Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

ACT I.

SCENE I. London. A Street. Enter GLOSTER. About a prophecy, which says-that G

Gloster.

Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun' of York;
And all the clouds, that lour'd upon our house,
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.3
Grim-visag'd war hath smooth'd his wrinkled front;
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds,
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,-
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.

But I,-that am not shap'd for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty,
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
1, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time
Into this breathing world, scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable,
That dogs bark at me, as I halt by them ;-
Why I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time;
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun,
And descant on mine own deformity;

And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,-
I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
Plots have I laid, inductions' dangerous,
By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence, and the king,
In dead'y hate the one against the other:
And, if King Edward be as true and just,

As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up;
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.a
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul! here Clarence

comes.

Enter CLARENCE, guarded, and BRAKENBURY.
Brother, good day: What means this armed guard,
His majesty,
That waits upon your grace?
Tendering my person's safety, hath appointed
This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
Glo. Upon what cause?

Clar.

[ocr errors]

Because my name is-George.
yours;
Glo. Alack, my lord, that fault is none of
He should, for that, commit your godfathers:-
O, belike, his majesty hath some intent,
That you shall be new christen'd in the Tower.
But what's the matter, Clarence? may I know?
Clar. Yea, Richard, when I know; for, I protest,
As yet I do not: But, as I can learn,
He hearkens affer prophecies, and dreams;
And from the cross-row plucks the letter G,
And says-a wizard told him, that by G
His issue disinherited should be;
And, for my name of George begins with G,
It follows in his thought, that I am he:
These, as I learn, and such like toys" as these,
Have mov'd his bighness to commit me now.
Glo. Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by

men:

WO

'Tis not the king, that sends you to the Tower;
My Lady Grey, his wife, Clarence, 'tis she,
That tempers1 him to this extremity.
Was it not she, and that good man of worship,
Antony Woodeville, her brother there,

That made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower;
From whence this present day he is deliver'd?
We are not safe, Clarence, we are not safe.

Clar. By heaven, I think, there is no man secure,

I The cognizance of Edward IV. was a sun. in me-Legend of the Death of King Richard HI. in the Mirror
mory of the three suns which are said to have appeared
at the battle which he gained over the Lancastrians at
Mortimer's Cross.

2 Made glorious by his manly chivalry,
With bruised arms and wreaths of victory."
Rape of Lucrece.

3 Dances.

4 i. e. steeds caparisoned or clothed in the trappings of war. The word is properly barded, from equus bar datus, Latin of the middle ages.

5 Is the warlike sound of drum and trump turned to the soft noise of lyre and lute? The neighing of barbed steeds, whose loudness filled the air with terror, and whose breaths dimmed the sun with smoke, converted o delicate tunes and amorous glances.'-Lyly's Alex. ander and Campaspe, 1584. There is a passage in the M

6 Frature is proportion, or beauty, in general. By for Magistrates, evidently imitated from Shakspeare. dissembling is not meant hypocritical nature, that pretends one thing and does another; but nature, that puts together things of a dissimilar kind, as a brave soul and a deformed body.

7 Preparations for mischief.

9 This is from Holinshed. Philip de Comines says with some prophecy or other. by which they accounted that the English at that time were never unfurnished for every event.

9 i. e. fancies, freaks of imagination

10 i. e. frames his temper, moulds it to this extremity. This word is often used in the same figurative sense by Spenser and other contemporaries of Shak speare.

But the queen's kindred, and night-walking heralds
That trudge betwixt the king and Mistress Shore.
Heard you not, what an humble suppliant
Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?
Glo. Humbly complaining to her deity
Got my lord chamberlain his liberty.
I'll tell you what,-I think, it is our way,
If we will keep in favour with the king,
To be her men, and wear her livery:
The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,'
Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen,
Are mighty gossips in this monarchy.

