Framed in the prodigality of nature, Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal- That cropped the golden prime of this sweet prince, On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety? [Exrt. SCENE III. The same. A Room in the Palace. Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, LORD RIVERS, and LORD GREY. Riv. Have patience, madam; there's no doubt his majesty Will soon recover his accustomed health. Grey. In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse; Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort, And cheer his grace with quick and merry words. Q. Eliz. If he were dead, what would betide of me? Grey. No other harm, but loss of such a lord. Q. Eliz. The loss of such a lord includes all harms. 1 A small coin, the twelfth part of a French sous. 2 In for into. Grey. The Heavens have blessed you with a goodly son, To be your comforter when he is gone. Q. Eliz. Ah, he is young; and his minority Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY.1 Grey. Here come the lords of Buckingham and Buck. Good time of day unto your royal grace! been! as you have Q. Eliz. The countess Richmond, good my lord of To your good prayer will scarcely say-Amen. Stan. I do beseech you, either not believe Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds Stan. But now, the duke of Buckingham, and I, Are come from visiting his majesty. 1 By inadvertence, in the old copies Derby is put for Stanley. The person meant was Thomas lord Stanley, lord steward of king Edward the Fourth's household. But he was not created earl of Derby, till after the accession of king Henry VII. In the fourth and fifth acts of this play, he is every where called lord Stanley. 2 Margaret, daughter to John Beaufort, first duke of Somerset. After the death of her first husband, Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, halfbrother to king Henry VI., by whom she had only one son, afterwards king Henry VII., she married sir Henry Stafford, uncle to Humphrey, duke of Buckingham. Q. Eliz. What likelihood of his amendment, lords? Buck. Madam, good hope; his grace speaks cheerfully. Q. Eliz. God grant him health! Did you confer with him? Buck. Ay, madam; he desires to make atonement Between the duke of Gloster and your brothers, And between them and my lord chamberlain ; And sent to warn them to his royal presence. Q. Eliz. 'Would all were well!-But that will never be; I fear our happiness is at the height. Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET. Glo. They do me wrong, and I will not endure it.- Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm, Grey. To whom in all this presence speaks your grace? Glo. To thee, that hast nor honesty, nor grace. But you must trouble him with lewd1 complaints. 1 Lewd here signifies idle, ungracious. And not provoked by any suitor else; Glo. I cannot tell ;-the world is grown so bad, There's many a gentle person made a Jack. Q. Eliz. Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Gloster; You envy my advancement, and my friends'; Glo. Meantime, God grants that we have need of you. Our brother is imprisoned by your means, Myself disgraced, and the nobility Held in contempt; while great promotions Are daily given, to ennoble those That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble. Q. Eliz. By Him, that raised me to this careful height, From that contented hap which I enjoyed, I never did incense his majesty Against the duke of Clarence, but have been An earnest advocate to plead for him. My lord, you do me shameful injury, Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects. Glo. You may deny that you were not the cause Of my lord Hastings' late imprisonment. Riv. She may, my lord; for Glo. She may, lord Rivers?-why, who knows not so? She may do more, sir, than denying that. She may help you to many fair preferments; And then deny her aiding hand therein, 1 This proverbial expression at once demonstrates the origin of the term Jack, so often used by Shakspeare. It means one of the very lowest class of people, among whom this name is most common and familiar. And lay those honors on your high desert. What may she not? She may,-ay, marry, may she,Riv. What, marry, may she? Glo. What, marry, may she? marry with a king, A bachelor, a handsome stripling too; I wis,' your grandam had a worser match. Q. Eliz. My lord of Gloster, I have too long borne Your blunt upbraidings, and your bitter scoffs. By Heaven, I will acquaint his majesty, Of those gross taunts I often have endured. I had rather be a country servant-maid, Than a great queen, with this conditionTo be so baited, scorned, and stormed at; Small joy have I in being England's queen. Enter QUEEN MARGARET, behind. Q. Mar. And lessened be that small, God, I beseech thee! Thy honor, state, and seat, is due to me. Glo. What? threat you me with telling of the king? I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower. 2 Q. Mar. Out, devil! I remember them too well. Thou kill'dst my husband Henry in the Tower, And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury. Glo. Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king, I was a packhorse in his great affairs; A weeder-out of his proud adversaries, A liberal rewarder of his friends. To royalize his blood, I spilt mine own. Q. Mar. Ay, and much better blood than his, or thine. Glo. In all which time, you, and your husband Grey, Were factious for the house of Lancaster ;And, Rivers, so were you.-Was not your husband |