K. Edw. Well, jest on, brothers; I can tell you

both,

Her suit is granted for her husband's lands.

Enter a Nobleman.

Nob. My gracious lord, Henry your foe is taken,

And brought your prisoner to your palace gate.

K. Edw. See that he be conveyed unto the Tower ;— And go we, brothers, to the man that took him,

To question of his apprehension.

'Widow, go you along.-Lords, use her honorable. Exeunt KING EDWARD, LADY GREY, CLARENCE, and Lord.

Glo. Ay, Edward will use women honorably. Would he were wasted, marrow, bones, and all, • That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring, To cross me from the golden time I look for!

' And yet between my soul's desire and me

*(The lustful Edward's title buried)

Is Clarence, Henry, and his son, young Edward, And all the unlooked-for issue of their bodies, To take their rooms, ere I can place myself. A cold premeditation for my purpose! *Why, then I do but dream on sovereignty; *Like one that stands upon a promontory,

* And spies a far-off shore where he would tread, * Wishing his foot were equal with his eye;

* And chides the sea that sunders him from thence,

* Saying-he'll lade it dry to have his way.

*So do I wish the crown, being so far off;

* And so I chide the means that keep me from it; *And so I say I'll cut the causes off,

*Flattering me with impossibilities.

* My eye's too quick, my heart o'erweens too much, * Unless my hand and strength could equal them. *Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard; * What other pleasure can the world afford?

· I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap,

And deck my body in gay ornaments,

Lady Gray

And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks. · O miserable thought! and more unlikely,

Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns! Why, love forswore me in my mother's womb. And, for I should not deal in her soft laws,

6

'She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe

• To shrink mine arm up like a withered shrub; • To make an envious mountain on my back, Where sits deformity to mock my body;

• To shape my legs of an unequal size ; *To disproportion me in every part,

* Like to a chaos, or an unlicked bear-whelp, *That carries no impression like the dam. And am I then a man to be beloved?

6

O, monstrous fault, to harbor such a thought! *Then, since this earth affords no joy to me, * But to command, to check, to o'erbear such * As are of better person than myself,

*I'll make my heaven-to dream upon the crown; * And, whiles I live, to account this world but hell, *Until my head, that this misshaped trunk bears,1 *Be round impaled with a glorious crown.

* And yet I know not how to get the crown,
* For many lives stand between me and home.

* And I-like one lost in a thorny wood,

*That rents the thorns, and is rent with the thorns; Seeking a way, and straying from the way,

*

* Not knowing how to find the open air,

* But toiling desperately to find it out-
*Torment myself to catch the English crown;
* And from that torment I will free myself,

* Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.

Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile;

And cry, content, to that which grieves my heart;

* And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,

*And frame my face to all occasions.

* I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;

*I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk;

1 The folio reads, Until my misshaped trunk, that bears this head.

* I'll play the orator as well as Nestor,

Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could,

* And, like a Sinon, take another Troy.

I can add colors to the chameleon;

Change shapes, with Proteus, for advantages,
And set the murderous Machiavel1 to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
'Tut! were it further off, I'll pluck it down.

[Exit.

SCENE III. France. A Room in the Palace.

Flourish. Enter LEWIS, the French King, and LADY BONA, attended; the King takes his state. Then enter QUEEN MARGARET, PRINCE EDWARD her Son, and the EARL of OXFORD.

K. Lew. Fair queen of England, worthy Margaret, [Rising.

• Sit down with us: it ill befits thy state,

· And birth, that thou shouldst stand, while Lewis doth sit.

*

Q. Mar. No, mighty king of France; now Margaret *Must strike her sail, and learn awhile to serve, *Where kings command. I was, I must confess, * Great Albion's queen in former golden days. * But now mischance hath trod my title down, *And with dishonor laid me on the ground; * Where I must take like seat unto my fortune, * And to my humble seat conform myself.

*

*K. Lew. Why, say, fair queen, whence springs this deep despair?

* Q. Mar. From such a cause as fills mine eyes with

tears,

* And stops my tongue, while heart is drowned in cares. *K. Lew. Whate'er it be, be thou still like thyself, * And sit thee by our side: yield not thy neck

1 The old play reads, with more propriety,

[Seats her by him.

“And set the aspiring Catiline to school.”

By which the anachronism is also avoided.