And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave?
My brother kill'd no man, his fault was thought,
And yet his punishment was bitter death.
Who sued to me for him? who, in my wrath,
Kneel'd at my feet, and bade me be advis'd?
Who spoke of brotherhood? who spoke of love?
Who told me how the poor soul did forsake
The mighty Warwick, and did fight for me?
Who told me in the field at Tewksbury,
When Oxford had me down, he rescued me,
And said, “Dear brother, live, and be a king”?
Who told me, when we both lay in the field,
Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
Even in his garments; and did give himself,
All thin and naked, to the numb-cold night?
All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
Sinfully pluck'd, and not a man of you
Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
But, when your carters, or your waiting-vassals,
Have done a drunken slaughter, and defac’d
The precious image of our dear Redeemer,
You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon;
And I, unjustly too, must grant it you:—
But for my brother not a man would speak,
Nor I (ungracious) speak unto myself
For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all
Have been beholden to him in his life;

Yet none of you would once plead for his life.
O God! I fear thy justice will take hold

On me, and you, and mine, and yours, for this.
Come, Hastings, help me to my closet.

Ah! poor Clarence!

[Exeunt KING, QUEEN, HAST., RIV., DOR., and GREY. GLO. This is the fruit of rashness!

Mark'd you not

How that the guilty kindred of the queen

Look'd pale, when they did hear of Clarence' death?
O! they did urge it still unto the king:

God will revenge it.

Come, lords; will you go,
To comfort Edward with our company?
BUCK. We wait upon your grace.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-The same.

Enter the DUCHESS OF YORK, with a Son and Daughter of CLARENCE.

SON. Good grandam, tell us, is our father dead?

DUCH. No, boy.

DAUGH. Why do you weep so oft? and beat your breast; And cry-"O Clarence, my unhappy son!"

SON. Why do you look on us, and shake your head, And call us orphans, wretches, castaways,

If that our noble father were alive?

DUCH. My pretty cousins, you mistake me both;

I do lament the sickness of the king,

As loth to lose him, not your father's death;

It were lost sorrow to wail one that 's lost.

SON. Then you conclude, my grandam, he is dead. The king my uncle is to blame for this:

God will revenge it; whom I will importune

With earnest prayers all to that effect.

DAUGH. And so will I.

DUCH. Peace, children, peace! the king doth love you well:

Incapable and shallow innocents,

You cannot guess who caus'd your father's death.

SON. Grandam, we can: for my good uncle Gloster
Told me, the king, provok'd to 't by the queen,

Devis'd impeachments to imprison him:
And when my uncle told me so, he wept,
And pitied me, and kindly kiss'd my cheek;
Bade me rely on him as on my father,
And he would love me dearly as his child.

DUCH. Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes,
And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice!
He is my son, ay, and therein my shame,
Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.

SON. Think you my uncle did dissemble, grandam?
DUCH. Ay, boy.

SON. I cannot think it. Hark! what noise is this?

Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, distractedly; RIVERS and DORSET following her.

Q. ELIZ. Ah! who shall hinder me to wail and weep? To chide my fortune, and torment myself?

I'll join with black despair against my soul,

And to myself become an enemy.

DUCH. What means this scene of rude impatience?
Q. ELIZ. To make an act of tragic violence.
Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead.
Why grow the branches when the root is gone?
Why wither not the leaves that want their sap?
If you will live, lament; if die, be brief;

That our swift-winged souls may catch the king's;
Or, like obedient subjects, follow him

To his new kingdom of ne'er-changing night.

DUCH. Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow,
As I had title in thy noble husband!

I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
And liv'd by looking on his images:

But now, two mirrors of his princely semblance
Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death;
And I for comfort have but one false glass,
That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
Thou art a widow; yet thou art a mother,

And hast the comfort of thy children left;

But death hath snatch'd my husband from mine arms,
And pluck'd two crutches from my feeble hands,
Clarence and Edward. O, what cause have I

(Thine being but a moiety of my moan)

To over-go thy woes, and drown thy cries!

SON. Ah, aunt! you wept not for our father's death; How can we aid you with our kindred tears?

DAUGH. Our fatherless distress was left unmoan'd; Your widow-dolour likewise be unwept!

Q. ELIZ. Give me no help in lamentation;

I am not barren to bring forth complaints:
All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
That I, being govern'd by the watery moon,

May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world!

Ah, for my husband, for my dear lord Edward!

CHIL. Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clarence! DUCH. Alas, for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence! Q. ELIZ. What stay had I but Edward? and he's gone. CHIL. What stay had we but Clarence? and he's gone. DUCH. What stays had I but they? and they are gone. Q. ELIZ. Was never widow had so dear a loss. CHIL. Were never orphans had so dear a loss. DUCH. Was never mother had so dear a loss. Alas! I am the mother of these griefs; Their woes are parcell'd, mine are general. She for an Edward weeps, and so do I; I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she; These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I; I for an Edward weep, so do not they:Alas! you three on me, threefold distress'd, Pour all your tears, I am your sorrow's nurse, And I will pamper it with lamentations.

DOR. Comfort, dear mother: God is much displeas'd
That you take with unthankfulness his doing:

In common worldly things 't is called ungrateful,
With dull unwillingness to repay a debt,
Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
Much more to be thus opposite with Heaven,
For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

RIV. Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother,
Of the young prince your son: send straight for him,
Let him be crown'd; in him your comfort lives:
Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward's grave,
And plant your joys in living Edward's throne.

Enter GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, RATCLIFF, and others.

GLO. Sister, have comfort: all of us have cause

To wail the dimming of our shining star;

But none can help our harms by wailing them.

Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy,

I did not see your grace:—Humbly on my knee
I crave your blessing.

DUCH. God bless thee, and put meekness in thy breast,

t

Love, charity, obedience, and true duty!

GLO. Amen; and make me die a good old man! That is the butt-end of a mother's blessing;

I marvel that her grace did leave it out.

[Aside.

BUCK. You cloudy princes, and heart-sorrowing peers,

That bear this heavy mutual load of moan,
Now cheer each other in each other's love:
Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
We are to reap the harvest of his son.
The broken rancour of your high swoln hates,
But lately splinter'd, knit, and join'd together,
Must gently be preserv'd, cherish'd, and kept:
Me seemeth good, that, with some little train,
Forthwith from Ludlow the young king be fet
Hither to London, to be crown'd our king.

RIV. Why with some little train, my lord of Buckingham?
BUCK. Marry, my lord, lest by a multitude,

The new-heal'd wound of malice should break out;
Which would be so much the more dangerous,
By how much the estate is green and yet ungovern'd:
Where every horse bears his commanding rein,
And may direct his course as please himself,
As well the fear of harm, as harm apparent,
In my opinion, ought to be prevented.

GLO. I hope the king made peace with all of us;
And the compact is firm, and true, in me.

RIV. And so in me; and so, I think, in all:
Yet, since it is but green, it should be put
To no apparent likelihood of breach,

Which, haply, by much company might be urg'd:
Therefore I say, with noble Buckingham,

That it is meet so few should fetch the prince.

HAST. And so say I.

GLO. Then be it so; and go we to determine
Who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow.
Madam, and you my sister, will you go

To give your censures in this weighty business?

[Exeunt all but BUCKINGHAM and GLOSTER. BUCK. My lord, whoever journeys to the prince, For God's sake, let not us two stay at home: