you

Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,
Or, by Saint Paul, I'll strike thee to my foot,
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.
[The Bearers set down the coffin.
Anne. What, do tremble? are you
all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not; for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.—
Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
Thou hadst but power over his mortal body,
His soul thou canst not have; therefore, be gone.
Glo. Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.
Anne. Foul devil, for God's sake, hence, and
trouble us not;

For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
Fill'd it with cursing cries, and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern 5 of thy butcheries;

O, gentlemen, see, see! dead Henry's wounds
Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh"!-
Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity;
For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells;
Thy deed, inhuman and unnatural,

Provokes this deluge most unnatural.

O God, which this blood mad'st, revenge his death! O earth, which this blood drink'st, revenge his death! Either, heaven, with lightning strike the murderer dead,

Or, earth, gape open wide, and eat him quick;

5 Example.

6 This is from Holinshed. It is a tradition very generally received, that the murdered body bleeds on the touch of the murderer. This was so much believed by Sir Kenelm Digby, that he has endeavoured to explain the reason. The opinion seems to be derived from the ancient Swedes, or northern nations, from whom we descended; for they practised this method of trial in dubious cases. See Pitt's Atlas; Sweden, p. 20.

As thou dost swallow up this good king's blood, Which his hell-govern'd arm hath butchered!

Glo. Lady, you know no rules of charity, Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses. Anne. Villain, thou know'st no law of God norman; No beast so fierce, but knows some touch of pity. Glo. But I know none, and therefore am no beast. Anne. O wonderful, when devils tell the truth! Glo. More wonderful, when angels are so angry.Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman, Of these supposed evils, to give me leave, By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

Anne. Vouchsafe, diffus'd' infection of a man, For these known evils, but to give me leave, By circumstance, to curse thy cursed self.

Glo. Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

Anne. Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make

No excuse current, but to hang thyself.

Glo. By such despair, I should accuse myself. Anne. And, by despairing, shalt thou stand excus'd;

For doing worthy vengeance on thyself,

Thou didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

Glo. Say, that I slew them not?

Anne.

Why then, they are not dead:

But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

Glo. I did not kill your
Anne.

husband.

Why, then he is alive. Glo. Nay, he is dead; and slain by Edward's hand. Anne. In thy foul throat thou liest; Queen Margaret saw

7 Diffus'd anciently signified dark, obscure, strange, uncouth, or confused. See notes on King Henry V. Act v. Sc. 2, p. 518; and Merry Wives of Windsor, Act iv. Sc. 4, p. 269.

Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood;
The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

Glo. I was provoked by her sland'rous tongue, That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders. Anne. Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind, That never dreamt on aught but butcheries:

Didst thou not kill this king?

Glo.

I grant ye.

Anne. Dost grant me, hedgehog? then, God grant me too,

Thou may'st be damned for that wicked deed!
O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.

Glo. The fitter for the King of heaven that hath him.
Anne. He is in heaven, where thou shalt never

come.

Glo. Let him thank me, that holp to send him thither;

For he was fitter for that place, than earth.

Anne. And thou unfit for any place but hell. Glo. Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

Anne. Some dungeon.

Glo.

Your bed-chamber.

Anne. Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest!
Glo. So will it, madam, till I lie with you.
Anne. I hope so.

Glo. I know so. But, gentle Lady Anne,To leave this keen encounter of our wits,

And fall somewhat into a slower method;-
Is not the causer of the timeless deaths

Of these Plantagenets, Henry, and Edward,
As blameful as the executioner?

Anne. Thou wast the cause, and most accurs'd
effect.

8 i.e. the crime of my brothers. He has just charged the murder of Lady Anne's husband on Edward.

Glo. Your beauty was the cause of that effect; Your beauty, which did haunt me in my sleep, To undertake the death of all the world,

So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.
Anne. If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.
Glo. These eyes could not endure that beauty's
wreck,

You should not blemish it, if I stood by:
As all the world is cheered by the sun,
So I by that; it is my day, my life.

Anne. Black night o'ershade thy day, and death thy life!

Glo. Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.

Anne. I would I were, to be reveng'd on thee. Glo. It is a quarrel most unnatural,

To be reveng'd on him that loveth thee.

Anne. It is a quarrel just and reasonable, To be reveng❜d on him that kill'd my husband.

Glo. He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband, Did it to help thee to a better husband.

Anne. His better doth not breathe upon the earth. Glo. He lives, that loves you better than he could. Anne. Name him.

Glo.

Anne.

Plantagenet.

Why, that was he.

Glo. The self-same name, but one of better nature.

Anne. Where is he?

Glo.

Here: [She spits at him.]

Why dost thou spit at me?

Anne. 'Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake! Glo. Never came poison from so sweet a place. Anne. Never hung poison on a fouler toad. Out of my sight! thou dost infect mine eyes. Glo. Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

Anne. 'Would they were basilisks, to strike thee

dead 9!

Glo. I would they were, that I might die at once; For now they kill me with a living death 10. 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,

11

No,-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 tear12;
And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
I never su'd to friend, nor enemy;

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 [She looks scornfully at him.

speak.

9 See notes on King Henry V. Act v. Sc. 2, p. 517; and King Henry VI. Part II. Act iii. Sc. 2, p. 198.

10 We have the same expression in Venus and Adonis applied to love:

For I have heard it is a life in death

That laughs and weeps, and all but with a breath.'

a living death I bear,

Says Dapperwit, and sunk beside his chair.'

And in Watson's Sonnets, printed about 1580:-
'Love is a sowre delight, a sugred griefe,
A living death, and ever-dying life.'

11 Pitiful.

12 Here is an apparent reference to King Henry VI. Part 111. Act ii. Sc. 1.