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ACT II.

SCENE 1.-The same.-A Room in the

Palace.

Enter King EDWARD, (led in sick,) Queen
ELIZABETH, DORSET, RIVERS, HASTINGS,
BUCKINGHAM, GREY, and others.

By false intelligence, or wrong surmise
Hold me a foe;

If I unwittingly, or in my rage,
Have aught committed that is hardly borue
By any in this presence, I desire
To reconcile me to his friendly peace:
'Tis death to me, to be at enniity;

I hate it, and desire all good men's love.
First, madam, I entreat true peace of you,

K. Edw. Why so :-now have I done a good Which I will purchase with my duteous ser

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Since I have made my friends at peace earth.

vice ;

Of you, my noble consin Buckingham,

If ever any grudge were lodg'd between us; Of you, lord Rivers, and lord Grey, of you; hea-That all without desert have frown'd on me; Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen ;

on

Rivers and Hastings, take each other's hand;
Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love.
Riv. By heaven, my soul is purg'd from
grudging hate;

And with my hand I seal my true heart's
love.

Hast. So thrive I, as I truly swear the like!
K. Edw. Take heed, you dally not before
your king;

Lest he, that is the supreme King of kings,
Confound your hidden falsehood, and award
Either of you to be the other's end.

Hast. So prosper I, as I swear perfect love!
Riv. And I, as I love Hastings with my
heart!

K. Edw. Madam, yourself are not exempt in
this,-

Nor your son Dorset,-Buckingham, nor you ;-
You have been factious one against the other.
Wife, love lord Hastings, let him kiss your
band;

And what you do, do it unfeignedly.

Q. Eliz. There, Hastings ;-1 will never more
remember

Our former hatred, So thrive I and mine!
K. Edw. Dorset, embrace him,-Hastings,
love lord marquis.

Dor. This interchange of love, I here protest,
Upon my part shall be inviolable.
Hast. And so swear I.

[Embraces DORSET. K. Edw. Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league

With thy embracements to my wife's allies,
And make me happy in your unity.

Buck. Whenever Buckingham doth turn his
hate

Upon your grace, [To the QUEEN.] but with

all duteous love

Doth cherish you and your's, God punish me
With hate in those where I expect most love!
When I have most need to employ a friend,
And most assured that he is a friend,
Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile,
Be he unto me! this do I beg of heaven,
When I am cold in love, to you, or your's.
[Embracing RIVERS, &c.
K. Edw. A pleasing cordial, princely Buck-
ingham,

Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.
There wauteth now our brother Gloster here,
To make the blessed period of this peace.
Buck. And, in good time, here comes the no-
ble duke.

Enter GLOSTER.

all.

indeed of

I do not know that Englishman alive,
With whom my soul is any jot at odds,
More than the infant that is born to-night:
I thank my God for my humility.

Q. Eliz. A holy-day shall this be kept here

after :

I would to God, all strifes were well com-
pounded.-

My sovereign lord, I do beseech your highness
To take our brother Clarence to your grace.

Glo. Why, madam, have I offer'd love for
this,

To be so flouted in this royal presence?
Who knows not, that the gentle duke is dead?
[They all start.

You do him injury to scorn his corse.
K. Edw. Who knows not he is dead! who
knows he is 1

Q. Eliz. All-seeing heaven, what a world is

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rest?

Dor. Ay, my good lord: and no man in the
presence,

But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.
K. Edw. Is Clarence dead? the order was
revers'd.

Glo. But he, poor man, by your first order
died,

And that a winged Mercury did bear;
Some tardy cripple bore the countermand,
That came too lag to see him buried :-
God grant that some, less noble, and less
loyal,

Nearer in bloody thoughts, and not in blood,
Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence
did,

And yet go current from suspicion.

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hear me.

K. Edw. Then say at once, what is it thou request❜st.

Stan. The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant's
life;

Who slew to-day a riotous gentleman,
Lately attendant on the duke of Norfolk.

K. Edw. Have I a tongue to doom my bro-
ther's death,

And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave? My brother kill'd no man, his fault was thought,

Glo. Good-morrow to my sovereign king and And yet his punishment was bitter death.

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Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
Even in his garments; and did give himself,
All thin and naked, to the numb-cold night?
All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
Sinfully pluck'd, and not a man of you
Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
But when your carters, or your waiting-vas-
sals,

Have done a drunken slaughter, and defac'd
The precious image of our dear Redeemer,

You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon;

And I, unjustly too, must grant it you :-
But for my brother, not a man would speak,
Nor I (ungracious) speak unto myself

For him, poor soul.-The proudest of you all
Have been beholden to him in his life.

