Enter GLOSTER and Servants, in mourning cloaks.

Glo. Thus sometimes hath the brightest day a cloud; And after Summer evermore succeeds

Bare Winter, with his wrathful-nipping cold :

So cares and joys abound, as seasons fleet.
Sirs, what's o'clock?

Serv. Ten, my lord.

Glo. Ten is the hour that was appointed me To watch the coming of my punish'd duchess: Uneath may she endure the flinty-streets,

1

To tread them with her tender-feeling feet.
Sweet Nell, ill can thy noble mind abrook
The abject people gazing on thy face

With envious 2 looks, and laughing at thy shame,

That erst did follow thy proud chariot-wheels

When thou didst ride in triumph through the streets.
But, soft! I think she comes; and I'll prepare
My tear-stain'd eyes to see her miseries.

Enter the Duchess of GLOSTER in a white sheet, with papers pinned upon her back, her feet bare, and a taper burning' in her hand; Sir JOHN STANLEY, a Sheriff, and Officers.

Serv. So please your Grace, we'll take her from the sheriff. Glo. No, stir not, for your lives; let her pass by. Duch. Come you, my lord, to see my open shame? Now thou dost penance too. Look how they gaze! See how the giddy multitude do point,

And nod their heads, and throw their eyes on thee!

1 Uneath is hardly, or not easily; eath being an old form of ease.

2 Here, as usual in Shakespeare, envious means malicious. — Erst, next line, is formerly or once.

Ah, Gloster, hide thee from their hateful looks,
And, in thy closet pent up, rue my shame,
And ban

thine enemies, both mine and thine!
Glo. Be patient, gentle Nell; forget this grief.
Duch. Ah, Gloster, teach me to forget myself!
For, whilst I think I am thy married wife,
And thou a prince, Protector of this land,
Methinks I should not thus be led along,
Mail'd up in shame, with papers on my back,
And follow'd with a rabble, that rejoice

To see my tears and hear my deep-fet 5 groans.
The ruthless flint doth cut my tender feet;
And, when I start, the envious people laugh,
And bid me be advised how I tread.
Ah, Humphrey, can I bear this shameful yoke?
Trow'st thou that e'er I'll look upon the world,
Or count them happy that enjoy the Sun?
No; dark shall be my light, and night my day;
To think upon my pomp shall be my hell.
Sometime I'll say, I am Duke Humphrey's wife;
And he a prince, and ruler of the land:
Yet so he ruled, and such a prince he was,
As he stood by, whilst I, his forlorn duchess,
Was made a wonder and a pointing-stock

8 To ban is to curse, or execrate. -“ Hateful looks," second line before, is looks full of hatred; malignant.

4 That is, wrapped or bundled up in disgrace, referring, of course, to the sheet of penance. So Randle Holme: " Mail a hawk is to wrap her up in a handkerchief or other cloath, that she may not be able to stir her wings or struggle." And in Drayton's Epistle of Eleanor Cobham to Duke Humphrey:

Should after see me mayld up in a sheet,
Doe shameful penance three times in the street.

5 Fet is an old form of fetched. The Poet has it repeatedly.
6 Advised is wary, careful, circumspect. See page 169, note 4.

But be thou mild, and blush not at my shame;

Nor stir at nothing, till the axe of death.
Hang over thee, as, sure, it shortly will;
For Suffolk, - he that can do all in all
With her that hateth thee and hates us all,

And York, and impious Beaufort, that false priest,
Have all limed bushes to betray thy wings,
And, fly thou how thou canst, they'll tangle thee:
But fear not thou, until thy foot be snared,

Nor never seek prevention of thy foes.

Glo. Ah, Nell, forbear! thou aimest all awry ;

I must offend before I be attainted:

And had I twenty times so many foes,

And each of them had twenty times their power,
All these could not procure me any scathe,7
So long as I am loyal, true, and crimeless.
Wouldst have me rescue thee from this reproach?
Why, yet thy scandal were not wiped away,
But I in danger for the breach of law.
Thy greatest help is quiet, gentle Nell:

8

I pray thee, sort thy heart to patience;
These few days' wonder will be quickly worn.

Enter a Herald.

Her. I summon your Grace to his Majesty's Parliament,

holden at Bury the first of this next month.

Glo. And my consent ne'er ask'd herein before !

This is close dealing. Well, I will be there. —

7 Scathe is hurt or damage. We still use scathless.

[Exit Herald.

8 That is, frame, adapt, or attemper thy heart to patience. So in Lucrece:

Her mistress she doth give demure good-morrow,

And sorts a sad look to her lady's sorrow,

For why her face wore sorrow's livery.

Sher. An't please your Grace, here my commission stays; And Sir John Stanley is appointed now

To take her with him to the Isle of Man.

Glo. Must you, Sir John, protect my lady there?

Stan. So am I given in charge, may't please your Grace.

Glo. Entreat her not the worse, in that I pray

You use her well: the world may laugh again; 9

And I may live to do you kindness, if

You do it her and so, Sir John, farewell!

Duch. What, gone, my lord, and bid me not farewell!

Glo. Witness my tears, I cannot stay to speak.

[Exeunt GLOSTER and Servants. Duch. Art thou gone too? all comfort go with thee! For none abides with me: my joy is death, Death, at whose name I oft have been afeard, Because I wish'd this world's eternity. — Stanley, I pr'ythee, go, and take me hence; I care not whither, for I beg no favour,

Only convey me where thou art commanded.

Stan. Why, madam, that is to the Isle of Man ;

There to be used according to your state.

Duch. That's bad enough, for I am but reproach;

And shall I then be used reproachfully?

Stan. Like to a duchess, and Duke Humphrey's lady; According to that state you shall be used.

Duch. Sheriff, farewell, and better than I fare, Although thou hast been conduct 10 of my shame.

Sher. It is my office; and, madam, pardon me. Duch. Ay, ay, farewell; thy office is discharged.— Come, Stanley, shall we go?

9 Meaning," the world may smile on me again."

10 Conduct for conductor. Repeatedly so. See vol. v. page 208, note 20.

Stan. Madam, your penance done, throw off this sheet, And go we to attire you for our journey.

Duch. My shame will not be shifted with my sheet: No, it will hang upon my richest robes,

And show itself, attire me how I can.

Go, lead the way; I long to see my prison.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I. The Abbey at Bury St. Edmund's.

Sennet. Enter, to the Parliament, King HENRY, Queen MARGARET, Cardinal BEAUFORT, SUFFOLK, YORK, BUCKINGHAM, and others.

King. I muse1 my Lord of Gloster is not come :

'Tis not his wont to be the hindmost man,

Whate'er occasion keeps him from us now.

Queen. Can you not see? or will ye not observe

The strangeness of his alter'd countenance?
With what a majesty he bears himself;
How insolent of late he is become,

How proud, how peremptory, and unlike himself?

We know the time since 2 he was mild and affable;

And, if we did but glance a far-off look,

Immediately he was upon his knee,

That all the Court admired him for submission:

But meet him now, and, be it in the morn,

When every one will give the time of day,
He knits his brow, and shows an angry eye,

1 "I muse" is I wonder, I marvel. A frequent usage.
2 Since is here equivalent to when. See vol. iii. page 29, note 23.