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.
Q. Eliz. 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."
Glo. I cannot tell :-The world is grown so
bad

That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch:

Since every Jack became a gentleman,
There's many a gentle person made a Jack.

Q. Eliz. Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Gloster;

You envy my advancement, and my friends';
God grant we never may have need of you!
Glo. 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 great promotions
Are daily given, to ennoble those

That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble.

Q. Eliz. By Him, that rais'd me to this careful height

From that contented hap 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.
Glo. You may deny that you were not the

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,-

Rie. What, marry, may she?

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

A bachelor, and a handsome stripling too:
I wis your grandam had a worser 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 servant-maid
Than a great queen, with this condition,
To be so baited, scorn'd, and stormed at:
Small joy have I in being England's queen.

Enter QUEEN MARGARET, behind.

Q. Mar. And lessen'd be that small, God, I beseech him!"

Thy honour, state, and seat, is due to me. Glo. What? threat you me with telling of the king?

Tell him, and spare not: look, what I have said"
I will avouch, in presence of the king:

I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower.
'Tis time to speak, my pains are quite forgot.

Q. Mar. Out, devil! I do remember them

too well:

Thou kill dst my husband Henry in the Tower, And Edward, my poor son, at Tewkesbury.

Glo. Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king,

I was a pack-horse in his great affairs;
A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,
A liberal rewarder of his friends;
To royalize his blood I spilt mine own.

Q. Mar. Ay, and much better blood than his, or thine.

Glo. In all which time, you, and your husband Grey,

Were factious for the house of Lancaster;And, Rivers, so were you:-Was not your hus

Q. Mar. A murtherous villain, and so still thou art.

Glo. Poor Clarence did forsake his father Warwick,

Ay, and forswore himself,-which Jesu pardon!

Q. Mar. Which God revenge!

This sorrow that I have by right is yours;
And all the pleasures you usurp are mine.

Glo. The curse my noble father laid on thee, When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper,

And with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes, And then, to dry them, gav 'st the duke a clout,

crown;

And, for his meed, poor lord, he is mew'd up:
I would to God my heart were flint like Edward's,
Or Edward's soft and pitiful like mine;

I am too childish-foolish for this world.

Q. Mar. Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this world,

Thou cacodæmon! there thy kingdom is.

Rir. My lord of Gloster, in those busy days, Which here you urge to prove us enemies, We follow'd then our lord, our sovereign' king; So should we you, if you should be our king. Glo. If I should be?-I had rather be a pedlar :

Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof! Q. Eliz. As little joy, my lord, as you sup

pose

You should enjoy, were you this country's king;
As little joy you may suppose in me
That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.

Q. Mar. A little joy enjoys the queen thereof!
For I am she, and altogether joyless.
I can no longer hold me patient.- [Advancing.
Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out
In sharing that which you have pill'd from me:
Which of you trembles not that looks on me?
If not, that I being queen you bow like subjects,
Yet that by you depos'd you quake like rebels?
Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away!

Glo. Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou in my sight?

Q. Mar. But repetition of what thou hast marr'd;

That will I make, before I let thee go.b

Glo. Wert thou not banished on pain of death?
Q. Mar. I was; but I do find more pain in
banishment

Than death can yield me here by my abode.
A husband, and a son, thou ow'st to me,-
And thou, a kingdom;—all of you, allegiance :

land ;

His curses, then from bitterness of soul Denounc'd against thee, are all fallen upon thee; And God, not we, hath plagued thy bloody deed. Q. Eliz. So just is God, to right the innocent. Hast. O, 'twas the foulest deed, to slay that babe,

And the most merciless, that e'er was heard of. Riv. Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.

Dors. No man but prophesied revenge for it.
Buck. Northumberland, then present, wept to
see it.

Q. Mar. What! were you snarling all, before
I came,

Ready to catch each other by the throat,
And turn you all your hatred now on me?
Did York's dread curse prevail so much with
heaven

That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death,
Their kingdom's loss, my woful banishment,
Should all but answer for that peevish brat?
Can curses pierce the clouds, and enter heaven ?—
Why, then give way, dull clouds, to my quick
curses!

Though not by war, by surfeit die your king,
As ours by murther, to make him a king!
Edward, thy son, that now is prince of Wales,
For Edward, our son, that was prince of Wales,
Die in his youth by like untimely violence!
Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,
Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self!
Long may'st thou live, to wail thy children's
death a

And see another, as I see thee now,
Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine!
Long die thy happy days before thy death;
And, after many lengthen'd hours of grief,
Die neither mother, wife, nor England's queen!
Rivers, and Dorset, you were standers by,-
And so wast thou, lord Hastings,-when my son
Was stabb'd with bloody daggers: God, I pray

him,

That none of you may live your natural age, But by some unlook'd accident cut off!

Death, in the folio; the quartos, loss.

lord.

With odd old ends, stolen forth of holy writ;

gentle counsel ?

And soothe the devil that I warn thee from?
O, but remember this another day,
When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow;
And say, poor Margaret was a prophetess.
Live each of you the subjects to his hate,
And he to yours, and all of you to God's! [Exit.
Hast. My hair doth stand on end to hear her

curses.

Riv. And so doth mine; I muse why she's at liberty.

Glo. I cannot blame her, by God's holy mother;

She hath had too much wrong, and I repent
My part thereof, that I have done to her.

Q. Eliz. I never did her any, to my knowledge.
Glo. Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong.

I was too hot to do somebody good,
That is too cold in thinking of it now.
Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid;
He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains;
God pardon them that are the cause thereof!
Riv. A virtuous and a christian-like conclu-
sion,

To pray for them that have done scath to us.
Glo. So do I ever, being well advis'd:-
For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myself.

[Aside.

