And yet, between my soul's desire and me-
The lustful Edward's title buried-

Is Clarence, Henry, and his son young Edward,
And all the unlook'd for issue of their bodies,
To take their rooms, ere I can place myself-
A cold premeditation for my purpose!
Why then, I do but dream on sovereignty;
Like one that stands upon a promontory,
And spies a far-off shore where he would tread,
Wishing his foot were equal with his eye;

130

135

And chides the sea that sunders him from thence,
Saying, he'll lade it dry to have his way:
So do I wish the crown, being so far off,

140

And so I chide the means that keeps me from it,
And so I say, I'll cut the causes off,
Flattering me with impossibilities.

My eye's too quick, my heart o'erweens too much,
Unless my hand and strength could equal them.
Well, say there is no kingdom then for Richard;
What other pleasure can the world afford?
I'll make my heaven in a lady's lap,

145

And deck my body in gay ornaments,

And witch sweet ladies with my words and looks.

150

128-132. And yet .. their rooms] 107-110. For I am not yet lookt for in the world. First is there Edward, Clarence and Henry And his sonne, and all they lookt for issue Of their loines Q. 132, 133. ere I can place . purpose !] IIO, III. ere I can plant ... purpose Q. 134-146. Why then, I do but dream for Richard] omitted Q. 147-150. What other .. I'll make And deck. And witch... looks] 112-115. What other pleasure is there in the world beside? I will go clad my And lull myselfe within a And witch... lookes Q (2 lines transposed).

...

...

O miserable thought! and more unlikely
Than to accomplish twenty golden crowns.
Why, love forswore me in my mother's womb:
And, for I should not deal in her soft laws,
She did corrupt frail nature with some bribe,
To shrink mine arm up like a wither'd shrub;
To make an envious mountain on my back,
Where sits deformity to mock my body;
To shape my legs of an unequal size;
To disproportion me in every part,

Like to a chaos, or an unlick'd bear-whelp
That carries no impression like the dam.

155

160

And am I then a man to be belov'd?

O monstrous fault! to harbour such a thought.

Then, since this earth affords no joy to me

165

But to command, to check, to o'erbear such
As are of better person than myself,

151, 152. O miserable crowns] 125. Easier for me to compasse twentie crownes Q. 153-159. Why ... forswore me .

soft laws .. with some bribe, To shrink mine. shrub; To make an .. my body; To shape size] 117-123. Why did scorne me... affaires in the flesh And plaste my backe, Where . my bodie, To drie mine. . . shrimpe. To make size (two lines transposed). 160-162. To disproportion . . . the dam] omitted Q. 163, 164. And am ... thought] 116 and 124. Oh monstrous man thought, And am.. belou'd? Q. 165-181. Then, since this earth.

an . ..

...

bloody axe] omitted Q.

153. love forswore me in my mother's womb] Malone found this line in Wily Beguiled, a play printed in Hazlitt's Dodsley from the earliest known edition of 1606. But Malone says it had been exhibited on the stage soon after 1590. A most unworthy implication over a trifling line. This play "of 1590 contains a whole passage from The Merchant of Venice, and was of course rewritten after that play. It is an empty little piece.

156. To shrink mine arm wither'd] According to Grafton this was witchcraft in the views of Gloucester: "Then sayde the protectoure,

as Shores wyfe wyth her affynitee haue by theyr sorcerye and wychcrafte thys wasted my bodye,' and therewyht plucked up hys doublet cleane to hys elbowe on his lyfte arme, where he showed a weryshe wythered arme, and small as it was neuer other" (Continuation of Hardyng, 494). Shakespeare very properly rejected this fable, using the descriptive word only.

"all the worlde .

Which chaos hight, a huge rude heape."

...

161. unlick'd bear-whelp] An old belief. See Pliny (Holland's trans. 1601), x. 63: "she Beares. . . whose whelpes are more misshapen than the rest . . . when they are delivered of them, with their licking by little and little bring them to some forme and fashion." And again, Book viii. ch. 36. See also Golding's Ovid's Metamorphoses, xv. 416-419: "The Bearwhelp also which The Beare hath newly littred. . . like an euill favored lump of flesh alyue dooth lye. The dam by licking shapeth out his members orderly."

I'll make my heaven to dream upon the crown;
And, whiles I live, to account this world but hell,
Until my mis-shaped trunk that bears this head
Be round impaled with a glorious crown.
And yet I know not how to get the crown,
For many lives stand between me and home:
And I, like one lost in a thorny wood,

That rents the thorns and is rent with the thorns,

Seeking a way and straying from the way;

Not knowing how to find the open air,
But toiling desperately to find it out,

Torment myself to catch the English crown:
And from that torment I will free myself,

Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.

Why, I can smile, and murder whiles I smile,

And cry "Content" to that which grieves my heart, And wet my cheeks with artificial tears,

And frame my face to all occasions.

I'll drown more sailors than the mermaid shall;

I'll slay more gazers than the basilisk;

I'll play the orator as well as Nestor,
Deceive more slyly than Ulysses could,
And, like a Sinon, take another Troy.
I can add colours to the chameleon,
Change shapes with Proteus for advantages,

And set the murderous Machiavel to school.
Can I do this, and cannot get a crown?
Tut! were it further off, I'll pluck it down.

SCENE III.-France. The King's palace.

195 [Exit.

Flourish. Enter LEWIS the French King, his sister BONA, his Admiral, called BOURBON; Prince EDWARD, Queen MARGARET, and the Earl of OXFORD. LEWIS sits, and riseth up again.