Yet none of you would once plead for his life.
O God! I fear, thy justice will take hold

Duch. Ay, boy. Son. I cannot think it. Hark! what noise is this!

Enter Queen ELIZABETH distractedy; RIVERS and DORSET, following her.

Q. Eliz. Ah! who shall hinder me to wail and weep?

To chide my fortune, and torment myself?
I'll join with black despair against my soul,
And to myself become an enemy.

Duch. What means this scene of rude impatience?

Q. Eliz. To make an act of tragic violence :Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead. Why grow the branches, when the root is gone? Why wither not the leaves, that want their sap?

If you will live, lament; if die, be brief,

On me, and you, and mine, and your's, for That our swift-winged souls may catch the this.

Come, Hastings, help me to my closet. O
Poor Clarence !

[Exeunt KING, QUEEN, HASTINGS, RIVERS, DORSET, and GREY.

Glo. This is the fruit of rashness!-Mark'd you not,

How that the guilty kindred of the queen Look'd pale, when they did hear of Clarence' death?

Oh! they did urge it still unto the king:

king's;

Or, like obedient subjects, follow him
To his new kingdom of perpetual rest.

Duch. Ah! so much interest have I in thy sorrow,

As I had title in thy noble husband!

I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
And liv'd by looking on his images:

But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death,
And I for comfort have but one false glass.

God will revenge it. Come, lords; will you That grieves me when I see my shame in him.

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Daugh. Why do you weep so oft? and beat your breast;

And cry-O Clarence, my unhappy son!
Sor. Why do you look on us, and shake your
head,

And call us-orphans, wretches, cast-aways,
If that our noble father be alive?

Duch. My pretty cousins, you mistake me both;

I do lament the sickness of the king,

As loath to lose him, not your father's death;
It were lost sorrow, to wail one that's lost.

Son. Then, grandam, you conclude that he is dead.

The king my uncle is to blame for this:
God will revenge it; whom I will impórtune
With earnest prayers all to that effect.
Daugh. And so will I.

Duch. Peace, children, peace! the king doth love you well:

Incapable and shallow innocents,

You cannot guess who caus'd your father's death.

Son. Graudam, we can: for my good uncle
Gloster

Told me,
the king, provok'd to't by the queen,
Devis'd impeachments to imprison him;
And when my uncle told me so, he wept,
And pitied me, and kindly kiss'd my cheek;
Bade me rely on him, as on my father,
And he would love me dearly as his child.
Duch. Ah! that deceit should steal such

tle shapes,

Thou art a widow; yet thou art a mother,
And hast the comfort of thy children left thee:
But death bath snatch'd my husband from my

arnis,

And pluck'd two crutches from my feeble hands,

(Thine being but a moiety of my grief,) Clarence and Edward. Oh! what cause have I, To over-go thy plaints, and drown thy cries ! Son. Ah! aunt, you wept not for our father's death;

How can we aid you with our kindred tears? Daugh. Our fatherless distress was left unmoan'd

Your widow-dolour likewise be unwept !

Q. Eliz. Give me no help in lamentation, I am not barren to bring forth laments: All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes, That I, being govern'd by the watery moon, May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world!

Ah! for my husband, for my dear lord Edward!

Chil. Ah! for our father, for our dear lord Clarence !

Duch. Alas! for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!

Q. Eliz. What stay had I, but Edward? and he's gone.

Chil.

What stay had we, but Clarence? and he's gone.

Duch. What stays had I, but they? and they

are gone.

Q. Eliz. Was never widow, had so dear a loss.

Chil. Were never orphans, had so dear a
loss.

Duch. Was never mother had so dear a loss.
Alas! I am the mother of these griefs;
Their woes are parcell'd, mine are general.
She for an Edward weeps, and so do I;
I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she:
These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I:
gen-I for an Edward weep, so do not they :-

And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice!
He is my son, ay, and therein my shame,
Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.
Son. Think you, my uncle did dissemble,
grandam?

• Ignorant.

Alas! you three, on me, threefold distress'd, Pour all your tears, I am your sorrow's nurse. And I will pamper it with lamentations.

Dor. Comfort, dear mother; God is much displeas'd,

That you take with unthankfulness his doing;

• Divide

In common worldly things, 'tis call'd-ungrate- For, by the way, I'll sort occasion,
ful,

With dull unwillingness to repay a debt,
Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
Much more to be thus opposite with heaven,
For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

Ris. Madam, bethink you, like a careful
mother,

Of the young prince your son: send straight for him,

Let him be crown'd; in him your comfort lives

Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward's

grave,

And plant your joys in living Edward's throne.

Enter GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY,
HASTINGS, RATCLIFF, and others.

