He was a man; this (in respect) a child ;
And men ne'er spend their fury on a child.
What's worse than murtherer, that I may name it?
No, no, my heart will burft, and if I fpeak-
And I will fpeak, that fo my heart may burst.
Butchers and villains, bloody canibals,

How sweet a plant have you untimely cropt!
You have no children, Butchers; if you had,
The thought of them would have stirr'd up remorfe ;
But if you ever chance to have a child,

Look in his youth to have him fo cut off;

As, Deathfmen! you have rid this fweet young Prince.
K. Edw. Away with her, go bear her hence by force.
Queen. Nay, never bear me hence, difpatch me here:
Here fheath thy fword, I'll pardon thee my death:
What? wilt thou not? then Clarence, do it thou.
Clar. By heav'n, I will not do thee so much ease.
Queen. Good Clarence, do; fweet Clarence, do thou
do it.

Clar. Didit thou not hear me fwear, I would not do it?
Queen. Ay, but thou useft to forfwear thyself:

'Twas fin before, but now 'tis charity.

What, wilt thou not? where is that Devil butcher, (10)
Richard? hard-favour'd Richard, where art thou?
Thou art not here: Murther is thy Alms-deed.
Petitioner for blood thou ne'er put'st back.

K. Edw. Away, I fay; I charge ye, bear her hence.
Queen. So come to you and yours, as to this Prince!
[Exit Queen.

K. Edw. Where's Richard gone?

Glar. To London all in poft; and, as I guess,

To make a bloody fupper in the Tower.

K. Edw. He's fudden, if a thing comes in his head. (10)

-Where is that Devil's Butcher,

Richard Thus all the Editions. But Devil's Butcher, in o-ther Terms, I think, is Kill-devil: rare news for the Freethinkers, if there were any Grounds for depending on it. But the Poet certainly wrote devil-Butcher; and the first Part of the Compound is to be taken adjectively, meaning, execrable, infernal, devilish.

Now

Now march we hence, discharge the common fort
With pay and thanks, and let's away to London;
And fee our gentle Queen, how well she fares;
By this, I hope, fhe hath a fon for me.

[Exeunti

SCENE changes to the Tower of London. Enter King Henry, and Gloucefter, with the Lieutenanton Tower Walls.

fo

Glo. GOOD day, my lord; what! at your book so

hard?

K. Henry. Ay, my good lord; my lord, I should fay

rather;

'Tis fin to flatter, good was little better: Good Glofter, and good devil, were alike, And both prepoft'rous; therefore, not good lord: Glo. Sir, leave us to our felves, we must confer. [Exit Lieutenant!. K. Henry. So flies the wreaklefs fhepherd from the

wolf.

So first the harmless flock doth yield his fleece,
And next his throat, unto the butcher's knife.
What scene of death hath Rofcius now to act?
Glo. Sufpicion always haunts the guilty mind;
The thief doth fear each bush an officer.

K. Henry. The bird, that hath been limed in a bush
With trembling wings mif-doubteth ev'ry bush;
And I, the hapless male to one fweet bird,

Have now the fatal object in my eye,

Where my poor young was lim'd, was caught, and kill'd.
Glo. Why, what a peevish fool was that of Creet,
That taught his fon the office of a fowl?

And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd..
K. Henry, I, Dedalus; my poor boy, Icarus ;
Thy father, Minos that deny'd our.courfe;
The Sun, that fear'd the wings of my fweet boy,
Thy brother Edward; and thy felf, the fea,
Whofe envious gulph did fwallow up his life.
Ah, kill me with thy weapon, not with words;
My breast can better brook thy dagger's point,

That

Than can my ears that tragick history.

But wherefore doft thou come? Is't for my life?
Glo. Think'ft thou, I am an executioner?
K. Henry. A perfecutor, I am fure, thou art ;
If murth'ring innocents be executing,
Why, then thou art an executioner.

Glo. Thy fon I kill'd for his prefumption.

K. Henry. Hadft thou been kill'd, when first thou didst prefume,

Thou hadft not liv'd to kill a fon of mine.
And thus I prophefie, that many a thousand,
Which now miftruft no parcel of my fear,
And many an old man's figh, and many a widow's,
And many an orphan's water-standing eye,
(Men for their fons, wives for their husbands' fate,
And orphans for their parents' timeless death,)
Shall rue the hour that ever thou waft born.
The owl shriek'd at thy birth, an evil fign;
The night-crow cry'd, a boding lucklefs Tune;
Dogs howl'd, and hideous tempest shook down trees ;
The raven rook'd her on the chimney's top,
And chattering pyes in difmal difcords fung:
Thy mother felt more than a mother's pain,
And yet brought forth less than a mother's hope;
To wit, an indigested deform'd lump,
Not like the fruit of fuch a goodly tree.

