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

Автор книги: William Shakespeare

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3.2 Enter a Messenger to the door of Lord Hastings MESSENGER (knocking)

My lord, my lord!

LORD HASTINGS ⌈within⌉ Who knocks?

MESSENGER

One from Lord Stanley.

⌈Enter Lord Hastings⌉

LORD HASTINGS

What is’t o’clock?

MESSENGER

Upon the stroke of four.

LORD 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.

LORD 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 kept,

And that may be determined at the one

Which may make you and him to rue at th’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.

LORD 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 mock’ry 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.

LORD HASTINGS

Good morrow, Catesby. You are early stirring.

What news, what news, in this our tott’ring 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.

LORD HASTINGS

How? ‘Wear the garland’? Dost thou mean the crown?

CATESBY Ay, my good lord.

LORD HASTINGS

I’ll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders

Before I’ll see the crown so foul misplaced.

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.

LORD 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!

LORD HASTINGS

But I shall laugh at this a twelvemonth 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 unprepared, and look not for it.

LORD HASTINGS

O monstrous, monstrous! And so falls it out

With Rivers, Vaughan, Gray—and so ‘twill do

With some men else, that think themselves as safe

As thou and I, who as thou know’st 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.

LORD HASTINGS

I know they do, and I have well deserved it.

Enter Lord Stanley

Come on, come on, where is your boar-spear, man?

Fear you the boar, and go so unprovided?

STANLEY

My lord, good morrow.—Good morrow, Catesby.—

You may jest on, but by the Holy Rood

I do not like these several councils, I.

LORD 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 supposed 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.

LORD HASTINGS

Come, come, have with you! Wot you what, my lord?

Today the lords you talked of are beheaded.

STANLEY

They for their truth might better wear their heads

Than some that have accused them wear their hats.

But come, my lord, let us away.

Enter a Pursuivant named ⌈hastings⌉

LORD HASTINGS

Go on before; I’ll follow presently.

Exeunt Stanley and Catesby

Well met, Hastings. How goes the world with thee?

PURSUIVANT

The better that your lordship please to ask.

LORD HASTINGS

I tell thee, man, ‘tis better with me now

Than when I met thee 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.

LORD HASTINGS

Gramercy, Hastings. There, drink that for me.

He throws him his purse

PURSUIVANT God save your lordship.

Exit

Enter a Priest

PRIEST

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

LORD 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.

⌈He whispers in his ear.⌉

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.

LORD 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.

LORD HASTINGS

Nay, like enough, for I stay dinner there.

BUCKINGHAM (aside)

And supper too, although thou know’st it not.

Come, will you go?

LORD HASTINGS

I’ll wait upon your lordship.

Exeunt

3.3 Enter Sir Richard Ratcliffe with Halberdiers taking Lord Rivers, Lord Gray, and Sir Thomas Vaughan to death at Pomfret

RIVERS

Sir Richard Ratcliffe, let me tell thee this:

Today shalt thou behold a subject die

For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.

GRAY (to Ratcliffe)

God bless the Prince from all the pack of you!

A knot you are of damned bloodsuckers.

VAUGHAN (to Ratcliffe)

You live, that shall cry woe for this hereafter.

RATCLIFFE

Dispatch. 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 hacked to death,

And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,

We give to thee our guiltless blood to drink.

GRAY

Now Margaret’s curse is fall’n upon our heads,

For standing by when Richard stabbed her son.

RIVERS

Then cursed she Hastings; then cursed she Buckingham;

Then cursed she Richard. 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.

RATCLIFFE

Make haste: the hour of death is expiate.

RIVERS

Come, Gray; come, Vaughan; let us here embrace.

Farewell, until we meet again in heaven.

Exeunt

3.4 Enter the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Stanley Earl of Derby, Lord Hastings, Bishop of Ely, the Duke of Norfolk, ⌈Sir William Catesby⌉, with others at a table

LORD 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

Is all things ready for that solemn time?

STANLEY

It is, and wants but nomination.

BISHOP OF ELY

Tomorrow, then, I judge a happy day.

