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And thou, a kingdom;-all of you, allegiance:
This forrow that I have, by right is yours;
And all the pleasures you ufurp, are mine.

Glo. The curfe my noble father laid on thee,-
When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper,
And with thy fcorns drew'st rivers from his eyes;
And then, to dry them, gav'ft the duke a clout,
Steep'd in the faultlefs blood of pretty Rutland ;-
His curfes, then from bitterness of foul
Denounc'd against thee, are all fallen upon thee;
And God, not we, hath plagu'd thy bloody deed.
Queen. So juft is God, to right the innocent.
Haft. O, 'twas the fouleft deed, to flay that babe,
And the most mercilefs, that e'er was heard of.
Riv. Tyrants themfelves wept when it was re-
ported.

Dorf. No man but prophefy'd revenge for it. Buck. Northumberland, then prefent, wept to fee it. 2. Mar. What! were you fnarling 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 curfe prevail so much with heaven,
That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death,
Their kingdom's lofs, my woeful banishment,
Could all but answer for that peevish brat?
Can curfes pierce the clouds, and enter heaven ?—
Why, then give way, dull clouds, to my quick

curfes!-

Though not by war, 7 by furfeit die your king,
As ours by murder, to make him a king!
Edward, thy fon, that now is prince of Wales,
For Edward my fon, that was prince of Wales,
Die in his youth, by like untimely violence!

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Q. Mar. So juft is God, &c.] This line fhould be given to Edward IVth's queen, WARBURTON.

7

by furfeit die your king!] Alluding to his luxurious life.

JOHNSON.

Thy

Thyfelf a queen, for me that was a queen,
Out-live thy glory, like my wretched felf!
Long may'ft thou live, to wail thy children's lofs;
And see another, as I fee 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 Dorfet,-you were ftanders by,-
And fo waft thou, lord Haftings,-when my fon
Was ftabb'd with bloody daggers; God, I pray him,
That none of you may live your natural
But by fome unlook'd accident cut off!

age,

Glo. Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd

hag.

2. Mar. And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou
fhalt hear me.

If heaven have any grievous plague in ftore,
Exceeding those that I can wifh upon thee,
O, let them keep it, 'till thy fins be ripe,
And then hurl down their indignation
On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!
The worm of confcience ftill be-gnaw thy foul!
Thy friends fufpect for traitors while thou liv'ft,
And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!
No fleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
Unless it be while fome tormenting dream
Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!
Thou elvish-mark'd' abortive, 7 rooting hog!

8

Thou

3 elvish-mark'd] The common people in Scotland (as I learn from Kelly's Proverbs) have still an averfion to those who have any natural defect or redundancy, as thinking them mark'd out for mischief. STEEVENS.

9

rooting bog!] The expreffion is fine, alluding (in memory of her young fon) to the ravage which hogs make, with the finest flowers, in gardens; and intimating that Elizabeth was zo expect no other treatment for her fons. WARBURTON.

She calls him bog, as an appellation more contemptuous than

bear,

Thou that waft feal'd in thy nativity

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The flave of nature, and the fon of hell! Thou flander of thy mother's heavy womb! Thou loathed iffue of thy father's loins! Thou rag of honour! thou detefted

Glo.

boar, as he is elsewhere termed from his enfigns armorial. There is no fuch heap of allufion as the commentator imagines.

JOHNSON. In the Mirror for Magiftrates (a book already quoted) is the following Complaint of Collingbourne, who was cruelly executed for making a rime.

For where I meant the king by name of hog,

I only alluded to his badge the bore:

To Lovel's name I added more,—our dog;
Becaufe moft dogs have borne that name of yore.
Thefe metaphors I us'd with other more,

As cat and rat, the half-names of the reft,

To hide the fenfe that they fo wrongly wreft.

That Lovel was once the common name of a dog, may be likewife known from a paffage in The Hiftorie of Jacob and Efau, an interlude, 1568:

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"Then come on at once, take my quiver and my bowe; "Fette lovell my hounde, and my horne to blowe." The rhime for which Collingbourne fuffered, was:

"A cat, a rat, and Lovel the dog,

"Rule all England under a hog." STEEVENS.

