Q. Mar. But repetition of what thou hast marred; That will I make, before I let thee go. Glo. Wert thou not banished on pain of death? 1 Than death can yield me here by my abode. Glo. The curse my noble father laid on thee,- Q. Eliz. So just is God, to right the innocent. Hast. O, 'twas the foulest deed to slay that babe, And the most merciless that e'er was heard of. Riv. Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported. Dors. No man but prophesied revenge for it. Buck. Northumberland, then present, wept to see it. Q. Mar. What! were you snarling all, before I came, Ready to catch each other by the throat, And turn you all your hatred now on me! Did York's dread curse prevail so much with Heaven, 3 Could all but answer for that peevish brat? 1 Margaret fled into France after the battle of Hexham, in 1464, and Edward issued a proclamation prohibiting any of his subjects from aiding her return, or harboring her, should she attempt to revisit England. She remained abroad till April, 1471, when she landed at Weymouth. After the battle of Tewksbury, in May, 1471, she was confined in the Tower, where she continued a prisoner till 1475, when she was ransomed by her father Regnier, and removed to France, where she died in 1482. So that her introduction in the present scene is a mere poetical fiction. 2 To plague in ancient language is to punish. Hence the scriptural term of the plagues of Egypt. 3 But is here used in its exceptive sense; could all this only, or nothing but (i. e. be out or except) this answer for the death of that brat? Can curses pierce the clouds, and enter heaven ?- Decked in thy rights, as thou art stalled in mine! Glo. Have done thy charm, thou hateful, withered hag. Q. Mar. And leave out thee? Stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me. If Heaven have any grievous plague in store, 1 Alluding to his luxurious life. 2 “Thou elvish-marked, abortive, rooting hog." It was an old prejudice, which is not yet quite extinct, that those who are defective or deformed, are marked by nature as prone to mischief. She calls him hog, in allusion to Thou that wast sealed in thy nativity Glo. Margaret! Q. Mar. Glo. Q. Mar. Richard! Ha! I call thee not. Glo. I cry thee mercy then; for I did think That thou hadst called me all these bitter names. Q. Mar. Why, so I did; but looked for no reply. O, let me make the period to my curse. Glo. 'Tis done by me; and ends in-Margaret. Q. Eliz. Thus have you breathed your curse against yourself. Q. Mar. Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune! Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider, To help thee curse this poisonous, bunch-backed toad. Q. Mar. Foul shame upon you! you have all moved mine. his cognizance, which was a boar. "The expression (says Warburton) is fine; remembering her youngest son, she alludes to the ravage which hogs make with the finest flowers in gardens; and intimating that Elizabeth was to expect no other treatment for her sons." The rhyme for which Collingborne was executed, as given by Heywood in his Metrical History of King Edward IV., will illustrate this: "The cat, the rat, and Lovell our dog, Doe rule all England under a hog. The crooke backt boore the way hath found To root our roses from our ground, Both flower and bud will he confound, Till king of beasts the swine be crowned: And then the dog, the cat, and rat Shall in his trough feed and be fat." The persons aimed at in this rhyme, were the king, Catesby, Ratcliff, and Lovell. Riv. Were you well served, you would be taught your duty. Q. Mar. To serve me well, you all should do me duty, Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects. Q. Mar. Peace, master marquis, you are malapert. What 'twere to lose it, and be miserable! They that stand high, have many blasts to shake them; Dors. It touches you, my lord, as much as me. 2 And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun. Q. Mar. And turns the sun to shade!-alas! alas!- Your aiery buildeth in our aiery's nest.- As it was won with blood, lost be it so! Buck. Peace, peace, for shame, if not for charity. Q. Mar. Urge neither charity nor shame to me; Uncharitably with me have you dealt, And shamefully by you my hopes are butchered. And in my shame still live my sorrow's rage! Q. Mar. O, princely Buckingham, I kiss thy hand, In sign of league and amity with thee. 1 He was created marquis of Dorset in 1476. The scene is laid in 1477-8. 2 Aiery for brood. This word properly signified a brood of eagles, or hawks; though in later times often used for the nest of those birds of prey. Its etymology is from eyren, eggs; and we accordingly sometimes find it spelled eyry. Now fair befall thee, and thy noble house! Buck. Nor no one here; for curses never pass Q. Mar. I'll not believe but they ascend the sky, Look, when he fawns, he bites; and, when he bites, Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him; Glo. What doth she say, my lord of Buckingham? counsel ? And soothe the devil that I warn thee from? When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow; And he to yours, and all of you to God's ?1 [Exit. Hast. My hair doth stand on end to hear her curses. Riv. And so doth mine; I muse, why she's at liberty. Glo. I cannot blame her, by God's holy mother; She hath had too much wrong, and I repent My part thereof, that I have done to her. Q. Eliz. I never did her any, to my knowledge. That is too cold in thinking of it now. 1 It is evident, from the conduct of Shakspeare, that the house of Tudor retained all their Lancastrian prejudices, even in the reign of queen Elizabeth. He seems to deduce the woes of the house of York from the curses which queen Margaret had ranted against them; and he could not give that weight to her curses, without supposing a right in her to utter them.— Walpole. |