Grey. The Heavens have blessed you with a goodly son, To be your comforter when he is gone. Q. Eliz. Ah, he is young; and his minority A man that loves not me, nor none of you. Q. Eliz. It is determined, not concluded yet; Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY.1 Grey. Here come the lords of Buckingham and Stanley. Buck. Good time of day unto your royal grace! Stan. God make your majesty joyful as you have been! Q. Eliz. The countess Richmond,2 good my lord of To your good prayer will scarcely say-Amen. Stan. I do beseech you, either not believe Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds Stan. But now, the duke of Buckingham, and I, Are come from visiting his majesty. 1 By inadvertence, in the old copies Derby is put for Stanley. The person meant was Thomas lord Stanley, lord steward of king Edward the Fourth's household. But he was not created earl of Derby, till after the accession of king Henry VII. In the fourth and fifth acts of this play, he is every where called lord Stanley. 2 Margaret, daughter to John Beaufort, first duke of Somerset. After the death of her first husband, Edmund Tudor, earl of Richmond, halfbrother to king Henry VI., by whom she had only one son, afterwards king Henry VII., she married sir Henry Stafford, uncle to Humphrey, duke of Buckingham. Q. Eliz. What likelihood of his amendment, lords? Buck. Madam, good hope; his grace speaks cheerfully. Q. Eliz. God grant him health! Did you confer with him? Buck. Ay, madam; he desires to make atonement Between the duke of Gloster and your brothers, And between them and my lord chamberlain ; And sent to warn them to his royal presence. Q. Eliz. 'Would all were well!—But that will never be; I fear our happiness is at the height. Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET. Glo. They do me wrong, and I will not endure it.— Who are they, that complain unto the king, That I, forsooth, am stern, and love them not? By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly, That fill his ears with such dissensious rumors. Because I cannot flatter, and speak fair, Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog, Duck with French nods and apish courtesy, I must be held a rancorous enemy. Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm, But thus his simple truth must be abused By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks? Grey. To whom in all this presence speaks your grace? Glo. To thee, that hast nor honesty, nor grace. But you must trouble him with lewd' complaints. 1 Lewd here signifies idle, ungracious. And not provoked by any suitor else; Glo. I cannot tell ;-the world is grown so bad, That wrens may prey where eagles dare not perch: Since every Jack became a gentleman, There's many a gentle person made a Jack. Q. Eliz. Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Gloster; You envy my advancement, and my friends'; Glo. Meantime, God grants that we have need of you. Our brother is imprisoned by your means, Myself disgraced, and the nobility Held in contempt; while great promotions Are daily given, to ennoble those That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble. Q. Eliz. By Him, that raised me to this careful height, From that contented hap which I enjoyed, I never did incense his majesty Against the duke of Clarence, but have been An earnest advocate to plead for him. My lord, you do me shameful injury, Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects. Of Glo. You may deny that you were not the cause my lord Hastings' late imprisonment. Riv. She may, my lord; for― Glo. She may, lord Rivers?-why, who knows not so ? She may do more, sir, than denying that. 1 This proverbial expression at once demonstrates the origin of the term Jack, so often used by Shakspeare. It means one of the very lowest class of people, among whom this name is most common and familiar. And lay those honors on your high desert. What may she not? She may,-ay, marry, may she,Riv. What, marry, may she? Glo. What, marry, may she? marry with a king, A bachelor, a handsome stripling too; I wis,' your grandam had a worser match. Q. Eliz. My lord of Gloster, I have too long borne Your blunt upbraidings, and your bitter scoffs. By Heaven, I will acquaint his majesty, Of those gross taunts I often have endured. I had rather be a country servant-maid, Than a great queen, with this conditionTo be so baited, scorned, and stormed at; Small joy have I in being England's queen. Enter QUEEN MARGARET, behind. Q. Mar. And lessened be that small, God, I beseech thee! Thy honor, state, and seat, is due to me. Glo. What? threat you me with telling of the king? I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower. Q. Mar. Out, devil! I remember them too well. Glo. Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king, I was a packhorse in his great affairs; A weeder-out of his proud adversaries, A liberal rewarder of his friends. To royalize his blood, I spilt mine own. Q. Mar. Ay, and much better blood than his, or thine. Glo. In all which time, you, and your husband Grey, Were factious for the house of Lancaster ;And, Rivers, so were you.-Was not your husband 1 In Margaret's battle at Saint Albans slain ?1 Q. Mar. A murderous villain, and so still thou art. Glo. To fight on Edward's party, for the crown; And, for his meed, poor lord, he is mewed up. I would to God, my heart were flint, like Edward's, Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine; I am too childish-foolish for this world. Q. Mar. Hie thee to hell for shame, and leave this world, Thou cacodæmon! there thy kingdom is. Riv. My lord of Gloster, in those busy days, Q. Eliz. As little joy, my lord, as you suppose That I enjoy, being the queen thereof. Q. Mar. A little joy enjoys the queen thereof; I can no longer hold me patient.- [Advancing. Glo. Foul, wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou in my sight? 1 See note on King Henry VI., Part III., Act iii. Sc. 2. Margaret's battle is Margaret's army. 2 To pill is to pillage. VOL. V. 4 3 Gentle is here used ironically. |