Thy Clarence he is dead, that ftabb'd my Edward;
And the beholders of this tragick play,

The adulterate Haftings,4 Rivers, Vaughan, Grey,
Untimely finother'd in their duíky graves.
Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer;
Only referv'd their factor, to buy fouls,
And fend them thither: But at hand, at hand,
Enfues his piteous and unpitied end :

Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, faints pray,5
To have him fuddenly convey'd from hence :-
Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray,
That I may live to say, The dog is dead!

Q. ELIZ. O, thou didft prophecy, the time would

come,

That I fhould wish for thee to help me curfe That bottled fpider, that foul bunch-back'd toad.

Q. MAR. I call'd thee then, vain flourish of my
fortune;

I call'd thee then, poor shadow, painted queen;
The prefentation of but what I was,

4 The adulterate Haftings,] I believe Shakspeare wrote: WARBURTON.

The adulterer Haftings,Adulterate is right. We fay metals are adulterate; and adulterate fometimes means the fame as adulterer. In either sense, on this occafion, the epithet will fuit. Haftings was adulterate, as Margaret has tried his friendship and found it faithless; he was an adulterer, as he cohabited with Jane Shore during the life of her husband. So, the Ghoft in Hamlet, speaking of the King, fays:

that inceftuous, that adulterate beast.”

STEEVENS.

5 Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, faints pray,] This imperfect line is not injudicioufly completed by fome former editor :

Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar for him ; faints pray,
To have &c. STEEVENS.

The flattering index of a direful pageant,"
One heav'd a high, to be hurl'd down below :
A mother only mock'd with two fair babes;
A dream of what thou waft; a garish flag,
To be the aim of every dangerous fhot ;"
A fign of dignity, a breath, a bubble;
A queen in jest, only to fill the scene.

Where is thy husband now? where be thy brothers?
Where be thy two fons? wherein doft thou joy?
Who fues, and kneels, and fays-God fave the
queen?

Where be the bending peers that flatter'd thee ?8
Where be the thronging troops that follow'd thee?
Decline all this," and fee what now thou art,
For happy wife, a most distressed widow ;
For joyful mother, one that wails the nam
For one being fued to, one that humbly sues;

The flattering index of a direful pageant,] Pageants are dumb fhows, and the poet meant to allude to one of these, the index of which promised a happier conclufion. The pageants then displayed on publick occafions were generally preceded by a brief account of the order in which the characters were to walk. Thefe indexes were diftributed among the fpectators, that they might understand the meaning of fuch allegorical stuff as was ufually exhibited. The index of every book was anciently placed before the beginning of it. STEEVENS.

To be the aim of every dangerous fhot;] Alluding to the dangerous fituation of those perfons to whofe care the standards of armies were entrusted. STEEVENS.

8 Where be the bending peers that flatter'd thee?] Mr. Rowe has transferred this question to Alicia in Jane Shore:

where is the king

"And all the smiling cringing train of courtiers,
"That bent the knee before thee?" STEEVENS.

9 Decline all this,] i. e. run through all this from first to laft. So, in Troilus and Creffida: "I'll decline the whole queftion." This phrase the poet borrowed from his grammar. MALONE.

For queen, a very caitiff crown'd with care:
For one that fcorn'd at me, now fcorn'd of me;
For one being fear'd of all, now fearing one;
For one commanding all, obey'd of none.
Thus hath the course of juftice wheel'd about,'
And left thee but a very prey to time;

Having no more but thought of what thou wert,
To torture thee the more, being what thou art.
Thou didft ufurp my place, And doft thou not
Ufurp the juft proportion of my forrow?
Now thy proud neck bears half my burden'd yoke;
From which even here I flip my wearied head,
And leave the burden of it all on thee.

Farewell, York's wife, and queen of fad mifchance,―

These English woes fhall make me fmile in France.

Q. ELIZ. O thou well skill'd in curfes, ftay a while, And teach me how to curfe mine enemies.

Q. MAR. Forbear to fleep the night, and faft2
the day;

Compare dead happiness with living woe;
Think that thy babes were fairer 3 than they were,
And he, that flew them, fouler than he is:
Bettering thy lofs makes the bad-caufer worfe ;4
Revolving this will teach thee how to curfe.

about.

·wheel'd about,] Thus the quartos. The folio-whirl'd STEEVENS.

2 Forbear to fleep-and fast-] Faft has no connection with the preceding word forbear; the meaning being,-Sleep not at night, and faft during the day. The quarto reads-to fleep the nights, and faft the days. MALONE.

3 were fairer -] So the quarto. The folio readsSweeter. MALONE.

4 Bettering thy loss makes the bad-caufer worfe ;] We must either read this line thus :

Q. ELIZ. My words are dull, O, quicken them with thine!

Q. MAR. Thy woes will make them sharp, and pierce like mine.

[Exit Q. MARGaret.

DUCH. Why should calamity be full of words? Q. ELIZ. Windy attorneys to their client woes,5 Airy fucceeders of inteftate joys,

Poor breathing orators of miferies!

Let them have fcope: though what they do impart Help nothing elfe, yet do they eafe the heart."

Bettering thy lofs, make the bad-caufer worse.

which I believe to be the true reading, or include it in a parenthefis. M. MASON.

5 Duch. Why Should calamity be full of words?

Q. Eliz. Windy attorneys to their client woes,] So, in our anthor's Venus and Adonis :

"So of concealed forrow may be faid:

"Free vent of words love's fire doth affuage; "But when the heart's attorney once is mute, "The client breaks as desperate of his suit." The quarto reads-your client woes.

The folio-their clients

6 Airy fucceeders of inteftate joys,] As I cannot understand the reading of the folio-inteftine, I have adopted another from the quarto in 1597:

Airy fucceeders of inteftate joys:

i. e. words, tun'd to complaints, fucceed joys that are dead; and unbequeathed to them, to whom they fhould properly defcend. THEOBALD.

The metaphor is extremely harfh. The joys already poffeffed being all confumed and paffed away, are supposed to have died inteftate, that is, to have made no will, having nothing to be queath; and more verbal complaints are their fucceffors, but inherit nothing but mifery. MALONE.

7though what they do impart

Help nothing elfe, yet do they eafe the heart.] So, in Macbeth:

DUCH. If so, then be not tongue-ty'd: go with me, And in the breath of bitter words let's mother My damned fon, that thy two fweet fons mother'd. [Drum, within. I hear his drum, be copious in exclaims.

Enter King RICHARD, and his Train, marching.

K. RICH. Who intercepts me in my expedition? DUCH. O, fhe, that might have intercepted thee, By ftrangling thee in her accurfed womb, From all the flaughters, wretch, that thou haft done. Q. ELIZ. Hid'ft thou that forehead with a golden

crown,

Where should be branded, if that right were right, The flaughter of the prince that ow'd that crown, And the dire death of my poor fons, and brothers? Tell me, thou villain-flave, where are my children? DUCH. Thou toad, thou toad, where is thy brother Clarence?

And little Ned Plantagenet, his fon?

Q. ELIZ. Where is the gentle Rivers, Vaughan, Grey?

DUCH. Where is kind Haftings?

K. RICH. A flourish, trumpets !—strike alarum, drums!

"Give forrow words; the grief that does not speak, Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break." The quarto reads-Help not at all,-. MALONE.

that ow'd that crown,] i. e. that poffeffed it. So, in

King John:
"Which owe the crown that thou o'ermaftereft."

STEEVENS.