I bade them, that did love their country's good,
Cry-God save Richard, England's royal king!
Glo. And did they so?

Buck. No, so God help me, they spake not a word;
But, like dumb statuas, or breathless stones,2
Star'd on each other, and look'd deadly pale.
Which when I saw, I reprehended them;

And ask'd the mayor, what meant this wilful silence:
His answer was, the people were not us'd
To be spoke to, but by the recorder.
Then he was urg'd to tell my tale again;—
Thus saith the duke, thus hath the duke inferr'd;
But nothing spoke in warrant from himself.
When he had done, some followers of mine own,
At lower end o' the hall, hurl'd up their caps,
And some ten voices cried, God save king Richard!
And thus I took the vantage of those few,—
Thanks, gentle citizens, and friends, quoth I;
This general applause, and cheerful shout,
Argues your wisdom, and your love to Richard:
And even here brake off, and came away.

Glo. What tongueless blocks were they; Would they not speak?

Will not the mayor then, and his brethren, come?
Buck. The mayor is here at hand; intend some fear:3
Be not you spoke with, but by mighty suit:
And look you get a prayer-book in your hand,
And stand between two churchmen, good my lord;
For on that ground I'll make a holy descant:
And be not easily won to our requests;

Play the maid's part, still answer nay, and take it.

2 But, like dumb statuas, or breathless stones,] See Mr. Reed's very decisive account of the word-statua, in a note on The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Vol. II, p. 226, n. 5.

The eldest quartos, 1597 and 1598, together with the first folio, read-breathing. The modern editors, with Mr. Rowe,-unbreathing Breathless is the reading of the quarto 1612. Steevens.

3 intend some fear:] Perhaps, pretend; though intend will stand in the sense of giving attention. Johnson.

One of the ancient senses of to intend was certainly to pretend. So, in sc. v, of this Act:

"Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,
"Intending deep suspicion.' Steevens.

sore

Glo. I go; And if you plead as well for them,
As I can say nay to thee4 for myself,

No doubt we'll bring it to a happy issue.

Buck. Go, go, up to the leads; the lord mayor knocks.

[Exit GLO.
Enter the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and Citizens.
Welcome, my lord: I dance attendance here;
I think, the duke will not be spoke withal.-
Enter, from the Castle, CATESBY.

Now, Catesby! what says your lord to my request?
Cates. He doth entreat your grace, my noble lord,
To visit him to-morrow, or next day:

He is within, with two right reverend fathers,

Divinely bent to meditation;

And in no worldly suit would he be mov'd,

To draw him from his holy exercise.

Buck. Return, good Catesby, to the gracious duke;
Tell him, myself, the mayor and aldermen,
In deep designs, in matter of great moment,
No less importing than our general good,

Are come to have some conference with his grace.
Cates. I'll signify so much unto him straight. [Exit.
Buck. Ah, ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward!
He is not lolling on a lewd day-bed,5

But on his knees at meditation;

Not dallying with a brace of courtezans,
But meditating with two deep divines;
Not sleeping, to engross his idle body,
But praying, to enrich his watchful soul:
Happy were England, would this virtuous prince
Take on himself the sovereignty thereof;
But, "sure," I fear, we shall ne'er win him to it.

May. Marry, God defend his grace should say us nay !*

4 As I can say nay to thee-] I think it must be read:
if you plead as well for them

As I must say, nay to them for myself. Johnson.

Perhaps the change is not necessary. Buckingham is to plead for the citizens; and if (says Richard) you speak for them as plausibly as I in my own person, or for my own purposes, shall seem to deny your suit, there is no doubt but we shall bring all to a happy issue, Steevens

5

day-bed,] i. e. a couch, or sofa Steevens.

6 to engross ] To fatten; to pamper. Johnson.

Buck. I fear, he will: Here Catesby comes again;Re-enter CATESBY.

Now Catesby, what says his grace?

Cates. He wonders to what end you have assembled Such troops of citizens to come to him, His grace not being warn'd thereof before: He fears, my lord, you mean no good to him. Buck. Sorry I am, my noble cousin should Suspect me, that I mean no good to him: By heaven, we come to him in perfect love; And so once more return and tell his grace.

When holy and devout religious men

[Exit CATES.

Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence;
So sweet is zealous contemplation.

Enter GLOSTER, in a Gallery, above, between Two
Bishops. CATESBY returns.

8

May. See, where his grace stands 'tween two clergymen!

