ACT II. SCENE I.

The Court.

Enter King Edward fick, the Queen, Dorfet, Rivers, Haftings, Buckingham, Grey, and others.

K. Edw. Why, fo:-now have I done a good day's work ;

You peers, continue this united league :
I every day expect an embaffage

From my Redeemer to redeem me hence;
And now in peace my foul fhall part to heaven,
Since I have made my friends at peace on earth.
Rivers, and Haftings, take each other's hand;
Diffemble not your hatred, fwear your love.

Riv. By heaven, my foul is purg'd from grudging hate;

And with my hand I feal my true heart's love.

Haft. So thrive I, as I truly fwear the like!

K. Edw. Take heed, you dally not before your king;

Left he, that is the fupreme King of kings,
Confound your hidden falfhood, and award
Either of you to be the other's end.

Haft. So profper I, as I fwear perfect love!
Riv. And I, as I love Haftings with my heart!
K. Edw. Madam, yourself are not exempt in this,-
Nor your fon Dorfet,-Buckingham, nor you ;-
You have been factious one against the other.
Wife, love lord Haftings, let him kiss your hand;
And what you do, do it unfeignedly.

Queen. There, Haftings;-I will never more remember

Our former hatred, So thrive I, and mine!

K. Edw. Dorfet, embrace him ;-Haftings, love lord marquis.

Dor.

Dor. This enterchange of love, I here proteft, Upon my part, fhall be inviolable.

Haft. And fo fwear I.

K. Edw. Now, princely Buckingham, feal thou this league

With thy embracements to my wife's allies,
And make me happy in your unity.

Buck. Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate Upon your grace, but with all duteous love

[To the Queen. Doth cherish you, and yours, God punish me With hate in those where I expect most love! When I have moft need to employ a friend, And moft affured that he is a friend, Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile, Be he unto me! this do I beg of heaven, When I am cold in love, to you, or yours.

[Embracing Rivers, &c.

K. Edw. A pleafing cordial, princely Buckingham,

Is this thy vow unto my fickly heart.

There wanteth now our brother Glofter here,
To make the bleffed period of this peace.

Buck. And, in good time, here comes the noble duke,

Enter Glofter.

Glo. Good morrow to my fovereign, king, and, queen ;

And, princely peers, a happy time of day!

K. Edw. Happy, indeed, as we have spent the day :

Brother, we have done deeds of charity;
Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate,
Between these swelling wrong-incenfed

peers.

Glo. A bleffed labour, my moft fovereign liege.
Among this princely heap, if any here,
By falfe intelligence, or wrong furmife,
Hold me a foe; if I unwittingly
Have aught committed that is hardly borne

By any in this presence, I defire.
To reconcile me to his friendly peace:
'Tis death to me, to be at enmity;

I hate it, and defire all good men's love.-
First, madam, I entreat true peace of you,
Which I will purchase with my duteous fervice ;-
Of you, my noble coufin Buckingham,

If ever any grudge were lodg'd between us ;-
Of you, lord Rivers, and, lord Grey, of you,
That all without defert have frown'd on me;-
Of you, lord Woodville,-and lord Scales, of you,-
Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen; indeed, of all.
I do not know that Englishman alive,

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With whom my foul is any jot at odds,
More than the infant that is born to-night;
I thank my God for my humility.

Queen. A holy-day this fhall be kept hereafter :-
I would to God, all ftrifes were well compounded.-
My fovereign lord, I do befeech your highness
To take our brother Clarence to your grace.

Glo. Why, madam, have I offer'd love for this, To be fo flouted in this royal prefence?

