K. EDW. You cavil, widow; I did mean, my queen. L. GREY. 'Twill grieve your grace, my sons should call you-father. K. EDW. No more, than when thy daughters call thee mother. Thou art a widow, and thou hast some children; Answer no more, for thou shalt be my queen. GLO. The ghostly father now hath done his shrift. [Aside. CLAR. When he was made a shriver, 'twas for shift. [Aside. K. EDW. Brothers, you muse what chat we two have had. * GLO. The widow likes it not, for she looks sad.5 K. EDW. You'd think it strange if I should marry her. CLAR. To whom, my lord? K. EDW. Why, Clarence, to myself. GLO. That would be ten days' wonder, at the least. CLAR. That's a day longer than a wonder lasts. • Thou art a widow, &c.] This is part of the King's reply to his mother in Stowe's Chronicle: "That she is a widow, and hath already children; by God's blessed lady I am a batchelor, and have some too, and so each of us hath a proofe that neither of us is like to be barrain;" &c. STEEVENS. 5 she looks sad.] Old copy-very sad. For the sake of metre I have omitted this useless adverb. STEEVENS. • That's a day longer &c.] A nine days wonder was prover 'GLO. By so much is the wonder in extremes. K. EDW. Well, jest on, brothers: I can tell both, Her suit is granted for her husband's lands. Enter a Nobleman. 4 you 3 NOB. My gracious lord, Henry your foe is taken, And brought your prisoner 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 question of his apprehension. 'Widow, go you along;-Lords, use her honourable. [Exeunt King EDWARD, Lady GREY, CLARENCE, and Lord. GLO. Ay, Edward will use women honourably. 'Would he were wasted, 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 soul's desire, and me, *(The lustful Edward's title buried,) Is Clarence, Henry, and his son young Edward, • And all the unlook'd-for issue 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 sovereignty; * Like one that stands upon a promontory, * And spies a far-off shore where he would tread, bial. Thus, in a Sermon at Paul's Crosse, 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. * Wishing his foot were equal with his eye; * And chides the sea that sunders him from thence, Saying-he'll lade it dry to have his way: *So do I wish the crown, being so far off; * And so I chide the means that keep me from it; * And so I say I'll cut the causes off, * Flattering me with impossibilities. My eye's too quick, my heart o'erweens too much, * Unless my hand and strength could equal them. * Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard *What other pleasure can the world afford? I'll make my heaven' in a lady's lap, • And deck my body in gay ornaments, And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks. 'O miserable thought! and more unlikely, Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns! Why, love forswore me in my mother's womb:8 And, for I should not deal in her soft laws 'She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub ;? To make an envious mountain on my back, Where sits deformity to mock my body; To shape my legs of an unequal size; *To disproportion me in every part, * Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp,' 9 7 I'll make my heaven &c.] Thus the folio. The quartos alter and transpose the two lines, as follows: I will go clad my body with gay ornaments, And lull myself within a lady's lap. STEEVENS. love forswore me in my mother's womb:] This line is found also 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 stage soon after the year 1590. MALONE. like a wither'd shrub ;] So the folio. The quartos like a wither'd shrimp. STEEVENS. ? 9 1-unlick'd bear-whelp,] It was an opinion which, in spite of its absurdity, prevailed long, that the bear brings forth only * That carries no impression like the dam. And am I then a man to be belov❜d? 'O, monstrous fault, to harbour such a thought! * Then, since this earth affords no joy to me, * But to command, to check, to o'erbear such * As are of better person than myself," * I'll make my heaven-to dream upon the crown; * And, whiles I live, to account this world but hell, * Until my misshap'd trunk that bears this head, * Be round impaled with a glorious crown.3 *And yet I know not how to get the crown, * For many lives stand between me and home: * And I,-like one lost in a thorny wood, That rents the thorns, and is rent with the thorns; shapeless lumps of animated flesh, which she licks into the form of bears. It is now well known that the whelps of the bear are produced in the same state with those of other creatures. to o'erbear, such JOHNSON. As are of better person than myself,] Richard speaks here the language of nature. Whoever is stigmatized with deformity has a constant source of envy in his mind, and would counterbalance by some other superiority those advantages which he feels himself to want. Bacon remarks that the deformed are commonly daring; and it is almost proverbially observed that they are ill-natured. The truth is, that the deformed, like all other men, are displeased with inferiority, and endeavour to gain ground by good or bad means, as they are virtuous or corrupt. JOHNSON. 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Until my misshap'd trunk that bears this head, Be round impaled &c.] A transposition seems to be necessary: 1 2 8 5 7 3 4 6 "Until my head, that this misshap'd trunk bears." Otherwise the trunk that bears the head is to be encircled with the crown, and not the head itself. STEEVENS. ...: Sir T, Hanmer reads as Mr. Steevens recommends. I believe our author is answerable for this inaccuracy. MALONE. Seeking a way, and straying from the way; *Not knowing how to find the open air, * But toiling desperately to find it out, * Torment myself to catch the English crown: * And from that torment I will free myself, * Or hew my way out with a bloody axe. Why, I can smile, and murder while I smile; And cry, content, to that which grieves my heart; * And wet my cheeks with artificial tears, * And frame my face to all occasions. * I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall; Change shapes, with Proteus, for advantages, impaled-] i. e. encircled. So, in Heywood's Rape of Lucrece, 1630: "Tear off the crown that yet empales his temples." STEEVENS. And set the murd❜rous Machiavel to school.] As this is an anachronism, and the old quarto reads: "And set the aspiring Catiline to school-." I don't know why it should not be preferred. Warburton. This is not the first proof I have met with, that Shakspeare, in his attempts to familiarize ideas, has diminished their propriety. STEEVENS. Catiline first occurred to the author of the old play, who was probably a scholar; and Machiavel, who is mentioned in various books of our author's age, as the great exemplar of profound politicians, naturally was substituted by Shakspeare in his room. See this play, P. I. Act V. sc. iv: "Alençon! that notorious Machiavel!" In King Edward II. Marlowe, who was probably the author of The True Tragedie of Richarde Duke of Yorke, in like manner introduces Catiline |