To take her in her heart's extremest hate;
With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,
The bleeding witness of her hatred by;
With God, her confcience, and these bars against me,
And I no friends to back my fuit withal,
But the plain devil, and dissembling looks,
And yet to win her, -all the world to nothing!
Ha!

Hath she forgot already that brave prince,
Edward, her lord, whom I, some three months since,
Stabb'd in my angry mood at Tewksbury?
A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman, -
*Fram'd in the prodigality of nature,

Young, valiant, wife, and, no doubt, right

royal,

The spacious world cannot again afford:

And will the yet abase her eyes on me,

That cropp'd the golden prime of this sweet prince,
And made her widow to a woeful bed?
On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety?
On me, that halt, and am mishapen thus?

Fram'd in the prodigality of nature,] i. e, when nature was in a prodigal or lavish mood. WARBURTON. *and, no doubt, right royal,-] Of the degree of royalty belonging to Henry the fixth there could be no doubt, nor could Richard have mentioned it with any such hesitation; he could not indeed very properly allow him royalty. I believe we should read:

and, no doubt, right loyal.

That is, true to her bed. He enumerates the reasons for which the should love him. He was young, wife, and valiant; these were apparent and indisputable excellencies. He then mentions another not less likely to endear him to his wife, but which he had less opportunity of knowing with certainty, and, no doubt right loyal. JOHNSON.

Richard is not speaking of king Henry, but of Edward his son, whom he means to represent as full of all the noble properties of a king. No doubt, right royal, may, however, be ironically spoken, alluding to the incontinence of Margaret, his mother.

STEEVENS.

My

My dukedom to a beggarly denier 3,
I do mistake my person all this while:
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper man.
I'll be at charges for a looking-glass;
And entertain a score or two of taylors,
To study fashions to adorn my body :
Since I am crept in favour with myself,
I will maintain it with some little coft.
But, first, I'll turn yon' fellow in his grave;
And then return lamenting to my love.
Shine out, fair fun, 'till I have bought a glass,
That I may fee my shadow as I pass.

SCENE III.

The palace.

T

[Exit.

Enter the Queen, Lord Rivers her brother, and Lord Grey ber fon.

Riv. Have patience, madam; there's no doubt, his majesty

Will foon recover his accustom'd health.

Grey, In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse: Therefore, for God's fake, entertain good comfort, And chear his grace with quick and merry words. Queen, If he were dead, what would betide of me? Grey. No other harm, but loss of fuch a lord. Queen. The lofs of fuch a lord includes all harms.

3

-a beggarly denier,) A denier is the twelfth part of a French fous, and appears to have been the usual request of a beggar. So, in the Cunning Northerne Beggar, b. 1. an ancient ballad:

" For still will I cry, good your Worship, good Sir, ** Bestow one poor denier, Sir." STEEVENS.

レ

Grey. The heavens have bless'd you with a goodly

fon,

To be your comforter, when he is gone.

Queen. Ah, he is young; and his minority

Is put into the trust of Richard Glofter,
A man that loves not me, nor none of you.
Riv. Is it concluded, he shall be protector?
Queen. It is determin'd, not concluded yet:
But fo it must be, if the king mifcarry.

Enter Buckingham, and Stanley.

Grey. Here come the lords of Buckingham and

Stanley 5.

Buck. Good time of day unto your royal grace! Stanley. God make your majesty joyful as you have

been!

Queen. The countess Richmond, good my lord of

Stanley,

To your good prayer will scarcely say-amen.
Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she's your wife,
And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd,
I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

Stanley. I do beseech you, either not believe
The envious flanders of her false accufers;

It is determin'd, not concluded yet :) Determin'd fignifies the final conclufion of the will: concluded, what cannot be altered by reason of fome act, consequent on the final judgment. WARBURTON.

5 Here come the lords of Buckingham and Derby.] This is a blunder of inadvertence, which has run through the whole chain of impreffions. It could not well be original in Shakspeare, who was most minutely intimate with his history, and the intermarriages of the nobility. The perfon here called Derby, was Thomas lord Stanley, lord steward of king Edward the fourth's houshold. But this Thomas lord Stanley was not created earl of Derby till after the accession of Henry the seventh; and accordingly, afterwards, in the fourth and fifth acts of this play, before the battle of Bofworth-field, he is every where called lord Stanley. This fufficiently justifies the change I have made in his title. THEOBALD.

Or

Or, if she be accus'd on true report,
Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds
From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.
Queen. Saw you the king to-day, my lord of

Stanley ?

Stanley. But now the duke of Buckingham, and I, Are come from visiting his majesty.

Queen. What likelihood of his amendment, lords? Buck. Madam, good hope; his grace fpeaks chear

fully.

Queen. God grant him health! Did you confer with him?

Buck. Ay, madam: he defires to make atonement Between the duke of Gloster and your brothers, And between them and my lord chamberlain; And sent to warn them to his royal prefence. Queen. 'Would all were well! -But that will never be;

I fear, our happiness is at the height.

Enter Glofter, Hastings, and Dorfet.

Glo. They do me wrong, and I will not endure it:

Who are they, that complain unto the king,
That I, forfooth, am stern, and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly,
That fill his ears with fuch diffentious rumours.
Because I cannot flatter, and speak fair,
Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,
Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,

* Ay, madam: be defires to make atonement] Thus all the old editions that I have feen; but Mr. Pope altered it thus:

"Madam, we did; he seeks to make atonement;" and has been followed by succeeding editors. STEEVENS. The 4to. of 1613, reads:

"Madam we did." - MALONE. 7-to warn them] i. e. to fummon. So, in Julius Cæfar: They mean to warn us at Philippi here." STEEVENS.

I must be held a rancorous enemy.
Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm,
But thus his fimple truth must be abus'd
By filken, fly, infinuating Jacks?

Grey. To whom in all this prefence speaks your

grace?

Glo. To thee, that haft nor honesty, nor grace. When have I injur'd thee? when done thee wrong?Or thee?-or thee?-or any of your faction? A plague upon you all! His royal grace, Whom God preserve better than you would wish!Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing while, But you must trouble him with lewd complaints.

Queen. Brother of Glofter, you mistake the matter: The king-of his own royal disposition, And not provok'd by any fuitor elfe; Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred, That in your outward action shews itself, Against my children, brothers, and myself; Makes him to send; that thereby he may gather The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it.

Glo. I cannot tell; -The world is grown so bad, That wrens may prey where eagles dare not perch: Since every Jack became a gentleman, There's many a gentle person made a Jack.

Queen. Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Glofter;

You envy my advancement, and my friends:
God grant, we never may have need of you!

Glo. Meantime, God grants that we have need of

you:

Our brother is imprison'd by your means,

Myself disgrac'd, and the nobility

Held in contempt; while great promotions
Are daily given, to enoble those

That scarce, fome two days since, were worth a noble.