Richard III/Source

DRAMATIS PERSONAE (Persons Represented):


 * KING EDWARD THE FOURTH

Sons to the king
 * EDWARD, PRINCE OF WALES afterwards KING EDWARD V
 * RICHARD, DUKE OF YORK

Brothers to the king
 * GEORGE, DUKE OF CLARENCE
 * RICHARD, DUKE OF GLOSTER, afterwards KING RICHARD III


 * A YOUNG SON OF CLARENCE
 * HENRY, EARL OF RICHMOND, afterwards KING HENRY VII
 * CARDINAL BOURCHIER, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY
 * THOMAS ROTHERHAM, ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
 * JOHN MORTON, BISHOP OF ELY
 * DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM
 * DUKE OF NORFOLK
 * EARL OF SURREY, his son
 * EARL RIVERS, brother to King Edward's Queen
 * MARQUIS OF DORSET and LORD GREY, her sons
 * EARL OF OXFORD
 * LORD HASTINGS
 * LORD STANLEY
 * LORD LOVEL
 * SIR THOMAS VAUGHAN
 * SIR RICHARD RATCLIFF
 * SIR WILLIAM CATESBY
 * SIR JAMES TYRREL
 * SIR JAMES BLOUNT
 * SIR WALTER HERBERT
 * SIR ROBERT BRAKENBURY, Lieutenant of the Tower
 * CHRISTOPHER URSWICK, a priest
 * Another Priest
 * LORD MAYOR OF LONDON
 * SHERIFF OF WILTSHIRE


 * ELIZABETH, Queen to King Edward IV
 * MARGARET, widow to King Henry VI
 * DUCHESS OF YORK, mother to King Edward IV, Clarence, and Gloster
 * LADY ANNE, widow to Edward, Prince of Wales, son to King
 * Henry VI; afterwards married to the Duke of Gloster
 * A YOUNG DAUGHTER OF CLARENCE


 * Lords, and other Attendants; two Gentlemen, a Pursuivant, Scrivener, Citizens, Murderers, Messengers, Ghosts, Soldiers, &c.

SCENE: England

King Richard the Third

SCENE I. London. A street
[Enter GLOSTER.]

GLOSTER
 * Now is the winter of our discontent
 * Made glorious summer by this son of York;
 * And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
 * In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.
 * Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;
 * Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
 * Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings,
 * Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
 * Grim-visag'd 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.
 * But I,—that am not shap'd for sportive tricks,
 * Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
 * I, that am rudely stamp'd, and want love's majesty
 * To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
 * I, that am curtail'd of this fair proportion,
 * Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
 * Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before my time
 * Into this breathing world scarce half made up,
 * And that so lamely and unfashionable
 * That dogs bark at me as I halt by them;—
 * Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
 * Have no delight to pass away the time,
 * Unless to spy my shadow in the sun,
 * And descant on mine own deformity:
 * And therefore,—since I cannot prove a lover,
 * To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
 * I am determined to prove a villain,
 * And hate the idle pleasures of these days.
 * Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous,
 * By drunken prophecies, libels, and dreams,
 * To set my brother Clarence and the king
 * In deadly hate: the one against the other.
 * And if King Edward be as true and just
 * As I am subtle, false, and treacherous,
 * This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up,
 * About a prophecy which says that "G"
 * Of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.
 * Dive, thoughts, down to my soul:—here Clarence comes.

[Enter CLARENCE, guarded, and BRAKENBURY.]


 * Brother, good day: what means this armed guard
 * That waits upon your grace?

CLARENCE.
 * His majesty,
 * Tendering my person's safety, hath appointed
 * This conduct to convey me to the Tower.

GLOSTER.
 * Upon what cause?

CLARENCE.
 * Because my name is George.

GLOSTER.
 * Alack, my lord, that fault is none of yours;
 * He should, for that, commit your godfathers:—
 * O, belike his majesty hath some intent
 * That you should be new-christen'd in the Tower.
 * But what's the matter, Clarence? may I know?

CLARENCE.
 * Yea, Richard, when I know; for I protest
 * As yet I do not: but, as I can learn,
 * He hearkens after prophecies and dreams;
 * And from the cross-row plucks the letter G,
 * And says a wizard told him that by G
 * His issue disinherited should be;
 * And, for my name of George begins with G,
 * It follows in his thought that I am he.
 * These, as I learn, and such like toys as these,
 * Hath mov'd his highness to commit me now.

GLOSTER.
 * Why, this it is when men are rul'd by women:—
 * 'Tis not the king that sends you to the Tower;
 * My Lady Grey his wife, Clarence, 'tis she
 * That tempers him to this extremity.
 * Was it not she and that good man of worship,
 * Antony Woodville, her brother there,
 * That made him send Lord Hastings to the Tower,
 * From whence this present day he is deliver'd?
 * We are not safe, Clarence; we are not safe.

CLARENCE.
 * By heaven, I think there is no man is secure
 * But the queen's kindred, and night-walking heralds
 * That trudge betwixt the king and Mistress Shore.
 * Heard you not what an humble suppliant
 * Lord Hastings was to her for his delivery?

GLOSTER.
 * Humbly complaining to her deity
 * Got my Lord Chamberlain his liberty.
 * I'll tell you what,—I think it is our way,
 * If we will keep in favour with the king,
 * To be her men and wear her livery:
 * The jealous o'er-worn widow, and herself,
 * Since that our brother dubb'd them gentlewomen,
 * Are mighty gossips in our monarchy.

BRAKENBURY.
 * I beseech your graces both to pardon me;
 * His majesty hath straitly given in charge
 * That no man shall have private conference,
 * Of what degree soever, with your brother.

GLOSTER.
 * Even so; an't please your worship, Brakenbury,
 * You may partake of any thing we say:
 * We speak no treason, man;—we say the king
 * Is wise and virtuous; and his noble queen
 * Well struck in years, fair, and not jealous;—
 * We say that Shore's wife hath a pretty foot,
 * A cherry lip, a bonny eye, a passing pleasing tongue;
 * And that the queen's kindred are made gentlefolks:
 * How say you, sir? can you deny all this?

BRAKENBURY.
 * With this, my lord, myself have naught to do.

GLOSTER.
 * Naught to do with Mistress Shore! I tell thee, fellow,
 * He that doth naught with her, excepting one,
 * Were best to do it secretly alone.

BRAKENBURY.
 * What one, my lord?

GLOSTER.
 * Her husband, knave:—wouldst thou betray me?

BRAKENBURY.
 * I do beseech your grace to pardon me; and, withal,
 * Forbear your conference with the noble duke.

CLARENCE.
 * We know thy charge, Brakenbury, and will obey.

GLOSTER.
 * We are the queen's abjects and must obey.—
 * Brother, farewell: I will unto the king;
 * And whatsoe'er you will employ me in,—
 * Were it to call King Edward's widow sister,—
 * I will perform it to enfranchise you.
 * Meantime, this deep disgrace in brotherhood
 * Touches me deeper than you can imagine.

CLARENCE.
 * I know it pleaseth neither of us well.

GLOSTER.
 * Well, your imprisonment shall not be long;
 * I will deliver or else lie for you:
 * Meantime, have patience.

CLARENCE.
 * I must perforce: farewell.

[Exeunt CLARENCE, BRAKENBURY, and guard.]

GLOSTER.
 * Go tread the path that thou shalt ne'er return.
 * Simple, plain Clarence!—I do love thee so
 * That I will shortly send thy soul to heaven,
 * If heaven will take the present at our hands.—
 * But who comes here? The new-delivered Hastings?

[Enter HASTINGS.]

HASTINGS.
 * Good time of day unto my gracious lord!

GLOSTER.
 * As much unto my good Lord Chamberlain!
 * Well are you welcome to the open air.
 * How hath your lordship brook'd imprisonment?

HASTINGS.
 * With patience, noble lord, as prisoners must;
 * But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks
 * That were the cause of my imprisonment.

GLOSTER.
 * No doubt, no doubt; and so shall Clarence too;
 * For they that were your enemies are his,
 * And have prevail'd as much on him as you.

HASTINGS.
 * More pity that the eagles should be mew'd
 * Whiles kites and buzzards prey at liberty.

GLOSTER.
 * What news abroad?

HASTINGS.
 * No news so bad abroad as this at home,—
 * The king is sickly, weak, and melancholy,
 * And his physicians fear him mightily.

GLOSTER.
 * Now, by Saint Paul, that news is bad indeed.
 * O, he hath kept an evil diet long,
 * And overmuch consum'd his royal person:
 * 'Tis very grievous to be thought upon.
 * What, is he in his bed?

HASTINGS.
 * He is.

GLOSTER.
 * Go you before, and I will follow you.

[Exit HASTINGS.]


 * He cannot live, I hope; and must not die
 * Till George be pack'd with posthorse up to heaven.
 * I'll in, to urge his hatred more to Clarence
 * With lies well steel'd with weighty arguments;
 * And, if I fail not in my deep intent,
 * Clarence hath not another day to live;
 * Which done, God take King Edward to his mercy,
 * And leave the world for me to bustle in!
 * For then I'll marry Warwick's youngest daughter:
 * What though I kill'd her husband and her father?
 * The readiest way to make the wench amends
 * Is to become her husband and her father:
 * The which will I; not all so much for love
 * As for another secret close intent,
 * By marrying her, which I must reach unto.
 * But yet I run before my horse to market:
 * Clarence still breathes; Edward still lives and reigns:
 * When they are gone, then must I count my gains.

[Exit.]

SCENE II. London. Another street.
[Enter the corpse of King Henry the Sixth, borne in an open coffin, Gentlemen bearing halberds to guard it; and Lady Anne as mourner.]

ANNE.
 * Set down, set down your honourable load,—
 * If honour may be shrouded in a hearse,—
 * Whilst I awhile obsequiously lament
 * Th' untimely fall of virtuous Lancaster.—
 * Poor key-cold figure of a holy king!
 * Pale ashes of the house of Lancaster!
 * Thou bloodless remnant of that royal blood!
 * Be it lawful that I invocate thy ghost,
 * To hear the lamentations of poor Anne,
 * Wife to thy Edward, to thy slaughter'd son,
 * Stabb'd by the self-same hand that made these wounds!
 * Lo, in these windows that let forth thy life,
 * I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes:—
 * O, cursed be the hand that made these holes!
 * Cursed the heart that had the heart to do it!
 * Cursed the blood that let this blood from hence!
 * More direful hap betide that hated wretch
 * That makes us wretched by the death of thee,
 * Than I can wish to adders, spiders, toads,
 * Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives!
 * If ever he have child, abortive be it,
 * Prodigious, and untimely brought to light,
 * Whose ugly and unnatural aspect
 * May fright the hopeful mother at the view;
 * And that be heir to his unhappiness!
 * If ever he have wife, let her be made
 * More miserable by the death of him
 * Than I am made by my young lord and thee!—
 * Come, now towards Chertsey with your holy load,
 * Taken from Paul's to be interred there;
 * And still, as you are weary of this weight,
 * Rest you, whiles I lament King Henry's corse.

[The Bearers take up the Corpse and advance.]

[Enter GLOSTER.]

GLOSTER.
 * Stay, you that bear the corse, and set it down.

ANNE.
 * What black magician conjures up this fiend,
 * To stop devoted charitable deeds?

GLOSTER.
 * Villains, set down the corse; or, by Saint Paul,
 * I'll make a corse of him that disobeys!

FIRST GENTLEMAN.
 * My lord, stand back, and let the coffin pass.

GLOSTER.
 * Unmanner'd dog! stand thou, when I command:
 * Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,
 * Or, by Saint Paul, I'll strike thee to my foot
 * And spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

[The Bearers set down the coffin.]

ANNE.
 * What, do you tremble? are you all afraid?
 * Alas, I blame you not; for you are mortal,
 * And mortal eyes cannot endure the devil.—
 * Avaunt, thou dreadful minister of hell!
 * Thou hadst but power over his mortal body,
 * His soul thou canst not have; therefore, be gone.

GLOSTER.
 * Sweet saint, for charity, be not so curst.

ANNE.
 * Foul devil, for God's sake, hence and trouble us not;
 * For thou hast made the happy earth thy hell,
 * Fill'd it with cursing cries and deep exclaims.
 * If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds,
 * Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.—
 * O, gentlemen, see, see! dead Henry's wounds
 * Open their congeal'd mouths and bleed afresh!
 * Blush, blush, thou lump of foul deformity;
 * For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood
 * From cold and empty veins, where no blood dwells;
 * Thy deeds, inhuman and unnatural,
 * Provokes this deluge most unnatural.—
 * O God, which this blood mad'st, revenge his death!
 * O earth, which this blood drink'st, revenge his death!
 * Either, heaven, with lightning strike the murderer dead;
 * Or, earth, gape open wide and eat him quick,
 * As thou dost swallow up this good king's blood,
 * Which his hell-govern'd arm hath butchered!

GLOSTER.
 * Lady, you know no rules of charity,
 * Which renders good for bad, blessings for curses.

ANNE.
 * Villain, thou knowest nor law of God nor man:
 * No beast so fierce but knows some touch of pity.

GLOSTER.
 * But I know none, and therefore am no beast.

ANNE.
 * O wonderful, when devils tell the truth!

GLOSTER.
 * More wonderful when angels are so angry.—
 * Vouchsafe, divine perfection of a woman,
 * Of these supposed crimes to give me leave,
 * By circumstance, but to acquit myself.

ANNE.
 * Vouchsafe, diffus'd infection of a man,
 * Of these known evils but to give me leave,
 * By circumstance, to accuse thy cursed self.

GLOSTER.
 * Fairer than tongue can name thee, let me have
 * Some patient leisure to excuse myself.

ANNE.
 * Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canst make
 * No excuse current but to hang thyself.

GLOSTER.
 * By such despair I should accuse myself.

ANNE.
 * And by despairing shalt thou stand excus'd;
 * For doing worthy vengeance on thyself,
 * That didst unworthy slaughter upon others.

GLOSTER.
 * Say that I slew them not?

ANNE.
 * Then say they were not slain:
 * But dead they are, and, devilish slave, by thee.

GLOSTER.
 * I did not kill your husband.

ANNE.
 * Why, then he is alive.

GLOSTER.
 * Nay, he is dead; and slain by Edward's hand.

ANNE.
 * In thy foul throat thou liest: Queen Margaret saw
 * Thy murderous falchion smoking in his blood;
 * The which thou once didst bend against her breast,
 * But that thy brothers beat aside the point.

GLOSTER.
 * I was provoked by her slanderous tongue
 * That laid their guilt upon my guiltless shoulders.

ANNE.
 * Thou wast provoked by thy bloody mind,
 * That never dreamt on aught but butcheries:
 * Didst thou not kill this king?

GLOSTER.
 * I grant ye.

ANNE.
 * Dost grant me, hedgehog? then, God grant me too
 * Thou mayst be damned for that wicked deed!
 * O, he was gentle, mild, and virtuous.

GLOSTER.
 * The better for the king of Heaven, that hath him.

ANNE.
 * He is in heaven, where thou shalt never come.

GLOSTER.
 * Let him thank me that holp to send him thither,
 * For he was fitter for that place than earth.

ANNE.
 * And thou unfit for any place but hell.

GLOSTER.
 * Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it.

ANNE.
 * Some dungeon.

GLOSTER.
 * Your bed-chamber.

ANNE.
 * Ill rest betide the chamber where thou liest!

GLOSTER.
 * So will it, madam, till I lie with you.

ANNE.
 * I hope so.

GLOSTER.
 * I know so.—But, gentle Lady Anne,—
 * To leave this keen encounter of our wits,
 * And fall something into a slower method,—
 * Is not the causer of the timeless deaths
 * Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward,
 * As blameful as the executioner?

ANNE.
 * Thou wast the cause and most accurs'd effect.

GLOSTER.
 * Your beauty was the cause of that effect;
 * Your beauty, that did haunt me in my sleep
 * To undertake the death of all the world,
 * So I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

ANNE.
 * If I thought that, I tell thee, homicide,
 * These nails should rend that beauty from my cheeks.

GLOSTER.
 * These eyes could not endure that beauty's wreck;
 * You should not blemish it if I stood by:
 * As all the world is cheered by the sun,
 * So I by that; it is my day, my life.

ANNE.
 * Black night o'ershade thy day, and death thy life!

GLOSTER.
 * Curse not thyself, fair creature; thou art both.

ANNE.
 * I would I were, to be reveng'd on thee.

GLOSTER.
 * It is a quarrel most unnatural,
 * To be reveng'd on him that loveth thee.

ANNE.
 * It is a quarrel just and reasonable,
 * To be reveng'd on him that kill'd my husband.

GLOSTER.
 * He that bereft thee, lady, of thy husband,
 * Did it to help thee to a better husband.

ANNE.
 * His better doth not breathe upon the earth.

GLOSTER.
 * He lives that loves thee better than he could.

ANNE.
 * Name him.

GLOSTER.
 * Plantagenet.

ANNE.
 * Why, that was he.

GLOSTER.
 * The self-same name, but one of better nature.

ANNE.
 * Where is he?

GLOSTER.
 * Here.

[She spits at him.]


 * Why dost thou spit at me?

ANNE.
 * Would it were mortal poison, for thy sake!

GLOSTER.
 * Never came poison from so sweet a place.

ANNE.
 * Never hung poison on a fouler toad.
 * Out of my sight! thou dost infect mine eyes.

GLOSTER.
 * Thine eyes, sweet lady, have infected mine.

ANNE.
 * Would they were basilisks to strike thee dead!

GLOSTER.
 * I would they were, that I might die at once;
 * For now they kill me with a living death.
 * Those eyes of thine from mine have drawn salt tears,
 * Sham'd their aspects with store of childish drops:
 * These eyes, which never shed remorseful tear,
 * No, when my father York and Edward wept,
 * To hear the piteous moan that Rutland made
 * When black-fac'd Clifford shook his sword at him;
 * Nor when thy warlike father, like a child,
 * Told the sad story of my father's death,
 * And twenty times made pause, to sob and weep,
 * That all the standers-by had wet their cheeks,
 * Like trees bedash'd with rain; in that sad time
 * My manly eyes did scorn an humble tear;
 * And what these sorrows could not thence exhale,
 * Thy beauty hath, and made them blind with weeping.
 * I never su'd to friend nor enemy;
 * My tongue could never learn sweet smoothing word;
 * But, now thy beauty is propos'd my fee,
 * My proud heart sues, and prompts my tongue to speak.

[She looks scornfully at him.]


 * Teach not thy lip such scorn; for it was made
 * For kissing, lady, not for such contempt.
 * If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,
 * Lo, here I lend thee this sharp-pointed sword;
 * Which if thou please to hide in this true breast
 * And let the soul forth that adoreth thee,
 * I lay it naked to the deadly stroke,
 * And humbly beg the death upon my knee,
 * Nay, do not pause; for I did kill King Henry,—

[He lays his breast open; she offers at it with his sword.]


 * But 'twas thy beauty that provoked me.
 * Nay, now dispatch; 'twas I that stabb'd young Edward,—

[She again offers at his breast.]


 * But 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on.

[She lets fall the sword.]


 * Take up the sword again, or take up me.

ANNE.
 * Arise, dissembler: though I wish thy death,
 * I will not be thy executioner.

GLOSTER.
 * Then bid me kill myself, and I will do it.

ANNE.
 * I have already.

GLOSTER.
 * That was in thy rage:
 * Speak it again, and even with the word,
 * This hand, which for thy love did kill thy love;
 * Shall, for thy love, kill a far truer love;
 * To both their deaths shalt thou be accessary.

ANNE.
 * I would I knew thy heart.

GLOSTER.
 * 'Tis figured in my tongue.

ANNE.
 * I fear me both are false.

GLOSTER.
 * Then never was man true.

ANNE.
 * Well, well, put up your sword.

GLOSTER.
 * Say, then, my peace is made.

ANNE.
 * That shalt thou know hereafter.

GLOSTER.
 * But shall I live in hope?

ANNE.
 * All men, I hope, live so.

GLOSTER.
 * Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

ANNE.
 * To take is not to give.

[She puts on the ring.]

GLOSTER.
 * Look, how this ring encompasseth thy finger,
 * Even so thy breast encloseth my poor heart;
 * Wear both of them, for both of them are thine.
 * And if thy poor devoted servant may
 * But beg one favour at thy gracious hand,
 * Thou dost confirm his happiness for ever.

ANNE.
 * What is it?

GLOSTER.
 * That it may please you leave these sad designs
 * To him that hath most cause to be a mourner,
 * And presently repair to Crosby Place;
 * Where,—after I have solemnly interr'd
 * At Chertsey monastery, this noble king,
 * And wet his grave with my repentant tears,—
 * I will with all expedient duty see you:
 * For divers unknown reasons, I beseech you,
 * Grant me this boon.

ANNE.
 * With all my heart; and much it joys me too
 * To see you are become so penitent.—
 * Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

GLOSTER.
 * Bid me farewell.

ANNE.
 * 'Tis more than you deserve;
 * But since you teach me how to flatter you,
 * Imagine I have said farewell already.

[Exeunt Lady Anne, Tress, and Berk.]

GLOSTER.
 * Sirs, take up the corse.

GENTLEMEN.
 * Towards Chertsey, noble lord?

GLOSTER.
 * No, to White Friars; there attend my coming.

[Exeunt the rest, with the Corpse.]


 * Was ever woman in this humour woo'd?
 * Was ever woman in this humour won?
 * I'll have her; but I will not keep her long.
 * What! I that kill'd her husband and his father,
 * To take her in her heart's extremest hate;
 * With curses in her mouth, tears in her eyes,
 * The bleeding witness of her hatred by;
 * Having God, her conscience, and these bars against me,
 * And I no friends to back my suit withal,
 * But the plain devil and dissembling looks,
 * And yet to win her,—all the world to nothing!
 * Ha!
 * Hath she forgot already that brave prince,
 * Edward, her lord, whom I, some three months since,
 * Stabb'd in my angry mood at Tewksbury?
 * A sweeter and a lovelier gentleman,—
 * Fram'd in the prodigality of nature,
 * Young, valiant, wise, and, no doubt, right royal,—
 * The spacious world cannot again afford:
 * And will she yet abase her eyes on me,
 * That cropp'd the golden prime of this sweet prince,
 * And made her widow to a woeful bed?
 * On me, whose all not equals Edward's moiety?
 * On me, that halt and am misshapen thus?
 * My dukedom to a beggarly denier,
 * I do mistake my person all this while:
 * Upon my life, she finds, although I cannot,
 * Myself to be a marvellous proper man.
 * I'll be at charges for a looking-glass;
 * And entertain a score or two of tailors,
 * To study fashions to adorn my body:
 * Since I am crept in favour with myself,
 * I will maintain it with some little cost.
 * But first I'll turn yon fellow in his grave;
 * And then return lamenting to my love.—
 * Shine out, fair sun, till I have bought a glass,
 * That I may see my shadow as I pass.

