Lascivious Edward, and thou perjured George, And thou misshapen Dick,--I tell ye all, I am your better, traitors as ye are ;* And thou usurp'st my father's right and mine. K. Edw. Take that, the likeness of this railer here." .’ [Stabs him. * Glo. Sprawl'st thou? take that, to end thy agony. - - [GLo. Stabs him. * Cla. And there's for twitting me with perjury. - - . [CLA. stabs him. Q. Mar. O, kill me too! • Glo. Marry, and shall. [Offers to kill her. * K. Edw. Hold, Richard, hold, for we have done too much. Glo. Why should she live, to fill the world with words P R. Edw. What! doth she swoon P use means for her recovery. Glo. Clarence, excuse me to the king my brother. “I’ll hence to London on a serious matter; ‘Ere ye come there, be sure to hear some news.

Clar. What? what?

“ Glo. The Tower, the Tower [Exit. * Q. Mar. O, Ned, sweet Ned speak to thy mother, boy

* Canst thou not speak P-O traitors' murderers —
They that stabbed Caesar, shed no blood at all,
Did not offend, nor were not worthy blame,
* If this foul deed were by, to equal it.
‘He was a man; this, in respect, a child;
And men ne'er spend their fury on a child.
‘What's worse than murderer, that I may name it f
*No, no ; my heart will burst, an if I speak;-
*And I will speak, that so my heart may burst.—
*Butchers and villains, bloody cannibals |
*How sweet a plant have you untimely cropped!

‘You have no children, butchers l if you had,
* The thought of them would have stirred up remorse;
“But if you ever chance to have a child,
Look in his youth to have him so cut off,
‘As, deathsmen you have rid this sweet young

prince R. Edw. Away with her; go, bear her hence perforce. Q. Mar. Nay, never bear me hence ; despatch me here ;

Here sheath thy sword; I’ll pardon thee my death. What! wilt thou not?—Then, Clarence, do it thou. Clar. By Heaven, I will not do thee so much ease. Q. Mar. Good Clarence, do ; sweet Clarence, do thou do it. Clar. Didst thou not hear me swear I would not do it P 4. , Q. Mar. Ay, but thou usest to forswear thyself; 'Twas sin before, but now ’tis charity. * What wilt thou not? Where is that devil’s butcher, Hard-favored Richard P. Richard, where art thou ? Thou art not here. Murder is thy alms-deed; Petitioners for blood thou ne'er put'st back. K. Edw. Away, I say; I charge ye, bear her . hence. - . Q. Mar. So come to you, and yours, as to this prince 1 - . [Exit, led out forcibly. K. Edw. Where's Richard gone? * Clar. To London, all in post; and, as I guess, To make a bloody supper in the Tower. K. Edw. He's sudden, if a thing comes in his head. ‘Now march we hence; discharge the common sort “With pay and thanks, and let's away to London, ‘And see our gentle queen how well she fares; * By this, I hope, she hath a son for me. [Eveunt.

SCENE WI. London. A Room in the Tower.

KING HENRY is discovered sitting with a book in his hand, the Lieutenant attending. Enter GLosTER.

Glo. Good day, my lord. What, at your book so hard P R. Hen. Ay, my good lord. My lord, I should say rather; . 'Tis sin to flatter; good was little better: Good Gloster, and good devil, were alike, *And both preposterous; therefore, not good lord. * Glo. Sirrah, leave us to ourselves; we must confer. - [Exit Lieutenant. * K. Hen. So flies the reckless shepherd from the wolf: * So first the harmless sheep doth yield his fleece, * And next his throat unto the butcher’s knife.— What scene of death hath Roscius now to act P Glo. Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind; The thief doth fear each bush an officer. * K. Hen. The bird, that hath been limed in a bush, “With trembling wings misdoubteth' every bush; And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird, Have now the fatal object in my eye, Where my poor young was limed, was caught, and, killed. * Glo. Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete, * That taught his son the office of a fowl P “And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drowned. * K. Hen. I, Daedalus; my poor boy, Icarus; Thy father, Minos, that denied our course; ‘The sun, that seared the wings of my sweet boy, * Thy brother Edward; and thyself, the sea, ‘Whose envious gulf did swallow up his life. * Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words! ‘My breast can better brook thy dagger's point,

Than can my ears that tragic history.— *But wherefore dost thou come P is't for my life P. * Glo. Think'st thou I am an executioner P K. Hen. A persecutor, I am sure, thou art; * If murdering innocents be executing, ‘Why, then thou art an executioner. Glo. Thy son I killed for his presumption. R. Hen. Hadst thou been killed, when first thou didst presume, Thou hadst not lived to kill a son of mine. ‘And thus I prophesy, that many a thousand, * Which now mistrust no parcel' of my fear; ‘And many an old man's sigh, and many a widow’s, ‘And many an orphan’s water-standing eye, * Men for their sons, wives for their husbands’ fate, ‘And orphans for their parents’ timeless death, * Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born. The owl shrieked at thy birth, an evil sign ; ‘The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time; Dogs howled, and hideous tempests shook down trees; The raven rooked” her on the chimney’s top, And chattering pies in dismal discords sung. Thy mother felt more than a mother’s pain, And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope; * To wit, an indigest, deformed lump, Not like the fruit of such a goodly tree. Teeth hadst thou in thy head, when thou wast born, To signify, thou cam'st to bite the world; And, if the rest be true which I have heard, * Thou cam’st— - - Glo. I’ll hear no more :—Die, prophet, in thy speech. - - [Stabs him. For this, amongst the rest, was I ordained. K. Hen. Ay, and for much more slaughter after this. . O God! forgive my sins, and pardon thee! [Dies. Glo. What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster

Sink in the ground P I thought it would have mounted.
See, how my sword weeps for the poor king's death!
‘O, may such purple tears be always shed
* From those that wish the downfall of our house !
* If any spark of life be yet remaining,
Down, down to hell: and say—I sent thee thither.
- [Stabs him again.
I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear.— -
Indeed, 'tis true, that Henry told me of;
For I have often heard my mother say,
I came into the world with my legs forward:
Had I not reason, think ye, to make haste,
‘And-seek their ruin that usurped our right?
The midwife wondered; and the women cried,
O, Jesus bless us, he is born with teeth ;
“And so I was ; which plainly signified—
That I should snarl, and bite, and play the dog.
* Then, since the Heavens have shaped my body so,
Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it.
I have no brother, I am like no brother:
‘And this word, love, which greybeards call divine,
Be resident in men like one another,
And not in me; I am myself alone.—
Clarence, beware; thou keep'st me from the light;

But I will sort" a pitchy day for thee:
For I will buzz abroad such prophecies,

“ That Edward shall be fearful of his life;
And then, to purge his fear, I’ll be thy death.
‘King Henry, and the prince his son, are gone :
‘Clarence, thy turn is next, and then the rest ;
Counting myself but bad, till I be best.—
“I’ll throw thy body in another room,
And triumph, Henry, in thy day of doom. [Evit.