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GLO. Coufin of Buckingham, a word with [Takes him afide. Catesby hath founded Haftings in our bufinefs; And finds the tefly gentleman fo hot, That he will lofe his head, ere give consent, His master's child, as worshipfully he terms it, Shall lose the royalty of England's throne.

BUCK. Withdraw yourself awhile, I'll go with

you.

Exeunt GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM.

STAN. We have not yet fet down this day of triumph.

To-morrow, in my judgment, is too fudden;
For I myself am not fo well provided,
As elfe I would be, were the day prolong'd.

Re-enter Bishop of Ely.

ELY. Where is my lord protector? I have sent For thefe ftrawberries.

HAST. His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this
morning;

There's fome conceit or other likes him well,8
When he doth bid good morrow with fuch spirit.
I think, there's ne'er a man in Chriftendom,
Can leffer hide his love, or hate, than he;
For by his face straight shall you know his heart.

8 There's fome conceit or other likes him well,] thought. So, in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, 1609 :

"Here is a thing too young for such a place,

Conceit is

"Who, if it had conceit, would die." MALONE. Conceit, as ufed by Haftings, I believe fignifies-pleasant idea 'or fancy. So Falftaff, fpeaking of Poins," He a good wit?there is no more conceit in him, than is in a mallet.'

STEEVENS.

STAN. What of his heart perceive you in his face, By any likelihood he show'd to-day?

HAST. Marry, that with no man here he is offended;

For, were he, he had fhown it in his looks.

Re-enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM.

GLO. I pray you all, tell me what they deserve, That do confpire my death with devilish plots

9

likelihood-] Semblance; appearance. JOHNSON.

So, in another of our author's plays :

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poor likelihoods, and modern feemings."

Thus the quarto. The folio reads-livelihood.

STEEVENS. MALONE.

I pray you all, tell me what they deferve, &c.] This ftory was originally told by Sir Thomas More, who wrote about thirty years after the time. His Hiftory of King Richard III. was inferted in Hall's Chronicle, from whence it was copied by Holinfhed, who was Shakspeare's authority:

"Between ten and eleven he returned into the chamber among them with a wonderful foure, angrie, countenance, knitting the browes, frowning and fretting, and gnawing on his lippes, and fo fette him downe in his place.-Then when he had fitten ftill awhile, thus he began: What were they worthie to have that compaffe and imagine the destruction of me, being so neere of bloud unto the king, and protectour of his royal perfon and his realme? Then the lord Chamberlaine, as he that for the love betweene them thought he might be boldeft with him, answered and fayd, that they were worthy to be punished for hainous traytors, whatsoever they were; and all the other affirmed the fame. That is, quoth he, yonder forcereffe, my brother's wife, and other with her, meaning the queene:-ye fhall all fee in what wife that forcereffe, and that other witch of her counsell, Shore's wife, with their affinitie, have by their forcerie and witchcraft wafted my body. And therewith he plucked up his doublet flieve to his elbow upon the left arme, where he fhewed a werith withered arme and small, as it was never other.-No man but was there prefent, but well knewe his arme was ever fuch fince his birth. Naytheleffe the lord Chamberlaine (which

Of damned witchcraft; and that have prevail'd
Upon my body with their hellish charms?

HAST. The tender love I bear your grace, my lord,

Makes me moft forward in this noble prefence
To doom the offenders: Whofoe'er they be,
I fay, my lord, they have deserved death.

GLO. Then be your eyes the witness of their evil,
Look how I am bewitch'd; behold mine arm
Is, like a blafted fapling, wither'd up:

And this is Edward's wife, that monftrous witch, Conforted with that harlot, ftrumpet Shore,

from the death of king Edward kept Shore's wife, on whom he fomewhat doted in the king's life, faving, as it is faide, he that while forbare her of reverence toward the king, or elfe of a certain kind of fidelity to his friend) aunfwered and faid, Certainly, my lord, if they have fo heinously done, they be worthy heinous punishment. What, quoth the protectour, thou servest me I wene with ifs and with ands: I tell thee they have so done; and that I will make good on thy bodie, traitour; and therewith, as in great anger, he clapped his fift upon the boord a great rap. At which token given, one cried, traifon, without the chamber. Therewith a dore clapped, and in came there rushing men in harneffe, as many as the chamber might holde. And anone the protectour fayd to the lord Haftings, I arreft thee traitor.-Then were they all quickely bestowed in diverfe chambers, except the lord Chamberlaine, whom the protectour bade Speede him and fhrive him apace, for by S. Paul, quoth he, I will not to dinner till I fee thy head off. So was he brought forth into the greene befide the chappell within the Tower, and his head laid downe upon a long log of timber, and there ftricken off; and afterward his body with the head enterred at Windsor, befide the body of king Edward."