[Exit.]

SCENE III. London. A Room in the Palace.
[Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, LORD RIVERS, and LORD GREY.]

RIVERS.
 * Have patience, madam: there's no doubt his majesty
 * Will soon recover his accustom'd health.

GREY.
 * In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse:
 * Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort,
 * And cheer his grace with quick and merry eyes.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * If he were dead, what would betide on me?

GREY.
 * No other harm but loss of such a lord.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * The loss of such a lord includes all harms.

GREY.
 * The heavens have bless'd you with a goodly son
 * To be your comforter when he is gone.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Ah, he is young; and his minority
 * Is put unto the trust of Richard Gloster,
 * A man that loves not me, nor none of you.

RIVERS.
 * Is it concluded he shall be protector?

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * It is determin'd, not concluded yet:
 * But so it must be, if the king miscarry.

[Enter BUCKINGHAM and STANLEY.]

GREY.
 * Here come the Lords of Buckingham and Stanley.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Good time of day unto your royal grace!

STANLEY.
 * God make your majesty joyful as you have been!

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * 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.

STANLEY.
 * 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.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Saw you the king to-day, my Lord of Stanley?

STANLEY.
 * But now the Duke of Buckingham and I
 * Are come from visiting his majesty.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * What likelihood of his amendment, lords?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Madam, good hope; his grace speaks cheerfully.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * God grant him health! Did you confer with him?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Ay, madam; he desires to make atonement
 * Between the Duke of Gloster and your brothers,
 * And between them and my lord chamberlain;
 * And sent to warn them to his royal presence.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Would all were well!—but that will never be:
 * I fear our happiness is at the height.

[Enter GLOSTER, HASTINGS, and DORSET.]

GLOSTER.
 * 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 look fair,
 * Smile in men's faces, smooth, deceive, and cog,
 * Duck with French nods and apish courtesy,
 * 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
 * With silken, sly, insinuating Jacks?

GREY.
 * To who in all this presence speaks your grace?

GLOSTER.
 * 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.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Brother of Gloster, you mistake the matter.
 * The king, on 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.

GLOSTER.
 * I cannot tell: the world is grown so bad
 * That wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch:
 * Since every Jack became a gentleman,
 * There's many a gentle person made a Jack.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Come, come, we know your meaning, brother Gloster;
 * You envy my advancement, and my friends';
 * God grant we never may have need of you!

GLOSTER.
 * 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 great promotions
 * Are daily given to ennoble those
 * That scarce, some two days since, were worth a noble.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * 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.

GLOSTER.
 * You may deny that you were not the mean
 * Of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment.

RIVERS.
 * She may, my lord; for,—

GLOSTER.
 * 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,—

RIVERS.
 * What, marry, may she?

GLOSTER.
 * What, marry, may she! marry with a king,
 * A bachelor, and a handsome stripling too:
 * I wis your grandam had a worser match.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * 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 that oft I have endur'd.
 * I had rather be a country servant-maid
 * Than a great queen with this condition,—
 * To be so baited, scorn'd, and stormed at.

[Enter old QUEEN MARGARET, behind.]


 * Small joy have I in being England's queen.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * And lessen'd be that small, God, I beseech Him!
 * Thy honour, state, and seat, is due to me.

GLOSTER.
 * What! Threat you me with telling of the king?
 * Tell him, and spare not: look what I have said
 * I will avouch in presence of the king:
 * I dare adventure to be sent to the Tower.
 * 'Tis time to speak,—my pains are quite forgot.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Out, devil! I do remember them too well:
 * Thou kill'dst my husband Henry in the Tower,
 * And Edward, my poor son, at Tewksbury.

GLOSTER.
 * Ere you were queen, ay, or your husband king,
 * I was a pack-horse in his great affairs;
 * A weeder-out of his proud adversaries,
 * A liberal rewarder of his friends;
 * To royalize his blood I spilt mine own.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Ay, and much better blood than his or thine.

GLOSTER.
 * In all which time you and your husband Grey
 * Were factious for the house of Lancaster;—
 * And, Rivers, so were you: was not your husband
 * In Margaret's battle at Saint Albans slain?
 * Let me put in your minds, if you forget,
 * What you have been ere this, and what you are;
 * Withal, what I have been, and what I am.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * A murderous villain, and so still thou art.

GLOSTER.
 * Poor Clarence did forsake his father, Warwick;
 * Ay, and forswore himself,—which Jesu pardon!—

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Which God revenge!

GLOSTER.
 * To fight on Edward's party for the crown;
 * And for his meed, poor lord, he is mew'd up.
 * I would to God my heart were flint, like Edward's,
 * Or Edward's soft and pitiful, like mine:
 * I am too childish-foolish for this world.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Hie thee to hell for shame and leave this world,
 * Thou cacodemon! there thy kingdom is.

RIVERS.
 * My Lord of Gloster, in those busy days
 * Which here you urge to prove us enemies,
 * We follow'd then our lord, our sovereign king:
 * So should we you, if you should be our king.

GLOSTER.
 * If I should be!—I had rather be a pedler:
 * Far be it from my heart, the thought thereof!

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * As little joy, my lord, as you suppose
 * You should enjoy, were you this country's king,—
 * As little joy you may suppose in me,
 * That I enjoy, being the queen thereof.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * As little joy enjoys the queen thereof;
 * For I am she, and altogether joyless.
 * I can no longer hold me patient.—

[Advancing.]


 * Hear me, you wrangling pirates, that fall out
 * In sharing that which you have pill'd from me!
 * Which of you trembles not that looks on me?
 * If not that, I am queen, you bow like subjects,
 * Yet that, by you depos'd, you quake like rebels?
 * Ah, gentle villain, do not turn away!

GLOSTER.
 * Foul wrinkled witch, what mak'st thou in my sight?

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * But repetition of what thou hast marr'd,
 * That will I make before I let thee go.

GLOSTER.
 * Wert thou not banished on pain of death?

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * I was; but I do find more pain in banishment
 * Than death can yield me here by my abode.
 * A husband and a son thou ow'st to me,—
 * And thou a kingdom,—all of you allegiance:
 * This sorrow that I have, by right is yours;
 * And all the pleasures you usurp are mine.

GLOSTER.
 * The curse my noble father laid on thee,
 * When thou didst crown his warlike brows with paper,
 * And with thy scorns drew'st rivers from his eyes;
 * And then to dry them gav'st the Duke a clout
 * Steep'd in the faultless blood of pretty Rutland;—
 * His curses, then from bitterness of soul
 * Denounc'd against thee, are all fallen upon thee;
 * And God, not we, hath plagu'd thy bloody deed.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * So just is God, to right the innocent.

HASTINGS.
 * O, 'twas the foulest deed to slay that babe,
 * And the most merciless that e'er was heard of.

RIVERS.
 * Tyrants themselves wept when it was reported.

DORSET.
 * No man but prophesied revenge for it.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Northumberland, then present, wept to see it.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * What, were you snarling all before I came,
 * Ready to catch each other by the throat,
 * And turn you all your hatred now on me?
 * Did York's dread curse prevail so much with heaven
 * That Henry's death, my lovely Edward's death,
 * Their kingdom's loss, my woeful banishment,
 * Should all but answer for that peevish brat?
 * Can curses pierce the clouds and enter heaven?—
 * Why, then, give way, dull clouds, to my quick curses!—
 * Though not by war, by surfeit die your king,
 * As ours by murder, to make him a king!
 * Edward thy son, that now is Prince of Wales,
 * For Edward our son, that was Prince of Wales,
 * Die in his youth by like untimely violence!
 * Thyself a queen, for me that was a queen,
 * Outlive thy glory, like my wretched self!
 * Long mayest thou live to wail thy children's death;
 * And see another, as I see thee now,
 * Deck'd in thy rights, as thou art stall'd in mine!
 * Long die thy happy days before thy death;
 * And, after many lengthen'd hours of grief,
 * Die neither mother, wife, nor England's queen!—
 * Rivers and Dorset, you were standers by,—
 * And so wast thou, Lord Hastings,—when my son
 * Was stabb'd with bloody daggers: God, I pray Him,
 * That none of you may live his natural age,
 * But by some unlook'd accident cut off!

GLOSTER.
 * Have done thy charm, thou hateful wither'd hag.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * And leave out thee? stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me.
 * If heaven have any grievous plague in store
 * Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
 * O, let them keep it till thy sins be ripe,
 * And then hurl down their indignation
 * On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace!
 * The worm of conscience still be-gnaw thy soul!
 * Thy friends suspect for traitors while thou liv'st,
 * And take deep traitors for thy dearest friends!
 * No sleep close up that deadly eye of thine,
 * Unless it be while some tormenting dream
 * Affrights thee with a hell of ugly devils!
 * Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive, rooting hog!
 * Thou that wast seal'd in thy nativity
 * The slave of nature and the son of hell!
 * Thou slander of thy heavy mother's womb!
 * Thou loathed issue of thy father's loins!
 * Thou rag of honour! thou detested—

GLOSTER.
 * Margaret.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Richard!

GLOSTER.
 * Ha!

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * I call thee not.

GLOSTER.
 * I cry thee mercy then; for I did think
 * That thou hadst call'd me all these bitter names.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Why, so I did; but look'd for no reply.
 * O, let me make the period to my curse!

GLOSTER.
 * 'Tis done by me, and ends in—Margaret.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Thus have you breath'd your curse against yourself.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Poor painted queen, vain flourish of my fortune!
 * Why strew'st thou sugar on that bottled spider,
 * Whose deadly web ensnareth thee about?
 * Fool, fool! thou whett'st a knife to kill thyself.
 * The day will come that thou shalt wish for me
 * To help thee curse this poisonous bunch-back'd toad.

HASTINGS.
 * False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse,
 * Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Foul shame upon you! you have all mov'd mine.

RIVERS.
 * Were you well serv'd, you would be taught your duty.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * To serve me well, you all should do me duty,
 * Teach me to be your queen, and you my subjects:
 * O, serve me well, and teach yourselves that duty!

DORSET.
 * Dispute not with her,—she is lunatic.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Peace, master marquis, you are malapert:
 * Your fire-new stamp of honour is scarce current:
 * O, that your young nobility could judge
 * What 'twere to lose it, and be miserable!
 * They that stand high have many blasts to shake them;
 * And if they fall they dash themselves to pieces.

GLOSTER.
 * Good counsel, marry:—learn it, learn it, marquis.

DORSET.
 * It touches you, my lord, as much as me.

GLOSTER.
 * Ay, and much more: but I was born so high,
 * Our aery buildeth in the cedar's top,
 * And dallies with the wind, and scorns the sun.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * And turns the sun to shade;—alas! alas!—
 * Witness my son, now in the shade of death;
 * Whose bright out-shining beams thy cloudy wrath,
 * Hath in eternal darkness folded up.
 * Your aery buildeth in our aery's nest:—
 * O God that seest it, do not suffer it;
 * As it is won with blood, lost be it so!

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Peace, peace, for shame, if not for charity.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Urge neither charity nor shame to me:
 * Uncharitably with me have you dealt,
 * And shamefully my hopes by you are butcher'd.
 * My charity is outrage, life my shame,—
 * And in that shame still live my sorrow's rage!

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Have done, have done.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * O princely Buckingham, I'll kiss thy hand,
 * In sign of league and amity with thee:
 * Now fair befall thee and thy noble house!
 * Thy garments are not spotted with our blood,
 * Nor thou within the compass of my curse.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Nor no one here; for curses never pass
 * The lips of those that breathe them in the air.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * I will not think but they ascend the sky,
 * And there awake God's gentle-sleeping peace.
 * O Buckingham, take heed of yonder dog!
 * Look, when he fawns he bites; and when he bites,
 * His venom tooth will rankle to the death:
 * Have not to do with him, beware of him;
 * Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him,
 * And all their ministers attend on him.

GLOSTER.
 * What doth she say, my Lord of Buckingham?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Nothing that I respect, my gracious lord.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * What, dost thou scorn me for my gentle counsel?
 * And soothe the devil that I warn thee from?
 * O, but remember this another day,
 * When he shall split thy very heart with sorrow,
 * And say, poor Margaret was a prophetess!—
 * Live each of you the subjects to his hate,
 * And he to yours, and all of you to God's!

[Exit.]

BUCKINGHAM.
 * My hair doth stand an end to hear her curses.

RIVERS.
 * And so doth mine: I muse why she's at liberty.

GLOSTER.
 * I cannot blame her: by God's holy mother,
 * She hath had too much wrong; and I repent
 * My part thereof that I have done to her.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * I never did her any, to my knowledge.

GLOSTER.
 * Yet you have all the vantage of her wrong.
 * I was too hot to do somebody good,
 * That is too cold in thinking of it now.
 * Marry, as for Clarence, he is well repaid;
 * He is frank'd up to fatting for his pains;
 * God pardon them that are the cause thereof!

RIVERS.
 * A virtuous and a Christian-like conclusion,
 * To pray for them that have done scathe to us!

GLOSTER.
 * So do I ever being well advis'd;
 * [Aside.] For had I curs'd now, I had curs'd myself.

[Enter CATESBY.]

CATESBY.
 * Madam, his majesty doth can for you,—
 * And for your grace,—and you, my noble lords.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Catesby, I come.—Lords, will you go with me?

RIVERS.
 * We wait upon your grace.

[Exeunt all but GLOSTER.]

GLOSTER.
 * I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.
 * The secret mischiefs that I set abroach
 * I lay unto the grievous charge of others.
 * Clarence,—whom I indeed have cast in darkness,—
 * I do beweep to many simple gulls;
 * Namely, to Stanley, Hastings, Buckingham;
 * And tell them 'tis the queen and her allies
 * That stir the king against the duke my brother.
 * Now they believe it; and withal whet me
 * To be reveng'd on Rivers, Vaughn, Grey:
 * But then I sigh; and, with a piece of Scripture,
 * Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
 * And thus I clothe my naked villany
 * With odd old ends stol'n forth of holy writ;
 * And seem a saint when most I play the devil.—
 * But, soft, here come my executioners.

[Enter two MURDERERS.]


 * How now, my hardy stout resolved mates!
 * Are you now going to dispatch this thing?

FIRST MURDERER.
 * We are, my lord, and come to have the warrant,
 * That we may be admitted where he is.

GLOSTER.
 * Well thought upon;—I have it here about me:

[Gives the warrant.]


 * When you have done, repair to Crosby Place.
 * But, sirs, be sudden in the execution,
 * Withal obdurate, do not hear him plead;
 * For Clarence is well-spoken, and perhaps
 * May move your hearts to pity, if you mark him.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Tut, tut, my lord, we will not stand to prate;
 * Talkers are no good doers: be assur'd
 * We go to use our hands, and not our tongues.

GLOSTER.
 * Your eyes drop millstones when fools' eyes fall tears:
 * I like you, lads;—about your business straight;
 * Go, go, despatch.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * We will, my noble lord.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV. London. A Room in the Tower.
[Enter CLARENCE and BRAKENBURY.]

BRAKENBURY.
 * Why looks your grace so heavily to-day?

CLARENCE.
 * O, I have pass'd a miserable night,
 * So full of fearful dreams, of ugly sights,
 * That, as I am a Christian faithful man,
 * I would not spend another such a night
 * Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days,—
 * So full of dismal terror was the time!

BRAKENBURY.
 * What was your dream, my lord? I pray you tell me.

CLARENCE.
 * Methoughts that I had broken from the Tower,
 * And was embark'd to cross to Burgundy;
 * And, in my company, my brother Gloster;
 * Who from my cabin tempted me to walk
 * Upon the hatches: thence we look'd toward England,
 * And cited up a thousand heavy times,
 * During the wars of York and Lancaster,
 * That had befall'n us. As we pac'd along
 * Upon the giddy footing of the hatches,
 * Methought that Gloster stumbled; and, in falling,
 * Struck me, that thought to stay him, overboard
 * Into the tumbling billows of the main.
 * O Lord, methought what pain it was to drown!
 * What dreadful noise of waters in my ears!
 * What sights of ugly death within my eyes!
 * Methoughts I saw a thousand fearful wrecks;
 * A thousand men that fishes gnaw'd upon;
 * Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl,
 * Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels,
 * All scatt'red in the bottom of the sea:
 * Some lay in dead men's skulls; and in the holes
 * Where eyes did once inhabit there were crept,—
 * As 'twere in scorn of eyes,—reflecting gems,
 * That woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep,
 * And mock'd the dead bones that lay scatter'd by.

BRAKENBURY.
 * Had you such leisure in the time of death
 * To gaze upon these secrets of the deep?

CLARENCE.
 * Methought I had; and often did I strive
 * To yield the ghost: but still the envious flood
 * Stopp'd in my soul, and would not let it forth
 * To find the empty, vast, and wandering air;
 * But smother'd it within my panting bulk,
 * Who almost burst to belch it in the sea.

BRAKENBURY.
 * Awak'd you not in this sore agony?

CLARENCE.
 * No, no, my dream was lengthen'd after life;
 * O, then began the tempest to my soul!
 * I pass'd, 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, renowned Warwick;
 * Who spake aloud, "What scourge for perjury
 * Can this dark monarchy afford false Clarence?"
 * And so he vanish'd: then came wandering by
 * A shadow like an Angel, with bright hair
 * Dabbled in blood; and he shriek'd out aloud
 * "Clarence is come,—false, fleeting, perjur'd Clarence,—
 * That stabb'd me in the field by Tewksbury;—
 * Seize on him, Furies, take him to your torments!"
 * With that, methoughts, a legion of foul fiends
 * Environ'd me, and howled in mine ears
 * Such hideous cries that, with the very noise,
 * I trembling wak'd, and for a season after
 * Could not believe but that I was in hell,—
 * Such terrible impression made my dream.

BRAKENBURY.
 * No marvel, lord, though it affrighted you;
 * I am afraid, methinks, to hear you tell it.

CLARENCE.
 * Ah, Brakenbury, I have done these things
 * That now give evidence against my soul,
 * For Edward's sake; and see how he requites me!—
 * O God! If my deep prayers cannot appease Thee,
 * But Thou wilt be aveng'd on my misdeeds,
 * Yet execute Thy wrath in me alone,—
 * O, spare my guiltless wife and my poor children!—
 * Keeper, I prithee sit by me awhile;
 * My soul is heavy, and I fain would sleep.

BRAKENBURY.
 * 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.
 * Princes have but their titles for their glories,
 * An outward honour for an inward toil;
 * And, for unfelt imaginations,
 * They often feel a world of restless cares:
 * So that, between their tides and low name,
 * There's nothing differs but the outward fame.

[Enter the two MURDERERS.]

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Ho! who's here?

BRAKENBURY.
 * What wouldst thou, fellow, and how cam'st thou hither?

FIRST MURDERER.
 * I would speak with Clarence, and I came hither on my legs.

BRAKENBURY.
 * What, so brief?

SECOND MURDERER.
 * 'Tis better, sir, than to be tedious.—Let
 * him see our commission and talk no more.

[A paper is delivered to BRAKENBURY, who reads it.]

BRAKENBURY.
 * I am, in this, commanded to deliver
 * The noble Duke of Clarence to your hands:—
 * I will not reason what is meant hereby,
 * Because I will be guiltless of the meaning.
 * There lies the Duke asleep,—and there the keys;
 * I'll to the king and signify to him
 * That thus I have resign'd to you my charge.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * You may, sir; 'tis a point of wisdom: fare you well.

[Exit BRAKENBURY.]

SECOND MURDERER.
 * What, shall we stab him as he sleeps?

FIRST MURDERER.
 * No; he'll say 'twas done cowardly, when he wakes.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never wake until the great
 * judgment-day.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Why, then he'll say we stabb'd him sleeping.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * The urging of that word "judgment" hath bred a kind of remorse in
 * me.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * What, art thou afraid?

SECOND MURDERER.
 * Not to kill him, having a warrant for it; but to be damned
 * for killing him, from the which no warrant can defend me.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * I thought thou hadst been resolute.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * So I am, to let him live.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * I'll back to the Duke of Gloster and tell him so.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * Nay, I pr'ythee, stay a little: I hope my holy humour will
 * change; it was wont to hold me but while one tells twenty.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * How dost thou feel thyself now?

SECOND MURDERER.
 * Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Remember our reward, when the deed's done.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * Zounds, he dies: I had forgot the reward.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Where's thy conscience now?

SECOND MURDERER.
 * O, in the Duke of Gloster's purse.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * So, when he opens his purse to give us our reward,
 * thy conscience flies out.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * 'Tis no matter; let it go; there's few or none will entertain it.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * What if it come to thee again?

SECOND MURDERER.
 * I'll not meddle with it,—it makes a man coward;
 * a man cannot steal, but it accuseth him; a man
 * cannot swear, but it checks him; a man cannot lie with his
 * neighbour's wife, but it detects him: 'tis a blushing shame-
 * faced spirit that mutinies in a man's bosom; it fills a man
 * full of obstacles: it made me once restore a purse of gold
 * that by chance I found; it beggars any man that keeps it:
 * it is turned out of towns and cities for a dangerous thing;
 * and every man that means to live well endeavours to trust
 * to himself and live without it.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Zounds,'tis even now at my elbow, persuading me
 * not to kill the duke.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * Take the devil in thy mind, and believe him not; he would
 * insinuate with thee but to make thee sigh.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * I am strong-framed; he cannot prevail with me.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * Spoke like a tall man that respects thy reputation.
 * Come, shall we fall to work?

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Take him on the costard with the hilts of thy sword,
 * and then throw him in the malmsey-butt in the next room.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * O excellent device! and make a sop of him.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Soft! he wakes.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * Strike!

FIRST MURDERER.
 * No, we'll reason with him.

CLARENCE.
 * Where art thou, keeper? give me a cup of wine.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * You shall have wine enough, my lord, anon.

CLARENCE.
 * In God's name, what art thou?

FIRST MURDERER.
 * A man, as you are.

CLARENCE.
 * But not as I am, royal.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * Nor you as we are, loyal.

