There's some conceit or other likes him well, When he doth bid good morrow with such spirit. I think, there's ne'er a man in Christendom,

Can lesser hide his love, or hate, than he;

For by his face straight shall you know his heart. Stan. What of his heart perceive you in his face, By any likelihood he show'd to-day?

Hast. Marry, that with no man here he is offended; For, were he, he had shown it in his looks.

Re-enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM.

Glo. I pray you all, tell me what they deserve That do conspire my death with devilish plots Of damned witchcraft, and that have prevail'd Upon my body with their hellish charms?

Hast. The tender love I bear your grace, my lord, Makes me most forward in this noble presence To doom the offenders: Whosoe'er they be, I say, my lord, they have deserved death.

Glo. Then be your eyes the witness of their evil, Look how I am bewitch'd; behold mine arm Is, like a blasted sapling, wither'd up: And this is Edward's wife, that monstrous witch, Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore, That by their witchcraft thus have marked me. Hast. If they have done this deed, my noble lord,

Glo. If! thou protector of this damned strumpet, Talk'st thou to me of ifs?-Thou art a traitor:Off with his head: now, by Saint Paul, I swear, I will not dine until I see the same.Lovel, and Catesby, look, that it be done; The rest that love me, rise, and follow me.

[Exeunt Council, with GLO. and BUCK. 6 i. e. semblance, appearance. Thus in Othello:

thin habits, and poor likelihoods of modern seeming.'

Hast. Woe, woe, for England! not a whit for me;
For I, too fond, might have prevented this:
Stanley did dream, the boar did rase his helm;
But I disdain'd it, and did scorn to fly.

Three times to-day my foot-cloth horse did stumble7,
And startled, when he look'd upon the Tower,
As loath to bear me to the slaughter-house.
O, now I want the priest that spake to me:
I now repent I told the pursuivant,
As too triumphing, how mine enemies,
To-day at Pomfret bloodily were butcher'd,
And I myself secure in grace and favour.
O, Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse
Is lighted on poor Hastings' wretched head.

Cate. Despatch, my lord, the duke would be at dinner;

Make a short shrift, he longs to see your head.

Hust. O momentary grace of mortal men, Which we more hunt for than the grace of God! Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks, Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast;

7 For foot-cloth see note on King Henry VI. Part II. Act iv. Sc. 7. A foot-cloth horse was a palfrey covered with such housings, used for state; and was the usual mode of conveyance for the rich, at a period when carriages were unknown.

This is from Holinshed, who copies Sir Thomas More :-' In riding toward the Tower the same morning in which he [Hastings] was beheaded, his horse twice or thrice stumbled with him, almost to the falling; which thing, albeit each man wot well daily happeneth to them to whome no such mischance is toward: yet hath it beene of an old rite and custome observed as a token oftentimes notablie foregoing some great misfortune.'

8

'Nescius aura fallacis.'-Horace.

William Lord Hastings was beheaded on the 13th of June, 1483. His eldest son by Catherine Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, and widow of William Lord Bonville, was restored to his honours and estate by King Henry VII. in the first year of his reign. The daughter of Lady Hastings, by her first husband, was married to the marquis of Dorset, who appears in the present play.

Ready, with every nod, to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.

Lov. Come, come, despatch; 'tis bootless to exclaim.

Hast. O, bloody Richard!—miserable England! I prophesy the fearful'st time to thee, That ever wretched age hath look'd upon.Come, lead me to the block, bear him my head; They smile at me, who shortly shall be dead. [Exeunt.

SCENE V. The same.

The Tower Walls.

Enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM, in rusty armour, and marvellous ill favoured.

Glo. Come, cousin, canst thou quake, and change thy colour?

Murder thy breath in middle of a word,-
And then again begin, and stop again,

As if thou wert distraught, and mad with terror?
Buck. Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian;
Speak, and look back, and pry on every side,
Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,
Intending1 deep suspicion: ghastly looks

9 Those who now smile at me shall be shortly dead themselves.

1 i. e. pretending. Thus in the Rape of Lucrece :

For then is Tarquin brought unto his bed,
Intending weariness with heavy spright.'

And Timon of Athens, Act ii. Sc. 2, where it has been hitherto erroneously explained :—

And so intending other serious matters,

After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions,
With certain half-caps, and cold-moving nods,
They froze me into silence.'

Again in The Taming of the Shrew, Act iv. Sc. 1, p.

412:Ay, and amid this hurly, I intend [i. e. pretend] That all is done in reverend care of her.'

Are at my service, like enforced smiles;
And both are ready in their offices,
At any time, to grace my stratagems.
But what, is Catesby gone?

Glo. He is; and, see, he brings the mayor along.

Enter the Lord Mayor and CATESBY.

Buck. Let me alone to entertain him.-Lord

mayor,

Glo. Look to the drawbridge there.

Buck.

Hark, hark! a drum, Glo. Catesby, o'erlook the walls.

Buck. Lord mayor, the reason we have sent for

you,

Glo. Look back, defend thee, here are enemies. Buck. God and our innocence defend and guard us! Enter LOVEL and RATCLIFF2, with HASTINGS'S Head.

Glo. Be patient, they are friends; Ratcliff, and Lovel.

Lov. Here is the head of that ignoble traitor, The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.

Glo. So dear I lov'd the man, that I must weep. I took him for the plainest harmless creature, That breath'd upon the earth a Christian; Made him my book, wherein my soul recorded The history of all her secret thoughts:

So smooth he daub'd his vice with show of virtue,
That, his apparent open guilt omitted,—

I mean, his conversation3 with Shore's wife,-
He liv'd from all attainder of suspect.

2 The quarto has Enter Catesby with Hastings's Head.' For this absurd alteration, by which Ratcliff is represented at Pomfret and in London at the same time, it is probable the editors of the folio have to answer.

3 i. e. familiar intercourse: what is now called 'criminal conversation.'

Buck. Well, well, he was the covert'st shelter'd

traitor

That ever liv'd.-Look you, my lord mayor,
Would you imagine, or almost believe,
(Were't not, that by great preservation
We live to tell it you), the subtle traitor
This day had plotted in the council-house,
To murder me, and my good lord of Gloster?
May. What! had he so?

Glo. What! think you we are Turks, or infidels?
Or that we would, against the form of law,
Proceed thus rashly in the villain's death;
But that the extreme peril of the case,

The peace of England, and our persons' safety,
Enforc'd us to this execution?

May. Now, fair befall you! he deserv'd his death; And your good graces both have well proceeded, To warn false traitors from the like attempts.

I never look'd for better at his hands,

After he once fell in with mistress Shore.

you

heard

Buck. Yet had we not determin'd he should die, Until your lordship came to see his end; Which now the loving haste of these our friends, Somewhat against our meaning, hath prevented: Because, my lord, we would have had The traitor speak, and timorously confess The manner and the purpose of his treasons; That you might well have signified the same Unto the citizens, who, haply, may Misconstrue us in him, and wail his death.

May. But, my good lord, your grace's word shall

serve,

As well as I had seen, and heard him speak:
And do not doubt, right noble princes both,
But I'll acquaint our duteous citizens
With all your just proceedings in this case.