K. Lew. Fair Queen of England, worthy Margaret,

Protheus, And set the

Tut... down] I can . . . And for a need change aspiring Catalin the crowne? Tush, were it ten times higher, Ile pull it doune. Exit Q.

...

SCENE III.

Flourish. Enter. .] Ff; Enter King Lewis and the Ladie Bona, and Queene Margaret, Prince Edward, and Oxford and others Q. 1-3. Fair Queen .. doth sit] 1-6. Welcome Queene Margaret to the Court of France, It fits not Lewis

922. And Spenser, Faerie Queene, 1. ii. 10; III. viii. 30, 40, 41. Marlowe has "Proteus, god of shapes" (Edward II. 193, a).

193. murderous Machiavel] Again in 1 Henry VI. v. iv. 74: "Alençon that notorious Machiavel,” and in Merry Wives of Windsor: "Am I politic, am I subtle, am I a Machiavel?" (III. i. 104). Nashe uses similar language in Summer's Last Will (Grosart, vi. 146): "The arte of murther Machiavel hath

In

pend." He couples him with Aretine two or three times. He uses this language: "As though the Church of England were vpheld and Atlassed by corruption, Machauelisme, apostatisme, hipocrisie and treacherie" (Have with you, etc. (Grosart, iii. 205)). And worse in other places in Nashe. Marlowe he is introduced as the prologue speaker in Jew of Malta, advocating poisoning, and counting "religion but a childish toy." Greene in Mamillia (Grosart, ii. 205) gives him the rankest vituperation earlier. Nicholas Breton seems to have been very familiar with "The Prince." In Wit's Trenchmour he gives a good deal of his policy. These writers, except the last perhaps, and also Harvey who speaks of him before 1580 (Grosart's Harvey, i. 138), omit to mention to the credit of the " great statesman" that

if he did hold religion as a toy, it was
because he set patriotism before it.
Machiavel died in 1527.
His greatest
work, Il Principe, appeared in 1513.
See note at 1 Henry VI. v. iv. 74.
The anachronism is saved in the
Quarto's reading, Cataline. For "Ca-
taline" compare Edward II. (Marlowe,
Dyce, p. 210, a).

SCENE III.

1. Hall continues from the passage quoted at the end of II. v. 1. 125, “Fly, father, fly": "When Kynge Henry was somewhat settled in the realme of Scotland [whose King he bribed with the town of Berwick], he sente his wyfe and hys sonne into Fraunce, to Kyng Rene her father, trusting by his ayde

...

...

to assemble a greate army (257).. She remained with Duke Reyner her father, till she toke her infortunate iorney into England again (261). . . (Edward's marriage takes place). When this mariage was once blowen abrode, forren kyngs and prynces maruayld. . . noble men detested... common people grudged. . . . The French Kyng and his Quene were not a little discontent to haue their sister But apparantly mocked. when the erle of Warwycke had perfit knowledge by the letters of trusty friends, that Kyng Edward had gotten

Sit down with us: it ill befits thy state

And birth that thou should'st stand while Lewis doth sit.

Q. Mar. No, mighty King of France; now Margaret
Must strike her sail, and learn awhile to serve
Where kings command. I was, I must confess,
Great Albion's queen in former golden days;
But now mischance hath trod my title down,
And with dishonour laid me on the ground,
Where I must take like seat unto my fortune,
And to my humble seat conform myself.

K. Lew. Why, say, fair queen, whence springs this deep

despair?

Q. Mar. From such a cause as fills mine eyes

with tears

And stops my tongue, while heart is drown'd in cares.

K. Lew. Whate'er it be, be thou still like thyself,

5

ΙΟ

15

And sit thee by our side: [seats her by him] yield not thy neck

To fortune's yoke, but let thy dauntless mind

Still ride in triumph over all mischance.

Be plain, Queen Margaret, and tell thy grief;
It shall be eas'd, if France can yield relief.

20

Q. Mar. Those gracious words revive my drooping thoughts, And give my tongue-tied sorrows leave to speak.

to sit while thou dost stand. Sit by my side, and here I vow to thee, Thou shalt haue aide to repossesse thy right, And beat proud Edward from vsurped seat. And place King Henry in his former rule Q (compare line 20). 4-20. Q. Mar. No relief] omitted Q. 21, 22. Those speak] 7-9. I humblie thanke your royale maiestie. And pray the God of heaven to blesse thy state, Great King of France, that thus regards our wrongs Q.

...

.. was

hym a new wyfe, & that all he had
done . . in his ambassade . .
both frustrate and vayn, he was . . .
sore chafed .. and thought it neces-
sarye that King Edward should be de-
posed from his croune (265). The
dramatic scene here between Margaret,
Lewis, Warwick, Oxford is imaginary.
But Margaret "did obteyn and im-
petrate of the yong Frenche Kynge
[Lewis] that all fautors and louers of
her husbande and the Lancastreall
bande, might. . . haue resorte into
any parte... of Fraunce, prohibiting
all other of the contrary faccion" (257).
2-16. Sit down .. sit thee] There
is only one bidding to sit down in Q,
after which Lewis utters three prepos-
terously bad and ill-timed lines wholly

omitted here. "Beat proud Edward from usurped seat is in the regular

diction of Greene and Peele on such occasions. “Repossess "here (Q) occurs above, III. ii. 4, and three times later in this play, but not again in Shakespeare.

5. strike her sail] humble herself. See 2 Henry IV. v. ii. 18. See below, v. i. 52 (note).

7. golden days] See note at "golden time," above, III. ii. 127.

17. dauntless mind] refers, not to her present condition, but to Margaret's famous character.

22. give... leave to speak] See note at I. ii. I above.

22. tongue-tied] See 1 Henry VI. 11. iv. 25, and note.