CLAR. Untutor'd lad, thou art too malapert. PRINCE. I know my duty, you are all undutiful : Lascivious Edward, and thou perjur'd George,And thou misshapen Dick, -I tell ye all, I am your better, traitors as ye are ;* And thou usurp'st my father's right and mine.

K. EDW. Take that, the likeness of this railer [Stabs him.

here. 5

The former is best. So, in Sir A. Gorges' translation of Luçan, 1614:

" In hope that thy victorious arme

" Their dunghill crowing so will charme." STEEVENS. This is the right reading. So, in Cynthia's Revels, Mercury says to Cupid:

"How now, my dancing braggart! charm your tongue."

And, in The Taming of the Shrew, Lucentio says:

"But I will charm him first to keep his tongue."

M. MASON.

The expression which our author substituted, is one that he has often used. See Vol. XIII. p. 314, n. 1. The meaning is, I will compel you to be as silent, as you would be, if you were charm'd, if you were deprived of speech by the power of inchantment. MALONE.

5

the likeness of this railer here. &c.] Thou that resemblest thy railing mother. JOHNSON.

That is, thou who art the likeness, &c. Mr. Rowe and the other modern editors read thou likeness, and so we should now write; but the other was the phraseology of Shakspeare's time. So, in Julius Cæsar :

"The last of all the Romans, fare thee well."

In that passage, as in the present, Mr. Rowe substituted thou for the, though Shakspeare has employed the very words he found in North's translation of Plutarch. MALONE.

The old copies describe Edward as striking the first blow, and Gloster the next; and, I believe, rightly, for history informs us that Edward smote the Prince with his gauntlet, on which the rest despatch'd him. The words sprawl'st thou? seem evidently to belong to Richard; and I have therefore continued them to him on the authority of ancient editions, in preference to the allotment of modern innovation. See edit. 1765, Vol. V. p. 217. STEEVENS.

* GLO. Sprawl'st thou? take that, to end thy

agony.

[GLO. stabs him.

* CLAR. And there's for twitting me with per

jury.

[CLAR. stabs him.

Q. MAR. O, kill me too!

GLO. Marry, and shall.

[Offers to kill her.

K. EDW. Hold, Richard, hold, for we have done

too much.

GLO. Why should she live, to fill the world with

words? 6

* K. EDW. What! doth she swoon? use means

for her recovery.

GLO. Clarence, excuse me to the king my brother; 'I'll hence to London on a serious matter: 'Ere ye come there, be sure to hear some news. CLAR. What? what?

'GLO. The Tower, the Tower !7

[Exit.

Q. MAR. O, Ned, sweet Ned! speak to thy

mother, boy!

'Canst thou not speak!----O traitors! murderers!They, that stabb'd Cæsar, shed no blood at all, Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame, * If this foul deed were by, to equal it.

He was a man; this, in respect, a child; And men ne'er spend their fury on a child. 'What's worse than murderer, that I may name it?

6

-

with words?] i. e. dispute, contention. So, in a for

mer of these plays :
"Some words there grew 'twixt Somerset and me."

STEEVENS.

The Tower, the Tower!] The quarto adds-I'll root them out; but, perhaps, injudiciously: and yet, without these words the metre is imperfect. STEEVENS.

* No, no; my heart will burst, an if I speak :* And I will speak, that so my heart may burst.* Butchers and villains, bloody cannibals! * How sweet a plant have you untimely cropp'd! 'You have no children, butchers! if you had, 'The thought of them would have stirr'd up re

morse:

'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

8

prince!9

You have no children, butchers!] The same sentiment is repeated by Macduff, in the tragedy of Macbeth; and this passage may serve as a comment on that. BLACKSTONE.

The original play reads:

"You have no children, devils; if you had,

"The thought of them would then have stopt your rage." This thought occurring also (as Sir William Blackstone has observed,) in Macbeth, [See Vol. X. p. 249, n. 7.] may perhaps be urged as a proof of Shakspeare's being the author of the first draught, as well as of the alterations and additions to it. But how many thoughts and even expressions has he borrowed from preceding writers? Having (as I suppose) greatly enlarged, and almost new-written, this and the preceding play, the thoughts they contain, whether found in the first copy, or his amplification of it, were as likely to recur in a future piece, as any of those which he has employed in one originally written by himself. In his original plays he frequently borrowed from himself. MALONE.

9

you have rid this sweet young prince!] The condition of this warlike Queen would move compassion, could it be forgotten that she gave York, to wipe his eyes in his captivity, a handkerchief stained with his young child's blood. JOHNSON.

But surely it does move our compassion, though that be not forgotten. When we see any of our fellow-creatures involved in deep distress, from a just and tender cause, we attend only to their present sufferings, and not to their former crimes.

M. MASON.

K. EDW. Away with her; go, bear her hence

perforce.

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.1

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-favour'd Richard ? Richard, where art thou? Thou art not here: Murder is thy alms-deed; Petitioners for blood thou ne'er put'st back.

1 do thou do it.] The old play reads kill me too.

MALONE.

* 'Twas sin before,] She alludes to the desertion of Clarence. JOHNSON.

where is that devil's butcher,

Hard-favour'd Richard?] Thus all the editions. But devil's butcher, in other terms, I think, is kill-devil: rare news for the free-thinkers, if there were any grounds for depending on it. But the poet certainly wrote devil-butcher; and the first part of the compound is to be taken adjectively, meaning execrable, infernal, devilish. THEOBALD.

Devil's butcher, is a butcher set on by the devil. Either reading may serve without so long a note. JOHNSON.

The folio adds, at the end of this line, the word-Richard. But both the metre and the old play show that it was an accidental repetition by the transcriber, or compositor. MALONE.

K. EDW. Away, I say; I charge ye, bear her

hence.

Q. MAR. So come to you, and yours, as to this [Exit, led out forcibly.

prince!

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.

SCENE VI.

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

[Exit Lieutenant.