As ours by murder, to make him a king! Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine! Glo. Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd hag, Q. Mar. And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me. If heaven have any grievous plague in store, On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace! 8 elvish-mark'd,] The common people in Scotland (as I learn from Kelley's proverbs) have still an aversion to those who have any natural defect or redundancy, as thinking them mark'd out for mischief. Steevens. *An elf, in the language of superstition, is an invisible agent, which delights in injuring every thing endued with life. If a cow or a horse is seized with any sudden illness, it is supposed the animal is elf-shotten, the only remedy for which is to make the animal drink of water in which an elf-stone is placed: This stone is described to be about the size of a pullet's egg, of a flat oval form, and flies with the swiftness of an arrow to the destined Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity The slave of nature,1 and the son of hell! victim, but leaves no visible mark. The elf is also accused of taking on itself the office of acoucheur, and personates the midwife so perfectly that the messenger is deceived. The fraud however is discovered by some extraordinary deformity of the child, and the elf bears the blame. This superstition to which our author alludes, is still prevalent in Scotland, and the north of Ireland. Am. Ed. 9 rooting hog!] The expression is fine, alluding (in memory of her young son) to the ravage which hogs make, with the finest flowers, in gardens; and intimating that Elizabeth was to expect no other treatment for her sons. Warburton. She calls him hog, as an appellation more contemptuous than boar, as he is elsewhere termed from his ensigns armorial. Johnson. In The Mirror for Magistrates is the following Complaint of Collingbourne, who was cruelly executed for making a rime: "For where I meant the king by name of hog, "I only alluded to his badge the bore: "As cat and rat, the half-names of the rest,` "To hide the sense that they so wrongly wrest." That Lovel was once the common name of a dog may be likewise known from a passage in The Historie of Jacob and Esau, an interlude, 1568: "Then come on at once, take my quiver and my bowe; "Fette lovell my hounde, and my horne to blowe." -The rhyme for which Collingbourne suffered, was: "A cat, a rat, and Lovel the dog, Steevens. The rhyme of Collingbourne is thus preserved in Heywood's History of Edward IV, P. II: "The cat, the rat, and Lovell our dog, "Doe rule all England under a hog. "The crooke backt boore the way hath found "To root our roses from our ground. "Both flower and bud will be confound, "Till king of beasts the swine be crown'd: "And then the dog, the cat, and rat, The propriety of Dr. Warburton's note, notwithstanding what Dr. Johnson hath subjoined, is fully confirmed by this satire. Henley. The persons levelled at by this rhyme were the King, Catesby, Ratcliff, and Lovel, as appears in The Complaint of Collingbourn: "Catesbye was one whom I called a cat, ~ A craftie lawyer catching all he could; Thou slander of thy mother's heavy womb! Glo. I cry thee mercy then; for I did think, That thou had'st call'd me all these bitter names. Q. Mar. Why, so I did; but look'd for no reply. O, let me make the period to my curse. Glo. 'Tis done by me; and ends in-Margaret. Q. Eliz. Thus have you breath'd your curse against yourself. "The second Ratcliffe, whom I named a rat, "Wherewith to ryme I cald the king a hog." Malone. 1 The slave of nature,] The expression is strong and noble, and alludes to the ancient custom of masters branding their profligate slaves; by which it is insinuated that his misshapen person was the mark that nature had set upon him to stigmatize his ill conditions. Shakspeare expresses the same thought in The Comedy of Errors: "He is deformed, crooked, &c. وو But as the speaker rises in her resentment, she expresses this contemptuous thought much more openly, and condemns him to a still worse state of slavery: "Sin, death, and hell, have set their marks on him." Only, in the first line, her mention of his moral conditions insinuates her reflections on his deformity: and, in the last, her mention of his deformity insinuates her reflections on his moral condition: And thus he has taught her to scold in all the elegance of figure. Warburton. Part of Dr. Warburton's note is confirm'd by a line in our author's Rape of Lucrece, from which it appears he was acquainted with the practice of marking slaves: "Worse than a slavish wipe, or birth-hour's blot." Malone. 2 Thou rag of honour! &c.] This word of contempt is used again: in Timon: If thou wilt curse, thy father, that poor rag, "Must be the subject." Again, in his play: "These over-weening rags of France." Steevens ♪ Q. Mar. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of tune!3 my 4 for Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider, Q. Mar. Foul shame upon you! you have all mov'd mine. Riv. Were you well serv'd, you would be taught your duty. Q. Mar. To serve me well, you all should do me duty, Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects: O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty. Dor. Dispute not with her, she is lunatick. Q. Mar. Peace, master marquis, you are malapert: Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current:5 O, that your young nobility could judge, What 'twere to lose it, and be miserable! They that stand high, have many blasts to shake them; And, if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. Glo. Good counsel, marry ;-learn it, learn it, marquis. Dor. It touches you, my lord, as much as me. Glo. Ay, and much more: But I was born so high, Our aiery buildeth in the cedar's top, And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun. 3 flourish of my fortune!] This expression is likewise used by Massinger in The Great Duke of Florence: 4 I allow these "As flourishings of fortune." Steevens. bottled spider,] A spider is called bottled, because, like other insects, he has a middle slender, and a belly protuberant. Richard's form and venom, made her liken him to a spider. Johnson. A bottled spider, is a large, bloated, glossy spider; supposed to contain venom proportionate to its size. The expression occurs again in Act IV: "That bottled spider, that foul hunch-back'd toad." Ritson. 5 Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current;] Thomas Grey was created Marquis of Dorset, A. D. 1476. Percy. The present scene, as has been already observed, is in 1477.8. Malone. Q. Mar. And turns the sun to shade;-alas! alas!Witness my son, now in the shade of death;6 Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath Hath in eternal darkness folded up. Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's nest:7. Buck. Peace, peace, for shame, if not for charity. And shamefully by you my hopes are butcher'd. And in my shame still live my sorrow's rage! Q. Mar. O princely Buckingham, I kiss thy hand, Buck. Nor no one here; for curses never pass Look, when he fawns, he bites; and, when he bites, Sin, death, and hell, have set their marks on him; 6 Witness my son, &c.] Her distress cannot prevent her quibbling. It may be here remarked, that the introduction of Margaret in this place, is against all historical evidence. She was ransomed and sent to France soon after Tewksbury fight, and there passed the remainder of her wretched life. Ritson. Witness my son.] Thus the quarto of 1598, and the folio. The modern editors, after the quarto of 1612, read- -sun. Malone. 7 Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's nest:] An aiery is a hawk's or an eagle's nest. So, in Greene's Card of Fancy, 1608: "It is a subtle bird that breeds among the atery of hawks." Again, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: "His high-built aiery shall be drown'd in blood." 8 Sin, death, and hell,] Possibly Milton took from hence the hint of his famous allegory. Blackstone Milton might as probably catch the hint from the following passage in Latimer's Sermons, 1584, fol. 79: "Here came in death |