Glo. Your beauty was the cause of that effect;
Your beauty, which did haunt me in my fleep,
To undertake the death of all the world,
So I might live one hour in your fweet bofom.
Anne. If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
Thefe nails fhould rend that beauty from my cheeks.
Glo. These eyes could not endure fweet beauty's
wreck.

You should not blemish it, if I ftood by:
As all the world is cheered by the fun,
So I by that; it is my day, my life.

Anne. Black night o'er-fhade thy day, and death thy life!

Glo. Curfe not thy felf, fair creature; thou art both.
Anne. I would I were, to be reveng'd on thee.
Glo. It is a quarrel moft unnatural,

To be reveng'd on him that loveth thee.
Anne. It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
To be reveng❜d on him that kill'd my husband.
Glo. He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
Did it to help thee to a better husband.

Anne. His better doth not breathe upon the earth.
Glo. He lives, that loves you better than he could.
Anne. Name him.

Glo. Plantagenet.

Anne. Why that was he.

Glo. The felf-fame name, but one of better nature.

tioner. He afks, was not the caufer as ill as the execuiqner? She anfwers, Thou wast both. But, for caufer, ufing the word cause, this led her to the word eff &, for execution, or executioner. But the Oxford editor, troubling himself with nothing of this, will make a fine oratorical period of it.

Thou waft the cause. And most accurs'd th' effect!
WARBURTON.

I cannot but be rather of fir T. Hanmer's opinion than Dr. Warburton's, because effect is used immediately in its common fenfe, in answer to this line. JOHNSON.

Anne.

Anne. Where is he?

Glo. Here: [She fpits at bim.] Why doft thou fpit

at me?

6

Anne. Would it were mortal poifon for thy fake !
Glo. Never came poifon from fo fweet a place,
Anne. Never hung poison on a fouler toad.
-Out of my fight! thou doft infect mine eyes.
Glo. Thine eyes, fweet lady, have infected mine.
Anne. Would they were bafilifks, to strike thee dead!
Glo. I would they were, that I might die at once;
For now they kill me with a living death.
Thofe eyes of thine from mine have drawn falt tears,
Sham'd their afpects with ftore of childish drops:
7 Thefe eyes, which never fhed remorseful tear,-
Not when my father York, and Edward wept,
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made,
When black-fac'd Clifford fhook his fword at hims
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the fad ftory of my father's death;
And twenty times made paufe to fob and weep,
That all the ftanders-by had wet their cheeks,
Like trees bedafh'd with rain in that fad time,
My manly eyes did fcorn an humble tear;
And what these forrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never fued to friend, nor enemy;

My tongue could never learn fweet foothing word
But now thy beauty is propos'd my fee,

My proud heart fues, and prompts my tongue to fpeak. [She looks fcornfully at him.

-they kill me with a living death.] In imitation of this paffage, and, I fuppofe, of a thoufand more, Pope writes,

a living death I bear,

Says Dapperavit, and funk befide his chair.

JOHNSON.

7 Thefe eyes, which never, &c.] The twelve following beautiful lines added after the first editions.

POPE.

They were added with many more. JOHNSON.

Teach

Teach not thy lip fuch fcorn; for it was made
For kiffing, lady, not for fuch contempt.
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,

Lo! here I lend thee this fharp-pointed fword;
Which, if thou please to hide in this true breast,
And let the foul forth that adoreth thee,

I lay it naked to the deadly ftroke.

And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

[He lays bis breaft open, she offers at it with bis fword. Nay, do not paufe; for I did kill king Henry;'But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me. Nay, now dispatch: 'twas I that stabb'd

ward;

But 'twas thy heavenly face that fet me on.

young

Ed

[She lets fall the fword. Take up the sword again, or take up me.

Anne. Arife, diffembler, though I wish thy death,

I will not be thy executioner.

Glo. Then bid me kill myfelf, and I will do it.
Anne. I have already.