Brak. I beseech your graces both to pardon me ;
His majesty hath straitly given in charge,
That no man shall have private conference,
Of what degree soever with his brother.

Glo. Even so? an please your worship, Braken-
bury,

You may partake of any thing we say:
We speak no treason, man;-We say, the king
Is wise and virtuous; and his noble queen
Well struck in years; fair, and not jealous :
We say, that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
A cherry lip,

A bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue;
And that the queen's kindred are made gentlefolks:
How say you, sir? can you deny all this?
Brak. With this, my lord, myself have nought

to do.

Glo. Naught to do with mistress Shore? I tell
thee, fellow,

He that doth naught with her, excepting one,
Were best to do it secretly, alone.

Glo. No doubt, no doubt; and so shall Clarence
too;

For they, that were your enemies, are his,
And have prevail'd as much on him, as you.

Hast. More pity that the eagle should be mew'd,
While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.

Glo. What news abroad?

Hast. No news so bad abroad as this at home;-
The king is sickly, weak, and melancholy,
And his physicians fear him mightily.

Glo. Now, by Saint Paul, this news is bad in-
deed.

O, he hath kept an evil diet long,
And over-much consum'd his royal person;
'Tis very grievous to be thought upon.
What, is he in his bed?

Hast.

He is.

Glo. Go you before, and I will follow you.
[Exit HASTINGS.

He cannot live, I hope; and must not die
Till George be pack'd with posthorse up to heaven.
I'll in, to urge his hatred more to Clarence,
With lies well steel'd with weighty arguments;
And, if I fail not in my deep intent,
Clarence hath not another day to live:
Which done, God take King Edward to his mercy,

And leave the world for me to bustle in!
For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter :7
What though I kill'd her husband, and her father?
The readiest way to make the wench amends,
Is-to become her husband, and her father:
The which will I; not all so much for love,
As for another secret close intent,

Brak. What one, my lord?

Glo. Her husband, knave :-Would'st thou tray me?

be

Bruk. I beseech your grace to pardon me; withal,

and,

By marrying her, which I must reach unto.
But yet I run before my horse to market:
Clarence still breathes; Edward still lives, and
reigns;

Forbear your conference with the noble duke.
Clar. We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and
will obey.❜

Glo. We are the queen's abjects, and must obey.
Brother, farewell: I will unto the king;
And whatsoever you will employ me in,-
Were it, to call king Edward's widow-sister,-

I will perform it to enfranchise you.
Mean time, this deep disgrace in brotherhood,
Touches me deeper than you can imagine.

Clar. I know it pleaseth neither of us well.
Glo. Well, your imprisonment shall not be long;
I will deliver you, or else lie for you :5
Mean time, have patience.
Clar.

I must perforce; farewell.
[Exeunt CLARENCE, BRAKENBURY, and
Guard.
Glo. Go, tread the path that thou shalt ne'er re-
turn,

Simple, plain Clarence!-I do love thee so,
That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven,
If heaven will take the present at our hands.
But who comes here? the new-deliver'd Hastings?

Enter HASTINGS.

Hast. Good time of day unto my gracious lord!
Glo. As much unto my good lord chamberlain !
Well are you welcome to this open air.
How hath your lordship brook'd imprisonment?
Hast. With patience, noble lord, as prisoners

must:

But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks,
That were the cause of my imprisonment.

1 The Queen and Shore.

2 This odd expression was preceded by equally singular, expressing what we now call vanced age.'

others an

When they are gone, then must I count my gains. [Exit.

SCENE II. The same.

Another Street. Enter the Corpse of KING HENRY THE SIXTH, borne in an open Coffin, Gentlemen bearing Halberds, to guard it; and LADY ANNE as mourner.

Anne. Set down, set down your honourable
load,-

If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,-
Whilst I a while obsequiously lament
The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster-
Poor keycold figure of a holy king!
Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster!
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood!
Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost,
To hear the lamentations of
poor Anne,
Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughter'd son,
Stabb'd by the self-same hand that made these

wounds!

