Well could I curse away a winter's night, Though standing naked on a mountain top, Where biting cold would never let grass grow, And think it but a minute spent in sport. Queen. O, let me entreat thee cease. Give me thy hand,

339

That I may dew it with my mournful tears;
Nor let the rain of heaven wet this place,
To wash away my woful monuments.
O, could this kiss be printed in thy hand,
That thou mightst think upon these by the seal,
Through whom a thousand sighs are breathed
for thee!

350

So, get thee gone, that I may know my grief;
"Tis but surmised whiles thou art standing by,
As one that surfeits thinking on a want.
I will repeal thee, or, be well assured,
Adventure to be banished myself:
And banished I am, if but from thee.
Go; speak not to me; even now be gone.
O, go not yet! Even thus two friends con-
demn'd

Embrace and kiss and take ten thousand leaves,
Loather a hundred times to part than die.

Yet now farewell; and farewell life with thee! Suf. Thus is poor Suffolk ten times banished; Once by the king, and three times thrice by thee.

344-5. "That thou mightst think," &c. "That by the impression of my kiss forever remaining on thy hand, thou mightest think on those lips through which a thousand sighs will be breathed for thee."Johnson.

"Tis not the land I care for, wert thou thence; A wilderness is populous enough,

So Suffolk had thy heavenly company:

For where thou art, there is the world itself,
With every several pleasure in the world,
And where thou art not, desolation.
I can no more: live thou to joy thy life;
Myself no joy in nought but that thou livest.
Enter Vaux.

360

Queen. Wither goes Vaux so fast? what news, I prithee?

Vaux. To signify unto his majesty

That Cardinal Beaufort is at point of death;
For suddenly a grievous sickness took him. 370
That makes him gasp and stare and catch the
air,

Blaspheming God and cursing men on earth.
Sometime he talks as if Duke Humphrey's
ghost

Were by his side; sometime he calls the king,
And whispers to his pillow as to him
The secrets of his overcharged soul:
And I am sent to tell his majesty,

359. "thence," away from the land; Ff. 2, 3, 4, "hence."-I. G. 366. "no joy"; Singer (Collier MS.), "to joy"; "nought," Ff. 3, 4, "ought."-I. G.

376. So in Macbeth, Act v. sc. 1: "Infected minds to their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets." The passage stands thus in the quarto:

"Sometimes he calls upon Duke Humphrey's ghost,
And whispers to his pillow as to him.”

The cardinal died at his palace of Wolvesey, April 11, 1447,

he

That even now he cries aloud for him. Queen. Go tell this heavy message to the king. [Exit Vaux.

-380

Aye me! what is this world! what news are
these!
But wherefore grieve I at an hour's poor loss,
Omitting Suffolk's exile, my soul's treasure?
Why only, Suffolk, mourn I not for thee,
And with the southern clouds contend in tears,
Theirs for the earth's increase, mine for my
sorrows?

Now get thee hence: the king, thou know'st, is

coming;

If thou be found by me, thou art but dead.

which was six weeks after the death of Gloster. He was eighty years of age. The chroniclers give him a very bad character, but it is remarkable that they do not specify facts to bear out their charges. Holinshed, following Hall, dismisses him thus: "He was descended of an honorable lineage, but born in hast, more noble in blood than notable in learning, hautie in stomach, and high of countenance, rich above measure, but not verie liberall, disdainfull to his kin, and dreadfull to his lovers, preferring monie before friendship, manie things beginning and few performing, saving in malice and mischief; his insatiable covetousnesse and hope of long life made him both to forget God, his prince, and himselfe." Lingard vindicates him, and the vindication cannot well be upset: “That he expired in the agonies of despair, is a fiction which we owe to the imagination of Shakespeare: from an eye-witness we learn that during a lingering illness he devoted most of his time to religious exercises. According to the provisions of his will, his wealth was chiefly distributed in charitable donations: no less a sum than four thousand pounds was set aside for the relief of indigent prisoners in the capital; and the hospital of St. Cross, in the vicinity of Winchester, still exists a durable monument of his munificence."H. N. H.

381. Why do I lament a circumstance of which the impression will pass away in an hour; while I neglect to think on the loss of Suffolk, my affection for whom no time will efface?"—H. N. H.

390

Suf. If I depart from thee, I cannot live;
And in thy sight to die, what were it else
But like a pleasant slumber in thy lap?
Here could I breathe my soul into the air,
As mild and gentle as the cradle-babe,
Dying with mother's dug between its lips:
Where, from thy sight, I should be raging mad,
And cry out for thee to close up mine eyes,
To have thee with thy lips to stop my mouth;
So shouldst thou either turn my flying soul,
Or I should breathe it so into thy body,
And then it lived in sweet Elysium.
To die by thee were but to die in jest;

400

From thee to die were torture more than death:
O, let me stay, befall what may befall!

Queen. Away! though, parting be a fretful corrosive,

It is applied to a deathful wound.

To France, sweet Suffolk: let me hear from
thee;

For wheresoe'er thou art in this world's globe,
I'll have an Iris that shall find thee out.

Suf. I go.

Queen. And take my heart with thee.

Suf. A jewel, lock'd into the wofull'st cask
That ever did contain a thing of worth.
Even as a splitted bark, so sunder we:
This way fall I to death.

Queen.

This way for me.

410

[Exeunt severally.

SCENE III

A bedchamber.

Enter the King, Salisbury, Warwick, to the
Cardinal in bed.

King. How fares my lord? speak, Beaufort, to thy sovereign.

Car. If thou be'st death, I'll give thee England's treasure,

Enough to purchase such another island,

So thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain. King. Ah, what a sign it is of evil life,

Where death's approach is seen so terrible! War. Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee.

4. "and feel no pain"; Theobald reads, from Qq., “but one whole year."—I. G.

6. This scene was evidently founded, in part, on a passage in Hall: "Doctor John Baker, his privy counsellor and his chaplain, wrote that he, lying on his death-bed, said these words: 'Why should I die, having so many riches? If the whole realm would save my life, I am able either by policy to get it, or by riches to buy it. Fie! will not death be hired, nor will money do nothing? When my nephew of Bedford died, I thought myself half up the wheel; but when I saw my other nephew of Gloster deceased, I thought myself able to be equal with kings, and so thought to increase my treasure in hope to have worn a triple crown. But I see now the world faileth me, and so I am deceived; praying you all to pray for me!" Lingard discredits this story, and adds that three weeks before his death the cardinal had himself carried into the great hall of his palace, where the clergy of the city and monks of the cathedral were assembled. "There he sat or lay while a dirge was sung, the funeral ceremony performed, and his will publicly read. The next morning they were assembled again: a mass of requiem was celebrated, and his will was again read, with the addition of several codicils. He then took leave of all, and was carried back to his chamber."-H. N. H.