CLARENCE.
 * Thy voice is thunder, but thy looks are humble.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * My voice is now the king's, my looks mine own.

CLARENCE.
 * How darkly and how deadly dost thou speak!
 * Your eyes do menace me; why look you pale?
 * Who sent you hither? Wherefore do you come?

SECOND MURDERER.
 * To, to, to—

CLARENCE.
 * To murder me?

BOTH MURDERERS.
 * Ay, ay.

CLARENCE.
 * You scarcely have the hearts to tell me so,
 * And therefore cannot have the hearts to do it.
 * Wherein, my friends, have I offended you?

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Offended us you have not, but the king.

CLARENCE.
 * I shall be reconcil'd to him again.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * Never, my lord; therefore prepare to die.

CLARENCE.
 * Are you drawn forth among a world of men
 * To slay the innocent? What is my offence?
 * Where is the evidence that doth accuse me?
 * What lawful quest have given their verdict up
 * Unto the frowning judge? or who pronounc'd
 * The bitter sentence of poor Clarence' death?
 * Before I be convict by course of law,
 * To threaten me with death is most unlawful.
 * I charge you, as you hope to have redemption
 * By Christ's dear blood shed for our grievous sins,
 * That you depart, and lay no hands on me:
 * The deed you undertake is damnable.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * What we will do, we do upon command.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * And he that hath commanded is our king.

CLARENCE.
 * Erroneous vassals! the great King of kings
 * Hath in the table of his law commanded
 * That thou shalt do no murder: will you then
 * Spurn at His edict and fulfil a man's?
 * Take heed; for He holds vengeance in His hand
 * To hurl upon their heads that break His law.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * And that same vengeance doth He hurl on thee
 * For false forswearing, and for murder too:
 * Thou didst receive the sacrament to fight
 * In quarrel of the house of Lancaster.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * And like a traitor to the name of God
 * Didst break that vow; and with thy treacherous blade
 * Unripp'dst the bowels of thy sovereign's son.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * Whom thou wast sworn to cherish and defend.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * How canst thou urge God's dreadful law to us,
 * When thou hast broke it in such dear degree?

CLARENCE.
 * Alas! for whose sake did I that ill deed?
 * For Edward, for my brother, for his sake:
 * He sends you not to murder me for this;
 * For in that sin he is as deep as I.
 * If God will be avenged for the deed,
 * O, know you yet He doth it publicly.
 * Take not the quarrel from His powerful arm;
 * He needs no indirect or lawless course
 * To cut off those that have offended Him.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Who made thee, then, a bloody minister
 * When gallant-springing brave Plantagenet,
 * That princely novice, was struck dead by thee?

CLARENCE.
 * My brother's love, the devil, and my rage.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Thy brother's love, our duty, and thy faults,
 * Provoke us hither now to slaughter thee.

CLARENCE.
 * If you do love my brother, hate not me;
 * I am his brother, and I love him well.
 * If you are hir'd for meed, go back again,
 * And I will send you to my brother Gloster,
 * Who shall reward you better for my life
 * Than Edward will for tidings of my death.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * You are deceiv'd, your brother Gloster hates you.

CLARENCE.
 * O, no, he loves me, and he holds me dear:
 * Go you to him from me.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Ay, so we will.

CLARENCE.
 * Tell him when that our princely father York
 * Bless'd his three sons with his victorious arm
 * And charg'd us from his soul to love each other,
 * He little thought of this divided friendship:
 * Bid Gloster think of this, and he will weep.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Ay, millstones; as he lesson'd us to weep.

CLARENCE.
 * O, do not slander him, for he is kind.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Right, as snow in harvest.—Come, you deceive yourself:
 * 'Tis he that sends us to destroy you here.

CLARENCE.
 * It cannot be; for he bewept my fortune,
 * And hugg'd me in his arms, and swore, with sobs,
 * That he would labour my delivery.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Why, so he doth, when he delivers you
 * From this earth's thraldom to the joys of heaven.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord.

CLARENCE.
 * Have you that holy feeling in your souls,
 * To counsel me to make my peace with God,
 * And are you yet to your own souls so blind
 * That you will war with God by murdering me?—
 * O, sirs, consider, they that set you on
 * To do this deed will hate you for the deed.

SECOND MURDERER.
 * What shall we do?

CLARENCE.
 * Relent, and save your souls.

FIRST MURDERER.
 * Relent! 'tis cowardly and womanish.

CLARENCE.
 * Not to relent is beastly, savage, devilish.
 * Which of you, if you were a prince's son,
 * Being pent from liberty, as I am now,—
 * If two such murderers as yourselves came to you,—
 * Would not entreat for life?—
 * My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks;
 * O, if thine eye be not a flatterer,
 * Come thou on my side, and entreat for me,
 * As you would beg, were you in my distress:
 * A begging prince what beggar pities not?

SECOND MURDERER.
 * Look behind you, my lord.

FIRST MURDERER. [Stabs him.]
 * Take that, and that: if all this will not do,
 * I'll drown you in the malmsey-butt within.

[Exit with the body.]

SECOND MURDERER.
 * A bloody deed, and desperately dispatch'd!
 * How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands
 * Of this most grievous murder!

[Re-enter FIRST MURDERER.]

FIRST MURDERER.
 * How now, what mean'st thou that thou help'st me not?
 * By heavens, the duke shall know how slack you have
 * been!

SECOND MURDERER.
 * I would he knew that I had sav'd his brother!
 * Take thou the fee, and tell him what I say;
 * For I repent me that the duke is slain.

[Exit.]

FIRST MURDERER.
 * So do not I: go, coward as thou art.—
 * Well, I'll go hide the body in some hole,
 * Till that the duke give order for his burial:
 * And when I have my meed, I will away;
 * For this will out, and then I must not stay.

[Exit.]

SCENE I. London. A Room in the palace.
[Enter KING EDWARD, led in sick, QUEEN ELIZABETH, DORSET, RIVERS, HASTINGS, BUCKINGHAM, GREY, and others.]

KING EDWARD.
 * Why, so. Now have I done a good day's work:—
 * You peers, continue this united league:
 * I every day expect an embassage
 * From my Redeemer, to redeem me hence;
 * And more at peace my soul shall part to heaven,
 * Since I have made my friends at peace on earth.
 * Rivers and Hastings, take each other's hand;
 * Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love.

RIVERS.
 * By heaven, my soul is purg'd from grudging hate;
 * And with my hand I seal my true heart's love.

HASTINGS.
 * So thrive I, as I truly swear the like!

KING EDWARD.
 * Take heed you dally not before your king;
 * Lest He that is the supreme King of kings
 * Confound your hidden falsehood, and award
 * Either of you to be the other's end.

HASTINGS.
 * So prosper I, as I swear perfect love!

RIVERS.
 * And I, as I love Hastings with my heart!

KING EDWARD.
 * Madam, yourself is not exempt from this;—
 * Nor you, son Dorset;—Buckingham, nor you;—
 * You have been factious one against the other.
 * Wife, love Lord Hastings, let him kiss your hand;
 * And what you do, do it unfeignedly.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * There, Hastings; I will never more remember
 * Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine!

KING EDWARD.
 * Dorset, embrace him;—Hastings, love lord marquis.

DORSET.
 * This interchange of love, I here protest,
 * Upon my part shall be inviolable.

HASTINGS.
 * And so swear I.

[Embraces Dorset.]

KING EDWARD.
 * Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league
 * With thy embracements to my wife's allies,
 * And make me happy in your unity.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate
 * Upon your grace [to the queen], but with all duteous love
 * Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me
 * With hate in those where I expect most love!
 * When I have most need to employ a friend,
 * And most assured that he is a friend,
 * Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile,
 * Be he unto me!—this do I beg of heaven
 * When I am cold in love to you or yours.

[Embracing Rivers &c.]

KING EDWARD.
 * A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham,
 * Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.
 * There wanteth now our brother Gloster here,
 * To make the blessed period of this peace.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * And, in good time, here comes the noble duke.

[Enter GLOSTER.]

GLOSTER.
 * Good morrow to my sovereign king and queen;
 * And, princely peers, a happy time of day!

KING EDWARD.
 * Happy, indeed, as we have spent the day.
 * Gloster, we have done deeds of charity;
 * Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate,
 * Between these swelling wrong-incensed peers.

GLOSTER.
 * A blessed labour, my most sovereign lord,—
 * Among this princely heap, if any here,
 * By false intelligence or wrong surmise,
 * Hold me a foe;
 * If I unwittingly, or in my rage,
 * Have aught committed that is hardly borne
 * To any in this presence, I desire
 * To reconcile me to his friendly peace:
 * 'Tis death to me to be at enmity;
 * I hate it, and desire all good men's love.—
 * First, madam, I entreat true peace of you,
 * Which I will purchase with my duteous service;—
 * Of you, my noble cousin Buckingham,
 * If ever any grudge were lodg'd between us;—
 * Of you, and you, Lord Rivers, and of Dorset,
 * That all without desert have frown'd on me;
 * Of you, Lord Woodville, and, Lord Scales, of you;—
 * Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen;—indeed, of all.
 * I do not know that Englishman alive
 * With whom my soul is any jot at odds
 * More than the infant that is born to-night:
 * I thank my God for my humility.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * A holy day shall this be kept hereafter:—
 * I would to God all strifes were well compounded.—
 * My sovereign lord, I do beseech your highness
 * To take our brother Clarence to your grace.

GLOSTER.
 * Why, madam, have I off'red love for this,
 * To be so flouted in this royal presence?
 * Who knows not that the gentle duke is dead?

[They all start.]


 * You do him injury to scorn his corse.

KING EDWARD.
 * Who knows not he is dead! Who knows he is?

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * All-seeing heaven, what a world is this!

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest?

DORSET.
 * Ay, my good lord; and no man in the presence
 * But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.

KING EDWARD.
 * Is Clarence dead? the order was revers'd.

GLOSTER.
 * But he, poor man, by your first order died,
 * And that a winged Mercury did bear;
 * Some tardy cripple bore the countermand
 * That came too lag to see him buried.
 * God grant that some, less noble and less loyal,
 * Nearer in bloody thoughts, an not in blood,
 * Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,
 * And yet go current from suspicion!

[Enter Stanley.]

STANLEY.
 * A boon, my sovereign, for my service done!

KING EDWARD.
 * I pr'ythee, peace: my soul is full of sorrow.

STANLEY.
 * I Will not rise unless your highness hear me.

KING EDWARD.
 * Then say at once what is it thou request'st.

STANLEY.
 * The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant's life;
 * Who slew to-day a riotous gentleman
 * Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk.

KING EDWARD.
 * Have I a tongue to doom my brother's death,
 * And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave?
 * My brother kill'd no man,—his fault was thought,
 * And yet his punishment was bitter death.
 * Who su'd to me for him? who, in my wrath,
 * Kneel'd at my feet, and bid me be advis'd?
 * Who spoke of brotherhood? who spoke of love?
 * Who told me how the poor soul did forsake
 * The mighty Warwick, and did fight for me?
 * Who told me, in the field at Tewksbury,
 * When Oxford had me down, he rescu'd me,
 * And said "Dear brother, live, and be a king"?
 * Who told me, when we both lay in the field
 * Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
 * Even in his garments, and did give himself,
 * All thin and naked, to the numb-cold night?
 * All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
 * Sinfully pluck'd, and not a man of you
 * Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
 * But when your carters or your waiting-vassals
 * Have done a drunken slaughter, and defac'd
 * The precious image of our dear Redeemer,
 * You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon;
 * And I, unjustly too, must grant it you:—
 * But for my brother not a man would speak,—
 * Nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself
 * For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all
 * Have been beholding to him in his life;
 * Yet none of you would once beg for his life.—
 * O God, I fear Thy justice will take hold
 * On me, and you, and mine, and yours, for this!
 * Come, Hastings, help me to my closet.
 * Ah, poor Clarence!

[Exeunt KING, QUEEN, HASTINGS, RIVERS, DORSET, and GREY.]

GLOSTER.
 * This is the fruit of rashness! Mark'd you not
 * How that the guilty kindred of the queen
 * Look'd pale when they did hear of Clarence' death?
 * O, they did urge it still unto the king!
 * God will revenge it.—Come, lords, will you go
 * To comfort Edward with our company?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * We wait upon your grace.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II. Another Room in the palace.
[Enter the DUCHESS OF YORK, with A SON and DAUGHTER of CLARENCE.]

SON.
 * Good grandam, tell us, is our father dead?

DUCHESS.
 * No, boy.

DAUGHTER.
 * Why do you weep so oft, and beat your breast,
 * And cry "O Clarence, my unhappy son!"

SON.
 * Why do you look on us, and shake your head,
 * And call us orphans, wretches, castaways,
 * If that our noble father were alive?

DUCHESS.
 * My pretty cousins, you mistake me both;
 * I do lament the sickness of the king,
 * As loath to lose him, not your father's death;
 * It were lost sorrow to wail one that's lost.

SON.
 * Then you conclude, my grandam, he is dead.
 * The king mine uncle is to blame for this:
 * God will revenge it; whom I will importune
 * With earnest prayers all to that effect.

DAUGHTER.
 * And so will I.

DUCHESS.
 * Peace, children, peace! the king doth love you well:
 * Incapable and shallow innocents,
 * You cannot guess who caus'd your father's death.

SON.
 * Grandam, we can; for my good uncle Gloster
 * Told me, the king, provok'd to it by the queen,
 * Devis'd impeachments to imprison him:
 * And when my uncle told me so, he wept,
 * And pitied me, and kindly kiss'd my cheek;
 * Bade me rely on him as on my father,
 * And he would love me dearly as his child.

DUCHESS.
 * Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shape,
 * And with a virtuous visard hide deep vice!
 * He is my son; ay, and therein my shame;
 * Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.

SON.
 * Think you my uncle did dissemble, grandam?

DUCHESS.
 * Ay, boy.

SON.
 * I cannot think it.—Hark! what noise is this?

[Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH, distractedly; RIVERS and DORSET following her.]

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Ah, who shall hinder me to wail and weep,
 * To chide my fortune, and torment myself?
 * I'll join with black despair against my soul,
 * And to myself become an enemy.

DUCHESS.
 * What means this scene of rude impatience?

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * To make an act of tragic violence:—
 * Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead.—
 * Why grow the branches when the root is gone?
 * Why wither not the leaves that want their sap?—
 * If you will live, lament; if die, be brief,
 * That our swift-winged souls may catch the king's;
 * Or, like obedient subjects, follow him
 * To his new kingdom of perpetual rest.

DUCHESS.
 * Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow
 * As I had title in thy noble husband!
 * I have bewept a worthy husband's death,
 * And liv'd by looking on his images:
 * But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
 * Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death,
 * And I for comfort have but one false glass,
 * That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
 * Thou art a widow, yet thou art a mother,
 * And hast the comfort of thy children left;
 * But death hath snatch'd my husband from mine arms,
 * And pluck'd two crutches from my feeble hands,—
 * Clarence and Edward. O, what cause have I,—
 * Thine being but a moiety of my moan,—
 * To overgo thy woes and drown thy cries?

SON.
 * Ah, aunt, you wept not for our father's death!
 * How can we aid you with our kindred tears?

DAUGHTER.
 * Our fatherless distress was left unmoan'd,
 * Your widow-dolour likewise be unwept!

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Give me no help in lamentation;
 * I am not barren to bring forth complaints:
 * All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
 * That I, being govern'd by the watery moon,
 * May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world!
 * Ah for my husband, for my dear Lord Edward!

CHILDREN.
 * Ah for our father, for our dear Lord Clarence!

DUCHESS.
 * Alas for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * What stay had I but Edward? and he's gone.

CHILDREN.
 * What stay had we but Clarence? and he's gone.

DUCHESS.
 * What stays had I but they? and they are gone.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Was never widow had so dear a loss!

CHILDREN.
 * Were never orphans had so dear a loss!

DUCHESS.
 * Was never mother had so dear a loss!
 * Alas, I am the mother of these griefs!
 * Their woes are parcell'd, mine is general.
 * She for an Edward weeps, and so do I:
 * I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she:
 * These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I;
 * I for an Edward weep, so do not they:—
 * Alas, you three, on me, threefold distress'd,
 * Pour all your tears! I am your sorrow's nurse,
 * And I will pamper it with lamentation.

DORSET.
 * Comfort, dear mother: God is much displeas'd
 * That you take with unthankfulness His doing:
 * In common worldly things 'tis called ungrateful,
 * With dull unwillingness to repay a debt
 * Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent;
 * Much more to be thus opposite with heaven,
 * For it requires the royal debt it lent you.

RIVERS.
 * Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother,
 * Of the young prince your son: send straight for him;
 * Let him be crown'd; in him your comfort lives.
 * Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward's grave,
 * And plant your joys in living Edward's throne.

[Enter GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, RATCLIFF and others.]

GLOSTER.
 * Sister, have comfort: all of us have cause
 * To wail the dimming of our shining star;
 * But none can help our harms by wailing them.—
 * Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy;
 * I did not see your grace:—humbly on my knee
 * I crave your blessing.

DUCHESS.
 * God bless thee; and put meekness in thy breast,
 * Love, charity, obedience, and true duty!

GLOSTER.
 * Amen! [Aside.]
 * And make me die a good old man!—
 * That is the butt end of a mother's blessing;
 * I marvel that her grace did leave it out.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers,
 * That bear this heavy mutual load of moan,
 * Now cheer each other in each other's love:
 * Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
 * We are to reap the harvest of his son.
 * The broken rancour of your high-swoln hearts,
 * But lately splinter'd, knit, and join'd together,
 * Must gently be preserv'd, cherish'd, and kept;
 * Me seemeth good that, with some little train,
 * Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fetched
 * Hither to London, to be crown'd our king.

RIVERS.
 * Why with some little train, my Lord of Buckingham?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Marry, my lord, lest by a multitude,
 * The new-heal'd wound of malice should break out;
 * Which would be so much the more dangerous
 * By how much the estate is green and yet ungovern'd:
 * Where every horse bears his commanding rein
 * And may direct his course as please himself,
 * As well the fear of harm as harm apparent,
 * In my opinion, ought to be prevented.

GLOSTER.
 * I hope the king made peace with all of us;
 * And the compact is firm and true in me.

RIVERS.
 * And so in me; and so, I think, in all:
 * Yet, since it is but green, it should be put
 * To no apparent likelihood of breach,
 * Which haply by much company might be urg'd:
 * Therefore I say with noble Buckingham,
 * That it is meet so few should fetch the prince.

HASTINGS.
 * And so say I.

GLOSTER.
 * Then be it so; and go we to determine
 * Who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow.
 * Madam,—and you, my mother,—will you go
 * To give your censures in this business?

[Exeunt all but BUCKINGHAM and GLOSTER.]

BUCKINGHAM.
 * My lord, whoever journeys to the prince,
 * For God'd sake, let not us two stay at home;
 * For by the way I'll sort occasion,
 * As index to the story we late talk'd of,
 * To part the queen's proud kindred from the Prince.

GLOSTER.
 * My other self, my counsel's consistory,
 * My oracle, my prophet!—my dear cousin,
 * I, as a child, will go by thy direction.
 * Toward Ludlow then, for we'll not stay behind.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III. London. A street.
[Enter two CITIZENS, meeting.]

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Good morrow, neighbour: whither away so fast?

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * I promise you, I scarcely know myself:
 * Hear you the news abroad?

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Yes,—that the king is dead.

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Ill news, by'r lady; seldom comes the better:
 * I fear, I fear 'twill prove a giddy world.

[Enter third CITIZEN.]

THIRD CITIZEN.
 * Neighbours, God speed!

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Give you good morrow, sir.

THIRD CITIZEN.
 * Doth the news hold of good King Edward's death?

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Ay, sir, it is too true; God help the while!

THIRD CITIZEN.
 * Then, masters, look to see a troublous world.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * No, no; by God's good grace, his son shall reign.

THIRD CITIZEN.
 * Woe to that land that's govern'd by a child!

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * In him there is a hope of government,
 * Which, in his nonage, council under him,
 * And, in his full and ripen'd years, himself,
 * No doubt, shall then, and till then, govern well.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * So stood the state when Henry the Sixth
 * Was crown'd in Paris but at nine months old.

THIRD CITIZEN.
 * Stood the state so? No, no, good friends, God wot;
 * For then this land was famously enrich'd
 * With politic grave counsel; then the king
 * Had virtuous uncles to protect his grace.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Why, so hath this, both by his father and mother.

THIRD CITIZEN.
 * Better it were they all came by his father,
 * Or by his father there were none at all;
 * For emulation who shall now be nearest
 * Will touch us all too near, if God prevent not.
 * O, full of danger is the Duke of Gloster!
 * And the queen's sons and brothers haught and proud:
 * And were they to be rul'd, and not to rule,
 * This sickly land might solace as before.

FIRST CITIZEN.
 * Come, come, we fear the worst; all will be well.

THIRD CITIZEN.
 * When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks;
 * When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand;
 * When the sun sets, who doth not look for night?
 * Untimely storms make men expect a dearth.
 * All may be well; but, if God sort it so,
 * 'Tis more than we deserve or I expect.

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Truly, the hearts of men are fun of fear:
 * You cannot reason almost with a man
 * That looks not heavily and fun of dread.

THIRD CITIZEN.
 * Before the days of change, still is it so:
 * By a divine instinct men's minds mistrust
 * Ensuing danger; as, by proof, we see
 * The water swell before a boisterous storm.
 * But leave it all to God.—Whither away?

SECOND CITIZEN.
 * Marry, we were sent for to the justices.

THIRD CITIZEN.
 * And so was I; I'll bear you company.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV. London. A Room in the Palace.
[Enter the ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, the young DUKE OF YORK, QUEEN ELIZABETH, and the DUCHESS OF YORK.]

ARCHBISHOP.
 * Last night, I hear, they lay at Stony Straford,
 * And at Northampton they do rest to-night:
 * Tomorrow, or next day, they will be here.

DUCHESS.
 * I long with all my heart to see the prince:
 * I hope he is much grown since last I saw him.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * But I hear no; they say my son of York
 * Has almost overta'en him in his growth.

YORK.
 * Ay, mother; but I would not have it so.

DUCHESS.
 * Why, my good cousin? it is good to grow.

YORK.
 * Grandam, one night as we did sit at supper,
 * My uncle Rivers talk'd how I did grow
 * More than my brother. "Ay," quoth my uncle Gloster,
 * "Small herbs have grace: great weeds do grow apace."
 * And since, methinks, I would not grow so fast,
 * Because sweet flowers are slow and weeds make haste.