Lo, in these windows, that let forth thy life,
I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes :-
O, cursed be the hand that made these holes!
Cursed the heart, that had the heart to do it!
Cursed the blood, that let this blood from hence!
More direful hap betide that hated wretch,
That makes us wretched by the death of thee,
Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,
Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives!
If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Whose ugly and unnatural aspect

To lie signified anciently to reside, or remain in a place,
as appears by many instances in these volumes.

6 A mew was a place in which falcons were kept, and being confined therein, while moulting, was metaad-phorically used for any close place or places of confine ment. The verb to mew was formed from the substan tive.

3 This and the three preceding speeches were probably all designed for prose. It is at any rate impossible that this line could have been intended for metre.

4 i. e. the lowest of her subjects. This substantive is found in Psalm xxxv. 15:- Yea the very abjects came together against me unawares, making mouths at me, and ceased not.'

5 He means, or else be imprisoned in your stead'

7 Lady Anne, the betrothed widow of Edward prince of Wales. See King Henry VI. Part III s Funereal.

9 A key, on account of the coldness of the metal of which it is composed, was often employed to stop any slight bleeding. The epithet is common to many old

writers.

May fright the hopeful mother at the view;
And that be heir to his unhappiness!1
If ever he have wife, let her be made
More miserable by the death of him,
Than I am made by my young lord, and thee!-
Come, now, toward Chertsey with your holy load,
Taken from Paul's to be interred there;
And, still as you are weary of the weight,
Rest you, whilst I lament King Henry's corpse.

[ocr errors]

[The Bearers take up the Corpse, and advance.
Enter GLOSTER.

Glo. Stay you, that bear the corse, and set it
down.

Anne. What black magician conjures up this fiend,

To stop devoted charitable deeds?

Glo. Villains, set down the corse; or, by Saint
Paul,

I'll make a corse of him that disobeys.2

1 Gent. My lord, stand back, and let the coffin pass.

Glo. Unmanner'd dog! stand thou when I com-
mand:

Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,
Or, by Saint Paul, I'll strike thee to my foot,
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.
[The Bearers set down the Coffin.
Anne. What, do you tremble? are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not; for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.-
Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body,
His soul thou canst not have; therefore, be gone.
Glo. Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.
Anne. Foul devil, for God's sake, hence, and
trouble us not:

For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Fill'd it with cursing cries, and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries;-
O, gentlemen, see, see! dead Henry's wounds
Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh!^—
Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity;
For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells;
Thy deed, inhuman and unnatural,
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.-
O God, which this blood mad'st, revenge his death!
O earth, which this blood drink'st, revenge his death!
Either, heaven, with lightning strike the murderer
dead,

Or, earth, gape open wide, and eat him quick;
As thou dost swallow up this good king's blood,
Which his hell-govern'd arm hath butchered!

Glo. Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.
Anne. Villain, thou know'st no law of God nor

man;

No beast so fierce, but knows some touch of pity.
Glo. But I know none, and therefore am no

beast.

Anne. O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
Glo. More wonderful, when angels are so angry.-
Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these supposed evils, to give me leave,
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

Anne. Vouchsafe, diffus'd' infection of a man,
For these known evils, but to give me leave,
By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.

Glo. Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me

have

Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

[blocks in formation]

wreck,

As all the world is cheered by the sun,
You should not blemish it, if I stood by ;
So I by that; it is my day, my life.

Anne. Black night o'ershade thy day, and death
thy life!

Glo. Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art
both.

Anne. I would I were, to be reveng'd on thee.
Glo. It is a quarrel most unnatural,

To be reveng'd on him that loveth thee.

Anne. It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be reveng'd on him that kill'd my husband.
Glo. He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,

Anne. Fouler than heart can think thee, thou Did it to help thee to a better husband.

canst make

No excuse current, but to hang thyself.

