Buck. Marry, my lord, lest, by a multitude, The new-heal'd wound of malice should break out; Which would be so much the more dangerous, By how much the estate is green, and yet ungovern'd:

Where every

horse bears his commanding rein,
And may direct his course as please himself,
As well the fear of harm, as harm apparent,
In my opinion, ought to be prevented.

Glo. I hope, the king made peace with all of us; And the compact is firm, and true, in me.

Riv. And so in me; and so, I think, in all9:
Yet, since it is but green, it should be put·
To no apparent likelihood of breach,

Which, haply, by much company might be urg'd:
Therefore I say, with noble Buckingham,

That it is meet so few should fetch the prince.
Hast. And so say

I.

Glo. Then be it so; and go we to determine Who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow. Madam, and you my mother, will you go To give your censures 10 in this weighty business?

[Exeunt all but BUCKINGHAM and GLOSTER.
Buck. My lord, whoever journeys to the prince,
For God's sake, let not us two stay at home:
For, by the way, I'll sort occasion,

As index11 to the story we late talk'd of,
To part the queen's proud kindred from the prince.
Glo. My other self, my counsel's consistory,

9 This speech seems rather to belong to Hastings, who was of the duke of Gloster's party. The next speech might be given to Stanley.

10 i. e. your judgments, your opinions.

"That is preparatory, by way of prelude. Thus in Othello:- an index and obscure prologue to the history of lust and foul thoughts.'-Vide note on Hamlet, Act iii. Sc. 4.

VOL. VII.

G

My oracle, my prophet!-My dear cousin,

I, as a child, will go by thy direction.

Towards Ludlow then, for we'll not stay behind.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. The same. A Street.

Enter two Citizens, meeting.

1 Cit. Good morrow, neighbour: Whither away so fast?

2 Cit. I promise you, I scarcely know myself: Hear you the news abroad?

1 Cit.

Yes; the king's dead. 2 Cit. Ill news, by'r lady; seldom comes the

better1:

I fear, I fear, 'twill prove a giddy world.

Enter another Citizen.

3 Cit. Neighbours, God speed!

1 Cit.

Give you good morrow, sir.

3 Cit. Doth the news hold of good King Edward's death?

2 Cit. Ay, sir, it is too true; God help, the while! 3 Cit. Then, masters, look to see a troublous world. 1 Cit. No, no; by God's good grace, his son shall reign.

3 Cit. Woe to that land, that's govern'd by a child?! 2 Cit. In him there is a hope of government;

as

1 An ancient proverbial saying, noticed in The English Courtier and Country Gentlemen, 4to. blk l. 1586, sign. B: '— the proverbe sayth seldome come the better. VAL. That proverb indeed is auncient, and for the most part true.' I find it in Hormanni Vulgaria, 1519, thus:- Selde cometh the better. Raro succedere meliorem.' Mr. Douce has adduced a more ancient citation of it.

2 Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child.'

Ecclesiast. c. x. Shakspeare found it cited in the duke of Buckingham's speech to the citizens in More's Richard III.

That, in his nonage3, council under him,
And, in his full and ripen'd years, himself,
No doubt, shall then, and till then, govern well.
1 Cit. So stood the state, when Henry the Sixth
Was crown'd in Paris but at nine months old.
3 Cit. Stood the state so? no, no, good friends,
God wot;

For then this land was famously enrich'd
With politick grave counsel; then the king
Had virtuous uncles to protect his grace.

1 Cit. Why, so hath this, both by his father and mother.

3 Cit. Better it were they all came by his father; Or, by his father, there were none at all:

For emulation now, who shall be nearest,
Will touch us all too near, if God prevent not.
O, full of danger is the duke of Gloster;

And the queen's sons, and brothers, haught and proud :

And were they to be rul'd, and not to rule,
This sickly land might solace as before.

1 Cit. Come, come, we fear the worst: all will be well.

3 Cit. When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks;

When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand;
When the sun sets, who doth not look for night?
Untimely storms make men expect a dearth:
All may be well; but, if God sort it so,
'Tis more than we deserve, or I expect.

2 Cit. Truly, the hearts of men are full of fear : You cannot reason almost with a man

That looks not heavily, and full of dread.

"We may hope well of his government under all circumstances; we may hope this of his council while he is in his nonage, and of himself in his riper years.

4 See note 14, p. 44.

3 Cit. Before the days of change, still is it so:
By a divine instinct, men's minds mistrust
Ensuing danger; as, by proof, we see
The water swell before a boist'rous storm 5.
But leave it all to God.

2 Cit. Marry, we were 3 Cit. And so was I;

Whither away?

sent for to the justices.
I'll bear you company.

SCENE IV.

The same. A Room in the Palace.

[Exeunt.

Enter the Archbishop of York, the young DUKE of YORK, QUEEN ELIZABETH, and the DUCHESS of YORK.

Arch. Last night, I heard, they lay at Stony-
Stratford;

And at Northampton they do rest to-night1:
To-morrow, or next day, they will be here.

Duch. I long with all my heart to see the prince;
I hope, he is much grown since last I saw him.
Q. Eliz. But I hear, no; they say, my son of York
Hath almost overta'en him in his growth.

York. Ay, mother, but I would not have it so. Duch. Why, my young cousin? it is good to grow.

5 Before such great things, men's hearts of a secret instinct of nature misgive them; as the sea without wind swelleth of himself some time before a tempest.'-From More's Richard III. copied by Holinshed, III. 721.

1 This is the reading of the folio. The quarto of 1597, reads:'Last night I hear they lay at Northampton:

At Stony-Stratford will they be to-night.'

By neither reading can the truth of history be preserved. According to the reading of the quarto the scene would be on the day on which the king was journeying from Northampton to Stratford; and of course the messenger's account of the peers being seized, &c. which happened on the next day after the king had lain at Stratford, is inaccurate. If the folio reading be adopted,

York. Grandam, one night, as we did sit at supper, My uncle Rivers talk'd how I did grow

More than my brother; Ay, quoth my uncle Gloster, Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace: And since, methinks, I would not grow so fast, Because sweet flowers are slow, and weeds make haste.

Duch. 'Good faith, 'good faith, the saying did not hold

In him that did object the same to thee:

He was the wretched'st thing, when he was young: So long a growing, and so leisurely,

That, if his rule were true, he should be gracious.
Arch. And so, no doubt, he is, my gracious madam.
Duch. I hope, he is; but yet let mothers doubt.
York. Now, by my troth, if I had been remem-
ber'd,

I could have given my uncle's grace a flout,
To touch his growth, nearer than he touch'd mine.
Duch. How, my young York? I pr'ythee, let
me hear it.

York. Marry, they say, my uncle grew so fast,
That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old;
'Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth.
Grandam, this would have been a biting jest.

the scene is indeed placed on the day on which the king was seized; but the archbishop is supposed to be apprized of a fact which, before the entry of the messenger, he manifestly does not know; namely, the duke of Gloster's coming to Stratford the morning after the king had lain there, taking him forcibly back to Northampton, and seizing the Lords Rivers, Grey, &c. The truth is, that the queen herself, the person most materially interested in the welfare of her son, did not hear of the king's being carried back from Stony-Stratford to Northampton till about midnight of the day on which this violence was offered to him by his uncle. See Hall, Edward V. fol. 6. Malone thinks this an unanswerable argument in favour of the reading of the quarto; while Steevens thinks it a matter of indifference, but prefers the text of the folio copy on account of the versification.