Текст книги "William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition"

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 43 (всего у книги 250 страниц)

And, when I have my meed, I will away,

For this will out, and then I must not stay. Exit

2.1 Flourish. Enter King Edward, sick, Queen Elizabeth, Lord Marquis Dorset, Lord Rivers, Lord Hastings, Sir William Catesby, the Duke of Buckingham ⌈and Lord Gray⌉

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 in peace my soul shall part to heaven

Since I have made my friends at peace on earth.

Hastings and Rivers, take each other’s hand.

Dissemble not your hatred; swear your love.

RIVERS

By heaven, my soul is purged from grudging hate,

And with my hand I seal my true heart’s love.

⌈He takes Hastings’ hand⌉

LORD 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.

LORD HASTINGS

So prosper I, as I swear perfect love.

RIVERS

And I, as I love Hastings with my heart.

KING EDWARD (to Elizabeth)

Madam, yourself is not exempt from this,

Nor your 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 (giving Hastings her hand to kiss)

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.

LORD HASTINGS And so swear I.

They embrace

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 (to Elizabeth)

Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate

Upon your grace, 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.

They embrace

KING EDWARD

A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham,

Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.

There wanteth now our brother Gloucester here,

To make the blessèd period of this peace.

Enter Sir Richard Ratcliffe and Richard Duke of Gloucester

BUCKINGHAM And in good time,

Here comes Sir Richard Ratcliffe and the Duke.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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.

Brother, we have done deeds of charity,

Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate,

Between these swelling wrong-incensed peers.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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

By 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 lodged between us.—

Of you, Lord Rivers, and Lord Gray of you,

That all without desert have frowned on me.—

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 tonight.

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.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Why, madam, have I offered love for this,

To be so flouted in this royal presence?

Who knows not that the gentle Duke is dead?

The others all start

You do him injury to scorn his corpse.

⌈RIVERS⌉

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 one in the presence

But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.

KING EDWARD

Is Clarence dead? The order was reversed.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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, but not in blood,

Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,

And yet go current from suspicion.

Enter Lord Stanley Earl of Derby

STANLEY (kneeling)

A boon, my sovereign, for my service done.

KING EDWARD

I pray thee, 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 requests?

STANLEY

The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant’s life,

Who slew today 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 slew no man; his fault was thought;

And yet his punishment was bitter death.

Who sued to me for him? Who in my wrath

Kneeled at my feet, and bid me be advised?

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 Tewkesbury,

When Oxford had me down, he rescued 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 plucked, 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 defaced

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 beholden 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 some with King and Queen

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

This is the fruits of rashness. Marked you not

How that the guilty kindred of the Queen

Looked 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

2.2 Enter the old Duchess of York with the two children of Clarence

BOY

Good grannam, tell us, is our father dead?

DUCHESS OF YORK No, boy.

GIRL

Why do you weep so oft, and beat your breast,

And cry, ‛O Clarence, my unhappy son’?

BOY

Why do you look on us and shake your head,

And call us orphans, wretches, castaways,

If that our noble father were alive?

DUCHESS OF YORK

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.

BOY

Then you conclude, my grannam, 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.

GIRL And so will I.

DUCHESS OF YORK

Peace, children, peace! The King doth love you well.

Incapable and shallow innocents,

You cannot guess who caused your father’s death.

BOY

Grannam, we can. For my good uncle Gloucester

Told me the King, provoked to it by the Queen,

Devised impeachments to imprison him,

And when my uncle told me so he wept,

And pitied me, and kindly kissed my cheek,

Bade me rely on him as on my father,

And he would love me dearly as his child.

DUCHESS OF YORK

Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes,

And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice!

He is my son, ay, and therein my shame;

Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.

BOY

Think you my uncle did dissemble, grannam?

DUCHESS OF YORK Ay, boy.

BOY

I cannot think it. Hark, what noise is this?

Enter Queen Elizabeth with her hair about her ears

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 OF YORK

What means this scene of rude impatience?

QUEEN ELIZABETH

To mark 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 ne’er-changing night.

DUCHESS OF YORK

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 lived with looking on his images.

But now two mirrors of his princely semblance

Are cracked 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 snatched my husband from mine arms

And plucked 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?

BOY (to Elizabeth)

Ah, aunt, you wept not for our father’s death.

How can we aid you with our kindred tears?

DAUGHTER (to Elizabeth)

Our fatherless distress was left unmoaned;

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 governed by the wat’ry 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 OF YORK

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 OF YORK

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 OF YORK

Was never mother had so dear a loss!

Alas, I am the mother of these griefs.

Their woes are parcelled; 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 distressed,

Pour all your tears. I am your sorrow’s nurse,

And I will pamper it with lamentation.

Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of

Buckingham, Lord Stanley Earl of Derby, Lord

Hastings, and Sir Richard Ratcliffe

RICHARD GLOUCESTER (to Elizabeth)

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 OF YORK

God bless thee, and put meekness in thy breast,

Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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-swoll’n hearts

But lately splinted, knit, and joined together,

Must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept.

