wi-But,

K. Edw. You'd think it strange if I should marry
her.

Clar. To whom, my lord?
K. Edw.

Why, Clarence, to myself. Glo. That would be ten days' wonder, at the least.

Then, since this earth affords no joy to me, * But to command, to check, to o'erbear such As are of better person 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 misshap'd trunk that bears this head,
* Be round impaled3 with a glorious crown.
* And yet I know not how to get the crown,

* For many lives stand between me and home:
* And I,-like one lost in a thorny wood,

Clar. That's a day longer than a wonder lasts. 'Glo. By so much is the wonder in extremes. K. Edw. Well, jest on, brothers: I can tell you* That rents the thorns, and is rent with the thorns,

both,

* Seeking a way, and straying from the way
* Not knowing now to find the open air,
*But toiling desperately to find it out,-

Widow, go you along;-Lords, use her honour-*

able.

[Exeunt KING EDWARD, LADY GREY,
CLARENCE, and Lord.

Glo. Ay, Edward will use women honourably.
Would, he were wasted, 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 soul's desire and me
* (The lustful Edward's title buried)
'Is Clarence, Henry, and his son young Edward,
And all the unlook'd-for issue 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 sovereignty;
*Like one that stands upon a promontory,

* And spies a far-off shore where he would tread,
* Wishing his foot were equal with his
eye;

* And chides the sea that sunders him from thence,
Saying-he'll lade it dry to have his way:

* So do I wish the crown, being so far off;
* And so I chide the means that keep me from it;
* And so I say I'll cut the causes off,
*Flattering me with impossibilities.-

* My eye's too quick, my heart o'erweens too much,
* Unless my hand and strength could equal them.
*Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard;
* What other pleasure can the world afford?
'I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap,

And deck my body in gay ornaments,
And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.
'O miserable thought! and more unlikely,
'Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns!
Why, love forswore me in my mother's womb:
And, for I should not deal in her soft laws
She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe
'To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub ;
To make an envious mountain on my back,
Where sits deformity to mock my body;
To shape my legs of an unequal size;
*To disproportion me in every part,

Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp,'
That carries no impression like the dam.
And am I then a man to be belov'd?

' O, monstrous fault, to harbour such a thought.
1 It was an opinion which, in spite of its absurdity,
prevailed long, that the bear brings forth only shapeless
lumps of flesh, which she licks into the form of bears.
It is now well known that the whelps of bears are pro-
duced in the same state with those of other animals.
Johnson.

2 Richard speaks here the language of nature. Whoever is stigmatized with deformity has a constant source of envy in his mind, and would counterbalance by some other superiority those advantages which he feels himself to want. Bacon remarks that the deformed are commonly daring; and it is almost proverbially observed that they are ill-natured. The truth is that the deformed, like all other mer, are displeased with inferiority, and endeavour to gain ground by good or bad means, as they are virtuous or corrupt.-Johnson.

3 i.e. encircled. Steevens would read with Hanmer :Until my head that this misshap'd trunk bears.'

* Torment myself to catch the English crown :
* And from that torment I will free myself,
* Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.
Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile
And cry, content, to that which grieves my heart ·
And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,
* And frame my face to all occasions.
I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall
*I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk;
I'll play the orator as well as Nestor,
* Deceive more slily than Ulysses could,
* And, like a Sinon, take another Troy;
I can add colours to the cameleon
Change shapes, with Proteus, for advantages,
;
'And set the murd'rous Machiavel4 to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
'Tut! were it further off, I'll pluck it down. [Exit
SCENE III. France. A Room in the Palace.
Flourish. Enter LEWIS, the French King, and
LADY BONA, attended; the King takes his State.
Then enter QUEEN MARGARET, PRINCE ED-
WARD her Son, and the EARL of OXFORD.

'K. Lew. Fair queen of England, worthy Mar
Sit down with us: it ill befits thy state,
garet,
[Rising.
'And birth, that thou should'st stand, while Lewis
doth sit.

* Q. Mar. No, mighty king of France; now Margaret

Where kings command. I was, I must confess, * Must strike her sail, and learn awhile to serve, But now mischance hath trod my title down, * Great Albion's queen in former golden days • * And with dishonour laid me on the ground; * Where I must take like seat unto my fortune, * And to my humble seat conform myself. * K. Lew. Why, say, fair queen, whence springs this deep despair?

