Your dainty squeamish coying it to me.
Go-to your Lord, your paramour, begone!
Lisp in his ear, hang wanton on his neck,
And play your monkey gambols o'er to him:
You know my purpose, look that you pursue it,
And make him yield obedience to my will.
Do it or woe upon thy harlot's head.

J. Sho. Oh, that my tongue had every grace of speech, Great and commanding as the breath of Kings, Sweet as the poet's numbers, and prevailing As soft persuasion to a tender ear,' That I had art and eloquence divine,

To pay my duty to my master's ashes,

And plead, till death, the cause of injur'd innocence! Glos. Ha! dost thou brave me, minion! dost thou know

How vile, how very a wretch, my pow'r can make thee? That I can let loose fear, distress, and famine,

To hunt thy heels, like blood-hounds, thro' the 6 world;'*

That I can place thee in such abject state,
As help shall never find thee; where, repining,
Thou shalt sit down, and gnaw the earth for anguish,
Groan to, the pitiless winds without return,
Howl like the midnight wolf amidst the desart,
And curse thy life in bitterness and misery?

J. Sho. Let me be branded for the public scorn,
Turn'd forth, and driven to wander like a vagabond,
Be friendless and forsaken, seek my bread
Upon the barren wild, and desolate waste,
Feed on my sighs, and drink my falling tears;+
Ere I consent to teach my lips injustice,

Or wrong the orphan who has none to save him.

At his heels

Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire,
Crouch for employment.

Henry V. A. J. Chorus.

Richard III. A. IV. S. I.

Death and destruction dog thee at the heels.

+"Thou feedest them with the bread of tears, and givest them

44 plenteousness of tears to drink."

Psalm LXXX, 5.

Glos. 'Tis well-we'll try the temper of your heart. What, hoa! who waits without?

Enter RATCLIFFE, CATESBY, and other attendants. Ratc. Your Highness' pleasure

Glos. Go, some of you, and turn this strumpet forth!*
Spurn her into the street; there let her perish,
And rot upon a dunghill. Thro' the city
See it proclaim'd, That none, on pain of death,
Presume to give her comfort, food, or harbour;
Who ministers the smallest comfort, dies.
Her house, her costly furniture and wealth,
The purchase of her loose luxurious life,'
We seize on for the profit of the state.
Away! be gone!

J. Sho. O thou most righteous judge-
Humbly, behold, I bow myself to thee,
And own thy justice in this hard decree:
No longer, then, my ripe offences spare,
But what I merit, let me learn to bear.
Yet, since 'tis all my wretchedness can give,
For my past crimes my forfeit life receive;
No pity for my sufferings here I crave,
But hope redeeming mercy in the grave.

[Exit June Shore, guarded by Catesby and others. Glos. So much for this. Your project's at an end:

This idle toy, this hilding
And sets us all at nought.
Be ready at my call.

[To Ratcliffe.

scorns my power,
See that a guard'

Ratc. The council waits Upon your Highness' leisure.

* It has been shewn before that the penance of Jane Shore was not the immediate act of Gloster, and that she survived it many years. See Preface, p. 92, 93.

"They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they "that were brought up in scarlet embrace danghills."

Lamentations, IV. 5.

A hilding is a mean woman.

"Helen and Hero, hildings and harlots ;"

"Out on her, hilding."

Romeo and Juliet, A. 11. S. IV.
Do. A. 111. S. v.

Glos. Bid them enter.

Enter the Duke of BUCKINGHAM, Earl of DERBY, Bishop of ELY, Lord HASTINGS, and others, as to the council. The Duke of GLOSTER takes his place at the upper end, then the rest sit.*

Der. In happy time are we assembled here, T'appoint the day, and fix the solemn pomp, For placing England's crown with all due rites, Upon our sovereign Edward's youthful brow. Hast. Some busy meddling knaves, 'tis said, there are, As such will still be prating, who presume To carp and cavil at his royal right; Therefore, I hold it fitting, with the soonest T'appoint the order of the coronation; So to approve our duty to the King,

And stay the babbling of such vain gainsayers.

Der. We all attend to know your Highness' pleasure.

[To Gloster.
Glos. My Lords, a set of worthy men you are,
Prudent and just, and careful for the state:
Therefore to your most grave determination
I yield myself in all things; and demand.
What punishment your wisdom shall think meet
T' inflict upon those horrible contrivers,

Who shall with potions, charms, and witching drugs,
Practice against our person and our life?

