Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,—
The spacious world cannot again afford:
And will she yet abase her eyes on me,

That cropp'd the golden prime of this sweet prince,
And made her widow to a woful bed?

On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety?
On me, that halt, and am mis-shapen thus ?
My dukedom to a beggarly denier',

I do mistake my person all this while:
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper man o.
I'll be at charges for a looking-glass;
And entertain some score or two of tailors,
To study fashions to adorn my body:
Since I am crept in favour with myself,
I will maintain it with some little cost.

6 and, no doubt, right royal,] Of the degree of royalty belonging to Henry the Sixth there could be no doubt, nor could Richard have mentioned it with any such hesitation: 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 she should love him. He was young, wise, and valiant; these were apparent and indisputable excellencies. He then mentions another not less likely to endear him to his wife, but which he had less opportunity of knowing with certainty, "and, no doubt, right loyal." JOHNSON.

Richard is not speaking of King Henry, but of Edward his son, whom he means to represent as full of all the noble properties of a king. No doubt, right royal, may, however, be ironically spoken, alluding to the incontinence of Margaret, his mother.

7

STEEVENS.

a beggarly DENIER,] A denier is the twelfth part of a French sous, and appears to have been the usual request of a beggar. So, in The Cunning Northerne Beggar, bl. 1. an ancient ballad:

8

"For still will I cry, good your worship, good sir,
"Bestow one poor denier, Sir." STEEVENS.

a MARVELLOUS PROPER man.] Marvellous is here used adverbially. Proper in old language was handsome. It occurs perpetually in that sense in our author and his contemporaries. MALONE. VOL. XIX.

Ꭰ

But, first, I'll turn yon' fellow in his grave';
And then return lamenting to my love.—
Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,
That I may see my shadow as I pass.

SCENE III.

The Same. A Room in the Palace.

[Exit.

Enter Queen ELIZABETH, Lord RIVERS, and Lord GREY.

RIV. Have patience, madam: there's no doubt, his majesty

Will soon recover his accustom'd 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.

GREY. The heavens have bless'd you with a goodly

son,

To be your comforter, when he is gone.

Q. ELIZ. Ah, he is young; and his minority
Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloster,
A man that loves not me, nor none of you.
RIV. Is it concluded, he shall be protector?

9

I'll turn yon' fellow IN his grave;] In is here used for into. Thus, in Chapman's version of the 24th Iliad:

66

Mercurie shall guide

"His passage, till the prince be neare. And (he gone) let him ride

66

"Resolv'd, ev'n in Achilles tent." STEEVENS.

Q. ELIZ. It is determin'd, not concluded yet': But so it must be, if the king miscarry.

Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY.

GREY. Here come the lords of Buckingham and
Stanley 2.

BUCK. Good time of day unto your royal grace!
STAN. God make your majesty joyful as you have
been!

Q. ELIZ. The countess Richmond3, good my lord
of Stanley,

To your good prayer will scarcely say―amen.
Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she's your wife,
And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd,
I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

STAN. I do beseech you, either not believe
The envious slanders of her false accusers;
Or, if she be accus'd on true report,

Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.

'It is DETERMIN'D, not CONCLUDED yet :] Determin'd signifies the final conclusion of the will: concluded, what cannot be altered by reason of some act, consequent on the final judgment. WARBURTON.

2 Here come the lords of Buckingham and STANLEY.] [Old copies-Derby.] This is a blunder of inadvertence, which has run through the whole chain of impressions. It could not well be original in Shakspeare, who was most minutely intimate with his history, and the intermarriages of the nobility. The person here called Derby, was Thomas Lord Stanley, Lord Steward of King Edward the Fourth's household. But this Thomas Lord Stanley was not created Earl of Derby till after the accession of Henry the Seventh; and accordingly, afterwards, in the fourth and fifth Acts of this play, before the battle of Bosworth-field, he is every where called Lord Stanley. This sufficiently justifies the change I have made in his title. THEOBALD.

3 The countess Richmond,] Margaret, daughter to John Beaufort, first Duke of Somerset. After the death of her first husband, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, half-brother to King Henry VI. by whom she had only one son, afterwards King Henry VII. she married first Sir Henry Stafford, uncle to Humphrey Duke of Buckingham. MALONE.

Q. ELIZ. Saw you the king to-day, my lord of

Stanley ?

STAN. But now, the duke of Buckingham, and I, Are come from visiting his majesty.

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

4

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:

Who are they, that complain unto the king,
That I, forsooth, am stern, and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly,
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.
Because I cannot flatter, and speak fair,
Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,
Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,

* Quarto 1597, Madam, we did.

4 to WARN them] i. e. to summon. So, in Julius Cæsar:

66

They mean to warn us at Philippi here." STEEvens. The word warn is still used in that sense in Scotland. BOSWELL.

- speak fair,

Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,

Duck with FRENCH nods and apish courtesy,] An importation of artificial manners seems to have afforded our ancient poets a never failing topick of invective. So, in A tragical Discourse of the Haplesse Man's Life, by Churchyard, 1593:

I must be held a rancorous enemy.

Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm,
But thus his simple truth must be abus'd

By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks ?

GREY. To whom in all this presence speaks your grace?

GLO. To thee, that hast nor honesty, nor grace. When have I injur'd thee? when done thee wrong? Or thee ?-or thee ?-or any of your faction? A plague upon you all! His royal grace,Whom God preserve better than you would wish!Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing-while,

But you must trouble him with lewd complaints. Q. ELIZ. Brother of Gloster, you mistake the

matter:

The king, of his own royal disposition,
And not provok'd by any suitor else;
Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred,
That in your outward action shows itself,
Against my children, brothers, and myself,
Makes him to send ; that thereby he may gather
The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it.

"We make a legge, and kisse the hand withall,
"(A French deuice, nay sure a Spanish tricke)
"And speake in print, and say loe at your call
"I will remaine your owne both dead and quicke.
"A courtier so can give a lobbe a licke,
"And dress a dolt in motley for a while,

"And so in sleeue at silly woodcocke smile." STEevens. with LEWD Complaints.] Lewd, in the present instance, signifies rude, ignorant; from the Anglo-Saxon Laewede, a Laick. Chaucer often uses the word lewd, both for a laick and an ignorant person. See Ruddiman's Glossary to Gawin Douglas's transla, tion of the Æneid. STEEVENS.

7-of your ill-will, &c.] This line is restored from the first edition. POPE.

By the first edition Mr. Pope, as appears from his Table of Editions, means the quarto of 1598. But that, as well as the quarto 1597, and the subsequent quartos, read—and to remove. The emendation was made by Mr. Steevens. The folio has only. "Makes him to send, that he may learn the ground—."