SCENE IV.

The fame. Before the Palace.

Enter Queen MARGARET.

Q. MAR. So, now profperity begins to mellow,"
And drop into the rotten mouth of death.
Here in these confines flily have I lurk'd,
To watch the waning of mine enemies.
A dire induction 3 am I witness to,

And will to France; hoping, the confequence
Will prove as bitter, black, and tragical.

Withdraw thee, wretched Margaret! who comes

here?

Enter Queen ELIZABETH and the Duchefs of YORK.

Q. ELIZ. Ah, my poor princes! ah, my tender babes!

My unblown flowers, new-appearing sweets!
If yet your gentle fouls fly in the air,
And be not fix'd in doom perpetual,
Hover about me with your airy wings,
And hear your mother's lamentation!

2

begins to mellow, &c.] The fame thought occurs in Marfton's Antonio and Mellida, 1602:

3

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now is his fate grown mellow,'
"Inftant to fall into the rotten jaws
"Of chap-fall'n death." STEEVENS.

dire induction] Induction is preface, introduction,

firft part. It is so used by Sackville in our author's time.

JOHNSON.

Q. MAR. Hover about her; fay, that right for right 4

Hath dimm'd your infant morn to aged night.

DUCH. So many miferies have craz'd my voice, That my woe-wearied tongue is ftill and mute,Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead?

Q. MAR. Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet, Edward for Edward pays a dying debt.

Q. ELIZ. Wilt thou, O God, fly from fuch gentle lambs,

And throw them in the entrails of the wolf? When didst thou sleep,5 when such a deed was done?

-fay, that right for right-] This is one of those conceits which our author may be fufpected of loving better than propriety. Right for right is justice answering to the claims of juftice. So, in this play :

"Where should be branded, if that right were right—." JOHNSON.

In the third scene of the irft Act, Margaret was reproached with the murder of young Rutland, and the death of her husband and fon were imputed to the divine vengeance roused by that wicked act: "So juft is God to right the innocent." Margaret now perhaps means to fay, The right of me, an injured mother, whofe fon was flain at Tewksbury, has now operated as powerfully as that right which the death of Rutland gave you to divine juftice, and has destroyed your children in their turn. MALONE.

When didft thou sleep, &c.] That is, When, before the prefent occafion, didft thou ever fleep during the commiffion of fuch an action? Thus the only authentick copies now extant; the quarto, 1598, and the first folio. The editor of the fecond folio changed When to Why, which has been adopted by all the fubfequent editors; though Margaret's anfwer evidently refers to the word found in the original copy. MALONE.

I have admitted this reading, though I am not quite certain of its authenticity. The reply of Margaret might have been defigned as an interrogatory echo to the laft, words of the Queen.

STEEVENS.

Q. MAR. When holy Harry died, and my sweet

fon.

DUCH. Dead life, blind fight, poor mortal-living

ghoft,

Woe's scene, world's fhame, grave's due by life

ufurp'd,

Brief abftract and record of tedious days,
Reft thy unreft on England's lawful earth,

[Sitting down. Unlawfully made drunk with innocent blood!

Q. ELIZ. Ah, that thou would'ft as foon afford a

grave,

As thou canft yield a melancholy seat ;

Then would I hide my bones, not reft them here! Ah, who hath any cause to mourn, but we?

[Sitting down by her.

Q. MAR. If ancient forrow be most reverent, Give mine the benefit of feniory,

And let my griefs frown on the upper hand."

This appears to be the true reading, as Margaret's next speech is an answer to that question that was not addreffed to her.

M. MASON.

6 -feniory,] For feniority. JOHNSON. So, in Stowe's Chronicle, edit 1615, p. 149: "the son of Edmund, the son of Edward the feignior, the fon of Alured," &c. STEEVENS.

The word in the quarto is fignorie, in the folio figneury, and it has been printed figniory in the late editions: but as in general modern spelling has been adopted, I know not why the ancient mode fhould be adhered to in this particular inftance. In The Comedy of Errors, Act I. fc. the last, senior has been properly printed by all the modern editors, though the words in the old copy are "We'll draw cuts for the fignior." The substantive in the text is evidently formed by our author from hence.

MALONE. 7 And let my griefs frown on the upper hand.] So, in our au thor's Rape of Lucrece:

If forrow can admit fociety,

[Sitting down with them. Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine:I had an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him ; I had a husband,8 till a Richard kill'd him : Thou hadft an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him; Thou hadft a Richard, till a Richard kill'd him. DUCH. I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill him;

I had a Rutland too, thou holp'ft to kill him.

Q. MAR. Thou hadít a Clarence too, and Richard kill'd him.

From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept
A hell-hound, that doth hunt us all to death:
That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes,
To worry lambs, and lap their gentle blood;
That foul defacer of God's handy-work;
That excellent grand tyrant of the earth,
That reigns in galled eyes of weeping fouls,
Thy womb let loofe, to chafe us to our graves.-
O upright, juft, and true-difpofing God,

9

By this starts Collatine as from a dream,
"And bids Lucretius give his forrows place."

MALONE.

I had a husband,] The quarto has-a Richard, which the editor of the folio corrected by fubftituting a husband. I believe Shakspeare wrote-I had a Henry. In a fubsequent speech in this fcene, p. 472, 1.2: “ my brother" being printed in the quarto by mistake, inftead of "thy Brother," the editor of the folio corrected the wrong word, and printed-my husband.

MALONE.

9 That reigns &c.] This and the preceding line have been omitted by all the modern editors, Rowe excepted. STEEVENS. Thefe two lines are found only in the folio, and are there tranfpofed. They were rightly arranged by Mr. Steevens.

MALONE.

How do I thank thee, that this carnal' cur
Preys on the iffue of his mother's body,

2

And makes her pew-fellow with others' moan! DUCH. O, Harry's wife, triumph not in my

woes;

God witness with me, I have wept for thine.

Q. MAR. Bear with me; I am hungry for re

venge,

And now I cloy me with beholding it.
Thy Edward he is dead, that kill'd my Edward;
Thy other Edward dead, to quit my Edward;
Young York he is but boot,3 because both they
Match not the high perfection of my lofs.

1

carnal-] This word, in the prefent inftance, may fignify carnivorous, though in Hamlet it is ufed for Лlaughterous: "Of carnal, bloody, and unnatural acts." STEEVENS. 2 And makes her pew-fellow-] Pew-fellow feems to be companion. We have now a new phrafe, nearly equivalent, by which we fay of perfons in the fame difficulties, that they are in the fame box. JOHNSON.

Pew-fellow is a word yet in ufe. SIR J. HAWKINS.

I find this compound word in Northward Hoe, a comedy, by Decker and Webster, 1607: " He would make him pue-fellow with a lord's fteward at least."

Again, in Weftward-Hoe, by the fame authors, 1606:

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being both my scholars, and your honest puefellows."

I remember to have feen in ancient Flemish prints reprefenting Schools, certain inclosures holding different claffes of boys, who, probably, from this circumftance, were ftyled pew-fellows.

In our places of worship perhaps pews in general are modern conveniences, compared with the age of the buildings that contain them. Our hardy ancestors chiefly fat on open benches, such are still remaining in the Pit at Great Saint Mary's, Cambridge. STEEVENS.

3

Young York he is but boot,] Boot is that which is thrown in to mend a purchase. JOHNSON.