Glo. Sister, have comfort: all of us have

cause

To wail the dimming of our shining star;
But

none can cure their harms by wailing

them.

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[Aside.

I marvel, that her grace did leave it out.
Buck. You cloudy princes, and heart sorrow-
ing peers,

That bear this mutual heavy load of moan,
Now cheer each other in each other's love:
Though we have spent our harvest of this
king,

We are to reap the harvest of his son.

The broken rancour of your high-swoln hearts,
But lately splinted, knit, and join'd together,
Must gently be preserv'd, cherish'd, and kept:
Me seemneth good, that with some little train,
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be
fetch'd

Hither to London, to be crown'd our king.
Ris. Why with some little train, my lord of
Buckingham?

Buck. Marry, my lord, lest, by a multitude, The new-heal'd wound of malice should break out;

Which would be so much the more dangerous,
By how much the estate is green, and yet ungo-
vern'd:

Where every horse bears his commanding rein,
And may direct his course as please himself,
As well the fear of harm, as harm apparent,
In my opinion, ought to be prevented.

Glo. I hope the king made peace with all

of us;

And the compact is firm, and true, in me.

Riv. And so in me: and so, I think, in all :
Yet, since it is but green, it should be put
To no apparent likelihood of breach,

As index to the story we late talk'd of,
To part the queen's proud kindred from the
prince.

Glo. My other self, my counsel's cousistory,
My oracle, my prophet!-My dear cousin,
1, as a child, will go by thy direction.
Towards Ludlow then, for we'll not stay behind.
[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-The same.-A Street.

Enter two CITIZENS, meeting.

1 Cit. Good morrow, neighbour: Whither away so fast?

2 Cit. I promise you, I scarcely know ny self:

Hear you the news abroad?

1 Cit. Yes; the king's dead.

2 Cit. Ill news, by'r lady; seldom comes the better:

I fear, I fear, 'twill prove a giddy world.

Enter another CITIZEN.

3 Cit. Neighbours, God speed!
1 Cit. Give you good morrow, Sir.

3 Cit. Doth the news hold of good king Ed-
ward's death?

2 Cit. Ay, Sir, it is too true; God help, the while!

3 Cit. Then, masters, look to see a troublous world.

1 Cit. No, no; by God's good grace, his son shall reign.

3 Cit. Woe to that land, that's govern'd by a

child!

2 Cit. In him there is a hope of government ; That, in his nonage, + council under him, And, in his full and ripen'd years, himself, No doubt, shall then, and till then, govern well.

1 Cit. So stood the state, when Henry the
sixth

Was crown'd in Paris but at nine months old.
3 Cit. Stood the state so? no, no, good friends,
God wot;

For then this land was famously enrich'd
With politic grave counsel; then the king
Had virtuous uncles to protect his grace.

1 Cit. Why, so hath this, both by his father
and mother.

2 Cit. Better it were they all came by his
father;

Or, by his father, there were none at all:
For emulation now, who shall be nearest,
Will touch us all too near, if God prevent not.
Oh! full of danger is the duke of Gloster;
And the queen's sons, and brothers, haught and

proud:

And were they to be rul'd, and not to rule,
This sickly land might solace as before.

1 Cit. Come, come, we fear the worst; all
will be well.

3 Cit. When clouds are seen, wise men put en their cloaks;

When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand; Which, haply, by much company might be When the sun sets, who doth not look for

urged:

Therefore I say, with noble Buckingham,

That it is meet so few should fetch the prince.
Hast. And so say I.

Glo. Then be it so; and go we to determine
Who they shall be that straight shall post to
Ludlow.

Madam, and you my mother, will you go
To give your censures in this weighty busi-
ness?

[Exeunt all but BUCKINGHAM and
GLOSTER.

Buck. My lord, whoever journeys to the
prince,

For God's sake, let not us two stay at home:

• Opinion.

night?

Untimely storms make men expect a dearth:
All may be well; but, if God sort it so,
'Tis more than we deserve, or I expect.

2 Cit. Truly, the hearts of men are full of
fear :

You cannot reason almost with a man
That looks not heavily, and full of dread.
3 Cit. Before the days of change, still is

it so:

By a divine instinct, men's minds mistrust
Ensuing danger; as, by proof, we see
The water swell before a boist'rous storm
Bat leave it all to God. Whitner away

• Preparatory
A knows.

1

4 Min
⚫ Converse.

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SCENE IV.-The same.-A Room in the Palace.

Enter the Archbishop of YORK, the young Duke of YORK, Queen ELIZABETH, and the Duchess of YORK.

