Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
'Tut! were it further off, I'll pluck it down.

Flourish.

SCENE III.

France. A Room in the Palace.

[Exit.

Enter LEWIS the French King, and Lady BONA, attended; the King takes his State. Then enter Queen MARGARET, Prince EDWARD her Son, and the Earl of OxFord.

'K. LEW. Fair queen of England,5 worthy Mar[Rifing.

garet,

'Sit down with us; it ill befits thy ftate, And birth, that thou fhould'ft ftand, while Lewis doth fit.

* Q. MAR. No, mighty king of France; now Margaret

"Spencer, the father of that wanton Spencer,
"That like the lawless Catiline of Rome,

"Revell'd in England's wealth and treasury." MALONE. Fair queen of England, &c.] Thus the folio. The quartos give the following:

"Welcome, queen Margaret, to the court of France.
"It fits not Lewis to fit while thou doft ftand,
"Sit by my fide; and here I vow to thee,
"Thou fhalt have aid to re-poffefs thy right,
"And beat proud Edward from his ufurped feat,
And place king Henry in his former rule."

See the notes referred to in p. 74, n. 3. MALOne.

6

No, mighty king of France; &c.] the quartos only fupply the following:

STEEVENS.

Inftead of this speech

"Queen. I humbly thank your royal majefty, "And pray the God of heaven to bless thy ftate, "Great king of France, that thus regard'ft our wrongs.'

STEEVENS.

*Muft ftrike her fail, and learn a while to ferve, * Where kings command. I was, I must confefs, * Great Albion's queen in former golden days: * But now mifchance hath trod my title down, * And with dishonour laid me on the ground; * Where I must take like feat unto my fortune, * And to my humble feat conform myself. *K. LEW. Why, fay, fair queen, whence fprings this deep despair?

* Q. MAR. From fuch a caufe as fills mine eyes with tears,

* And ftops my tongue, while heart is drown'd in

cares.

* K. LEW. Whate'er it be, be thou still like thy

felf,

* And fit thee by our fide: yield not thy neck

[Seats her by him. * To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind * Still ride in triumph over all mifchance. * Be plain, queen Margaret, and tell thy grief; *It fhall be eas'd, if France can yield relief.

Q. MAR. Thofe gracious words revive my drooping thoughts,

And give my tongue-tied forrows leave to speak. * Now, therefore, be it known to noble Lewis,*That Henry, fole poffeffor of my love,

*Is, of a king, become a banish'd man, *And forc'd to live in Scotland a forlorn ; * While proud ambitious Edward, duke of York, * Ufurps the regal title, and the feat

* Of England's true-anointed lawful king. *This is the caufe, that I, poor Margaret,* With this my fon, prince Edward, Henry's heir,* Am come to crave thy juft and lawful aid;

And, if thou fail us, all our hope is done :

*Scotland hath will to help, but cannot help; * Our people and our peers are both misled, * Our treasure feiz'd, our foldiers put to flight, * And, as thou fee'ft, ourselves in heavy plight. *K. LEW. Renowned queen, with patience calm the ftorm,

*While we bethink a means to break it off.

* Q. MAR. The more we ftay, the ftronger grows our foe.

* K. LEW. The more I ftay, the more I'll fuccour

thee.

*Q. MAR. O, but impatience waiteth on true

forrow:

* And fee, where comes the breeder of my forrow.

Enter WARWICK," attended.

'K. LEW. What's he, approacheth boldly to our prefence?

"Enter Warwick,] This nobleman's embaffy and commiffion, the infult he receives by the King's hafty marriage, and his confequent refolution to avenge it, with the capture, imprisonment, and efcape of the King, Shakspeare, it is true, found in Hall and Holinfhed; but later, as well as earlier writers, of better authority, incline us to difcredit the whole; and to refer the rupture between the King and his political creator, to causes which have not reached pofterity, or to that jealoufy and ingratitude fo natural, perhaps, to those who are under great obligations too great to be difcharged. Beneficia, (fays Tacitus,) ed ufque læta funt, dum videntur exfolvi poffe: ubi multum antevenêre, pro gratiâ odium redditur."