DUCHESS.
 * Good faith, good faith, the saying did not hold
 * In him that did object the same to thee:
 * He was the wretched'st thing when he was young,
 * So long a growing and so leisurely,
 * That, if his rule were true, he should be gracious.

ARCHBISHOP.
 * And so no doubt he is, my gracious madam.

DUCHESS.
 * I hope he is; but yet let mothers doubt.

YORK.
 * Now, by my troth, if I had been remember'd,
 * I could have given my uncle's grace a flout
 * To touch his growth nearer than he touch'd mine.

DUCHESS.
 * How, my young York? I pr'ythee let me hear it.

YORK.
 * Marry, they say my uncle grew so fast
 * That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old:
 * 'Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth.
 * Grandam, this would have been a biting jest.

DUCHESS.
 * I pr'ythee, pretty York, who told thee this?

YORK.
 * Grandam, his nurse.

DUCHESS.
 * His nurse! why she was dead ere thou wast born.

YORK.
 * If 'twere not she, I cannot tell who told me.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * A parlous boy!—go to, you are too shrewd.

ARCHBISHOP.
 * Good madam, be not angry with the child.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Pitchers have ears.

ARCHBISHOP.
 * Here comes a messenger.

[Enter a MESSENGER.]


 * What news?

MESSENGER.
 * Such news, my lord, as grieves me to report.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * How doth the prince?

MESSENGER.
 * Well, madam, and in health.

DUCHESS.
 * What is thy news?

MESSENGER.
 * Lord Rivers and Lord Grey are sent to Pomfret,
 * With them Sir Thomas Vaughan, prisoners.

DUCHESS.
 * Who hath committed them?

MESSENGER.
 * The mighty dukes, Gloster and Buckingham.

ARCHBISHOP.
 * For what offence?

MESSENGER.
 * The sum of all I can, I have disclos'd;
 * Why or for what the nobles were committed
 * Is all unknown to me, my gracious lady.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Ah me, I see the ruin of my house!
 * The tiger now hath seiz'd the gentle hind;
 * Insulting tyranny begins to jet
 * Upon the innocent and aweless throne:—
 * Welcome, destruction, blood, and massacre!
 * I see, as in a map, the end of all.

DUCHESS.
 * Accursed and unquiet wrangling days
 * How many of you have mine eyes beheld?
 * My husband lost his life to get the crown;
 * And often up and down my sons were toss'd
 * For me to joy and weep their gain and loss:
 * And being seated, and domestic broils
 * Clean over-blown, themselves, the conquerors
 * Make war upon themselves; brother to brother,
 * Blood to blood, self against self: O, preposterous
 * And frantic outrage, end thy damned spleen;
 * Or let me die, to look on death no more!

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Come, come, my boy; we will to sanctuary.—
 * Madam, farewell.

DUCHESS.
 * Stay, I will go with you.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * You have no cause.

ARCHBISHOP. [To the queen.]
 * My gracious lady, go.
 * And thither bear your treasure and your goods.
 * For my part, I'll resign unto your grace
 * The seal I keep; and so betide to me
 * As well I tender you and all of yours!
 * Go, I'll conduct you to the sanctuary.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE I. London. A street.
[The trumpets sound. Enter the PRINCE OF WALES, GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM, CATESBY, CARDINAL BOURCHIER, and others.]

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Welcome, sweet prince, to London, to your chamber.

GLOSTER.
 * Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts' sovereign:
 * The weary way hath made you melancholy.

PRINCE.
 * No, uncle; but our crosses on the way
 * Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy:
 * I want more uncles here to welcome me.

GLOSTER.
 * Sweet prince, the untainted virtue of your years
 * Hath not yet div'd into the world's deceit:
 * Nor more can you distinguish of a man
 * Than of his outward show; which, God He knows,
 * Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.
 * Those uncles which you want were dangerous;
 * Your grace attended to their sugar'd words
 * But look'd not on the poison of their hearts:
 * God keep you from them and from such false friends!

PRINCE.
 * God keep me from false friends! but they were none.

GLOSTER.
 * My lord, the mayor of London comes to greet you.

[Enter the LORD MAYOR and his train.]

MAYOR.
 * God bless your grace with health and happy days!

PRINCE.
 * I thank you, good my lord;—and thank you all.

[Exeunt MAYOR, &c.]


 * I thought my mother and my brother York
 * Would long ere this have met us on the way:
 * Fie, what a slug is Hastings, that he comes not
 * To tell us whether they will come or no!

BUCKINGHAM.
 * And, in good time, here comes the sweating lord.

[Enter HASTINGS.]

PRINCE.
 * Welcome, my lord: what, will our mother come?

HASTINGS.
 * On what occasion, God He knows, not I,
 * The queen your mother and your brother York
 * Have taken sanctuary: the tender prince
 * Would fain have come with me to meet your grace,
 * But by his mother was perforce withheld.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Fie, what an indirect and peevish course
 * Is this of hers?—Lord cardinal, will your grace
 * Persuade the queen to send the Duke of York
 * Unto his princely brother presently?
 * If she deny, Lord Hastings, go with him,
 * And from her jealous arms pluck him perforce.

CARDINAL.
 * My Lord of Buckingham, if my weak oratory
 * Can from his mother win the Duke of York,
 * Anon expect him here; but if she be obdurate
 * To mild entreaties, God in heaven forbid
 * We should infringe the holy privilege
 * Of blessed sanctuary! not for all this land
 * Would I be guilty of so deep a sin.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * You are too senseless-obstinate, my lord,
 * Too ceremonious and traditional:
 * Weigh it but with the grossness of this age,
 * You break not sanctuary in seizing him.
 * The benefit thereof is always granted
 * To those whose dealings have deserv'd the place
 * And those who have the wit to claim the place:
 * This prince hath neither claim'd it nor deserv'd it;
 * And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it:
 * Then, taking him from thence that is not there,
 * You break no privilege nor charter there.
 * Oft have I heard of sanctuary-men;
 * But sanctuary-children ne'er till now.

CARDINAL.
 * My lord, you shall o'errule my mind for once.—
 * Come on, Lord Hastings, will you go with me?

HASTINGS.
 * I go, my lord.

PRINCE.
 * Good lords, make all the speedy haste you may.

[Exeunt CARDINAL and HASTINGS.]


 * Say, uncle Gloster, if our brother come,
 * Where shall we sojourn till our coronation?

GLOSTER.
 * Where it seems best unto your royal self.
 * If I may counsel you, some day or two
 * Your highness shall repose you at the Tower:
 * Then where you please and shall be thought most fit
 * For your best health and recreation.

PRINCE.
 * I do not like the Tower, of any place.—
 * Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * He did, my gracious lord, begin that place;
 * Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified.

PRINCE.
 * Is it upon record, or else reported
 * Successively from age to age, he built it?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Upon record, my gracious lord.

PRINCE.
 * But say, my lord, it were not register'd,
 * Methinks the truth should live from age to age,
 * As 'twere retail'd to all posterity,
 * Even to the general all-ending day.

GLOSTER. [Aside.]
 * So wise so young, they say, do never live long.

PRINCE.
 * What say you, uncle?

GLOSTER.
 * I say, without characters, fame lives long.—

[Aside.]
 * Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,
 * I moralize two meanings in one word.

PRINCE.
 * That Julius Caesar was a famous man;
 * With what his valour did enrich his wit,
 * His wit set down to make his valour live;
 * Death makes no conquest of this conqueror;
 * For now he lives in fame, though not in life.—
 * I'll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham,—

BUCKINGHAM.
 * What, my gracious lord?

PRINCE.
 * An if I live until I be a man,
 * I'll win our ancient right in France again,
 * Or die a soldier as I liv'd a king.

GLOSTER. [Aside.]
 * Short summers lightly have a forward spring.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Now, in good time, here comes the Duke of York.

[Enter YORK, HASTINGS, and the CARDINAL.]

PRINCE.
 * Richard of York! how fares our loving brother?

YORK.
 * Well, my dread lord; so must I call you now.

PRINCE.
 * Ay brother,—to our grief, as it is yours:
 * Too late he died that might have kept that title,
 * Which by his death hath lost much majesty.

GLOSTER.
 * How fares our cousin, noble Lord of York?

YORK.
 * I thank you, gentle uncle. O, my lord,
 * You said that idle weeds are fast in growth:
 * The prince my brother hath outgrown me far.

GLOSTER.
 * He hath, my lord.

YORK.
 * And therefore is he idle?

GLOSTER.
 * O, my fair cousin, I must not say so.

YORK.
 * Then he is more beholding to you than I.

GLOSTER.
 * He may command me as my sovereign;
 * But you have power in me as in a kinsman.

YORK.
 * I pray you, uncle, give me this dagger.

GLOSTER.
 * My dagger, little cousin? with all my heart!

PRINCE.
 * A beggar, brother?

YORK.
 * Of my kind uncle, that I know will give,
 * And being but a toy, which is no grief to give.

GLOSTER.
 * A greater gift than that I'll give my cousin.

YORK.
 * A greater gift! O, that's the sword to it!

GLOSTER.
 * Ay, gentle cousin, were it light enough.

YORK.
 * O, then, I see you will part but with light gifts;
 * In weightier things you'll say a beggar nay.

GLOSTER.
 * It is too heavy for your grace to wear.

YORK.
 * I weigh it lightly, were it heavier.

GLOSTER.
 * What, would you have my weapon, little lord?

YORK.
 * I would, that I might thank you as you call me.

GLOSTER.
 * How?

YORK.
 * Little.

PRINCE.
 * My Lord of York will still be cross in talk:—
 * Uncle, your grace knows how to bear with him.

YORK.
 * You mean, to bear me, not to bear with me:—
 * Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me;
 * Because that I am little, like an ape,
 * He thinks that you should bear me on your shoulders.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * With what a sharp-provided wit he reasons!
 * To mitigate the scorn he gives his uncle,
 * He prettily and aptly taunts himself:
 * So cunning and so young is wonderful.

GLOSTER.
 * My lord, wil't please you pass along?
 * Myself and my good cousin Buckingham
 * Will to your mother, to entreat of her
 * To meet you at the Tower and welcome you.

YORK.
 * What, will you go unto the Tower, my lord?

PRINCE.
 * My lord protector needs will have it so.

YORK.
 * I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower.

GLOSTER.
 * Why, what should you fear?

YORK.
 * Marry, my uncle Clarence' angry ghost:
 * My grandam told me he was murder'd there.

PRINCE.
 * I fear no uncles dead.

GLOSTER.
 * Nor none that live, I hope.

PRINCE.
 * An if they live, I hope I need not fear.
 * But come, my lord; and with a heavy heart,
 * Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower.

[Sennet. Exeunt PRINCE, YORK, HASTINGS, CARDINAL, and Attendants.]

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Think you, my lord, this little prating York
 * Was not incensed by his subtle mother
 * To taunt and scorn you thus opprobriously?

GLOSTER.
 * No doubt, no doubt: O, 'tis a parlous boy;
 * Bold, quick, ingenious, forward, capable:
 * He is all the mother's, from the top to toe.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Well, let them rest.—Come hither, Catesby.
 * Thou art sworn as deeply to effect what we intend
 * As closely to conceal what we impart:
 * Thou know'st our reasons urg'd upon the way;—
 * What think'st thou? is it not an easy matter
 * To make William Lord Hastings of our mind,
 * For the instalment of this noble duke
 * In the seat royal of this famous isle?

CATESBY.
 * He for his father's sake so loves the prince
 * That he will not be won to aught against him.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * What think'st thou then of Stanley? will not he?

CATESBY.
 * He will do all in all as Hastings doth.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Well then, no more but this: go, gentle Catesby,
 * And, as it were far off, sound thou Lord Hastings
 * How he doth stand affected to our purpose;
 * And summon him to-morrow to the Tower,
 * To sit about the coronation.
 * If thou dost find him tractable to us,
 * Encourage him, and tell him all our reasons:
 * If he be leaden, icy, cold, unwilling,
 * Be thou so too; and so break off the talk,
 * And give us notice of his inclination:
 * For we to-morrow hold divided councils,
 * Wherein thyself shalt highly be employ'd.

GLOSTER.
 * Commend me to Lord William: tell him, Catesby,
 * His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries
 * To-morrow are let blood at Pomfret Castle;
 * And bid my lord, for joy of this good news,
 * Give Mistress Shore one gentle kiss the more.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Good Catesby, go, effect this business soundly.

CATESBY.
 * My good lords both, with all the heed I can.

GLOSTER.
 * Shall we hear from you, Catesby, ere we sleep?

CATESBY.
 * You shall, my lord.

GLOSTER.
 * At Crosby Place, there shall you find us both.

[Exit CATESBY.]

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Now, my lord, what shall we do if we perceive
 * Lord Hastings will not yield to our complots?

GLOSTER.
 * Chop off his head. man;—somewhat we will do:—
 * And, look when I am king, claim thou of me
 * The earldom of Hereford, and all the movables
 * Whereof the king my brother was possess'd.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * I'll claim that promise at your grace's hand.

GLOSTER.
 * And look to have it yielded with all kindness.
 * Come, let us sup betimes, that afterwards
 * We may digest our complots in some form.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II. Before LORD HASTING'S house.
[Enter a MESSENGER.]

MESSENGER.
 * My lord, my lord!—
 * [Knocking.]

HASTINGS.
 * [Within.] Who knocks?

MESSENGER.
 * One from the Lord Stanley.

HASTINGS.
 * [Within.] What is't o'clock?

MESSENGER.
 * Upon the stroke of four.

[Enter HASTINGS.]

HASTINGS.
 * Cannot my Lord Stanley sleep these tedious nights?

MESSENGER.
 * So it appears by that I have to say.
 * First, he commends him to your noble self.

HASTINGS.
 * What then?

MESSENGER.
 * Then certifies your lordship that this night
 * He dreamt the boar had razed off his helm:
 * Besides, he says there are two councils held;
 * And that may be determin'd at the one
 * Which may make you and him to rue at the other.
 * Therefore he sends to know your lordship's pleasure,—
 * If you will presently take horse with him,
 * And with all speed post with him toward the north,
 * To shun the danger that his soul divines.

HASTINGS.
 * Go, fellow, go, return unto thy lord;
 * Bid him not fear the separated councils:
 * His honour and myself are at the one,
 * And at the other is my good friend Catesby;
 * Where nothing can proceed that toucheth us
 * Whereof I shall not have intelligence.
 * Tell him his fears are shallow, without instance:
 * And for his dreams, I wonder he's so simple
 * To trust the mockery of unquiet slumbers:
 * To fly the boar before the boar pursues
 * Were to incense the boar to follow us,
 * And make pursuit where he did mean no chase.
 * Go, bid thy master rise and come to me;
 * And we will both together to the Tower,
 * Where, he shall see, the boar will use us kindly.

MESSENGER.
 * I'll go, my lord, and tell him what you say.

[Exit.]

[Enter CATESBY.]

CATESBY.
 * Many good morrows to my noble lord!

HASTINGS.
 * Good morrow, Catesby; you are early stirring:
 * What news, what news, in this our tottering state?

CATESBY.
 * It is a reeling world indeed, my lord;
 * And I believe will never stand upright
 * Till Richard wear the garland of the realm.

HASTINGS.
 * How! wear the garland! dost thou mean the crown?

CATESBY.
 * Ay, my good lord.

HASTINGS.
 * I'll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders
 * Before I'll see the crown so foul misplac'd.
 * But canst thou guess that he doth aim at it?

CATESBY.
 * Ay, on my life; and hopes to find you forward
 * Upon his party for the gain thereof:
 * And thereupon he sends you this good news,—
 * That this same very day your enemies,
 * The kindred of the queen, must die at Pomfret.

HASTINGS.
 * Indeed, I am no mourner for that news,
 * Because they have been still my adversaries:
 * But that I'll give my voice on Richard's side
 * To bar my master's heirs in true descent,
 * God knows I will not do it to the death.

CATESBY.
 * God keep your lordship in that gracious mind!

HASTINGS.
 * But I shall laugh at this a twelve month hence,—
 * That they which brought me in my master's hate,
 * I live to look upon their tragedy.
 * Well, Catesby, ere a fortnight make me older,
 * I'll send some packing that yet think not on't.

CATESBY.
 * 'Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord,
 * When men are unprepar'd and look not for it.

HASTINGS.
 * O monstrous, monstrous! and so falls it out
 * With Rivers, Vaughan, Grey: and so 'twill do
 * With some men else that think themselves as safe
 * As thou and I; who, as thou knowest, are dear
 * To princely Richard and to Buckingham.

CATESBY.
 * The princes both make high account of you,—

[Aside.]
 * For they account his head upon the bridge.

HASTINGS.
 * I know they do, and I have well deserv'd it.

[Enter STANLEY.]


 * Come on, come on; where is your boar-spear, man?
 * Fear you the boar, and go so unprovided?

STANLEY.
 * My lord, good morrow; and good morrow, Catesby:—
 * You may jest on, but, by the holy rood,
 * I do not like these several councils, I.

HASTINGS.
 * My lord, I hold my life as dear as you do yours;
 * And never in my days, I do protest,
 * Was it so precious to me as 'tis now;
 * Think you, but that I know our state secure,
 * I would be so triumphant as I am?

STANLEY.
 * The lords at Pomfret, when they rode from London,
 * Were jocund and suppos'd their states were sure,—
 * And they, indeed, had no cause to mistrust;
 * But yet, you see, how soon the day o'ercast!
 * This sudden stab of rancour I misdoubt;
 * Pray God, I say, I prove a needless coward.
 * What, shall we toward the Tower? the day is spent.

HASTINGS.
 * Come, come, have with you.—Wot you what, my lord?
 * To-day the lords you talk'd of are beheaded.

STANLEY.
 * They, for their truth, might better wear their heads
 * Than some that have accus'd them wear their hats.—
 * But come, my lord, let's away.

[Enter a Pursuivant.]

HASTINGS.
 * Go on before; I'll talk with this good fellow.

[Exeunt STANLEY and CATESBY.]


 * How now, sirrah! how goes the world with thee?

PURSUIVANT.
 * The better that your lordship please to ask.

HASTINGS.
 * I tell thee, man, 'tis better with me now
 * Than when thou mett'st me last where now we meet:
 * Then was I going prisoner to the Tower,
 * By the suggestion of the queen's allies;
 * But now, I tell thee,—keep it to thyself,—
 * This day those enemies are put to death,
 * And I in better state than e'er I was.

PURSUIVANT.
 * God hold it, to your honour's good content!

HASTINGS.
 * Gramercy, fellow: there, drink that for me.

[Throwing him his purse.]

PURSUIVANT.
 * I thank your honour.

[Exit.]

[Enter a PRIEST.]

PRIEST.
 * Well met, my lord; I am glad to see your honour.

HASTINGS.
 * I thank thee, good Sir John, with all my heart.
 * I am in your debt for your last exercise;
 * Come the next Sabbath, and I will content you.

[Enter BUCKINGHAM.]

BUCKINGHAM.
 * What, talking with a priest, lord chamberlain!
 * Your friends at Pomfret, they do need the priest;
 * Your honour hath no shriving work in hand.

HASTINGS.
 * Good faith, and when I met this holy man,
 * The men you talk of came into my mind.—
 * What, go you toward the Tower?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * I do, my lord, but long I cannot stay there;
 * I shall return before your lordship thence.

HASTINGS.
 * Nay, like enough, for I stay dinner there.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * [Aside.] And supper too, although thou knowest it not.—
 * Come, will you go?

HASTINGS.
 * I'll wait upon your lordship.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III. Pomfret. Before the Castle.
[Enter RATCLIFF, with Guard, conducting RIVERS, GREY, and VAUGHAN to execution.]

RIVERS.
 * Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this,—
 * To-day shalt thou behold a subject die
 * For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.

GREY.
 * God bless the prince from all the pack of you!
 * A knot you are of damned blood-suckers.

VAUGHAN.
 * You live that shall cry woe for this hereafter.

RATCLIFF.
 * Despatch; the limit of your lives is out.

RIVERS.
 * O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison,
 * Fatal and ominous to noble peers!
 * Within the guilty closure of thy walls
 * Richard the Second here was hack'd to death:
 * And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,
 * We give to thee our guiltless blood to drink.

GREY.
 * Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon our heads,
 * When she exclaim'd on Hastings, you, and I,
 * For standing by when Richard stabb'd her son.

RIVERS.
 * Then curs'd she Richard, then curs'd she Buckingham,
 * Then curs'd she Hastings:—O, remember, God,
 * To hear her prayer for them, as now for us!
 * And for my sister, and her princely sons,
 * Be satisfied, dear God, with our true blood,
 * Which, as Thou know'st, unjustly must be spilt.

RATCLIFF.
 * Make haste; the hour of death is expiate.

RIVERS.
 * Come, Grey;—come, Vaughan;—let us here embrace.
 * Farewell, until we meet again in heaven.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV. London. A Room in the Tower.
[BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, the BISHOP of ELY, RATCLIFF, LOVEL, and others sitting at a table: Officers of the Council attending.]

HASTINGS.
 * Now, noble peers, the cause why we are met
 * Is to determine of the coronation.
 * In God's name speak,—when is the royal day?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Are all things ready for that royal time?

STANLEY.
 * Thery are, and wants but nomination.

ELY.
 * To-morrow, then, I judge a happy day.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Who knows the lord protector's mind herein?
 * Who is most inward with the noble duke?

ELY.
 * Your grace, we think, should soonest know his mind.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * We know each other's faces: for our hearts,
 * He knows no more of mine than I of yours;
 * Or I of his, my lord, than you of mine.—
 * Lord Hastings, you and he are near in love.

HASTINGS.
 * I thank his grace, I know he loves me well;
 * But for his purpose in the coronation
 * I have not sounded him, nor he deliver'd
 * His gracious pleasure any way therein:
 * But you, my honourable lords, may name the time;
 * And in the duke's behalf I'll give my voice,
 * Which, I presume, he'll take in gentle part.

ELY.
 * In happy time, here comes the duke himself.

[Enter GLOSTER.]

GLOSTER.
 * My noble lords and cousins all, good morrow.
 * I have been long a sleeper; but I trust
 * My absence doth neglect no great design
 * Which by my presence might have been concluded.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Had you not come upon your cue, my lord,
 * William Lord Hastings had pronounc'd your part,—
 * I mean, your voice,—for crowning of the king.

