Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged War hath smooth'd his wrinkled front,
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds,
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
Shakspeare's Richard the Third, act i. sc. 1.
In another place Commines attributes the death of Edward the Fourth to the vexation he conceived at the great reverse in his political prospects, which disclosed itself on his loss of the French alliance. This conclusion is probably imaginary, though Edward's death certainly occurred whilst the Dauphin's new betrothal was in progress. The treaty of Arras, by which the arrangement was made, was signed on the 23d Dec. 1482, and the lady Margaret was delivered to the French, and met the Dauphin at Amboise, on the 22d of June following. King Edward died on the intervening 9th of April, a victim, as is generally thought, to his long course of intemperate living. It is obvious, however, that the failure of the French alliance must have been a very serious loss to Edward's family, who were left defenceless on his death, although he had previously contracted his daughters to the heirs of France, Scotland, Spain, and Burgundy.