There needs no other proof how little our common hiftories are to be depended upon than this fabulous ftory of Warwick and the Lady Bona. The King was privately married to Lady Elizabeth Widville, in 1463, and in February 1465, Warwick actually ftood fponfor to the Princefs Elizabeth their first child. What fecretly displeased him was: 1. the King's marrying one of the Queen's fifters to the Duke of Buckingham; 2. his con

Q. MAR. Our earl of Warwick, Edward's greatest friend.

K. LEW. Welcome, brave Warwick! What brings thee to France ?

[Defccnding from his fiate. Queen MARGARET rifes.

* Q. MAR. Ay, now begins a fecond storm to rise; *For this is he, that moves both wind and tide.

'WAR. From worthy Edward, king of Albion, My lord and fovereign, and thy vowed friend, I come, in kindness, and unfeigned love,— First, to do greetings to thy royal perfon; And, then, to crave a league of amity; And, laftly, to confirm that amity With nuptial knot, if thou vouchfafe to grant That virtuous lady Bona, thy fair fifter,

To England's king in lawful marriage.

'Q. MAR. If that go forward, Henry's hope is done,8

ferring the office of Lord Treasurer (which he had taken from the Lord Montjoy,) upon Lord Rivers, the Queen's brother; 3. his making a match between the fon and heir of the Lord Herbert and another of the Queen's fifters; and between that nobleman's daughter and the young Lord Lifle; and creating young Herbert Knight and Lord of Dunftar; 4. his making a match between Sir Thomas Grey, the Queen's fon, and Lady Ann daughter and heiress of the Duke of Exeter, the King's niece, who had been talked of as a wife for the Earl of Northumberland, Warwick's brother. See Wilhelmi Wyrcefter Annales, which are unfortunately defective from the beginning of November 1468, at which time no open rupture had taken place between the King and Warwick, who, for any thing that appears to the contrary, were, at least, upon speaking terms."

RITSON.

Henry's hope is done.] So the folio. The quartos read; -all our hope is done. STEEVENS.

We have had nearly the fame line in Margaret's former fpeech . p. 119. The line having made an impreffion on Shakspeare, he

WAR. And, gracious madam, [70 BONA.] in our king's behalf,

"I am commanded, with your leave and favour, Humbly to kifs your hand, and with my tongue To tell the paffion of my fovereign's heart; Where fame, late entering at his heedful ears, Hath plac'd thy beauty's image, and thy virtue. Q. MAR. King Lewis, and lady Bona,-hear me speak,

Before you answer Warwick. His demand1 *Springs not from Edward's well-meant honest love,

*But from deceit, bred by neceffity;

* For how can tyrants fafely govern home, * Unless abroad they purchase great alliance? * To prove him tyrant, this reafon may fuffice,* That Henry liveth ftill: but were he dead,

* Yet here prince Edward ftands, king Henry's fon. * Look therefore, Lewis, that by this league and marriage

* Thou draw not on thy danger and dishonour: * For though ufurpers fway the rule a while, * Yet heavens are juft, and time fuppreffeth wrongs. WAR. Injurious Margaret!

PRINCE.

And why not queen?

introduced it in that speech, which appears (except in this inftance) to have been entirely his own production; and afterwards inadvertently fuffered it with a flight variation to remain here, where only it is found in the old play. MALONE.

9 Hath plac'd thy beauty's image, and thy virtue.] So the folio. The quarto thus :

I

"Hath plac'd thy glorious image, and thy vertues." STEEVENS,

His demand &c.] Inftead of the remainder of this speech the old play has the following lines:

- hear me speak,

"Before you answer Warwick, or his words,

"For he it is hath done us all these wrongs." MALONE.