Flourish. Enter King Lewis, Lady Bona, Bourbon. Edward Prince of Wales, Queen Margaret, and the Earl of Oxford. Lewis fits, and rifeth up again.

K. Lewis.

FAIR Queen of England, worthy Mar

garet,

Sit down with us; it ill befits thy State,

And Birth, that thou shouldft ftand, while Lewis fits.
Queen. No, mighty King of France, now Margaret
Must strike her fail, and learn a while to serve,
Where Kings command. I was, I muft confefs,
Great Albion's Queen in former golden days,
But now mischance hath trod my title down,
And with dishonour laid me on the ground;
Where I must take like feat unto my fortune,
And to my humble Seat conform myself.

K. Lew. Why fay, fair Queen, whence fprings this
deep despair?

Queen. From fuch a caufe as fills mine eyes with

tears;

And ftops my tongue, while my heart's drown'd in

cares.

K. Lew. Whate'er it be, be thou ftill like thyfelf, And fit thou by our fide. 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 fhall be eas'd, if France can yield relief.

Queen. Thofe gracious words revive my drooping
thoughts,

And give my tongue-ty'd forrows leave to speak.
Now therefore be it known to noble Lewis,

That

That Henry, fole poffeffor of my love,
Is, of a King, become a banifh'd man,
And forc'd to live in Scotland a forlorn;
While proud ambitious Edward, Duke of York,
Ufurps the regal Title and the Seat

Of England's true-anointed lawful King,
This is the caufe, that I, poor Margaret,
With this my fon Prince Edward, Henry's heir,
Am come to crave thy juft 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 mif- led,
Our Treasure feiz'd, our Soldiers put to flight,
And, as thou feeft, ourselves in heavy plight.

K. Lew. Renowned Queen, with patience calm the ftorm,

While we bethink a means to break it off.

Queen. The more we ftay, the stronger grows our foe.

K. Lew. The more I ftay, the more I'll fuccour thee. Queen. O, but impatience waiteth on true forrow: And fee, where comes the breeder of my forrow.

• O, but impatience WAITETH

ON TRUE SORROW:

And fee where comes the breeder of my forrow.] How does impatience more particularly, wait on true forrow! On the contrary, fuch forrow as the Queen's, which came gradually on, through a long courfe of misfortunes, is generally lefs im-patient than that of thofe who have fallen into fudden miferies. The true reading feems to be, O, but impatience WAITING,

RUES TO MORROW:

And fee, where comes the breed

er of my forrow. i. When impatience waits and folicits for redress, there is no

thing the fo much dreads as be ing put off till tomorrow (a proverbial expreffion for procraltination.) This was a very proper reply to what the King faid laft, and is a fentiment worthy of the poet. A rhime too is added, as was cuftomary with him, at the closing a fcene.

WARBURTON.

It is ftrange that, when the fenfe is fo clear, any commentator fhould thus laboriously ob fcure it, to introduce a new reading; and yet ftranger that he fhould fhew fuch confidence in his emendation as to infert it in the text.

SCENE

SCENE V.

Enter Warwick.

K. Lew. What's he, approacheth boldly to our prefence ?

Queen. Our Earl of Warwick, Edward's greatest friend.

K. Lew. Welcome, brave Warwick. What brings.
thee to France? [He defcends. She arifeth.
Queen. Ay, now begins a fecond storm to rife;
For this is he, that moves both wind and tide.
War. From worthy Edward, King of Albion,
My Lord and Sov'reign, and thy vowed friend,
I come in kindnefs and unfeigned love,
First to do greetings to thy royal perfon,
And then to crave a league of amity;
And lastly, to confirm that amity

With nuptial knot, if thou vouchfafe to grant
That virtuous lady Bone, thy fair sister,
To England's King in lawful marriage.

Queen. If that go forward, Henry's hope is done!
War. And, gracious Madam, in our King's be-
half,
[Speaking to Bona.
I am commanded, with your leave and favour,
Humbly to kiss your hand, and with my tongue
To tell the paffion of my Sov'reign's heart.
Where fame, late ent'ring at his heedful ears,
Hath plac'd thy beauty's image and thy virtues.

