Q. ELIZ. It is determin'd, not concluded yet1: But so it must be, if the king miscarry.

Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY.

GREY. Here come the lords of Buckingham and
Stanley 2.

BUCK. Good time of day unto your royal grace!
STAN. God make your majesty joyful as you have
been!

Q. ELIZ. The countess Richmond, good my lord
of Stanley,

To your good prayer will scarcely say―amen.
Yet, Stanley, notwithstanding she's your wife,
And loves not me, be you, good lord, assur'd,
I hate not you for her proud arrogance.

STAN. I do beseech you, either not believe
The envious slanders of her false accusers;
Or, if she be accus'd on true report,
Bear with her weakness, which, I think, proceeds
From wayward sickness, and no grounded malice.

It is DETERMIN'D, not CONCLUDED yet:] Determin'd signifies the final conclusion of the will: concluded, what cannot be altered by reason of some act, consequent on the final judgment. WARBURTON.

2 Here come the lords of Buckingham and STANLEY.] [Old copies-Derby.] This is a blunder of inadvertence, which has run through the whole chain of impressions. It could not well be original in Shakspeare, who was most minutely intimate with his history, and the intermarriages of the nobility. The person here called Derby, was Thomas Lord Stanley, Lord Steward of King Edward the Fourth's household. But this Thomas Lord Stanley was not created Earl of Derby till after the accession of Henry the Seventh; and accordingly, afterwards, in the fourth and fifth Acts of this play, before the battle of Bosworth-field, he is every where called Lord Stanley. This sufficiently justifies the change I have made in his title. THEOBALD.

3 The countess Richmond,] Margaret, daughter to John Beaufort, first Duke of Somerset. After the death of her first husband, Edmund Tudor, Earl of Richmond, half-brother to King Henry VI. by whom she had only one son, afterwards King Henry VII. she married first Sir Henry Stafford, uncle to Humphrey Duke of Buckingham. MALONE.

Q. ELIZ. Saw you the king to-day, my lord of Stanley ?

STAN. But now, the duke of Buckingham, and I, Are come from visiting his majesty.

Q. ELIZ. What likelihood of his amendment, lords?

BUCK. Madam, good hope; his grace speaks cheerfully.

Q. ELIZ. God grant him health! Did you confer with him?

BUCK. Ay, madam *: he desires to make atone

ment

4

Between the duke of Gloster and your brothers,
And between them and my lord chamberlain ;
And sent to warn them to his royal presence.
Q. ELIZ. 'Would all were well!-But that will
never be ;-

I fear, our happiness is at the height.

Enter GLOSTER, Hastings, and DORSET.

GLO. They do me wrong, and I will not endure it:

Who are they, that complain unto the king,
That I, forsooth, am stern, and love them not?
By holy Paul, they love his grace but lightly,
That fill his ears with such dissentious rumours.
Because I cannot flatter, and speak fair,
Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,
Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,

* Quarto 1597, Madam, we did.

4 to WARN them] i. e. to summon. So, in Julius Cæsar:

66

They mean to warn us at Philippi here." STEEVens. The word warn is still used in that sense in Scotland. BOSWELL. - speak fair,

5

Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,

Duck with FRENCH nods and apish courtesy,] An importation of artificial manners seems to have afforded our ancient poets a never failing topick of invective. So, in A tragical Discourse of the Haplesse Man's Life, by Churchyard, 1593:

I must be held a rancorous enemy.

Cannot a plain man live, and think no harm,
But thus his simple truth must be abus'd

By silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?

GREY. To whom in all this presence speaks your grace?

GLO. To thee, that hast nor honesty, 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 preserve better than you would wish!Cannot be quiet, scarce a breathing-while,

But you must trouble him with lewd complaints". Q. ELIZ. Brother of Gloster, you mistake the

matter:

The king, of his own royal disposition,
And not provok'd by any suitor else;
Aiming, belike, at your interior hatred,
That in your outward action shows itself,
Against my children, brothers, and myself,
Makes him to send ; that thereby he may gather
The ground of your ill-will, and so remove it.

"We make a legge, and kisse the hand withall,

66

(A French deuice, nay sure a Spanish tricke)

"And speake in print, and say loe at your call
"I will remaine your owne both dead and quicke.
"A courtier so can give a lobbe a licke,

"And dress a dolt in motley for a while,

"And so in sleeue at silly woodcocke smile." STEEVENS. 6 with LEWD complaints.] Lewd, in the present instance, signifies rude, ignorant; from the Anglo-Saxon Laewede, a Laick. Chaucer often uses the word lewd, both for a laick and an ignorant person. See Ruddiman's Glossary to Gawin Douglas's translation of the Æneid. STEEVENS.

7

of your ill-will, &c.] This line is restored from the first edition. POPE.

By the first edition Mr. Pope, as appears from his Table of Editions, means the quarto of 1598. But that, as well as the quarto 1597, and the subsequent quartos, read-and to remove. The emendation was made by Mr. Steevens. The folio has only"Makes him to send, that he may learn the ground.”

GLO. I cannot tell ;-The world is grown so bad, That wrens may prey where eagles dare not perch: Since every Jack became a gentleman1,

There's many a gentle person made a Jack.

Q. ELIZ. Come, come, we know your meaning,
brother Gloster;

You envy my advancement, and my friends;
God grant, we never may have need of you!
GLO. Meantime, God grants that we have need
of you:

Our brother is imprison'd by your means,
Myself disgrac'd, and the nobility

Held in contempt; while many fair promotions *
Are daily given, to enoble those

That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble.

Q. ELIZ. 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 shameful injury,

Falsely to draw me in these vile suspects.

Of

GLO. You may deny that you were not the cause lord Hastings' late imprisonment.

my

* So quarto 1597; folio, while great promotions.

"Here clearly a line was omitted: y et had there been no quarto copy, it would have been thought hardy to supply the omission : but of all the errors of the press omission is the most frequent; and it is a great mistake to suppose that these lacunæ exist only in the imagination of editors and commentators. MALONE.

9

MAY prey-] The quartos 1597 and 1598, and the folio, read-make prey. The correction, which all the modern editors have adopted, is taken from the quarto 1602. MALONE.

Since every JACK became a gentleman,] This proverbial expression at once demonstrates the origin of the term Jack so often used by Shakspeare. It means one of the very lowest class of people, among whom this name is of the most common and familiar kind. DOUCE.

RIV. She may, my lord; for

GLO. She may, lord Rivers ?-why, who knows not so?

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 those honours on your high desert.
What may she not? She may,-ay, marry, may
she,-

Riv. What, marry, may she?

GLO. What, marry, may she? marry with a king, A bachelor, a handsome stripling too :

I wis, your grandam had a worser match.

Q. ELIZ. My lord of Gloster, I have too long borne

Your blunt upbraidings, and your bitter scoffs:
By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty,
Of those gross taunts I often have endur'd.
I had rather be a country servant-maid,
Than a great queen, with this condition-
To be thus taunted, scorn'd, and baited at
Small joy have I in being England's queen.

Enter Queen MARGARET, behind.

Q. MAR. And lessen'd be that small, God, I beseech thee!

Thy honour, state, and seat, is due to me.

GLO. What? threat you me with telling of the king?

Tell him, and spare not look, what I have said 2 I will avouch, in presence of the king :

So quarto 1597; folio, To be so baited, scorn'd, and stormed at.

2 Tell him, and spare not: look, what I have said-] This verse I have restored from the old quartos. THEOBALD.

Here we have another proof of a line being passed over by the transcriber, or the compositor at the press, when the first folio was printed, for the subsequent line is not sense without this.

MALONE.