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GLOSTER. Bid me farewell.

ANNE.

"T is more than you deserve;

But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already. 1

[Exeunt LADY ANNE, TRESSEL, and BERKLEY. GENTLEMAN. Towards Chertsey, noble lord?

GLOS. No to White-Friars; 2 there attend my coming.
[Exeunt the rest, with the Corse.

Was ever woman in this humour woo'd?
Was ever woman in this humour won?

I'll have her, but I will not keep her long.

What! I, that kill'd her husband, and his father,
To take her in her heart's extremest hate;
With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,

The bleeding witness of her hatred by,

Having God, her conscience, and these bars 3 against me, And I no friends to back my suit withal, 4

But the plain devil, and dissembling looks,

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And yet to win her, all the world to nothing! Ha!
Hath she forgot already that brave prince,

Edward, her lord, whom I, some three months since,
Stabb'd in my angry mood at Tewksbury?
A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,

Fram'd in the prodigality of nature,

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Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,
The spacious world cannot again afford:

1. Cibber, who altered King Rich-
ard III. for the stage, was so
thoroughly convinced of the impro-
bability of this scene, that he thought
it necessary to make Tressel say:
"When future chronicles shall
speak of this,

They will be thought romance, not history."

Johnson says of this scene,-"Shakspeare countenances the observation, that no woman can ever be offended with the mention of her beauty."

2. White-Friars is a quarter in the City of London, at the date of this play inhabited by a community

of friars.

3. Bars, impediments, obstructions.

4. Withal usually signifies likewise, at the same time, but is frequently used in old language for with.

5. And yet that I should win her, when the odds were all the world to nothing, i. e. one might have wagered all the world to nothing.

6. This fixes the exact time of the scene to August, 1471. King Edward, however, is introduced in the second act dying. That king died in April, 1483; consequently and the next act of almost twelve there is an interval between this years. Clarence, who is represented in the preceding scene as committed to the Tower before the burial of King Henry VI. was in fact not confined nor put to death till March, 1478, seven years afterwards.

And will she yet abase her eyes on me,

That cropp'd the golden prime of this sweet prince,
And made her widow to a woful bed?

On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety?
On me, that halt, and am mis-shapen thus?
My dukedom to a beggarly denier, 1
I do mistake my person all this while:
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper man. 2
I'll be at charges for 3 a fooking-glass;
And entertain a score or two of tailors,
To study fashions to adorn my body:
Since I am crept in favour with myself,
I will maintain it with some little cost.
But, first, I'll turn yon fellow in his grave,
And then return lamenting to my love. -
Shine out, fair, sun, till I have bought a glass,
That I may see my shadow as I pass.

SCENE III.

The Same. A Room in the Palace.

[Exit.

Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, LORD RIVERS, and LORD GREY. RIVERS. Have patience, Madam: there's no doubt, his majesty

Will soon recover his accustom'd health.

GREY. In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse: Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort, And cheer his grace with quick and merry words.

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Q. ELIZABETH. If he were dead, what would betide of me?8
GREY. No other harm, but loss of such a lord.

Q. ELIZ. The loss of such a lord includes all harms. GREY. The heavens have bless'd you with a goodly son, To be your comforter when he is gone.

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Q. ELIZABETH. Ah! he is young; and his minority Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloster,

A man that loves not me, nor none of you.

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RIVERS. Is it concluded, he shall be protector? Q. ELIZ. It is determin'd, not concluded yet: 1 But so it must be, if the king miscarry.

Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY.

GREY. Here come the lords of Buckingham and Stanley.
BUCKINGHAM. Good time of day unto your royal grace.
STANLEY. God make your majesty joyful as you have been!
Q. ELIZ. The countess Richmond, 2 good my lord of Stanley,
To your good prayer will scarcely say amen.
Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she 's your wife,
And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd,
I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

STAN. I do beseech you, either not believe
The envious slanders of her false accusers;
Or, if she be accus'd on true report,

Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds
From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.

Q. ELIZ. Saw you the king to-day, my lord of Stanley?
STAN. But now, the duke of Buckingham, and I,

Are come from visiting his majesty.

