To fignify, thou cam'ft to bite the world.] And if the reft be true which I have heard, To this probably Richard Nicolls alludes, in his Tragical Life and Death of King Richard III. Winter-night's Vifion, p. 750. "When my fad mother, in her fruitful wombe, "Bore me a painful burthen to and fro, "Then the babe's infant-bed had been my "tombe, "Had not keen razors, to her pain and woe, "Cut me away, unto the world to goe. "Nature did grudge to think, that from her " womb "A man-like monfter to the world fhould "come." And Drayton, in an epistle from Queen Margaret, to William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, (See England's Heroical Epiftles, republished 1710, (a) Hiftor. Regum Anglia, p. 214, 215. edit. 1745. Et in brevi dominum fuum regem Edwardum Quintum, actu regem, fed non coronatum, cum fratre fuo Ricardo, a Weftmonafterio, fub promiffione fecuritatis fufcepto, incarceravit, ita quod ex poft pauciffimis notum fuit qua marturizati funt. Thronum regium tunc afcendit occiforum, quorum protector in minori ætate fuiffet ipfe, tyrannus rex Ricardus, qui natu eft apud Fodringlay, in comitatu Northamptonia, biennio matris utero tentus, exiens cum dentibus et capillis ad humeros, natus fefto undecim millium virginum. p. 65. p. 65.), has the following lines. Speaking of the Dutchess of York. "And now I heare this hateful Dutchess chats, "And rips up their descent unto her brats, "And bleffeth them, as England's lawful heirs, "And tells them that our diademe is theirs. "And if fuch hap her goddess Fortune bring, If three fonnes faile, fhe'll make the fourth a "king, "He that's fo like his dam, her youngest Dicke, "That foul, ill-favour'd, crook-back'd ftig"matick, "That, like a carcafe ftolne out of a tombe, "Came the wrong way out of his mother's " wombe, "With teeth in his head, his paffage to have 66 torne, "As though begot an age ere he was borne." The Life and Death of RICHARD III. ACT I. SCENE I. p. 215. Enter Clarence guarded, and Brakenbury. Rickard inquiring of the caufe of his commit ment. Clar. YEA, EA, Richard, when I know; for I As yet I do not; but as I can learn, Thefe, as I learn, and fuch like toys as thefe, "The Queen thought, that if her husband "died first, her children would never fucceed "their father: and fhe was confirmed in this "opinion, by the rumour of a prophesy, that G "would be the firft letter of his name that fuc"ceeded Edward. And the Duke of Clarence's "name being George, it was thought he should "be the murderer of King Edward's fons, "which Gloucester afterwards really was." Echard's Hiftory of England, vol. 1. p. 548. 66 By that blind riddle of the letter G, George loft his life, it took effect in me." Nicols's cols's Tragical Life and Death of Richard III. Winter-night's Vision, p. 754. P. 217. Gloucester to Clarence. Alluding to the proverb, " Patience per force, " is a medicine for a mad dog." Ray's Proverbial Sentences, p. 188. Id. ib. p. 218. Glou. Go you before, and I will follow you.] In imitation of Terence, I præ, fequar. Terentii Andr. 1. 1. 144. Sc. ii. p. 220. Anne, widow of Edward Prince of Wales, to the Duke of Gloucester. Anne. Foul devil! If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds, It was customary in those days, nay, long before, as well as fince, to try the perfons fufpect (a) Buck fays, that he was without difproportion and unevenness, either in lineaments or parts, though fome of our historians fay he was greatly deformed; and thofe that speak the most favourable, that he had one fhoulder higher than the other. Parvæ ftaturæ erat, curtam habens faciem, inæquales humeros, dexter fuperior, finifterque interior. Fo. Roffi Hiftor. Regum Anglia, edit. a Tho. Hearne. E 4 ed ed of murder, by making them to touch the bodies of the murdered. It was reported of Richard I. who certainly was no murderer, (tho' he did not use his father well), "That meeting his father's body royally "adorn'd for his funeral, the corps gufh'd forth blood, as it were accufing him of his unnatu"ral behaviour; at which Richard, touched with "remorse, melted into tears." Holinfbed's Henry II. p. 115. But one of the most remarkable instances, and that not much more than half a century ago, was that of Sir Philip Stansfield, who was indited for the murder of his own father Sir James Stanf field of New-milns, (in Scotland), 4th of James II. 1688. The inditement sets forth, "That when the father's dead body was fighted and refpected by chirurgeons, and "the clear and evident figns of murder had "appeared, the body was fewed up, and moft carefully cleaned, and his nearest relations "and friends, were defired to lift up his body "to the coffin; and accordingly James Row " merchand (who was in Edinburgh at the time "of the murder) having lifted the left-fide of "Sir James's head or fhoulder, and the faid Sir Philip the left-fide; his father's body, though "carefully cleanfed, did (according to God's ❝ usual method of discovering murders) blood "afresh |