1 i. e. disposition to mischief.

2 I'll make a ghost of him that lets me.'-Hamlet. 3 Example.

4 This is from Holinshed. It is a tradition very gene. rally received, that the murdered body bleeds on the touch of the murderer. This was so much believed by Sir Kenelm Digby, that he has endeavoured to explain

Anne. His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

the reason. The opinion seems to be derived from the ancient Swedes, or northern nations, from whom we descended; for they practised this method of trial in dubious cases. See Pitt's Atlas; Sweden, p. 20.

5 Diffus'd anciently signified dark, obscure, strange, uncouth, or confused.

6 i. e. the crime of my brothers. He has just charged the murder of Lady Anne's husband on Edward.

Glo. He lives, that loves you better than he could. Anne. Name him.

Glo.

Anne.

Plantagenet.

Why, that was he. Glo. The self-same name, but one of better nature. Anne. Where is he? Glo.

Here: [She spits at him.] Why dost thou spit at me? Anne. 'Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake! Glo. Never came poison from so sweet a place. Anne. Never hung poison on a fouler toad. Out of my sight! thou dost infect mine eyes.

Glo. Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine. Anne. 'Would they were basilisks, to strike thee dead!!

Glo. I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.2
Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
Sham'd their aspects with store of childish drops:
These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear,-
No, when my father York and Edward wept,
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made,
When black-fac'd Clifford shook his sword at him:
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father's death;
And twenty times made pause, to sob, and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks,
Like trees bedash'd with rain:-in that sad time,
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear ;4
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;

My tongue could never learn sweet soothing word;
But now thy beauty is propos'd my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to
speak. [She looks scornfully at him.
Teach not thy lip such scorn; for it was made
For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,

Lo! here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword;
Which if thou please to hide in this true breast,
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,

I lay it naked to the deadly stroke,
And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

[He lays his breast open; she offers at it with

his sword.

Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry ;-
But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me.5
Nay, now despatch; 'twas I that stabb'd young
Edward ;-

[She again offers at his breast. But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on. [She lets fall the sword. Take up the sword again, or take up me. Anne. Arise, dissembler: though I wish thy death, I will not be thy executioner.

Glo. Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it. Anne. I have already. Glo. That was in thy rage: Speak it again, and, even with the word, This hand, which, for thy love, did kill thy love, Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love; To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

1 See notes on King Henry V. Act v. Sc. 2. ; and King Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2.

2 We have the same expression in Venus and Adonis applied to love:

For I have heard it is a life in death

That laughs and weeps, and all but with a breath.'

Pope adopts it :-.

[ocr errors]

a living death I bear,

Says Dapperwit, and sunk beside his chair.' 3 Pitiful.

4 Here is an apparent reference to King Henry VI. Part III. Act. ii. Sc. 1.

5 Shakspeare countenances the observation that no woman can ever be offended with the mention of her beauty.

6 Crosby Place is now Crosby Square, in Bishopsgate Street. This magnificent house was built in 1466, by Sir John Crosby, grocer and woolman. He died in 1475. The ancient hall of this fabric is still remaining, though divided by an additional floor, and encumbered with inodern galleries, having been converted into a place of worship for Antinomians, &c. The upper part of it was

Anne. I would, I knew thy heart.
Glo. "Tis figur'd in my tongue.
Anne. I fear me, both are false.
Glo. Then never man was true.
Anne. Well, well, put up your sword.
Glo. Say then, my peace is made.
Anne. That shall you know hereafter.
Glo. But shall I live in hope?
Anne. All men, I hope, live so,
Glo. Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
Anne. To take, is not to give.

[She puts on the ring. Glo. Look, how this ring encompasseth thy finger, Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart; Wear both of them, for both of them are thine. And if thy poor devoted servant may But beg one favour at thy gracious hand, Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever. Anne. What is it?

