Clar.  Oh, no; my dream was lengthened after life;
      Oh, then began the tempest to my soul,
      Who passed, methought, the melancholy flood,
      With that grim ferryman which poets write of,
      Unto the kingdom of perpetual night. 
      The first that there did greet my stranger soul,
      Was my great father-in-law, renowne’d Warwick;
      Who cried aloud, “What scourge for perjury
      Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?”
      And so he vanished.  Then came wandering by
      A shadow like an angel, with bright hair
      Dabbled in blood; and he shrieked out aloud: 
      “Clarence is come! false, fleeting, perjured Clarence! 
      That stabbed me in the field by Tewksbury: 
      Seize on him, Furies, take him to your torments!”
      With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends
      Environed me, and howled in mine ears
      Such hideous cries, that, with the very noise,
      I, trembling, waked, and, for a season after,
      Could not believe but that I was in hell;
      Such terrible impression made the dream. 
Brak.  No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you;
      I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it. 
Clar.  O Brakenbury, I have done those things,
      Which now bear evidence against my soul,
      For Edward’s sake; and see how he requites me! 
      O God! if my deep prayers can not appease thee,
      But thou wilt be avenged on my misdeeds,
      Yet execute thy wrath in me alone: 
      Oh, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children! 
      —­I pray thee, gentle keeper, stay by me;
      My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep. 
Brak.  I will, my lord:  God give your grace good rest!

Clarence reposes himself on a chair.

Sorrow breaks seasons and reposing hours,
Makes the night morning, and the noontide night.

Shakespeare.—­Richard iii, Act i, Scene iv.

Notes.—­The houses of York and Lancaster were at war for the possession of the English throne.  The Duke of Clarence and the Duke of Gloster were brothers of King Edward iv., who was head of the house of York.  Clarence married the daughter of the Earl of Warwick, and joined the latter in several insurrections against the king.  They finally plotted with Queen Margaret of the Lancaster party for the restoration of the latter house to the English throne, but Clarence betrayed Warwick and the Queen, and killed the latter’s son at the battle of Tewksbury.  Through the plots of Gloster, Clarence was imprisoned in the Tower of London, and there murdered.

Brakenbury was lieutenant of the Tower.

The ferryman referred to is Charon, of Greek mythology, who was supposed to ferry the souls of the dead over the river Acheron to the infernal regions.

CVI.  HOMEWARD BOUND. (371)