His ftatutes cancell'd, and his treasure spent :-
And yonder is the wolf, that makes this fpoil.
You fight in juftice: then, in God's name, Lords,
Be valiant, and give fignal to the battle.

Alarm. Retreat. Excurfions. Both Parties go out.
Re-enter King Edward, Glocefter, Clarence, &c. The
Queen, Oxford, and Somerfet, Prifoners.

K. Edw. Now here's a period of tumultuous broils Away with Oxford to Hammes-caftle ftraight: For Somerset, off with his guilty head. Go, bear them hence; I will not hear them fpeak. Oxf. For my part, I'll not trouble thee with words. Som. Nor I, but ftoop with patience to my fortune.

[Exeunt. Queen. So part we fadly in this troublous world, To meet with joy in sweet Jerufalem.

K. Edw. Is proclamation made, that who finds Edward Shall have a high reward, and he his life?

Glo. It is, and, lo! where youthful Edward comes.

Enter the Prince of Wales..

K. Edw. Bring forth the gallant, let us hear him fpeak, What can fo young a thorn begin to prick? Edward, what fatisfaction canft thou make, For bearing arms, for ftirring up my fubjects, "And all the trouble thou haft turn'd me to?

Prince. Speak like a fubject, proud ambitious York. Suppofe, that I am now my fathers mouth; Refign thy chair; and, where I ftand, kneel thou, Whilft I propofe the felf-fame words to thee, Which, traitor, thou would have me apfwer to. Queen. Ah! that thy father had been fo refolvid! Glo. That thou might ftill have worn the petticoat, And ne'er have ftoln the breech from Lancaster. Prince. Let fop fable in a winter's night, His currith riddles fort not with this place.

Glo. By heaven, brat, I'll plague ye for that word. Queen. Ay, thou waft born to be a plague to men. Glo. For God's fake, take away this captive fcold.' Prince. Nay, take away this fcolding crook-back rather,

K. Edw.

K. Edw. Peace, wilful boy, or I will charm your tongue. Cla. Untutor'd lad, thou art too malapert, Prince. I know my duty, you're undutiful: Lafcivious Edward, and thou perjur'd George, And thou mif-fhapen Dick, I tell ye all, I am your better, traitors as ye are : And thou ufurp'ft my father's right and mine. Glo. Take that, thou likeness of this railer here.

[Stabs bim:

K. Edw. And take thou that, to end thy agony.

Edw. ftabs him:

Clar. And there's for twitting me with perjury.

[Clar. ftabs him.

[Offers to kill her.

Queen. Oh, kill me too!
Glo. Marry, and fhall.-
K. Ed. Hold, Richard, hold; for we have done too much..
Glo. Why should she live, to fill the world with words?
K.E.What? doth fhe fwoon tufe means for her recov'ry..
Glo. Clarence, excufe me to the King my brother:
I'll hence to London on a serious matter.

Ere ye come there, be fure to hear fome news. I
Clar. What? what?

Gla. The Tower, man, the Tower!-I'll root 'em out.

[Exit Queen. Oh Ned, fweet Ned! speak to thy mother, boy, Canft thou not speak? O traitors, murderers! They, that ftabb'd Cæfar, shed no blood at all; Did not offend, and were not worthy blame, If this foul deed were by, to equal it. He was a man; this (in refpect) a child ; And men ne'er fpend their fury on a child. What's worse than murderer, that I may name it ? No, no, my heart will burft, and if I fpeakAnd I will fpeak, that fo my heart may burft.. Butchers and villains, bloody cannibals, How fweet a plant have you untimely cropt! You have no children, butchers; if you had, The thought of them would have ftirr'd up remorse; But if you ever chance to have a child, Look, in his youth to have him fo cut off;

As, deathfmen! you have rid this fweet young Prince.

K. Edw.

K. Edw Away with her, go bear her hence by force. Queen. Nay, never bear me hence, difpatch me here: Here fheath thy fword,, I'll pardon thee my death: What? wilt thou not? then, Clarence, do it thou.

Clar. By heav'n, I will not do thee so much ease. Queen. Good Clarence, do; fweet Clarence, do thou do it. Clar. Didft thou not hear me fwear, I would not do it? Queen. Ay, but thou useft to forfwear thyself: 'Twas fin before, but now 'tis charity.

What, wilt thou not? where is that devil-butcher, (24) Richard? hard-favour'd Richard, where art thou? Thou art not here: murder is thy alms-deed. Petitioner for blood thou ne'er put'ft back.

K. Edw. Away, I fay; I charge ye, bear her hence. Queen. So come to you and yours, as to this Prince! [Exit Queen

K. Edw. Where's Richard gone?

Clar. To London all in poft; and, as I guess, To make a bloody fupper in the Tower.

K. Edw. He's fudden, if a thing comes in his head. Now march we hence, difcharge the common fort With pay and thanks, and let's away to London; And fee our gentle Queen how well the fares; By this, I hope, fhe hath a fon for me,

[Exeunt

SCENE changes to the Tower of London. Enter King Henry, and Glocefter, with the Lieutenant on Tower Walls.

Glo.

Go

OOD day, my Lord; what! at your book fo hard? K. Henry. Ay, my good Lord; my Lord, I fhould fay rather;

'Tis fin to flatter, good was little better: Good Glofter, and good devil, were alike,

(24) Where is that devil's butcher,

Richard Thus all the editions. But devil's butcher, in other terms, I think, is kill-devil: rare news for the freethinkers, if there were any grounds for depending on it But the poet certainly wrote devil-butcher; and the first part of the compound is to be taken adjectively, meaning, execrable, infernal, devilijk.

And

And both prepoft'rous; therefore, not good Lord.
Glo. Sir, leave us to ourfelves, we must confer..

[Exit Lieutenant.
K. Henry. So flies the wreaklefs fhepherd from the wolf.
So first the harmless flock doth yield his fleece,
And next his throat, unto the butcher's knife.
What fcene of death hath Rofcius now to act? (25)
Glo. Sufpicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer..

K. Henry. The bird, that hath been limed in a bushy
With trembling wings mif-doubteth ev'ry bufh;.
And I, the hapless male to one sweet bird,.
Have now the fatal object in my eye,

Where my poor young was lim'd, was caught and kill'd.
Glo. Why, what a peevish fool was that of Creet,
That taught his fon the office of a fowl?
And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd.
K. Henry. I, Dedalus; my poor boy, Icarus ;
Thy father, Minos that deny'd our course;
The Sun, that fear'd the wings of my sweet boy,

(25) What fcene of death bath Rofcius now to act?] Tho' I have not disturb'd the text here, I cannot but fubjoin my friend's fufpicion of it, in his own words.-I believe, there never was a fillier.corruption than this reading; certainly introduced by fome fhallowpated conceited fellow of the fcene. For, in the first place, what fimilitude between Richard's murders, and Rofcius's fcenes of death? But what is ftill worse, Rofcius was a Comedian, and not a Tragedian. Were a player here to be brought in by head and fhoulders, it should have been fopus.----Rofcius citatior, fopus gravior fuit; quod Ille Comedias, bic Tragoedias egit; fays Quintilian. And to fhew what kind of walk in playing Rofcius was famous for, we need only cite Tully, in his oration in behalf of that comedian. Cujus perfonam præclare Rofcius in Scena tractare confuevit: neque tamen pro beneficio ei par gratia refertur. Nam Ballionem illum improbiffimum, & perjuriffimum lenonem cum agit, agit Chæream.---(By the bye, had L' Abbe d'Aubignac remember'd this paffage, he need not have made it a queftion in his La Practique du Theatre, whether Plautus's plays were acted after his death.) Now, this being premifed, I cannot but think that we ought to read;

What fcene of death bath Richard now to act?'

And this not only makes good sense of the line, but is infinitely more agreeable to the character of the fpeaker, and the circumftances he was then in Mr. Warburton

Thy

Thy brother Edward; and thy felf, the fea,
Whofe envious gulph did swallow up his life.
Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words;
My breaft can better brook thy dagger's point,
Than can my ears that tragick hiftory..

But wherefore doft thou come Is't for my life?
Glo. Think'ft thou, I am an executioner?
K. Henry. A perfecutor, I am fure, thou art;
If murd'ring innocents be executing,
Why, then thou art an executioner.

Glo. Thy fon I kill'd for his prefumption.

K. Henry. Hadst thou been kill'd, when first thou didst Thou hadft not liv'd to kill a fon of mine.

And thus I prophefy, that many a thousand,
Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear,

[prefume,

And many an old man's figh, and many a widow's,
And many an orphan's water-standing eye,
(Men for their fons, wives for their husbands fate,
And orphans for their parents timeless death,);
Shall rue the hour that ever thou waft born.
The owl fhriek'd at thy birth, an evil fign;
The night-crow cry'd, a boding luckless tune;
Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempeft shook down trees;
The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top,
And chattering pyes in difmal difcords fung:
Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain,
And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope;
To wi, an indigefted deform'd lump,

Not like the fruit of fuch a goodly tree.

Teeth hadft thou in thy head when thou waft born,
To fignify, thou cam'ft to bite the world:
And, if the reft be true which I have heard,.

Thou cam'ft into the world with thy legs forward. (26)

Glo.

(26) And, if the reft be true which I have heard, Thou cam ft ] Had our editors had but a grain of fagacity, or due diligence, there could have been no room for this abfurd break fince they might have ventur'd to fill it up with certainty too. The old quarto would have led them part of the way,

Thou cam' into the world.

And that the verfe is to be compleated in the manner I have given