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Clarence ftill breathes, Edward ftill lives and reigns; When they are gone, then must I count my

SCENE II.

Changes to a Street.

Gains.

[Exit.

3

Enter the Coarfe of Henry the Sixth, with Halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner.

Anne. If honour may be shrouded in a herse;
SET

ET down, fet down your honourable load,

Whilft I awhile obfequiously lament

Th' untimely Fall of virtuous Lancaster.
-Poor key-cold figure of a holy King!
Pale afhes of the House of Lancaster!
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood!
Be't lawful, that I invocate thy ghoft,
To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
Wife to thy Edward, to thy flaughter'd fon;
Stabb'd by the self-fame hand, that made these wounds.
Lo, in these windows, that let forth thy life,
I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes.
Curs'd be the hand, that made thefe fatal holes!
Curs'd be the heart, that had the heart to do it!
More direful hap betide that hated wretch,
That makes us wretched by the death of thee,
Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,
Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives!
If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Whofe ugly and unnatural aspect

May fright the hopeful mother at the view,
And That be heir to his unhappiness!
If ever he have wife, let her be made
More miferable by the death of him,

Than I am made by my young lord and thee!
-Come, now tow'rds Chertfey with your holy load,

I

Taken

Taken from Paul's to be interred there.
And ftill, as you are weary of this weight,
Reft you, while I lament King Henry's Coarfe.

Enter Richard Duke of Gloucefter.

Glo. Stay you, that bear the Coarfe, and set it down. Anne. What black magician conjures up this fiend, To stop devoted charitable deeds?

Glo. Villains, fet down the Coarfe; or, by St. Paul, I'll make a Coarfe of him that difobeys. 9

Gen. My lord, ftand back, and let the coffin pafs. Glo. Unmanner'd dog! ftand thou when I command;

Advance thy halbert higher than my breast,
Or, by St. Paul, I'll ftrike thee to my foot,
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.
Anne. What, do you tremble? are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal;
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.
Avaunt, thou dreadful minifter of hell!
Thou had'ft but power over his mortal body,
His foul thou canst not have; therefore be gone.
Glo. Sweet Saint, for charity, be not fo curst.
Anne. Foul Dev'l! for God's fake hence, trouble
us not,

For thou haft made the happy earth thy hell,
Fill'd it with curfing cries, and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries. "
Oh, gentlemen, fee! fee dead Henry's wounds
Open their congeal'd mouths and bleed afresh. *
Blush,

9 I'll make a coarse of him that difob ys. So in Hamlet, I'll make a ghost of him that holds

me.

-pattern of thy butcheries.] Pattern is inftance, or example.

-fee, dead Henry's wounds Open their congealed mouths and

bleed afresh. It is a tradition very generally received, that the murdered body bleeds. on the touch of the murderer.

Blufh, blufh, thou lump of foul deformity;
For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds, inhuman and unnatural

Provoke this deluge moft unnatural,

O God! which this blood mad'ft, revenge his death,
O earth! which this blood drink'st, revenge his death,
Or Heav'n with lightning strike the murth❜rer dead,
Or Earth gape open wide, and eat him quick;
As thou doft swallow up this good King's blood,
Which his hell-govern'd arm hath butchered!
Glo. Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, bleffings for curfes.
Anne. Villain, thou know'ft nor law of God nor

man;

No beast fo fierce, but knows fome touch of pity.
Glo. But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
Anne. O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
Glo. More wonderful, when angels are fo angry.
Vouchfafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these supposed crimes, to give me leave,
By circumftance, but to acquit myself.

Anne. Vouchfafe, diffus'd infection of a man,
For these known evils, but to give me leave,
By circumstance, to curfe thy cursed self.

Glo. Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
Some patient leifure to excufe myself.

Anne. Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make

No excufe current, but to hang thyfelf,

Glo. By fuch defpair I fhould accufe myself.
Anne. And by defpairing fhalt thou ftand excus'd,
For doing worthy vengeance on thyfelf;

This was fo much believed by Sir Kenelm Digby that he has endeavoured to explain the reafon. 3 Vouchfafe, diffus'd infection of a man,] I believe dif

fufed in this place fignifies irre-
gular, uncouth; fuch is its mean-
ing in other pallages of Shake--
Speare.

That

1

That didft unworthy flaughter upon others.
Glo. Say, that I flew them not.

Anne. Then fay, they were not flain :
But dead they are; and, devilish flave, by thee,
Glo. I did not kill your husband.

Anne. Why, then he is alive.

Glo. Nay, he is dead, and flain by Edward's hands. Anne. In thy foul throat thou ly'ft. Queen Margret faw

Thy murd'rous faulchion fmoaking in his blood:
The which thou once didft bend against her breast,
But that thy Brothers beat afide the point.

Glo. I was provoked by her fland'rous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltlefs fhoulders.
Anne. Thou waft provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dreamt on aught but butcheries:
Didft thou not kill this King?

Glo. I grant ye.

Anne. Doft grant me, hedge-hog? then God grant

me too,

Thou may'st be damned for that wicked deed!
O, he was gentle, mild and virtuous.

Glo. The fitter for the King of heav'n, that hath him.

Anne. He is in heav'n, where thou fhalt never come. Glo. Let him thank me, that help'd to fend him thither;

For he was fitter for that place than earth.

Anne. And thou unfit for any place but hell.

Glo. Yes, one place elfe, if you will hear me name it. Anne. Some dungeon.

Glo. Your bed-chamber.

Anne. Il Reft betide the chamber where thou lyeft! Glo. So will it, Madam, till I lie with you.

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Anne. I hope fo.

Glo. I know fo.-But, gentle lady Anne,
To leave this keen encounter of our wits,
And fall something into a flower method:
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths
Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

Anne. Thou waft the caufe, and most accurft effect.
Glo. Your beauty was the cause of that effect;
Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep,
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your fweet bofom.
Anne. If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails fhould rend that beauty from my cheeks:
Glo. These eyes could not endure sweet beauty's
wreck.

You should not blemish it, if I ftood by ;
As all the world is cheered by the Sun,
So I by That; it is my day, my life.

Anne. Black night o'erfhade thy day, and death
thy life!

Glo. Curfe not thyfelf, fair creature: thou art both,
Anne. I would I were, to be reveng'd on thee.
Glo. It is a quarrel most unnatural,

To be reveng'd on him that loveth thee.

Anne. It is a quarrel juft and reasonable, To be reveng'd on him that kill'd my husband. Glo. He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,

• Thou waft the cause, and most

accurft effect,] Effect, for executioner. He afks, was not the caufer as ill as the executioner? She answers, Thou waft both. But, for caufer, ufing the word caufe, this led her to the word effect, for execution, or executioner. But the Oxford Editor troubling himself with nothing

of this, will make a fine oratorical period of it.

Thou waft the cause. And moft accurft th' effect!

WARBURTON.

I cannot but be rather of Sir T. Hanmer's opinion than Dr. Warburton's, because effect is ufed immediately in its common fenfe, in answer to this line.

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