at this time employed to signify a man of fancy, but was used for wisdom or judgment. So, in Daniel's Cleopatra,

1599**

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Although unwise to live, had wit to die."

Again, in one of Ben Jonson's Masques ::

"And at her feet do witty serpents move." STEEVENS. 9 KNOW, MY LOVING lord,] Surely we should adopt Sir Thomas Hanmer's regulation, and give the passage thus:

"How now, lord Stanley? what's the news?

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My lord," &c. Are the omitted words-know and loving, of so much value, that measure-must continue to be sacrificed for their preservation?

STEEVENS.

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