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Clarence hath not another day to live:

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

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 fo much for love,
As for another fecret clofe intent,

By marrying her, which I muft reach unto.
-But yet I run before my horfe to market:
Clarence still breathes; Edward ftill lives, and reigns;
When they are gone, then muft I count my gains.

SCENE II.

Another Street.

[Exit.

Enter the coarfe of Henry the fixth, with halberds to guard it, Lady Anne being the mourner.

Anne. Set down, fet down your honourable load,If honour may be shrouded in a hearfe,Whilft I awhile obfequiously lament The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster. -Poor key-cold figure of a holy king! Pale afhes 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 flaughter'd fon; Stabb'd by the felf-fame hand, that made thefe wounds.

Lo, in, thefe windows, that let forth thy life,

-obfequiously lament] Obfequious, in this inftance means

A&

funereal. So in Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 2.

To do obfequious forrow. STEEVENS.

I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes :-
O curfed be the hand that made these holes!
Curfed the heart, that had the heart to do it!
Curfed 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, fpiders, toads,
Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives!
If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Whofe ugly and unnatural aspect

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 towards Chertley with your holy load,
Taken from Paul's to be interred there:

And still, as you are weary of this weight,
Reft you, while I lament king Henry's coarse.
Enter Richard.

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

Glo. Villains, fet down the coarse, or, by faint Paul, I'll make a coarse of him that difobeys. 9

Gen. My lord, ftand back, and let the coffin pafs.
Glo. Unmanner'd dog! ftand thou when I com-
mand:

Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,
Or, by faint Paul, I'll strike thee to my foot,
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.
Anne. What, do you tremble? are you all afraid?

I'll make a coarse of him that disobeys.] So in Hamlet,
I'll make a ghost of him that lets me. JOHNSON.

Alas,

Alas, I blame you not, for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.
-Avant, thou dreadful minifter of hell!
Thou had'ft but power over his mortal body,
His foul thou canst not have; therefore be gone.
Glo. Sweet faint, for charity, be not fo curft.
Anne. Foul devil! for God's fake, hence, and
trouble us not,

For thou haft made the happy earth thy hell,
Fill'd it with curfing cries, and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries:-'
Oh, gentlemen, fee, fee! dead Henry's wounds
Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh!-
Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity;
For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells.
Thy deeds inhuman and unnatural,

Provoke this deluge moft unnatural.

O God! which this blood mad'ft, revenge his death! O earth! which this blood drink'ft, revenge his death! Either heaven, with lightning ftrike the murtherer

dead,

Or earth, gape open wide, and eat him quick;
As thou doft swallow up this good king's blood,
Which his hell-govern'd arm hath butchered!

Glo. Lady, you know no rules of charity,
Which renders good for bad, bleffings for curses.

1-pattern of thy butcheries :] Pattern is inftance, or example. JOHNSON.

2-see, dead Henry's wounds,

Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afrefp.]

It is a tradition very generally received, that the murdered body bleeds on the touch of the murderer. This was fo much believed by fir Kenelm Digby, that he has endeavoured to explain the reafon. JOHNSON.

Anne.

Anne. Villain, thou know'ft nor law of God nor

man;

No beast fo fierce, but knows fome touch of pity.
Glo. But I know none, and therefore am no beast.
Anne. O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!
Glo. More wonderful, when angels are fo angry.
Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these fuppofed evils, to give me leave,
By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

Anne. Vouchfafe, diffus'd infection of a man,
For thefe known evils, but to give me leave,
By circumftance, to curfe thy curfed felf.

Glo. Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

Anne. Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst .make

No excuse current, but to hang thyfelf.

Glo. By fuch defpair, I fhould accufe myself.
Anne. And by despairing fhalt thou ftand excus'd,
For doing worthy vengeance on thyself,
That didit unworthy flaughter upon others.
Glo. Say, that I flew them not?
Anne. Then fay, they were not slain :

But dead they are, and, devilish flave, by thee.
Glo. I did not kill your husband.

Anne. Why, then he is alive.

Glo. Nay, he is dead; and flain by Edward's hands. Anne. In thy foul throat thou ly'ft. Queen Margaret faw

Thy murderous faulchion fmoaking in his blood;

3 Vouchsafe, diffus'd infection of a man,] I believe, diffus'd in this place fignifies irregular, uncouth; fuch is its meaning in other paffages of Shakespeare. JOHNSON.

Diffus'dinfection of a man may mean, thou that art as dangerous as a peftilence, that infects the air by its diffufion. Diffus'd may, however, mean irregular. So in The Merry Wives, &c.

-rush at once

With fome diffused fong.

STEEVENS.

The

The which thou once didft bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat afide the point.

Glo. I was provoked by her fland'rous tongue,
That laid their guilt upon my guiltlefs fhoulders.
Anne. Thou waft provoked by thy bloody mind,
That never dreamt on aught but butcheries:
Didft thou not kill this king?

Glo. I grant ye.

Anne. Doft grant me, hedge-hog? then, God grant

me too,

Thou may'st be damned for that wicked deed!
O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.

Glo. The fitter for the king of heaven, that hath him.

Anne. He is in heaven, where thou fhalt never.come. Glo. Let him thank me, that holp to fend him thither :

For he was fitter for that place than earth.

Anne. And thou unfit for any place, but hell.
Glo. Yes, one place elfe, if you will hear me name it.
Anne. Some dungeon.

Glo. Your bed-chamber.

Anne. Ill reft betide the chamber where thou lyeft!
Glo. So will it, madam, till I lie with you.
Anne. I hope fo.

Glo. I know fo.-But, gentle lady Anne,-
To leave this keen encounter of our wits,
And fall fomewhat into a flower method;-
Is not the caufer of the timeless deaths

Of these Plantagenets, Henry, and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

Anne. Thou waft the cause, and most accurs’d

effect.

Glo.

That laid their guilt- -] The crime of my brothers. He has just charged the murder of lady Anne's husband upon Edward. JOHNSON.

Thou waft the cause, and moft accurs'd effect.] Effect, for execu

tioner.

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