Queen. By Him, that rais'd me to this careful height Against the duke of Clarence, but have been Glo. You may deny that you were not the cause Of my lord Haftings' late imprisonment. Riv. She may, my lord; for Glo. he may, lord Rivers?-why, who knows not fo? She may do more, fir, than denying that: Glo. What, marry, may fhe? marry with a king, A batchelor, a handsome stripling too: I wis, your grandam had a worfer match. Queen. My lord of Glofter, I have too long borne Your blunt upbraidings, and your bitter fcoffs: By heaven, I will acquaint his majefty, Of thofe grofs taunts I often have endur'd. I had rather be a country fervant-maid, Than a great queen, with this condition-. To be fo baited, fcorn'd, and stormed at: Small joy have I in being England's queen. Enter Queen Margaret, behind. 2.Mar. And leffen'd be that small, God, I beseech thee! Thy honour, ftate, and feat, is due to me. Glo. What! threat you me with telling of the king? Tell him, and fpare not; look, what I have faid Tell him, and Spare not; look, what I have faid] This verfe Į have restored from the old quarto's. THEOBALD. I will avouch in prefence of the king: I dare adventure to be fent to the Tower. 'Tis time to speak, ' my pains are quite forgot. 2. Mar. "Out, devil! I remember them too well: Thou kill'dft my husband Henry in the Tower, And Edward, my poor fon, at Tewksbury. Glo. Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king, I was a pack-horfe in his great affairs; To royalize his blood, I spilt mine own. 2. Mar. Ay, and much better blood than his, or thine. Glo. In all, which time, you, and your husband Grey, Were factious for the house of Lancaster ; And, Rivers, fo were you :- Was not your husband What you have been ere now, and what you are; 2. Mar. A murd'rous villain, and so still thou art. Glo. Poor Clarence did forfake his father Warwick, Ay, and forfwore himself,-Which Jefu pardon! 1 3 my pains] My labours; my toils. JOHNSON. * Out, devil! —-] Mr. Lambe obferves in his notes on the ancient metrical hiftory of the Battle of Floddon Field, that out is an interjection of abhorrence or contempt, most frequent in the mouths of the common people of the north. It occurs again in act IV: out on ye, owls!" STEEVENS. 3 —royalize,] i. e. to make royal. So, in Claudius Tiberius Nero, 1607: "Who means to-morrow for to royalize "The triumphs &c." STEEVENS. -Was not your busband, In Margaret's battle, -] It is faid in Henry VI. that he died in quarrel of the house of York. JOHNSON. 2. Mar. 2. Mar. Which God revenge! Glo. To fight on Edward's party, for the crown} And, for his meed, poor lord, he is mew'd up: I would to God, my heart were flint, like Edward's, Or Edward's foft and pitiful, like mine; I am too childish-foolish for this world. 2. Mar. Hie thee to hell for fhame, and leave this world, Thou cacodæmon! there thy kingdom is. Glo. If I fhould be?—I had rather be a pedlar: Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof! Queen. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose You should enjoy, were you this country's king; As little joy you may fuppofe in me, That I enjoy, being the queen thereof. 2. Mar. A little joy enjoys the queen thereof; For I am fhe, and altogether joyless. I can no longer hold me patient.- [She advances, 5 We follow'd then our lord, our fovereign king;] The quarto of 1613 reads:our lawful king-which is, perhaps, better, as it juftifies the attachment of his followers. MALONE. Hear me, you wrangling pirates, &c.] This fcene of Margaret's imprecations is fine and artful. She prepares the audience, like another Caffandra, for the following tragic revolutions. WARBURTON. 7 which you have pill'd from me:] To pill is to pillage. So, in the Martyr'd Soldier, by Shirley, 1638: "He has not pill'd the rich, nor flay'd the poor." STEEVENS. To pill, is literally, to take off the outfide or rind. Thus they fay in Devonshire, to pill an apple, rather than pare it ; and Shirley uses the word precisely in this fenfe, HENLEY. Yet Yet that, by you depos'd, you quake like rebels?— Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away! Glo. Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'ft thou in my fight?? 2. Mar. But repetition of what thou haft marr'd; That will I make, before I let thee go. Clo. Wert thou not banished, on pain of death? 9. Mar. I was, but I do find more pain in banishment, Than death can yield me here by my abode. Glo. The curfe my noble father laid on thee,- Haft. O, 'twas the fouleft deed, to flay that babe, And the most mercilefs, that e'er was heard of. Riv. Tyrants themfelves wept when it was reported. Ah, gentle villain, ] We fhould read: The meaning of gentle is not, as the commentator imagines, tender or courteous, but high-born. An oppofition is meant between that and villain, which means at once a wicked and a lowborn wretch. So before: Since ev'ry Jack is made a gentleman, There's many a gentle perfon made a Jack. JOHNSON. what mak'ft thou in my fight? An obfolete expreffion for what doit thou in my fight. So, in Othello: "Ancient, what makes he here?” Margaret in her anfwer takes the word in its ordinary accepta tion. MALONE. Dorf. Dorf. No man but prophefy'd revenge for it. Buck. Northumberland, then prefent, wept to fee it'.. 2. Mar. What! were you fnarling all, before I came, Ready to catch each other by the throat, Though not by war, by furfeit die your king, Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine! Northumberland, then prefent, wept to fee it.] Alluding to a fcene in K. Hen. VI. p. 3. thus: What weeping ripe, my lord Northumberland? STEEVENS. And turn you all your batred now on me?] I would point And turn you all, your hatred now on me? to fhew that all is not to be joined in construction with hatred. That the poet did not intend that it fhould be connected with batred, appears, I think, from the foregoing line: What! were you fnarling all &c. The quarto reads, perhaps better: And turn you now your hatred, all on me? MALONE. Could, &c.] The folio reads: Should all which is, perhaps, better. MALONE. 4 by furfeit die your king!] Alluding to his luxurious life. JOHNSON. Long |