K. RICH. All unavoided is the doom of destiny.

Q. ELIZ. True, when avoided grace makes deftiny:

My babes were deftin'd to a fairer death,

If grace had blefs'd thee with a fairer life.

K. RICH. You fpeak, as if that I had flain my coufins.

Q. ELIZ. Coufins, indeed; and by their uncle cozen'd

Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life.
Whofe hands foever lanc'd their tender hearts,
Thy head, all indirectly, gave direction :9

No doubt the murderous knife was dull and blunt,
Till it was whetted on thy ftone-hard heart,'
To revel in the entrails of my lambs.

But that still use of grief makes wild grief tame,
My tongue fhould to thy ears not name my boys,
Till that my nails were anchor'd in thine eyes;
And I, in fuch a defperate bay of death,

8 All unavoided &c.] i. e. unavoidable
"Whose unavoided eye is dangerous."

So, before:
MALONE.
Thy head, all indirectly, gave direction :] This is a jingle
in which Shakspeare perhaps found more delight than his read-
So, in Hamlet:

ers.

66

By indirections find directions out."

The fame oppofition of words occurs alfo in King John.

STEEVENS.

We

1 Till it was whetted on thy ftone-hard heart,] This conceit feems alfo to have been a great favourite of our author. meet with it more than once. So, in King Henry IV. P. II: "Thou hid'ft a thousand daggers in thy thoughts, "Which thou haft whetted on thy ftony heart, "To ftab," &c.

Again, in The Merchant of Venice:

2

"Not on thy fole, but on thy foul, harsh Jew,
"Thou mak'ft thy knife keen." STEEVENS.

till ufe-] i. e. conftant ufe. So, in K. Richard 11: "A generation of ftill breeding thoughts." STEEVENS.

Like a poor bark, of fails and tackling reft,
Rush all to pieces on thy rocky bosom.

K. RICH. Madam, so thrive I in my enterprize, And dangerous fuccefs of bloody wars, As I intend more good to you and yours, Than ever you or yours by me were harm'd !

Q. ELIZ. What good is cover'd with the face of heaven,

To be discover'd, that can do me good?

K. RICH. The advancement of your children, gentle lady.

Q. ELIZ. Up to some scaffold, there to lose their heads?

K. RICH. No, to the dignity and height of fortune,

The high imperial type 3 of this earth's glory.

Q. ELIZ. Flatter my forrows with report of it; Tell me, what state, what dignity, what honour, Canft thou demife 4 to any child of mine?

The high imperial type-] Type is exhibition, fhow, difplay. JOHNSON.

I think it means emblem, one of its usual fignifications.-By the imperial type of glory, Richard means a crown. M. MASON.

The canopy placed over a pulpit is ftill called by architects a type. It is, I apprehend, in a fimilar fenfe that the word is here ufed. HENLEY.

Bullokar, in his Expofitor, 1616, defines Type-“ A figure, form, or likeness of any thing." Cawdrey in his Alphabetical Table, &c. 1604, calls it-" figure, example, or fhadowe of any thing." The word is ufed in King Henry VI. P. III, as here: "Thy father bears the type of king of Naples."

MALONE.

4 Canft thou demife-] To demife is to grant, from demittere, to devolve a right from one to another. STEEVENS,

The conftant language of leafes is, "-demifed, granted, and to farm let." But I believe the word is used by no poet but

K. RICH. Even all I have; ay, and myself and all, Will I withal endow a child of thine;

So in the Lethe of thy angry foul

Thou drown the fad remembrance of those wrongs,5 Which, thou fuppofeft, I have done to thee.

Q. ELIZ. Be brief, left that the process of thy kindness

Laft longer telling than thy kindness' date.

K. RICH. Then know, that from my foul, I love thy daughter,

Q. ELIZ. My daughter's mother thinks it with her foul.

K. RICH. What do you think?

Q. ELIZ. That thou doft love my daughter, from

thy foul:

So, from thy foul's love, didft thou love her bro

thers;

And, from my heart's love, I do thank thee for it.