GLOSTER.
 * Than my Lord Hastings no man might be bolder;
 * His lordship knows me well and loves me well.—
 * My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn
 * I saw good strawberries in your garden there:
 * I do beseech you send for some of them.

ELY.
 * Marry, and will, my lord, with all my heart.

[Exit.]

GLOSTER.
 * Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you.

[Takes him aside.]


 * Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business,
 * And finds the testy gentleman so hot
 * That he will lose his head ere give consent
 * His master's child, as worshipfully he terms it,
 * Shall lose the royalty of England's throne.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Withdraw yourself awhile; I'll go with you.

[Exeunt GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM.]

STANLEY.
 * We have not yet set down this day of triumph.
 * To-morrow, in my judgment, is too sudden;
 * For I myself am not so well provided
 * As else I would be, were the day prolong'd.

[Re-enter BISHOP OF ELY.]

ELY.
 * Where is my lord the Duke of Gloster?
 * I have sent for these strawberries.

HASTINGS.
 * His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning;
 * There's some conceit or other likes him well
 * When that he bids good morrow with such spirit.
 * I think there's ne'er a man in Christendom
 * Can lesser hide his love or hate than he;
 * For by his face straight shall you know his heart.

STANLEY.
 * What of his heart perceive you in his face
 * By any livelihood he showed to-day?

HASTINGS.
 * Marry, that with no man here he is offended;
 * For, were he, he had shown it in his looks.

[Re-enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM.]

GLOSTER.
 * I pray you all, tell me what they deserve
 * That do conspire my death with devilish plots
 * Of damned witchcraft, and that have prevail'd
 * Upon my body with their hellish charms?

HASTINGS.
 * The tender love I bear your grace, my lord,
 * Makes me most forward in this princely presence
 * To doom the offenders: whosoe'er they be.
 * I say, my lord, they have deserved death.

GLOSTER.
 * Then be your eyes the witness of their evil:
 * Look how I am bewitch'd; behold, mine arm
 * Is, like a blasted sapling, wither'd up:
 * And this is Edward's wife, that monstrous witch,
 * Consorted with that harlot-strumpet Shore,
 * That by their witchcraft thus have marked me.

HASTINGS.
 * If they have done this deed, my noble lord,—

GLOSTER.
 * If!—thou protector of this damned strumpet,
 * Talk'st thou to me of "ifs"?—Thou art a traitor:—
 * Off with his head!—now, by Saint Paul I swear,
 * I will not dine until I see the same.—
 * Lovel and Ratcliff:—look that it be done:—
 * The rest, that love me, rise and follow me.

[Exeunt all except HASTINGS, LOVEL, and RATCLIFF.]

HASTINGS.
 * Woe, woe, for England! not a whit for me;
 * For I, too fond, might have prevented this.
 * Stanley did dream the boar did raze his helm;
 * And I did scorn it, and disdain to fly.
 * Three times to-day my foot-cloth horse did stumble,
 * And started, when he look'd upon the Tower,
 * As loth to bear me to the slaughter-house.
 * O, now I need the priest that spake to me:
 * I now repent I told the pursuivant,
 * As too triumphing, how mine enemies
 * To-day at Pomfret bloodily were butcher'd,
 * And I myself secure in grace and favour.
 * O Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse
 * Is lighted on poor Hastings' wretched head!

RATCLIFF.
 * Come, come, despatch; the duke would be at dinner:
 * Make a short shrift; he longs to see your head.

HASTINGS.
 * O momentary grace of mortal men,
 * Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!
 * Who builds his hope in air of your good looks
 * Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,
 * Ready, with every nod, to tumble down
 * Into the fatal bowels of the deep.

LOVEL.
 * Come, come, despatch; 'tis bootless to exclaim.

HASTINGS.
 * O bloody Richard!—miserable England!
 * I prophesy the fearfull'st time to thee
 * That ever wretched age hath look'd upon.—
 * Come, lead me to the block; bear him my head:
 * They smile at me who shortly shall be dead.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE V. London. The Tower Walls.
[Enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM in rusty armour, marvellous ill-favoured.]

GLOSTER.
 * Come, cousin, canst thou quake and change thy colour,
 * Murder thy breath in middle of a word,
 * And then again begin, and stop again,
 * As if thou were distraught and mad with terror?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian;
 * Speak and look back, and pry on every side,
 * Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,
 * Intending deep suspicion: ghastly looks
 * Are at my service, like enforced smiles;
 * And both are ready in their offices,
 * At any time to grace my stratagems.
 * But what, is Catesby gone?

GLOSTER.
 * He is; and, see, he brings the mayor along.

[Enter the LORD MAYOR and CATESBY.]

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Lord mayor,—

GLOSTER.
 * Look to the drawbridge there!

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Hark! a drum.

GLOSTER.
 * Catesby, o'erlook the walls.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Lord Mayor, the reason we have sent,—

GLOSTER.
 * Look back, defend thee,—here are enemies.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * God and our innocency defend and guard us!

GLOSTER.
 * Be patient; they are friends,—Ratcliff and Lovel.

[Enter LOVEL and RATCLIFF, with HASTINGS' head.]

LOVEL.
 * Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,
 * The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.

GLOSTER.
 * So dear I lov'd the man that I must weep.
 * I took him for the plainest harmless creature
 * That breath'd upon the earth a Christian;
 * Made him my book, wherein my soul recorded
 * The history of all her secret thoughts:
 * So smooth he daub'd his vice with show of virtue
 * That, his apparent open guilt omitted,—
 * I mean, his conversation with Shore's wife,—
 * He liv'd from all attainder of suspects.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Well, well, he was the covert'st shelter'd traitor
 * That ever liv'd.—
 * Would you imagine, or almost believe,—
 * Were't not that by great preservation
 * We live to tell it you,—that the subtle traitor
 * This day had plotted, in the council-house,
 * To murder me and my good Lord of Gloster!

MAYOR.
 * Had he done so?

GLOSTER.
 * What! think you we are Turks or Infidels?
 * Or that we would, against the form of law,
 * Proceed thus rashly in the villain's death,
 * But that the extreme peril of the case,
 * The peace of England and our persons' safety,
 * Enforc'd us to this execution?

MAYOR.
 * Now, fair befall you! he deserv'd his death;
 * And your good graces both have well proceeded,
 * To warn false traitors from the like attempts.
 * I never look'd for better at his hands
 * After he once fell in with Mistress Shore.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Yet had we not determin'd he should die
 * Until your lordship came to see his end;
 * Which now the loving haste of these our friends,
 * Something against our meanings, have prevented:
 * Because, my lord, we would have had you heard
 * The traitor speak, and timorously confess
 * The manner and the purpose of his treasons;
 * That you might well have signified the same
 * Unto the citizens, who haply may
 * Misconster us in him, and wail his death.

MAYOR.
 * But, my good lord, your grace's word shall serve
 * As well as I had seen and heard him speak:
 * And do not doubt, right noble princes both,
 * But I'll acquaint our duteous citizens
 * With all your just proceedings in this case.

GLOSTER.
 * And to that end we wish'd your lordship here,
 * To avoid the the the censures of the carping world.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * But since you come too late of our intent,
 * Yet witness what you hear we did intend:
 * And so, my good lord mayor, we bid farewell.

[Exit LORD MAYOR.]

GLOSTER.
 * Go, after, after, cousin Buckingham.
 * The Mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all post:—
 * There, at your meet'st advantage of the time,
 * Infer the bastardy of Edward's children:
 * Tell them how Edward put to death a citizen,
 * Only for saying he would make his son
 * Heir to the crown;—meaning, indeed, his house,
 * Which, by the sign thereof, was termed so.
 * Moreover, urge his hateful luxury,
 * And bestial appetite in change of lust;
 * Which stretch'd unto their servants, daughters, wives,
 * Even where his raging eye or savage heart,
 * Without control, listed to make a prey.
 * Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person:—
 * Tell them, when that my mother went with child
 * Of that insatiate Edward, noble York,
 * My princely father, then had wars in France
 * And, by true computation of the time,
 * Found that the issue was not his begot;
 * Which well appeared in his lineaments,
 * Being nothing like the noble duke my father.
 * Yet touch this sparingly, as 'twere far off;
 * Because, my lord, you know my mother lives.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Doubt not, my lord, I'll play the orator
 * As if the golden fee for which I plead
 * Were for myself: and so, my lord, adieu.

GLOSTER.
 * If you thrive well, bring them to Baynard's Castle;
 * Where you shall find me well accompanied
 * With reverend fathers and well learned bishops.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * I go; and towards three or four o'clock
 * Look for the news that the Guildhall affords.

[Exit.]

GLOSTER.
 * Go, Lovel, with all speed to Doctor Shaw.—
 * Go thou [to CATESBY] to Friar Penker;—bid them both
 * Meet me within this hour at Baynard's Castle.

[Exeunt LOVEL and CATESBY.]


 * Now will I in, to take some privy order
 * To draw the brats of Clarence out of sight;
 * And to give order that no manner person
 * Have any time recourse unto the princes.

[Exit.]

SCENE VI. London. A street.
[Enter a SCRIVENER.]

SCRIVENER.
 * Here is the indictment of the good Lord Hastings;
 * Which in a set hand fairly is engross'd,
 * That it may be to-day read o'er in Paul's.
 * And mark how well the sequel hangs together:—
 * Eleven hours I have spent to write it over,
 * For yesternight by Catesby was it sent me;
 * The precedent was full as long a-doing:
 * And yet within these five hours Hastings liv'd,
 * Untainted, unexamin'd, free, at liberty.
 * Here's a good world the while! Who is so gross
 * That cannot see this palpable device!
 * Yet who so bold but says he sees it not!
 * Bad is the world; and all will come to naught,
 * When such ill dealing must be seen in thought.

[Exit.]

SCENE VII. London. Court of Baynard's Castle.
[Enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM, meeting.]

GLOSTER.
 * How now, how now! what say the citizens?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Now, by the holy mother of our Lord,
 * The citizens are mum, say not a word.

GLOSTER.
 * Touch'd you the bastardy of Edward's children?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * I did; with his contract with Lady Lucy,
 * And his contract by deputy in France;
 * The insatiate greediness of his desires,
 * And his enforcement of the city wives;
 * His tyranny for trifles; his own bastardy,—
 * As being got, your father then in France,
 * And his resemblance, being not like the duke:
 * Withal I did infer your lineaments,—
 * Being the right idea of your father,
 * Both in your form and nobleness of mind;
 * Laid open all your victories in Scotland,
 * Your discipline in war, wisdom in peace,
 * Your bounty, virtue, fair humility;
 * Indeed, left nothing fitting for your purpose
 * Untouch'd or slightly handled in discourse:
 * And when mine oratory drew toward end
 * I bid them that did love their country's good
 * Cry "God save Richard, England's royal king!"

GLOSTER.
 * And did they so?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * No, so God help me, they spake not a word;
 * But, like dumb statues or breathing stones,
 * Star'd each on other, and look'd deadly pale.
 * Which when I saw, I reprehended them;
 * And ask'd the mayor what meant this wilful silence:
 * His answer was—the people were not us'd
 * To be spoke to but by the recorder.
 * Then he was urg'd to tell my tale again,—
 * "Thus saith the duke, thus hath the duke inferr'd;"
 * But nothing spoke in warrant from himself.
 * When he had done, some followers of mine own,
 * At lower end of the hall hurl'd up their caps,
 * And some ten voices cried, "God save King Richard!"
 * And thus I took the vantage of those few,—
 * "Thanks, gentle citizens and friends," quoth I;
 * "This general applause and cheerful shout
 * Argues your wisdoms and your love to Richard:"
 * And even here brake off and came away.

GLOSTER.
 * What, tongueless blocks were they! would they not speak?
 * Will not the mayor, then, and his brethren, come?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * The mayor is here at hand. Intend some fear;
 * Be not you spoke with but by mighty suit:
 * And look you get a prayer-book in your hand,
 * And stand between two churchmen, good my lord;
 * For on that ground I'll make a holy descant:
 * And be not easily won to our requests;
 * Play the maid's part,—still answer nay, and take it.

GLOSTER.
 * I go; and if you plead as well for them
 * As I can say nay to thee for myself,
 * No doubt we bring it to a happy issue.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Go, go, up to the leads; the lord mayor knocks.

[Exit GLOSTER.]

[Enter the LORD MAYOR, ALDERMEN, and Citizens.]


 * Welcome, my lord. I dance attendance here;
 * I think the duke will not be spoke withal.

[Enter, from the Castle, CATESBY.]


 * Now, Catesby,—what says your lord to my request?

CATESBY.
 * He doth entreat your grace, my noble lord,
 * To visit him to-morrow or next day:
 * He is within, with two right reverend fathers,
 * Divinely bent to meditation:
 * And in no worldly suit would he be mov'd,
 * To draw him from his holy exercise.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Return, good Catesby, to the gracious duke;
 * Tell him, myself, the mayor and aldermen,
 * In deep designs, in matter of great moment,
 * No less importing than our general good,
 * Are come to have some conference with his grace.

CATESBY.
 * I'll signify so much unto him straight.

[Exit.]

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Ah, ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward!
 * He is not lolling on a lewd day-bed,
 * But on his knees at meditation;
 * Not dallying with a brace of courtezans,
 * But meditating with two deep divines;
 * Not sleeping, to engross his idle body,
 * But praying, to enrich his watchful soul:
 * Happy were England would this virtuous prince
 * Take on his grace the sovereignty thereof:
 * But, sure, I fear, we shall not win him to it.

MAYOR.
 * Marry, God defend his grace should say us nay!

BUCKINGHAM.
 * I fear he will. Here Catesby comes again.

[Re-enter CATESBY.]


 * Now, Catesby, what says his grace?

CATESBY.
 * He wonders to what end you have assembled
 * Such troops of citizens to come to him:
 * His grace not being warn'd thereof before,
 * He fears, my lord, you mean no good to him.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Sorry I am my noble cousin should
 * Suspect me, that I mean no good to him:
 * By heaven, we come to him in perfect love;
 * And so once more return and tell his grace.

[Exit CATESBY.]


 * When holy and devout religious men
 * Are at their beads, 'tis much to draw them thence,—
 * So sweet is zealous contemplation.

[Enter GLOSTER in a Galery above, between two BISHOPS. CATESBY
 * returns.]

MAYOR.
 * See where his grace stands 'tween two clergymen!

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Two props of virtue for a Christian prince,
 * To stay him from the fall of vanity:
 * And, see, a book of prayer in his hand,—
 * True ornaments to know a holy man.—
 * Famous Plantagenet, most gracious prince,
 * Lend favourable ear to our requests;
 * And pardon us the interruption
 * Of thy devotion and right Christian zeal.

GLOSTER.
 * My lord, there needs no such apology:
 * I rather do beseech you pardon me,
 * Who, earnest in the service of my God,
 * Deferr'd the visitation of my friends.
 * But, leaving this, what is your grace's pleasure?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above,
 * And all good men of this ungovern'd isle.

GLOSTER.
 * I do suspect I have done some offence
 * That seems disgracious in the city's eye;
 * And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * You have, my lord: would it might please your grace,
 * On our entreaties, to amend your fault!

GLOSTER.
 * Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Know then, it is your fault that you resign
 * The supreme seat, the throne majestical,
 * The scepter'd office of your ancestors,
 * Your state of fortune and your due of birth,
 * The lineal glory of your royal house,
 * To the corruption of a blemish'd stock:
 * Whilst, in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts,—
 * Which here we waken to our country's good,—
 * The noble isle doth want her proper limbs;
 * Her face defac'd with scars of infamy,
 * Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants,
 * And almost shoulder'd in the swallowing gulf
 * Of dark forgetfulness and deep oblivion.
 * Which to recure, we heartily solicit
 * Your gracious self to take on you the charge
 * And kingly government of this your land;—
 * Not as protector, steward, substitute,
 * Or lowly factor for another's gain;
 * But as successively, from blood to blood,
 * Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
 * For this, consorted with the citizens,
 * Your very worshipful and loving friends,
 * And, by their vehement instigation,
 * In this just cause come I to move your grace.

GLOSTER.
 * I cannot tell if to depart in silence
 * Or bitterly to speak in your reproof
 * Best fitteth my degree or your condition:
 * If not to answer, you might haply think
 * Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded
 * To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty,
 * Which fondly you would here impose on me;
 * If to reprove you for this suit of yours,
 * So season'd with your faithful love to me,
 * Then, on the other side, I check'd my friends.
 * Therefore,—to speak, and to avoid the first,
 * And then, in speaking, not to incur the last,—
 * Definitively thus I answer you.
 * Your love deserves my thanks; but my desert
 * Unmeritable shuns your high request.
 * First, if all obstacles were cut away,
 * And that my path were even to the crown,
 * As the ripe revenue and due of birth,
 * Yet so much is my poverty of spirit,
 * So mighty and so many my defects,
 * That I would rather hide me from my greatness,—
 * Being a bark to brook no mighty sea,—
 * Than in my greatness covet to be hid,
 * And in the vapour of my glory smother'd.
 * But, God be thank'd, there is no need of me,—
 * And much I need to help you, were there need;—
 * The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,
 * Which, mellow'd by the stealing hours of time,
 * Will well become the seat of majesty,
 * And make, no doubt, us happy by his reign.
 * On him I lay that you would lay on me,—
 * The right and fortune of his happy stars;
 * Which God defend that I should wring from him!

BUCKINGHAM.
 * My lord, this argues conscience in your grace;
 * But the respects thereof are nice and trivial,
 * All circumstances well considered.
 * You say that Edward is your brother's son:
 * So say we too, but not by Edward's wife;
 * For first was he contract to Lady Lucy,—
 * Your mother lives a witness to his vow,—
 * And afterward by substitute betroth'd
 * To Bona, sister to the King of France.
 * These both put off, a poor petitioner,
 * A care-craz'd mother to a many sons,
 * A beauty-waning and distressed widow,
 * Even in the afternoon of her best days,
 * Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye,
 * Seduc'd the pitch and height of his degree
 * To base declension and loath'd bigamy:
 * By her, in his unlawful bed, he got
 * This Edward, whom our manners call the prince.
 * More bitterly could I expostulate,
 * Save that, for reverence to some alive,
 * I give a sparing limit to my tongue.
 * Then, good my lord, take to your royal self
 * This proffer'd benefit of dignity;
 * If not to bless us and the land withal,
 * Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry
 * From the corruption of abusing time
 * Unto a lineal true-derived course.

MAYOR.
 * Do, good my lord; your citizens entreat you.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffer'd love.

CATESBY.
 * O, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit!

GLOSTER.
 * Alas, why would you heap those cares on me?
 * I am unfit for state and majesty:—
 * I do beseech you, take it not amiss:
 * I cannot nor I will not yield to you.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * If you refuse it,—as, in love and zeal,
 * Loath to depose the child, your brother's son—
 * As well we know your tenderness of heart
 * And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,
 * Which we have noted in you to your kindred,
 * And equally, indeed, to all estates,—
 * Yet know, whe'er you accept our suit or no,
 * Your brother's son shall never reign our king;
 * But we will plant some other in the throne,
 * To the disgrace and downfall of your house:
 * And in this resolution here we leave you.—
 * Come, citizens, we will entreat no more.

[Exeunt BUCKINGHAM, the MAYOR and citizens retiring.]

CATESBY.
 * Call them again, sweet prince, accept their suit:
 * If you deny them, all the land will rue it.

GLOSTER.
 * Will you enforce me to a world of cares?
 * Call them again.

[CATESBY goes to the MAYOR, &c., and then exit.]


 * I am not made of stone,
 * But penetrable to your kind entreaties,
 * Albeit against my conscience and my soul.

[Re-enter BUCKINGHAM and CATESBY, MAYOR, &c., coming forward.]


 * Cousin of Buckingham,—and sage grave men,
 * Since you will buckle fortune on my back,
 * To bear her burden, whe'er I will or no,
 * I must have patience to endure the load:
 * But if black scandal or foul-fac'd reproach
 * Attend the sequel of your imposition,
 * Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
 * From all the impure blots and stains thereof;
 * For God doth know, and you may partly see,
 * How far I am from the desire of this.

MAYOR.
 * God bless your grace! we see it, and will say it.

GLOSTER.
 * In saying so, you shall but say the truth.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Then I salute you with this royal title,—
 * Long live King Richard, England's worthy king!

ALL.
 * Amen.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * To-morrow may it please you to be crown'd?

GLOSTER.
 * Even when you please, for you will have it so.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * To-morrow, then, we will attend your grace:
 * And so, most joyfully, we take our leave.

GLOSTER. [To the BISHOPS.]
 * Come, let us to our holy work again.—
 * Farewell, my cousin;—farewell, gentle friends.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE I. London. Before the Tower
[Enter, on one side, QUEEN ELIZABETH, DUCHESS of YORK, and MARQUIS of DORSET; on the other, ANNE DUCHESS of GLOSTER, leading LADY MARGARET PLANTAGENET, CLARENCE's young daughter.]

DUCHESS.
 * Who meets us here?—my niece Plantagenet,
 * Led in the hand of her kind aunt of Gloster?
 * Now, for my life, she's wandering to the Tower,
 * On pure heart's love, to greet the tender princes.—
 * Daughter, well met.

ANNE.
 * God give your graces both
 * A happy and a joyful time of day!

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * As much to you, good sister! Whither away?

ANNE.
 * No farther than the Tower; and, as I guess,
 * Upon the like devotion as yourselves,
 * To gratulate the gentle princes there.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Kind sister, thanks; we'll enter all together:—
 * And in good time, here the lieutenant comes.

[Enter BRAKENBURY.]


 * Master Lieutenant, pray you, by your leave,
 * How doth the prince, and my young son of York?

BRAKENBURY.
 * Right well, dear madam. By your patience,
 * I may not suffer you to visit them.
 * The king hath strictly charg'd the contrary.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * The king! who's that?

BRAKENBURY.
 * I mean the lord protector.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * The Lord protect him from that kingly title!
 * Hath he set bounds between their love and me?
 * I am their mother; who shall bar me from them?

DUCHESS.
 * I am their father's mother; I will see them.

ANNE.
 * Their aunt I am in law, in love their mother:
 * Then bring me to their sights; I'll bear thy blame,
 * And take thy office from thee on my peril.

BRAKENBURY.
 * No, madam, no,—I may not leave it so:
 * I am bound by oath, and therefore pardon me.

[Exit.]

[Enter STANLEY.]