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Q. ELIZ. What likelihood of his amendment, lords? BUCK. Madam, good hope: his grace speaks cheerfully. Q. ELIZ. God grant him health! Did you confer with him? BUCK. Ay, Madam: he desires to make atonement Between the duke of Gloster and your brothers, And between them and my lord chamberlain; And sent to warn them to his royal presence.

Q. ELIZ. Would all were well! But that will never be: I fear, our happiness is at the height.

Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET.

GLOSTER. They do me wrong, and I will not endure it. Who are they, that complain unto the king,

1. Determin'd signifies the final here mentioned was Margaret, of conclusion of the will; concluded, the House of Lancaster, mother to what cannot be altered by reason the future Henry VII. of some act, consequent on the final judgment.

2. The Countess of Richmond

3. To bring about a reconciliation.

4. To warn, to summon.

That I, forsooth, 1 am stern, and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly,
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.
Because I cannot flatter, and speak fair,
Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,
Duck with French nods and apish courtesy, 3
I must be held a rancorous enemy.

Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm,
But thus his simple truth must be abus'd

By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks? 4

2

GREY. To whom in all this presence speaks your grace? GLOSTER. To thee, that hast nor honesty, nor grace. When have I injur'd thee? when done thee wrong? Or thee? or thee? or any of your faction? A plague upon you all! His royal grace,

(Whom God preserve better than you would wish!) Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing-while,

But you must trouble him with lewd

complaints.

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Q. ELIZABETH. Brother of Gloster, you mistake the matter. The king, of his own royal disposition, And not provok'd by any suitor else, Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred, That in your outward action shows itself, Against my children, brothers, and myself, Makes him to send; that thereby he may gather The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it.

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GLOS. I cannot tell; -the world is grown so bad, That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch: Since every Jack became a gentleman,

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There's many a gentle person made a Jack.

Q. ELIZ. Come, come, we know your meaning, brother

Gloster:

1. Forsooth, indeed, in truth. It is lowest class of persons, among always used either ironically or whom this name is common and contemptuously. familiar.

2. To cog, to flatter.

3. Bow low with the apish gesticulations of a Frenchman.

4. Jacks, coxcombs. Jack was a general term of contempt for saucy or paltry fellows. It is a vulgar nickname for John, and hence probably originally meant one of the

Richard III.

5. Lewd, in this instance signifies idle.

6. Disposition, will, impulse.

7. Provok'd, instigated.

8. i. e. the king, of his own royal will, has sent.

9. Gentle, well-born.

2

You envy my advancement, and my friends.
God grant, we never may have need of you!

GLOSTER. Meantime, God grants that we have need of you: Our brother is imprison'd by your means;

Myself disgrac'd, and the nobility

Held in contempt; while many great promotions

Are daily given, to ennoble those

That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble. '
Q. ELIZABETH. By him that rais'd me to this careful height
From that contented hap 3 which I enjoy'd,

I never did incense his majesty

Against the duke of Clarence; but have been.
An earnest, advocate to plead for him.

My lord, you do me shameful injury,

Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects. 4

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GLOS. You may deny, that you were not the cause
Of my Lord Hasting's late imprisonment.
RIVERS. She may, my lord; for
GLOS. She may, Lord Rivers,

why, who knows not so?

She may do more, Sir, than denying that:
She may help you to many fair preferments;
And then deny her aiding hand therein,
And lay those honours on your high desert.
What may she not? She may,

ay, marry, may she,
RIV. What, marry, may she?

GLOS. What, marry, may she? marry with a king,

A bachelor, a handsome stripling too.

I wis, your grandam had a worser 6 match.

Q. ELIZ. My lord of Gloster, I have too long borne Your blunt upbraidings, and your bitter scoffs:

By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty,

Of those gross taunts that oft I have endur'd.
I had rather be a country serving-maid,
Than a great queen, with this condition

1. To ennoble, to make noble. A noble was also a coin, valuing the third of a pound sterling.

2. Careful is to be taken here in the sense of full of care. 3. Hap, lot.

4. Suspects, suspicions.

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senses: as an interjection, derived from by the Virgin Mary! and in the common meaning of the word.

6. Worse being already the comparative cannot with propriety receive the usual comparative termination. I wis, I think, I imagine.

To make a good match, to marry

5. Marry is here used in two advantageously.

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