K. RICH. Be not fo hafty to confound my meaning:

I mean, that with my foul I love thy daughter,
And do intend to make her queen of England.
Q. ELIZ. Well then, who doft thou mean shall
be her king?

K. RICH. Even he, that makes her queen: Who elfe fhould be?

Shakspeare. For demife, the reading of the quarto, and first folio, the editor of the second folio arbitrarily substituted devise. MALONE.

5 So in the Lethe of thy angry foul

Thou drown the fad remembrance of thofe wrongs,] So, in King Henry IV. P. II :

May this be wafh'd in Lethe and forgotten ?"

STEEVENS.

of it, madam ? 6

Q. ELIZ. What, thou?

K. RICH.

Even fo: What think you

K. RICH.

That I would learn of you,

Madam, with all my heart."

Q. ELIZ. How canft thou woo her?

As one being beft acquainted with her humour.

Q. ELIZ. And wilt thou learn of me?

K. RICH.

Q. ELIZ. Send to her, by the man that flew her brothers,

A pair of bleeding hearts; thereon engrave,
Edward, and York; then, haply, will fhe weep:
Therefore prefent to her, as fometime Margaret
Did to thy father, steep'd in Rutland's blood,-
A handkerchief; which, fay to her, did drain
The purple fap from her sweet brother's body,
And bid her wipe her weeping eyes withal.
If this inducement move her not to love,
Send her a letter of thy noble deeds;

Tell her, thou mad'ft away her uncle Clarence,
Her uncle Rivers; ay, and, for her fake,
Mad'ft quick conveyance with her good aunt Anne.
K. RICH. You mock me, madam; this is not the

"Even fo: What think you of it, madam ?] Thus the folio, except that it reads-how instead of what. The quarto, without attention to the broken verse preceding:

I, even I: what think you of it, madam ?

"I am not (fays Mr. Malone,) fure whether it should not be printed, Ay, even I." STEEVENS.

7 Madam, with all my heart.] I suppose the word-Madam, may be fafely omitted, as it violates the measure.

8

STEEVENS.

as fometime Margaret-] Here is another reference to the plays of Henry VI. JOHNSON.

Q. ELIZ.

There is no other way;

Unless thou could'ft put on fome other shape,
And not be Richard that hath done all this.

K. RICH. Say, that I did all this for love of her? Q. ELIZ. Nay, then indeed, the cannot choose but have thee,'

Having bought love with fuch a bloody spoil.2

K. RICH. Look, what is done cannot be now amended:

Men fhall deal unadvisedly fometimes,
Which after-hours give leisure to repent.
If I did take the kingdom from your fons,
To make amends, I'll give it to your daughter.
If I have kill'd the iffue of your womb,
To quicken your increase, I will beget
Mine iffue of your blood upon your daughter.
A grandam's name is little lefs in love,
Than is the doting title of a mother;
They are as children, but one step below,

9 Say, that I did &c.] This and the following fifty-four lines, ending with the words tender years, in p. 469, are found only in the folio. MALONE.

I

Nay, then indeed, he cannot choose but have thee,] [Old copy-hate.] The fenfe feems to require that we should read: but love thee,

ironically. TYRWHITT.

As this is evidently fpoken ironically, I agree with Tyrwhitt, that the prefent reading is corrupt, but should rather amend it by reading" have you," than "love you;" as the word have is more likely to have been mistaken for hate, the traces of the letters being nearly the fame. M. MASON.

As this conjecture is, in my opinion, at once fortunate and judicious, I have placed it in the text. A fomewhat corresponding error had happened in Coriolanus, laft fpeech of scene iv. Act IV. where have was apparently given instead of—hate.

2

STEEVENS.

bloody Spoil.] Spoil is wafte, havock. JOHNSON.