STANLEY.
 * Let me but meet you, ladies, one hour hence,
 * And I'll salute your grace of York as mother
 * And reverend looker-on of two fair queens.—

[To the DUCHESS OF GLOSTER.]
 * Come, madam, you must straight to Westminster,
 * There to be crowned Richard's royal queen.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Ah, cut my lace asunder,
 * That my pent heart may have some scope to beat,
 * Or else I swoon with this dead-killing news!

ANNE.
 * Despiteful tidings! O unpleasing news!

DORSET.
 * Be of good cheer: mother, how fares your grace?

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * O Dorset, speak not to me, get thee gone!
 * Death and destruction dog thee at thy heels;
 * Thy mother's name is ominous to children.
 * If thou wilt outstrip death, go cross the seas,
 * And live with Richmond, from the reach of hell:
 * Go, hie thee, hie thee from this slaughter-house,
 * Lest thou increase the number of the dead;
 * And make me die the thrall of Margaret's curse,
 * Nor mother, wife, nor England's counted queen.

STANLEY.
 * Full of wise care is this your counsel, madam.—
 * Take all the swift advantage of the hours;
 * You shall have letters from me to my son
 * In your behalf, to meet you on the way:
 * Be not ta'en tardy by unwise delay.

DUCHESS.
 * O ill-dispersing wind of misery!—
 * O my accursed womb, the bed of death!
 * A cockatrice hast thou hatch'd to the world,
 * Whose unavoided eye is murderous.

STANLEY.
 * Come, madam, come; I in all haste was sent.

ANNE.
 * And I with all unwillingness will go.—
 * O, would to God that the inclusive verge
 * Of golden metal that must round my brow
 * Were red-hot steel, to sear me to the brain !
 * Anointed let me be with deadly venom,
 * And die ere men can say God save the queen!

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Go, go, poor soul; I envy not thy glory;
 * To feed my humour, wish thyself no harm.

ANNE.
 * No, why?—When he that is my husband now
 * Came to me, as I follow'd Henry's corse;
 * When scarce the blood was well wash'd from his hands
 * Which issued from my other angel husband,
 * And that dear saint which then I weeping follow'd;
 * O, when, I say, I look'd on Richard's face,
 * This was my wish,—"Be thou," quoth I, "accurs'd
 * For making me, so young, so old a widow!
 * And when thou wedd'st, let sorrow haunt thy bed;
 * And be thy wife,—if any be so mad,—
 * More miserable by the life of thee
 * Than thou hast made me by my dear lord's death!"
 * Lo, ere I can repeat this curse again,
 * Within so small a time, my woman's heart
 * Grossly grew captive to his honey words,
 * And prov'd the subject of mine own soul's curse,—
 * Which hitherto hath held my eyes from rest;
 * For never yet one hour in his bed
 * Did I enjoy the golden dew of sleep,
 * But with his timorous dreams was still awak'd.
 * Besides, he hates me for my father Warwick;
 * And will, no doubt, shortly be rid of me.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Poor heart, adieu! I pity thy complaining.

ANNE.
 * No more than with my soul I mourn for yours.

DORSET.
 * Farewell, thou woeful welcomer of glory!

ANNE.
 * Adieu, poor soul, that tak'st thy leave of it!

DUCHESS. [To DORSET.]
 * Go thou to Richmond, and good fortune guide thee!—

[To ANNE.]
 * Go thou to Richard, and good angels tend thee!—

[To QUEEN ELIZABETH.]
 * Go thou to sanctuary, and good thoughts possess thee!
 * I to my grave, where peace and rest lie with me!
 * Eighty odd years of sorrow have I seen,
 * And each hour's joy wreck'd with a week of teen.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Stay yet, look back with me unto the Tower.—
 * Pity, you ancient stones, those tender babes
 * Whom envy hath immur'd within your walls!
 * Rough cradle for such little pretty ones!
 * Rude ragged nurse, old sullen playfellow
 * For tender princes, use my babies well!
 * So foolish sorrows bids your stones farewell.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II. London. A Room of State in the Palace.
[Flourish of trumpets. RICHARD, as King, upon his throne; BUCKINGHAM, CATESBY, RATCLIFF, LOVEL, a Page, and others.]

KING RICHARD.
 * Stand all apart—Cousin of Buckingham,—

BUCKINGHAM.
 * My gracious sovereign?

KING RICHARD.
 * Give me thy hand. Thus high, by thy advice
 * And thy assistance, is King Richard seated:—
 * But shall we wear these glories for a day?
 * Or shall they last, and we rejoice in them?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Still live they, and for ever let them last!

KING RICHARD.
 * Ah, Buckingham, now do I play the touch,
 * To try if thou be current gold indeed:—
 * Young Edward lives;—think now what I would speak.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Say on, my loving lord.

KING RICHARD.
 * Why, Buckingham, I say I would be king.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Why, so you are, my thrice-renowned lord.

KING RICHARD.
 * Ha! am I king? 'tis so: but Edward lives.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * True, noble prince.

KING RICHARD.
 * O bitter consequence,
 * That Edward still should live,—true, noble Prince!—
 * Cousin, thou wast not wont to be so dull:—
 * Shall I be plain?—I wish the bastards dead;
 * And I would have it suddenly perform'd.
 * What say'st thou now? speak suddenly, be brief.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Your grace may do your pleasure.

KING RICHARD.
 * Tut, tut, thou art all ice, thy kindness freezes:
 * Say, have I thy consent that they shall die?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Give me some little breath, some pause, dear lord,
 * Before I positively speak in this:
 * I will resolve your grace immediately.

[Exit.]

CATESBY.
 * [Aside.] The king is angry: see, he gnaws his lip.

KING RICHARD.
 * I will converse with iron-witted fools
 * [Descends from his throne.]
 * And unrespective boys; none are for me
 * That look into me with considerate eyes:
 * High-reaching Buckingham grows circumspect.
 * Boy!—

PAGE.
 * My lord?

KING RICHARD.
 * Know'st thou not any whom corrupting gold
 * Will tempt unto a close exploit of death?

PAGE.
 * I know a discontented gentleman
 * Whose humble means match not his haughty spirit:
 * Gold were as good as twenty orators,
 * And will, no doubt, tempt him to anything.

KING RICHARD.
 * What is his name?

PAGE.
 * His name, my lord, is Tyrrel.

KING RICHARD.
 * I partly know the man: go, call him hither, boy.

[Exit PAGE.]


 * The deep-revolving witty Buckingham
 * No more shall be the neighbour to my counsels:
 * Hath he so long held out with me untir'd,
 * And stops he now for breath?—well, be it so.

[Enter STANLEY.]


 * How now, Lord Stanley! what's the news?

STANLEY.
 * Know, my loving lord,
 * The Marquis Dorset, as I hear, is fled
 * To Richmond, in the parts where he abides.

KING RICHARD.
 * Come hither, Catesby: rumour it abroad
 * That Anne, my wife, is very grievous sick;
 * I will take order for her keeping close:
 * Inquire me out some mean poor gentleman,
 * Whom I will marry straight to Clarence' daughter;—
 * The boy is foolish, and I fear not him.—
 * Look how thou dream'st!—I say again, give out
 * That Anne, my queen, is sick and like to die:
 * About it; for it stands me much upon,
 * To stop all hopes whose growth may damage me.

[Exit CATESBY.]


 * I must be married to my brother's daughter,
 * Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass:—
 * Murder her brothers, and then marry her!
 * Uncertain way of gain! But I am in
 * So far in blood that sin will pluck on sin:
 * Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.

[Re-enter PAGE, with TYRREL.]


 * Is thy name Tyrrel?

TYRREL.
 * James Tyrrel, and your most obedient subject.

KING RICHARD.
 * Art thou, indeed?

TYRREL.
 * Prove me, my gracious lord.

KING RICHARD.
 * Dar'st thou resolve to kill a friend of mine?

TYRREL.
 * Please you. But I had rather kill two enemies.

KING RICHARD.
 * Why, then thou hast it: two deep enemies,
 * Foes to my rest, and my sweet sleep's disturbers,
 * Are they that I would have thee deal upon:—
 * Tyrell, I mean those bastards in the Tower.

TYRREL.
 * Let me have open means to come to them,
 * And soon I'll rid you from the fear of them.

KING RICHARD.
 * Thou sing'st sweet music. Hark, come hither, Tyrrel:
 * Go, by this token:—rise, and lend thine ear:
 * [Whispers.] There is no more but so:—say it is done,
 * And I will love thee, and prefer thee for it.

TYRREL.
 * I will despatch it straight.

[Exit.]

[Re-enter BUCKINGHAM.]

BUCKINGHAM.
 * My lord, I have consider'd in my mind
 * The late request that you did sound me in.

KING RICHARD.
 * Well, let that rest. Dorset is fled to Richmond.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * I hear the news, my lord.

KING RICHARD.
 * Stanley, he is your wife's son:—well, look to it.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * My lord, I claim the gift, my due by promise,
 * For which your honour and your faith is pawn'd:
 * The earldom of Hereford, and the movables
 * Which you have promised I shall possess.

KING RICHARD.
 * Stanley, look to your wife: if she convey
 * Letters to Richmond, you shall answer it.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * What says your highness to my just request?

KING RICHARD.
 * I do remember me:—Henry the Sixth
 * Did prophesy that Richmond should be king,
 * When Richmond was a little peevish boy.
 * A king!—perhaps,—

BUCKINGHAM.
 * My lord,—

KING RICHARD.
 * How chance the prophet could not at that time
 * Have told me, I being by, that I should kill him?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * My lord, your promise for the earldom,—

KING RICHARD.
 * Richmond!—When last I was at Exeter,
 * The mayor in courtesy show'd me the castle
 * And call'd it Rougemount; at which name I started,
 * Because a bard of Ireland told me once
 * I should not live long after I saw Richmond.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * My lord—

KING RICHARD.
 * Ay, what's o'clock?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * I am thus bold to put your grace in mind
 * Of what you promis'd me.

KING RICHARD.
 * Well, but what's o'clock?

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Upon the stroke of ten.

KING RICHARD.
 * Well, let it strike.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Why let it strike?

KING RICHARD.
 * Because that, like a Jack, thou keep'st the stroke
 * Betwixt thy begging and my meditation.
 * I am not in the giving vein to-day.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Why then, resolve me whether you will or no.

KING RICHARD.
 * Thou troublest me; I am not in the vein.

[Exeunt KING RICHARD and Train.]

BUCKINGHAM.
 * And is it thus? repays he my deep service
 * With such contempt? made I him king for this?
 * O, let me think on Hastings, and be gone
 * To Brecknock while my fearful head is on!

[Exit.]

SCENE III. London. Another Room in the Palace.
[Enter TYRREL.]

TYRREL.
 * The tyrannous and bloody act is done,—
 * The most arch deed of piteous massacre
 * That ever yet this land was guilty of.
 * Dighton and Forrest, who I did suborn
 * To do this piece of ruthless butchery,
 * Albeit they were flesh'd villains, bloody dogs,
 * Melted with tenderness and mild compassion,
 * Wept like two children in their deaths' sad story.
 * "O, thus," quoth Dighton, "lay the gentle babes,"—
 * "Thus, thus," quoth Forrest, "girdling one another
 * Within their alabaster innocent arms:
 * Their lips were four red roses on a stalk,
 * And in their summer beauty kiss'd each other.
 * A book of prayers on their pillow lay;
 * Which once," quoth Forrest, "almost chang'd my mind;
 * But, O, the devil,"—there the villain stopp'd;
 * When Dighton thus told on:—"We smothered
 * The most replenished sweet work of nature
 * That from the prime creation e'er she framed."—
 * Hence both are gone; with conscience and remorse
 * They could not speak; and so I left them both,
 * To bear this tidings to the bloody king:—
 * And here he comes:—

[Enter KING RICHARD.]


 * All health, my sovereign lord!

KING RICHARD.
 * Kind Tyrrel, am I happy in thy news?

TYRREL.
 * If to have done the thing you gave in charge
 * Beget your happiness, be happy then,
 * For it is done.

KING RICHARD.
 * But didst thou see them dead?

TYRREL.
 * I did, my lord.

KING RICHARD.
 * And buried, gentle Tyrrel?

TYRREL.
 * The chaplain of the Tower hath buried them;
 * But where, to say the truth, I do not know.

KING RICHARD.
 * Come to me, Tyrrel, soon, at after supper,
 * When thou shalt tell the process of their death.
 * Meantime, but think how I may do thee good,
 * And be inheritor of thy desire.
 * Farewell till then.

TYRREL.
 * I humbly take my leave.

[Exit.]

KING RICHARD.
 * The son of Clarence have I pent up close;
 * His daughter meanly have I match'd in marriage;
 * The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom,
 * And Anne my wife hath bid the world good-night.
 * Now, for I know the Britagne Richmond aims
 * At young Elizabeth, my brother's daughter,
 * And by that knot looks proudly on the crown,
 * To her go I, a jolly thriving wooer.

[Enter RATCLIFF.]

RATCLIFF.
 * My lord,—

KING RICHARD.
 * Good or bad news, that thou com'st in so bluntly?

RATCLIFF.
 * Bad news, my lord: Morton is fled to Richmond;
 * And Buckingham, back'd with the hardy Welshmen,
 * Is in the field, and still his power increaseth.

KING RICHARD.
 * Ely with Richmond troubles me more near
 * Than Buckingham and his rash-levied strength.
 * Come,—I have learn'd that fearful commenting
 * Is leaden servitor to dull delay;
 * Delay leads impotent and snail-pac'd beggary:
 * Then fiery expedition be my wing,
 * Jove's Mercury, and herald for a king!
 * Go, muster men: my counsel is my shield;
 * We must be brief when traitors brave the field.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV. London. Before the Palace.
[Enter QUEEN MARGARET.]

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * So, now prosperity begins to mellow,
 * And drop into the rotten mouth of death.
 * Here in these confines slily have I lurk'd
 * To watch the waning of mine enemies.
 * A dire induction am I witness to,
 * And will to France; hoping the consequence
 * Will prove as bitter, black, and tragical.—
 * Withdraw thee, wretched Margaret: who comes here?

[Retires.]

[Enter QUEEN ELIZABETH and the DUCHESS OF YORK.]

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Ah, my poor princes! ah, my tender babes!
 * My unblown flowers, new-appearing sweets!
 * If yet your gentle souls fly in the air
 * And be not fix'd in doom perpetual,
 * Hover about me with your airy wings
 * And hear your mother's lamentation!

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Hover about her; say that right for right
 * Hath dimm'd your infant morn to aged night.

DUCHESS.
 * So many miseries have craz'd my voice
 * That my woe-wearied tongue is still and mute.—
 * Edward Plantagenet, why art thou dead?

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Plantagenet doth quit Plantagenet,
 * Edward for Edward pays a dying debt.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Wilt thou, O God, fly from such gentle lambs,
 * And throw them in the entrails of the wolf?
 * When didst Thou sleep when such a deed was done?

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * When holy Harry died, and my sweet son.

DUCHESS.
 * Dead life, blind sight, poor mortal living ghost,
 * Woe's scene, world's shame, grave's due by life usurp'd,
 * Brief abstract and record of tedious days,
 * Rest thy unrest on England's lawful earth,
 * [Sitting down.]
 * Unlawfully made drunk with innocent blood.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Ah, that thou wouldst as soon afford a grave
 * As thou canst yield a melancholy seat!
 * Then would I hide my bones, not rest them here.
 * Ah, who hath any cause to mourn but we?
 * [Sitting down by her.]

QUEEN MARGARET. [Coming forward.]
 * If ancient sorrow be most reverent,
 * Give mine the benefit of seniory,
 * And let my griefs frown on the upper hand.
 * If sorrow can admit society,
 * [Sitting down with them.]
 * Tell o'er your woes again by viewing mine:—
 * I had an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him;
 * I had a Henry, till a Richard kill'd him:
 * Thou hadst an Edward, till a Richard kill'd him;
 * Thou hadst a Richard, till a Richard kill'd him.

DUCHESS.
 * I had a Richard too, and thou didst kill him;
 * I had a Rutland too, thou holp'st to kill him.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Thou hadst a Clarence too, and Richard kill'd him.
 * From forth the kennel of thy womb hath crept
 * A hell-hound that doth hunt us all to death:
 * That dog, that had his teeth before his eyes,
 * To worry lambs and lap their gentle blood;
 * That foul defacer of God's handiwork;
 * That excellent grand tyrant of the earth,
 * That reigns in galled eyes of weeping souls,—
 * Thy womb let loose to chase us to our graves.—
 * O upright, just, and true-disposing God,
 * How do I thank Thee that this carnal cur
 * Preys on the issue of his mother's body,
 * And makes her pew-fellow with others' moan!

DUCHESS.
 * O Harry's wife, triumph not in my woes!
 * God witness with me, I have wept for thine.

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Bear with me; I am hungry for revenge,
 * And now I cloy me with beholding it.
 * Thy Edward he is dead, that kill'd my Edward;
 * The other Edward dead to quit my Edward;
 * Young York he is but boot, because both they
 * Match not the high perfection of my loss:
 * Thy Clarence he is dead that stabb'd my Edward;
 * And the beholders of this frantic play,
 * The adulterate Hastings, Rivers, Vaughan, Grey,
 * Untimely smother'd in their dusky graves.
 * Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer;
 * Only reserv'd their factor to buy souls,
 * And send them thither: but at hand, at hand,
 * Ensues his piteous and unpitied end:
 * Earth gapes, hell burns, fiends roar, saints pray,
 * To have him suddenly convey'd from hence.—
 * Cancel his bond of life, dear God, I pray,
 * That I may live to say "The dog is dead."

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * O, thou didst prophesy the time would come
 * That I should wish for thee to help me curse
 * That bottled spider, that foul bunch-back'd toad!

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * I call'd thee then, vain flourish of my fortune;
 * I call'd thee then, poor shadow, painted queen;
 * The presentation of but what I was,
 * The flattering index of a direful pageant;
 * One heav'd a-high to be hurl'd down below,
 * A mother only mock'd with two fair babes;
 * A dream of what thou wast; a garish flag,
 * To be the aim of every dangerous shot;
 * A sign of dignity, a breath, a bubble;
 * A queen in jest, only to fill the scene.
 * Where is thy husband now? where be thy brothers?
 * Where be thy two sons? wherein dost thou joy?
 * Who sues, and kneels, and says, "God save the queen?"
 * Where be the bending peers that flatter'd thee?
 * Where be the thronging troops that follow'd thee?
 * Decline all this, and see what now thou art:
 * For happy wife, a most distressed widow;
 * For joyful mother, one that wails the name;
 * For one being su'd to, one that humbly sues;
 * For queen, a very caitiff crown'd with care;
 * For she that scorn'd at me, now scorn'd of me;
 * For she being fear'd of all, now fearing one;
 * For she commanding all, obey'd of none.
 * Thus hath the course of justice wheel'd about
 * And left thee but a very prey to time;
 * Having no more but thought of what thou wast,
 * To torture thee the more, being what thou art.
 * Thou didst usurp my place, and dost thou not
 * Usurp the just proportion of my sorrow?
 * Now thy proud neck bears half my burden'd yoke;
 * From which even here I slip my weary head,
 * And leave the burden of it all on thee.
 * Farewell, York's wife, and queen of sad mischance:—
 * These English woes shall make me smile in France.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * O thou well skill'd in curses, stay awhile,
 * And teach me how to curse mine enemies!

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Forbear to sleep the night, and fast the day;
 * Compare dead happiness with living woe;
 * Think that thy babes were sweeter than they were,
 * And he that slew them fouler than he is;
 * Bettering thy loss makes the bad-causer worse;
 * Revolving this will teach thee how to curse.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * My words are dull; O, quicken them with thine!

QUEEN MARGARET.
 * Thy woes will make them sharp, and pierce like mine.

[Exit.]

DUCHESS.
 * Why should calamity be full of words?

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Windy attorneys to their client woes,
 * Airy succeeders of intestate joys,
 * Poor breathing orators of miseries!
 * Let them have scope: though what they do impart
 * Help nothing else, yet do they ease the heart.

DUCHESS.
 * If so, then be not tongue-tied: go with me,
 * And in the breath of bitter words let's smother
 * My damned son, that thy two sweet sons smother'd.

[Drum within.]


 * I hear his drum:—be copious in exclaims.

[Enter KING RICHARD and his Train, marching.]

KING RICHARD.
 * Who intercepts me in my expedition?

DUCHESS.
 * O, she that might have intercepted thee,
 * By strangling thee in her accursed womb,
 * From all the slaughters, wretch, that thou hast done!

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Hidest thou that forehead with a golden crown,
 * Where should be branded, if that right were right,
 * The slaughter of the prince that ow'd that crown,
 * And the dire death of my poor sons and brothers?
 * Tell me, thou villain-slave, where are my children?

DUCHESS.
 * Thou toad, thou toad, where is thy brother Clarence?
 * And little Ned Plantagenet, his son?

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Where is the gentle Rivers, Vaughan, Grey?

DUCHESS.
 * Where is kind Hastings?

KING RICHARD.
 * A flourish, trumpets! strike alarum, drums!
 * Let not the heavens hear these tell-tale women
 * Rail on the Lord's anointed: strike, I say!

[Flourish. Alarums.]


 * Either be patient and entreat me fair,
 * Or with the clamorous report of war
 * Thus will I drown your exclamations.

DUCHESS.
 * Art thou my son?

KING RICHARD.
 * Ay, I thank God, my father, and yourself.

DUCHESS.
 * Then patiently hear my impatience.

KING RICHARD.
 * Madam, I have a touch of your condition
 * That cannot brook the accent of reproof.

DUCHESS.
 * O, let me speak!

KING RICHARD.
 * Do, then; but I'll not hear.

DUCHESS.
 * I will be mild and gentle in my words.

KING RICHARD.
 * And brief, good mother; for I am in haste.

DUCHESS.
 * Art thou so hasty? I have stay'd for thee,
 * God knows, in torment and in agony.

KING RICHARD.
 * And came I not at last to comfort you?

DUCHESS.
 * No, by the holy rood, thou know'st it well
 * Thou cam'st on earth to make the earth my hell.
 * A grievous burden was thy birth to me;
 * Tetchy and wayward was thy infancy;
 * Thy school-days frightful, desperate, wild, and furious;
 * Thy prime of manhood daring, bold, and venturous;
 * Thy age confirm'd, proud, subtle, sly, and bloody,
 * More mild, but yet more harmful, kind in hatred:
 * What comfortable hour canst thou name
 * That ever grac'd me with thy company?

