I should not live long after I saw Richmond.
Buck. My Lord,-

K. Rich. Ay, what's o'clock?

Buck. I am thus bold to put your Grace in mind
Of what you promis'd me.

K. Rich. But what's clock?
Buck. Upon the stroke of ten.
K. Rich. Well, let it ftrike.
Buck. Why, let it flrike?

*

圜

K. Rich. Becaufe, that, like a Jack, thou keep❜ft the ftroke

Betwixt thy begging and my meditation.

I am not in the giving vein to day...

Buck. Why, then refolve me whether you will, or no. K. Rich. Thou troubleft me, I am not in the vein.

[Exit. Buck. Is it ev'n fo? repays he my deep fervice With fuch contempt? made I him King for this? O, let me think on Haflings, and be gone To Brecknock, while my fearful head is on.

[Exit.

Tir. The tyrannous and bloody act is done;
The most arch deed of piteous maffacre,
That ever yet this land was guilty of!
Dighten and Forrest, whom I did fuborn
To do this piece of ruthlefs butchery,.
Albeit they were flefht villains, bloody dogs,.
Melting with tenderness and mild compaffion,
Wept like two children, in their deaths' fad ftory.
O thus, (quoth Dighton) lay the gentle babes;
Thus, thus, (quoth Forrest) girdling one another
Within their innocent alabafter arms.

Their lips were four red roles on a stalk,
And in their fummer beauty kifs'd each other.

This palage, though I do not believe it corrupted, I do not undertand.

A

A book of prayers on their pillow lay,

Which once, (quoth Forrest,) almoft chang'd my mind,
But, oh! the Devil-there the villain ftopt,
When Dighton thus told on we fmother'd
The most replenished fweet work of nature,
That from the prime creation e'er fhe fram'd. -
Hence both are gone with confcience and remorse;
They could not fpeak, and fo I left them both,
To bear thefe tidings to the bloody King.

Enter King Richard.

And here he comes. All health, my sovereign Lord! K. Rich. Kind Tirrel-am I happy in thy news? Tir. If to have done the thing you gave in charge Beget your happiness, be happy then?

For it is done.

K. Rich. But didft thou fee them dead?
Tir. I did, my Lord.

K. Rich. And, buried gentle Tirrel?

Tir. The Chaplain of the Tower hath buried them, But where, to fay the truth, I do not know.

K. Rich. Come to me, Tirrel, foon, foon after
fupper,

When thou shalt tell the process of their death.
Mean time, but think, how I may do thee good,
And be inheritor of thy defire.

Farewel, till then.

Tir. I humbly take my leave. [Exit. K. Rich. The fon of Clarence have I pent up clofe; His daughter meanly have I match'd in marriage; The fons of Edward fleep in Abraham's bofom; And Anne my wife hath bid this world good night. Now, for I know the Briton Richmond aims At young Elizabeth, my brother's daughter, And by that knot looks proudly on the crown, To her go I, a jolly thriving wooer.

VOL. V.

Y

Enter.

Catef. My Lord,

Enter Catesby.

K. Rich. Good or bad news, that thou com'ft in fo
bluntly?

Catef. Bad news, my Lord; Morton is fled to
Richmond.

And Buckingham, back'd with the hardy Welshmen,
Is in the field, and ftill his power increafeth.

K. Rich. Ely with Richmond troubles me more near,
Than Buckingham and his rafh-levied army.
Come, I have learn'd, that fearful commenting
Is leaden fervitor to dull delay;

Delay leads impotent and fnail-pac'd beggary.
Then fiery expedition be my wing,

Jove's Mercury, and herald for a King.
Go, mufter men; my Council is my thield,

We must be brief, when traitors brave the field. [Exit.
SCENE

JV.

Enter Queen Margaret.

Q. Mar. So now Profperity begins to mellow,
And drop into the rotten mouth of death.
Here in these confines flily have I lurk❜d

To watch the waining of mine enemies.

