Is prisoner to the foe; his state usurp❜d; Without quitting the spot where we may imagine these discourses to have been held in the agony of hope and fear, let us carry forward our thoughts to the latter part of the same day. The persons you must now suppose before you, are king Edward, Clarence, Gloster, and others of that party, who advance with colours flying, and sound of trumpets; and as prisoners, brought in guarded, are queen Margaret, Oxford, and Somerset: king Edward speaks. [K. Edward.] Here is the period of tumultuous broils. [P. Edward.] Speak like a subject, proud, ambitious York! Margaret recovers and screams. [Margaret.] O traitors! murderers! O Ned, sweet Ned! Speak to thy mother, boy: canst thou not speak? Butchers and villains! bloody cannibals! They that stabb'd Cæsar stabb'd a man: you three [K. Edward.] Away with her; go bear her hence perforce. [here. [Margaret.] Nay, never bear me hence; despatch me Here sheath thy sword; I'll pardon thee my death: What, wilt thou not? then, Clarence, do it thou. [Clarence.] By heaven, I will not do thee so much ease. [Margaret.] Good Clarence, do; I pray thee, Clarence, do. [Clarence.] Didst thou not hear me swear I would not do it? [Margaret.] Ay, but thou usest to forswear thyself: 'Twas sin before, but now 'tis charity. What! wilt thou not? Where is that devil butcher, [K. Edward.] Away, I say: I charge you bear her hence. [a pause.] So; now we breathe: Clarence, where 's Richard gone? [Clarence.] To London all in post; and, as I guess, To make a bloody supper in the Tower. [K. Edward.] He's sudden, if a thing comes in his head. Now march we hence; discharge the common sort With pay and thanks, and let's away to London, And see our gentle queen how well she fares: By this I hope she hath a son for me. Our next scene is a room in the Tower, where king Henry is discovered, sitting with a book in his hand, the lieutenant attending: Gloster has reached London with his best speed from Tewkesbury: but not sooner than the intelligence of the battle, and the circumstances of young Edward's death he enters and speaks. [Gloster.] Good day, my lord: what, at your book so hard? [Henry.] Ay, my good lord: my lord, I should.say rather; 'Twere sin to flatter: therefore not good lord. [Gloster.] Friend, leave us to ourselves; we must confer. The lieutenant quits the room. [Henry.] So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf! [Henry.] Where thieves without controlment rob and kill, By whom my young one bled, was caught, and kill'd [Gloster.] Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete, That taught his son the office of a fowl! And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd. [Henry.] Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not thy words: My breast can better brook thy dagger's point, Than can my ears that piercing history. But wherefore dost thou come ?-is 't for my life? [Gloster.] Think'st thou I am an executioner? [Henry.] If murdering innocents be executing, Then thou 'rt the worst of executioners. [Gloster.] Thy son I kill'd for his presumption. [Henry.] Hadst thou been kill'd when thou didst first preThou hadst not liv'd to kill a son of mine: But thou wast born to massacre mankind. [sume, How many old men's sighs and widows' groans, [Gloster.] I'll hear no more ;-die, prophet, in thy speech: For this among the rest was Richard born. [Henry.] Oh, and for much more murder after this ' [Gloster.] What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster By those that wish the downfal of our house! Down, down to hell; and say I sent thee thither,— That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog. Be resident in men like one another, Clarence, beware! thou keep'st me from the light: THE ENMITIES AND MACHINATIONS PREVALENT IN THE COURT OF EDWARD IV., WHEN THE CIVIL WARS HAD CEASED; INDICATED BY SCENES SUPPOSED TO OCCUR IN A STREET OF LONDON; AT THE PALACE; IN THE TOWER; AND AGAIN AT THE PALACE. HISTORICAL MEMORANDA. Eleven years elapsed between the battle of Tewkesbury and the death of Edward IV. The chief of the public acts during this time was an invasion of France, which ended in a treaty. Margaret of Anjou was ransomed, and spent the remainder of her days in privacy at the court of her relations abroad. Meanwhile, the English court was filled with animosities; and tradition has ascribed the chief of them to the machinations of Richard duke of Gloster. Clarence was killed in the Tower in 1478. Edward died in 1482. It was in the intermediate time, between the battle of Tewkesbury and the death of Edward, that the duke of Gloster married Anne, Warwick's second daughter, who had been betrothed to Prince Edward of Lancaster. The poet, in passages which will be omitted, gives a different impression of the fact. We are to imagine a street in London: Richard duke of Gloster enters, and, while waiting for his brother Clarence, whom he expects to be brought this way, engages in soliloquy: [Gloster.] Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by the sun of York; Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths; |