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Glo. A greater gift than that I'll give my cousin. York. A greater gift! O, that's the sword to it? Glo. Ay, gentle cousin, were it light enough. York. O then, I see, you'll part but with light gifts; In weightier things you'll say a beggar, nay. Glo. It is too weighty for your grace to wear. York. I weigh it lightly, were it heavier.

Glo. What, would you have my weapon, little lord? York. I would, that I might thank you as you call me. Glo. How?

York. Little.

Prince. My lord of York will still be cross in talk ;Uncle, your grace knows how to bear with him.

York. You mean, to bear me, not to bear with me:-Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me; Because that I am little, like an ape,7

This reading, made a little more metrical, has been followed, I think, erroneously, by all the editors. Johnson.

The quarto 1612 reads:

no

grief.

Steevens.

which is no grief to give.] Which to give, or the gift of which, induces no regret. Thus the authentick copies, the quarto, 1598, and the first folio. A quarto of no authority changed grief to gift, and the editor of the second folio capriciously altered the line thus: "And being a toy, it is no grief to give." Malone.

6 I weigh it lightly, &c.] i. e. I should still esteem it but a trifling gift, were it heavier. But the Oxford editor reads:

I'd weigh it lightly,

i. e. I could manage it though it were heavier. Warburton. Dr. Warburton is right. So, in Love's Labour's Lost, Act V, sc. "You weigh me not,-O that's you care not for me."

ii:

Steevens.

7 Because that I am little, like an ape,] The reproach seems to consist in this: at country shows it was common to set the monkey on the back of some other animal, as a bear. The Duke therefore in calling himself ape, calls his uncle bear. Johnson.

To this custom there seems to be an allusion in Ben Jonson's Masque of Gypsies:

"A gypsy in his shape,

"More calls the beholder,
"Than the fellow with the ape,

"Or the ape on his shoulder."

Again, in The First Part of the Eighth liberall Science, entituled Ars Adulandi &c. devised and compiled by Ulpian Fulwel, 1576: "thou hast an excellent back to carry my lord's ape."

See likewise Hogarth's Humours of an Election, plate IV.

He thinks that you should bear me on your shoulders. Buck. With what a sharp-provided wit he reasons! To mitigate the scorn he gives his uncle,

He prettily and aptly taunts himself:

So cunning, and so young, is wonderful.

8

Glo. My gracious lord, will 't please you pass along?
Myself, and my good cousin Buckingham,
Will to your mother; to entreat of her,

To meet you at the Tower, and welcome you.
York. What, will you go unto the Tower, my lord?
Prince. My lord protector needs will have it so.
York. I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower.
Glo. Why, sir, what should you fear?9*
York. Marry, my uncle Clarence' angry ghost;
My grandam told me, he was murder'd there.
Prince. I fear no uncles dead.

Glo. Nor none that live, I hope.

Prince. An if they live, I hope, I need not fear. bui come, my lord, and, with a heavy heart,

York also alludes to the protuberance on Gloster's back, which was commodious for carrying burdens, as it supplied the place of a porter's knot. Steevens.

I do not believe that the reproach is what Johnson supposes, or that York meant to call his uncle a bear. He merely alludes to Richard's deformity, his high shoulder, or hump-back, as it is called. That was the scorn he meant to give his uncle. In the third Act of the Third Part of King Henry VI, the same thought occurs to Richard himself, where describing his own figure, he

says:

"To make an envious mountain on my back,

"Where sits deformity, to mock my body." M. Mason. 8 My gracious lord,] For the insertion of the word gracious, I am answerable. Gloster has already used the same address. The defect of the metre shows that a word was omitted at the press. Malone.

9 Why, sir, &c.] The word-sir, was added by Sir Thomas Hanmer, Without it this half line is harsh, and quite unmetrical. Steevens.

*The addition of Sir by Mr. Hanmer may render this line more pleasing to the delicate ear of Mr. Steevens, but his sense of propriety should have rejected it as an unwarrantable and unnecessary interpolation. He certainly had no authority for sinking the title of his grace, and had he paid any attention to the language of Gloster, when he addresses the duke of York, he could not have committed an error so gross. Am. Ed.

Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower.

[Exeunt Prince, YORK, HAST. Card. and Attend.
Buck. Think you, my lord, this little prating York
Was not incensed by his subtle mother,1
To taunt and scorn you thus opprobriously?

Glo. No doubt, no doubt: O, 'tis a parlous boy;
Bold, quick, ingenious, forward, capable ;2
He's all the mother's, from the top to toe.
Buck. Well, let them rest.--

Come hither, gentle Catesby; 3 thou art sworn
As deeply to effect what we intend,

As closely to conceal what we impart :
Thou know'st our reasons urg'd upon

the way;-
What think'st thou? is it not an easy matter
To make William lord Hastings of our mind,
For the instalment of this noble duke

In the seat royal of this famous isle?

