By drunken prophefies, libels, and dreams,
To fet my brother Clarence, and the king,
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And, if king 3 Edward be as true and just,
As I am fubtle, false, and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up;
About a prophefy, which says-that G
Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.

Dive, thoughts, down to my foul! here Clarence

comes.

Enter Clarence guarded, and Brakenbury. Brother, good day: What means this armed guard, That waits upon your grace?

Clar. His majesty,

Tendering my person's fafety, hath appointed
This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
Glo. Upon what cause?

Cla. Because my name is-George.

Glo. Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours;

He should, for that, commit your godfathers:
O, belike, his majesty hath some intent,
That you should be new christen'd in the Tower.
But what's the matter, Clarence? may I know?

Clar. Yea, Richard, when I know; for, I protest,
As yet I do not: But, as I can learn,
He hearkens after prophefies, and dreams;
And from the cross-row plucks the letter G,
And says a wizard told him, that by G
His issue disinherited should be;

And, for my name of George begins with G+,
It follows in his thought, that I am he:

3-Edward be as true and just,] i. e, if Edward keeps his word. JOHNSON.

4 And, for my name of George begins with G, &c.] So, in Nicols's Tragical Life and Death of Richard III: "By that blind riddle of the letter G, "George loft his life; it took effect in me." STEEVENS.

These, as I learn, and such like toys as these 5,
Have mov'd his highness to commit me now.

Glo. Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by

women:

ر

'Tis not the king, that fends you to the Tower;
My lady Grey his wife, Clarence, 'tis she,
That tempts him to this harsh extremity.
Was it not she, and that good man of worship,
Anthony Woodeville, her brother there,
That made him send lord Hastings to the Tower;
From whence this present day he is deliver'd?
We are not safe, Clarence, we are not safe.

Clar. By heaven, I think, there is no man secure,
But the queen's kindred, and night-walking heralds
That trudge betwixt the king and mistress Shore,
Heard you not, what an humble suppliant
Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?

Glo. Humbly complaining to her deity
Got my lord chamberlain his liberty.
I'll tell you what, I think, it is our way,
If we will keep in favour with the king,
To be her men, and wear her livery :

The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,
Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen,
Are mighty gossips in this monarchy.

Brak. I beseech your graces both to pardon me; His majesty hath straitly given in charge, That no man shall have private conference, Of what degree foever, with his brother.

Glo. Even fo? an please your worship, Brakenbury, You may partake of any thing we say:

5-toys] Fancies, freaks of imagination. JOHNSON. So Hamlet, A. 1. S. 4.

"The very place puts toys of defperation
"Without more motive." EDITOR.

* Humbly complaining &c.] I think these two lines might be better given to Clarence. JOHNSON.

The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,] That is, the queen

and Shore. JOHNSON.

We

We speak no treason, man;-We say, the king
Is wife, and virtuous; and his noble queen
Well ftruck in years; fair, and not jealous :-
We say, that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a paffing pleasing tongue;
That the queen's kindred are made gentle-folks;
How fay you, fir? can you deny all this?

Brak. With this, my lord, myself have nought

to do.

Glo. Naught to do with mistress Shore? I tell

/

He that doth naught with her, excepting one,

thee, fellow,

Were best to do it secretly, alone.

Brak. What one, my lord?

Glo. Her husband, knave:--Would'st thou betray

me?

Brak. I beseech your grace to pardon me; and,

withal,

Forbear your conference with the noble duke.

Clar. We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will

obey.

Glo. We are the queen's abjects, and must obey. Brother, farewel: I will unto the king; And whatsoe'er you will employ me in,

8 Well struck in years;] This odd expression in our language was preceded by one as uncouth though of a fimilar kind.

"Well shot in years he seem'd &c.] Spenser's F. Queen, B. V. c, vi: The meaning of neither is very obvious; but as Mr. Warton has observed in his Essay on the Faery Queen, by an imperceptible progression from one kindred sense to another, words at length obtain a meaning entirely foreign to their original etymology. STEEVENS.

the queen's abjects) That is, not the queen's fubjects, whom she might protect, but her abjects, whom she drives away. JOHNSON. So in Cafe is altered. How? Ask Dalio and Millo, 1604.

"This ougly object, or rather abject of nature."

HENDERSON.

Were

Were it, to call king Edward's widow-sister',
I will perform it, to enfranchise you.
Mean time, this deep disgrace in brotherhood,
Touches me deeper than you can imagine.

Cla. I know, it pleaseth neither of us well.
Glo. Well, your imprisonment shall not be long;

I will deliver you, or else lye for you:
Mean time, have patience.

Clar. I must perforce; farewel.

[Exeunt Clarence and Brakenbury.

Glo. Go, tread the path that thou shalt ne'er return, Simple, plain Clarence!-I do love thee so, That I will shortly send thy foul to heaven, If heaven will take the present at our hands. But who comes here? the new-deliver'd Hastings?

Enter Hastings.

Haft. Good time of day unto my gracious lord. Glo. As much unto my good lord chamberlain! Well are you welcome to this open air. How hath your lordship brook'd imprisonment? Haft. With patience, noble lord, as prisoners must: But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks, That were the cause of my imprisonment.

Glo. No doubt, no doubt; and so shall Clarence

too;

* Were it to call king Edward's widow-fister] This is a very covert and fubtle manner of infinuating treason. The natural. expreffion would have been, were it to call king Edward's wife, fifter. I will folicit for you, though it should be at the expence of so much degradation and constraint, as to own the low-born wife of King Edward for a sister. But by flipping, as it were cafually, widow, into the place of wife, he tempts Clarence with an oblique proposal to kill the king. JOHNSON.

King Edward's widow is, I believe, only an expreffion of contempt, meaning the widow Grey, whom Edward had chosen for his queen. Glofter has already called her, the jealous o'erworn widow. STEEVENS.

2 I must perforce.) Alluding to the proverb, "Patience perforce is a medicine for a mad dog." STEEVENS.

For

For they, that were your enemies, are his,

And have prevail'd as much on him, as you.

Haft. More pity, that the eagle should be mew'd3,

While kites and buzzards prey at liberty..

Glo. What news abroad?

Haft. No news so bad abroad, as this at home;

The king is fickly, weak, and melancholy,
And his physicians fear him mightily.

Glo. Now, by faint Paul 4, that news is bad indeed,

O, he hath kept an evil diet long,
And over-much confum'd his royal person;
'Tis very grievous to be thought upon.

What, is he in his bed?

Haft. He is.

Glo. Go you before, and I will follow you.

[Exit Hastings.

He cannot live, I hope; and must not die,
'Till George be pack'd with post-horse up to heaven,
I'll in, to urge his hatred more to Clarence,
With lies well steel'd with weighty arguments;
And, if I fail not in my deep intent,
Clarence hath not another day to live:
Which done, God take king Edward to his mercy,
And leave the world for me to bustle in!

For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter:
What though I kill'd her husband, and her father?
The readiest way to make the wench amends,
Is-to become her husband, and her father:
The which will I; not all so much for love,
As for another secret close intent,
By marrying her, which I must reach unto.
But yet I run before my horse to market:

3-should be mew'd,] A mew was the place of confinement where a hawk was kept till he had moulted. So, in Albumazar: "Stand forth, transform'd Antonio, fully mew'd " From brown foar feathers of dull yeomanry, "To the glorious bloom of gentry." STEEVENS.

Now, by faint Paul,) The folio reads:

Now, by Saint John,.

STEEVENS.

Clarence