Glou. Your beauty was the cause of that effect; Your beauty, which did haunt me in my sleep To undertake the death of all the world,

So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom. Anne. If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,

These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

Glou. These eyes could never endure sweet beauty's wreck;

You should not blemish it, if I stood by:

As all the world is cheered by the sun,

So I by that; it is my day, my life.

130

Anne. Black night o'ershade thy day, and death thy life!

Glou. Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou are both.

Anne. I would I were, to be revenged on thee.
Glou. It is a quarrel most unnatural,

To be revenged on him that loveth you.
Anne. It is a quarrel just and reasonable,

To be revenged on him that slew my husband. Glou. He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband, Did it to help thee to a better husband.

Anne. His better doth not breathe upon the earth. Glou. He lives that loves you better than he could.

141

most accursed is the effect of which thou wast the cause; effect referring not to thou, but to their death.-H. N. H.

Anne, misunderstanding Richard's distinction between "causer" and "executioner," retorts that he was both.-C. H. H.

127. "These eyes could never endure sweet beauty's wreck"; Qq. "never"; Ff. read, "not"; Qq., "sweet"; Ff. 1, 2, "yt"; Ff. 3, 4, "that"; "wreck," Theobald's emendation of "wrack" of Qq, and Ff.— I. G.

135. "you"; Ff., "thee."-I. G.

Anne. Name him.

Glou.

Anne.

Plantagenet.

Why, that was he

Glou. The self same name, but one of better nature.

Anne. Where is he?

Glou.

Here. [She spitteth at him.] Why

dost thou spit at me?

Anne. Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake! Glou. Never came poison from so sweet a place. Anne. Never hung poison on a fouler toad.

Out of my sight! thou dost infect my eyes. Glou. Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine. 1 Anne. Would they were basilisks, to strike thee

dead!

151

Glou. I would they were, that I might die at once; For now they kill me with a living death. Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,

Shamed their aspect with store of childish
drops:

These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear,
No, when my father York and Edward wept,
To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made
When black-faced Clifford shook his sword at
him;

Nor when thy warlike father, like a child, 160
Told the sad story of my father's death,

And twenty times made pause to sob and weep,

147. "Never hung poison on a fouler toad"; alluding to the old belief that toads were venomous.-I. G.

156-167. Omitted in Qq.-I. G.

156. "Remorse" was continually used for pity, remorseful for “ ful.—H. N. H

That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks,
Like trees bedash'd with rain: in that sad time
My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;

And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with
weeping.

I never sued to friend nor enemy;

My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing words;

But, now thy beauty is proposed my fee,

170

My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue
to speak.
[She looks scornfully at him.
Teach not thy lips such scorn, for they were
made

For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.

If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,

Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword;
Which if thou please to hide in this true bosom,
And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,

I lay it naked to the deadly stroke,

And humbly beg the death upon my knee.

[He lays his breast open: she offers at it with his sword. Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry, But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me. Nay, now dispatch; 'twas I that stabb'd young Edward,

But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on,

181

[Here she lets fall the sword.

180. "for I did kill King Henry"; Qq. reads, "twas I that kild your husband."-I. G.

182. "twas I that stabb'd young Edward"; Qq. read, "twas I that kild King Henry."-I. G.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

Anne. Arise, dissembler: though I wish thy death,

I will not be the executioner.

Glou. Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.
Anne. I have already.

Glou.

.

Tush, that was in thy rage:

Speak it again, and, even with the word,

191

That hand, which, for thy love, did kill thy love, Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love; To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary. Anne. I would I knew thy heart. Glou. 'Tis figured in my tongue. Anne. I fear me both are false. Glou. Then never man was true. Anne. Well, well, put up your sword. Glou. Say, then, my peace is made. Anne. That shall you know hereafter. Glou. But shall I live in hope? Anne. All men, I hope, live so. Glou. Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

Anne. To take is not to give.

200

Glou. Look, how this ring encompasseth thy finger,
Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart;
Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
And if thy poor devoted suppliant may

But beg one favor at thy gracious hand,
Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever.

Anne. What is it?

186. "the"; Ff., "thy."-I. G.

203. Omitted in Ff.-I. G.

210

207. "devotel suppliant"; so Q. 1; Ff. read, "devoted seruant”; the rest, "suppliant.”—I. G.

Glou. That it would please thee leave these sad de

signs

To him that hath more cause to be a mourner,
And presently repair to Crosby Place;
Where, after I have solemnly interr'd
At Chertsey monastery this noble king,
And wet his grave with my repentant tears,
I will with all expedient duty see you:

For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you,
Grant me this boon.

Anne. With all my heart; and much it joys me, too,

To see you are become so penitent.

Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

Glou. Bid me farewell.

Anne.

'Tis more than you deserve;

But since you teach me how to flatter you,
Imagine I have said farewell already.

220

[Exeunt Lady Anne, Tressel, and Berkeley.

Glou. Sirs, take up the corse.

Gent.

Towards Chertsey, noble lord!

Glou. No, no, to White-Friars; there attend my [Exeunt all but Gloucester.

coming.

211. "would," the reading of Qq.; Ff., "may"; "thee," so Qq.; Ff, "you."-I. G.

212. "more"; so Qq.; Ff., "most.”—I. G.

213. In the folio this is here called Crosby-house, but in the next scene, near the close, Crosby-place. The quartos have Crosby place in both instances.-Crosby-place is situate in Crosby-square Bishopgate-street. This magnificent house was built in 1466, by Sir John Crosby, grocer and woolman. The hall, after having been put to divers ignoble uses, has been lately restored, and is said to be among the most interesting specimens of old domestic architecture now to be seen in England.-H. N. H.

226. "Sirs, take up the corse"; omitted in Ff.-I. G.

227. "to White-Friars." This is probably a slip. Holinshed say