* Q. Mar. From such a cause as fills mine eyes

with tears,

* And stops my tongue, while heart is drown'd in

cares.

* K. Lew. Whate'er it be, be thou still like thyself,

* And sit thee by our side: yield not thy neck

[Seats her by him.

* To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind
* Still ride in triumph over all mischance.
* Be plain, Queen Margaret, and tell thy grief;
* It shall be eas'd, if France can yield relief.

Otherwise, he observes, the trunk that bears the head is to be encircled with the crown, and not the head itself 4 The old play reads with more propriety:

And set the aspiring Cataline to school.' By which the anachronism is also avoided. Machiavel is mentioned in various books of the poet's age as the great exemplar of profound politicians. An amusing instance of the odium attached to his name is to be found in Gill's Logonomia Anglica, 1621 :- Et ne semper Sidneios loquamur, audi epilogum fabulæ quam docuit Boreali dialecto poeta, titulumque fuit reus Ma chiavellus:

'Machil iz hanged

And brenned iz his buks:
Though Machil iz hanged
Yet he iz not wranged,
The Di'el haz him fanged
In hiz cruket cluks.'

*Q. Mar. Those gracious words revive my droop-* That Henry liveth still: but were he dead, * Yet here Prince Edward stands, King Henry's

ing thoughts,

* And give my tongue-tied sorrows leave to speak.
*Now, therefore, be it known to noble Lewis,-
*That Henry, sole possessor of my love,

*Is, of a king, become a banish'd man,

* And forc'd to live in Scotland a forlorn

* While proud ambitious Edward, duke of York,
* Usurps the regal title, and the seat

* Of England's true anointed lawful king.
*This is the cause, that I, poor Margaret,—

* With this my son, Prince Edward, Henry's heir,
* Am come to crave thy just and lawful aid;
And, if thou fail us, all our hope is done:

• Scotland hath will to help, but cannot help;
* Our people and our peers are both misled,
* Our treasure seiz'd, our soldiers put to flight,
* And, as thou seest, ourselves in heavy plight.
* K. Lew. Renowned queen, with patience calm
the storm,

* While we bethink a means to break it off.

Q. Mar. The more we stay, the stronger grows our foe.

* K. Lew. The more I stay, the more I'll succour thee.

* Q. Mar. O, but impatience waiteth on true

thee to France ?

[Descending from his State, Queen
MARGARET rises.

* Q. Mar. Ay, now begins a second storm to rise; * For this is he that moves both wind and tide.

' War. From worthy Edward, king of Albion,
My lord and sovereign, and thy vowed friend,
I come,-in kindness, and unfeigned love,—
First, to do greetings to thy royal person;
And, then, to crave a league of amity;
And, lastly, to confirm that amity
With nuptial knot, if thou vouchsafe to grant
That virtuous Lady Bona, thy fair sister,
To England's king in lawful marriage.

'Q. Mar. If that go forward, Henry's hope is
done.2

War. And, gracious madam, [To Bona,] in our

king's behalf,

'I am commanded, with your leave and favour,
Humbly to kiss your hand, and with my tongue
To tell the passion of my sovereign's heart;
Where fame, late entering at his heedful ears,
Hath plac'd thy beauty's image, and thy virtue.
Q. Mar. King Lewis,-and Lady Bona,-hear
me speak,

'Before you answer Warwick. His demand
* Springs not from Edward's well meant honest love,
* But from deceit, bred by necessity;
*For how can tyrants safely govern home,
* Unless abroad they purchase great alliance?
* To prove him tyrant, this reason may suffice,-

1 This nobleman's embassy and commission, the insult he receives by the king's hasty marriage, and his consequent resolution to avenge it, with the capture, imprisonment, and escape of the king, Shakspeare found in Hall and Holinshed; but later as well as earlier writers of better authority, incline us to discredit the whole; and to refer the rupture between the king and his political creator to other causes. Perhaps we need seek no further than that jealousy and ingratitude which is but too often experienced in trose who are under great obligations too great to be discharged There needs no other proof how little our common histories are to be depended on, than this fabulous story of Warwick and the Lady Bona. The king was privately married to the Lady Elizabeth Widville, in 1463, and in February, 1465, Warwick actually stood sponsor to the Princess Elizabeth, their first child. It should seem from the