The flave of nature,] The expreffion is ftrong and noble, and alludes to the ancient custom of masters branding their profligate flaves: by which it is infinuated that his misshapen perfon was the mark that nature had fet upon him to ftigmatize his ill conditions. Shakespeare expreffes the fame thought in The Comedy of Errors:

"He is deformed, crooked, &c.
"Stigmatical in making,

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But as the speaker rifes in her refentment, she expresses this contemptuous thought much more openly, and condemns him to a ftill worse state of flavery:

"Sin, death, and hell, have fet their marks on him." Only, in the first line, her mention of his moral condition infinuates her reflections on his deformity: and, in the last, her mention of his deformity infinuates her reflections on his moral condition: And thus he has taught her to fcold in all the elegance of figure. WARBURTON.

2 Thou rag of honour, &c.] We should certainly read :

Thou wrack of honour

Glo. Margaret.

2. Mar. Richard!

Glo. Ha?

2. Mar. I call thee not.

Glo. I cry thee mercy then; for I did think, That thou had'it call'd me all these bitter names. 2. Mar. Why, fo I did; but look'd for no reply. O, let me make the period to my curse.

Glo. 'Tis done by me; and ends in-Margaret. Queen. Thus have you breath'd your curse against yourself.

2. Mar. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune 3!

4

Why ftrew'st thou fugar on that bottled spider,
Whofe deadly web enfnareth thee about?
Fool, fool! thou whet'ft a knife to kill thyself.
The day will come, that thou fhalt with for me
To help thee curfe this pois'nous bunch-back'd toad.
Haft. Falfe-boding woman, end thy frantick curfe;
Left, to thy harm, thou move our patience.

2. Mar. Foul fhame upon you! you have all mov'd

mine.

i. e. the ruin and deftruction of honour; which, I fuppofe, was first writ rack, and then further corrupted to rag. WARBURTON.

Rag is, in my opinion, right, and intimates that much of his honour is torn away. Patch is, in the same manner, a contemp tuous appellation. JOHNSON.

This word of contempt is used again in Timon :

"If thou wilt curfe, thy father, that poor rag,
"Must be the subject.”

Again, in this play:

3

"Thefe over-weening rags of France." STEEVENS. -flourish of my fortune!] This expreffion is likewise used

by Maffinger in the Great Duke of Florence:

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"As flourishings of fortune." STEEVens.

bottled fpider,] A fpider is called bottled, because, like other infects, he has a middle flender and a belly protuberant. Richard's form and venom, make her liken him to a spider.

VOL. VII.

D.

JOHNSON.

Riv.

Riv. Were you well ferv'd, you would be taught your duty.

2. Mar. To ferve me well, you all should do me duty,

Teach me to be your queen, and you my fubjects: O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty. Dorf. Difpute not with her, fhe is lunatic.

Q. Mar. 5 Peace, mafter marquis, you are malapert; Your fire-new ftamp of honour is fcarce current : O, that your young nobility could judge,

What 'twere to lose it, and be miserable!

They that ftand high, have many blafts to fhake them;

And, if they fall, they dafh themselves to pieces. Glo. Good counfel, marry ;-learn it, learn it, marquis.

Dorf. It touches you, my lord, as much as me. Glo. Ay, and much more: But I was born fo high, Our aiery buildeth in the cedar's top,

And dallies with the wind, and fcorns the fun.

2. Mar. And turns the fun to fhade;-alas! alas!Witnefs my fun, now in the fhade of death; Whose bright out-fhining beams thy cloudy wrath Hath in eternal darkness folded up.

5 Peace, mafter marquis; you are malapert; &c.] Shakespeare may either allude to the late creation of the marquis of Dorfet, or to the institution of the title of marquis here in England, as a fpecial dignity, which was no older than Richard II. Robert Vere, earl of Oxford, was the first, who, as a diftinct dignity, received the title of marquis, 1ft December, anno nono Richardi fecundi. See Afhmole's Hiftory of the Order of the Garter, p. 456. GRAY.

Peace, mafter marquis, you are malapert ;] As near a hundred years had elapfed between the time when the title of marquis was first inftituted in England, and the creation of this Thomas Grey marquis of Dorfet, I think Shakespeare can hardly allude to the inftitution of the dignity itself; much less could he call it a fire-new ftamp of honour fearce current. Robert Vere, the first created marquis received this new title, A. D. 1386. Thomas Grey was created marquis of Dorset, A. D. 1476. PERCY.

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