Meseemeth good that, with some little train,

Forthwith from Ludlow the young Prince be fet

Hither to London to be crowned our king.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Then be it so, and go we to determine

Who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow.—

Madam, and you my sister, will you go

To give your censures in this weighty business?

QUEEN ELIZABETH and DUCHESS OF YORK With all our hearts.

Exeunt all but Richard and Buckingham

BUCKINGHAM

My lord, whoever journeys to the Prince,

For God’s sake let not us two stay at home,

For by the way I’ll sort occasion,

As index to the story we late talked of,

To part the Queen’s proud kindred from the Prince.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

My other self, my counsel’s consistory,

My oracle, my prophet, my dear cousin!

I, as a child, will go by thy direction.

Towards Ludlow then, for we’ll not stay behind.

Exeunt

2.3 Enter one Citizen at one door and another at the other

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 another 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 governed 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 ripened years himself,

No doubt shall then, and till then, govern well.

FIRST CITIZEN

So stood the state when Henry the Sixth

Was crowned 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 enriched

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 near’st

Will touch us all too near, if God prevent not.

O full of danger is the Duke of Gloucester,

And the Queen’s sons and brothers haught and proud.

And were they to be ruled, 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 full of fear.

You cannot reason almost with a man

That looks not heavily and full 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 boist’rous 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

2.4 Enter ⌈Lord Cardinal⌉, young Duke of York, Queen Elizabeth, and the old Duchess of York

⌈CARDINAL⌉

Last night, I hear, they lay them at Northampton.

At Stony Stratford they do rest tonight.

Tomorrow, or next day, they will be here.

DUCHESS OF YORK

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 OF YORK

Why, my young cousin, it is good to grow.

YORK

Grandam, one night as we did sit at supper,

My uncle Rivers talked how I did grow

More than my brother. ‘Ay’, quoth my nuncle

Gloucester,

‘Small herbs have grace; gross weeds do grow apace’.

And since, methinks I would not grow so fast,

Because sweet flow’rs are slow, and weeds make

haste.

DUCHESS OF YORK

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.

⌈CARDINAL⌉

Why, so no doubt he is, my gracious madam.

DUCHESS OF YORK

I hope he is, but yet let mothers doubt.

YORK

Now, by my troth, if I had been remembered,

I could have given my uncle’s grace a flout

To touch his growth, nearer than he touched mine.

DUCHESS OF YORK

How, my young York? I pray thee, 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.

Grannam, this would have been a biting jest.

DUCHESS OF YORK

I pray thee, pretty York, who told thee this?

YORK Grannam, his nurse.

DUCHESS OF YORK

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.

⌈CARDINAL⌉

Good madam, be not angry with the child.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

Pitchers have ears.

Enter ⌈Marquis Dorset⌉

⌈CARDINAL⌉

Here comes your son, Lord Dorset.

What news, Lord Marquis?

⌈DORSET⌉ Such news, my lord,

As grieves me to report.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

How doth the Prince?

⌈DORSET⌉

Well, madam, and in health.

DUCHESS OF YORK

What is thy news then?

⌈DORSET⌉

Lord Rivers and Lord Gray are sent to Pomfret,

And with them Thomas Vaughan, prisoners.

DUCHESS OF YORK

Who hath committed them?

⌈DORSET⌉

The mighty dukes,

Gloucester and Buckingham.

⌈CARDINAL⌉

For what offence?

⌈DORSET⌉

The sum of all I can, I have disclosed.

Why or for what the nobles were committed

Is all unknown to me, my gracious lord.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

Ay me! I see the ruin of our house.

The tiger now hath seized 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 OF YORK

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 tossed,

For me to joy and weep their gain and loss.

And being seated, and domestic broils

Clean overblown, 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 (to York)

Come, come, my boy, we will to sanctuary.—

Madam, farewell.

DUCHESS OF YORK Stay, I will go with you.

QUEEN ELIZABETH

You have no cause.

⌈CARDINAL⌉ (to Elizabeth) 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

3.1 The Trumpets sound. Enter young Prince Edward, the Dukes of Gloucester and Buckingham, Lord Cardinal, with others, including ⌈Lord Stanley Earl of Derby and⌉ Sir William Catesby

BUCKINGHAM

Welcome, sweet Prince, to London, to your chamber.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER (to Prince Edward)

Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts’ sovereign.

The weary way hath made you melancholy.

PRINCE EDWARD

No, uncle, but our crosses on the way

Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy.

I want more uncles here to welcome me.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Sweet Prince, the untainted virtue of your years

Hath not yet dived 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 sugared words,

But looked not on the poison of their hearts.

God keep you from them, and from such false friends.

PRINCE EDWARD

God keep me from false friends; but they were none.

Enter Lord Mayor ⌈and his train⌉

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

My lord, the Mayor of London comes to greet you.

MAYOR (kneeling to Prince Edward)

God bless your grace with health and happy days.

PRINCE EDWARD

I thank you, good my lord, and thank you all.—

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 hastes not

To tell us whether they will come or no.