I

A dire induction am I witness to,

And will to France; hoping the confequence

Will prove as bitter, black and tragical.

Withdraw thee, wretched Margaret! who comes here?

Enter the Dutchefs of York, and Queen.

Queen. Ah, my poor Princes! ah, my tender babes;

My unblown flowers, new-appearing fweets!

9fearful commenting. Is leaden fervitor.] Timorous thought and cautious difquifition are the dull attendants on delay.

Dire induction.] Induction is preface, introduction, first part. It is fo ufed by Sackville in our author's time.

If yet your gentle fouls fly in the air,
And be not fixt in doom perpetual,
Hover about me with your airy wings,
And hear your mother's lamentation.

2

Q. Mar. Hover about her; fay, that right for right

Hath dimm'd your infant-morn to aged night.
Dutch. So many miferies have craz'd my voice,
That my woe-wearied tongue is ftill and mute.
Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead!

Q. Mar, Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet,
Edward for Edward pays a dying debt.

Queen. Wilt thou, O God, fly from fuch gentle lambs,

And throw them in the intrails of the wolf?..
Why didst thou fleep when fuch a deed was done?
Q. Mar. When holy Henry dy'd, and my sweet fon.
Dutch. Dead life, blind fight, poor mortal living
ghost,

Woe's fcene, world's fhame, grave's due, by life,

ufurp❜d,

Brief abftract and record of tedious days,
Reft thy unreft on England's lawful earth,
Unlawfully made drunk with innocent blood.

Queen. Ah, that thou wouldst as soon afford a grave, As thou canft yield a melancholy feat;

Then would I hide my bones, not reft them here.
Ah, who hath any cause to mourn but we?
Q. Mar. If ancient forrow be most reverent,

2

Jay, that RIGHT for RIGHT] It's plain ShakeSpeare wrote WRONG for WRONG; but the players thought that a little rhime was better than all reafon. WARBURTON.

It is fo unlikely that words fo plain, and fo proper, as wrong for wrong would have been either ignorantly or officiously changed, ahat I believe right for right is

the true though not the beft
reading. This is one of these
conceits which our authour may
be fufpected of loving better than
propriety. Right for right is
juftice anfwering to the claims of
juftice. So in this play,
-That forebead
Where fhould be branded, if that
right were right.

Y 2

Give

Give mine the benefit of Signiory;

And let my griefs frown on the upper hand.
If forrow can admit fociety,*.*

Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine."
I had an Edward till a Richard kill'd him:
I had a husband, till a Richard kill'd him :
Thou had'ft an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him:
Thou had'ft a Richard, till a Richard kill'd him.
Dutch. I had a Richard too, and thou did't kill

I had a Rutland too, thou holp'ft to kill him.

Q Mar. Thou hadst a Clarence too, and Richard kill'd him.

From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept
A hell-hound, that doth hunt us all to death;
That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes,
To worry lambs and lap their gentle blood;
That fout defacer of God's handy-work
Thy womb let loofe, to chace us to our graves.
O upright, juft, and true-difpofing God,
How do I thank thee, that this carnal cur
Preys on the iffue of his mother's body;
And makes her Pue-fellow with others' moan!
Dutch. Oh, Harry's wife, triumph not in my woes,
God witness with me, I have wept for thine.

Q. Mar. Bear with me, I am hungry for revenge, And now I cloy me with beholding it.

Thy Edward he is dead, that kill'd my Edward,
Thy other Edward dead, to quit my Edward,
"Young York he is but boot, because both they
Match not the high perfection of my lofs.
Thy Clarence he is dead, that stabb'd my Edward;

3 Seignory for Seniority.

4 Put-fellow feems to be companion. We have now a new phrafe, nearly equivalent, by which we fay of perfons in the

fame difficulties, that they are in the fame box.

5 Young York he is but becs.] Boot is that which is thrown in to mend a purchase.

And