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Derby. I do befeech you, either not believe
The envious Slanders of her falfe Accufers:
Or if she be accus'd on true Report,

Bear with her weakness; which I think proceeds
From wayward Sickness, and no grounded Malice.
Queen. Saw you the King to Day, my Lord of Derbys
Derby. But now, the Duke of Buckingham and I
Are come from vifiting his Majefty.

Queen. What likelihood of his Amendment, Lords?
Buck. Madam, good hope, his Grace fpeaks chearfully.
Queen. God grant him Health, did you confer with him?
Buck. Ay, Madam, he defires to make Atonement,
Between the Duke of Glofter and your Brothers,
And between them and my Lord Chamberlain
And fent to warn them to his Royal Prefence.

Queen. Would all were well--but that will never be I fear our Happiness is at the height."

Enter Gloucester.

Glo. They do me wrong, and I will not endure it,
Who is it that complains unto the King,

That I, forfooth, am ftern, and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his Grace but lightly,
That fill his Ears with fuch diffentious Rumors.
Because I cannot flatter, and look fair,
Smile in Mens Faces, fmooth, deceive and cog,
Duck with French nods, and Apifh Courtefie,
I must be held a rancorous Enemy.

Cannot a plain Man live and think no harm,
But thus his fimple Truth muft be abus'd
With filken, fly, infinuating Jacks?

Gray. To whom in all this Prefence fpeaks your Grace?
Glo. To thee, that haft nor Honefty nor Grace:
When have I injur'd thee? when done thee wrong?
Or thee? or thee? or any of your Faction?
A Plague upon you all. His Royal Grace,
Whom God preferve, better than you would wish,
Cannot be quiet fcarce a breathing while,
But you must trouble him with lewd Complaints.
Queen. Brother of Glofter, you mistake the Matter:
The King on his own Royal Difpofition,

And

And not provok'd by any Suitor elle,
Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred,
That in your outward Action fhews it felf
Againft my Children, Brothers and my Self,
Makes him to fend, that he may learn the ground.
Glo. I cannot tell the World is grown fo bad,
That Wrens make prey, where Eagles dare not perch.
Since every Jack became a Gentleman,

There's many a gentle Perfon made a Jack.

[Glofler Queen. Come, come, we know your meaning, Brother

You envy my Advancement and my Friends:

God grant we never may have need of you..

Glo. Mean time God grants that I have need of you. Our Brother is imprifon'd by your means,

My felf difgrac'd, and the Nobility

Held in Contempt, while great Promotions

Are daily given to enoble those,

That scarce, fome two Days fince, were worth a Noble. Queen. By him that rais'd me to this careful height, From that contented hap which I enjoy'd,

I never did incense his Majesty

Against the Duke of Clarence, but have been

An earnest Advocate to plead for him.

My Lord, you do me fhameful Injury,

Falfely to draw me in these vile Sufpects.

Glo. You may deny, that you were not the mean Of my Lord Haftings late Imprisonment.

Riv. She may, my Lord, for....

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Glo. She may, Lord Rivers, why who knows not fo?

She may do more, Sir, than denying that:

She may help you to many fair Preferments,

And then deny her aiding Hand therein,
And lay thofe Honours on your high defert,

What may the not? fhe may---ay marry may fhe
Riv. What marry may The?"

Glo. What marry may the? marry
with a King,
A Batchelor, and a handfom Stripling too:
I wis your Grandam had a worfer match.
Queen. My Lord of Glofter, I have too long born
Your blunt Upbraidings, and your bitter Scoffs:

By

By Heav'n I will acquaint his Majefty,
Of thofe grofs taunts, that oft I have endur'd.
I had rather be a Country Servant Maid
Than a great Queen with this Condition,
To be fo baited, fcorn'd, and ftormed at;
Small joy have I in being England's Queen:
Enter Queen Margaret.

Mar. And leffen'd be that fmall, God Ibefeech him: Thy Honour, State and Seat, is due to me.

Glo. What! threat you me with telling of the King? I will avouch't in prefence of the King:

I dare adventure to be fent to th' Tower, 'Tis time to fpeak,

My Pains are quite forgot.

Q. Mar. Out Devil!

I do remember them too well:

Thou kill'dft my Husband Henry in the Tower,
And Edward, my poor Son, at Tewskbury.
Glo. Ere you were Queen,

Ay, or your Husband King,

I was a pack-Horse in his

great Affairs; A weeder out of his proud Adversaries, A liberal Rewarder of his Friends;

To Royalize his Blood I fpent mine own.
Q.Mar. Ay, and much better Blood

Than his or thine.

