Enter LOVEL and RATCLIFF, 3 with HASTINGS'S Head. GLO. Be patient, they are friends; Ratcliff, and Lovel. Lov. Here is the head of that ignoble traitor, The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings. GLO. So dear I lov'd the man, that I must weep. I took him for the plaineft harmless't creature, 4 That breath'd upon the earth a Chriftian;5 Made him my book, wherein my foul recorded The history of all her fecret thoughts: So smooth he daub'd his vice with show of virtue, That, his apparent open guilt omitted,I mean, his conversation with Shore's wife, 3 Enter Lovel and Ratcliff,] The quarto has-"Enter Catesby, with Haftings' head," and Glofter, on his entry, fays-" O, O, be quiet, it is Catesby." For this abfurd alteration, by which Ratcliff is represented at Pomfret and in London at the fame time, I have no doubt that the player-editors are answerable. MALONE. 4- harmless't creature,] The old copies read harmless; but grammar requires harmless't, (i. e. harmlessest,) a common contraction, as I am assured, both in Leicestershire and Warwickshire. So afterwards, p. 406, we have covert'st for coverteft. 5 STEEVENS. - the earth a Christian ;) Here the quarto adds : This hemiftich I have inserted in the following speech of Buckingham, to which I believe it originally belonged; as without it we meet with an imperfect verse : Well, well he was the covert'st shelter'd traitor "That ever liv'd. "Would you imagine," &c. I have fince observed, that Mr. Capell has the fame transposition. 6 STEEVENS. his conversation - i. e. familiar intercourse. The phrafe-criminal conversation, is yet in daily use. MALONE. He liv'd from all attainder of suspect. BUCK. Well, well, he was the covert'st shelter'd traitor That ever liv'd.-Look you, my lord mayor, MAY. What! had he fo? GLO. What! think you we are Turks, or infidels ? Or that we would, against the form of law, Proceed thus rafhly in the villain's death; But that the extreme peril of the cafe, The peace of England, and our persons' fafety, Enforc'd us to this execution? MAY. Now, fair befal you! he deserv'd his death; And your good graces both have well proceeded, To warn false traitors from the like attempts. I never look'd for better at his hands, After he once fell in with mistress Shore. BUCK. Yet had we not determin'd he should die, Until your lordship came to see his end; Which now the loving haste of these our friends, Somewhat against our meaning, hath prevented : Because, my lord, we would have had you heard The traitor speak, and timoroufly confefs The manner and the purpose of his treasons; That you might well have fignified the same Unto the citizens, who, haply, may Misconstrue us in him, and wail his death. MAY. But, my good lord, your grace's word shall ferve, As well as I had feen, and heard him speak : And do not doubt, right noble princes both, GLO. And to that end we wish'd your lordship here, To avoid the censures of the carping world. BUCK. But fince you came too late of our intent," Yet witness what you hear we did intend: And fo, my good lord mayor, we bid farewell. [Exit Lord Mayor. GLO. Go, after, after, cousin Buckingham. The mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all poft :There, at your meetest vantage of the time, Infer the bastardy of Edward's children : Tell them, how Edward put to death a citizen,8 Only for faying-he would make his fon Heir to the crown; meaning, indeed, his house, Which, by the fign thereof, was termed so. Moreover, urge his hateful luxury, And beftial appetite in change of luft; Which stretch'd unto their servants, daughters, wives, Even where his raging eye, or favage heart, But fince you came too late of our intent,] Perhaps we should read-" too late for our intent." M. MASON. The old reading I suppose to be the true one. We still fay "to come fhort of a thing," and why not " come late of an intent?" STEEVENS. 8 - put to death a citizen,] This person was one Walker, a substantial citizen and grocer at the Crown in Cheapfide. 9 GREY. - his raging eye, listed - The former is the reading of the folio, the latter of the quarto. The quarto has-lustful eye, and the folio-lufted instead of lifted. Modern editors without authority-ranging eye. STEEVENS. Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person:- BUCK. Doubt not, my lord; I'll play the orator, GLO. If you thrive well, bring them to Baynard's castle;2 Where you shall find me well accompanied, With reverend fathers, and well-learned bishops. BUCK. I go; and, towards three or four o'clock, Look for the news that the Guild-hall affords. [Exit BUCKINGHAM. GLO. Go, Lovel, with all speed to doctor Shaw,3 * Tell them, &c.] Whatever reason W. Wyrcefter might have for being so very particular, he expressly tells us that Edward was conceived in the chamber next to the chapel of the palace of Hatfield. York was regent of France at that time, and had come over, it would feem, to visit his lady. RITSON. 2 - to Baynard's castle ;) It was originally built by Baynard, a nobleman who (according to Stowe's account) came in with the conqueror. This edifice which stood in Thames Street, has long been pulled down, though parts of its strong foundations are still visible at low water. The site of it is now a timber-yard. 3 STEEVENS. - to doctor Shaw, -) This and the two following lines are not in the quarto. Shaw and Penker were two popular preachers.-Inftead of a pamphlet being published by the Secretary of the Treasury, to furnish the advocates for the adminiftra Go thou [To CAT.] to friar Penker; 4-bid them both Meet me, within this hour, at Baynard's castle. [Exeunt LOVEL and CATESBY. Now will I in, to take some privy order tion of the day, with plausible topicks of argument on great political measures, (the established mode of the present time) formerly it was customary to publish the court creed from the pulpit at Saint Paul's Cross. As Richard now employed Doctor Shaw to support his claim to the crown, so, about fifteen years before, the great Earl of Warwick employed his chaplain Doctor Goddard to convince the people that Henry VI. ought to be restored, and that Edward IV. was an usurper. MALONE. * This Pinker or Penker was provincial of the Augustine friars. See Speed. STEEVENS. 5 - the brats of Clarence-) Edward Earl of Warwick, who the day after the battle of Bofworth, was fent by Richmond from Sherif-hutton Castle (where Glofter had confined him,) to the Tower, without even the shadow of an allegation against him, and executed with equal injuftice on Tower-hill on the 21st of November, 1499; and Margaret, afterwards married to Sir Richard de la Pole, the laft Princess of the house of Lancafter; who was created by King Henry VIII. Countess of Salisbury, and in the 31st year of his reign, (1540) at the age of seventy, was put to death by the fanguinary king then on the throne, as her unfortunate and innocent brother had before fallen a victim to the jealous policy of that crafty tyrant Henry VII. The immediate cause of his being put to death was, that Ferdinand King of Spain was unwilling to confent to the marriage of his daughter Katharine to Arthur Prince of Wales, while the Earl of Warwick lived, there being during his life-time (as Ferdinand conceived) no assurance of the Prince's fucceffion to the crown. The murder of the Earl of Warwick (for it deferves no other name) made such an impression on Katharine, that when she was first informed of Henry the Eighth's intention to repudiate her, the exclaimed, "I have not offended, but it is a just judgment of Gon, for my former marriage was made in blood." MALONE. |