All this from my remembrance brutish wrath O, [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. [Exeunt. Enter the DUCHESS of YORK, with a Son and Daughter of CLARENCE. Son. Good grandam, tell us, is our father dead? 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,' 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 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. Duch. Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice! Son. Think you, my uncle did dissemble, grandam? 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 our kinsman and kinswoman, and to have supplied the place of both. 2 This word gave 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, Duch. What means this scene of rude impatience? That our swift-winged souls may catch the king's; 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, But now two mirrors of his princely semblance 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, Chil. Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clar ence! 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. Dor. Comfort, dear mother, God is much displeased, 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. Enter GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, RATCLIFF, and others. Glo. Sister, have comfort: all of us have cause But none can cure their harms by wailing them.— I did not see your grace ;-humbly on my knee Duch. God bless thee; and put meekness in thy breast, Love, charity, obedience, and true duty! Glo. Amen; and make me die a good old man! That is the butt-end of a mother's blessing; I marvel that her grace did leave it out. [Aside. Buck. You cloudy princes, and heart-sorrowing peers, That bear this mutual, heavy load of moan, Riv. Why with some little train, my lord of Buckingham? Buck. Marry, my lord, lest, by a multitude, The new-healed wound of malice should break out; Which would be so much the more dangerous, By how much the estate is green, and yet ungoverned; Where every horse bears his commanding rein, 1 Edward, the young prince, in his father's lifetime, and at his demise, kept his household at Ludlow, as prince of Wales; under the governance of Anthony Woodville, earl of Rivers, his uncle by the mother's side. The intention of his being sent thither was to see justice done in the Marches; and, by the authority of his presence, to restrain the Welshmen, who were wild, dissolute, and ill-disposed, from their accustomed murders and outrages. Vide Holinshed. |