But fo it must be, if the king miscarry.

Enter Buckingham and Stanley.

Gray. Here come the Lords of Buckingham and
Stanley. +

Buck. Good time of day unto your royal Grace!
Stanley. God make your Majesty joyful as you have
been!

Queen. The Countess Richmond, good my Lord of
Stanley,

To your good pray'r will scarcely fay, Amen;
Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding fhe's your wife,
And loves not me, be you, good Lord, affur'd,
I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

Stanley. I do befeech you, either not believe
The envious flanders of her false accusers:
Or, if the be accufed on true report,

Bear with her weaknefs; which, I think, proceeds
From wayward fickness, and no grounded malice.
Queen. Saw you the King to day, my Lord of Stanley?
Stanley. But now the Duke of Buckingham and I
Are come from vifiting his Majefty.

Queen. What likelihood of his amendment, Lords?\ Buck. Madam, good hope; his Grace speaks chearfully.

Queen. God grant him health! did you confer with him?

Here come the Lords of Buckingham and Derby.] This is a Blunder of Inadvertence, which has run thro' the whole Chain of Impreffions. It could not well be original in ShakeSpeare, who was moft minutely intimate with his Hiftory and the Intermarriages of the Nobility. The Perfon here called Derby, was Thomas Lord Stanley Lord Steward of King Edward

the IVth's Houfhold. But this Thomas Lord Stanley was not created Earl of Derby till after the Acceffion of Henry VII; and, accordingly, afterwards in the Fourth and Fifth Ads of this Play, before the Battle of Bofworth-field, he is every where call'd Lord Stanley. This fufficiently juftifies the Change I have made in his Title.

R 3

THEOBALD.

Buck.

Buck. Madam, we did; he feeks to make atonement Between the Duke of Glo'fter and your brothers, And between them and my Lord chamberlain ; And fent to warn them to his royal prefence.

Queen. 'Would all were well-but that will never be

I fear, our happiness is at the height,

Enter Gloucester,

Glo. They do me wrong, and I will not endure it.
Who are they, that complain unto the King,
That I, forfooth, am ftern, and love them not?
By holy Paul they love his Grace but lightly,
That fill his ears with fuch diffentious rumours,
Because I cannot flatter, and look fair,
Smile in men's faces, Imooth, deceive and cog,
Duck with French nods, and apifh courtesy,
I must be held a rancorous enemy.
Cannot a plain man live and think no harm,
But thus his fimple truth must be abus'd
By filken, fly, infinuating Jacks?

Gray. To whom in all this prefence fpeaks your
Grace?

Glo. To thee, that haft nor honesty, nor grace: When have I injur'd thee? when done thee wrong ? Or thee? or thee? or any of your faction?

A plague upon you all! His royal perfon,
Whom God preferve better than you would wish,
Cannot be quiet fcarce a breathing while,

But you muit trouble him with lew'd complaints.
Queen. Brother of Glo'fter, you mistake the matter;
The King of his own royal difpofition,

And not provok'd by any fuitor elfe,
Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred,
That in your outward action fhews itfelf
Against my children, brothers, and myself;

Makes him to fend, that he may learn the ground

Of

Of your ill will, and thereby to remove it.

Glo. I cannot tell; the world is grown fo bad, That wrens make prey, where eagles dare not perch, Since every Jack became a gentleman,

There's many a gentle perfon made a Jack.

Queen. Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Glofter.

You envy my advancement and my friends:
God grant we never may have need of you!

Glo. Mean time, God grant that we have need of you !

Our Brother is imprifon'd by your means;

Myfelf difgrac'd, and the nobility

Held in contempt; while many fair promotions

Are daily given to enoble those,

That scarce fome two days fince were worth a noble. Queen. By him, that rais'd me to this careful height, From that contented hap which I enjoy'd,

I never did incenfe his Majefty

Against the Duke of Clarence; but have been
An earnest Advocate to plead for him.

My Lord, you do me fhameful injury,
Falfly to draw me in these wild fufpects.

Glo. You may deny that you were not the cause
Of my Lord Haftings' late imprisonment.
Riv. She may, my Lord, for

Glo. She may, Lord Rivers-why, who knows
not fo?

She may

do more, Sir, than denying that: She may help you to many fair preferments, And then deny her aiding hand therein,

And lay thofe honours on your high deferts.

What may the not? fhe may-ay, marry, may

fhe

Riv. What, marry, may fhe?

Of your ill will, &c.] This line is reftored from the first edition.

R 4

РОРЕ.

Glo.

Glo. What, marry, may the? marry with a King, A batchelor, a handsome stripling too:

I wis, your grandam had a worfer match.

Queen. My Lord of Glofter, I have too long borne Your blunt upbraidings, and your bitter fcoffs: By heav'n, I will acquaint his Majesty, Of those grofs taunts I often have endur'd. I had rather be a country fervant-maid, Than a great Queen with this condition; To be thus taunted, fcorn'd and baited at. Small joy have I in being England's Queen.

SCENE IV,

Enter Queen Margaret,

Mar. And leffen'd be that small, God, I befeech thee!

Thy honour, ftate, and feat is due to me.

Glo. What! threat you me with telling of the King? Tell him, and fpare not; look, what I have faid, I will avouch in prefence of the King:

'Tis time to speak, 7 my pains are quite forgot.

Q. Mar. Out, Devil! I remember thee too well: Thou kill'dft my husband Henry in the Tower, And Edward, my poor fon, at Tewksbury.

Glo. Ere you were Queen, ay, or your husband King, I was a pack-horfe in his great affairs;

A weeder out of his proud Adversaries,
A liberal rewarder of his friends;

To royalize his blood, I fpilt mine own.

• Tell him, and Spare not;

look, what I have faid,] This Verfe I have reitored from the old Quarto's. THEOBALD. 7 My pains.] My labours; my toils.

QUT, Devil! - Read

NO.

WARBURTON.

There is no need of change, but if there were, the commentator does not change enough: he should read, I remember them tto quell; that is, his pains,

Q. Mar,

Q. Mar. Ay, and much better blood than his, or

thine.

Glo. In all which time you and your hufband Gray Were factious for the house of Lancaster;

And, Rivers, fo were you ;-9 was not your husband,
In Margret's battle, at St. Albans flain ?

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. A murd'rous villain, and so still thou art,
Glo. Poor Clarence did forfake his father Warwick,
Ay, and forfwore himself, which, Jefu pardon!-
Q. Mar. Which God revenge!--

Glo. To fight on Edward's party for the crown; And for his meed, poor Lord, he is mew'd up: I would to God, my heart were flint, like Edward's; Or Edward's foft and pitiful like mine;

I am too childish-foolish for this world.

Q. Mar. Hie thee to hell for fhame, and leave this world,

Thou Cacodæmon, there thy kingdom is.

Riv. My Lord of Glo'fter, in those busy days,
Which here you urge to prove us enemies,
We follow'd then our Lord, our lawful King,
So fhould we you, if you should be our King.
Glo. If I fhould be !-I had rather be a pedlar:
Far be it from my heart the thought thereof.

Queen. As little joy, my Lord, as you suppose
You fhould enjoy, were you this country's King,
As little joy you may fuppofe in me,

That I enjoy, being the Queen thereof.

Q. Mar. A little joy enjoys the Queen thereof; For I am fhe, and altogether joyless.

I can no longer hold me patient,

9

-Was not your husband, In Margret's battle,] It is

faid in Henry VI. that he died in quarrel of the house of York.

Hear