M. D. i. e. Maifter John Dolman, the author of the Legend of Lord Haftings, in The Mirrour for Magiftrates, 1575, has thrown the fame circumftances into verse.

Morton, Bishop of Ely, was prefent at this council, and from him Sir Thomas More, who was born in 1480, is supposed to have had his information. Polydore Virgil, who began his hiftory in 1505, tells the story differently. MALONE.

That by their witchcraft thus have marked me. HAST. If they have done this deed, my noble

lord,

GLO. If thou protector of this damned ftrum

pet,

Talk'ft thou to me of ifs?-Thou art a traitor:Off with his head :-now, by Saint Paul I fwear, I will not dine until I fee the fame.

Lovel, and Catesby, look, that it be done ;3

2

If! &c.] For this circumftance fee Holinfhed, Hall, and The Mirrour for Magiftrates. FARMER.

3 Lovel, and Catesby, look, that it be done ;] In former copies:

Lovel, and Ratcliff, look, that it be done.

The scene is here in the Tower; and Lord Haftings was cut off on that very day, when Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan fuffered at Pomfret. How then could Ratcliff be both in Yorkshire and the Tower? In the scene preceding this, we find him conducting those gentlemen to the block. In the old quarto, we find it, Exeunt: Manet Catefly with Haftings. And in the next scene, 'before the Tower walls, we find Lovel and Catesby come back 'from the execution, bringing the head of Haftings.

THEOBALD.

Mr. Theobald fhould have added, that, in the old quarto, no names are mentioned in Richard's fpeech. He only fays"fome fee it done." Nor, in that edition, does Lovel appear in the next scene; but only Catesby, bringing the head of Haftings. The confufion feems to have arifen, when it was thought neceffary that Catesby fhould be employed to fetch the Mayor, who, in the quarto, is made to come without having been fent for. As fome other person was then wanted to bring the head of Haftings, the poet, or the players, appointed Lovel and Raicliff to that office, without reflecting that the latter was engaged in another fervice on the fame day at Pomfret. TYRWHITT.

I have adopted the emendation, because in one scene at least it prevents the glaring impropriety mentioned by Mr. Theobald. But unfortunately, as Mr. Tyrwhitt has obferved, this very impropriety is found in the next fcene, where Ratcliff is introduced, and where it cannot be corrected without taking greater Hiberties than perhaps are juftifiable. For there, in confequence

The reft, that love me, rise, and follow me.4 [Exeunt Council, with GLOSTER and BUCK

INGHAM.

HAST. Woe, woe, for England! not a whit for

me;

For I, too fond, might have prevented this:
Stanley did dream, the boar did rafe his helm;
But I difdain'd it, and did fcorn to fly.

Three times to-day my foot-cloth horse did stumble,

of the injudicious alteration made, I think, by the players, inftead of" Here comes the Mayor," the reading of the quarto, we find in the folio

"Rich. But what, is Cate/by gone?

"He is, and see he brings the Mayor along."

Catesby being thus employed, he cannot bring in the head of Haftings; nor can that office be affigned to Lovel only; because Glofter in the folio mentions two perfons :

"Be patient, they are friends; Ratcliff, and Lovel."

MALONE.

4 The reft, that love me, rife, and follow me.] So, in The Battle of Alcazar, 1594:

"And they that love my honour, follow me."

MALONE.

• Three times to-day my foot-cloth horfe did ftumble, &c.] So, in The Legend of Lord Haftings, by M. D. 1563. [Mafter Dolman.]

"My palfrey, in the playneft paved streete,

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66

Thryfe bow'd his boanes, thryfe kneled on the flower, Thryfe fhonnd (as Balams affe) the dreaded tower.” Toftumble was anciently esteem'd a bad omen. So, in The Honeft Lawyer : "And just at the threshold Master Bromley Stumbled. Signs! figns!"

The housings of a horse, and sometimes a horse himself, were anciently denominated a foot-cloth. So, in Ben Jonson's play called The Cafe is Altered:

"I'll go on my foot-cloth, I'll turn gentleman." Again, in A fair Quarrel, by Middleton, 1617:

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thou shalt have a physician,

"The best that gold can fetch upon his foot-cloth." Again, in Ram Alley, or Merry Tricks, 1610:

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