K. EDW. You cavil, widow; I did mean, my queen. L. GREY. Twill grieve your grace, my fons fhould call you-father. K. EDW. No more, than when thy daughters call Thou art a widow,4 and thou hast some children; 'Answer no more, for thou fhalt be my queen. GLO. The ghoftly father now hath done his fhrift. [Afide. CLAR. When he was made a fhriver, 'twas for fhift. [Afide. K. EDW. Brothers, you muse what chat we two have had. * GLO. The widow likes it not, for fhe looks fad.s K. EDW. You'd think it ftrange if I fhould marry her. CLAR. To whom, my K. EDW. lord? Why, Clarence, to myself. GLO. That would be ten days' wonder, at the leaft. CLAR. That's a day longer than a wonder lafts." 4 Thou art a widow, &c.] This is part of the King's reply to his mother in Stowe's Chronicle: "That the is a widow, and hath already children; by God's bleffed lady I am a batchelor, and have fome too, and fo each of us hath a proofe that neither of us is like to be barrain ;" &c. STEEVENS. 5 She looks fad.] Old copy-very fad. For the fake of metre I have omitted this useless adverb. STEEVENS. 6 That's a day longer &c.] A nine days wonder was prover 'GLO. By fo much is the wonder in extremes. K. EDW. Well, jeft on, brothers: I can tell you both, Her fuit is granted for her husband's lands. Enter a Nobleman. NOB. My gracious lord, Henry your foe is taken, And brought your prifoner to your palace gate. K. EDW. See, that he be convey'd unto the And go we, brothers, to the man that took him, "Widow, go you along;-Lords, ufe her honourable. [Exeunt King EDWARD, Lady GREY, CLARENCE, and Lord. GLO. Ay, Edward will use women honourably. 'Would he were wafted, marrow, bones, and all, "That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring, 'To cross me from the golden time I look for! And yet, between my foul's defire, and me, *(The luftful Edward's title buried,) Is Clarence, Henry, and his fon young Edward, And all the unlook'd-for iffue of their bodies, To take their rooms, ere I can place myself: A cold premeditation for my purpose ! * Why, then I do but dream on fovereignty; *Like one that ftands upon a promontory, * And spies a far-off fhore where he would tread, bial. Thus, in a Sermon at Paul's Croffe, Nov. 25, 1621, by Henry King, p. 53: "For mendacia diu non fallunt, and having arrived at nine days, the age of a wonder, died in laughter.” REED. * Withing his foot were equal with his eye; * And chides the fea that funders him from thence, * Saying-he'll lade it dry to have his way: So do I with the crown, being fo far off; * And fo I chide the means that keep me from it; * And fo I fay-I'll cut the causes off, * Flattering me with impoffibilities.— * My eye's too quick, my heart o'erweens too much, * Unlefs my hand and ftrength could equal them. *Well, fay there is no kingdom then for Richard; * What other pleasure can the world afford? 'I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap, ८ ' And deck my body in gay ornaments, And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks. 'O miferable thought! and more unlikely, 'Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns! Why, love forfwore me in my mother's womb : And, for I fhould not deal in her foft laws 'She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe 'To fhrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub To make an envious mountain on my back, Where fits deformity to mock my body; To shape my legs of an unequal fize; *To difproportion me in every part, * Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp,' 7 I'll make my heaven &c.] Thus the folio. The quartos alter and tranfpofe the two lines, as follows: I will go clad my body with gay ornaments, And lull myfelf within a lady's lap. STEEVENS. 8 love forfwore me in my mother's womb:] This line is found alfo in a play entitled Wily Beguiled. The earliest edition that I have seen of that piece, was printed in 1606; but it had been exhibited on the stage soon after the year 1590. MALONE. like a wither'd fhrub ;] So the folio. The quartos→→→→ like a wither'd shrimp. STEEVENS. 9 I unlick'd bear-whelp,] It was an opinion which, in spite of its abfurdity, prevailed long, that the bear brings forth only * That carries no impreffion like the dam. And am I then a man to be belov'd? 'O, monftrous fault, to harbour fuch a thought! * Then, fince this earth affords no joy to me, * But to command, to check, to o'erbear fuch * As are of better perfon than myself,2 * I'll make my heaven-to dream upon the crown; * And, whiles I live, to account this world but hell, * Until my misfhap'd trunk that bears this head, * Be round impaled with a glorious crown.3 * And yet I know not how to get the crown, * For many lives ftand between me and home: *And I,-like one loft in a thorny wood, * That rents the thorns, and is rent with the thorns; fhapeless lumps of animated flesh, which the licks into the form of bears. It is now well known that the whelps of the bear are produced in the same state with those of other creatures. to o'erbear fuch JOHNSON. As are of better perfon than myself,] Richard fpeaks here the language of nature. Whoever is ftigmatized with deformity has a conftant fource of envy in his mind, and would counterbalance by fome other fuperiority those advantages which he feels himself to want. Bacon remarks that the deformed are commonly daring; and it is almoft proverbially obferved that they are ill-natured. The truth is, that the deformed, like all other men, are displeased with inferiority, and endeavour to gain ground by good or bad means, as they are virtuous or corrupt. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 3 Until my mishap'd trunk that bears this head, JOHNSON. Beround impaled &c.] A tranfpofition feems to be neceffary: "Until my head, that this misfhap'd trunk bears." Otherwife the trunk that bears the head is to be encircled with the crown, and not the head itself. STEEVENS. Sir T. Hanmer reads as Mr. Steevens recommends. I believe our author is answerable for this inaccuracy, MALONE. * Seeking a way, and straying from the way; Change fhapes, with Proteus, for advantages, impaled-] i. e. encircled. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: "Tear off the crown that yet empales his temples." STEEVENS. 4 And fet the murd'rous Machiavel to fchool.] As this is an anachronism, and the old quarto reads: "And fet the afpiring Catiline to school-." I don't know why it should not be preferred. WARBurton. This is not the first proof I have met with, that Shakspeare, in his attempts to familiarize ideas, has diminished their propriety. STEEVENS. Catiline firft occurred to the author of the old play, who was probably a scholar; and Machiavel, who is mentioned in various books of our author's age, as the great exemplar of profound politicians, naturally was fubftituted by Shakspeare in his room. See this play, P. I. A&t V. fc. iv : Alençon! that notorious Machiavel !” In King Edward II. Marlowe, who was probably the author of The True Tragedie of Richarde Duke of Yorke, in like man ner introduces Catiline: |