I'll join with black despair against my foul,
And to myself become an enemy-

Dutch. What means this fcene of rude impatience ?. Queen. To make an act of tragick violence.

A

Edward, my Lord, thy fon, our King, is dead.
Why grow the branches, when the root is gone?
Why wither not the leaves, that want their fap?
If you will live, lament; if die, be brief;.
That our fwift-winged fouls may catch the King's;
Or, like obedient fubjects, follow him

To his new kingdom of perpetual rest.

Dutch. Ah! fo much int'reft have I in thy forrow,
As I had title to thy noble husband;

I have bewept a worthy husband's death, .
And liv'd by looking on his images.

But now two mirrors of his princely femblance
Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death;
And I for comfort have but one falfe glafs,
That grieves me when I.fee my shame in him.
Thou art a widow, yet thou art a mother;
And haft the comfort of thy children left:

But death hath fnatch'd my husband from mine arms,
And pluckt two crutches from my feeble hands,
Clarence and Edward. O, what cause have I,
(Thine being but a moiety of my grief)
To over-go thy plaints, and drown thy cries!

Son. Ay, aunt! you wept not for our father's death: How can we aid you with our kindred tears?

Daugh. Our fatherless distress was left unmoan'd,
Your widow.dolours likewife.be unwept!

Queen. Give me no help in lamentation,
I am not barren to bring forth complaints
All fprings reduce their currents to mine eyes,
That I, being govern'd by the wat'ry moon,
May fend forth plenteous tears to drown the world.
Ah, for my husband, for my dear Lord Edward!

Chil. Ah, for our father, for our dear Lord Clarence?~
Dutch. Alas, for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!
Queen, What stay had I, but Edward? and he's gone.
Chil. What Atay had we, but Clarence ?. and he's

gone

Dutch

Dutch. What stays had I but they? and they are gone:

Queen. Was never widow, had fo dear a lofs.
Chil. Were never orphans, had fo dear a lofs.
Dutch. Was never mother had fo dear a lofs.
Alas! I am the mother of thefe griefs,
Their woes are parcell'd, mine are general.
She for an Edward weeps, and fo do I;
I for a Clarence weep, fo doth not she;
These babes for Clarence weep, and fo do I.
Alas! you three, on me threefold diftreft
Pour all your tears; I am your forrow's nurse,
And I will pamper it with lamentations.

Dor. Comfort, dear mother; God is much difpleas'd, That with unthankfulness you take his doing.

In common worldly things 'tis call'd ungrateful

With dull unwillingness to pay a debt,

Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent:
Much more to be thus oppofite with heav'n;

For it requires the royal debt it lent

you.

Rivers. Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother, Of the young Prince your fon; send strait for him, · Let him be crown'd; in him your comfort lives. Drown defp'rate forrow in dead Edward's grave, And plant your joys in living Edward's throne. Enter Glocefter, Buckingham, Stanley, Haftings, and Ratcliff.

Glo. Sifter, have comfort: all of us have cause
To wail the dimming of our fhining ftar:

But none can help our harms by wailing them.
Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy;

I did not fee you.-Humbly on my knee

I crave your bleffing.

Dutch. God bless thee, and put meeknefs in thy breast, Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.

Glo. Amen, and make me die a good old man.That is the butt end of a mother's bleffing;

I'marvel that her Grace did leave it out.

Buck. You cloudy Princes, and heart-forrowing Peers, That bear this mutual heavy load of moan,

Now

Now chear each other in each other's love;
Though we have spent our harvest of this King,
We are to reap the harveft of his fon.

The broken rancor of your high-fwol'n hearts,
But lately fplinter'd, knit and join'd together,
Muft gently be preferv'd, cherish'd and kept:
Me feemeth good, that with fome little train,
Forthwith from Ludlow the young Prince be fetch'd (9)
Hither to London, to be crown'd our King.

Riv. Why with fome little train, my Lord of Buckingham?
Buck. Marry, my Lord, left by a multitude
The new-heal'd wound of malice should break out;
Which would be so much the more dangerous,
By how much the effate is yet ungovern'd.
Where every horfe bears his commanding rein,
And may direct his courfe as please himself,
As well the fear of harm, as harm apparent,
In my opinion ought to be prevented.

Glo. I hope the King made peace with all of us; And the compact is firm and true in me.