Queen. King Lewis, and lady Bona, hear me fpeak,
Before you answer Warwick. His demand
Springs not from Edward's well-meant honeft love,
But from deceit bred by neceflity;

For how can tyrants fafely govern home,
Unless abroad they purchase great alliance?
To prove him tyrant, this realon may fuffice,
That Henry liveth ftill; but were he dead,
VOL. V.
N

Yet

Yet here Prince Edward ftands, King Henry's fon.
Look therefore, Lewis, that by this league and marriage
Thou draw not on thee danger and dishonour,
For tho' Ufurpers fway the Rule a while,

Yet heav'ns are juft, and time fuppreffeth wrongs.
War. Injurious Margaret!

Prince. And why not Queen?

War. Because thy father Henry did ufurp, And thou no more art Prince, than fhe is Queen. Oxf. Then Warwick difannuls great John of Gaunt, Which did fubdue the greatest part of Spain; And, after John of Gaunt, Henry the fourth Whose wisdom was a mirror to the wifeft; And, after that wife Prince, Henry the fifth Who by his Prowefs conquered all France; From these our Henry lineally defcends.

War. Oxford, how haps it in this fmooth difcourfe, You told not, how Henry the fixth hath loft All that which Henry the fifth had gotten? Methinks, thefe Peers of France fhould fmile at that. But, for the reft; you tell a Pedigree

Of threescore and two years, a filly time

To make Prescription for a Kingdom's worth.

Oxf. Why, Warwick, canft thou speak against thy
Liege,

Whom thou obeyedft thirty and fix years,
And not bewray thy treafon with a blufh?

War. Can Oxford, that did ever fence the Right, Now buckler falfhood with a Pedigree?

For fhame, leave Henry, and call Edward King.
Oxf. Call him my King, by whofe injurious doom
My elder brother, the Lord Aubrey Vere,

Was done to death? and more than fo, my father;
Even in the downfall of his mellow'd years,
When nature brought him to the door of death?
No, Warwick, no; while life upholds this arm,.
This arm upholds the House of Lancefter.

War. And I the Houfe of 2ork.

K. Lew,

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

Vouchsafe at our request to ftand afide,

While I ufe farther conference with Warwick.

Queen. Heav'ns grant, that Warwick's words be-
witch him not!
[They stand aloof.
K. Lew. Now, Warwick, tell me ev'n upon thy
conscience,

Is Edward your true King? for I were loth
To link with him, that were not lawful chofen.
War. Thereon I pawn my credit and mine honour.
K. Lew. But is he gracious in the people's eyes?
War. The more, that Henry was unfortunate.
K. Lew. Then further; all diffembling fet afide,
Tell me for truth the measure of his love
Unto our fifter Bona.

As

War. Such it feems,

may beseem a Monarch like himself;
Myfelt have often heard him fay, and swear,
That this his love was an eternal plant,
Whereof the root was fix'd in virtue's ground,
The leaves and fruit maintain'd with beauty's fun,
Exempt from envy, but not from difdain,
Unless the lady Bona quit his pain.

K. Lew. Now, fifter, let us hear your firm refolve. Bona. Your Grant, or your Denial, fhall be mine. Yet I confefs, that often ere this day, [Speaking to War.

7 That this bis love was an EXTERNAL plant.] The old quarto reads rightly eternal: Alluding to the plants of Paradife.

WARBURTON. 8 Exempt from envy, but not from difdain,] Envy is always fuppofed to have fome fafcinating or blafting power, and to be out of the reach of envy is therefore a privilege belonging only to great excellence. I know

not well why envy is mentioned here, or whole envy can be meant, but the meaning is that his love is fuperiour to envy, and can feel no blast but from the Lady's dif dain. Or, that if Bona refufe to quit or requite his pain, his love may turn to disdain, though the confcioufnefs of his own merit will exempt him from the pangs of envy.

N 2

When