Buck. Two props of virtue for a christian prince,
To stay him from the fall of vanity:

And, see, a book of prayer in his hand;
True ornaments to know a holy man.9-
Famous Plantagenet, most gracious prince,
Lend favourable ear to our requests;

7- God defend, his grace should say us nay!] This pious and courtly Mayor was Edmund Shaw, brother to Doctor Shaw, whom Richard had employed to prove his title to the crown, from the pulpit at Saint Paul's Cross. Malone.

8- between Two Bishops.] "At the last he came out of his chamber, and yet not downe to theim, but in a galary over theim, with a bishop on every hande of hym, where thei beneth might see hym and speake to hym, as though he woulde not yet come nere theim til he wist what they meant," &c. Hall's Chronicle.

Farmer.

So also, Holinshed after him. The words "with a bishop on every hande of hym," are an interpolation by Hall, or rather by Grafton, (See his Continuation of Harding's Chronicle, 1543, fol. 75,) not being found in Sir Thomas More's History of King Richard III, folio, 1557, from whom the rest of the sentence is transcribed. Malone.

9

to know a holy man. n.] i. e. to know a holy man by. See note on Coriolanus, Act III, sc. ii, where several instances of a imilar phraseology are given. Malone.

And pardon us the interruption

Of thy devotion, and right-christian zeal.
Glo. My lord, there needs no such apology;
I rather do beseech you pardon me,
Who, earnest in the service of my God,
Neglect the visitation of my friends.

But, leaving this, what is your grace's pleasure?
Buck. Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above,
And all good men of this ungovern'd isle.

Glo. I do suspect, I have done some offence,

That seems disgracious in the city's eye;

And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.
Buck. You have, my lord; Would it might please your

grace,

On our entreaties, to amend your fault!

Glo. Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land? Buck. Know, then, it is your fault, that you resign

The supreme seat, the throne majestical,

The scepter'd office of your ancestors,

Your state of fortune, and your due of birth,
The lineal glory of your royal house,
To the corruption of a blemish'd stock:

Whilst, in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts,
(Which here we waken to our country's good)
The noble isle doth want her proper limbs ;1
Her face defac'd with scars of infamy,
Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants,2
And almost shoulder'd in the swallowing gulf
Of dark forgetfulness3 and deep oblivion.

1 her proper limbs;] Thus the quarto 1598. The folio has —his limbs; an error which I should not mention, but that it justifies corrections that I have made in other places, where, for want of more ancient copies than one, conjectural emendation became necessary. Malone.

2 Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants,] Shakspeare seems to have recollected the text on which Dr Shaw preached his remarkable Sermon at Saint Paul's Cross: "Bastard slips shall never take deep root Malone

3 And almost shoulder'd in the swallowing gulf

Of dark forgetfulness -] What it is to be shoulder'd in a gulph, Hamner is the only editor who seeins not to have known; for the rest let it pass without observation He reads:

Almost shoulver'd into th' swallowing gulph.

I believe we should read:

4

Which to recure, we heartily solicit

Your gracious self to take on you the charge
And kingly government of this
your land:
Not as protector, steward, substitute,
Or lowly factor for another's gain;
But as successively, from blood to blood,
Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
For this, consorted with the citizens,
Your very worshipful and loving friends,
And by their vehement instigation,

In this just suit come I to move your grace.
Glo. I cannot tell, if to depart in silence,
Or bitterly to speak in your reproof,
Best fitteth my degree, or your condition:
If, not to answer,5-you might haply think,
Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded
To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty,
Which fondly you would here impose on me;
If to reprove you for this suit of yours,

And almost smoulder'd in the swallowing gulph. That is, almost smother'd, covered and lost. Johnson.

I suppose the old reading to be the true one. So, in The Barons' Wars, by Drayton, canto i:

Stoutly t' affront and shoulder in debate." In is used for into. So before in this play:

"But first I'll turn yon fellow in his grave." Again, ibid:

"Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects." Shoulder'd has the same meaning as rudely thrust into.

So, in a curious ancient paper quoted by Mr. Lysons in his Environs of London, Vol. III, p. 80, n. 1: “—lyke tyraunts and lyke madde men helpynge to shulderynge other of the sayd bannermen ynto the dyche," &c. Again, in Arthur Hall's translation of the second Iliad, 1581:

"He preaseth him, him he again, shouldring ech one his feere." Steevens.

4 Which to recure,] To recure is to recover. This word is frequently used by Spenser; and both as a verb and a substantive in Lyly's Endymion, 1591. Steevens.

5 If, not to answer,] If I should take the former course, and depart in silence, &c. So below: "If, to reprove," &c. The editor of the second folio reads-For not to answer; and his capricious alteration of the text has been adopted by all the subsequent editors. This and the nine following lines are not in the quarto.

Malone.