Enter Queen ELIZABETH and the Duchess of YORK. Q. Eliz. Ah! my poor princes! ah, my tender babes! My unblown flowers, new-appearing sweets! If yet your gentle souls fly in the air, And be not fix'd in doom perpetual, Hover about me with your airy wings, And hear your mother's lamentation!

Q. Mar. Hover about her; say, that right for right2 Hath dimm'd your infant morn to aged night.

Duch. So many miseries have craz'd my voice, That my woe-wearied tongue is still and mute,— Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead?

Q. Mar. Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet, Edward for Edward pays a dying debt.

Q. Eliz. Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle lambs, And throw them in the entrails of the wolf?

When didst thou sleep,3 when such a deed was done?

2

say, that right for right -] This is one of those conceits which our author may be suspected of loving better than propriety. Right for right is justice answering to the claims of justice. So, in this play:

That forehead

"Where should be branded, if that right were right, -."

Johnson.

In the third scene of the first Act, Margaret was reproached with the murder of young Rutland, and the death of her husband and son were imputed to the divine vengeance roused by that wicked act: "So just is God to right the innocent." Margaret now perhaps means to say, The right of me, an injured mother, whose son was slain at Tewksbury, has now operated as powerfully as that right which the death of Rutland gave you to divine justice, and has destroyed your children in their turn. Malone.

3 When didst thou sleep, &c.] That is, When, before the present occasion, didst thou ever sleep during the commission of such an action? Thus the only authentick copies now extant; the quarto, 1598, and the first folio. The editor of the second folio changed When to Why, which has been adopted by all the subsequent editors; though Margaret's answer evidently refers to the word found in the original copy. Malone.

I have admitted this reading, though I am not quite certain of its authenticity. The reply of Margaret might have been designed as an interrogatory echo to the last words of the Queen.

Steevens.

This appears to be the true reading, as Margaret's next speech is an answer to that question that was not addressed to her.

M. Mason

Q. Mar. When holy Harry died, and my sweet son. Duch. Dead life, blind sight, poor mortal-living ghost, Woe's scene, world's shame, grave's due by life usurp'd, Brief abstract and record of tedious days, Rest thy unrest on England's lawful earth,

[Sitting down. Unlawfully made drunk with innocent blood!

Q. Eliz. Ah, that thou would'st as soon afford a grave, As thou canst yield a melancholy seat;

Then would I hide my bones, not rest them here!
Ah, who hath any cause to mourn, but we?

[Sitting down by her. Q. Mar. If ancient sorrow be most reverent, Give mine the benefit of seniory, 4

And let my griefs frown on the upper hand.5

If sorrow can admit society, [Sitting down with them. Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine:

I had an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him;

I had a husband, till a Richard kill'd him:
Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him;
Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard kill'd him.

Duch. I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill him;

I had a Rutland too, thou holp'st to kill him.

Q. Mar. Thou hadst a Clarence too, and Richard kill'd him.

From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept
A hell-hound, that doth hunt us all to death:
That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes,
To worry lambs, and lap their gentle blood;
That foul defacer of God's handy-work;
That excellent grand tyrant of the earth,

4

seniory,] For seniority. Johnson.

So, in Stowe's Chronicle, edit. 1615, p. 149:

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-the son of Edmund, the son of Edward the seignior, the son of Alured," &c. Steevens.

$ And let my griefs frown on the upper hand.] So, in our author's Rape of Lucrece:

"By this starts Collatine as from a dream,

"And bids Lucretius give his sorrows place." Malone. I had a husband,] The quarto has-a Richard, which the editor of the folio corrected by substituting-a husband. I believe Shakspeare wrote-I had a Henry. In a subsequent speech in this scene, p. 154, 1. 16: "my brother" being printed in the quarto by mistake, instead of "thy brother," the editor of the folio corrected the wrong word, and printed-my husband. Malone.

That reigns in galled eyes of weeping souls,
Thy womb let loose, to chase us to our graves.—
O upright, just, and true-disposing God,
How do I thank thee, that this carnal cur
Preys on the issue of his mother's body,
And makes her pew-fellow with others' moan!
Duch. O, Harry's wife, triumph not in my woes;
God witness with me, I have wept for thine.

Q. Mar. Bear with me; I am hungry for revenge,
And now I cloy me with beholding it.
Thy Edward he is dead, that kill'd my Edward;
Thy other Edward dead, to quit my Edward;
Young York he is but boot,1 because both they
Match not the high perfection of my loss.

Thy Clarence he is dead, that stabb'd my Edward;
And the beholders of this tragick play,

2

The adulterate Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Grey,

7 That reigns &c.] This and the preceding line have been omitted by all the modern editors, Rowe excepted. Steevens. These two lines are found only in the folio, and are there transposed. They were rightly arranged by Mr. Steevens. Malone. 8 - carnal-] This word, in the present instance, may signify carnivorous, though in Hamlet it is used for slaughterous:

"Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts." Steevens.

