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Anointed let me be with deadly venom;
And die, ere men can fay-God save the queen !

Q. ELIZ. Go, go, poor foul, I envy not thy glory;

To feed my humour, wish thyself no harm.

ANNE. No! why?-When he, that is my huf

band now,

Came to me, as I follow'd Henry's corse;
When scarce the blood was well wash'd from his

hands,

Which issu'd from my other angel husband,
And that dead faint which then I weeping follow'd;
O, when, I fay, I look'd on Richard's face,
This was my wish,-Be thou, quoth I, accurs'd,
For mahing me, fo young, fo old a widow !
And, when thou wed'st, let forrow haunt thy bed;
And be thy wife (if any be fo mad)
More miferable by the life of thee,

Than thou hast made me by my dear lord's death!
Lo, ere I can repeat this curse again,
Even in so short a space, my woman's heart
Grossly grew captive to his honey words,
And prov'd the subject of mine own foul's curse:
Which ever fince hath held mine eyes from reft;
For never yet one hour in his bed
Did I enjoy the golden dew of fleep,

6

But with his timorous dreams was still awak'd.

punished: but George's would not fuit the poet's metre. The Earl of Atholl, who was executed on account of the murder of James I. King of Scots, was, previous to his death, "crowned with a hot iron." See Holinshed. RITSON.

6 For never yet one hour in his bed-] Hour is here, as in many other places, used by Shakspeare as a dissyllable.

MALONE. 7 But with his timorous dreams-] 'Tis recorded by Polydore

Befides, he hates me for my father Warwick;
And will, no doubt, shortly be rid of me.

Q. ELIZ. Poor heart, adieu; I pity thy complaining.

ANNE. No more than with my foul I mourn for yours.

Dor. Farewell, thou woful welcomer of glory! ANNE. Adieu, poor foul, that tak'st thy leave of

it!

DUCH. Go thou to Richmond, and good fortune [TO DORSET. Go thou to Richard, and good angels tend thee!

guide thee!

[TO ANNE. Go thou to fanctuary, and good thoughts poffefs thee! [To Q. ELIZABETH. I to my grave, where peace and rest lie with me! Eighty odd years of forrow have I seen,

And each hour's joy wreck'd with a week of teen.9

Virgil, that Richard was frequently disturbed by terrible dreams: this is therefore no fiction. JOHNSON.

Perhaps the narratives of Polydore Virgil, like those of Hector Boethius, are of flight authority. Such at least, respecting the former of these writers, was the opinion of Owen, our epigrammatift:

8

""Virgilii duo funt; alter Maro; tu, Polydore,

"Alter; tu mendax, ille poeta fuit." STEEVENS.

Eighty odd years &c.] Shakspeare has here, I believe, spoken at random. The prefent scene is in 1483. Richard, Duke of York, the husband of this lady, had he been then living, would have been but feventy-three years old, and we may reasonably fuppofe that his Duchefs was younger than he was. Nor did the go speedily to her grave. She lived till 1495.

MALONE.

And each hour's joy wreck'd with a week of teen.] Teen is forrow. So, in Romeo and Juliet : "And yet to my teen be it spoken," &c.

Q. ELIZ. Stay yet; look back, with me, unto the Tower.

Pity, you ancient stones, those tender babes,
Whom envy hath immur'd within your walls !
Rough cradle for such little pretty ones!
Rude ragged nurse! old sullen play-fellow 2
For tender princes, use my babies well!
So foolish forrow bids your ftones farewell.3

Again, in The Return from Parnassus, 1606:

[Exeunt.

"Flies have their spleen, each filly ant his teens."

So, in The Rape of Lucrece:

STEEVENS.

"Who buys a minute's mirth, to wail a week?" "Short pleasure, long lament," is one of Ray's proverbial sentences. MALONE.

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Stay yet; &c.] This speech is not in the quarto.

MALONE.

• Rude ragged nurse! old fullen play-fellow-) To call the Tower nurse and play-fellow is very harsh: perhaps part of this speech is addressed to the Tower, and part to the Lieutenant.

The last line of this speech

So foolish forrow bids your fstones farewell,

JOHNSON.

proves that the whole of it is addressed to the Tower, and apologizes for the absurdity of that address, by attributing it to forrow. M. MASON.

3 So foolish forrow bids your ftones farewell.] Hither the third Act should be extended, and here it very properly ends with a pause of action. JOHNSON.

The folio has-forrows. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. MALONE.

SCENE II.

A Room of State in the Palace.

Flourish of Trumpets. RICHARD, as King upоп his Throne; BUCKINGHAM, CATESBY, a Page, and Others.

K. RICH. Stand all apart. - Cousin of Buckingham,

BUCK. My gracious fovereign.

K. RICH. Give me thy hand. Thus high, by thy

advice,
And thy afsistance, is king Richard feated :-
But shall we wear these glories for a day?
Or fhall they last, and we rejoice in them?

BUCK. Still live they, and for ever let them last!
K. RICH. Ah, Buckingham, now do I play the

touch,4

To try if thou be current gold, indeed :-
Young Edward lives; -Think now what I would

4

fpeak.

Buck. Say on, my loving lord.

now do I play the touch,] To play the touch is to re

present the touchstone.

So, in the 10th Song of Drayton's Polyolbion :

"With alabaster, tuch, and porphyry adorn'd." Again, in the epiftle of Mary the French Queen to Charles Brandon, by Drayton :

"Before mine eye, like touch, thy shape did prove."

Again, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, B. I. c. iii:

"

Though true as touch, though daughter of a king."

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STEEVENS.

K. RICH. Why, Buckingham, I say, I would be king.

BUCK. Why, so you are, my thrice-renowned liege. K. RICH. Ha! am I king? 'Tis so: but Edward lives.

Buck. True, noble prince.

K. RICH.

O bitter consequence, That Edward ftill should live, true, noble prince!Coufin, thou wast not wont to be so dull :Shall I be plain ? I wish the bastards dead; And I would have it suddenly perform'd. What say'st thou now? speak suddenly, be brief. Buck. Your grace may do your pleasure.

K. RICH. Tut, tut, thou art all ice, thy kindness

freezes:

Say, have I thy confent, that they shall die ?

Buck. Give me fome breath, fome little pause,

dear lord, Before I pofitively speak in this: I will refolve your grace immediately.

[Exit BUCKINGHAM.

CATE. The king is angry; fee, he gnaws his lip.5 [Afide.

K. RICH. I will converse with iron-witted fools, [Defcends from his Throne.

And unrespective boys; none are for me,

5-fee, he gnaws his lip.] Several of our ancient historians observe, that this was an accustomed action of Richard, whether he was penfive or angry. STEEVENS.

And unrespective boys;] Unrespective is inattentive to con

sequences, inconfiderate.

So, in Daniel's Cleopatra, 1599:

"When diffolute impiety possess'd

"The unrespective minds of prince and people."

STEEVENS.

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