Enter Lord Hastings

BUCKINGHAM

In happy time here comes the sweating lord.

PRINCE EDWARD (to Hastings)

Welcome, my lord. What, will our mother come?

LORD 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. But if she’ be obdurate

To mild entreaties, God in heaven forbid

We should infringe the sacred 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 not with the grossness of this age.

You break not sanctuary in seizing him.

The benefit thereof is always granted

To those whose dealings have deserved the place,

And those who have the wit to claim the place.

This prince hath neither claimed it nor deserved it,

And therefore, in my mind, he cannot have it.

Then taking him from thence that ‘longs not there,

You break thereby no privilege nor charter.

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?

LORD HASTINGS I come, my lord.

PRINCE EDWARD

Good lords, make all the speedy haste you may.—

Exeunt Cardinal and Hastings

Say, uncle Gloucester, if our brother come,

Where shall we sojourn till our coronation?

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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 EDWARD

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 EDWARD

Is it upon record, or else reported

Successively from age to age, he built it?

BUCKINGHAM

Upon record, my gracious liege.

PRINCE EDWARD

But say, my lord, it were not registered,

Methinks the truth should live from age to age,

As ‘twere retailed to all posterity

Even to the general all-ending day.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER (aside)

So wise so young, they say, do never live long.

PRINCE EDWARD What say you, uncle?

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

I say, ‘Without characters fame lives long’.

(Aside) Thus like the formal Vice, Iniquity,

I moralize two meanings in one word.

PRINCE EDWARD

That Julius Caesar was a famous man:

With what his valour did t’enrich his wit,

His wit set down to make his valour live.

Death made no conquest of this conqueror,

For yet he lives in fame though not in life.

I’ll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham.

BUCKINGHAM What, my good lord?

PRINCE EDWARD

An if I live until I be a man,

I’ll win our ancient right in France again,

Or die a soldier, as I lived a king.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER (aside)

Short summers lightly have a forward spring.

Enter young Duke of York, Lord Hastings, and Lord Cardinal

BUCKINGHAM

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

PRINCE EDWARD

Richard of York, how fares our loving brother?

YORK

Well, my dread lord—so must I call you now.

PRINCE EDWARD

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.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

How fares our noble cousin, Lord of York?

YORK

I thank you, gentle uncle, well. O, my lord,

You said that idle weeds are fast in growth;

The Prince, my brother, hath outgrown me far.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

He hath, my lord.

YORK

And therefore is he idle?

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

O my fair cousin, I must not say so.

YORK

He is more beholden to you then than I.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

He may command me as my sovereign,

But you have power in me as a kinsman.

YORK

I pray you, uncle, render me this dagger.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

My dagger, little cousin? With all my heart.

PRINCE EDWARD A beggar, brother?

YORK

Of my kind uncle that I know will give,

It being but a toy which is no grief to give.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

A greater gift than that I’ll give my cousin.

YORK

A greater gift? O, that’s the sword to it.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

It is too heavy for your grace to wear.

YORK

I’d weigh it lightly, were it heavier.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

What, would you have my weapon, little lord?

YORK

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

RICHARD GLOUCESTER HOW?

YORK Little.

PRINCE EDWARD

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, prodigal wit he reasons.

To mitigate the scorn he gives his uncle,

He prettily and aptly taunts himself.

So cunning and so young is wonderful.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER (to Prince Edward)

My lord, will’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 (to Prince Edward)

What, will you go unto the Tower, my lord?

PRINCE EDWARD

My Lord Protector needs will have it so.

YORK

I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER Why, what should you fear there?

YORK

Marry, my uncle Clarence’ angry ghost.

My grannam told me he was murdered there.

PRINCE EDWARD

I fear no uncles dead.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Nor none that live, I hope.

PRINCE EDWARD

An if they live, I hope I need not fear.

(To York) But come, my lord, and with a heavy heart,

Thinking on them, go we unto the Tower.

A Sennet. Exeunt all but Richard, Buckingham, and Catesby

BUCKINGHAM (to Richard)

Think you, my lord, this little prating York

Was not incensed by his subtle mother

To taunt and scorn you thus opprobriously?

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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, urged upon the way.

What think’st thou? Is it not an easy matter

To make Lord William 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.

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 your talk,

And give us notice of his inclination,

For we tomorrow hold divided counsels,

Wherein thyself shalt highly be employed.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Commend me to Lord William. Tell him, Catesby,

His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries

Tomorrow are let blood at Pomfret Castle,

And bid my lord, for joy of this good news,

Give Mrs 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.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Shall we hear from you, Catesby, ere we sleep?

CATESBY You shall, my lord.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

At Crosby House, there shall you find us both.

Exit Catesby

BUCKINGHAM

My lord, what shall we do if we perceive

Lord Hastings will not yield to our complots?

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Chop off his head. Something we will determine.

And look when I am king, claim thou of me

The earldom of Hereford, and all the movables

Whereof the King my brother was possessed.

BUCKINGHAM

I’ll claim that promise at your grace’s hand.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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