All. Amen. Buck. To-morrow may it please you to be crown'd? it so. Buck. To-morrow then we will attend your grace; And so, most joyfully, we take our leave. Glo. Come, let us to our holy work again.— [To the Bishops. Farewell, good cousin ;-farewell, gentle friends 18. [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I. Before the Tower. Enter on one side, QUEEN ELIZABETH, DUCHESS of YORK, and MARQUIS of DORSET; on the other, ANNE, DUCHESS of GLOSTER1, leading LADY MARGARET PLANTAGENET, Clarence's young Daughter. Duch. Who meets us here?—my niece Plantagenet Led in the hand of her kind aunt of Gloster? 18 To this act should probably be added the next scene, so will the coronation pass between the acts; and there will not only be a proper interval of action, but the conclusion will be. more forcible.'-Johnson. 1 We have not seen this lady since the second scene of the first act, in which she promised to meet Richard at Crosby Place. She was married to him about the year 1472. 2 i. e. grand-daughter. See note on King Henry VI. Part I. Act ii. Sc. 5, p. 50. We may here add that in Junius's Nomenclator, by Higgins, 1585, Nepos has no other explanation than 'a nephew; that is, ones son's or daughter's child.' The words grandson or grand-daughter never occur in Shakspeare. Anne. God give your graces both A happy and a joyful time of day! Q. Eliz. As much to you, good sister! Whither away? Anne. No further than the Tower; and, as I Upon the like devotion as yourselves, To gratulate the gentle princes there. guess, Q. Eliz. Kind sister, thanks; we'll enter all together: Enter BRAKENBURY. And, in good time, here the lieutenant comes.— ence, I may not suffer you to visit them; The king hath strictly charg'd the contrary. Brak. I mean, the lord protector. Q. Eliz. The Lord protect him from that kingly title! Hath he set bounds between their love and me? I am their mother, who shall bar me from them? Duch. I am their father's mother, I will see them. Anne. Their aunt I am in law, in love their mother: Then bring me to their sights3; I'll bear thy blame, And take thy office from thee, on my peril. 3 This was the phraseology of Shakspeare's time. Thus in Macbeth, Act iii. Sc. 2: 'And night's black agents to their preys do rouse.' So in a translation from Virgil, in The Householder's Philosophie, 1588: We hide our grey hairs with our helmets, liking ever more To live upon the sport, and waft our praies from shore to shore.' And in Erasmus De Contemptu Mundi, translated by Thomas Brak. No, madam, no, I may not leave it so*; I am bound by oath, and therefore pardon me. [Exit BRAKENBURY. Enter STANLEY. Stan. Let me but meet you, ladies, one hour hence, And I'll salute your grace of York as mother, And reverend looker-on of two fair queens.Come, madam, you must straight to Westminster. [To the DUCHESS of GLOSTER. There to be crowned Richard's royal queen. Q. Eliz. Ah, cut my lace asunder! That my pent heart may have some scope to beat, Or else I swoon with this dead-killing news. Anne. Despiteful tidings! O unpleasing news! Dor. Be of good cheer:-Mother, how fares your grace? Q. Eliz. O Dorset, speak not to me, get thee gone, Death and destruction dog thee at the heels; Thy mother's name is ominous to children: If thou wilt outstrip death, go cross the seas, And live with Richmond from the reach of hell. Go, hie thee, hie thee, from this slaughter-house, Lest thou increase the number of the dead; And make me die the thrall of Margaret's curse,Nor mother, wife, nor England's counted queen. Stan. Full of wise care is this your counsel, madam: Take all the swift advantage of the hours; You shall have letters from me to my son behalf, to meet you on the way: In your Be not ta'en tardy by unwise delay. Paynel, blk 1. no date :- The causes of our twos frendshyp be ryght great and manyfolde; our bryngynge up together of chyldren, the marvaylous agrement of our two myndes,' &c. 4 i. e. I may not so resign my office.' Duch. O ill-dispersing wind of misery!- Stan. Come, madam, come; I in all haste was sent. Anne. And I with all unwillingness will go.O, would to God, that the inclusive verge Of golden metal, that must round my brow, Were red-hot steel, to sear me to the brain! Anointed let me be with deadly venom; And die, ere men can say-God save the queen! Q. Eliz. Go, go, poor soul, I envy not thy glory; To feed my humour, wish thyself no harm. Anne. No! why?-When he, that is my husband now, 5 A serpent supposed to originate from a cock's egg. Thus in Romeo and Juliet : the death-darting eye of a cockatrice.' 6 She seems to allude to the ancient mode of punishing a regicide, or other criminals, by placing a crown of iron heated red hot upon his head. See Respublica et Status Hungariæ, Elzev. 1634, p. 136. In the Tragedy of Hoffman, 1631, this punishment is introduced: Again ; Fix on thy master's head my burning crown.' was adjudg'd To have his head sear'd with a burning crown.' In some of the monkish accounts of a place of future torments, a burning crown is likewise appropriated to those who deprived any lawful monarch of his kingdom. Goldsmith alludes to the punishment of the peasant engaged in the Hungarian rebellion above referred to: 'Luke's iron crown, and Damien's bed of steel.' See Boswell's Life of Johnson, vol. ii. p. 6, where it is observed that though George and Luke Zeck were both engaged in the rebellion, it was the former who was thus punished; but George would not suit the poet's verse. The earl of Athol, who was executed for the murder of James I. king of Scots, was previous to death crowned with a hot iron. Came to me, as I follow'd Henry's corse; When scarce the blood was well wash'd from his hands, Which issu'd from my other angel husband, And that dead saint which then I weeping follow'd; Than thou hast made me by my dear lord's death! Even in so short a space, my woman's heart And prov'd the subject of mine own soul's curse : Did I enjoy the golden dew of sleep, But with his timorous dreams7 was still awak'd. Q. Eliz. Poor heart, adieu; I pity thy complaining. Go thou to Richard, and good angels tend thee!— thee! [To ANNE. Go thou to sanctuary, and good thoughts possess [To Q. ELIZABETH. I to my grave, where peace and rest lie with me! 7 It is recorded by Polydore Virgil that Richard was frequently disturbed by terrible dreams. The veracity of that historian has been called in doubt; but Shakspeare followed the popular histories. |