Glo. That it may please you leave these sad designs

To him that hath more cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby-place:
Where-after I have solemnly interr'd,
At Chertsey monast'ry this noble king,
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,-
I will with all expedient' duty see you:
For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you,
Grant me this boon.

Anne. With all my heart; and much it joys me too,

To see you are become so penitent.-
Tressel, and Berkley, go along with me.
Glo. Bid me farewell.
Anne.
'Tis more than you deserve.
But, since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

8

[Exeunt LADY ANNE, TRESSEL, and BERKLEY.

Glo. Sirs, take up the corse.

Gent. Towards Chertsey, noble lord? Glo. No,to White Friars; there attend my coming [Exeunt the rest, with the Corse. Was ever woman in this humour woo'd? Was ever woman in this humour won? I'll have her, but I will not keep her long. What! I, that kill'd her husband, and his father, To take her in her heart's extremest hate; With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes, The bleeding witness of her hatred by ; With God, her conscience, and these bars against

me,

And I no friends to back my suit withal,
But the plain devil, and dissembling looks,
And yet to win her,--all the world to nothing!
Ha!

Hath she forgot already that brave prince,
Edward, her lord, whom I some three months since,
Stabb'd in my angry mood at Tewksbury ?
A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,-
Fram'd in the prodigality of nature,
Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,—
The spacious world cannot again afford:
lately the warehouse of an eminent packer.
Crosby's tomb is in the neighbouring church of St. He-
len the Great.

7 i. e. expeditious.

Sir J.

8 Cibber, who altered King Richard III. for the stage, was so thoroughly convinced of the improbability of this scene, that he thought it necessary to make Tressel say:

"When future chronicles shall speak of this, They will be thought romance, not history.' The embassy under Lord Macartney to China witnessed the representation of a play in a theatre at Tien-sing with a similar incongruous plot.

9 This fixes the exact time of the scene to August, 1471. King Edward, however, is introduced in the second act dying. That king died in April, 1483; consequently there is an interval between this and the next act of almost twelve years. presented in the preceding scene as committed to the Clarence, who is reTower before the burial of King Henry VI. was in fact not confined nor put to death till March, 1477-8, seven years afterwards.

SCENE II

KING RICHARD III.

And will she yet abase her eyes on me,
That cropp'd the golden prime of this sweet prince,
And made her widow to a woful bed?
On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety?
Oa me, that halt, and am misshapen thus?
My dukedom to a beggarly denier,'
I do mistake my person all this while:
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper man.2
I'll be at charges for a looking-glass;
And entertain a score or two of tailors,
To study fashions to adorn my body:
Since I am crept in favour with myself,
Lwill maintain it with some little cost.
But, first, I'll turn yon fellow in his grave;
love.-
And then return lamenting to
Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,
That I may see my shadow as I pass.

my

[Exit.

A Room in the Palace.
SCENE III. The same.
Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, LORD RIVERS, and
LORD GREY.

Buck. Ay, madam: he desires to make atone

ment

Between the duke of Gloster and your brothers,
And between them and my lord chamberlain;
And sent to warn them to his royal presence.
Q. Eliz. 'Would all were well!-But that will
never be ;-

I fear, our happiness is at the height.

Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET.

Glo. They do me wrong, and I will not endure
it :-

Who are they, that complain unto the king,
That I, forsooth, am stern, and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly,
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.
Because I cannot flatter, and speak fair,
Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,
Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,
Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm,
must be held a rancorous enemy.
But thus his simple truth must be abus'd

Riv. Have patience, madam; there's no doubt By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?

his majesty

Will soon recover his accustom'd health.

Grey. In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse:
Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort,
And cheer his grace with quick and merry words.
Q. Eliz. If he were dead, what would betide of
me?

Grey. No other harm, but loss of such a lord.
Q. Eliz. The loss of such a lord includes all

harms.

Grey. The heavens have bless'd you with a goodly son,

To be your comforter when he is gone.

