How that the guilty kindred of the queen
Look'd pale, when they did hear of Clarence' death?
O! they did urge it ftill unto the king:

God will revenge it. Come, lords; will you go,
To comfort Edward with our company?

Buck. We wait upon your grace.

[Exeunt.

Enter the Dutchess of York, with the two children of Clarence.

Son. Good grandam, tell us, is our father dead?
Dutch. No, boy.

Daugh. Why do you weep fo oft? and beat your
breaft?

And cry,-O Clarence, my unhappy fon!

Son. Why do you look on us, and shake your head, And call us-orphans, wretches, caft-aways, If that our noble father be alive?

Dutch. My pretty coufins, you mistake me both; I do lament the fickness of the king,

As loth to lose him, not your father's death;
It were loft forrow, to wail one that's loft.

Son. Then, grandam, you conclude that he is dead.
The king mine uncle is to blame for this:
God will revenge it; whom I will importune
With earnest prayers, all to that effect.
Daugh. And fo will I.

Dutch. Peace, children, peace! the king doth love you well:

Incapable and shallow innocents,

You cannot guess who caus'd your father's death. Son. Grandam, we can: for my good uncle Glofter Told me, the king, provok'd to't by the queen,

Devis'd impeachments to imprison him :
And when my uncle told me fo, he wept,
And pitied me, and kindly kifs'd my cheek;
Bade me rely on him, as on my father,
And he would love me dearly as his child.
Dutch. Ah, that deceit fhould steal fuch gentle
fhapes,

And with a virtuous vizor hide deep vice!
He is my fon, ay, and therein my shame,
Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.

Son. Think you, my uncle did diffemble, gran-
dam?

Dutch. Ay, boy.

Son. I cannot think it. Hark! what noife is this?

Enter the Queen, diftractedly; Rivers, and Dorfet, after ber.

Queen. Ah! who fhall hinder me to wail and weep? To chide my fortune, and torment myself? I'll join with black defpair against my foul, And to myfelf become an enemy.

Dutch. What means this fcene of rude impatience? Queen. To make an act of tragic violence :Edward, my lord, thy fon, our king, is dead.— Why grow the branches, when the root is gone? Why wither not the leaves, that want their fap?— If you will live, lament; if dic, be brief; That our fwift-winged fouls may catch the king's; Or, like obedient fubjects, follow him

To his new kingdom of perpetual reft.

Dutch. Ah, fo much intereft have I in thy forrow, As I had title in thy noble hufband!

I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
And liv'd by looking on his images :

But now, two mirrors of his princely femblance

-his images:] The children by whom he was repre

fented. JOHNSON.

Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death;
And I for comfort have but one falfe glass,
That grieves me when I fee my fhame in him.
Thou art a widow; yet thou art a mother,
And haft the comfort of thy children left thee:
But death hath snatch'd my husband from mine arms,
And pluck'd two crutches from my feeble hands,
Clarence, and Edward. O, what cause have I,
(Thine being but a moiety of my grief)
To over-go thy plaints, and drown thy cries?
Son. Ah, aunt! [To the Queen.] you wept not for
our father's death;

How can we aid you with our kindred tears?
Daugh. Our fatherless distress was left unmoan'd,
Your widow dolour likewife be unwept !

Queen. Give me no help in lamentation,

2

I am not barren to bring forth laments :
All fprings reduce their currents to mine eyes,
That I, being govern'd by the watry moon,
May fend forth plenteous tears to drown the world!
Ah, for my husband, for my dear lord Edward!

..

Chil. Ah, for our father, for our dear lord Clarence! Dutch. Alas, for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!

Queen. What ftay had I, but Edward? and he's

gone.

Chil. What ftay had we, but Clarence? and he's

gone.

Dutch. What stays had I, but they? and they are

gone.

Queen. Was never widow, had fo dear a lofs. Chil. Were never orphans, had fo dear a loss. Dutch. Was never mother, had fo dear a lofs. Alas! I am the mother of these griefs;

2

being govern'd by the watry mcon,] That I may live hereafter under the influence of the moon, which governs the tides, and by the help of that influence drown the world. introduction of the moon is not very natural. JOHNSON.

The

Their woes are parcell'd, mine are general.
She for an Edward weeps, and fo do I ;
I for a Clarence weep, fo doth not fhe:
These babes for Clarence weep, and fo do I;
I for an Edward weep, fo do not they :
Alas! you three, on me, threefold diftrefs'd,
Pour all your tears; I am your forrow's nurie,
And I will pamper it with lamentations.

Dor. Comfort, dear mother; God is much dif
pleas'd,

That you take with unthankfulness his doing:
In common worldly things, 'tis call'd-ungrateful,
With dull unwillingness to repay a debt,

Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
Much more, to be thus oppofite with heaven,
For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

Riv. Madam, bethink you, like a careful mo-
ther,

Of the young prince your fon : fend straight for him,
Let him be crown'd; in him your comfort lives:
Drown defperate forrow in dead Edward's grave,
And plant your joys in living Edward's throne.

Enter Glofter, Buckingham, Stanley, Haftings, and Ratcliff.

Glo. Sifter, have comfort: all of us have caufe To wail the dimming of our fhining star; But none can cure their harms by wailing them.Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy,

I did not fee your grace :-Humbly on my

I crave your bleffing.

knee

Dutch. God bless thee; and put meekness in thy breast,

Love, charity, obedience, and true duty!

Glo. Amen; and make me die a good old man!That is the butt-end of a mother's bleffing; [Afide. I marvel, that her grace did leave it out.

Buck

Buck. You cloudy princes, and heart-forrowing peers,

That bear this mutual heavy load of moan,
Now chear each other in each other's love :
Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
We are to reap the harveft of his fon.

The broken rancour of your high-fwoln hearts,
But lately splinted, knit, and join'd together,
Muft gently be preferv'd, cherish'd, and kept:
Me feemeth good, that, with fome little train,
3 Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fetch'd
Hither to London, to be crown'd our king.

Riv. Why with fome little train, my lord of Buckingham?

Buck. Marry, my lord, left, by a multitude, The new-heal'd wound of malice fhould break out; Which would be fo much the more dangerous, By how much the estate is green, and yet ungovern'd: Where every horse bears his commanding rein, And may direct his courfe as please himself, As well the fear of harm, as harm apparent, In my opinion, ought to be prevented.

Glo. I hope, the king made peace with all of us; And the compact is firm, and true, in me. Riv. And fo in me; and fo, I think, in all: Yet, fince it is but green, it fhould be put To no apparent likelihood of breach, Which, haply, by much company might be urg'd: Therefore I fay, with noble Buckingham, That it is meet fo few fhould fetch the prince.

3 Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fetch'd] Edward the young prince, in his father's life time, and at his demife, kept his houfhold at Ludlow, as prince of Wales; under the governance of Antony Woodville, earl of Rivers, his uncle by the mother's fide. The intention of his being sent thither was to fee justice done in the Marches; and, by the authority of his prefence, to restrain the Welshmen, who were wild, diffolute, and ill-difpofed, from their accustomed murders and outrages. Vid. Hall, Holinfhed, &c. THEOBALD,

Haft.