Now, shame upon it! was our reason given
For such a use! To be thus puffed about
Like a dry leaf, an idle straw, a feather,
The sport of every whiffling blast that blows?
Beshrew my heart, but it is wondrous strange;
Sure there is something more than witchcraft in
them,

That masters even the wisest of us all.

Enter JANE SHORE.

Oh! you are come most fitly. We have pondered

On this your grievance: and though some there

are,

Nay, and those great ones too, who would enforce
The rigour of our power to afflict you,
And bear a heavy hand; yet fear not you:
We've ta'en you to our favour; our protection
Shall stand between, and shield you from mis-
hap.

J. Sh. The blessings of a heart with anguish broken,

And rescued from despair, attend your highness.
Alas! my gracious lord, what have I done
To kindle such relentless wrath against me?
If in the days of all my past offences,
When most my heart was lifted with delight,
If I withheld my morsel from the hungry,
Forgot the widow's want, and orphan's cry;
If I have known a good I have not shared,
Nor called the poor to take his portion with me,
Let my worst enemies stand forth, and now
Deny the succour, which I gave not then.

Glost. Marry there are, though I believe them

not,

Who say you meddle in affairs of state :
That you presume to prattle, like a busy body,
Give your advice, and teach the lords o' th' coun-
cil

What fits the order of the common-weal.

J. Sh. Oh, that the busy world, at least in this, Would take example from a wretch like me! None then would waste their hours in foreign thoughts,

Forget themselves, and what concerns their peace,
To tread the mazes of fantastic falsehood,
To haunt their idle sounds and flying tales,
Through all the giddy, noisy courts of rumour;
Malicious slander never would have leisure
To search, with prying eyes, for faults abroad,
If all, like me, considered their own hearts,
And wept the sorrows which they found at home.
Glost. Go to! I know your power; and though
I trust not

To every breath of fame, I am not to learn
That Hastings is professed your loving vassal.
But fair befal your beauty: use it wisely,
And it may stand your fortunes much in stead,
Give back your forfeit land with large increase,
And place you high in safety and in honour.
Nay, could point a way, the which pursuing,
You shall not only bring yourself advantage,

serve me well;

The state, for many high and potent reasons,
Deeming my brother Edward's sons unfit
For the imperial weight of England's crown-
J. Sh. Alas! for pity.

Glost. Therefore have resolved
To set aside their unavailing infancy,
And vest the sovereign rule in abler hands.
This, though of great importance to the public,
Hastings, for very peevishness and spleen,
Does stubbornly oppose.

J. Sh. Does he? Does Hastings?
Glost. Ay, Hastings.

J. Sh. Reward him for the noble deed, just
Heavens!

For this one action, guard him, and distinguish him

With signal mercies, and with great deliverance!
Save him from wrong, adversity, and shame!
Let never-fading honours flourish round him,
And consecrate his name, even to time's end!
Let him know nothing else but good on earth,
And everlasting blessedness hereafter!
Glost. How now!

J. Sh. The poor, forsaken, royal little ones!
Shall they be left a prey to savage power?
Can they lift up their harmless hands in vain,
Or cry to Heaven for help, and not be heard?
Impossible! Oh, gallant, generous Hastings,
Go on, pursue! assert the sacred cause :
Stand forth, thou proxy of all-ruling Providence,
And save the friendless infants from oppression!
Saints shall assist thee with prevailing prayers,
And warring angels combat on thy side.

Glost. You are passing rich in this same heavenly speech,

And spend it at your pleasure. Nay, but mark me!

My favour is not bought with words like these. Go to-you'll teach your tongue another tale.

J. Sh. No, though the royal Edward has un

done me,

Go-to your lord, your paramour, begone!
Lisp in his ear, hang wanton on his neck,
And play your monkey gambols over 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. Sh. 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 love-sick maid;
That I had art and eloquence divine,
To pay my duty to my master's ashes,

And plead, till death, the cause of injured innocence!

Glost. Ha! Dost thou brave me, minion!
Dost thou know

How vile, how very a wretch, my power can make thee?

That I can let loose fear, distress, and famine, To hunt thy heels, like hell-hounds, through the 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 an-
guish ;

Groan to the pitiless winds without return;
Howl like the midnight wolf amidst the desert,
And curse thy life, in bitterness and misery!

J. Sh. Let me be branded for the public scorn, Turned 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,
E'er I consent to teach my lips injustice,
Or wrong the orphan who has none to save him!
Glost. Tis well-we'll try the temper of your
heart.

What hoa! who waits without?

Enter RATCLIFFE, CATESBY, and Attendants. Rat. Your highness' pleasure

Glost. Go, some of you, and turn this strum-
pet forth!

Spurn her into the street; there, let her perish,
And rot upon a dung-hill. Through the city
See it proclaimed, 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! Begone!

J. Sh. Oh, 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,
my

For my past crimes forfeit life receive;
No pity for my sufferings here I crave,

And only hope forgiveness in the grave. [Exit Shore, guarded by Catesby and others. Glost. So much for this. Your project's at an [To Ratcliffe.

end.

