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* K. Eow. But now you partly may perceive my mind.

* L. GREY. My mind will never grant what I perceive

* Your highness aims at, if I aim aright.

K. EDW. To tell thee plain, I aim to lie with thee.

* L. GREY. To tell you plain, I had rather lie in

prifon.

K. EDW. Why, then thou shalt not have thy hufband's lands.

L. GREY. Why, then mine honesty shall be my dower;

For by that lofs I will not purchase them.

K. EDW. Therein thou wrong'st thy children mightily.

L. GREY. Herein your highness wrongs both them

and me.

But, mighty lord, this merry inclination
'Accords not with the sadness of my fuit;
Please you dismiss me, either with ay, or no.

K. EDW. Ay; if thou wilt say ay, to my request: No; if thou dost say no, to my demand.

L. GREY. Then, no, my lord. My suit is at an

end.

brows.

GLO. The widow likes him not, she knits her

CLAR. He is the bluntest wooer in Christendom.

[Afide.

[Afide.

I

Juliet:

the fadness-] i. e. the feriousness. So, in Romeo and

"Tell me in Sadness who is she you love."

STEEVENS.

K.EDW. [Afide.] Her looks do argue her re

plete with modefty;

* Her words do show her wit incomparable;
* All her perfections challenge fovereignty :
One way, or other, she is for a king;
And she shall be my love, or else my queen.-
Say, that king Edward take thee for his queen ?

L. GREY. 'Tis better faid than done, my gracious lord:

I am a subject fit to jeft withal,
But far unfit to be a fovereign.

K. EDW. Sweet widow, by my state I swear to

thee,

I speak no more than what my foul intends;

And that is, to enjoy thee for my love.

L. GREY. And that is more than I will yield

unto:

'I know, I am too mean to be your queen; And yet too good to be your concubine.3

* Her looks do argue her replete with modesty ;) So the folio, The quartos read :

"Her looks are all replete with majesty." STEEVENS.

3 And yet too good to be your concubine.] So, in Warner's Allion's England, 1602, B. VII. chap. xxxiv:

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plies me;

His plea was love, my fuit was land: I plie him, he "Too bace to be his queen, too good his concubine to be." Shakspeare, however, adopted the words from Stowe's Chronicle. STEEVENS.

These words, which are found in the old play, (except that we there have bad, instead of mean,) were taken by the author of that piece from Hall's Chronicle: " -whiche demaund the fo wyfely and with fo covert speeche aunfwered and repugned, affyrmyng that as she was for his honour far unable to be his spouse and bedfellowe, fo for her awne poor honeftie she was to good to be either his concubine, or fovereigne lady; that where he was a littel before heated with the dart of Cupido, he was nowe," &c. MALONE.

K. Edw. You cavil, widow; I did mean, my queen.

L. GREY. 'Twill grieve your grace, my fons should call you-father.

K. Edw. No more, than when thy daughters call thee mother.

Thou art a widow, and thou hast some children;
And, by God's mother, I, being but a bachelor,
Have other some: why, 'tis a happy thing
To be the father unto many fons.
'Answer no more, for thou shalt be my queen.

GLO. The ghoftly father now hath done his shrift. [Afide.

CLAR. When he was made a shriver, 'twas for [Afide.

shift.

K. EDW. Brothers, you muse what chat we two

have had.

* GLO. The widow likes it not, for she looks fad.5 K. EDW. You'd think it strange if I should marry

her.

CLAR. To whom, my lord?

K. EDW.

Why, Clarence, to myself. GLO. That would be ten days' wonder, at the leaft.

CLAR. That's a day longer than a wonder lafts.

* Thou art a widow, &c.] This is part of the King's reply to his mother in Stowe's Chronicle: "That she is a widow, and hath already children; by God's blessed lady I am a batchelor, and have fome too, and so each of us hath a proofe that neither of us is like to be barrain;" &c. STEEVENS.

5-she looks fad.] Old copy-very fad. For the fake of metre I have omitted this ufeless adverb.

STEEVENS.

• That's a day longer &c.] A nine days wonder was prover

GLO. By so much is the wonder in extremes. K. EDW. Well, jest on, brothers: I can tell you

both,

Her fuit is granted for her husband's lands.

Enter a Nobleman.

Nов. My gracious lord, Henry your foe is taken, And brought your prifoner to your palace gate.

K. EDW. See, that he be convey'd unto the

Tower:

'And go we, brothers, to the man that took him, • To question of his apprehenfion.

Widow, go you along; -Lords, use her honour

able. [Exeunt King EDWARD, Lady GREY, CLARENCE, and Lord.

GLO. Ay, Edward will use women honourably. 'Would he were wasted, marrow, bones, and all, That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring, 'To cross me from the golden time I look for! 'And yet, between my foul's defire, and me, * (The lustful Edward's title buried,) 'Is Clarence, Henry, and his son young Edward, ' And all the unlook'd-for issue of their bodies, 'To take their rooms, ere I can place myself: A cold premeditation for my purpose! * Why, then I do but dream on sovereignty; * Like one that stands upon a promontory, * And spies a far-off shore where he would tread,

bial. Thus, in a Sermon at Paul's Crosse, Nov. 25, 1621, by Henry King, p. 53 : " For mendacia diu non fallunt, and having arrived at nine days, the age of a wonder, died in laughter."

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REED.

* Wishing his foot were equal with his eye;

* And chides the sea that sunders him from thence,

* Saying-he'll lade it dry to have his way :

* So do I wish the crown, being so far off;

* And so I chide the means that keep me from it;

* And so I say-I'll cut the causes off,

* Flattering me with impoffibilities.

* My eye's too quick, my heart o'erweens too much,

* Unless my hand and strength could equal them. * Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard; * What other pleasure can the world afford ?

' I'll make my heaven 7 in a lady's lap, ' And deck my body in gay ornaments, And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks. • O miferable thought! and more unlikely,

Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns! Why, love forswore me in my mother's womb :8 'And, for I should not deal in her soft laws ' She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe 'To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub ;9 To make an envious mountain on my back, Where fits deformity to mock my body; • To shape my legs of an unequal fize; * To difproportion me in every part, * Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp,1

I'll make my heaven &c.] Thus the folio. The quartos alter and transpose the two lines, as follows:

8

I will go clad my body with gay ornaments,
And lull myself within a lady's lap. STEEVENS.

- love forswore me in my mother's womb:] This line is found also in a play entitled Wily Beguiled. The earliest edition that I have seen of that piece, was printed in 1606; but it had been exhibited on the stage foon after the year 1590. MALONE.

9 -like a wither'd shrub ;] So the folio. The quartoslike a wither'd shrimp. STEEVENS.

I

unlick'd bear-whelp,] It was an opinion which, in spite of its absurdity, prevailed long, that the bear brings forth only

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