KING RICHARD.
 * Faith, none but Humphrey Hour, that call'd your grace
 * To breakfast once forth of my company.
 * If I be so disgracious in your eye,
 * Let me march on and not offend you, madam.—
 * Strike up the drum.

DUCHESS.
 * I pr'ythee hear me speak.

KING RICHARD.
 * You speak too bitterly.

DUCHESS.
 * Hear me a word;
 * For I shall never speak to thee again.

KING RICHARD.
 * So.

DUCHESS.
 * Either thou wilt die by God's just ordinance
 * Ere from this war thou turn a conqueror;
 * Or I with grief and extreme age shall perish
 * And never more behold thy face again.
 * Therefore take with thee my most grievous curse;
 * Which in the day of battle tire thee more
 * Than all the complete armour that thou wear'st!
 * My prayers on the adverse party fight;
 * And there the little souls of Edward's children
 * Whisper the spirits of thine enemies,
 * And promise them success and victory.
 * Bloody thou art; bloody will be thy end:
 * Shame serves thy life and doth thy death attend.

[Exit.]

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Though far more cause, yet much less spirit to curse
 * Abides in me; I say amen to her.

[Going.]

KING RICHARD.
 * Stay, madam, I must talk a word with you.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * I have no more sons of the royal blood
 * For thee to slaughter: for my daughters, Richard,—
 * They shall be praying nuns, not weeping queens;
 * And therefore level not to hit their lives.

KING RICHARD.
 * You have a daughter call'd Elizabeth.
 * Virtuous and fair, royal and gracious.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * And must she die for this? O, let her live,
 * And I'll corrupt her manners, stain her beauty:
 * Slander myself as false to Edward's bed;
 * Throw over her the veil of infamy:
 * So she may live unscarr'd of bleeding slaughter,
 * I will confess she was not Edward's daughter.

KING RICHARD.
 * Wrong not her birth; she is of royal blood.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * To save her life I'll say she is not so.

KING RICHARD.
 * Her life is safest only in her birth.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * And only in that safety died her brothers.

KING RICHARD.
 * Lo, at their births good stars were opposite.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * No, to their lives bad friends were contrary.

KING RICHARD.
 * All unavoided is the doom of destiny.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * True, when avoided grace makes destiny:
 * My babes were destined to a fairer death,
 * If grace had bless'd thee with a fairer life.

KING RICHARD.
 * You speak as if that I had slain my cousins.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Cousins, indeed; and by their uncle cozen'd
 * Of comfort, kingdom, kindred, freedom, life.
 * Whose hand soever lanc'd their tender hearts,
 * Thy head, all indirectly, gave direction:
 * No doubt the murderous knife was dull and blunt
 * Till it was whetted on thy stone-hard heart,
 * To revel in the entrails of my lambs.
 * But that still use of grief makes wild grief tame,
 * My tongue should to thy ears not name my boys
 * Till that my nails were anchor'd in thine eyes;
 * And I, in such a desperate bay of death,
 * Like a poor bark, of sails and tackling reft,
 * Rush all to pieces on thy rocky bosom.

KING RICHARD.
 * Madam, so thrive I in my enterprise
 * And dangerous success of bloody wars,
 * As I intend more good to you and yours
 * Than ever you or yours by me were harm'd!

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * What good is cover'd with the face of heaven,
 * To be discover'd, that can do me good?

KING RICHARD.
 * Advancement of your children, gentle lady.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Up to some scaffold, there to lose their heads?

KING RICHARD.
 * Unto the dignity and height of honour,
 * The high imperial type of this earth's glory.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Flatter my sorrows with report of it;
 * Tell me what state, what dignity, what honour,
 * Canst thou demise to any child of mine?

KING RICHARD.
 * Even all I have; ay, and myself and all
 * Will I withal endow a child of thine;
 * So in the Lethe of thy angry soul
 * Thou drown the sad remembrance of those wrongs
 * Which thou supposest I have done to thee.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Be brief, lest that the process of thy kindness
 * Last longer telling than thy kindness' date.

KING RICHARD.
 * Then know, that from my soul I love thy daughter.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * My daughter's mother thinks it with her soul.

KING RICHARD.
 * What do you think?

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * That thou dost love my daughter from thy soul:
 * So from thy soul's love didst thou love her brothers;
 * And from my heart's love I do thank thee for it.

KING RICHARD.
 * Be not so hasty to confound my meaning:
 * I mean that with my soul I love thy daughter,
 * And do intend to make her Queen of England.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Well, then, who dost thou mean shall be her king?

KING RICHARD.
 * Even he that makes her queen: who else should be?

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * What, thou?

KING RICHARD.
 * I, even I: what think you of it, madam?

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * How canst thou woo her?

KING RICHARD.
 * That would I learn of you,
 * As one being best acquainted with her humour.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * And wilt thou learn of me?

KING RICHARD.
 * Madam, with all my heart.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Send to her, by the man that slew her brothers,
 * A pair of bleeding hearts; thereon engrave
 * "Edward" and "York." Then haply will she weep:
 * Therefore present to her,—as sometimes Margaret
 * Did to thy father, steep'd in Rutland's blood,—
 * A handkerchief; which, say to her, did drain
 * The purple sap from her sweet brothers' bodies,
 * And bid her wipe her weeping eyes withal.
 * If this inducement move her not to love,
 * Send her a letter of thy noble deeds;
 * Tell her thou mad'st away her uncle Clarence,
 * Her uncle Rivers; ay, and for her sake
 * Mad'st quick conveyance with her good aunt Anne.

KING RICHARD.
 * You mock me, madam; this is not the way
 * To win your daughter.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * There is no other way;
 * Unless thou couldst put on some other shape,
 * And not be Richard that hath done all this.

KING RICHARD.
 * Say that I did all this for love of her?

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Nay, then indeed she cannot choose but hate thee,
 * Having bought love with such a bloody spoil.

KING RICHARD.
 * Look, what is done cannot be now amended:
 * Men shall deal unadvisedly sometimes,
 * Which after-hours gives leisure to repent.
 * If I did take the kingdom from your sons,
 * To make amends I'll give it to your daughter.
 * If I have kill'd the issue of your womb,
 * To quicken your increase I will beget
 * Mine issue of your blood upon your daughter.
 * A grandam's name is little less in love
 * Than is the doating title of a mother;
 * They are as children but one step below,
 * Even of your mettle, of your very blood;
 * Of all one pain,—save for a night of groans
 * Endur'd of her, for whom you bid like sorrow.
 * Your children were vexation to your youth;
 * But mine shall be a comfort to your age.
 * The loss you have is but a son being king,
 * And by that loss your daughter is made queen.
 * I cannot make you what amends I would,
 * Therefore accept such kindness as I can.
 * Dorset your son, that with a fearful soul
 * Leads discontented steps in foreign soil,
 * This fair alliance quickly shall call home
 * To high promotions and great dignity:
 * The king, that calls your beauteous daughter wife,
 * Familiarly shall call thy Dorset brother;
 * Again shall you be mother to a king,
 * And all the ruins of distressful times
 * Repair'd with double riches of content.
 * What! we have many goodly days to see:
 * The liquid drops of tears that you have shed
 * Shall come again, transform'd to orient pearl,
 * Advantaging their loan with interest
 * Of ten times double gain of happiness.
 * Go, then, my mother, to thy daughter go;
 * Make bold her bashful years with your experience;
 * Prepare her ears to hear a wooer's tale:
 * Put in her tender heart the aspiring flame
 * Of golden sovereignty; acquaint the princess
 * With the sweet silent hours of marriage joys:
 * And when this arm of mine hath chastised
 * The petty rebel, dull-brain'd Buckingham,
 * Bound with triumphant garlands will I come,
 * And lead thy daughter to a conqueror's bed;
 * To whom I will retail my conquest won,
 * And she shall be sole victoress, Caesar's Caesar.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * What were I best to say? her father's brother
 * Would be her lord? or shall I say her uncle?
 * Or he that slew her brothers and her uncles?
 * Under what title shall I woo for thee,
 * That God, the law, my honour, and her love
 * Can make seem pleasing to her tender years?

KING RICHARD.
 * Infer fair England's peace by this alliance.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Which she shall purchase with still-lasting war.

KING RICHARD.
 * Tell her the king, that may command, entreats.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * That at her hands which the king's King forbids.

KING RICHARD.
 * Say she shall be a high and mighty queen.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * To wail the title, as her mother doth.

KING RICHARD.
 * Say I will love her everlastingly.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * But how long shall that title, "ever," last?

KING RICHARD.
 * Sweetly in force unto her fair life's end.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * But how long fairly shall her sweet life last?

KING RICHARD.
 * As long as heaven and nature lengthens it.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * As long as hell and Richard likes of it.

KING RICHARD.
 * Say I, her sovereign, am her subject low.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * But she, your subject, loathes such sovereignty.

KING RICHARD.
 * Be eloquent in my behalf to her.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.

KING RICHARD.
 * Then plainly to her tell my loving tale.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Plain and not honest is too harsh a style.

KING RICHARD.
 * Your reasons are too shallow and too quick.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * O, no, my reasons are too deep and dead;—
 * Too deep and dead, poor infants, in their graves.

KING RICHARD.
 * Harp not on that string, madam; that is past.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Harp on it still shall I till heartstrings break.

KING RICHARD.
 * Now, by my George, my garter, and my crown,—

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Profan'd, dishonour'd, and the third usurp'd.

KING RICHARD.
 * I swear,—

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * By nothing; for this is no oath:
 * Thy George, profan'd, hath lost his lordly honour;
 * Thy garter, blemish'd, pawn'd his knightly virtue;
 * Thy crown, usurp'd, disgrac'd his kingly glory.
 * If something thou wouldst swear to be believ'd,
 * Swear then by something that thou hast not wrong'd.

KING RICHARD.
 * Now, by the world,—

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * 'Tis full of thy foul wrongs.

KING RICHARD.
 * My father's death,—

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Thy life hath that dishonour'd.

KING RICHARD.
 * Then, by myself,—

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Thy self is self-misus'd.

KING RICHARD.
 * Why, then, by God,—

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * God's wrong is most of all.
 * If thou hadst fear'd to break an oath by Him,
 * The unity the king thy brother made
 * Had not been broken, nor my brother slain:
 * If thou hadst fear'd to break an oath by Him,
 * The imperial metal, circling now thy head,
 * Had grac'd the tender temples of my child;
 * And both the princes had been breathing here,
 * Which now, two tender bedfellows for dust,
 * Thy broken faith hath made a prey for worms.
 * What canst thou swear by now?

KING RICHARD.
 * The time to come.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * That thou hast wronged in the time o'erpast;
 * For I myself have many tears to wash
 * Hereafter time, for time past wronged by thee.
 * The children live whose fathers thou hast slaughter'd,
 * Ungovern'd youth, to wail it in their age;
 * The parents live whose children thou hast butcher'd,
 * Old barren plants, to wail it with their age.
 * Swear not by time to come: for that thou hast
 * Misus'd ere used, by times ill-us'd o'erpast.

KING RICHARD.
 * As I intend to prosper and repent!
 * So thrive I in my dangerous attempt
 * Of hostile arms! myself myself confound!
 * Heaven and fortune bar me happy hours!
 * Day, yield me not thy light; nor, night, thy rest!
 * Be opposite all planets of good luck
 * To my proceeding!—if, with pure heart's love,
 * Immaculate devotion, holy thoughts,
 * I tender not thy beauteous princely daughter!
 * In her consists my happiness and thine;
 * Without her, follows to myself and thee,
 * Herself, the land, and many a Christian soul,
 * Death, desolation, ruin, and decay:
 * It cannot be avoided but by this;
 * It will not be avoided but by this.
 * Therefore, dear mother,—I must call you so,—
 * Be the attorney of my love to her:
 * Plead what I will be, not what I have been;
 * Not my deserts, but what I will deserve:
 * Urge the necessity and state of times,
 * And be not peevish found in great designs.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Shall I be tempted of the devil thus?

KING RICHARD.
 * Ay, if the devil tempt you to do good.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Shall I forget myself to be myself?

KING RICHARD.
 * Ay, if your self's remembrance wrong yourself.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Yet thou didst kill my children.

KING RICHARD.
 * But in your daughter's womb I bury them:
 * Where, in that nest of spicery, they shall breed
 * Selves of themselves, to your recomforture.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * Shall I go win my daughter to thy will?

KING RICHARD.
 * And be a happy mother by the deed.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.
 * I go.—Write to me very shortly,
 * And you shall understand from me her mind.

KING RICHARD.
 * Bear her my true love's kiss; and so, farewell.

[Kissing her. Exit QUEEN ELIZABETH.]


 * Relenting fool, and shallow, changing woman!

[Enter RATCLIFF; CATESBY following.]


 * How now! what news?

RATCLIFF.
 * Most mighty sovereign, on the western coast
 * Rideth a puissant navy; to the shore
 * Throng many doubtful hollow-hearted friends,
 * Unarm'd, and unresolv'd to beat them back:
 * 'Tis thought that Richmond is their admiral;
 * And there they hull, expecting but the aid
 * Of Buckingham to welcome them ashore.

KING RICHARD.
 * Some light-foot friend post to the Duke of Norfolk:—
 * Ratcliff, thyself,—or Catesby; where is he?

CATESBY.
 * Here, my good lord.

KING RICHARD.
 * Catesby, fly to the duke.

CATESBY.
 * I will my lord, with all convenient haste.

KING RICHARD.
 * Ratcliff, come hither: post to Salisbury:
 * When thou com'st thither,—
 * [To CATESBY.] Dull, unmindful villain,
 * Why stay'st thou here, and go'st not to the duke?

CATESBY.
 * First, mighty liege, tell me your highness' pleasure,
 * What from your grace I shall deliver to him.

KING RICHARD.
 * O, true, good Catesby:—bid him levy straight
 * The greatest strength and power that he can make,
 * And meet me suddenly at Salisbury.

CATESBY.
 * I go.

[Exit.]

RATCLIFF.
 * What, may it please you, shall I do at Salisbury?

KING RICHARD.
 * Why, what wouldst thou do there before I go?

RATCLIFF.
 * Your highness told me I should post before.

[Enter STANLEY.]

KING RICHARD.
 * My mind is chang'd.—Stanley, what news with you?

STANLEY.
 * None good, my liege, to please you with the hearing;
 * Nor none so bad but well may be reported.

KING RICHARD.
 * Hoyday, a riddle! neither good nor bad!
 * What need'st thou run so many miles about,
 * When thou mayest tell thy tale the nearest way?
 * Once more, what news?

STANLEY.
 * Richmond is on the seas.

KING RICHARD.
 * There let him sink, and be the seas on him!
 * White-liver'd runagate, what doth he there?

STANLEY.
 * I know not, mighty sovereign, but by guess.

KING RICHARD.
 * Well, as you guess?

STANLEY.
 * Stirr'd up by Dorset, Buckingham, and Morton,
 * He makes for England here, to claim the crown.

KING RICHARD.
 * Is the chair empty? is the sword unsway'd?
 * Is the king dead? the empire unpossess'd?
 * What heir of York is there alive but we?
 * And who is England's king but great York's heir?
 * Then tell me, what makes he upon the seas?

STANLEY.
 * Unless for that, my liege, I cannot guess.

KING RICHARD.
 * Unless for that he comes to be your liege,
 * You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes.
 * Thou wilt revolt and fly to him, I fear.

STANLEY.
 * No, mighty leige; therefore mistrust me not.

KING RICHARD.
 * Where is thy power, then, to beat him back?
 * Where be thy tenants and thy followers?
 * Are they not now upon the western shore,
 * Safe-conducting the rebels from their ships?

STANLEY.
 * No, my good lord, my friends are in the north.

KING RICHARD.
 * Cold friends to me: what do they in the north,
 * When they should serve their sovereign in the west?

STANLEY.
 * They have not been commanded, mighty king:
 * Pleaseth your majesty to give me leave,
 * I'll muster up my friends, and meet your grace
 * Where and what time your majesty shall please.

KING RICHARD.
 * Ay, ay, thou wouldst be gone to join with Richmond;
 * But I'll not trust thee.

STANLEY.
 * Most mighty sovereign,
 * You have no cause to hold my friendship doubtful:
 * I never was nor never will be false.

KING RICHARD.
 * Go, then, and muster men. But leave behind
 * Your son, George Stanley: look your heart be firm,
 * Or else his head's assurance is but frail.

STANLEY.
 * So deal with him as I prove true to you.

[Exit.]

[Enter a MESSENGER.]

MESSENGER.
 * My gracious sovereign, now in Devonshire,
 * As I by friends am well advertised,
 * Sir Edward Courtney, and the haughty prelate,
 * Bishop of Exeter, his elder brother,
 * With many more confederates, are in arms.

[Enter a second MESSENGER.]

SECOND MESSENGER.
 * In Kent, my liege, the Guilfords are in arms;
 * And every hour more competitors
 * Flock to the rebels, and their power grows strong.

[Enter a third MESSENGER.]

THIRD MESSENGER.
 * My lord, the army of great Buckingham,—

KING RICHARD.
 * Out on you, owls! Nothing but songs of death?

[He strikes him.]


 * There, take thou that till thou bring better news.

THIRD MESSENGER.
 * The news I have to tell your majesty
 * Is, that by sudden floods and fall of waters,
 * Buckingham's army is dispers'd and scatter'd;
 * And he himself wander'd away alone,
 * No man knows whither.

KING RICHARD.
 * I cry you mercy:
 * There is my purse to cure that blow of thine.
 * Hath any well-advised friend proclaim'd
 * Reward to him that brings the traitor in?

THIRD MESSENGER.
 * Such proclamation hath been made, my liege.

[Enter a fourth MESSENGER.]

FOURTH MESSENGER.
 * Sir Thomas Lovel and Lord Marquis Dorset,
 * 'Tis said, my liege, in Yorkshire are in arms.
 * But this good comfort bring I to your highness,—
 * The Britagne navy is dispers'd by tempest:
 * Richmond, in Dorsetshire, sent out a boat
 * Unto the shore, to ask those on the banks
 * If they were his assistants, yea or no;
 * Who answer'd him they came from Buckingham
 * Upon his party. He, mistrusting them,
 * Hois'd sail, and made his course again for Britagne.

KING RICHARD.
 * March on, march on, since we are up in arms;
 * If not to fight with foreign enemies,
 * Yet to beat down these rebels here at home.

[Re-enter CATESBY.]

CATESBY.
 * My liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken,—
 * That is the best news: that the Earl of Richmond
 * Is with a mighty power landed at Milford
 * Is colder tidings, yet they must be told.

KING RICHARD.
 * Away towards Salisbury! while we reason here
 * A royal battle might be won and lost:—
 * Some one take order Buckingham be brought
 * To Salisbury; the rest march on with me.

[Flourish. Exeunt.]

SCENE V. A Room in LORD STANLEY'S house.
[Enter STANLEY and SIR CHRISTOPHER URSWICK.]

STANLEY.
 * Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me:—
 * That in the sty of the most deadly boar
 * My son George Stanley is frank'd up in hold:
 * If I revolt, off goes young George's head;
 * The fear of that holds off my present aid.
 * So, get thee gone: commend me to thy lord;
 * Withal say that the queen hath heartily consented
 * He should espouse Elizabeth her daughter.
 * But tell me, where is princely Richmond now?

CHRISTOPHER.
 * At Pembroke, or at Ha'rford-west in Wales.

STANLEY.
 * What men of name resort to him?

CHRISTOPHER.
 * Sir Walter Herbert, a renowned soldier;
 * Sir Gilbert Talbot, Sir William Stanley;
 * Oxford, redoubted Pembroke, Sir James Blunt,
 * And Rice ap Thomas, with a valiant crew;
 * And many other of great name and worth:
 * And towards London do they bend their power,
 * If by the way they be not fought withal.

STANLEY.
 * Well, hie thee to thy lord; I kiss his hand;
 * My letter will resolve him of my mind.
 * Farewell.

[Gives papers to SIR CHRISTOPHER. Exeunt.]

SCENE I. Salisbury. An open place.
[Enter the Sheriff and Guard, with BUCKINGHAM, led to execution.]

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Will not King Richard let me speak with him?

SHERIFF.
 * No, my good lord; therefore be patient.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Hastings, and Edward's children, Grey, and Rivers,
 * Holy King Henry, and thy fair son Edward,
 * Vaughan, and all that have miscarried
 * By underhand corrupted foul injustice,—
 * If that your moody discontented souls
 * Do through the clouds behold this present hour,
 * Even for revenge mock my destruction!—
 * This is All-Souls' day, fellow, is it not?

SHERIFF.
 * It is, my lord.

BUCKINGHAM.
 * Why, then All-Souls' day is my body's doomsday.
 * This is the day which in King Edward's time
 * I wish'd might fall on me, when I was found
 * False to his children and his wife's allies;
 * This is the day wherein I wish'd to fall
 * By the false faith of him whom most I trusted;
 * This, this All-Souls' day to my fearful soul
 * Is the determin'd respite of my wrongs:
 * That high All-Seer which I dallied with
 * Hath turn'd my feigned prayer on my head
 * And given in earnest what I begg'd in jest.
 * Thus doth He force the swords of wicked men
 * To turn their own points in their masters' bosoms:
 * Thus Margaret's curse falls heavy on my neck,—
 * "When he," quoth she, "shall split thy heart with sorrow,
 * Remember Margaret was a prophetess."—
 * Come lead me, officers, to the block of shame;
 * Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of blame.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE II. Plain near Tamworth.
[Enter with drum and colours, RICHMOND, OXFORD, SIR JAMES BLUNT, SIR WALTER HERBERT, and others, with Forces, marching.]

RICHMOND.
 * Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends,
 * Bruis'd underneath the yoke of tyranny,
 * Thus far into the bowels of the land
 * Have we march'd on without impediment;
 * And here receive we from our father Stanley
 * Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
 * The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar
 * That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful vines,
 * Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his trough
 * In your embowell'd bosoms,—this foul swine
 * Lies now even in the centre of this isle,
 * Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn:
 * From Tamworth thither is but one day's march.
 * In God's name cheerly on, courageous friends,
 * To reap the harvest of perpetual peace
 * By this one bloody trial of sharp war.

OXFORD.
 * Every man's conscience is a thousand swords,
 * To fight against that bloody homicide.

HERBERT.
 * I doubt not but his friends will turn to us.

BLUNT.
 * He hath no friends but what are friends for fear,
 * Which in his dearest need will fly from him.