Arch. Last night I heard, they lay at Stony-
Stratford;

And at Northampton they do rest to-night:
To-morrow, or next day, they will be here.
Duch. I long with all my heart to see the
prince;

I hope, he is much grown since last I saw him.
Q. Eliz. But I hear, no; they say, my son of
York

Hath almost overta'en him in his growth.
York. Ay, mother, but I would not have it

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Duch. How, my young York? I pr'ythee, let me hear it.

York. Marry, they say, my uncle grew so fast,

That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old; 'Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth. Grandam, this would have been a biting jest. Duch. I pr'ythee, pretty York, who told thee this?

York. Grandam, his nurse.

Duch. His nurse? why, she was dead ere thou wast born.

York. If 'twere not she, I cannot tell who told me.

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Q. Eliz. A parlous boy: Go to, you are too shrewd.

Arch. Good madam, be not angry with

child.

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the

Mess. Lord Rivers and lord Grey are sent to

Pomfret,

With them Sir Thomas Vaughan, prisoners.

• Perilous, dangerous.

Duch. Who hath committed them! Mess. The mighty dukes, Gloster and Buckingham.

Q. Eliz. For what offence?

Mess. The sum of all I can, I have disclos'd; Why, or for what, the nobles were committed, Is all unknown to me, my gracious lady.

Q. Eliz. Ah! me, I see the ruin of my

house!

The tiger now hath seiz'd the gentle hind;
Insulting tyranny begins to jut
Upon the innocent and awless throne:-
Welcome, destruction, blood, and massacre!
I see, as in a map the end of all.

Duch. Accursed and unquiet wrangling days
How many of you have mine eyes beheld!
My husband lost his life to get the crown;
And often up and down my sons were tost,
For me to joy, and weep, their gain, and loss:
And being seated, and domestic broils
Clean over-blown, themselves, the conquerers,
Make war upon themselves; brother to bro-
ther,
Blood to blood, self 'gainst self:-O preposter.

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Is this of her's?-Lord cardinal, will your grace
Persuade the queen to send the duke of York
Unto his princely brother presently?

If she deny,-lord Hastings, go with him,
And from her jealous arms pluck him perforce.
Card. My lord of Buckingham, if my weak
oratory

Can from his mother win the duke of York,
Anou expect him here: But if she be obdurate
To mild entreaties, God in heaven forbid
We should infringe the holy privilege

Of blessed sanctuary! not for all this land,
Would I be guilty of so deep a sin.

Prince. That Julius Cæsar was a famous

man:

With what his valour did enrich his wit,
His wit set down to make his valour live:
Death makes no conquest of his conqueror ;
For now he lives in fame, though not in life.-
I'll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham.
Buck. What, my gracious lord?
Prince. An if I live until I be a man,
I'll win our ancient right in France again,
Or die a soldier, as I liv'd a king.

Glo. Short summers lightly + have a forward spring. [Aside. Enter YORK, HASTINGS, and the CARDINAL.

Buck. Now, in good time, here comes the

duke of York.

Prince. Richard of York! how fares our loving brother?

York. Well, my dread lord; so must I call

you now.

Prince. Ay, brother; to our grief, as it is your's:

Too late t he died, that might have kept that title,

Which by his death hath lost much majesty.

Glo. How fares our cousin, noble lord of York?

York. I thank you, gentle uncle. O my lord,

You said that idle weeds are fast in growth:

Buck. You are too senseless-obstinate, my The prince my brother hath outgrown me far.

lord,

Too ceremonious, and traditional;

Weigh it but with the grossness of this age,
You break not sanctuary in seizing him.
The benefit thereof is always granted

To those whose dealings have deserv'd the place,
And those who have the wit to claim the place:
This prince hath neither claim'd it, nor deserv'd
it ;

And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it : Then, taking him from thence, that is not there,

You break no privilege nor charter there.
Oft have I heard of sanctuary men;
But sanctuary children, ne'er till now.

Card. My lord, you shall o'er-rule my mind for once.

Come on, lord Hastings, will you go with me? Hast. I go, my lord.

Prince. Good lords, make all the speedy haste you may.

[Exeunt CARDINAL and HASTINGS. Say, uncle Gloster, if our brother come, Where shall we sojourn till our coronation? Glo. Where it seems best unto your royal self.

If I may counsel you, some day, or two,
Your highness shall repose you at the Tower:
Then where you please, and shall be thought
most fit

For your best health and recreation.

Prince. I do not like the Tower, of any

place :

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Glo. He hath, my lord.

York. And therefore is he idle ?

Glo. O my fair cousin, I must not say so. York. Then is he more beholden to you,

than I.

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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,

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.

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.
+ Lately.

• Commonly. •

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