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Even of your mettle, of your very blood ;3
Of all one pain,-fave for a night of groans
Endur'd of her, for whom you bid like forrow.5
Your children were vexation to your youth,
But mine fhall be a comfort to your age.
The lofs, you have, is but—a fon being king,
And, by that lofs, your daughter is made queen.
I cannot make you what amends I would,
Therefore accept fuch kindness as I can.
Dorfet, your fon, that, with a fearful foul,
Leads difcontented steps in foreign soil,
This fair alliance quickly fhall call home
To high promotions and great dignity:
The king, that calls your beauteous daughter,-
wife,

Familiarly fhall call thy Dorfet-brother;
Again fhall you be mother to a king,

And all the ruins of diftrefsful times

3 Even of your mettle, of your very blood;] The folio hasmettal. The two words are frequently confounded in the old copies. That mettle was the word intended here, appears from various other paffages. So, in Macbeth :

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Thy undaunted mettle fhould compofe

Nothing but males.”

Again, in King Richard II:

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that bed, that womb,

"That mettle, that felf-mould that fashion'd thee,
"Made him a man."

Again, in Timon of Athens:

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"Whose womb unmeasurable, and infinite breast,
"Teems and feeds all, whofe felf-fame mettle
"Whereof thy proud child, arrogant man, is puff'd,
Engenders the black toad," &c. MALONE.

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• Endur'd of her,] Of in the language of Shakspeare's age was frequently used for by. MALONE.

5 bid like forrow.] Bid is in the paft tense from bide.

JOHNSON.

Repair'd with double riches of content.
-What! we have many goodly days to fee:
The liquid drops of tears that you have shed,
Shall come again, transform'd to orient pearl ;
Advantaging their loan, with interest

Of ten-times-double gain of happiness."
Go then, my mother, to thy daughter go;
Make bold her bathful years with your experience;
Prepare her ears to hear a wooer's tale;
Put in her tender heart the aspiring flame
Of golden fov'reignty; acquaint the princess
With the fweet flent hours of marriage joys:
And when this m of mine hath cháftifed
frin
The petty rebel, dull-brain'd Buckingham,
Bound with triumphant garlands will I come,
And lead thy daughter to a conqueror's bed;
To whom I will retail my conquest won,7
And she shall be fole victress, Cæfar's Cæfar.

Q. ELIZ. What were I best to say? her father's
brother

Would be her lord? Or fhall I fay, her uncle?

6 Advantaging their loan, with intereft

Of ten-times-double gain of happiness.] [The folio-love.] My eafy emendation will convince every reader that love and lone are made out of one another only by a letter turned upfide down. The tears that you have lent to your afflictions, shall be turned into gems; and requite you by way of intereft, &c.

THEOBALD.

How often the letters u and n are confounded in these copies, has been shown in various places. See Vol. V. p. 191, n. 3 and note on Timon of Athens, A&t IV. fc. iii. Vol. XIX.

MALONE.

7 To whom I will retail my conqueft won,] To retail (as Mr. M. Mason has observed in a note on A&t III. fc. i. p. 370, n. 8,) is to hand down from one to another. Richard, in the present inftance, means to fay he will tranfmit the benefit of his victories to Elizabeth. STEEVENS.

Or, he that flew her brothers, and her uncles?
Under what title fhall I woo for thee,

That God, the law, my honour, and her love,
Can make feem pleasing to her tender years?

K. RICH. Infer fair England's peace by this alli

ance.

Q. ELIZ. Which the fhall purchase with still lafting war.

K. RICH. Tell her, the king, that

entreats.

may command,

Q. ELIZ. That at her hands, which the king's
King forbids.8

K. RICH. Say, fhe fhall be a high and mighty

queen.

Q. ELIZ. To wail the title, as her mother doth.
K. RICH. Say, I will love her everlastingly.
Q. ELIZ. But how long fhall that title, ever, laft ?9
K. RICH. Sweetly in force unto her fair life's end.
Q. ELIZ. But how long fairly fhall her sweet life
laft?

K. RICH. As long as heaven, and nature, lengthens it.

Q. ELIZ. As long as hell, and Richard, likes of it. K. RICH. Say, I, her fov'reign, am her subject low.'

8 which the king's King forbids.] Alluding to the prohibition in the Levitical law. See Leviticus, xviii. 14. GREY. 9 But how long fhall that title, ever, laft?] Young has borrowed this thought in his Univerfal Paffion:

"But fay, my all, my miftrefs, and my friend,
"What day next week th' eternity shall end?" -

STEEVENS.

am her fubject low.] Thus the folio. The quarto reads: her fubject love. STEEVENS.

Q. ELIZ. But the, your subject, loaths such sov❜reignty.

K. RICH. Be eloquent in my behalf to her.

Q. ELIZ. An honest tale speeds beft, being plainly told.

K. RICH. Then, in plain terms tell her my loving tale.2

Q. ELIZ. Plain, and not honest, is too harsh a style. K. RICH. Your reafons are too fhallow and too

quiek.

Q. ELIZ. O, no, my reafons are too deep and

dead ;

Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their graves. K. RICH. Harp not3 on that string, madam

is past.

; that

2 Then, in plain terms tell her my loving tale.] So the quarto. The folio reads:

"Then plainly to her tell my loving tale." MALONE. 3 Harp not &c.] In the regulation of these short speeches I have followed the quarto 1597. STEEVENS.

K. Rich. Harp not on that string, madam; that is paft. Q. Eliz. Harp on it ftill fhall I, &c.] In the quarto, 1598, the first of these two lines is wanting. The paffage stands thus: Qu. O, no, my reasons, &c.

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"Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their graves.

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King. Harp on it still thall I, till heart-ftrings break. "Now by my george," &c.

The printer of the next quarto faw that the line-" Harp on it ftill fhall I," &c. could not belong to Richard, and therefore annexed it to the Queen's former speech, but did not insert the omitted line.

The editor of the folio fupplied the line that was wanting, but abfurdly misplaced it, and exhibited the paffage thus:

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Qu. O, no, my reasons are too deep and dead; "Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their graves.

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Harp on it still fhall I, till heart-ftrings break.

"King. Harp not on that ftring, madam, that is past. "Now by my george," &c.

The text is formed from the quarto, and the folio. MALONE.

Q. ELIZ. Harp on it ftill fhall I, till heart-ftrings

break.

K. RICH. Now, by my George, my garter, and

my crown,

Q. ELIZ. Profan'd, difhonour'd, and the third ufurp'd.

K. RICH. I swear.

Q. ELIZ. By nothing; for this is no oath. Thy George, profan'd, hath loft his holy honour; Thy garter,4 blemish'd, pawn'd his knightly virtue ; Thy crown, ufurp'd, difgrac'd his kingly glory : If fomething thou would'ft fwear to be believ'd, Swear then by fomething that thou haft not wrong'd. K. RICH. Now by the world,

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God's wrong is moft of all.

K. RICH. Why then, by God,

Q. ELIZ.

If thou had'ft fear'd to break an oath by him,5

4 Thy George, profan'd, hath loft his holy honour; Thy garter, &c.] The quarto reads-The George, &c. The folio-Thy George; &c. and, afterwards,-lordly inftead of holy. STEEVENS.

5 God's wrong is most of all.

If thou had ft fear'd to break an oath by him, &c.] I have followed the quarto, except that it reads in the preceding speech, Why then, by God-. The editors of the folio, from the apprehenfion of the penalty of the Statute, 3 Jac. I. c. 21. printed Why then by heaven,"-and the whole they abfurdly exhibited thus:

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