8

Eighty odd years of sorrow have I seen.

And each hour's joy wreck'd with a week of teen?.
Q. Eliz. Stay yet; look back, with me, unto the
Tower.-

Pity, you ancient stones, those tender babes,
Whom envy hath immur'd within your walls!
Rough cradle for such little pretty ones!
Rude ragged nurse! old sullen playfellow
For tender princes, use my babies well!
So foolish sorrow bids your stones farewell.

[Exeunt.

SCENE II. A Room of State in the Palace. Flourish of Trumpets. RICHARD, as King upon his throne; BUCKINGHAM, CATESBY, a Page, and Others.

K. Rich. Stand all apart.-Cousin of Buckingham,

Buck. My gracious sovereign.

K. Rich. Give me thy hand. Thus high, by thy advice,

And thy assistance, is King Richard seated:
But shall we wear these glories for a day?
Or shall they last, and we rejoice in them?

Buck. Still live they, and for ever let them last! K. Rich. Ah, Buckingham, now do I play the touch 1,

The

8 Shakspeare seems here to have spoken at random. present scene is in 1483. Richard duke of York, the husband of this lady, had he been then living, would have been but seventythree years old, and we may reasonably suppose she was not older: nor did she go speedily to her grave; she lived till 1495. 9 Sorrow.

To play the touch' is to resemble the touchstone. Thus in Drayton's Heroical Epistles :

'Before mine eyes, like touch, thy shape did prove.'

Mary the French Queen to Charles Brandor.

To try if thou be current gold, indeed :Young Edward lives;-Think now what I would speak.

Buck. Say on, my loving lord.

K. Rich. Why, Buckingham, I say, I would be king.

Buck. Why, so you are, my thrice-renowned liege. K.Rich. Ha! am I king? 'Tis so: but Edward lives. Buck. True, noble prince.

K. Rich. O bitter consequence, That Edward still should live,-true, noble prince!Cousin, thou wast not wont to be so dull: Shall I be plain? I wish the bastards dead; And I would have it suddenly perform❜d. What say'st thou now? speak suddenly, be brief. Buck. Your grace may do your pleasure.

K. Rich. Tut, tut, thou art all ice, thy kindness freezes :

Say, have I thy consent, that they shall die? Buck. Give me some breath, some little pause, dear lord,

Before I positively speak in this:

I will resolve your grace immediately.

[Exit BUCKINGHAM.

Cate. The king is angry; see, he gnaws his lip2.

[Aside.

K. Rich. I will converse with iron-witted fools,

[Descends from his Throne. And unrespective boys3: none are for me,

Several of our ancient historians observe that this was an accustomed action of Richard, whether he was pensive or angry. 3 Unrespective, i. e. devoid of cautious and prudential consideration, inconsiderate, unregardful. Thus in Daniel's Cleopatra, 1599:

When dissolute impiety possess'd

The unrespective minds of prince and people.' So in Troilus and Cressida :

VOL. VII.

L

That look into me with considerate eyes;-
High-reaching Buckingham grows circumspect.—
Boy,

Page. My lord.

K. Rich. Know'st thou not any, whom corrupting gold

Would tempt unto a close exploit* of death?
Page. I know a discontented gentleman,
Whose humble means match not his haughty mind:
Gold were as good as twenty orators,

And will no doubt tempt him to any thing.

K. Rich. What is his name?

Page.

His name, my lord, is―Tyrrel.

K. Rich. I partly know the man; Go, call him

hither, boy.

[Exit Page.

The deep-revolving witty 5 Buckingham

No more shall be the neighbour to my counsels: Hath he so long held out with me untir'd,

And stops he now for breath?—well, be it so.

Enter STANLEY.

How now, Lord Stanley? what's the news ?

Stan.

Know, my loving lord,

The marquis Dorset, as I hear, is fled

To Richmond, in the parts where he abides.

6

Nor the remaining viands

We do not throw in unrespective sieve,
Because we now are full.'

