Suf. A plague upon them! wherefore should 1. curse them?

Would curses kill, as doth the mandrake's groan22,
I would invent as bitter-searching terms,
As curst, as harsh, and horrible to hear,
Deliver'd strongly through my fixed teeth,
With full as many signs of deadly hate,
As lean-fac'd Envy in her loathsome cave:
My tongue should stumble in mine earnest words:
Mine eyes should sparkle like the beaten flint;
My hair be fix'd on end, as one distract;
Ay, every joint should seem to curse and ban:
And even now my burden'd heart would break,
Should I not curse them. Poison be their drink!
Gall, worse than gall, the daintiest that they taste!
Their sweetest shade, a grove of cypress trees23!
Their chiefest prospect, murdering basilisks!
Their softest touch, as smart as lizards' stings24!
Their music, frightful as the serpent's hiss:
And boding screechowls make the concert full!
All the foul terrors in dark-seated hell-

Q. Mar. Enough, sweet Suffolk; thou torment'st thyself;

* And these dread curses-like the sun 'gainst glass,
Or like an overcharged gun,-recoil,
And turn the force of them upon thyself.
Suf. You bade me ban25, and will you

bid me

leave?

22 The fabulous accounts of the plant called a mandrake give it an inferior degree of animal life, and relate, that when it is torn from the ground it groans, and that this groan being certainly fatal to him that is offering such unwelcome violence; the practice of those who gathered mandrakes was to tie one end of a string to the plant, and the other to a dog, upon whom the fatal groan discharged its malignity. See Bulleine's Bulwarke of Defence against Sicknesse, &c. fol. 1579, p. 41. See also a note on the Second Part of King Henry IV. vol. v. p. 252.

23 Cypress was employed in the funeral rites of the Romans, and hence is always mentioned as an ill boding plant.

24 This is one of the vulgar errors in the natural history of our ancestors. The lizard has no sting, and is quite harmless. 25 This inconsistency is very common in real life. Those who are vexed to impatience, are angry to see others less disturbed than themselves; but when others begin to rave, they immediately see in them what they could not find in themselves, the deformity and folly of useless rage.

6

* I can no more:-Live thou to joy thy life; Myself no joy in nought, but that thou liv'st.

Enter VAUX.

Q Mar. Whither goes Vaux so fast? what news, I pr'ythee?

Vaux. To signify unto his majesty,

That cardinal Beaufort is at point of death:
For suddenly a grievous sickness took him,
That makes him gasp, and stare, and catch the air,
Blaspheming God, and cursing men on earth.
Sometime, he talks as if Duke Humphrey's ghost
Were by his side; sometime, he calls the king,
And whispers to his pillow, as to him,
The secrets of his overcharged soul28:
And am sent to tell his majesty,

That even now he cries aloud for him.

Q. Mar. Go, tell this heavy message to the king. [Exit VAUX. Ah me! what is this world? what news are these? But wherefore grieve I at an hour's poor loss29, Omitting Suffolk's exile, my soul's treasure? Why only, Suffolk, mourn I not for thee,

And with the southern clouds contend in tears; Theirs for the earth's increase, mine for my sorrows? Now, get thee hence: The king, thou know'st, is coming;

If thou be found by me, thou art but dead. Suf. If I depart from thee, I cannot live: And in thy sight to die, what were it else, But like a pleasant slumber in thy lan

And, still more elegantly, Milton, in a passage of his Comus (afterwarde omitted), ver. 211, &c. :

while I see you,

This dusky hollow is a paradise,
And heaven gates o'er my head.
Infected minds

To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.

Macbeth.

29 Why do I lament a circumstance of which the impression will pass away in an hour; while I neglect to think on the loss of Suffolk, my affection for whom no time will efface?'

SCENE III. London.

Cardinal Beaufort's Bedchamber..

Enter KING HENRY1, SALISBURY, WARWICK, and Others. The Cardinal in Bed; Attendants with him.

K. Hen. How fares my lord? speak, Beaufort, to thy sovereign.

Cur. If thou be'st death, I'll give thee England's treasure2,

Enough to purchase such another island, So thou wilt let me live, and feel no pain. * K. Hen. Ah, what a sign it is of evil life, When death's approach is seen so terrible! War. Beaufort, it is thy sovereign speaks to thee. *Car. Bring me unto my trial when you will. Died he not in his bed? where should he die? Can I make men live, whe'r they will or no?O! torture me no more, I will confess.-Alive again? then show me where he is; I'll give a thousand pound to look upon him. He hath no eyes, the dust hath blinded them.Comb down his hair; look! look! it stands upright, Like lime-twigs set to catch my winged soul!Give me some drink, and bid the apothecary Bring the strong poison that I bought of him. *K. Hen. O thou eternal Mover of the heavens,

mad.

The quarto offers this stage-direction:-Enter the King and Salisbury, and then the curtaines be drawne, and the Cardinal is discovered in his bed, raving and staring as if he were This description did not escape Shakspeare, for he has availed himself of it in a preceding speech by Vaux, p. 189. 2 A passage in Hall's Chronicle, Henry VI. fol. 70, b. suggested the corresponding lines in the old play.

We cannot hold mortality's strong hand :-
Why do you bend sucholemu brows on me?
Think you, I bear the shears of destiny?
Have I commandment on the pulse of life?

Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
Which thou dost glare with.'

King John.

Macbeth.