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

[Exit.

SCENE

Another Street.

II.

1

Enter the corse of Henry the fixth, with halberds to guard it; Lady Anne being the mourner.

Anne. Set down, set down your honourable load, If honour may be shrouded in a hearse, Whilst I a while obsequiously lament 5 The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.Poor key-cold figure of a holy king! Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster! Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood! Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost, To hear the lamentations of poor Anne, Wife to thy Edward, to thy flaughter'd son, Stabb'd by the self-fame hand that made these

wounds!

Lo, in these windows, that fet forth thy life,
I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes :-
O, cursed be the hand, that made these holes!
Cursed the heart, that had the heart to do it!
Cursed the blood, that let this blood from hence!

s-obfequiously lament] Obsequious, in this instance, means funereal. So, in Hamlet, act I. fe. ii:

"To do obsequious forrow." STEEVENS.

key-cold] A key, on account of the coldness of the metal of which it is composed, was anciently employed to stop any flight bleeding. The epithet is common to many old writers; among ng the rest, it is used by Decker in his Satiromastix : "It is best you hide your head, for fear your wife brains take key-cold."

Again, in the Country Girl, by T. Β. 1647:

"The key-cold figure of a man." STEEVENS.

1

:

More

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,
Whose 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, toward Chertsey with your holy load,
Taken from Paul's to be interred there;
And, still as you are weary of the weight,
Rest you, whiles I lament king Henry's corse.

Enter Gloster.

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

Glo. Villains, fet down the corse; or, by saint Paul, I'll make a corse of him that disobeys.

Gen. My lord, fstand back, and let the coffin pass. Glo. Unmanner'd dog! stand thou when I com

mand:

Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,
Or, by faint Paul, I'll strike 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 minister of hell!
Thou had'ft but power over his mortal body,
His foul thou canst not have; therefore, be gone.

• I'll make a corse of him that disobeys.] So, in Hamlet:
"I'll make a ghost of him that lets me." JOHNSON,

Glo.

Glo. Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst. Anne. Foul devil, for God's fake, hence, and

trouble us not;

For thou hast 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:-7
Oh, gentlemen, fee, see! dead Henry's wounds
Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh!

៩

pattern of thy butcheries:] Pattern is instance, or examples JOHNSON.

Holinshed says: "The dead corps on the Afcension even was conveied with billes and glaives pompouslie (if you will call that a funerall pompe) from the Tower to the church of faint Paule, and there laid on a beire or coffen bare-faced; the fame in the prefence of the beholders did bleed; where it rested the space of one whole daie. From thense he was carried to the Black-friers, and bled there likewife; &c." STEEVENS.

8-fee, dead Henry's wounds,

Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh!--] It is a tradition very generally received, that the murdered body bleeds on the touch of the murderer. This was so much be lieved by fir Kenelm Digby that he has endeavoured to explain the reason. JOHNSON.

So, in Arden of Feversham, 1592:

"The more I found his name, the more he bleeds:
" This blood condemns me, and in gushing forth
" Speaks as it falls, and asks me why I did it."

Again, in the Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612:

"The captain will assay an old conclufion often approved; that at the murderer's fight the blood revives again and boils afresh; and every wound has a condemning voice to cry out guilty against the murderer."

Again, in the 46th Idea of Drayton:

"If the vile actors of the heinous deed,
"Near the dead body happily be brought,

"Oft t'hath been prov'd the breathless corps will bleed." Mr. Tollet observes that this opinion seems to be derived from the ancient Swedes, or Northern nations from whom we descend; for they practised this method of trial in dubious cases, as appears from Pitt's Atlas, in Sweden, p. 20. STEEVENS.

See alfo Demonologie, 4to. 1603, p. 79; and Goulart's Admirable and Memorable Histories, translated by Grimeston, 4to. 1607, p. 422. EDITOR.

Blush,

Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity;
For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells;
Thy deed, inhuman, and unnatural,
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.
O God, which this blood mad'st, revenge his death!
O earth, which this blood drink'st, revenge his death!
Either, heaven, with lightning strike the murderer

dead,

Or, earth, gape open wide, and eat him quick;
As thou dost 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, blessing for curses.
Anne. Villain, thou know'st no law of God nor

man;

No beast so fierce, but knows some 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 so angry.
Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these supposed evils, to give me leave,
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

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

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

• Vouchsafe, diffus'd infection of a man,] I believe, diffus'd in this place signifies irregular, uncouth; such is its meaning in other passages of Shakspeare. JOHNSON.

Diffus'd infection of a man may mean, thou that art as dangerous as a pestilence, that infects the air by its diffusion. Diffus'd may, however, mean irregular. So, in The Merry Wives, &c.

"rush at once

"With some diffused song."

Again, in Green's Farewell to Follie, 1617:

" I have seen an English gentleman so defused in his sutes; his doublet being for the weare of Castile, his hose for Venice, &C." STEEVENS,

Anne,

1

Anne. Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst

make

No excuse current, but to hang thyself.

Glo. By such despair, I should accuse myself.

Anne. And, by despairing, shalt thou stand excus'd

For doing worthy vengeance on thyself,

That didst unworthy flaughter upon others.

Glo. Say, that I flew them not?

Anne. Then say, they were not slain:

But dead they are, and, devilish slave, 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 hand.
Anne. In thy foul throat thou ly'st; queen Mar-

garet faw

Thy murderous faulchion smoking in his blood; The which thou once didst bend against her breaft, But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

Glo. I was provoked by her sland'rous tongue, *That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders. Anne. Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind, That never dreamt on aught but butcheries: Didst thou not kill this king? Glo. I grant ye.

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

me too,

Thou may'st be damned for that wicked deed!
O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous2.-

Glo. The fitter for the King of heaven that hath him.

That laid their guilt) The crime of my brothers. He has just charged the murder of lady Anne's husband upon Ed. ward. JOHNSON,

O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.

Glo. The fitter for the king of heaven, &c.] So, in Pericles Prince of Tyre, 1609:

"I'll do't: but yet she is a goodly creature. "Dion. The fitter then the gods should have her." STEEVENS.

Anne.