Riv. And fo in me; and fo, I think, in all. Yet fince it is but green, it should be put

To no apparent likelihood of breach,

Which, haply, by much company might be urg'd;
Therefore I fay, with noble Buckingham,

That it is meet fo few fhould fetch the Prince.
Haft. And fo fay I.

Glo. Then be it fo; and go we to determine,
Who they shall be that strait shall post to Ludlow.
Madam, and you my fifter, will you go,

To give your cenfures in this weighty bufinefs?

[Exeunt [Manent Buckingham and Glocefter. 19) Forthwith from Ludlow the young Prince be fetch'd,] Edward, the young Prince, in his father's life time and at his demise, kept his household at Ludlow as Prince of Wales; under the governance of Antony Woodvil Earl of Rivers, his uncle by the mother's fide. The intention of his being fent thither was to fee juftice done in the Marches; and, by the authority of his prefence, to reftrain the Welshmen, who were wild, diffolute, and ill-difpofed, from their accustom'd murders and outrages. Vid. Hall, Holingshead, Buck

.

Buck. My Lord, whoever journies to the Prince,
For God's fake, let not us two ftay at home;
For by the way, I'll fort occafion,

As index to the story we late talk'd of,

To part the Queen's proud kindred from the Prince.
Glo. My other felf, my counsel's confiftory,

My oracle, my prophet!My dear coufin, (10)

I, as a child, will go by thy direction.

Tow'rd Ludlow then, for we'll not stay behind. [Exeunt.

SCENE changes to a Street near the Court.

Cit.

Enter one Citizen at one door, and another at the other. OOD-morrow, neighbour,whither awayso fast? 2 Cit. I promise you, I-hardly know myself: Hear you the news abroad??

Go

1 Cit. Yes, the King is dead.

2 Cit. Ill news, by'r Lady; feldom comes a better: I fear, fear, 'twill prove a giddy world.

Enter another Citizen.

3 Cit. Neighbours, God fpeed!
Cit. Give you good-morrow, Sir:

3Cit. Doth the news hold of good King Edward's death? 2 Cit. Ay, Sir, it is too true; God help the while! 3 Cit. Then, mafters, look to fee a troublous world. Cit. No, no, by God's good grace his fon fhall reign. 3 Cit. Woe to that land, that's govern'd by a child! 2 Cit. In him there is a hope of government: Which in his non-age, counsel under him, And, in his full and ripen'd years, himself, No doubt, shall then, and till then, govern well. 1 Cit. So ftood the state, when Henry the fixth Was crown'd in Paris, but at nine months old.

3 Cit. Stood the state fo! no, no, good friends, God wot;

(10) My other self, my counsel's confiftory,

My oracle, my prophet, my dear coufin!] I have alter'd the pointing of this paffage, by the direction of my ingenious friend Mr. Warburton: because, by this new regulation, a strange and ridiculous Anticlimax • is prevented.

For

For then this land was famously enrich'd
With politick grave counfel; then the King
Had virtuous uncles to protect his Grace..

1 Cit. Why, fo hath this,. both by his father and mother. 3 Cit. Better it were, they all came by his father; Or by his father there were none at all:

For emulation, who shall now be nearest,
Will touch us all too near, if God prevent not.
O, full of danger is the Duke of Glofter;
And the Queen's fons and brothers haughty, proud:
And were they to be rul'd, and not to rule,
This fickly land might folace as before.

1 Cit. Come, come, we fear the worft; all will be well. 3 Cit. When clouds are feen, wife men put on their cloaks; When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand; When the fun fets, who doth not look for night ?. Untimely storms make men expect a dearth: All may be well; but if God fort it fo,. 'Tis more then we deferve, or I expect.

2 Cit. Truly the hearts of men are full of fear: You cannot reafon almoft with a man

That looks not heavily, and full of dread.

3 Cit. Before the days of change still is it fo By a divine instinct men's minds miftruft Enfuing danger; as by proof we see,, The waters fwell before a boift'rous ftorm. But leave it all to God. Whither away? 2 Cit. Marry, we were fent for to the juftices. 3 Cit. And fo was I, I'll bear you company. [Exeunt.

SCENE changes to the Court.

Enter Archbishop of York, the young Duke of York, the Queen, and the Dutchess of York.

Arch.

1

Heard, they lay the last night at Northampton, At Stony-Stratford they do reft to-night: To-morrow, or next day, they will be here. Dutch. I long with all my heart to fee the Prince ; hope, he is much grown fince last I saw him. Queen. But I hear not, they fay, my fon of York.

Hás