• You have no children, butchers ! if you had, • The thought of them would have stirred up remorse ; • But if you ever chance to have a child, Look in his youth to have him so cut off, As, deathsmen! you have rid' this sweet young

prince! K. Edw. Away with her ; go, bear her hence per

force. Q. Mar. Nay, never bear me hence ; despatch me

here; Here sheath thy sword; I'll pardon thee my death. What! wilt thou not ?—Then, Clarence, do it thou.

Clar. By Heaven, I will not do thee so much ease. Q. Mar. Good Clarence, do ; sweet Clarence, do

thou do it. Clar. Didst thou not hear me swear I would not

do it? Q. Mar. Ay, but thou usest to forswear thyself; 'Twas sin before, but now 'tis charity. • What! wilt thou not? Where is that devil's butcher, Hard-favored Richard ? Richard, where art thou ? Thou art not here. Murder is thy alms-deed; Petitioners for blood thou ne'er put'st back. K. Edw. Away, I say; I charge ye, bear her

hence. Q. Mar. So come to you, and yours, as to this prince !

[Exit

, led out forcibly. K. Edw. Where's Richard gone? · Clar. To London, all in post; and, as I

guess, To make a bloody supper in the Tower. K. Edw. He's sudden, if a thing comes in his

head. • Now march we hence; discharge the common sort • With pay and thanks, and let's away to London, • And see our gentle queen how well she fares; By this, I hope, she hath a son for me. [Exeunt.

I To rid is to cut off, to destroy.

SCENE VI. London.

London. A Room in the Tower.

*

King Henry is discovered sitting with a book in his

hand, the Lieutenant attending. Enter Gloster. Glo. Good day, my lord. What, at your book so

hard ? K. Hen. Ay, my good lord. My lord, I should say

rather; 'Tis sin to flatter; good was little better : Good Gloster, and good devil, were alike, * And both preposterous; therefore, not good lord. Glo. Sirrah, leave us to ourselves; we must confer.

[Exit Lieutenant. *K. Hen. So flies the reckless shepherd from the

wolf: * So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece, * And next his throat unto the butcher's knife.What scene of death hath Roscius now to act ?

Glo. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; The thief doth fear each bush an officer.

• K. Hen. The bird, that hath been limed in a bush, · With trembling wings misdoubteth' every bush; And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird, Have now the fatal object in my eye, Where my poor young was limed, was caught, and

killed. · Glo. Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete, · That taught his son the office of a fowl ? • And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drowned.

• K. Hen. I, Dædalus; my poor boy, Icarus ; Thy father, Minos, that denied our course; • The sun, that seared the wings of my sweet boy,

Thy brother Edward ; and thyself, the sea, · Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life. * Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words ! My breast can better brook thy dagger's point,

Than can my ears that tragic history.-
* But wherefore dost thou come? is't for my life?

• Glo. Think'st thou I am an executioner? K. Hen. A persecutor, I am sure, thou art; • If murdering innocents be executing, Why, then thou art an executioner. Glo. Thy son I killed for his presumption. K. Hen. Hadst thou been killed, when first thou

6

didst presume,

Thou hadst not lived to kill a son of mine. • And thus I prophesy,—that many a thousand, • Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear; • And many an old man's sigh, and many a widow's, • And many an orphan's water-standing eye,· Men for their sons, wives for their husbands' fate, • And orphans for their parents' timeless death,• Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born. The owl shrieked at thy birth, an evil sign ; • The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time; Dogs howled, and hideous tempests shook down trees; The raven rooked? her on the chimney's top, And chattering pies in dismal discords sung. Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain, And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope ; • To wit,-an indigest, deformed lump, Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree. Teeth hadst thou in thy head, when thou wast born, To signify,—thou cam'st to bite the world; And, if the rest be true which I have heard, Thou cam'stGlo. I'll hear no more :-Die, prophet, in thy speech.

[Stabs him. For this, amongst the rest, was I ordained. K. Hen. Ay, and for much more slaughter after

this. O God! forgive my sins, and pardon thee! [Dies.

Glo. What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster Sink in the ground ? I thought it would have mounted. See, how my sword weeps for the poor king's death! • O, may such purple tears be always shed · From those that wish the downfall of our house! • If any spark of life be yet remaining, Down, down to hell: and say—I sent thee thither.

[Stabs him again. I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear.– Indeed, 'tis true, that Henry told me of; For I have often heard my mother say, I came into the world with my legs forward : Had I not reason, think ye, to make haste, • And seek their ruin that usurped our right? The midwife wondered ; and the women cried, O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth ; · And so I was ; which plainly signified That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog. • Then, since the Heavens have shaped my body so, Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it. I have no brother, I am like no brother: • And this word, love, which greybeards call divine, Be resident in men like one another, And not in me; I am myself alone.Clarence, beware; thou keep'st me from the light; But I will sort' a pitchy day for thee: For I will buzz abroad such prophecies, · That Edward shall be fearful of his life ; And then, to purge his fear, I'll be thy death. • King Henry, and the prince his son, are gone : • Clarence, thy turn is next, and then the rest ; Counting myself but bad, till I be best.• I'll throw thy body in another room, And triumph, Henry, in thy day of doom. [Exit.

SCENE VII. The same.

A Room in the Palace.

royal

King EDWARD is discovered sitting on his throne ,

QUEEN ELIZABETH with the infant Prince, CLARENCE,
GLOSTER, Hastings, and others, near him.
K. Edw. Once more we sit in England's

throne,
Repurchased with the blood of enemies.
What valiant foemen, like to autumn's corn,
Have we mowed down, in tops of all their pride!
Three dukes of Somerset, threefold renowned
For hardy and undoubted champions :
Two Cliffords, as the father and the son,
And two Northumberlands; two braver men
Ne’er spurred their coursers at the trumpet's sound:
• With them, the two brave bears, Warwick and Mon-

tague,
That in their chains fettered the kingly lion,
And made the forest tremble when they roared.
Thus have we swept suspicion from our seat,
And made our footstool of security.-
Come hither, Bess, and let me kiss my boy.-
Young Ned, for thee, thine uncles, and myself,
Have in our armors watched the winter's night;
• Went all afoot in summer's scalding heat,
That thou might'st repossess the crown in peace;
And of our labors thou shalt reap the gain.

Glo. I'll blast his harvest, if your head were laid ;
For yet I am not looked on in the world.
This shoulder was ordained so thick, to heave;
And heave it shall some weight, or break my back.-
Work thou the way,—and thou shalt execute.

[Aside. K. Edw. Clarence, and Gloster, love my lovely

queen; And kiss your princely nephew, brothers both.