250

259

On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety?
On me, that halt, and am mis-shapen, thus?]
My dukedom to a beggarly denier,1
I do mistake my person all this while:
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper2 man.
I'll be at charges for3 a looking-glass;
And entertain1 a score or two of tailors
To study fashions to adorn my body:
Since I am crept in favour with myself,
I will maintain it with some little cost.
But first I'll turn yon fellow in his grave;
And then return lamenting to my love.-
Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,
That I may see my shadow as I pass. [Ecit.
The same. A room in the
palace.
Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, RIVERS, and GREY.
Rie. Have patience, madam: there's no
doubt his majesty

SCENE III.

Will soon recover his accustom'd health.

[Grey. In that you brook it ill, it makes him

12

Q. Eliz. Ah, he is young; and his minority Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloster, A man that loves not me nor none of you. Riv. Is it concluded he shall be protector? Q. Eliz. It is determin'd, not concluded yet:7 But so it must be, if the king miscarry. Grey. Here come the lords of Buckingham and Stanley.

Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY. Buck. Good time of day unto your royal grace! [Stan. God make your majesty joyful as you

To your good prayer will scarcely say amen. Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she's your wife, And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

Stan. I do beseech you, either not believe The envious slanders of her false accusers; Or, if she be accus'd on true report,

Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds

From wayward sickness, and no grounded) malice.]

Riv. Saw you the king to-day, my Lord of Stanley?

30

That wrens make 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 so
Are daily given to ennoble those

That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble.

Q. Eliz. By Him that rais'd me to this care-
ful height1

From that contented hap2 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,
Falsely to draw me in3 these vile suspects.1
Glo. You may deny that you were not the

101

A bachelor, a handsome stripling too:
Iwis 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 I 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:
[Enter Queen Margaret, behind.
Small joy have I in being England's queen.
[Q. Mar. [Aside] And lessen'd be that small,
God, I beseech him!
111
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. [Aside] Out, devil! I remember them too well:

Thou kill'dst my husband Henry in the Tower,

119

And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury. Glo.] Ere you were queen, ay, or your hus-2 band king,

I was a pack-horse in his great affairs; A weeder-out of his proud adversaries, A liberal rewarder of his friends: To royalise his blood I spilt mine own. [Q. Mar. [Aside] 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:--was not your husband

129

In Margaret's battle at Saint Alban's 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. [Aside] A murderous villain, and

so still thou art.

Glo. Poor Clarence did forsake his father, Warwick;

5 Iwis, truly. In Margaret's battle, on Margaret's side.

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

Thou cacodemon! 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 pedler:

Far be it from my heart, the thought of it! 150 [Q. Eliz. As little joy, my lord, as you sup

Dor. No man but prophesied revenge for it. Buck. Northumberland, then present, wept, to see it.]

Q. Mar. [What! were you snarling all before I came,

Ready to catch each other by the throat,

| And turn you all your hatred now on me?] Did York's dread curse prevail so much with heaven,

191

That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death,

Repetition, to be pronounced as quinquesyllable; repe-ti-ti-on.

7 Of what thou'st marr'd, i.e. of her denunciation of them

all which Gloster had interrupted.

8 My abode, i.e. the fact of my remaining.

9 Plagu'd, punished.

Their kingdom's loss, my woeful banishment, Could all but answer for1 that peevish brat? Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?Why, then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick

curses!

Though not by war, by surfeit die your king, As ours by murder, to make him a king! Edward thy son, that now is Prince of Wales, For Edward my son, that was Prince of Wales, Die in his youth by like untimely violence! 201 Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen, Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self! Long mayst thou live to wail thy children's loss; And see another, as I see thee now,

Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd2 in mine!

Long die thy happy days before thy death; And, after many lengthen'd hours of grief, Die neither mother, wife, nor England's queen!-

209

Rivers and Dorset, you were standers-by,And so wast thou, Lord Hastings,-when my

son

Was stabb'd with bloody daggers: God, I pray him,

That none of you may live his natural age,
But by some unlook'd3 accident cut off!

Glo. Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd hag!

Q. Mar. And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me.

If heaven have any grievous plague in store
Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
O let them keep it till thy sins be ripe
And then hurl down their indignation
On thee, the troubler of the poor world's
peace!

220

O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty!

Dor. Dispute not with her,—she is lunatic. Q. Mar. Peace, master marquess, you are malapert:

Your fire-new 11 stamp of honour is scarce

current:

O that your young nobility could judge

7 Vain flourish of my fortune, i.e. having but the empty externals of the rank which is mine.

8 Bottled, bloated. 9 Move, enrage. 10 Well, i e. rightly. 11 Fire-new, fresh from the mint brand-new.