Glo. That was in thy rage:

Speak it again, and, even with thy word,

This hand, which for thy love, did kill thy love,
Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love;
To both their deaths fhalt thou be acceffary.
Anne. I would I knew thy heart.
Glo. 'Tis figur'd in my tongue.
Anne. I fear me, both are falfe.

Glo. Then never man was true.

Anne. Well, well, put up your fword.

Glo. Say then, my peace is made.

Anne. That fhalt thou know hereafter.

Glo. But fhall I live in hope?

Anne. All men, I hope, live so.

But 'twas thy beauty] Shakespeare countenances the obfervation, that no woman can ever be offended with the mention of her beauty. JOHNSON.

VOL. VII.

C

Gla.

Glo. Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

Anne. To take is not to give.

[She puts on the ring,

Glo. Look how my ring encompaffeth thy finger, Even fo thy breaft inclofeth my poor heart: Wear both of them, for both of them are thine. And if thy poor devoted fuppliant may But beg one favour at thy gracious hand, Thou doft confirm his happiness for ever. Anne. What is it?

9

Glo. That it may please you leave these fad designs To him, that hath more caufe to be a mourner ; And presently repair to Crosby-place: Where, after I have folemnly interr'd, Chertsey-monaft'ry, this noble king, And wet his grave with my repentant tears, I will with all expedient duty fee you. For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you, Grant me this boon.

At

Anne. With all my heart; and much it joys me too, To see you are become fo penitent.

Treffel and Berkley, go along with me.

Glo. Bid me farewell.

Anne. 'Tis more than you deferve: But fince you teach me how to flatter you, ' Imagine, I have faid farewell already.

[Exeunt two with Anne.

Glo. Take up the coarse, firs.

Gen. Towards Chertfey, noble lord?

-Crosby-place:] A houfe near Bifhopfgate-freet, belonging

to the duke of Gloucefter. JOHNSON.

Imagine, I have faid farewell already.] Cibber, who altered Rich. III. for the ftage, was fo thoroughly convinced of the ridiculoufness and improbability of this fcene, that he thought himfelf obliged to make Treffel say,

When future chronicles shall speak of this,
They will be thought romance, not biflony.

STEEVENS.

Glo.

Glo. No, to White-Fryars; there attend my [Exeunt with the coarse. Was ever woman in this humour woo'd?

coming.

Was ever woman in this humour won?

I'll have her, but I will not keep her long.
What! I, that kill'd her husband and his father,
To take her in her heart's extreameft hate;
With curfes in her mouth, tears in her eyes,
The bleeding witness of her hatred by:

With God, her confcience, and these bars against me,
And I no friends to back my fuit withal,
But the plain devil, and diffembling looks:
And yet to win her, all the world to nothing!
Ha!

Hath fhe forgot already that brave prince,

Edward, her lord, whom I, fome three months fince,
Stabb'd in my angry mood, at Tewksbury?
A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,

* Fram'd in the prodigality of nature,

Young, wife, and valiant, and, no doubt, right royal,3
The fpacious world cannot again afford :
And will the yet abase her eyes on me,

Fram'd in the prodigality of nature.] i. e. when nature was in a prodigal or lavish mood. WARBURTON.

and, no doubt, right royal,] Of the degree of royalty belonging to Henry the fixth there could be no doubt, nor could Richard have mentioned it with any fuch hefitation; he could not indeed very properly allow him royalty. I believe we should read,

and, no doubt, right loyal.

That is, true to her bed. He enumerates the reasons for which fhe should love him. He was young, wife, and valiant; these were apparent and indifputable excellencies. He then mentions another not lefs likely to endear him to his wife, but which he had lefs opportunity of knowing with certainty, and, no doubt right loyal. JOHNSON.

Richard, means only full of all the noble properties of a king. No doubt, right royal, may, however, be ironically spoken, aliuding to the incontinence of Margaret. STEEVENS.