Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,"
By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,
To set my brother Clarence, and the king,
In deadly hate the one against the other:
And, if king Edward be as true and just,
As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,
This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up;
About a prophecy, which says that G

Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.

Dive, thoughts, down to my soul! here Clarence comes.

Enter CLARENCE, guarded, and BRAKENBURY.

Brother, good day: What means this armed guard
That waits upon your grace?

His majesty,

Clar.
Tendering my person's safety, hath appointed
This conduct to convey me to the Tower.

Glo. Upon what cause?

Clar.

Because my name is George.

Glo. Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours;
He should, for that, commit your godfathers:
O, belike, his majesty hath some intent,
That you shall be new-christen'd in the Tower.
But what's the matter, Clarence? may I know?
Cla. Yea, Richard, when I know; for, I protest,
As yet I do not: But, as I can learn,
He hearkens after prophecies, and dreams;
And from the cross-row plucks the letter G,
And says-a wizard told him, that by G
His issue disinherited should be;

And, for my name of George begins with G,
It follows in his thought, that I am he:
These, as I learn, and such like toys as these,
Have mov'd his highness to commit me now.

7 – inductions dangerous,] Preparations for mischief. The induction is preparatory to the action of the play.

8

toys-] Fancies, freaks of imagination.

Glo. Why, this it is, when men are rul'd by wo

men:

"Tis not the king, that sends you to the Tower;
My lady Grey, his wife, Clarence, 'tis she,
That tempers him to this extremity.

Was it not she, and that good man of worship,
Antony Woodeville, her brother there,

That made him send lord Hastings to the Tower;
From whence this present day he is deliver❜d?
We are not safe, Clarence, we are not safe.

Clar. By heaven, I think, there is no man secure,
But the queen's kindred, and night-walking heralds
That trudge betwixt the king and mistress Shore.
Heard you not, what an humble suppliant
Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?
Glo. Humbly complaining to her deity

Got my lord chamberlain his liberty.
I'll tell you what, — I think, it is our way,
If we will keep in favour with the king,
To be her men, and wear her livery:
The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,"
Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen,
Are mighty gossips in this monarchy.

Brak. I beseech your graces both to pardon me;
His majesty hath straitly given in charge,

That no man shall have private conference,
Of what degree soever, with his brother.

Glo. Even so? an please your worship, Brakenbury,
You may partake of any thing we say :
We speak no treason, man; - We

say,

the king
Is wise, and virtuous; and his noble queen
Well struck in years; fair, and not jealous:
We say, that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
A cherry lip,

A bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue;

9 The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,] That is, the queen and Shore.

+And the queen's kindred are made gentlefolks : How say you, sir? can you deny all this?

Brak. With this, my lord, myself have naught to do. Glo. Naught to do with mistress Shore? I tell thee,

fellow,

He that doth naught with her, excepting one,
Were best to do it secretly, alone.
Brak. What one, my lord?

Glo. Her husband, knave:- Would'st thou betray me ?

Brak. I beseech your grace to pardon me; and withal, Forbear your conference with the noble duke.

Clar. We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey..

Glo. We are the queen's abjects', and must obey.
Brother, farewell : I will unto the king;
And whatsoe'er you will employ me in,-

Were it, to call king Edward's widow-sister, —
I will perform it, to enfranchise you.

Mean time, this deep disgrace in brotherhood,
Touches me deeper than you can imagine.
Clar. I know, it pleaseth neither of us well.
Glo. Well, your imprisonment shall not be long;
I will deliver you, or else lie for you:2

Mean time, have patience.

Clar.

I must perforce ; farewell. [Exeunt CLARENCE, BRAKENBURY, and Guard. Glo. Go, tread the path that thou shalt ne'er return, Simple, plain Clarence ! - I do love thee so,

That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven,
If heaven will take the present at our hands.
But who comes here? the new-deliver'd Hastings?

+ "And that the queen's," &c. - MALONE.

11

- the queen's abjects,] The most servile of her subjects, who must of course obey all her commands.

2

lie for you:] i. e. be imprisoned in your stead. To lie was anciently to reside, as appears by many instances in these volumes.

Enter HASTINGS.

Hast. Good time of day unto my gracious lord!
Glo. As much unto my good lord chamberlain !
Well are you welcome to this open air.

How hath your lordship brook'd imprisonment ? :
Hast. With patience, noble lord, as prisoners must :
But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks,
That were the cause of my imprisonment.

Glo. No doubt, no doubt; and so shall Clarence too;

For they, that were your enemies, are his,
And have prevail'd as much on him, as you.

Hast. More pity, that the eagle should be mew'd,3 While kites and buzzards prey at liberty.

Glo. What news abroad?

Hast. No news so bad abroad, as this at home;

The king is sickly, weak, and melancholy,

And his physicians fear him mightily.

Glo. Now, by Saint Paul, this news is bad indeed.

O, he hath kept an evil diet long,

And over-much consum'd his royal person;

'Tis very grievous to be thought upon.

What, is he in his bed?

Glo. Go you before, and I will follow you.

[Exit. HASTINGS.

He cannot live, I hope; and must not die,

Till George be pack'd with posthorse up to heaven.
I'll in, to urge his hatred more to Clarence,

With lies well steel'd with weighty arguments;
And, if I fail not in my deep intent,

Clarence hath not another day to live:

Which done, God take king Edward to his mercy,
And leave the world for me to bustle in!

3

should be mew'd,] A mew was the place of confinement where a hawk was kept till he had moulted.

an evil diet-] i, e. a bad regimen.

For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter:
What, though I kill'd her husband, and her father?
The readiest way to make the wench amends,
Is-to become her husband, and her father:
The which will I; not all so much for love,
As for another secret close intent,

By marrying her, which I must reach unto.
But yet I run before my horse to market:

Clarence still breathes; Edward still lives, and reigns; When they are gone, then must I count my gains.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

The same. Another Street.

Enter the Corpse of King HENRY the Sixth, borne in an open Coffin, Gentlemen bearing Halberds, to guard it; and Lady ANNE as Mourner.

Anne. Set down, set down your honourable load,
If honour may be shrouded in a hearse, —
Whilst I a while obsequiously lament 5
The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.-
Poor key-cold figure of a holy king!
Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster!
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood!
Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost,
To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughter'd son,

Stabb'd by the self-same hand that made these wounds! Lo, in these windows, that let forth thy life,

funereal.

obsequiously lament —] Obsequious, in this instance, means

6 key-cold-] A key, on account of the coldness of the metal of which it is composed, was anciently employed to stop any slight bleeding. The epithet is common to many old writers.