But for the rest,-You tell a pedigree
Of threescore and two years; a silly time
To make prescription for a kingdom's worth.
'Oxf. Why, Warwick, canst thou speak against
thy liege,

years,

'Whom thou obey'dst thirty and six
And not bewray thy treason with a blush?
War. Can Oxford, that did ever fence the right,
Now buckler falsehood with a pedigree?
For shame, leave Henry, and call Edward king.

'Oxf. Call him my king, by whose injurious docm
My elder brother, the Lord Aubrey Vere,
Was done to death? and more than so, my father,
Even in the downfall of his mellow'd years,
'When nature brought him to the door of death ?3
No, Warwick, no; while life upholds this arm,
This arm upholds the house of Lancaster.
War. And I the house of York.

K. Lew. Queen Margaret, Prince Edward, and
Oxford,

'Vouchsafe, at our request, to stand aside,
'While I use further conference with Warwick.
* Q. Mar. Heaven grant, that Warwick's words
bewitch him not!

[Retiring with the Prince and Oxford. 'K. Lew. Now, Warwick, tell me, even upon thy conscience,

'Is Edward your true king? for I were loath
To link with him that were not lawful chosen.
War. Thereon I pawn my credit and mine honour.
K. Lew. But is he gracious in the peoples' eye?
War. The more, that Henry was unfortunate.4
K. Lew. Then further,-all dissembling set aside,
'Tell me for truth the measure of his love
'Unto our sister Bona.

War.

Such it seems,
As may
beseem a monarch like himself.
Myself have often heard him say and swear,-
That this his love was an eternal plant;5
Whereof the root was fix'd in virtue's ground,
The leaves and fruit maintain'd with beauty's sun

Annales of W. of Wyrcester, that no open rupture had taken place between the king and Warwick, up to the beginning of November, 1468; at least nothing appears to the contrary in that historian, whose work is unfortunately defective from that period.

2 There is nearly the same line in a former speech of Margaret's. It is found in its present situation alone in the old play.

3 This passage unavoidably brings to mind that admirable image of old age in Sackville's Induction to the Mirror for Magistrates :

'His withered fist still knocking at death's door. 4 He means that Henry was unsuccessful in war, having lost his dominions in France, &c.

5 In the language of Shakspeare's time, by an eter nal olant was meant what we now call a perennial onɑ

Exempt from envy,' but not from disdain,
Unless the Lady Bona quit his pain.

K. Lew. Now, sister, let us hear your firm resolve. Bona. Your grant, or your denial, shall be mine: Yet I confess, [To WAR.] that often ere this day, When I have heard your king's desert recounted, Mine ear hath tempted judgment to desire.

* K. Lew. Then, Warwick, thus-Our sister shall
be Edward's;

* And now forthwith shall articles be drawn
* Touching the jointure that your king must make,
* Which with her dowry shall be counterpois'd :-
Draw near, queen Margaret; and be a witness,
That Bona shall be wife to the English king.

Prince. To Edward, but not to the English king.
* Q. Mar. Deceitful Warwick! it was thy device
*By this alliance to make void my suit
*Before thy coming, Lewis was Henry's friend.
*K. Lew. And still is friend to him and Margaret;
* But if your title to the crown be weak,-
*As may appear by Edward's good success,-
* Then 'tis but reason, that I he releas'd
* From giving aid, which late I promised.
*Yet shall you have all kindness at my hand.
*That your estate requires, and mine can yield.
War. Henry now lives in Scotland, at his ease;
Where having nothing, nothing he can lose.
And as for you yourself, our quondam queen,-
You have a father able to maintain you ;2-
And better 'twere, you troubled him than France.
Q. Mar. Peace, impudent and shameless War-
wick, peace;

* Proud setter-up and puller-down of kings !3
*I will not hence, till with my talk and tears,
* Both full of truth, I make King Lewis behold
Thy sly conveyance, and thy lord's false love;
* For both of you are birds of self-same feather.
[A Horn sounded within.
K. Lew. Warwick, this is some post to us, or thee.
Enter a Messenger.

