* K. EDW. But now you partly may perceive my

mind.

* L. GREY. My mind will never grant what I per

ceive

* Your highness aims at, if I aim aright.

K. EDW. To tell thee plain, I aim to lie with thee. * L. GREY. To tell you plain, I had rather lie in prifon.

K. EDW. Why, then thou shalt not have thy hufband's lands.

L. GREY. Why, then mine honesty shall be my dower;

For by that lofs I will not purchase them.

K. EDW. Therein thou wrong'ft thy children mightily.

L. GREY. Herein your highness wrongs both them and me.

But, mighty lord, this merry inclination
'Accords not with the fadness' of my fuit;
Pleafe you difiifs me, either with ay, or no.

K. EDW. Ay; if thou wilt fay ay, to my requeft: No; if thou doft fay no, to my demand.

L. GREY. Then, no, my lord. My fuit is at an

end.

GLO. The widow likes him not, fhe knits her

brows.

CLAR. He is the blunteft wooer in Chriftendom.

[Afide.

[Afide.

I

the fadnefs-] i. e. the seriousness. So, in Romeo and

Juliet:

"Tell me in fadnefs who is the you love."

STEEVENS.

K. EDW. [Afide.] Her looks do
plete with modesty ;*

argue her re

*Her words do fhow her wit incomparable; * All her perfections challenge fovereignty: One way, or other, fhe is for a king; And the fhall be my love, or elfe my queen.Say, that king Edward take thee for his queen L. GREY. 'Tis better faid than done, my gracious lord:

I am a fubject fit to jeft withal,

But far unfit to be a fovereign.

?

K. EDW. Sweet widow, by my ftate I fwear to thee,

I speak no more than what my foul intends;
And that is, to enjoy thee for my love.

L. GREY. And that is more than I will yield

unto:

I know, I am too mean to be your queen; And yet too good to be your concubine.3

2 Her looks do argue her replete with modefty ;] So the folio. The quartos read:

"Her looks are all replete with majefty." STEEVENS. 3 And yet too good to be your concubine.] So, in Warner's Allion's England, 1602, B. VII. chap. xxxiv:

"His plea was love, my fuit was land: I plie him, he

plies me;

"Too bace to be his queen, too good his concubine to be." Shakspeare, however, adopted the words from Stowe's Chronicle. STEEVENS.

Thefe words, which are found in the old play, (except that we there have had, inftead of mean,) were taken by the author of that piece from Hall's Chronicle: " --whiche demaund the fo wyfely and with fo covert fpeeche aunfwered and repugned, affyrmyng that as fhe was for his honour far unable to be his Spouse and bedfellowe, fo for her awne poor honeftie fhe was to good to be either his concubine, or fovereigne lady; that where he was a littel before heated with the dart of Cupido, he was nowe," &c. MALONE.

K. EDW. You cavil, widow; I did mean, my

queen.

L. GREY. "Twill grieve your grace, my fons fhould call you-father.

K. EDW. No more, than when thy daughters call thee mother.

Thou art a widow,+ and thou haft fome children;
And, by God's mother, I, being but a bachelor,
Have other fome: why, 'tis a happy thing
To be the father unto many fons.

'Answer no more, for thou fhalt be my queen.

GLO. The ghoftly father now hath done his shrift.

[Afide.

CLAR. When he was made a fhriver, 'twas for

fhift.

[Afide.

K. EDW. Brothers, you muse what chat we two

have had.

*GLO. The widow likes it not, for fhe looks fad.5 K. EDW. You'd think it ftrange if I fhould marry

her.

CLAR. To whom, my lord?

K. EDW.

Why, Clarence, to myself. GLO. That would be ten days' wonder, at the

leaft.

CLAR. That's a day longer than a wonder lafts."

Thou art a widow, &c.] This is part of the King's reply to his mother in Stowe's Chronicle: "That the is a widow, and hath already children; by God's bleffed lady I am a batchelor, and have fome too, and fo each of us hath a proofe that neither of us is like to be barrain ;" &c. STEEVENS.

-She looks fad.] Old copy-very fad. For the fake of metre I have omitted this ufelefs adverb. STEEVENS.

That's a day longer &c.] A nine days wonder was prover

८

GLO. By fo much is the wonder in extremes.

K. Edw. Well, jeft on, brothers: I can tell you both,

Her fuit is granted for her husband's lands.

Enter a Nobleman.

NOB. My gracious lord, Henry your foe is taken, And brought your prifoner to your palace gate.

K. EDW. See, that he be convey'd unto the
Tower :-

And go we, brothers, to the man that took him,
To queftion of his apprehenfion.-

Widow, go you along;-Lords, ufe her honourable.

[Exeunt King EDWARD, Lady GREY, CLARENCE, and Lord.

GLO. Ay, Edward will ufe women honourably. 'Would he were wafted, marrow, bones, and all, That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring, 'To cross me from the golden time I look for! And yet, between my foul's defire, and me, * (The luftful Edward's title buried,)

Is Clarence, Henry, and his fon young Edward, 'And all the unlook'd-for iffue of their bodies, To take their rooms, ere I can place myself: A cold premeditation for my purpose ! *Why, then I do but dream on fovereignty; * Like one that ftands upon a promontory, * And spies a far-off fhore where he would tread,

bial. Thus, in a Sermon at Paul's Croffe, Nov. 25, 1621, by Henry King, p. 53: "For mendacia diu non fallunt, and having arrived at nine days, the age of a wonder, died in laughter.”

VOL. XIV.

I

REED.

*Withing his foot were equal with his eye; *And chides the fea that funders him from thence, * Saying-he'll lade it dry to have his way: * So do I with the crown, being so far off; * And so I chide the means that keep me from it; * And fo I fay—I'll cut the caufes off,

* Flattering me with impoffibilities.

* My eye's too quick, my heart o'erweens too much, * Unless my hand and ftrength could equal them. *Well, fay there is no kingdom then for Richard; *What other pleasure can the world afford? 'I'll make my heaven 7 in a lady's lap, And deck my body in gay ornaments,

And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks. O miferable thought! and more unlikely, Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns! Why, love forfwore me in my mother's womb :8 And, for I fhould not deal in her foft laws 'She did corrupt frail nature with fome bribe 'To fhrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub ; To make an envious mountain on my back, Where fits deformity to mock my body; To shape my legs of an unequal fize; *To difproportion me in every part, *Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp,'

7 I'll make my heaven &c.] Thus the folio. The quartos alter and tranfpofe the two lines, as follows:

I will go clad my body with gay ornaments,

And lull myfelf within a lady's lap. STEEVENS.

love forfwore me in my mother's womb:] This line is found alfo in a play entitled Wily Beguiled. The earliest edition that I have seen of that piece, was printed in 1606; but it had been exhibited on the ftage foon after the year 1590. MALONE. 9 — like a wither'd fhrub ;] So the folio. The quartoslike a wither'd fhrimp. STEEVENS.

I

-unlick'd bear-whelp,] It was an opinion which, in spite of its abfurdity, prevailed long, that the bear brings forth only