1 Cit.

Yes; that the king's dead.

2 Cit. Ill news, by'r lady; seldom comes the better;' I fear, I fear, 'twill prove a giddy world.

Enter another Citizen.

3 Cit. Neighbors, God speed.

1 Cit.

3 Cit.

2 Cit.

Give you good morrow, sir. Doth the news hold of good king Edward's death?

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 governed by a child! 2 Cit. In him there is a hope of government; That, in his nonage, council under him,

And, in his full and ripened years, himself,
No doubt, shall then, and till then, govern well.

1 Cit. So stood the state, when Henry the Sixth Was crowned 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 enriched
With politic, 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 ruled, and not to rule,

This sickly land might solace as before.

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

1 An ancient proverbial saying.

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

man

That looks not heavily, and full of dread.

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 boisterous storm.
But leave it all to God. Whither away?

2 Cit. Marry, we were sent for to the justices.
3 Cit. And so was I; I'll bear you company.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV. The same. A Room in the Palace.

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-night:1
To-morrow, or next day, they will be here.

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, 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

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. York. Grandam, one night, as we did sit at supper, My uncle Rivers talked 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 remembered,
I could have given my uncle's grace a flout,
To touch his growth, nearer than he touched 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.

Duch. I pr'ythee, pretty York, who told thee this?
York. Grandam, his nurse.

Duch. His nurse? Why, she was dead ere thou wast

born.

York. If 'twere not she, I cannot tell who told me.

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 favor 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.

Q. Eliz. A parlous' boy. Go to, you are too shrewd.
Arch. Good madam, be not angry with the child.
Q. Eliz. Pitchers have ears.

What is thy news?

Mess. Well, madam, and in health.

Duch.

Mess. Lord Rivers, and lord Grey, are sent to

Pomfret,

With them sir Thomas Vaughan, prisoners.

Duch. Who hath committed them?

Mess.

Gloster and Buckingham.
Q. Eliz.

The mighty dukes,

For what offence?

Mess. The sum of all I can, I have disclosed;
Why, or for what, the nobles were committed,
Is all unknown to me, my gracious lady.

Q. Eliz. Ah me, I see the ruin of my house!
The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind;
Insulting tyranny begins to jut

Upon the innocent and awless throne.-
Welcome destruction, blood, and massacre!
I see, as in a map, the end of all.

Duch. Accursed and unquiet, wrangling days!
How many of you have mine eyes beheld!
My husband lost his life to get the crown;
And often up and down my sons were tost,
For me to joy, and weep, their gain, and loss;
And being seated, and domestic broils

1 Parlous is a popular corruption of perilous; keen, shrewd. The queen evidently means to chide him.

2 The quarto reads to jet, which Mr. Boswell thought preferable; but the folio is right. "To jut upon the throne," is to make inroads or invasions upon it. See Cooper's Dictionary, 1584. Awless is not producing awe, not reverenced.

Clean overblown, themselves, the conquerors,
Make war upon themselves; brother to brother,
Blood to blood, self 'gainst self.-O, preposterous
And frantic courage, end thy damned spleen;
Or let me die, to look on death no more!

Q. Eliz. Come, come, my boy, we will to sanctuary.— Madam, farewell.

Duch.

Stay, I will

go with you.

My gracious lady, go,

[To the Queen.

And thither bear your treasure and your goods.
For my part, I'll resign unto your grace
The seal I keep;1 and so betide to me,
As well I tender you, and all of yours!
Come, I'll conduct you to the sanctuary.

[Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I. London. A Street. The trumpets sound.

Enter the PRINCE of WALES, GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM, CARDINAL BOURCHIER,2 and others.

Buck. Welcome, sweet prince, to London, to your chamber.3

Glo. Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts' sovereign. The weary way hath made you melancholy..

1 Afterwards, however, this obsequious archbishop [Rotheram], to ingratiate himself with Richard III., put his majesty's badge, the Hog, upon the gate of the public library at Cambridge.

2 Thomas Bourchier was made a cardinal, and elected archbishop of Canterbury in 1464. He died in 1486.

3 London was anciently called Camera Regis. London is called the king's special chamber in the duke of Buckingham's oration to the citizens (apud More), which Shakspeare has taken other phrases from.