Husband Gray

Glo. In all which time, you and your
Were factious for the Houfe of Lancaster;
And Rivers, fo were you; was not your Husband,
In Margaret's Battel, at Saint Albans flain?.
Let me put in your Minds, if you forget,
What you have been ere this, and what you are;
Withal, what I have been, and what I am.

Q.Mar. A murth'rous Villain, and fo ftill thou art.
Glo. Poor Clarence did forfake his Father Warwick,
Ay, and forfwore himfelf, which Jefu pardon→→→→
Q.Mar. Which God revenge.

Glo. To fight on Edward's party for the Crown,
And for his meed, poor Lord, he is mewed up:
I would to God my Heart were Flint, like Edward's,

Or

Or Edward's foft and pitiful, like mine;

I am too childish foolish for this World.

Q. Mar. Hie thee to Hell for fhame, and leave this World, Thou Cacodæmon, there thy Kingdom is.

Riv. My Lord of Glo'fter, in those bufie Days,
Which here you urge, to prove us Enemies,
We follow'd then our Lord, our Sovereign King;
So thould we you, if you should be our King.

Glo. If I fhould be! I had rather be a Pedlar;
Far be it from my Heart, the thought thereof.

Queen. As little Joy, my Lord, as you fuppofes You thould enjoy, were you this Country's King, As little Joy you may fuppofe in me,

That I enjoy, being the Queen thereof.

2.Mar. A little Joy enjoys the Queen thereof;
For I am fhe, and altogether joyless.
I can no longer hold me patient.

Hear me, you wrangling Pyrates, that fall out
In fharing that which you have pill'd from me;
Which of you trembles not that looks on me?
If not that I am Queen, you bow like Subjects;
Yet that by you depos'd, you quake like Rebels.
Ah gentle Villain do not turn away?

Glo. Foul wrinkl'd Witch, what mak'ft thou in my Sight?
Q.Mar. But repetition of what thou haft marr'd,

That will I make, before I let thee go.

Glo. Wer't thou not banifhed on pain of Death? Q.Mar. I was, but I do find more pain in Banishment

Than Death can yield me here by my abode.

A Husband and a Son thou ow'ft to me,

[To Glo. And thou a Kingdom, all of you Allegiance; [To the Queen. This Sorrow that I have by Right is yours,

And all the Pleasures you ufurp are mine.

Glo. The Curfe my Noble Father laid on thee,

When thou didft crown his warlike Brows with Paper,'
And with thy Scorns drew'ft Rivers from his Eyes,
And then to dry them, gav'ft the Duke a Clout,
Steep'd in the faultlefs Blood of pretty Rutland;
His Curfes, then from bitterness of Soul

Denounc'd against thee, are now fall'n

upon thee;

And

And God, not we, have plagu'd thy bloody Deed.
Q.Mar. So juft is God, to right the innocent.
Haft. O, 'twas the fouleft Deed to flay that Babe,
And the most merciless that e'er was heard of.

Riv. Tyrants themselves wept, when it was reported.
Dorf. No Man but prophefied revenge for it.

Buck. Northumberland, then prefent, wept to fee it. Q.Mar. What! were you fnarling all before I came, Ready to catch each other by the Throat,

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And turn you all your hatred now on me?
Did York's dread Curfe prevail fo much with Heav'n,
That Henry's Death, my lovely Edward's Death,
Their Kingdom's Lofs, my woful Banishment,
Should all but answer for that peevish Brat?
Can Curfes pierce the Clouds, and enter Heav'n?
Why then give way, dull Clouds, to my quick Curfes.
Though not by War, by Surfeit die your King,
As ours by Murther to make him a King.
Edward thy Son, that now is Prince of Wales,
For Edward our Son, that was Prine of Wales,
Die in his Youth, by like untimely Violence.
Thy felf a Queen, for me that was a Queen,
Out-live thy Glory, like my wretched felf:
Long may'ft thou live to wail thy Childrens Death,
And fee another, as I fee thee now,

Deck'd in thy Rights, as thou art ftall'd'in mine.
Long die thy happy Days, before thy, Death,
And after many length'ned hours of Grief, I
Die, neither Mother, Wife, nor England's Queen.
Rivers and Dorfet, you were Standers-by,

And fo waft thou, Lord Haflings, when my Son
Was ftabb'd with bloody Daggers; Gcd, I pray him,
That none of you may live his natural Age,
But be by fome unlook'd-for Accident cut off.

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Glo. Have done thy Charm, thou hateful wither'd Hag
Mar. And leave out thee? Stay Dog, for thou halt

If Heav'ns have any grievous Plague in ftore,
Exceeding those that I can with upon thee,
O let them keep it, 'till thy Sins be ripe,
And then hurl down their Indignation

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