Have been beholden to him in his life,

Yet none of you would once plead for his life.
O God! I fear thy juftice will take hold
On me, and you, and mine, and yours, for this.
-Come, Haftings, help me to my clofet. Ah!
Poor Clarence!

[Exeunt fome with the King and Queen. Glou. There are the fruits of raihnefs.

you not,

Mark'd

How that the guilty kindred of the Queen
Look'd pale, when they did hear of Clarence' death?
O tirey did urge it ftill unto the King.

God will revenge it. Come, Lords, will you go
To comfort Edward with our company? [Exeunt.

Enter the Duchess of York, with the two children of Clarence.

Son. Good grandam, tell us, is our father dead? Duch. No, boy.

Daugh. Why do you weep fo oft, and beat your breaft?

And cry-O Clarence! my unhappy fon!

Son. Why do you look on us, and fhake your head,

And call us orphans, wretches, caft-aways,
If that our noble father be alive?

Duch. My pretty coufins, you mistake me both.
I do lament the fickness of the King,

As loth to lofe him, not your father's death;

It were loft forrow to wail one that's loft.

Son. Then you conclude, my grandam, he is dead.. The King mine uncle is to blame for this.

God will revenge it, whom I will importune

With daily earnest prayers.

Daugh. And fo will I.

Duch. Peace, children, peace! the King doth . love you well.

Incapable and fhallow innocents!

You cannot guefs who caus'd your father's death. Son. Grandam, we can; for my good uncle Gloftes

A& II.
Told me, the King, provok'd to't by the Queen,
Devis'd impeachments to imprifon him;
And when my uncle told me fo, he wept,
And pitied me, and kindly kifs'd my cheek,
Bade me rely on him, as on my father,
And he would love me dearly as his child.
Duch. Ah! that deceit fhould fteal fuch gentle
Маре,

And with a virtuous vizor hide deep vice!
He is my fon, ay, and therein my íhame;
Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.

Son. Think you my uncle did diffemble, grandam?
Duch. Ay, boy.

Son. I cannot think it. Hark, what noise is this? Enter the Queen with her hair about her ears, Rivers and Dorfet after her.

Queen. Ah! who shall hinder me to wail and weep, To chide my fortune, and torment myself? I'll join with black defpair against my foul, And to myfelf become an enemy.

Duch. What means this fcene of rude impatience? Queen. To make an act of tragic violence. 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.

Duch. 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 glass,
That grieves me when I fee my fhame in him.
Thou art a widow, yet thou art a mother,
And haft the comfort of thy children left:

• The children by whom he was represented. Jobase

But death hath fnatch'd my husband from mine arms,
And pluck'd 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. Ah, aunt! [To the Queen] you wept not
for our father's death;

How can we aid you with our kindred tears?
Daugh. Our fatherlefs diftrefs 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 Cla-
rence!

Duch. Alas, for both, both mine, Edward and
Clarence!

Queen. What stay had I but Edward? and he's wygone.

Chil. What ftay had we but Clarence? and he's

gone.

Duch. 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 lofs.
Duch. Was never mother had fo dear a lofs.
Alas! I am the mother of these 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 the ;
These babes for Clarence weep, and fo do I.
Alas! you three on me, threefold-diftrefs'd,
Pour all your tears; I am your forrow's nurse,
And I will pamper it with lamentations.

Dor. Comfort, dear mother; God is much dif pleas'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 Heaven; For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

Riv. Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother, Of the young Prince your fon; fend ftrait 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 Gloucester, Buckingham, Stanley, Haflings, and Ratcliff.

Glow Sifter, have comfort. All of us have caufe To wail the dimming of our fhining star; 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.

Duch. God bless thee, and put meekness in thy Love, charity, obedience, and true duty. [breadt, Glou. Amen, and make me die a good old man!That is, the butt-end of a mother's blefling; I marvel that her Grace did leave it out.

Buck. You cloudy Princes, and heart-forrowing That bear this mutual heavy load of moan, [Peers, 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 rancour of your high-fwoln hearts,
But lately fplinter'd, knit and join'd together,
Muft gently be preferv'd, cherifh'd and kept :
Me feemeth good, that, with fome little train,
Forthwith from Ludlow the young Prince be fetch'd
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 fhould break out; Which would be fo much the more dangerous, By how much the estate is yet ungovern'd, Where every horfe bears his commanding rein,

And may direct his course as please himself.
As well the fear of harm, as harm apparent,
In my opinion ought to be prevented.

Glou. 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 fhould 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.

Glou. Then be it fo; and go we to determine
Who they fhall be that ftrait fhall post to Ludlow.
-Madam, and you my fifter, will you go,
To give your cenfures in this weighty bufinefs?
[Exeunt.
[Manent Buckingham and Gloucester.
Buck. My Lord, whoever journies to the Prince,
For God's fake let not us two stay at home;
For, by the way, I'll fort occafion,

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

To part the Queen's proud kindred from the Prince.
Glou. My other self, my counsel's confistory,
My oracle, my prophet; -my dear coufin,
I, as a child, will go by thy direction.

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

SCENE

IV.

[Exeunt.

Changes to a Street near the Court.

Enter one Citizen at one door, and another at the other.

1 Cit. Good morrow, neighbour, whither away fo faft?

2 Cit. I promife you I hardly know myself. Hear you the news abroad?

1 Cit. Yes, the King's dead.

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