SCENE II.

The fame. Another Street.

Enter the Corpfe of King HENRY the Sixth, borne in an open Coffin, Gentlemen bearing Halberds, to guard it; and Lady ANNE as mourner.

ANNE. Set down, fet down your honourable
load,-

If honour may be fhrouded in a hearse,-
Whilft I a while obfequioufly lament 4
The untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.—
Poor key-cold 5 figure of a holy king!
Pale afhes of the houfe of Lancafter!
Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood!
Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghoft,
To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
Wife to thy Edward, to thy flaughter'd fon,
Stabb'd by the felf-fame hand that made thefe
wounds!

obfequiously lament-] Obfequious, in this inftance, means funereal. So, in Hamlet, A&t I. fc. ii:

"To do obfequious forrow." STEEVENS.

5 key-cold-] A key, on account of the coldness of the metal of which it is compofed, was anciently employed to stop any flight bleeding. The epithet is common to many old writers; among the reft, it is used by Decker in his Satiromaflix,

1602 :

"It is beft you hide your head, for fear your wife brains take key-cold."

Again, in The Country Girl, by T. B. 1647:

"The key-cold figure of a man.' STEEVENS.

Again, in our author's Rape of Lucrece :

"And then in key-cold Lucrece' bleeding stream
"He falls-
MALONE.

Lo, in these windows, that let forth thy life,
I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes:-
O, curfed be the hand that made thefe holes!
Curfed the heart, that had the heart to do it!
Curfed the blood, that let this blood from hence !
More direful hap betide that hated wretch,
That makes us wretched by the death of thee,
Than I can wish to adders, fpiders, toads,
Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives!
If ever he have child, abortive be it,
Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
Whofe ugly and unnatural aspéct

May fright the hopeful mother at the view;
And that be heir to his unhappiness !6
If ever he have wife, let her be made
More miferable by the death of him,

Than I am made by my young lord, and thee!-
Come, now, toward Chertsey with your holy load,
Taken from Paul's to be interred there ;
And, ftill as you are weary of the weight,
Reft you, whiles I lament king Henry's corfe.
[The Bearers take up the Corpfe, and advance.

Enter GLOSTER.

GLO. Stay you, that bear the corfe, and fet it down.

ANNE. What black magician conjures up this fiend,

To ftop devoted charitable deeds?

6

⚫ to his unhappiness !]. i. e. difpofition to mischief. So, in Much Ado about Nothing: "Dreamed of unhappiness, and waked herself with laughing." STEEVENS.

See Vol. VI. p. 55, n. 2; and Comedy of Errors, A& IV. fc. iv. MALONE.

GLO. Villains, fet down the corfe; or, by Saint

Paul,

I'll make a corfe of him that disobeys.”

1 GENT. My lord, ftand back, and let the coffin

pafs.

GLO. Unmanner'd dog! ftand thou when I command:

Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,
Or, by Saint Paul, I'll ftrike thee to my foot,
And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.
[The Bearers fet down the Coffin.

ANNE. What, do you tremble? are you all afraid?
Alas, I blame you not; for you are mortal,
And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.—
Avaunt, thou dreadful minifter of hell!
Thou had'ft but power over his mortal body,
His foul thou canst not have; therefore, be gone.
GLO. Sweet faint, for charity, be not fo curft.
ANNE. Foul devil, for God's fake, hence, and
trouble us not;

For thou haft made the happy earth thy hell,
Fill'd it with curfing cries, and deep exclaims.
If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries :3-

7 I'll make a corfe of him that disobeys.] So, in Hamlet: "I'll make a ghost of him that lets me.' JOHNSON. pattern of thy butcheries ;] Pattern is inftance, or example. JOHNSON.

8

So, in The Legend of Lord Haftings, Mirrour for Magiftrates, 1587:

By this my pattern, all ye peers, beware." MALONE. Holinfhed fays: "The dead corps on the Afcenfion even was conveied with billes and glaives pompouflie (if you will call that a funeral pompe) from the Tower to the church of faint Paule, and there laid on a beire or coffen bare-faced; the fame in the

O, gentlemen, fee, fee! dead Henry's wounds
Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh !9—
Blush, blufh, thou lump of foul deformity;
For 'tis thy prefence that exhales this blood
From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells;
Thy deed, inhuman and unnatural,

Provokes this deluge moft unnatural.—

O God, which this blood mad'ft, revenge his death! O earth, which this blood drink'ft, revenge his

prefence of the beholders did bleed; where it refted the space of one whole daie. From thenfe he was carried to the Blackfriers, and bled there likewife;" &c. STEEVENS.

Open their congeal'd mouths, and bleed afresh !] It is a tradition very generally received, that the murdered body bleeds on the touch of the murderer. This was fo much believed by Sir Kenelm Digby, that he has endeavoured to explain the reafon. JOHNSON.

So, in Arden of Feverfham, 1592:

"The more I found his name, the more he bleeds : "This blood condemns me, and in gushing forth. Speaks as it falls, and atks me why I did it." Again, in The Widow's Tears, by Chapman, 1612:

66

"The captain will affay an old conclufion often approved; that at the murderer's fight the blood revives again and boils afresh; and every wound has a condemning voice to cry out guilty against the murderer."

Again, in the 46th Idea of Drayton :

"If the vile actors of the heinous deed,

"Near the dead body happily be brought,

"Oft t'hath been prov'd the breathlefs corps will bleed." See alfo the 7th article in the tenth Booke of Thomas Lupton's Notable Thinges, 4to. bl. 1. no date, p. 255, &c.

Mr. Tollet obferves, that this opinion feems to be derived from the ancient Swedes, or Northern nations from whom we defcend; for they practifed this method of trial in dubious cafes, as appears from Pitt's Atlas, in Sweden, p. 20. STEEVENS.

See alfo Demonologie, 4to. 1608, p. 79; and Goulart's Admirable and Memorable Hiftories, tranflated by Grimefton, 4to. 1607, p. 422. REED.

Either, heaven, with lightning ftrike the murderer

dead,

Or, earth, gape open wide, and eat him quick;
As thou doft swallow up this good king's blood,
Which his hell-govern'd arm hath butchered!

GLO. Lady, you know no rules of charity, Which renders good for bad, bleffings for curfes. ANNE. Villain, thou know'ft no law of God nor

man;

No beaft fo fierce, but knows fome touch of pity. GLO. But I know none, and therefore am no

beaft.

ANNE. O wonderful, when devils tell the truth! GLO. More wonderful, when angels are fo angry.

Vouchfafe, divine perfection of a woman,
Of these fuppofed evils, to give me leave,
By circumftance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE. Vouchfafe, diffus'd infection of a man,'
For thefe known evils, but to give me leave,
By circumstance, to curfe thy curfed felf.

GLO. Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have

Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

I

Vouchsafe, diffus'd infection of a man,] I believe, diffus'd in this place fignifies irregular, uncouth; fuch is its meaning in other paffages of Shakspeare. JOHNSON.

Diffus'd infection of a man may mean, thou that art as dangerous as a peftilence, that infects the air by its diffufion. Diffus'd may, however, mean irregular. So, in The Merry Wives of Windfor:

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rufh at once

"With fome diffufed fong."

Again, in Greene's Farewell to Follie, 1617:

"I have feen an English gentleman fo defufed in his futes; his doublet being for the weare of Caftile, his hofe for Venice," &c. STEEVENS.