No more my King, for he dishonours me;
But most himself, if he could see his shame,-
Did I forget, that by the house of York
My father came untimely to his death?
Did I let pass the abuse done to my niece?"
Did I impale him with the regal crown?
Did I put Henry from his native right;
And am I guerdon'd at the last with shame?
* Shame on himself! for my desert is honour.
And, to repair my honour lost for him,

*

I here renounce him, and return to Henry:
'My noble queen, let former grudges pass,
And henceforth I am thy true servitor
I will revenge his wrong to Lady Bona,
And replant Henry in his former state.

;

Q. Mar. Warwick, these words have turn'd my hate to love ;

And I forgive and quite forget old faults,

| And joy that thou becom'st King Henry's friend.
War. So much his friend, ay, his unfeigned friend
That, if King Lewis vouchsafe to furnish us
With some few bands of chosen soldiers,
I'll undertake to land them on our coast,
And force the tyrant from his seat by war.
"Tis not his new-made bride shall succour him :
And as for Clarence,-as my letters tell me,
* He's very likely now to fall from him;

*

* For matching more for wanton lust than honour,
* Or than for strength and safety of our country.
* Bona. Dear brother, how shall Bona be re-

veng'd,

* But by the help to this distressed queen ?
* Q. Mar. Renowned prince, how shall poor
Henry live,

* Unless thou rescue him from foul despair?
* Bona. My quarrel, and this English queen's,

are one.

* War. And mine, fair Lady Bona, joins with

yours.

* K. Lew. And mine with hers, and thine, and Margaret's.

Mess. My lord ambassador, these letters are for Therefore, at last, I firmly am resolv❜d,

you;

Sent from your brother, Marquis Montague.
These from our king unto your majesty.
And, madam, these for you; from whom I know not.

[TO MARGARET. They all read their Letters. Oxf. I like it well, that our fair queen and mistress Smiles at her news, while Warwick frowns at his. Prince. Nay, mark, how Lewis stamps as he were nettled:

*I hope, all's for the best.

'K. Lew. Warwick, what are thy news? and yours, fair queen?

'Q. Mar. Mine, such as fill my heart with un-
hop'd joys.

War. Mine, full of sorrow and heart's discontent.
K. Lew. What! has your king married the Lady

Grey?

And now, to sooth your forgery and his, Sends me a paper to persuade me patience? Is this the alliance that he seeks with France? 'Dare he presume to scorn us in this manner? * Q. Mar. I told your majesty as much before: This proveth Edward's love, and Warwick's ho

nesty.

War. King Lewis, I here protest,-in sight of
heaven,

And by the hope I have of heavenly bliss,-
That I am clear from this misdeed of Edward's;

1 Steevens thinks that envy in this place, as in many others, is put for malice or hatred. His situation places him above these, though it cannot secure him from female disdain.

K. Lew. Then England's messenger, return in
post;

And tell false Edward, thy supposed king,—
That Lewis of France is sending over maskers,
To revel it with him and his new bride:

* Thou seest what's past, go fear thy king withal.
Bona. Tell him, In hope he'll prove a widower
shortly,

I'll wear the willow garland for his sake.

Q. Mar. Tell him, My mourning weeds are laid aside,

And I am ready to put armour on.

War. Tell him from me, that he hath done me

wrong;

9

And therefore I'll uncrown him, ere't be long.
There's thy reward; be gone.
K. Lew.

[Exit Mess.
But, Warwick, thou,
Shall cross the seas, and bid false Edward battle
And Oxford, with five thousand men,
And, as occasion serves, this noble queen
Yet, ere thou go, but answer me one doubt;-
* And prince shall follow with a fresh supply.
'What pledge have we of thy firm loyalty?

5 To sooth, in ancient language, was 'to countenance a falsehood or forged tale, to uphold one in his talke. and affirme it to be true which he speaketh.' Baret. Malone blunders strangely, taking to sooth in its modern acceptation of to soften.

6 King Edward did attempt a thing once in the

2 Johnson is inclined to think this ironical. The po-earle's house, which was much against the earle's hoverty of Margaret's father being a frequent topic of reproach.