• I do not know &c.] Milton in his EIKONOKAAETHE, has this obfervation. "The poets, and fome English, have been in this point fo mindful of decorum, as to put never more pious words in the mouth of any person, than of a tyrant. I fhall not inftance an abftrufe author, wherein the king might be lefs converfant, but one whom we well know was the clofet-companion of thefe his folitudes, William Shakespeare; who introduced the perfon of Richard the Third, fpeaking in as high a strain of piety and mortification as is uttered in any paffage in this book, and fometimes to the fame fenfe and purpofe with fome words in this place; I intended, faith he, not only to oblige my friends, but my enemies. The like faith Richard, act II. fc. i:

I do not know that Englishman alive
With whom my foul is any jot at odds,
More than the infant that is born to-night;
I thank my God for my humility.

Other, stuff of this fort may be read throughout the tragedy, wherein the poet ufed not much licence in departing from the truth of history, which delivers him a deep diffembler, not of is affections only, but of religion." STEEVENS.

Who

Who knows not, that the gentle duke is dead? [They all start, You do him injury, to fcorn his corfe. K. Edw. Who knows not, he is dead! who knows, he is?

Queen. All-feeing heaven, what a world is this! Buck. Look I fo pale, lord Dorset, as the rest? Dor. Ay, my good lord; and no man in the prefence, But his red colour hath forfook his cheeks.

K. Edw. Is Clarence dead? the order was revers'd. Glo. But he, poor man, by your firft order died, And that a winged Mercury did bear; Some tardy cripple bore the countermand", That came too lag to fee him buried :— God grant, that fome, lefs noble, and less loyal, Nearer in bloody thoughts, and not in blood, Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did, And yet go current from suspicion!

Enter Lord Stanley.

Stan. A boon, my fovereign, for my fervice done! K. Edw. I pr'ythee, peace; my foul is full of for

row.

Stan. I will not rife, unless your highness hear me. K. Edw. Then fay at once, what is it thou request'st. Stan. 'The forfeit, fovereign, of my fervant's life; Who flew to-day a riotous gentleman,

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Lately attendant on the duke of Norfolk.

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K. Edz. 9 Have I a tongue to doom my brother's death,

And

fome tardy cripple &c.] This is an allufion to a proverbial expreffion which Drayton has verfified in the second canto of the Baron's Wars:

"Ill news hath wings, and with the wind doth go; "Comfort's a cripple, and comes ever flow." STEEVENS. The forfeit-] He means the remiffion of the forfeit.

JOHNSON. brother's death?] This lamentation £ 3

• Have I a tongue to doom my

is

And fhall that tongue give pardon to a flave?
My brother kill'd no man, his fault was thought,
And yet his punishment was bitter death.
Who fu'd to me for him? who, in my wrath,
Kneel'd at my feet, and bid me be advis❜ḍ?
Who fpoke of brotherhood? who spoke of love?
Who told me, how the poor foul did forfake
The mighty Warwick, and did fight for me?
Who told me, in the field at Tewksbury,
When Oxford had me down, he refcu'd me,
And faid, Dear brother, live, and be a king?
Who told me, when we both lay in the field,
Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
Even in his garments; and did give himself,
All thin and naked, to the numb-cold night?
All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
Sinfully pluck'd, and not a man of you
Had fo much grace to put it in my mind.
But, when your carters, or your waiting vaffals,
Have done a drunken flaughter, and defac'd
The precious image of our dear Redeemer,
You ftraight are on your knees for pardon, pardon;
And I, unjustly too, muft grant it you:-
But for my brother, not a man would speak,-
Nor I (ungracious) fpeak unto my felf
For him, poor foul. The proudeft of
you all
Have been beholden to him in his life;
Yet none of you would once plead for his life.-
O God! I fear, thy juftice will take hold

On me, and you, and mine, and yours, for this.-
Come, Haftings, help me to my clofet. Oh,

Poor Clarence!

[Exeunt King and Queen, Haftings, Rivers, Dorfet, and Grey. Glo. Thefe are the fruits of rafhnefs!-Mark'd

you not,

is very tender and pathetick. The recollection of the good qualities of the dead is very natural, and no lefs naturally does the king endeavour to communicate the crime to others. JOHNSON. ¡

How