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

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!

will never be;

I fear, our happiness is at the height.

But that

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,
I must be held a rancorous enemy.
Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm,
But thus his simple truth must be abus'd
By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?

Grey. To whom in all this presence speaks your Grace?

Glo. To thee, that hast nor honesty, nor grace. When have I injur'd thee? when done thee

wrong?

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 se

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 enoble 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,
Faisely to draw me in these vile suspects.

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

knows not so?

why, who

She may do more, Sir, than denying that:
She may help you to many fair preferments;
And then deny her aiding hand therein,

And lay those honours on your high desert,
What may she not? She may,

may she,

Riv. What, marry, may she?

ay, marry,

Glo, What, marry, may she? marry with a King,

A bachelor, handsome stripling too:

I wis, your grandam had a worser match.

Q. Eliz. My Lord of Gloster, I have too long

borne

Your blunt upbraidings, and your bitter scoffs;
By heaven, I will acquaint his Majesty,
Of those gross taunts 1 often have endur'd,
I had rather be a country servant-maid,
Than a great Queen, with this condition —
To be so baited, scorn'd, and stormed at:
Small joy have I in being England's Queen.

Enter Queen MARGARET, behind.

Q. Mar. And lessen'd be that small, God, I

beseech thee!

Thy honour, state, and seat, is due to me.
Glo. What! threat you me with telling of the
King?

Tell him, and spare not; look, what I have said
I will avouch in presence of the King:

I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower.

'Tis time to speak, my pains are quite forgot.
Q. Mar. Out, devil! I remember them too
well:

Thou kill'dst my husband in the Tower,
And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury.
Glo. Ere you were Queen, ay, or your hus-
baud King,

I was a pack-horse in his great affairs;
A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,
A liberal rewarder of his friends;

To royalize his blood, I spilt mine own.

Q. Mar. Ay, and much better blood than his,

or thine.

Glo. In all which time, you, and your husband

Grey,

Were factious for the house of Lancaster;
And, Rivers, so were you:

husband

Was not your

In Margaret's battle at saint Albans slain?
Let me put in your minds, if you forget,
What you have been ere now, and what you are;
Withal, what I have been, and what I am.

Q. Mar. A murd'rous villain, and so still

thou art.

Glo. To fight on Edward's party, for the

crown;

And, for his meed, poor lord, he is mew'd up;
I would to God, my heart were flint, like
Edward's,

Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine;
I am too childish-foolish for this world.

Q. Mar. Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this world,

Thou cacodaemon! there thy kingdom is.

Riv. My Lord of Gloster, in those busy days, Which here, you urge, to prove us enemies, We follow'd then our lord, our lawful King; So should we you, if you should be our King. Glo. If I should be? I had rather be a pedlar:

Far be it from my heart the thought thereof! Q. Eliz. As little joy, my Lord, as you

suppose

You should enjoy, were you this country's King;
As little joy you may suppose in me,
That I enjoy, being the Queen thereof.

Q. Mar. A little joy enjoys the Queen thereof; For I am she, and altogether joyless.

I can

no longer hold me patient.

[Advancing. Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out In sharing that which you have pill'd from me: Which of you trembles not, that looks on me? If not, that, I being Queen, you bow like subjects;

Yet that, by you depos'd, you quake like rebels?

Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away!

Glo. Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou in

my sight?

Q. Mar. But repetition of what thou has marr'd;

That will I make, before I let thee go.

Glo. Wert thou not banished, on pain of death? Q. Mar. I was; but I do find more pain in banishment,

Than death can yield me here by my abode.