Q.Mar. Why, so 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. Q.Eliz. Thus have you breath'd your curse against. yourself. Q.Mar.Poor painted queen,vain flourish of my fortune! Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider, 3 Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about? Fool, fool! thou whet'st a knife to kill thyself. The day will come, that thou shalt wish for me To help thee curse this pois'nous bunch-back toad. Hast. False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse; Lest, to thy harm, thou move our patience. Q.Mar. Foul shame upon you! you have all mov'd mine. Riv. Were you well serv'd, you would be taught your duty. Q.Mar. To serve me well, you all should do me duty, Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects: O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty. Dors. Dispute not with her, she is lunatic. Q.Mar. Peace, master marquis, you are malapert; Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current : O, that our young nobility could judge, What 'twere to lose it, and be miserable! They that stand high, have many blasts to shake them; And, if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces. Glo. Good counsel, marry;-learn it, learn it, marquis. Dors. It touches you, my lord, as much as me. Glo. Ay, and much more: But I was born so high, Our aiery buildeth in the cedar's top, And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun. Q.Mar. And turns the sun to shade ;-alas ! alas !— ` Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's nest :5- As it was won with blood, lost be it so ! [3] A bottled spider is a large, bloated, glossy spider; supposed to contain venom proportionate to its size. The expression occurs again in Act IV: "That bottled spider, that foul bunch-back'd toad." RITSON. [4] Her distress cannot prevent her quibbling. It may be here remarked, that the introduction of Margaret in this place, is against all historical evidence. She was ransomed and sent to France soon after Tewksbury fight, and there passed the remainder of her wretched life. RITSON. [5] An aiery is a hawk's or an eagle's nest. STEEV. Buck. Peace, peace, for shame, if not for charity. And shamefully by you my hopes are butcher'd. Q.Mar. O princely Buckingham, I kiss thy hand, Buck. Nor no one here; for curses never pass Look, when he fawns, he bites; and, when he bites, Have not to do with him, beware of him ; Sin, death, and hell, have set their marks on him ;6 Glo. What doth she say, my lord of Buckingham ? counsel ? And sooth the devil that I warn thee from? O, but remember this another day, When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow; [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. QEliz. I never did her any, to my knowledge. I was too hot to do some body good, That is too cold in thinking of it now. Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid; [6] Possibly Miiton took from hence the hint of his famous allegory. BLACKSTONE. [7] A frank is an old English word for a hog-sty. 'Tis possible he uses God pardon them that are the cause thereof! Riv. A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion, Enter CATESBY. [Aside. Cates. Madam, his majesty doth call for you,And for your grace,—and you, my noble lords. Q.Eli. Catesby, I come:-lords, will you go with me? Riv. Madam, we will attend 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 laid in darkness,- Namely, to Stanley, Hastings, Buckingham; With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ; But soft, here come my executioners.— How now, my hardy, stout resolved mates? 1 Mur.We are,my lord; and come to have the warrant, That we may be admitted where he is. Glo. Well thought upon, I have it here about me: [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 ; May move your hearts to pity, if you mark him. this metaphor to Clarence, in allusion to the crest of the family of York, which was a boar. Whereto relate those famous old verses on Richard III: "The cat, the rat, and Lovel the dog, Rule all England under a hog." He uses the same metaphor in the last scene of Act IV. [8] Scath is harm, mischief. STEEV. POPE: 1 Mur. 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 drop tears: I like you, lads ;--about your business straight ; 1 Mur. 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 to-day? 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 : Upon the hatches; thence we look'd toward England, Methought, that Gloster stumbled ; and, in falling, O Lord! methought, what pain it was to drown! All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea. Some lay in dead men's sculls; and, in those holes [9] Not an infidel. JOHNS. [1] Unvalued is here used for invaluable. MAL. Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept Clar. Methought, I had ; and often did I strive Brak. Awak'd you not with this sore agony? I pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood, The first that there did greet my stranger soul, Clar. O, Brakenbury, I have done these things,-That now give evidence against my soul,— [2] By seeming to gaze upon it; or, as we now say, ogle it. JOHNS. Ne'er saw, when cold Lucretia's mourning shadow [4] Fleeting is the same as changing sides. JOHNS. STEEV. |