This idle toy, this hilding scorns my power,
And sets us all at naught. See that a guard
Be ready at my call.

Rat. The council waits
Upon your highness' leisure.
Glost. 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.

Derb. In happy times we are assembled here, To point the day, and fix the solemn pomp For placing England's crown, with all due rites, Upon our sovereign Edward's youthful brow.

Το

Hast. Some busy meddling knaves, 'tis said,
there are,

As such will still be prating, who presume
carp and cavil at his royal right;
Therefore, I hold it fitting, with the soonest,
To appoint the order of the coronation.
So to approve our duty to the king,
And stay the babbling of such vain gainsayers.
Derb. We all attend to know your highness'
pleasure.
[To Gloster.
Glost. 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
To inflict upon those damnable contrivers,
Who shall, with potions, charms, and witching
drugs,

Practise 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.

Glost. Then judge yourselves, convince your eyes of truth:

Behold my arm, thus blasted, dry, and, withered, [Pulling up his sleeve.

Shrunk like a foul abortion, and decayed,
Like some untimely product of the seasons,
Robbed 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,
By force of potent spells, of bloody characters,
And conjurations horrible to hear,
Call fiends and spectres from the yawning deep,
And set the ministers of hell at work,
To torture and despoil me of my life.

Hast. If they have done this deed-
Glost. If they have done it!

Talk'st thou to ine of If's, audacious traitor!

Thou art that strumpet witch's chief abettor,
The patron and complotter of her mischiefs,
And joined in this contrivance for my death.
Nay start not, lords--What ho! a guard there!
Enter Guards.

Lord Hastings, I arrest thee of high treason.
Seize him, and bear him instantly away.
He shall not live an hour. By holy Paul,
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.

[Exeunt Gloster and the lords following. Manent Lord HASTINGS, RATCLIFFE, and Guards.

Hast. What! and no more but this-How!
to the scaffold?

Oh, gentle Ratcliffe! tell me, do I hold thee?
Or if I dream, what shall I do to wake,
To break, to struggle through this dread confu-
sion?

For surely death itself is not so painful
As is this sudden horror and surprise.

Rat. You heard, the duke's commands to me were absolute.

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 scattered spirits home at once:
But since what must be, must be-let necessity
Supply the place of time and preparation,
And arm me for the blow. 'Tis but to die,
'Tis but to venture on that common hazard,
Which many a time in battle I have run;
'Tis but to do, what at that very moment,
In many nations of the peopled earth,

A thousand and a thousand shall do with me ;
'Tis 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.

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-O Hastings! Hastings!

Hast. Alas! why comest thou at this dreadful

moment,

To fill me with new terrors, new distractions; To turn me wild with thy distempered rage, And shock the peace of my departing soul? Away! I prithee leave me!

Alic. Stop a minute

Till my full griefs find passage-Oh, the tyrant! VOL. I.

passion;

Be quick, nor keep me longer in suspense;
Time presses, and a thousand crowding thoughts
Break in at once! this way and that they snatch,
They tear my hurried soul: All claim attention,
And yet not one is heard. Oh! speak, and
leave me;

For I have business would employ an age,
And but a minute's time to get it done in.

Alic. That, that's my grief-'tis I that urge thee on,

That haunt thee to the toil, sweep thee from earth,

And drive thee down this precipice of fate.

Hast. Thy reason is grown wild. Could thy
weak hand

Bring on this mighty ruin? If it could,
What have I done so grievous to thy soul,
So deadly, so beyond the reach of pardon,
That nothing but my life can make atonement?
Alic. Thy cruel scorn hath stung me to the
heart,

And set my burning bosom all in flames;
Raving and mad I flew to my revenge,
And writ I know not what-told the protector,
That Shore's detested wife, by wiles, had won

thee

To plot against his greatness-He believed it,
(Oh, dire event of my pernicious counsel !)
And, while I meant destruction on her head,
He has turned it all on thine.

Hast. Accursed jealousy!

Oh, merciless, wild, and unforgiving fiend!
Blindfold it runs to undistinguished mischief,
And murders all it meets. Cursed be its rage,
For there is none so deadly; doubly cursed
Be all those easy fools who give it harbour;
Who turn a monster loose among mankind,
Fiercer than famine, war, or spotted pestilence;
Baneful as death, and horrible as hell!

Alic. If thou wilt curse, curse rather thine own
falsehood;

Curse the lewd maxims of thy perjured sex, Which taught thee first to laugh at faith and jus tice,

To scorn the solemn sanctity of oaths,
And make a jest of a poor woman's ruin :
Curse thy proud heart, and thy insulting tongue,
That raised this fatal fury in my soul,
And urged my vengeance to undo us both.

Hast. Oh, thou inhuman! Turn thy eyes a-
way,

And blast me not with their destructive beams : Why should I curse thee with my dying breath? Begone! and let me die in peace.

Alic. Can'st thou, Oh, cruel Hastings, leave me thus !