*Fath. These arms of mine shall be thy winding

sheet;

*My heart, sweet boy, shall be thy sepulchre;

* For from my heart thine image ne'er shall go. My sighing breast shall be thy funeral bell;

*

* And so obsequious' will thy father be,

* Sad for the loss of thee, having no more,
* As Priam was for all his valiant sons.

I'll bear thee hence; and let them fight that will,
For I have murdered where I should not kill.

[Exit with the body.

K. Hen. Sad-hearted men, much overgone with

care,

'Here sits a king more woful than you are.

Alarums: Excursions. Enter QUEEN MARGARET, PRINCE of WALES, and EXETER.

Prince. Fly, father, fly! for all your friends are
fled,

'And Warwick rages like a chafed bull:
'Away! for death doth hold us in pursuit.

Q. Mar. Mount you, my lord; towards Berwick
post amain;

Edward and Richard, like a brace of greyhounds, 'Having the fearful, flying hare in sight,

• With fiery eyes, sparkling for very wrath,
And bloody steel grasped in their ireful hands,
'Are at our backs; and, therefore, hence amain.

• Exe. Away! for vengeance comes along with

them;

Nay, stay not to expostulate; make speed;

Or else come after, I'll away before.

K. Hen. Nay, take me with thee, good, sweet
Exeter;

Not that I fear to stay, but love to go

'Whither the queen intends. Forward; away!

[Exeunt.

1 Obsequious is here careful of obsequies or funeral rites.

SCENE VI. The same. A loud Alarum.

Enter CLIFFORD, wounded.1

Clif. Here burns my candle out, ay, here it dies,
Which, while it lasted, gave king Henry light.
O, Lancaster! I fear thy overthrow,

More than my body's parting with my soul.
My love and fear glued many friends to thee;
And, now I fall, thy tough commixtures melt.
Impairing Henry, strengthening mis-proud York,
The common people swarm like summer flies;
And whither fly the gnats, but to the sun?
And who shines now but Henry's enemies?
O, Phoebus! hadst thou never given consent
That Phaeton should check thy fiery steeds,
Thy burning car never had scorched the earth:
And, Henry, hadst thou swayed as kings should do,
Or as thy father, and his father, did,

Giving no ground unto the house of York,
*They never then had sprung like summer flies:
'I, and ten thousand in this luckless realm,
Had left no mourning widows for our death,
And thou this day hadst kept thy chair in peace.
For what doth cherish weeds, but gentle air?
And what makes robbers bold, but too much lenity?
Bootless are plaints, and cureless are my wounds;
No way to fly, nor strength to hold out flight;
The foe is merciless, and will not pity;
For at their hands I have deserved no pity.
The air hath got into my deadly wounds,
And much effuse of blood doth make me faint:-
Come, York, and Richard, Warwick, and the rest;
'I stabbed your fathers' bosoms, split my breast.

[He faints.

1 In the old play the stage direction adds, with an arrow in his neck. It is thought that Beaumont and Fletcher ridiculed this, by introducing Ralph, the grocer's prentice, in the Knight of the Burning Pestle, with a forked arrow through his head. The circumstance is related by Holinshed, p. 664:-"The lord Clifford, either for heat or paine, putting off his gorget suddenlie, with an arrow (as some saie) without a head, was stricken into the throte, and immediately rendered his spirit.”

Alarum and Retreat.

Enter EDWARD, GEORGE,

RICHARD, MONTAGUE, WARWICK, and Soldiers.

Edw. Now breathe we, lords; good fortune bids

us pause,

And smooth the frowns of war with peaceful looks.— * Some troops pursue the bloody-minded queen, That led calm Henry, though he were a king, As doth a sail, filled with a fretting gust, • Command an argosy to stem the waves. But think you, lords, that Clifford fled with them? War. No, 'tis impossible he should escape; For, though before his face I speak the words, Your brother Richard marked him for the grave; And, wheresoe'er he is, he's surely dead.

[CLIFFORD groans, and dies. Edw. Whose soul is that which takes her heavy

leave?

