K. Edw. Is Clarence dead? The order was reversed. Glo. But he, poor man, by your first order died, And that a winged Mercury did bear; Some tardy cripple bore the countermand, That came too lag to see him buried:God grant that some, less noble, and less loyal, Nearer in bloody thoughts, and not in blood, Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did, And yet go current from suspicion.

Enter STANLey.

Stan. A boon, my sovereign, for my service done! K. Edw. I pr'ythee, peace; my soul is full of sor

row.

Stan. I will not rise, unless your highness hear me. K. Edw. Then say at once, what is it thou request'st?

Stan. The forfeit,1 sovereign, of my servant's life; Who slew to-day a riotous gentleman,

Lately attendant on the duke of Norfolk.

K. Edw. Have I a tongue to doom my brother's death,

And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave?
My brother killed no man; his fault was thought;
And yet his punishment was bitter death.
Who sued to me for him? who, in my wrath,
Kneeled at my feet, and bade me be advised?
Who spoke of brotherhood? who spoke of love?
Who told me how the poor soul did forsake
The mighty Warwick, and did fight for me?
Who told me, in the field at Tewksbury,
When Oxford had me down, he rescued me,
And said, Dear brother, live, and be a king?
Who told me, when we both lay in the field,
Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
Even in his garments; and did give himself,
All thin and naked, to the numb-cold night?

1 He means the remission of the forfeit.

All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
Sinfully plucked, and not a man of you
Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
But when your carters, or your waiting vassals,
Have done a drunken slaughter, and defaced
The precious image of our dear Redeemer,
You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon;
And I, unjustly too, must grant it you :-
But for my brother, not a man would speak,—
Nor I (ungracious) speak unto myself
For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all
Have been beholden to him in his life;
Yet none of you would once plead for his life.-
O, God! I fear thy justice will take hold

On me, and you, and mine, and yours, for this.-
Come, Hastings, help me to my closet.' O,
Poor Clarence!

[Exeunt King, Queen, HASTINgs, Rivers, DORSET, and GREY.

Glo. This is the fruit of rashness!-Marked you

not,

How that the guilty kindred of the queen

Looked pale, when they did hear of Clarence' death?

O! they did urge it still unto the king:

God will revenge it. Come, lords; will you go,

To comfort Edward with our company?

Buck. We wait upon your grace.

SCENE II. The same.

2

[Exeunt.

Enter the DUCHESS of YORK, with a Son and Daughter of CLARENCE.

Son. Good grandam, tell us, is our father dead?
Duch. No, boy.

1 Hastings was lord chamberlain to king Edward IV.

2 Cecily, daughter of Ralph Neville, first earl of Westmoreland, and widow of Richard duke of York, who was killed at the battle of Wakefield, 1460. She survived her husband thirty-five years, living till the year 1495.

Daugh. Why do you weep so oft? and beat your

breast;

And cry-O, Clarence, my unhappy son!

Son. Why do you look on us, and shake your head, And call us-orphans, wretches, cast-aways,

If that our noble father be alive?

Duch. My pretty cousins,1 you mistake me both; I do lament the sickness of the king,

As loath to lose him, not your father's death;

It were lost sorrow, to wail one that's lost.

Son. Then, grandam, you conclude that he is dead. The king my uncle is to blame for this:

God will revenge it; whom I will impórtune
With earnest prayers all to that effect.

Daugh. And so will I.

Duch. Peace, children, peace! the king doth love you well:

Incapable and shallow innocents,

You cannot guess who caused your father's death.
Son. Grandam, we can; for my good uncle Gloster
Told me, the king, provoked to't by the queen,
Devised impeachments to imprison him;
And when my uncle told me so, he wept,
And pitied me, and kindly kissed my cheek;
Bade me rely on him, as on my father,

And he would love me dearly as his child.

Duch. Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes,

And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice!

He is my son, ay, and therein my shame,
Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.

2

Son. Think you, my uncle did dissemble, grandam? Duch. Ay, boy.

Son. I cannot think it. Hark! what noise is this?

1 The duchess is here addressing her grand children; but cousin seems to have been used instead of kinsman and kinswoman, and to have supplied the place of both.

2 This word g ve no offence to our ancestors; it was used even in the most refined poetry.

Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, distractedly; RIVERS, and DORSET, following her.

Q. Eliz. Ah! who shall hinder me to wail and weep?

To chide my fortune, and torment myself?

I'll join with black despair against my soul,
And to myself become an enemy.

Duch. What means this scene of rude impatience?
Q. Eliz. To make an act of tragic violence:-
Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead.
Why grow the branches, when the root is gone?
Why wither not the leaves that want their sap?-
If you will live, lament; if die, be brief;

That our swift-winged souls may catch the king's;
Or, like obedient subjects, follow him

To his new kingdom of perpetual rest.

Duch. Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow,

As I had title in thy noble husband!

I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
And lived by looking on his images:1

But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
Are cracked in pieces by malignant death;
And I for comfort have but one false glass,
That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
Thou art a widow; yet thou art a mother,
And hast the comfort of thy children left thee;
But death hath snatched my husband from my arms,
And plucked two crutches from my feeble hands,
Clarence and Edward. O, what cause have I
(Thine being but a moiety of my grief)

To overgo thy plaints, and drown thy cries!

Son. Ah, aunt! you wept not for our father's death ;

How can we aid you with our kindred tears?

Daugh. Our fatherless distress was left unmoaned;

Your widow-dolor likewise be unwept!

Q. Eliz. Give me no help in lamentation ;

I am not barren to bring forth laments:

1 The children by whom he was represented.

All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
That I, being governed by the watery moon,
May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world!
Ah, for my husband, for my dear lord Edward!

Chil. Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clarence!

Duch. Alas, for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence !

Q. Eliz. What stay had I, but Edward? and he's

gone.

Chil. What stay had we, but Clarence? and he's

gone.

Duch. What stays had I, but they? and they are

gone.

Q. Eliz. Was never widow had so dear a loss.
Chil. Were never orphans had so dear a loss.
Duch. Was never mother had so dear a loss.

Alas! I am the mother of these griefs;
Their woes are parcelled, mine are general,
She for an Edward weeps, and so do I ;
I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she :
These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I:
I for an Edward weep, so do not they :-
Alas, you three, on me, threefold distressed,
Pour all your tears, I am your sorrow's nurse,
And I will pamper it with lamentations.

Dor. Comfort, dear mother, God is much displeased, That you take with unthankfulness his doing;

In common, worldly things, 'tis called-ungrateful,
With dull unwillingness to repay a debt,
Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
Much more to be thus opposite with Heaven,
For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

Riv. Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother,
Of the young prince your son: send straight for him;
Let him be crowned; in him your comfort lives:
Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward's grave,
And plant your joys in living Edward's throne.