Cates. He for his father's sake so loves the prince, That he will not be won to aught against him.

Buck. What think'st thou then of Stanley? will not he? Cates. He will do all in all as Hastings doth.

Buck. Well then, no more but this: Go, gentle Ca

tesby,

And, as it were far off, sound thou lord Hastings,
How he doth stand affected to our purpose;

And summon him to-morrow to the Tower,

To sit about the coronation.

1 Was not incensed by his subtle mother,] Incensed means here, incited or suggested. So, in King Henry VIII, Gardiner says of Cranmer :

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And, in Much Ado about Nothing, Borachio says to Pedro: "—how Don John your brother incensed me to slander the lady Hero." M. Mason.

21

capable;] here, as in many other places in these plays, means intelligent, quick of apprehension. See p. 65, n. 7.

Malone.

So again, in Troilus and Cressida: "Let me carry another to his horse, for that's the more capable creature."

Ritson.

3 gentle Catesby;] I have supplied the epithet-gentle, for the same reasons urged by Mr. Malone in the foregoing page, n. 9, in defence of a similar insertion.

Steevens.

If thou dost find him tractable to us,
Encourage him, and tell him all our reasons:
If he be leaden, icy, cold, unwilling,

Be thou so too; and so break off the talk,
And give us notice of his inclination :
For we to-morrow hold divided councils, 4
Wherein thyself shalt highly be employ'd.

Glo. Commend me to lord William: tell him, Catesby,
His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries
To-morrow are let blood at Pomfret-castle;
And bid my friend, for joy of this good news,
Give mistress Shore one gentle kiss the more.

Buck. Good Catesby, go, effect this business soundly. Cates. My good lords both, with all the heed I can. Glo. Shall we hear from you, Catesby, ere we sleep? Cates. You shall, my lord.

Glo. At Crosby-place, there shall you find us both. [Exit CATES. Buck. Now, my lord, what shall we do, if we perceive Lord Hastings will not yield to our complots?

Glo. Chop off his head, man;-somewhat we will do:"

4 divided councils,] That is, a private consultation, separate from the known and publick council. So, in the next scene, Hastings says:

"Bid him not fear the separated councils." Johnson. This circumstance is conformable to history. Hall, p. 13, says, "When the protectour had both the chyldren in his possession, yea, and that they were in a sure place, he then began to threst to se the ende of his enterprize. And, to avoyde all suspicion, he caused all the lords which he knewe to bee faithfull to the kynge, to assemble at Baynardes Castle, to comen of the ordre of the coronacion, whyle he and other of his complices, and of his affinitee, at Crosbies-place, contrived the contrary, and to make the protectour kyng: to which counsail there were adhibite very fewe, and they very secrete Reed.

Mr. Reed has shown from Hall's Chronicle that this circumstance is founded on the historical fact. But Holinshed, Hall's copyist, was our author's authority: "But the protectoure and the duke after they had sent to the lord Cardinal,-the lord Stanley and the lord Hastings then lord Chamberlaine, with many other noblemen, to commune and devise about the coronation in ome place, as fast were they in another place, contriving the contrarie, and to make the protectour king."9" 66 the lord Stanley, that was after earle of Darby, wisely mistrusted it, and sayde unto the lorde Hastings, that he much mislyked these two several councels." Malone.

And, look, when I am king, claim thou of me
The earldom of Hereford, and all the moveables
Whereof the king my brother was possess❜d.

Buck. I'll claim that promise at your grace's hand. Glo. And look to have it yielded with all kindness. Come, let us sup betimes; that afterwards

We may digest our complots in some form. [Exeunt.

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Hast. Cannot thy master sleep the tedious nights? Mess. So it should seem by that I have to say. First, he commends him to your noble lordship. Hast. And then,

Mess.

And then he sends you word, he dreamt To-night the boar had rased off his helm:7

5 will do:] The folio reads-will determine. Steevens. 6 Scene II] Every material circumstance in the following scene is taken from Holinshed's Chronicle, except that it is a knight with whom Hastings converses, instead of Buckingham Steevens.

7- the boar had rased off his helm :] This term rased or rashed, is always given to describe the violence inflicted by a boar. So, in King Lear, 4to edit:

"In his anointed flesh rash boarish fangs." Again, in Warner's Albion's England, 1602, B. VII, ch. xxxvi: - ha, cur, avaunt, the bore so rase thy hide!"

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By the boar, throughout this scene, is meant Gloster, who was called the boar, or the hog, from his having a boar for his cognizance, and one of the supporters of his coat of arms. Steevens.

So Holinshed, after Hall and Sir Thomas More: "The selfe night next before his death the lorde Stanley sent a trustie secret messenger unto him at midnight in all haste, requiring him to rise and ride away with him, for he was disposed utterlie no longer to byde, he had so fearful a dreame, in which him thought that a boare with his tuskes so rased them both by the heades that the bloud ran about both their shoulders. And forasmuch as the

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