Enter CATESBY. Cates. Madam, his majesty doth call for you,And for your grace,—and you, my noble lord. Q. Eliz. Catesby, I come :-Lords, will you go with me?

Riv. We wait upon your grace.

[Exeunt all but GLOSTER.

Glo. I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.
The secret mischiefs that I set abroach
I lay unto the grievous charge of others.
Clarence,-whom I, indeed, have cast in dark-
ness,-

I do beweep to many simple gulls;
Namely, to Stanley, Hastings, Buckingham;
And tell them, 't is the queen and her allies
That stir the king against the duke my brother.
Now they believe it; and withal whet me
To be reveng'd on Rivers, Dorset, Grey:

We wait-so the folio. The passage in the quarto is, "Madam, we will attend upon your grace."

Cast, in the folio; the quartos, laid.
Dorset, in the folio; the quartos, Vaughan.

Enter two Murderers.

But soft, here come my executioners. How now, my hardy, stout resolved mates? Are you now going to despatch this thing? 1 Murd. We are, my lord; and come to have the warrant,

That we may be admitted where he is.

me:

Glo. Well thought upon, I have it hereabout [Gives the warrant. When you have done, repair to Crosby-place. But, sirs, be sudden in the execution, Withal obdurate, do not hear him plead; For Clarence is well spoken, and, perhaps, May move your hearts to pity, if you mark him. 1 Murd. Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand to prate;

Talkers are no good doers; be assur'd
We go to use our hands, and not our tongues.
Glo. Your eyes drop mill-stones, when fools'
eyes falla tears:

I like you, lads;—about your business straight;
Go, go, despatch.
2 Murd.

We will, my noble lord.
[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-The same. A Room in the Tower.

Enter CLARENCE and BRAKENBURY.

Brak. Why looks your grace so heavily today?

Clar. O, I have pass'd a miserable night, So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights, That, as I am a christian faithful man, I would not spend another such a night Though 't were to buy a world of happy days; So full of dismal terror was the time.

Brak. What was your dream, my lord? I

pray you, tell me.

Clar. Methought that I had broken from the
Tower,

And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy;
And in my company my brother Gloster:
Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
Upon the hatches; there we look'd toward Eng-
land,

And cited up a thousand heavy times,
During the wars of York and Lancaster

Fall, in the folio: the quartos, drop.

That had befall'n us. As we pac'd along
Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,
Methought that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling,
Struck me, that thought to stay him, over-board,
Into the tumbling billows of the main.

O Lord! methought what pain it was to drown!
What dreadful noise of water in mine ears!
What sights of ugly death within mine eyes!
Methought I saw a thousand fearful wracks:
A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon;
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea.

Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in those holes
Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept,
As 't were in scorn of eyes, reflecting gems,
That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep,
And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatter'd by.
Brak. Had you such leisure in the time of
death,

To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?

a

Clar. Methought I had; and often did I strive To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood Stopt in my soul, and would not let it forth To find the empty, vast, and wand'ring air; But smother'd it within my panting bulk, Which almost burst to belch it in the sea.

Brak. Awak'd you not in this sore agony? Clar. No, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life;

O, then began the tempest to my soul!
I pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood
With that soure ferryman which poets write of,
Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.
The first that there did greet my stranger soul,
Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick;
Who spake aloud,-'What scourge for perjury
Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?'
And so he vanish'd: Then came wandering by
A shadow like an angel, with bright hair

Dabbled in blood; and he shriek'd out aloud,Clarence is come, false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence,

That stabb'd me in the field by Tewkesbury;
Seize on him, furies, take him untos torment!'-
With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends
Environ'd me, and howled in mine ears
Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise
I trembling wak'd, and, for a season after,

Could not believe but that I was in hell;
Such terrible impression made my dream.
Brak. No marvel, lord, though it affrighted

you;

I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.
Clar. O, Brakenbury, I have done these
things,-

That now give evidence against my soul,-
For Edward's sake; and see how he requites me!
O God! if my deep prayers cannot appease thee,
But thou wilt be aveng'd on my misdeeds,
Yet execute thy wrath on me alone:
O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children!
pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me ;
My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.
Brak. I will, my lord: God give your grace
good rest! [CLARENCE retires.
Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours,-
Makes the night morning, and the noon-tide night.
Princes have but their titles for their glories,
An outward honour for an inward toil;
And, for unfelt imaginations,

They often feel a world of restless cares :
So that, between their titles, and low name,
There's nothing differs but the outward fame.
Enter the two Murderers.

1 Murd. Ho! who's here?

Brak. What wouldst thou, fellow? and how cam'st thou hither?

1 Murd. I would speak with Clarence, and I came hither on my legs.

Brak. What, so brief?

2 Murd. 'Tis better, sir, than to be tedious : — let him see our commission, and talk no more. [A paper is delivered to BRAKENBURY, who reads it.

Brak. I am in this, commanded to deliver The noble duke of Clarence to your hands: I will not reason what is meant hereby, Because I will be guiltless of the meaning. There lies the duke asleep,—and there, the keys.

In the quarto this scene commences with Clarence addressing the description of his dream to Brakenbury; but in the folio the stage-direction is, "Enter Clarence and Keeper." This change was probably designed, for in the pas sage before us, the reading of the quartos," O, Brakenbury," is altered to "O, keeper, keeper," Brakenbury subsequently enters, in the folio, when Clarence is sleeping. There does not appear any reason for deviating from the arrangement of the quartos.

The four preceding lines are not found in the quartos. ⚫ So the quartos. In the folio we read,

"Keeper, I prithee sit by me awhile."

d We give the passage as in the plain prose of the folio. In the quartos the speech has a metrical appearance, which is generally polished, most unnecessarily, into very smooth

verse.

In the modern editions, when Clarence says "I fain would sleep," we have a stage-direction, "Clarence reposes