Q. Eliz. Ah, he is young; and his minority
Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloster,
A man that loves not me, nor none of you.

1

Riv. Is it concluded, he shall be protector? Q. Eliz. It is determin'd, not concluded yet:4 But so it must be, if the king miscarry.

Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY."

Grey. Here come the lords of Buckingham and
Stanley.

Buck. Good time of day unto your royal grace!
Stan. God make your majesty joyful as you have

been!

Q. Eliz. The Countess Richmond, good my
lord of Stanley,

To your good prayer will scarcely say-amen.
Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she's your wife,
And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd,
hate not you for her proud arrogance.
Stan. I do beseech you, either not believe
The envious slanders of her false accusers;
Or, if she be accus'd on true report,
Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds
From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.
Q. Eliz. Saw you the king to-day, my lord of
Stanley?

Stan. But now, the duke of Buckingham, and I,
Are come from visiting his majesty.

Q. Eliz What likelihood of his amendment, lords?
Buck. Madam, good hope; his grace speaks
cheerfully.

Q. Eliz. God grant him health! Did you confer
with him?

1 A small coin, the twelfth part of a French sous.
2 Marvellous is here used adverbially. A proper man,
in old language, was a well-proportioned one.
3 In for into.

4 Determin'd signifies the final conclusion of the
will: concluded, what cannot be altered by reason of
some act, consequent on the final judgment.

5 By inadvertence, in the old copies Derby is put for
Stanley. The person meant was Thomas Lord Stanley,
lord steward of King Edward the Fourth's household.
But he was not created earl of Derby, till after the ac-
cession of King Henry VII. In the fourth and fifth acts
of this play, he is every where called Lord Stanley.
6 Margaret, daughter to John Beaufort, first duke of

Grey. To whom in all this presence speaks your

grace?

Glo. To thee, that hast nor honesty, nor grace.
When have 1 injured thee? when done thee wrong?
Or thee?-or thee ?-or any of your faction?
A plague upon you all! His royal grace,—
Whom God preserve better than you would wish!-
Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing while,
But you must trouble him with lewd complaints.
Q. Eliz. Brother of Gloster, you mistake the

matter:

The king, of his own royal disposition,
And not provok'd by any suitor else;
Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred,
That in your outward action shows itself,
Against my children, brothers, and myself,
Makes him to send that thereby he may gather
The ground of your ill will, and so remove it.

Glo. I cannot tell ;-The world is grown so bad,
That wrens may prey where eagles dare not perch:
Since every Jack" became a gentleman,
There's many a gentle person made a Jack.

Q. Eliz. Come, come, we know your meaning,
brother Gloster;

You envy my advancement, and my friends';
God grant, we never may have need of you!"

Glo. Meantime, God grants that we have need
of you:

Our brother is imprison'd by your means,
Myself disgrac'd, and the nobility
Held in contempt; while great promotions
Are daily given, to ennoble those

That scarce, some two days since, were worth a
noble.

Q. Eliz. By Him, that rais'd me to this careful
height,

From that contented hap which I enjoy'd,
I never did incense his majesty
Against the duke of Clarence, but have been
An earnest advocate to plead for him.
My lord, you do me shameful injury,
Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.

Of

Glo. You may deny that you were not the cause
my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment.
Riv. She may, my lord; for-

Glo. She may, Lord Rivers?-why, who knows
not so?

Somerset. After the death of her first husband, Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, half-brother to King Henry VI. by whom she had only one son, afterwards King Henry VII., she married Sir Henry Stafford, uncle to Humphry, duke of Buckingham.

7 i. e. summon.

S Lewd here signifies idle, ungracious; and not rude, ignorant, as Steevens asserts.

9 i. e. I cannot tell what to say or think of it. 10 This proverbial expression at once demonstrates the origin of the term Jack, so often used by Shakspeare. It means one of the very lowest class of people, among whom this name is most common and familiar.

« ÎnapoiContinuă »