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 12; fair, and not jealous:
We say, that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
A cherry lip,

A bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue;

And that 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 13

Glo. We are the queen's abjects 14, and must obey.

12 This odd expression was preceded by others equally singular, expressing what we now call an advanced age.' Thus in Arthur Hall's translation of the first book of Homer's Iliad, 1581:

'In Grea's forme, the good handmaid, nowe wel ystept
in yeares.'

And in Spenser's Faerie Queene, book v. can. 6:

'Well shot in years he seem'd.'

Warton has justly observed that, by an imperceptible progression from one kindred sense to another, words at length obtain a meaning entirely foreign to their etymology.'

13 This and the three preceding speeches were probably all designed for prose. It is at any rate impossible that this line could have been intended for metre.

14 i.e. the lowest of her subjects. This substantive is found in Psalm xxxv. 15:-'Yea the very abjects came together against

Brother, farewell: I will unto the king;

And whatsoever 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 15:

Mean time, have patience.

Clar.

I must perforce; farewell. [Exeunt CLARENCE, BRAKENBURY, and Guard.

Glo. Go, tread the path that thou shalt ne'er re

turn,

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?
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.

me unawares, making mouths at me, and ceased not.' Again, in
Chapman's translation of Homer's Odyssey, 21st book:-
Whither? rogue! abject! wilt thou bear from us
That bow propos'd?'

Again in the same author's version of Homer's Hymn to Venus:-
That thou wilt never let me live to be

An abject, after so divine degree

Taken in fortune.'

15 He means, or else be imprisoned in your stead.' To lie signified anciently to reside, or remain in a place, as appears by many instances in these volumes.

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 16,
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!

For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter 17: What though I kill'd her husband, and her father?

16 A mew was a place in which falcons were kept; and being confined therein, while moulting, was metaphorically used for any close place or places of confinement. The verb to mew was formed from the substantive. Thus in Albumazar:

'Stand forth, transform'd Antonio, fully mew'd

From brown soar feathers of dull yeomanry

To the glorious bloom of gentry.'

17 Lady Anne, the betrothed widow of Edward prince of Wales. See King Henry VI. Part III.

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 obsequiously1 lament The untimely fall of virtuous LancasterPoor 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,

2

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!

1 Funereal. Thus in Hamlet, Act i. Sc. 2:

To do obsequious sorrow.'

2 A key, on account of the coldness of the metal of which it is composed, was often employed to stop any slight bleeding. The epithet is common to many old writers. Thus in The Country Girl, by T. B. 1647 :

'The key-cold figure of a man.'

Shakspeare employs it again in the Rape of Lucrece :-
And then in key-cold Lucrece' bleeding stream
He falls,'

Lo, in these windows, that let forth thy life,
I
pour
the helpless balm of my poor eyes:
O, cursed be the hand that made these holes!
Cursed the heart, that had the heart to do it!
Cursed the blood, that let this blood from hence!
More direful hap betide that hated wretch,
That makes us wretched by the death of thee,
Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,
Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives!
If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Whose ugly and unnatural aspéct

May fright the hopeful mother at the view;
And that be heir to his unhappiness!
If ever he have wife, let her be made
More miserable by the death of him,

Than I am made by my young lord, and thee!——
Come, now, toward Chertsey with your holy load,
Taken from Paul's to be interred there;

And, still as you are weary of the weight,
Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry's corse.

[The Bearers take up the Corpse, and advance.

Enter GLOSTER.

Glo. Stay you, that bear the corse, and set it down. Anne. What black magician conjures up this fiend, To stop devoted charitable deeds?

Glo. Villains, set down the corse; or, by Saint
Paul,

I'll make a corse of him that disobeys *.

1 Gent. My lord, stand back, and let the coffin pass. Glo. Unmanner'd dog! stand thou when I command:

3 i. e. disposition to mischief. Thus in Much Ado About Nothing:- Dreamed of unhappiness and waked herself with laugh ing.'

'I'll make a ghost of him that lets me.' Hamlet.