My tongue should to thy ears not name my boys,
Till that my nails were anchor'd in thine eyes;
And I, in such a desperate bay of death,
Like a poor bark, of sails and tackling reft,
Rush all to pieces on thy rocky bosom.

K. Rich. Madam, so thrive I in my enterprize,
Ard dangerous success of bloody wars,
As I intend more good to you and yours,
Than ever you or yours by me were harm'd!

Q. Eliz. What good is cover'd with the face of heaven, To be discover'd, that can do me good?

K.Rich. The advancement of your children, gentle lady. Q. Eliz. Up to some scaffold, there to lose their heads? K. Rich. No, to the dignity and height of fortune, The high imperial type1 of this earth's glory.

Q. Eliz. Flatter my sorrows with report of it; Tell me, what state, what dignity, what honour, Canst thou demise to any child of mine?

K. Rich. Even all I have; ay, and myself and all, Will I withal endow a child of thine;

So in the Lethe of thy angry soul

Thou drown the sad remembrance of those wrongs,3 Which, thou supposest, I have done to thee.

1 The high imperial type-] Type is exhibition, show, display. Johnson.

I think it means emblem, one of its usual significations.-By the imperial type of glory, Richard means a crown. M. Mason. The canopy placed over a pulpit is still called by architects a type. It is, I apprehend, in a similar sense that the word is here used. Henley.

Bullokar, in his Expositor, 1616, defines Type-“ A figure, form, or likeness of any thing." Cawdrey in his Alphabetical Table, &c. 1604, calls it-" figure, example, or shadowe of any thing." The word is used in King Henry VI, P. III, as here:

"Thy father bears the type of king of Naples." Malone. 2 Canst thou demise-] To demise is to grant, from demittere, to devolve a right from one to another. Steevens.

The constant language of leases is," - demised, granted, and to farm let." But I believe the word is used by no poet but Shakspeare. For demise, the reading of the quarto, and first folio, the editor of the second folio arbitrarily substituted devise. Malone. 3 So in the Lethe of thy angry sout

Thou drown the sad remembrance of those wrongs,] So, in King Henry IV, P. II :

"May this be wash'd in Lethe and forgotten?" Steevens.

Q. Eliz. Be brief, lest that the process of thy kindness Last longer telling than thy kindness' date.

K. Rich. Then know, that, from my soul, I love thy daughter.

Q. Eliz. My daughter's mother thinks it with her soul. K. Rich. What do you think?

Q. Eliz. That thou dost love my daughter, from thy soul:

So, from thy soul's love, didst thou love her brothers; And, from my heart's love, I do thank thee for it.

K. Rich. Be not so hasty to confound my meaning: I mean, that with my soul I love thy daughter, And do intend to make her queen of England.

Q. Eliz. Well then, who dost thou mean shall be her

king?

K. Rich. Even he, that makes her queen; Who else should be?

That I would learn of you,

Madam, with all my heart.5

As one being best acquainted with her humour.
Q. Eliz. And wilt thou learn of me?

K. Rich.

Q. Eliz. Send to her, by the man that slew her bro

thers,

A pair of bleeding hearts; thereon engrave,

Edward, and York; then, haply, will she weep:
Therefore present to her, as sometime Margaret
Did to thy father, steep'd in Rutland's blood,
A handkerchief; which, say to her, did drain
The purple sap from her sweet brothers' body,

4 Even so: What think you of it, madam?] Thus the folio, except that it reads-how instead of what. The quarto, without attention to the broken verse preceding:

I, even I: what think you of it, madam?

"I am not (says Mr. Malone) sure whether it should not be printed, Ay, even I." Steevens.

5 Madam, with all my heart.] I suppose the word-Madam, may be safely omitted, as it violates the measure.

6

Steevens.

as sometime Margaret-] Here is another reference to the plays of Henry VI. Johnson.

And bid her wipe her weeping eyes withal.
If this inducement move her not to love,
Send her a letter of thy noble deeds;

Tell her, thou mad'st away her uncle Clarence,
Her uncle Rivers; ay, and, for her sake,

Mad'st quick conveyance with her good aunt Anne.
K. Rich. You mock me, madam; this is not the way
To win your daughter.

Q. Eliz.

There is no other way; Unless thou could'st put on some other shape,

And not be Richard that hath done all this.

K. Rich. Say, that I did all this for love of her?

Q. Eliz. Nay, then indeed, she cannot choose but have

thee,8

Having bought love with such a bloody spoil.9

K. Rich. Look, what is done cannot be now amended: Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes,

Which after-hours give leisure to repent.
If I did take the kingdom from your sons,
To make amends, I'll give it to your daughter.
If I have kill'd the issue of your womb,
To quicken your increase, I will beget
Mine issue of your blood upon your daughter.
A grandam's name is little less in love,
Than is the doting title of a mother;
They are as children, but one step below,
Even of your mettle, of your very blood;1

7 Say, that I did &c.] This and the following fifty-four lines, ending with the words tender years, in p. 152, are found only in the folio.