RICHMOND.
 * All for our vantage. Then in God's name, march:
 * True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings;
 * Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE III. Bosworth Field.
[Enter KING RICHARD and Forces; the DUKE OF NORFOLK, the EARL of
 * SURREY, and others.]

KING RICHARD.
 * Here pitch our tents, even here in Bosworth field.—
 * My Lord of Surrey, why look you so sad?

SURREY.
 * My heart is ten times lighter than my looks.

KING RICHARD.
 * My Lord of Norfolk,—

NORFOLK.
 * Here, most gracious liege.

KING RICHARD.
 * Norfolk, we must have knocks; ha! must we not?

NORFOLK.
 * We must both give and take, my loving lord.

KING RICHARD.
 * Up With my tent! Here will I lie to-night;

[Soldiers begin to set up the King's tent.]


 * But where to-morrow? Well, all's one for that.—
 * Who hath descried the number of the traitors?

NORFOLK.
 * Six or seven thousand is their utmost power.

KING RICHARD.
 * Why, our battalia trebles that account:
 * Besides, the king's name is a tower of strength,
 * Which they upon the adverse faction want.—
 * Up with the tent!—Come, noble gentlemen,
 * Let us survey the vantage of the ground;—
 * Call for some men of sound direction:—
 * Let's lack no discipline, make no delay;
 * For, lords, to-morrow is a busy day.

[Exeunt.]

[Enter, on the other side of the field, RICHMOND, SIR WILLIAM BRANDON, OXFORD, and other Lords. Some of the Soldiers pitch RICHMOND'S tent.]

RICHMOND.
 * The weary sun hath made a golden set,
 * And by the bright tract of his fiery car
 * Gives token of a goodly day to-morrow.
 * Sir William Brandon, you shall bear my standard.—
 * Give me some ink and paper in my tent:
 * I'll draw the form and model of our battle,
 * Limit each leader to his several charge,
 * And part in just proportion our small power.—
 * My Lord of Oxford,—you, Sir William Brandon,—
 * And you, Sir Walter Herbert,—stay with me.—
 * The Earl of Pembroke keeps his regiment:—
 * Good Captain Blunt, bear my good night to him,
 * And by the second hour in the morning
 * Desire the earl to see me in my tent:
 * Yet one thing more, good captain, do for me,—
 * Where is Lord Stanley quarter'd, do you know?

BLUNT.
 * Unless I have mista'en his colours much,—
 * Which well I am assur'd I have not done,—
 * His regiment lies half a mile at least
 * South from the mighty power of the king.

RICHMOND.
 * If without peril it be possible,
 * Sweet Blunt, make some good means to speak with him
 * And give him from me this most needful note.

BLUNT.
 * Upon my life, my lord, I'll undertake it;
 * And so, God give you quiet rest to-night!

RICHMOND.
 * Good night, good Captain Blunt.—Come, gentlemen,
 * Let us consult upon to-morrow's business:
 * In to my tent; the air is raw and cold.

[They withdraw into the tent.]

[Enter, to his tent, KING RICHARD, NORFOLK, RATCLIFF, and CATESBY.]

KING RICHARD.
 * What is't o'clock?

CATESBY.
 * It's supper-time, my lord; It's six o'clock.

KING RICHARD.
 * I will not sup to-night.—
 * Give me some ink and paper.—
 * What, is my beaver easier than it was?
 * And all my armour laid into my tent?

CATESBY.
 * It is, my liege; and all things are in readiness.

KING RICHARD.
 * Good Norfolk, hie thee to thy charge;
 * Use careful watch, choose trusty sentinels.

NORFOLK.
 * I go, my lord.

KING RICHARD.
 * Stir with the lark to-morrow, gentle Norfolk.

NORFOLK.
 * I warrant you, my lord.

[Exit.]

KING RICHARD.
 * Ratcliff,—

RATCLIFF.
 * My lord?

KING RICHARD.
 * Send out a pursuivant-at-arms
 * To Stanley's regiment; bid him bring his power
 * Before sunrising, lest his son George fall
 * Into the blind cave of eternal night.—
 * Fill me a bowl of wine.—Give me a watch.—
 * Saddle white Surrey for the field to-morrow.—
 * Look that my staves be sound, and not too heavy.—
 * Ratcliff,—

RATCLIFF.
 * My lord?

KING RICHARD.
 * Saw'st thou the melancholy Lord Northumberland?

RATCLIFF.
 * Thomas the Earl of Surrey and himself,
 * Much about cock-shut time, from troop to troop
 * Went through the army, cheering up the soldiers.

KING RICHARD.
 * So, I am satisfied.—Give me a bowl of wine:
 * I have not that alacrity of spirit
 * Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have.
 * Set it down.—Is ink and paper ready?

RATCLIFF.
 * It is, my lord.

KING RICHARD.
 * Bid my guard watch; leave me.
 * Ratcliff, about the mid of night come to my tent
 * And help to arm me. Leave me, I say.

[KING RICHARD retires into his tent. Exeunt RATCLIFF and CATESBY.]

[RICHMOND's tent opens, and discovers him and his Officers, &c.]

STANLEY.
 * Fortune and victory sit on thy helm!

RICHMOND.
 * All comfort that the dark night can afford
 * Be to thy person, noble father-in-law!
 * Tell me, how fares our loving mother?

STANLEY.
 * I, by attorney, bless thee from thy mother,
 * Who prays continually for Richmond's good.
 * So much for that.—The silent hours steal on,
 * And flaky darkness breaks within the east.
 * In brief,—for so the season bids us be,—
 * Prepare thy battle early in the morning,
 * And put thy fortune to the arbitrement
 * Of bloody strokes and mortal-staring war.
 * I, as I may,—that which I would I cannot,—
 * With best advantage will deceive the time,
 * And aid thee in this doubtful stroke of arms:
 * But on thy side I may not be too forward,
 * Lest, being seen, thy brother, tender George,
 * Be executed in his father's sight.
 * Farewell: the leisure and the fearful time
 * Cuts off the ceremonious vows of love
 * And ample interchange of sweet discourse,
 * Which so-long-sunder'd friends should dwell upon:
 * God give us leisure for these rites of love!
 * Once more, adieu: be valiant, and speed well!

RICHMOND.
 * Good lords, conduct him to his regiment:
 * I'll strive with troubled thoughts to take a nap,
 * Lest leaden slumber peise me down to-morrow,
 * When I should mount with wings of victory:
 * Once more, good night, kind lords and gentlemen.

[Exeunt Lords, &c., with STANLEY.]


 * O Thou Whose captain I account myself,
 * Look on my forces with a gracious eye;
 * Put in their hands Thy bruising irons of wrath,
 * That they may crush down with a heavy fall
 * The usurping helmets of our adversaries!
 * Make us Thy ministers of chastisement,
 * That we may praise Thee in Thy victory!
 * To Thee I do commend my watchful soul
 * Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes:
 * Sleeping and waking, O, defend me still!

[Sleeps.]

[The Ghost of PRINCE EDWARD, son to HENRY THE SIXTH, rises between the two tents.]

GHOST.
 * [To KING RICHARD.] Let me sit heavy on thy soul to-morrow!
 * Think how thou stabb'dst me in my prime of youth
 * At Tewksbury: despair, therefore, and die!—
 * [To RICHMOND.] Be cheerful, Richmond; for the wronged souls
 * Of butcher'd princes fight in thy behalf:
 * King Henry's issue, Richmond, comforts thee.

[The Ghost of HENRY THE SIXTH rises.]

GHOST.
 * [To KING RICHARD.] When I was mortal, my anointed body
 * By thee was punched full of deadly holes:
 * Think on the Tower and me: despair, and die,—
 * Harry the Sixth bids thee despair and die.—
 * [To RICHMOND.] Virtuous and holy, be thou conqueror!
 * Harry, that prophesied thou shouldst be king,
 * Doth comfort thee in thy sleep: live, and flourish!

[The Ghost of CLARENCE rises.]

GHOST.
 * [To KING RICHARD.] Let me sit heavy in thy soul to-morrow!
 * I that was wash'd to death with fulsome wine,
 * Poor Clarence, by thy guile betray'd to death!
 * To-morrow in the battle think on me,
 * And fall thy edgeless sword: despair, and die!—
 * [To RICHMOND.] Thou offspring of the house of Lancaster,
 * The wronged heirs of York do pray for thee:
 * Good angels guard thy battle! live, and flourish!

[The Ghosts of RIVERS, GREY, and VAUGHAN rise.]

GHOST OF RIVERS.
 * [To KING RICHARD.] Let me sit heavy in thy soul to-morrow,
 * Rivers that died at Pomfret! despair and die!

GHOST OF GREY.
 * [To KING RICHARD.] Think upon Grey, and let thy soul despair!

GHOST OF VAUGHAN.
 * [To KING RICHARD.] Think upon Vaughan, and, with guilty fear,
 * Let fall thy lance: despair and die!—

ALL THREE.
 * [To RICHMOND.] Awake, and think our wrongs in Richard's bosom
 * Will conquer him!—awake, and win the day!

[The GHOST of HASTINGS rises.]

GHOST.
 * [To KING RICHARD.] Bloody and guilty, guiltily awake,
 * And in a bloody battle end thy days!
 * Think on Lord Hastings: despair and die!—
 * [To RICHMOND.] Quiet untroubled soul, awake, awake!
 * Arm, fight, and conquer, for fair England's sake!

[The Ghosts of the two young PRINCES rise.]

GHOSTS.
 * [To KING RICHARD.] Dream on thy cousins smothered in the Tower:
 * Let us be lead within thy bosom, Richard,
 * And weigh thee down to ruin, shame, and death!
 * Thy nephews' souls bid thee despair and die!—
 * [To RICHMOND.] Sleep, Richmond, sleep in peace, and wake in joy;
 * Good angels guard thee from the boar's annoy!
 * Live, and beget a happy race of kings!
 * Edward's unhappy sons do bid thee flourish.

[The GHOST of QUEEN ANNE rises.]

GHOST.
 * [To KING RICHARD.] Richard, thy wife, that wretched Anne thy wife,
 * That never slept a quiet hour with thee,
 * Now fills thy sleep with perturbations:
 * To-morrow in the battle think on me,
 * And fall thy edgeless sword: despair and die!—
 * [To RICHMOND.] Thou quiet soul, sleep thou a quiet sleep;
 * Dream of success and happy victory:
 * Thy adversary's wife doth pray for thee.

[The Ghost of BUCKINGHAM rises.]

GHOST.
 * [To KING RICHARD.] The first was I that help'd thee to the crown;
 * The last was I that felt thy tyranny:
 * O, in the battle think on Buckingham,
 * And die in terror of thy guiltiness!
 * Dream on, dream on of bloody deeds and death:
 * Fainting, despair; despairing, yield thy breath!—
 * [To RICHMOND.] I died for hope ere I could lend thee aid:
 * But cheer thy heart and be thou not dismay'd:
 * God and good angels fight on Richmond's side;
 * And Richard falls in height of all his pride.

[The GHOSTS vanish. KING RICHARD starts out of his dream.]

KING RICHARD.
 * Give me another horse,—bind up my wounds,—
 * Have mercy, Jesu!—Soft! I did but dream.—
 * O coward conscience, how dost thou afflict me!—
 * The lights burn blue.—It is now dead midnight.
 * Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.
 * What, do I fear myself? there's none else by:
 * Richard loves Richard; that is, I am I.
 * Is there a murderer here? No;—yes, I am:
 * Then fly. What, from myself? Great reason why,—
 * Lest I revenge. What,—myself upon myself!
 * Alack, I love myself. Wherefore? for any good
 * That I myself have done unto myself?
 * O, no! alas, I rather hate myself
 * For hateful deeds committed by myself!
 * I am a villain: yet I lie, I am not.
 * Fool, of thyself speak well:—fool, do not flatter.
 * My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
 * And every tongue brings in a several tale,
 * And every tale condemns me for a villain.
 * Perjury, perjury, in the high'st degree;
 * Murder, stern murder, in the dir'st degree;
 * All several sins, all us'd in each degree,
 * Throng to the bar, crying all "Guilty! guilty!"
 * I shall despair. There is no creature loves me;
 * And if I die no soul will pity me:
 * And wherefore should they,—since that I myself
 * Find in myself no pity to myself?
 * Methought the souls of all that I had murder'd
 * Came to my tent; and every one did threat
 * To-morrow's vengeance on the head of Richard.

[Enter RATCLIFF.]

RATCLIFF.
 * My lord,—

KING RICHARD.
 * Who's there?

RATCLIFF.
 * Ratcliff, my lord; 'tis I. The early village-cock
 * Hath twice done salutation to the morn;
 * Your friends are up, and buckle on their armour.

KING RICHARD.
 * O Ratcliff, I have dream'd a fearful dream!—
 * What think'st thou,—will our friends prove all true?

RATCLIFF.
 * No doubt, my lord.

KING RICHARD.
 * O Ratcliff, I fear, I fear,—

RATCLIFF.
 * Nay, good my lord, be not afraid of shadows.

KING RICHARD
 * By the apostle Paul, shadows to-night
 * Have stuck more terror to the soul of Richard
 * Than can the substance of ten thousand soldiers
 * Armed in proof and led by shallow Richmond.
 * It is not yet near day. Come, go with me;
 * Under our tents I'll play the eaves-dropper,
 * To see if any mean to shrink from me.

[Exeunt KING RICHARD and RATCLIFF.]

[RICHMOND wakes. Enter OXFORD and others.]

LORDS.
 * Good morrow, Richmond!

RICHMOND.
 * Cry mercy, lords and watchful gentlemen,
 * That you have ta'en a tardy sluggard here.

LORDS.
 * How have you slept, my lord?

RICHMOND.
 * The sweetest sleep and fairest-boding dreams
 * That ever enter'd in a drowsy head
 * Have I since your departure had, my lords.
 * Methought their souls whose bodies Richard murder'd
 * Came to my tent and cried on victory:
 * I promise you, my heart is very jocund
 * In the remembrance of so fair a dream.
 * How far into the morning is it, lords?

LORDS.
 * Upon the stroke of four.

RICHMOND.
 * Why, then 'tis time to arm and give direction.—

[He advances to the Troops.]


 * More than I have said, loving countrymen,
 * The leisure and enforcement of the time
 * Forbids to dwell on: yet remember this,—
 * God and our good cause fight upon our side;
 * The prayers of holy saints and wronged souls,
 * Like high-rear'd bulwarks, stand before our faces;
 * Richard except, those whom we fight against
 * Had rather have us win than him they follow:
 * For what is he they follow? truly, gentlemen,
 * A bloody tyrant and a homicide;
 * One rais'd in blood, and one in blood establish'd;
 * One that made means to come by what he hath,
 * And slaughter'd those that were the means to help him;
 * A base foul stone, made precious by the foil
 * Of England's chair, where he is falsely set;
 * One that hath ever been God's enemy.
 * Then, if you fight against God's enemy,
 * God will, in justice, ward you as His soldiers;
 * If you do sweat to put a tyrant down,
 * You sleep in peace, the tyrant being slain;
 * If you do fight against your country's foes,
 * Your country's fat shall pay your pains the hire;
 * If you do fight in safeguard of your wives,
 * Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors;
 * If you do free your children from the sword,
 * Your children's children quit it in your age.
 * Then, in the name of God and all these rights,
 * Advance your standards, draw your willing swords.
 * For me, the ransom of my bold attempt
 * Shall be this cold corpse on the earth's cold face;
 * But if I thrive, the gain of my attempt
 * The least of you shall share his part thereof.
 * Sound drums and trumpets boldly and cheerfully;
 * God and Saint George! Richmond and victory!

[Exeunt.]

[Re-enter KING RICHARD, RATCLIFF, Attendants, and Forces.]

KING RICHARD.
 * What said Northumberland as touching Richmond?

RATCLIFF.
 * That he was never trained up in arms.

KING RICHARD.
 * He said the truth; and what said Surrey then?

RATCLIFF.
 * He smil'd, and said, "the better for our purpose."

KING RICHARD.
 * He was in the right; and so indeed it is.

[Clock strikes.]


 * Tell the clock there.—Give me a calendar.—
 * Who saw the sun to-day?

RATCLIFF.
 * Not I, my lord.

KING RICHARD.
 * Then he disdains to shine; for by the book
 * He should have brav'd the east an hour ago:
 * A black day will it be to somebody.—
 * Ratcliff,—

RATCLIFF.
 * My lord?

KING RICHARD.
 * The sun will not be seen to-day;
 * The sky doth frown and lower upon our army.
 * I would these dewy tears were from the ground.
 * Not shine to-day! Why, what is that to me
 * More than to Richmond? for the selfsame heaven
 * That frowns on me looks sadly upon him.

[Enter NORFOLK.]

NORFOLK.
 * Arm, arm, my lord; the foe vaunts in the field.

KING RICHARD.
 * Come, bustle, bustle; caparison my horse;—
 * Call up Lord Stanley, bid him bring his power:
 * I will lead forth my soldiers to the plain,
 * And thus my battle shall be ordered:—
 * My foreward shall be drawn out all in length,
 * Consisting equally of horse and foot;
 * Our archers shall be placed in the midst:
 * John Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Earl of Surrey,
 * Shall have the leading of this foot and horse.
 * They thus directed, we will follow
 * In the main battle; whose puissance on either side
 * Shall be well winged with our chiefest horse.
 * This, and Saint George to boot!—What think'st thou,
 * Norfolk?

NORFOLK.
 * A good direction, warlike sovereign.—
 * This found I on my tent this morning.

[Giving a scroll.]

KING RICHARD.
 * [Reads.] "Jockey of Norfolk, be not too bold,
 * For Dickon thy master is bought and sold."
 * A thing devised by the enemy.—
 * Go, gentlemen, every man unto his charge:
 * Let not our babbling dreams affright our souls;
 * Conscience is but a word that cowards use,
 * Devis'd at first to keep the strong in awe:
 * Our strong arms be our conscience, swords our law.
 * March on, join bravely, let us to't pell-mell;
 * If not to heaven, then hand in hand to hell.—
 * What shall I say more than I have inferr'd?
 * Remember whom you are to cope withal;—
 * A sort of vagabonds, rascals, and runaways,
 * A scum of Britagnes, and base lackey peasants,
 * Whom their o'er-cloyed country vomits forth
 * To desperate adventures and assur'd destruction.
 * You sleeping safe, they bring to you unrest;
 * You having lands, and bless'd with beauteous wives,
 * They would restrain the one, distain the other.
 * And who doth lead them but a paltry fellow,
 * Long kept in Britagne at our mother's cost?
 * A milk-sop, one that never in his life
 * Felt so much cold as over shoes in snow?
 * Let's whip these stragglers o'er the seas again;
 * Lash hence these over-weening rags of France,
 * These famish'd beggars, weary of their lives;
 * Who, but for dreaming on this fond exploit,
 * For want of means, poor rats, had hang'd themselves:
 * If we be conquered, let men conquer us,
 * And not these bastard Britagnes, whom our fathers
 * Have in their own land beaten, bobb'd, and thump'd,
 * And, on record, left them the heirs of shame.
 * Shall these enjoy our lands? lie with our wives,
 * Ravish our daughters?—Hark! I hear their drum.
 * [Drum afar off.]
 * Fight, gentlemen of England! fight, bold yeomen!
 * Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head!
 * Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood;
 * Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!

[Enter a MESSENGER.]


 * What says Lord Stanley? will he bring his power?

MESSENGER.
 * My lord, he doth deny to come.

KING RICHARD.
 * Off with his son George's head!

NORFOLK.
 * My lord, the enemy is pass'd the marsh:
 * After the battle let George Stanley die.

KING RICHARD.
 * A thousand hearts are great within my bosom:
 * Advance our standards, set upon our foes;
 * Our ancient word of courage, fair Saint George,
 * Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!
 * Upon them! Victory sits on our helms.

[Exeunt.]

SCENE IV. Another part of the Field.
[Alarum; excursions. Enter NORFOLK and forces; to him CATESBY.]

CATESBY.
 * Rescue, my Lord of Norfolk, rescue, rescue!
 * The king enacts more wonders than a man,
 * Daring an opposite to every danger:
 * His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights,
 * Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death.
 * Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost!

[Alarum. Enter KING RICHARD.]

KING RICHARD.
 * A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

CATESBY.
 * Withdraw, my lord! I'll help you to a horse.

KING RICHARD.
 * Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,
 * And I will stand the hazard of the die:
 * I think there be six Richmonds in the field:
 * Five have I slain to-day instead of him.—
 * A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

[Exeunt.]

SCENE V. Another part of the Field.
[Alarums. Enter, from opposite sides, KING RICHARD and RICHMOND; and exeunt fighting. Retreat and flourish. Then re-enter RICHMOND, with STANLEY bearing the crown, and divers other Lords and Forces.]

RICHMOND.
 * God and your arms be prais'd, victorious friends;
 * The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead.

STANLEY.
 * Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee!
 * Lo, here, this long-usurped royalty
 * From the dead temples of this bloody wretch
 * Have I pluck'd off, to grace thy brows withal.
 * Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it.

RICHMOND.
 * Great God of heaven, say Amen to all!—
 * But, tell me is young George Stanley living?

STANLEY.
 * He is, my lord, and safe in Leicester town,
 * Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us.

RICHMOND.
 * What men of name are slain on either side?

STANLEY.
 * John Duke of Norfolk, Walter Lord Ferrers,
 * Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William Brandon.

RICHMOND.
 * Inter their bodies as becomes their births:
 * Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled
 * That in submission will return to us:
 * And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament,
 * We will unite the white rose and the red:—
 * Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,
 * That long have frown'd upon their emnity!
 * What traitor hears me, and says not Amen?
 * England hath long been mad, and scarr'd herself;
 * The brother blindly shed the brother's blood,
 * The father rashly slaughter'd his own son,
 * The son, compell'd, been butcher to the sire:
 * All this divided York and Lancaster,
 * Divided in their dire division,—
 * O, now let Richmond and Elizabeth,
 * The true succeeders of each royal house,
 * By God's fair ordinance conjoin together!
 * And let their heirs,—God, if Thy will be so,—
 * Enrich the time to come with smooth'd-fac'd peace,
 * With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days!
 * Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
 * That would reduce these bloody days again,
 * And make poor England weep in streams of blood!
 * Let them not live to taste this land's increase
 * That would with treason wound this fair land's peace!
 * Now civil wounds are stopp'd, peace lives again:
 * That she may long live here, God say Amen!

[Exeunt.]