Rich. A deadly groan, like life and death's departing.1

Edw. See who it is; and now the battle's ended, If friend or foe, let him be gently used.

Rich. Revoke that doom of mercy, for 'tis Clifford ; Who not contented that he lopped the branch In hewing Rutland when his leaves put forth, 'But set his murdering knife unto the root From whence that tender spray did sweetly spring; I mean our princely father, duke of York.

War. From off the gates of York fetch down the head,

Your father's head, which Clifford placed there;
Instead whereof, let this supply the room;
Measure for measure must be answered.

Edw. Bring forth that fatal screech-owl to our house,
That nothing sung but death to us and ours;
Now death shall stop his dismal, threatening sound,
And his ill-boding tongue no more shall speak.

[Attendants bring the body forward.

1 Departing for separation.

War. I think his understanding is bereft :

Speak, Clifford, dost thou know who speaks to thee ?—
Dark, cloudy death o'ershades his beams of life,
And he nor sees, nor hears us what we say.

Rich. O, 'would he did! and so, perhaps, he doth; 'Tis but his policy to counterfeit,

Because he would avoid such bitter taunts,

Which in the time of death he gave our father.
Geo. If so thou think'st, vex him with eager words.1
Rich. Clifford, ask mercy, and obtain no grace.
Edw. Clifford, repent in bootless penitence.
War. Clifford, devise excuses for thy faults.
Geo. While we devise fell tortures for thy faults.
'Rich. Thou didst love York, and I am son to York.
Edw. Thou pitied'st Rutland, I will pity thee.

Geo. Where's captain Margaret, to fence you now?
War. They mock thee, Clifford! swear as thou

wast wont.

'Rich. What, not an oath? nay, then the world goes hard,

When Clifford cannot spare his friends an oath; I know by that he's dead; and, by my soul,

'If this right hand would buy two hours' life,

That I in all despite might rail at him,

This hand should chop it off; and with the issuing

blood

Stifle the villain, whose unstanched thirst

York and young Rutland could not satisfy.

War. Ay, but he's dead. Off with the traitor's

head,

And rear it in the place your father's stands.-
And now to London with triumphant march,
There to be crowned England's royal king.

• From whence shall Warwick cut the sea to France, And ask the lady Bona for thy queen;

So shalt thou sinew both these lands together;

And, having France thy friend, thou shalt not dread

1 Sour words; words of asperity. "Verie eagre or sowre: peracerbous."-Baret.

The scattered foe, that hopes to rise again;
For though they cannot greatly sting to hurt,
Yet look to have them buzz, to offend thine ears.
First, will I see the coronation;

And then to Brittany I'll cross the sea,

To effect this marriage, so it please my lord.

Edw. Even as thou wilt, sweet Warwick, let it be; *For on thy shoulder do I build my seat;

* And never will I undertake the thing,

*Wherein thy counsel and consent is wanting.

Richard, I will create thee duke of Gloster ;

And George, of Clarence ;-Warwick, as ourself,
Shall do, and undo, as him pleaseth best.

Rich. Let me be duke of Clarence; George, of
Gloster;

For Gloster's dukedom is too ominous.1

War. Tut, that's a foolish observation;

Richard, be duke of Gloster. Now to London,

To see these honors in possession.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I. A Chase in the North of England.

Enter two Keepers,2 with crossbows in their hands. 1 Keep. Under this thick-grown brake we'll shroud ourselves;

1 Alluding to the deaths of Thomas of Woodstock and Humphrey, dukes of Gloster. The author of the old play, in which this line is found, had a passage of Hall's Chronicle in his thoughts, in which the unfortunate ends of those who had borne the title is recounted: he thus concludes:-"So that this name of Gloucester is taken for an unhappie and unfortunate stile, as the proverb speaks of Segane's horse, whose ryder was ever unhorsed, and whose possessor was ever brought to miserie."

2 In the folio copy, instead of two keepers, we have, through negligence, the names of the persons who represented these characters, Sincklo and Humphrey. Humphrey was probably Humphrey Jeaffes, mentioned in