Thus in Timon of Athens, Act iv. Sc. 3 :

.

never learn'd

The icy precepts of respect, but follow'd

The sugar'd game before thee.'

4 Secret act.

5 Witty was not at this time employed to signify a man of fancy, but was used for sagacity, wisdom, or judgment; or, as Baret defines it, having the senses sharp, perceiving or foreseeing quicklie.' So in Daniel's Cleopatra, 1599:

'Although unwise to live, had wit to die.'

And in one of Ben Jonson's Masques:

And at her feet do witty serpents move.'

K. Rich. Come hither, Catesby: rumour it abroad,
That Anne, my wife, is very grievous sick;
I will take order for her keeping close.
Inquire me out some mean born gentleman,
Whom I will marry straight to Clarence' daughter:-
The boy is foolish7, and I fear not him.—
Look, how thou dream'st!-I say again, give out,
That Anne my queen is sick, and like to die:
About it: for it stands me much upon3,

To stop all hopes, whose growth may damage me.--
[Exit CATESBY.
I must be married to my brother's daughter,
Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass:-
Murder her brothers, and then marry her!
Uncertain way of gain! But I am in
So far in blood, that sin will pluck on sin9.
Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.-

Re-enter Page, with TYRREL.

Is thy name-Tyrrel 10?

6 i. e. take measures. See note on Comedy of Errors, Act v. Sc. 1, p. 192.

7 Shakspeare has here perhaps anticipated the folly of this youth. He was at this time, I believe, about ten years old, and we are not told by any historian that he had then exhibited any symptoms of folly. Being confined by King Henry VII. immediately after the battle of Bosworth, and his education being entirely neglected, he is described by Polydore Virgil, at the time of his death in 1499, as an idiot; and his account, which is copied by Holinshed, was certainly a sufficient authority for Shakspeare's representation.

8 i. e. it is incumbent upon me. See note on King Richard II. Act ii. Sc. 3, p. 55.

9

I am in blood

Step'd in so far, that should I wade no more

Returning were as tedious,' &c.

Macbeth.

10 The best part of our chronicles, in all men's opinions, is that of Richard III. written as I have heard by Moorton, but as most suppose by Sir Thomas More, sometime lord chancellor of England, where it is said, how the king was devising with Tyrril

Tyr. James Tyrrel, and your most obedient subject.

K. Rich. Art thou, indeed?

Tyr.
Prove me, my gracious lord.
K.Rich. Dar'st thou resolve to kill a friend of mine?
Tyr. Please you; but I had rather kill two ene-

mies.

K. Rich. Why, then thou hast it; two deep enemies,

Foes to my rest, and my sweet sleep's disturbers, Are they that I would have thee deal11 upon : Tyrrel, I mean those bastards in the Tower.

Tyr. Let me have open means to come to them,
And soon I'll rid you from the fear of them.
K. Rich. Thou sing'st sweet musick. Hark, come
hither, Tyrrel;

Go, by this token :-Rise, and lend thine ear:
[Whispers.
There is no more but so;--Say, it is done,
And I will love thee, and prefer thee for it 12.
Tyr. I will despatch it straight.

Re-enter BUCKINGHAM.

[Exit.

Buck. My lord, I have consider'd in my mind The late demand that you did sound me in.

The

to have his nephews privily murdered; and it is added, he was then sitting on a draught; a fit carpet for such a counsel.' Metamorphosis of Ajax; by Sir John Harington, 1596. See likewise Holinshed, ii. p. 735. Sir James Tyrrel was executed for treason in the beginning of King Henry VII. See Fuller's Worthies, Cornwall, p. 210.

11 We should now say deal with,' but the other was the phraseology of Shakspeare's time. 'At Wolfe's he's billetted, sweating and dealing upon it most intentively.' Nashe's Have

with

you to Saffron Walden, 1596.

12 The quarto has here the following very characteristic line:

King. Shall we hear from thee, Tirril, ere we sleep?'