Teeth hadft thou in thy head when thou waft born,
To fignify, thou cam'it to bite the world:

And, if the reft be true which I have heard,

Thou cam'ft into the World with thy Legs forward. (11)

(11) And, if the reft be true which I have beard,

Glo

Thou cam'f -Had our Editors had but a Grain of Sagacity, or due Diligence, there could have been no Room for this abfurd Break, fince they might have ventur'd to fill it up with Certainty too. The old Quarto would have led

them part of the way,

Thou cam'ft into the world

And that the Verfe is to be compleated in the manner I have

given it, is inconteftible; for unless we suppose King Henry ac

tually

Glo. I'll hear no more: die Prophet in thy speech;

[Stabs him.

For this, amongst the reft, was I ordain'd. K. Henry. Ay, and for much more flaughter after this

O God! forgive my fins, and pardon thee.

[Dies.

Glo. What! will th' afpiring blood of Lancaster
Sink in the ground? I thought, it would have mounted.
See, how my fword weeps for the poor King's death!
O, may fuch purple tears be always fhed,

From those who wish the Downfall of our House.
If any fpark of life be yet remaining,

Down, down to hell, and fay, I fent thee thither:
[Stabs him again.
I, that have neither pity, love, nor fear.-
Indeed, 'tis true, that Henry told me of.
For I have often heard my mother fay,
I came into the world with my legs forward.
Had I not reafon, think ye, to make hafte,
And seek their ruin that ufurp'd our right?
The midwife wonder'd, and the women cry'd,
O, Jefus blefs us, he is born with teeth!
And fo I was; which plainly fignify'd

That I should fnarle, and bite, and play the dogs
Then, fince the heav'ns have fhap'd my body fo,
Let hell make crook'd my mind, to answer it.
I had no father, I am like no father;

I have no brother, I am like no brother;

And this word Love, which grey-beards call divine,
Be refident in men like one another,

And not in me: I am my felf alone.

tually reproaches him with this his prepofterous Birth, how can Richard in his very next Soliloquy say?

Indeed, 'tis true that Henry told me of

For I bave often heard my Mother fay,

I came into the World with my Legs forward.

I can eafily fee, that this Blank was caus'd by the Nicety of the Players, to fupprefs an indecent Idea. But, with Submiffion, this was making but half a Cure, unless they had expung'd the Repetition of it out of Richard's Speech too.

Clarence,

Clarence, beware; thou keep'ft me from the light:
But I will fort a pitchy day for thee:
For I will buz abroad fuch Prophecies,
That Edward fhall be fearful of his life,
And then, to purge his fear, I'll be thy death.
King Henry, and the Prince his fon, are gone;
Clarence, thy Turn is next, and then the reft;
Counting my felf but bad, till I be best.
I'll throw thy body in another room;
And triumph, Henry! in the day of doom.

SCENE, the Palace in London.

[Exit.

Enter King Edward, Queen, Clarence, Gloucefter, Haftings, Narfe, and Attendants.

K. Edw. NCE more we fit on England's royal Throne,

ΟΝ

Re-purchas'd with the blood of enemies :

What valiant foe men, like to autumn's corn,
Have we mow'd down in top of all their pride?
Three Dukes of Somerset, three-fold renown'd
For hardy and undoubted champions:

Two Cliffords, as the father and the fon;
And two Northumberlands; two braver men

Ne'er fpurr'd their Courfers at the trumpet's found.

With them the two brave bears, Warwick and Montagut,

That in their chains fetter'd the kingly Lion,

And made the forest tremble when they roar'd.
Thus have we swept Sufpicion from our Seat,
And made our footstool of Security.

Come hither, Befs, and let me kifs my boy
Young Ned, for thee, thine Uncles and myself
Have in our armours watch'd the winter-night;
Went all a-foot in fummer's fcalding heat;
That thou might'ft re poffefs the Crown in peace;
And of our labours thou fhalt reap the gain.
Glo. I'll blaft his harvest, if your head were laid,
For yet
I am not look'd on in the world.
This fhoulder was ordain'd fo thick, to heave;
And heave it shall fome weight, or break my back;
Work thou the way, and that shall execute..

Afide

K. Edw.