Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she's your wife,
And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd,
I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

Stan. I do beseech you, either not believe
The envious slanders of her false accusers;
Or, if she be accus'd on true report,

Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice. Q. Eliz. Saw you the king to-day, my lord of Stanley?

Stan. But now, the duke of Buckingham, and I, Are come from visiting his majesty.

Q. Eliz. What likelihood of his amendment, lords? Buck. Madam, good hope; his grace speaks cheerfully.

Q. Eliz. God grant him health! Did you confer with him?

Buck. Ay, madam: he desires to make atone

ment

Between the duke of Gloster and your brothers,
And between them and my lord chamberlain;
And sent to warn them to his royal presence.
Q. Eliz. 'Would all were well!-But that will
never be ;-

I fear, our happiness is at the height.

Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET.

Glo. They do me wrong, and I will not endure
it:-
--

Who are they, that complain unto the king,
That I, forsooth, am stern, and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly,
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.
Because I cannot flatter, and speak fair,

4 i. e. summon. Thus in Julius Cæsar:

They mean to warn us at Philippi here.'

The word is still used in that sense in Scotland.

Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,
Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,
I must be held a rancorous enemy.
Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm,
But thus his simple truth must be abus'd
By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?

Grey. To whom in all this presence speaks your grace?

Glo. To thee, that hast nor honesty, nor grace. When have I injur'd thee? when done thee wrong?Or thee?—or thee?—or any of your faction? A plague upon you all! His royal grace,Whom God preserve better than you would wish! Cannot be quiet scarce a breathing while, But you must trouble him with lewd 5 complaints. Q. Eliz. Brother of Gloster, you mistake the

matter:

The king, of his own royal disposition,
And not provok'd by any suitor else;
Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred,
That in your outward action shows itself,
Against my children, brothers, and myself,
Makes him to send that thereby he may gather
The ground of your ill will, and so remove it.

Glo. I cannot tell";-The world is grown so bad, That wrens may prey where eagles dare not perch: Since every Jack became a gentleman,

There's many a gentle person made a Jack.

5 Lewd here signifies idle, ungracious; and not rude, ignorant, as Steevens asserts. 'I make as though I saw not thy leude pajantis (i. e. thy idle devices) tuis ineptiis.' Horman's Vulgaria, 1519.

6 i. e. I cannot tell what to say or think of it. See note on King Henry IV. Part II. Act i. Sc. 2, p. 269; and Mr. Gifford's Ben Jonson, vol. i. p. 125.

7 This proverbial expression at once demonstrates the origin of the term Jack, so often used by Shakspeare. It means one of the very lowest class of people, among whom this name is most common and familiar.

Q. Eliz. Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Gloster;

You envy my advancement, and my friends;
God grant, we never may have need of you!
Glo. Meantime, God grants that we have need
of you:

Our brother is imprison'd by your means,
Myself disgrac'd, and the nobility

Held in contempt; while great promotions
Are daily given, to ennoble those

That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble. Q. Eliz. By Him, that rais'd me to this careful height

From that contented hap which I enjoy'd,

I never did incense his majesty

Against the duke of Clarence, but have been
An earnest advocate to plead for him.

My lord, you do me shameful injury,
Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.

Glo. You may deny that you were not the cause Of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment.

Riv. She may, my lord; for

Glo. She may, Lord Rivers?—why, who knows not so?

She may do more, sir, than denying that:
She may help you to many fair preferments;
And then deny her aiding hand therein,
And lay those honours on your high desert.
What may she not? She may,-ay, marry may she,-
Riv. What, marry, may she?

Glo. What, marry, may she? marry with a king, A bachelor, a handsome stripling too:

I wis3, your grandam had a worser match.

Q. Eliz. My lord of Gloster, I have too long borne Your blunt upbraidings, and your bitter scoffs: By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty,

6 i. e. I think.

Of those gross taunts I often have endur'd.
I had rather be a country servant maid,
Than a great queen, with this condition-
To be so baited, scorn'd, and stormed at:
Small joy have I in being England's queen.

Enter QUEEN MARGARET, behind.

Q. Mar. And lessen'd be that small, God, I beseech thee!

Thy honour, state, and seat, is due to me.

Glo. What? threat you me with telling of the king?
Tell him, and spare not: look, what I have said
I will avouch, in presence of the king:

I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower.
'Tis time to speak, my pains 9 are quite forgot.

Q. Mar. Out, devil! I remember them too well: Thou kill'dst my husband Henry in the Tower, And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury.

Glo. Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king, I was a packhorse in his great affairs;

A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,
A liberal rewarder of his friends;

To royalize his blood, I spilt mine own.

Q. Mar. Ay, and much better blood than his, or thine.

Glo. In all which time, you, and your husband

Grey,

Were factious for the house of Lancaster;-
And, Rivers, so were you:-Was not your
husband
In Margaret's battle at Saint Albans slain 10?
Let me put in your minds, if you forget,
What you have been ere now, and what you are;
Withal, what I have been, and what I am.

9 Labours.

10 See note on King Henry VI. Part III. Act iii. Sc. 2, p. 323. Margaret's battle is Margaret's army.

Q. Mar. A murd'rous villain, and so still thou art. Glo. Poor Clarence did forsake his father Warwick,

Ay, and forswore himself,-Which Jesu pardon!— Q. Mar. Which God revenge!

Glo. To fight on Edward's party, for the crown: And, for his meed", poor lord, he is mew'd up: I would to God, my heart were flint like Edward's, Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine;

I am too childish-foolish for this world.

Q. Mar. Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this world,

Thou cacodæmon! there thy kingdom is.

Riv. My lord of Gloster, in those busy days,
Which here you urge, to prove us enemies,
We follow'd then our lord, our lawful king;
So should we you, if should be our king.

you

Glo. If I should be?—I had rather be a pedlar: Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof!

Q. Eliz. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose You should enjoy, were you this country's king; As little joy you may suppose in me,

That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.

Q. Mar. A little joy enjoys the queen thereof; For I am she, and altogether joyless.

I can no longer hold me patient.—

[Advancing. Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out In sharing that which you have pill'd 12 from me: Which of you trembles not, that looks on me? If not, that, I being queen, you bow like subjects; Yet that, by you depos'd, you quake like rebels?Ah, gentle 13 villain, do not turn away!

11 Reward.

12 To pill is to pillage. It is often used with to poll or strip. Kildare did use to pill and poll his friendes, tenants, and reteyners.' Holinshed.

13 Gentle is here used ironically.