9 And makes her pew-fellow-] Pew-fellow seems to be companion. We have now a new phrase, nearly equivalent, by which we say of persons in the same difficulties, that they are in the same box. Johnson.

Pew fellow is a word yet in use. Sir F Hawkins..

I find this compound word in Northward Hoe, a comedy, by Decker and Webster, 1607: "He would make him pue-fellow with a lord's steward at least."

Again, in Westward-Hoe, by the same authors, 1606:

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being both my scholars, and your honest pue-fellows." I remember to have seen in ancient Flemish prints representing Schools, certain inclosures holding different classes of boys, who, probably, from this circumstance, were styled pew fellows.

In our places of worship perhaps pews in general are modern conveniences, compared with the age of the buildings that contain them Our hardy ancestors chiefly sat on open benches, such are still remaining in the Pit at Great Saint Mary's, Cambridge. Steevens.

1 Young York he is but boot,] Boot is that which is thrown in to mend a purchase. Johnson.

2 The adulterate Hastings,] I believe Shakspeare wrote: Warburton.

The adulterer Hastings,

Untimely smother'd in their dusky graves.
Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer;
Only reserv'd their factor, to buy souls,
And send them thither: But at hand, at hand,
Ensues his piteous and unpitied end:

Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, saints pray,3
To have him suddenly convey'd from hence:-
Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray,
That I may live to say, The dog is dead!

Q. Eliz. O, thou didst prophecy, the time would come, That I should wish for thee to help me curse

That bottled spider, that foul bunch-back'd toad.

Q. Mar. I call'd thee then, vain flourish of my fortune;
I call'd thee then, poor shadow, painted queen;
The presentation of but what I was,

The flattering index of a direful pageant,*
One heav'd a high, to be hurl'd down below:
A mother only mock'd with two fair babes;
A dream of what thou wast; a garish flag,
To be the aim of every dangerous shot;5
A sign of dignity, a breath, a bubble;

Adulterate is right. We say metals are adulterate; and adulterate sometimes means the same as adulterer. In either sense, on this occasion, the epithet will suit. Hastings was adulterate, as Margaret has tried his friendship and found it faithless; he was an adulterer, as he cohabited with Jane Shore during the life of her husband. So, the Ghost in Hamlet, speaking of the King, says: that incestuous, that adulterate beast." Steevens.

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3 Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, saints pray,] This imperfect line is not injudiciously completed by some former editor:

Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar for him; saints pray,
To have &c. Steevens.

4 The flattering index of a direful pageant,] Pageants are dumb shows, and the poet meant to allude to one of these, the index of which promised a happier conclusion. The pageants then displayed on publick occasions were generally preceded by a brief account of the order in which the characters were to walk. These indexes were distributed among the spectators, that they might understand the meaning of such allegorical stuff as was usually exhibited. The index of every book was anciently placed before the beginning of it. Steevens.

5- a garish flag,

To be the aim of every dangerous shot;] Alluding to the dan gerous situation of those persons to whose care the standards of armies were entrusted. Steevens.

A queen in jest, only to fill the scene.

Where is thy husband now? where be thy brothers?
Where be thy two sons? wherein dost thou joy?
Who sues, and kneels, and says-God save the queen?
Where be the bending peers that flatter'd thee?6
Where be the thronging troops that follow'd thee?
Decline all this," and see what now thou art.
For happy wife, a most distressed widow;
For joyful mother, one that wails the name;
For one being sued to, one that humbly sues;
For queen, a very caitiff crown'd with care:
For one that scorn'd at me, now scorn'd of me;
For one being fear'd of all, now fearing one;
For one commanding all, obey'd of none.
Thus hath the course of justice wheel'd about,
And left thee but a very prey to time;

Having no more but thought of what thou wert,
To torture thee the more, being what thou art.
Thou didst usurp my place, And dost thou not
Usurp the just proportion of my sorrow?

Now thy proud neck bears half my burden'd yoke;
From which even here I slip my wearied head,
And leave the burden of it all on thee.

Farewel, York's wife,—and queen of sad mischance,-
These English woes shall make me smile in France.
Q. Eliz. O thou well skill'd in curses, stay a while,
And teach me how to curse mine enemies.

Q. Mar. Forbear to sleep the night, and fast the day; Compare dead happiness with living woe;

6 Where be the bending peers that flatter'd thee?] Mr. Rowe has transferred this question to Alicia in Jane Shore:

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where is the king

"And all the smiling cringing train of courtiers,
"That bent the knee before thee?" Steevens.

7 Decline all this,] i. e. run through all this from first to last. So, in Troilus and Cressida: "I'll decline the whole question." This phrase the poet borrowed from his grammar. Malone.

8 wheel'd about] Thus the quartos. The folio—whirl'd about. Steevens.

9 Forbear to sleep and fast -] Fast has no connection with the preceding word forbear; the meaning being,-Sleep not at night, and fast during the day. The quarto reads-to sleep the nights, and fast the days. Malone.