Malone.

8 Nay, then indeed, she cannot choose but have thee,] [Old copy -hate.] The sense seems to require that we should read:

but love thee,

ironically. Tyrwhitt.

As this is evidently spoken ironically, I agree with Tyrwhitt, that the present reading is corrupt, but should rather amend it by reading "have you," than "love you;" as the word have is more likely to have been mistaken for hate, the traces of the letters being nearly the same. M. Mason.

As this conjecture is, in my opinion, at once fortunate and judicious, I have placed it in the text. A somewhat corresponding error had happened in Coriolanus, last speech of scene iv, Act IV, where have was apparently given instead of―hate Steevens. bloody spoil.] Spoil is waste, havock. Johnson.

9

1 Even of your mettle, of your very blood;] The folio has--met

Of all one pain,- -save for a night of groans Endur'd of her,2 for whom you bid like sorrow. Your children were vexation to your youth, But mine shall be a comfort to your age. The loss, you have, is but—a son being king, And, by that loss, your daughter is made queen. I cannot make you what amends I would, Therefore accept such kindness as I can. Dorset your son, that, with a fearful soul, "Leads "discontented steps in foreign soil, Treads This fair alliance quickly shall call home To high promotions and great dignity: The king, that calls your beauteous daughter,-wife, Familiarly shall call thy Dorset-brother;

Again shall you be mother to a'king,

And all the ruins of distressful times
Repair'd with double riches of content.
What! we have many goodly days to see:
The liquid drops of tears that you have shed,
Shall come again, transform'd to orient pearl;
Advantaging their loan, with interest

Of ten-times-double gain of happiness.

tal. The two words are frequently confounded in the old copies. That mettle was the word intended here, appears from various other passages. So, in Macbeth:

66

Thy undaunted mettle should compose

"Nothing but males."

Again, in King Richard II:

66 that bed, that womb,

"That mettle, that self-mould that fashion'd thee,
"Made him a man."

Again, in Timon of Athens:

Common mother, thou,

"Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast,
"Teems and feeds all, whose self-same mettle
"Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd,

"Engenders the black toad," &c.

Malone.

2 Endur'd of her,] Of in the language of Shakspeare's age was frequently used for by Malone.

3 - bid like sorrow.

ow.] Bid is in the past tense from bide.

4 Advantaging their loan, with interest

Johnson.

Of ten-times-double gain of happiness.] [The folio-love.] My easy emendation will convince every reader that love and lone are made out of one another only by a letter turned upside down.

Go then, my mother, to thy daughter go;
Make bold her bashful years with your experience;
Prepare her ears to hear a wooer's tale;
Put in her tender heart the aspiring flame
Of golden sov'reignty; acquaint the princess
With the sweet silent hours of marriage joys:
And when this arm of mine hath chastised
The petty rebel, dull-brain'd Buckingham,,
Bound with triumphant garlands will I come,
And lead thy daughter to a conqueror's bed;
To whom I will retail my conquest won,5
And she shall be sole victress, Cæsar's Cæsar.

Q. Eliz. What were I best to say? her father's brother
Would be her lord? Or shall I say, her uncle?
Or, he that slew her brothers, and her uncles?
Under what title shall I woo for thee,

That God, the law, my honour, and her love,
Can make seem pleasing to her tender years?

K. Rich. Infer fair England's peace by this alliance.
Q. Eliz. Which she shall purchase with still lasting war.
K. Rich. Tell her, the king, that may command, en-

treats.

Q. Eliz. That at her hands, which the king's King forbids.6

K. Rich. Say, she shall be a high and mighty queen. Q. Eliz. To wail the title, as her mother doth.

K. Rich. Say, I will love her everlastingly.

Q. Eliz. But how long shall that title, ever, last?"

The tears that you have lent to your afflictions, shall be turned into gems; and requite you by way of interest, &c. Theobald.

How often the letters u and n are confounded in these copies, has been shown in various places. See Vol. III, p 40, n. 5; and note on Timon of Athens, Act IV, sc. iii, Vol. XV. Malone.

5 To whom I will retail my conquest won,] To retail (as Mr. M. Mason has observed in a note on Act III, sc. i, p. 81, n. 6,) is to hand down from one to another. Richard, in the present instance, means to say he will transmit the benefit of his victories to Elizabeth. Steevens.

6

which the king's King forbids.] Alluding to the prohibition in the Levitical law. See Leviticus, xviii, 14. Grey.

7 But how long shall that title, ever, last?] Young has borrowed this thought in his Universal Passion:

"But say, my all, my mistress, and my friend,

"What day next week th' eternity shall end?" Steevens: