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Unless to spy my shadow in the sun,
And descant on mine own deformity;
And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,—
I am determined to prove a villain,

And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

GLOSTER'S LOVE FOR LADY ANNE.

Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,

Sham'd their aspects with store of childish drops:
These eyes, which never shed remorseful* tear,-
Not, when my father York and Edward wept,
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made,
When black fac'd Clifford shook his sword at him:
Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
Told the sad story of my father's death;
And twenty times made pause, to sob, and weep,
That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks,
Like trees bedash'd with rain: in that sad time,
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weep-
I never sued to friend, nor enemy;
[ing.
My tongue could never learn sweet soothing word;
But now thy beauty is propos'd my fee,
My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to

[speak.

GLOSTER'S PRAISES OF HIS OWN PERSON, AFTER HIS
SUCCESSFUL ADDRESSES.

My dukedom to a beggarly deniert,
I do mistake my person all this while:
Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
Myself to be a marvellous proper man.

*Pitiful.

A small French coin.

I'll be at charges for a looking glass;
And entertain a 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.

QUEEN MARGARET'S EXECRATIONS ON GLoster. The worm of conscience still be-gnaw thy soul! Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st, And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends! No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine, Unless it be while some tormenting dream Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils! Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog! Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity The slave of nature, and the son of hell! Thou slander of thy mother's heavy womb! Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins! Thou rag of honour! thou detested

HIGH BIRTH.

I was born so high,

Our aiery* buildeth in the cedar's top,
And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun.

GLOSTER'S HYPOCRISY.

But then I sigh, and, with a piece of scripture, Tell them that God bids us do good for evil: And thus I clothe my naked villany

With old odd ends, stol'n forth of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.

CLARENCE'S DREAM.

What was your dream, my lord? I pray you, tell

me.

* Nest. ૨૪

Clar. Methought, that I had broken from the
And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy: [Tower,
And, in my company, my brother Gloster;
Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
Upon the hatches; thence we look'd toward England,
And cited up a thousand heavy times,
During the wars of York and Lancaster
That had befall'n us. As we pac'd along
Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,
Methought that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling,
Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard,
Into the tumbling billows of the main.

O Lord! methought what pain it was to drown!
What dreadful noise of water in mine ears!
What sights of ugly death within mine eyes!
Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
A thousand men, that fishes gnaw'd upon;
Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,

All scatter'd in the bottom of the sea.

Some lay in dead men's skulls; and, in those holes
Where eyes did once inhabit, there were crept
(As 'twere in scorn of eyes,) reflecting gems,
That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep,
And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatter'd by.
Brak. Had you such leisure in the time of death,
To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?

Clar. Methought, I had; and often did I strive
To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood
Kept in my soul, and would not let it forth
To seek the empty, vast, and wand'ring air:
But smother'd it within my panting bulk*,
Which almost burst to belch it in the sea.
Brak. Awak'd you not with this sore agony?
* Body.

Clar. O no, my dream was lengthen'd after life; O, then began the tempest to my soul!

I pass'd, methought, the melancholy flood,
With that grim ferryman which poets write of,
Unto the kingdom of perpetual night.

The first that there did greet my stranger soul,
Was my great father-in-law, renowned Warwick,
Who cried aloud,-What scourge for perjury
Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?
And so he vanish'd: Then came wand'ring by
A shadow, like an angel, with bright hair
Dabbled in blood: and he shriek'd out aloud,-
Clarence is come,--false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence,
That stabb'd me in the field by Tewksbury;-
Seize on him, furies, take him to your torments!
With that, methought, a legion of foul fiends
Environ'd me, and howled in mine ears
Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise,
I trembling waked, and, for a season after,
Could not believe but that I was in hell;
Such terrible impression made my dream.
Brak. No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you!
I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.

Clar. O, Brakenbury, I have done these things-
That now give evidence against my soul,-
For Edward's sake; and see how he requites me!-
O God! if my deep prayers cannot appease thee,
But thou wilt be avenged on my misdeeds,
Yet execute thy wrath on me alone:

O, spare my guiltless wife, and my poor children!

SORROW.

Sorrow breaks seasons, and reposing hours, Makes the night morning, and the noontide night.

1

THE CARES OF GREATNESS.

Princes have but their titles for their glories,
An outward honour for an inward toil;
And, for unfelt imaginations,

They often feel a world of restless cares:
So that, between their titles and low name,
There's nothing differs but the outward fame.

A MURDERER'S ACCOUNT OF CONSCIENCE. I'll not meddle with it, it is a dangerous thing, it makes a man a coward: a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man cannot swear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his neighbour's wife, but it detects him: 'Tis a blushing shame-faced spirit, that mutinies in a man's bosom; it fills one full of obstacles; it made me once restore a purse of gold, that by chance I found; it beggars any man that keeps it; it is turned out of all towns and cities for a dangerous thing; and every man, that means to live well, endeavours to trust to himself, and live without it.

ACT II.

DECEIT.

Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice!

SUBMISSION TO HEAVEN OUR DUTY.

In common worldly things, 'tis call'd—ungrateful, With dull unwillingness to repay a debt, Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent; Much more to be thus opposite with heaven, For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

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