Hast. So much I hold the King your Highness' debtor,
So precious are you to the common-weal,
That I presume, not only for myself,
But in behalf of these my noble brothers,

To say, whoe'er they be, they merit death.

[truth,

Glos. Then judge yourselves, convince your eyes of Behold my arm thus blasted, dry, and wither'd,

[Pulling up his sleeve. Shrunk like a foul abortion, and decay'd, Like some untimely product of the seasons,

The reader may like to compare this with Shakespeare's ma nagement of the same Scene, it is the IVth. of the IIId. Act of Richard the III., and to read the Notes of the Commentators upon it.

Robb'd of its properties of strength and office.
This is the sorcery of Edward's wife,

Who, in conjunction with that harlot, Shore,
And other-like confederate midnight hags,*
Thus torture and despoil me of my life.
Hast. If they have done this deed-
Glos. If they have done it!

Talk'st thou to me of if's, audacious traitor!
Thou art that strumpet-witch's chief abettor,
The patron and comptroller of her mischiefs,
And join'd in this contrivance for my death.
Nay, start not, Lords-What ho! a guard there, Sirs!
Enter a GUARD.

Lord Hastings, I arrest thee of high treason.
Seize him, and bear him instantly away;
He shall not live an hour. I am resolv'd
I will not dine before his head be brought me:
Ratcliffe, stay you, and see that it be done.
The rest that love me, rise and follow me.t

[Exeunt Gloster, and Lords following. Manent Lord HASTINGS, Sir Richard RATCLIFFE, and guard.

Hast. What! and no more, but this-how, to the scaffold!

Oh gentle Ratcliffe!§ tell me, do I hold thee?

* How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags?

Macbeth, A. IV. S. I.

This is copied from Shakespeare:

Off with his head:- *

I will not dine until I see the same.-
Lovel, and Catesby, look, that it be done :-
The rest, that love me, rise, and follow me.

Rd. IIId. A. 111. S. IV.
No more, but so. Hamlet, A. 1. S. III.

It

Shakspeare has made Sir Richard Ratcliffe the attendant upon the execution of Rivers, Vaughan and Grey, at Pomfret, which, it has been before stated, happened on the very same day with the execution of Lord Hastings, (see p.92.) He could not, therefore, be at both. Shakspeare makes Catesby the attendant on Hastings. is true that in the Vth. Scene of the IIId. A. of Richard the III. Shakspeare makes Lovel and Ratcliffe enter with Hastings' head, but this was probably, as stated by Mr. Malone, a mistake of the playereditors. The part of Ratcliffe in this play might be assigned to

Lord LOVEL,

Or, if I dream, what shall I do to wake,
To break, to struggle thro' this dread confusion?
For surely death itself is not so painful
As is this sudden horror and surprise.

[absolute.
Ratc. You heard, the Duke's commands to me were
Therefore, my Lord, address you to your shrift,*
With all good speed you may. Summon your courage,
And be yourself; for you must die this instant.
Hast. Yes, Ratcliffe, I will take thy friendly counsel,
And die as a man should; 'tis somewhat hard
To call my scatter'd spirits home at once:

But, since what must be, must be,let necessity
Supply the place of usual preparation,-

Of preparation?-That must be our life.
Were that all right, we should lie safely down:
'Twere but the certainty of that which oft

I've run the hazard of in heat of battle:

'Twere but to close my eyes, and shut out day-light,
To view no more the wicked ways of men,
No longer to behold the tyrant Gloster,
And be a weeping witness of the woes,
The desolation, slaughter, and calamities,
Which he shall bring on this unhappy land.
But it is not the blow, which severs us
From this our nether world, which is the pang:
It is the entering on a world unknown,
The awful judgment for our deeds in this:
It is to go encumber'd with our sins,
Without repentance, without mercy ask'd
From Him who died to ransom us from death.
"Tis thus with me, and Heaven have mercy on me.
Enter ALICIA.

Alic. Stand off! and let me pass-I will, I must
Catch him once more in these despairing arms,
And hold him to my heart-Oh Hastings, Hastings!
Hast. Alas! why com'st thou at this dreadful moment
To fill me with new terrors, new distractions,

Shrift is confession made to a priest, and sometimes means confession only. So, in Richard the III. A. III. S. IV. Catesby says to Hastings," Make a short shrift, he longs to see your head.”