Anne. He is in heaven, where thou shalt never

come.

Glo. Let him thank me, that holp to send hím thither;

For he was fitter for that place, than earth.

Anne. And thou unfit for any place, but hell.

Glo. Yes, one place else, if you will hear me

name it.

Anne. Some dungeon.
Glo. Your bed-chamber.

Anne. Ill reft betide the chamber where thou lyest
Glo. So will it, madam, 'till I lie with you.
Anne. I hope fo.

Glo. I know fo. -But, gentle lady Anne,

To leave this keen encounter of our wits,
And fall fomewhat into a flower method;
Is not the caufer of the timeless deaths
Of these Plantagenets, Henry, and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

Anne. + Thou wast the cause, and most accurs'd

3

effect.

-a flower method;-) As quick was used for sprightly, fo flower was put for ferious. In the next scene lord Grey defires the queen to

-cheer his grace with quick and merry words.

STEEVENS.

4 Thou waft the cause, and most accurs'd effect;] Effect, for executioner. He asks, was not the caufer as ill as the executioner? She answers, Thou wast both. But, for causer, using the word cause, this led her to the word effect, for execution, or executioner. But the Oxford editor, troubling himself with nothing of this, will make a fine oratorical period of it:

Thou waft the cause. And most accurs'd th' effect!`

WARBURTON.

I cannot but be rather of fir T. Hanmer's opinion than Dr. Warburton's, because effect is used immediately in its common sense, in answer to this line. JOHNSON.

I believe the old reading is the true one. So, in the Yorkshire Tragedy, 1608:

Effect, quality, property; thou, thou." STEEVENS.

VOL. VII.

thou art the caufe,

Glo. Your beauty was the cause of that effect
Your beauty, which did haunt me in my fsleep,
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your sweet bofom.

Anne. If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide, These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks. Glo. These eyes could not endure that beauty's

wreck,

You should not blemish it, if I stood by :
As all the world is cheered by the fun,
So I by that; it is my day, my life.

Anne. Black night o'ershade thy day, and death

thy life!

Glo. Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both. Anne. I would I were, to be reveng'd on thee.. Glo. It is a quarrel most unnatural, To be reveng'd on him that loveth thee. Anne. It is a quarrel just and reasonable, To be reveng'd on him that kill'd my husband. Glo. He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,

Did it to help thee to a better husband.

Anne. His better doth not breathe upon the earth. Glo. He lives, that loves you better than he could. Anne. Name him.

Glo. Plantagenet.

Anne. Why, that was he.

Glo. The felf-fame name, but one of better nature. Anne. Where is he?

Glo. Here: [She Spits at him.] Why dost thou

spit at me? Anne. Would it were mortal poison, for thy fake! Glo. Never came poison from so sweet a place. Anne. Never hung poison on a fouler toad. Out of my fight! thou dost infect mine eyes. Glo. Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine. Anne. 'Would they were bafilifks, to strike the

Glo. I would they were, that I might die at once; For now they kill me with a living death 5. Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn falt tears, Sham'd their afpects with itore of childish drops: These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear,

6

Not, when my father York and Edward wept,
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made,
When black-fac'd Clifford shook his sword at him:
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the fad story of my father's death;
And twenty times made pause, to fob, and weep,
That all the standers by had wet their cheeks,
Like trees bedafh'd with rain: in that sad time,
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these forrow's could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never fu'd to friend, nor enemy;

My tongue could never learn sweet foothing word;
But now thy beauty is propos'd my fee,

My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to fpeak. [She looks scornfully at him.

Teach not thy lip such scorn; for it was made
For kisling, lady, not for fuch contempt.
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
Lo! here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword;
Which if thou please to hide in this true breaft,
And let the foul forth that adoreth thee,

5-they kill me with a living death.] In imitation of this passage, and, I suppose, of a thousand more, Pope writes:

- a living death I bear,

Says Dapperwit, and funk beside his chair." JOHNSON. The fame conceit occurs in The trimming of Tho. Nash, 1597: "How happy the rat, caught in a trap, and there dies a living

"death?" STEEVENS.

Again, in our author's Venus and Adonis :

" For I have heard it [love] is a life in death,
"That laughs, and weeps, and all but with a breath."

MALONE.

These eyes, which never &c.] The twelve following beauti

ful lines added after the first editions.

They were added with many more.

POPE.
JOHNSON.

C2

I lay

1

I lay it naked to the deadly stroke,

And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

[He lays his breast open, she offers at it with his fword.

Nay, do not paufe; for I did kill king Henry;

But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me.

Nay, now dispatch; 'twas I that stabb'd young Ed

But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on.

[She lets fall the fword.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

Anne. Arife, dissembler; though I wish thy death,

I will not be thy executioner.

Glo. Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.
Anne. I have already.

Glo. That was in thy rage:

Speak it again, and, even with the word,
This hand, which for thy love, did kill thy love,
Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.
Anne. I would, I knew thy heart.
Glo. 'Tis figur'd in my tongue.
Anne. I fear me, both are false.
Glo. Then never man was true.

Anne. Well, well, put up your fword.
Glo. Say then, my peace is made.
Anne. That shall you know hereafter.
Glo. But shall I live in hope?
Anne. All men, I hope, live so.
Glo. Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

Anne. To take is not to give.

[She puts on the ring.

Glo. Look, how this ring encompasseth thy finger,

Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart;
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.

And if thy poor devoted servant may

Shakspeare countenances the

7 But 'twas thy beauty observation, that no woman can ever be offended with the men. tion of her beauty. JOHNSON..

But

But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,
Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever.
Anne. What is it?

Glo. That it may please you leave these sad designs

To him that hath more cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby-place:
Where-after I have folemnly interr'd,
At Chertsey monast'ry this noble king,
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you:
For divers unknown reasons, I befeech you,
Grant me this boon.

t

Anne. With all my heart; and much it joys me too,
To see you are become so penitent.-
Treffel, and Berkley, go along with me.
Glo. Bid me farewel.

Anne. 'Tis more than you deserve :
But, fince you teach me how to flatter you

Imagine I have faid farewel already.

[Exeunt two, with lady Anne.

Glo. Take up the corse, firs.

Gen. Towards Chertsey, noble lord?

Glo. No, to White-Fryars; there attend my

coming. [Exeunt the rest, with the corfe.

Was ever woman in this humour woo'd?
Was ever woman in this humour won?
I'll have her, but I will not keep her long.
What! I, that kill'd her husband, and his father,

*Crosby-place:] A house near Bishopfgate-street, belong. ing to the duke of Gloster. JOHNSON.

Crosby-Place is now Crosby-square in Bishopsgate-street; part of the house is yet remaining, and is a meeting place for a prefbyterian congregation. Sir J. HAWKINS.

9 Imagine I have said farewel already.] Cibber, who altered Rich. III. for the stage, was so thoroughly convinced of the ridiculousness and improbability of this scene, that he thought himself obliged to make Treffel fay:

When future chronicles shall speak of this,
They will be thought romance, not history.

STEEVENS.