EXPEDITION.

* Come, I have learn'd, that fearful commenting, Is leaden fervitor to dull delay;

Delay leads impotent and snail pac'd beggary.
Then fiery expedition be my wing,
Jove's mercury, and herald for a king.

SCENE IV. Queen Margaret's Exprobation.

I call'd thee then poor shadow, painted queen, One heav'd on high, to be hurl'd down below : A mother only mock'd with two fair babes; A dream of what thou wast; a garifh flag, To be the aim of ev'ry dangrous shot; 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 children? wherein doft thou joy? Who fues and kneels, and says, God save the queen ? Where be the bending peers, that flatter'd thee? Where be the thronging troops, that follow'd thee ? Decline all this, and fee what now thou art. For happy wife, a most distress'd widow; For joyful mother, one that wails the name; For one being su'd to, one that humbly sues; For queen, a very caitiff crown'd with care; For one that scorn'd at me, now scorn'd of me; For one being fear'd of all, (8) now fearing one ;

For

* Come, &c.] The favourite apopthegm of Alexander was Μηδεν αναβαλλόμενος: nothing is to be delay'd; and Cæfar, his great rival, in Lucan's Pharfa ia fays,

Tolle moras, semper nocuit differe parati.
Hence dull delays, they harm the cause in hand.

(8) Now fearing one.) It is very possible to understand and give

For one commanding all, obey'd of none.
Thus hath the course of justice 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.

1

SCENE V. His Mother's Character of King Richard..

Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy; Thy school days frightful, desp'rate, wild and furious; Thy prime of manhood, daring, bold and venturous; Thy age confirm'd, proud, subtle, fly and bloody.

ACT V. SCENE II.

HOPE.

True hope is swift, and flies with swallows wings; Kings it makes gods; and meaner creatures kings.

:

SCENE III. A fine Evening.

The weary sun hath made a golden fet, And, by the bright tract of his fiery car, Gives fignal of a goodly day to-morrow.

SCENE IV. Day-break.

The filent hours steal on,

And flaky darkness breaks within the east.

give sense to this, as it is now read; but I should apprehend the author wrote,

1

For one being fear'd of all, now fearing all : and this correction not only the next line, but the whole manner of the speech, as well as the fuperior elegance given to the paffage, feem to confirm.

K 2

Richmond's

Richmond's Prayer.

O thou! whose captain I account myself,
Look on my forces with a gracious eye:
Put in their hands thy bruising irons of wrath,
That they may crush down with a heavy fall
Th' usurping helmets of our adversaries !
Make us thy ministers of chastisement,
That we may praise thee in thy victory.
To thee I do commend my watchful foul,
Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes:
Sleeping and waking, oh, defend me still !

SCENE V. Richard starting out of his Dream.

Give me another horse-bind up my wounds.
Have mercy, Jesu - Soft, I did but dream.
O coward confcience!-how dost thou afflict me?
The light burns blue-is it not dead mid-night?
Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
What? do I fear myself?

SCENE VII. CONSCIENCE,
Confcience is but a word that cowards use,
Devis'd at first to keep the strong in awe.
Richard before the Battle.

A thousand hearts are great within my bofom,
Advance our standards set upon our foes;
Our ancient word of courage, fair St. George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons,
Upon them! (9) victory fits on our helms !

(9) Victory, &c.] The image here is fine and noble: Milton defcribing Satan, speaks thus fublimely,

His ftature reach'd the skies, and on his creft,

Sat horror plum'd!

And in another place, he says,

At his right hand victory

Sat eagle-winged.

Β. 6. v. 762,

SCENE

SCENE VIII. Alarum. Enter King Richard,

K. Richard. A horse! a horíe! my kingdom for a horse!

Cates. Withdraw, my lord, I'll help you to a horfe.

K. Richard. Slave, I have fet my life upon a caft, And I will stand the hazard of the dye; I think there be fix Richmond's in the field; Five have I flain to day instead of him.

A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horfe !

fighe

OVE is a smoke rais'd with the fume of
Being purg'd, a fire sparkling in lovers ayes,
Being vex'd, a fea nourish'd with lovers tears;

L

What is it else ? a madness most discreet,

A choaking gall, and a preferving sweet!

SCENE V. On Dreams.

O then I fee queen mab hath been with you.
She it the (1) fancy's midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agat-stone
On the fore-finger of an alderman,
Drawn with a team of little atomies,
Athwart mens noses as they lie asleep :
Her waggon-spokes made of long spinners legs 1
The cover, of the wings of grashoppers;
The traces, of the smallest spider's web;

(1) Fancy's, &c.] This has been read Fairies, but Mr. War. burton alter'd it, to Fancy: the lines following.

Which are the children of an idle brain
Begot of nothing but vain phantafy,

ad

evidently prove the truth of the Reading. Befide, as she is the queen of the Fairies, it would rather be beneath her dignity to be their midwife too. The word shape is used in the next line, very licentioufly for farm, fize, or magnitude.