BUCKINGHAM

Who knows the Lord Protector’s mind herein?

Who is most inward with the noble Duke?

BISHOP OF ELY

Your grace, methinks, 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.

LORD 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 delivered

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.

Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester

BISHOP OF ELY

In happy time, here comes the Duke himself.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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 not you come upon your cue, my lord,

William Lord Hastings had pronounced your part—

I mean, your voice, for crowning of the King.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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.

BISHOP OF ELY

Marry, and will, my lord, with all my heart. Exit

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you.

(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 worshipful he terms it—

Shall lose the royalty of England’s throne.

BUCKINGHAM

Withdraw yourself a while; I’ll go with you.

Exeunt Richard ⌈and Buckingham⌉

STANLEY

We have not yet set down this day of triumph.

Tomorrow, in my judgement, is too sudden,

For I myself am not so well provided

As else I would be, were the day prolonged.

Enter Bishop of Ely

BISHOP OF ELY

Where is my lord, the Duke of Gloucester?

I have sent for these strawberries.

LORD 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 never 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 likelihood he showed today?

LORD HASTINGS

Marry, that with no man here he is offended—

For were he, he had shown it in his looks.

STANLEY I pray God he be not.

Enter Richard ⌈and Buckingham⌉

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

I pray you all, tell me what they deserve

That do conspire my death with devilish plots

Of damned witchcraft, and that have prevailed

Upon my body with their hellish charms?

LORD HASTINGS

The tender love I bear your grace, my lord,

Makes me most forward in this princely presence

To doom th’offenders, whatsoe’er they be.

I say, my lord, they have deserved death.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Then be your eyes the witness of their evil:

See how I am bewitched. Behold, mine arm

Is like a blasted sapling withered up.

And this is Edward’s wife, that monstrous witch,

Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,

That by their witchcraft thus have marked me.

LORD HASTINGS

If they have done this deed, my noble lord—

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

‛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.

Some see it done.

The rest that love me, rise and follow me.

Exeunt all but ⌈Catesby⌉ and Hastings

LORD 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 our helms,

But I did scorn it and disdain to fly.

Three times today my footcloth horse did stumble,

And started when he looked upon the Tower,

As loath to bear me to the slaughterhouse.

O now I need the priest that spake to me.

I now repent I told the pursuivant,

As too triumphing, how mine enemies

Today at Pomfret bloodily were butchered,

And I myself secure in grace and favour.

O Margaret, Margaret! Now thy heavy curse

Is lighted on poor Hastings’ wretched head.

⌈CATESBY⌉

Come, come, dispatch: the Duke would be at dinner.

Make a short shrift; he longs to see your head.

LORD HASTINGS

O momentary grace of mortal men,

Which we more hunt for than the grace of God.

Who builds his hope in th’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.

⌈CATESBY⌉

Come, come, dispatch. ‘Tis bootless to exclaim.

LORD HASTINGS

O bloody Richard! Miserable England!

I prophesy the fearful’st time to thee

That ever wretched age hath looked upon.—

Come lead me to the block; bear him my head.

They smile at me, who shortly shall be dead. Exeunt

3.5Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Buckingham in rotten armour, marvellous ill-favoured

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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 wert distraught and mad with terror?

BUCKINGHAM

Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian,

Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,

Speak, and look back, and pry on every side,

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.

Enter the Lord Mayor

RICHARD GLOUCESTER (aside to Buckingham)

Here comes the Mayor.

BUCKINGHAM (aside to Richard)

Let me alone to entertain him.—Lord Mayor—

RICHARD GLOUCESTER ⌈calling as to one within⌉

Look to the drawbridge there!

BUCKINGHAM Hark, a drum!

RICHARD GLOUCESTER ⌈calling as to one within⌉

Catesby, o’erlook the walls!

BUCKINGHAM Lord Mayor, the reason we have sent—

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Look back, defend thee! Here are enemies.

BUCKINGHAM

God and our innocence defend and guard us.

Enter ⌈Sir William Catesby⌉ with Hastings’ head

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

O, O, be quiet! It is Catesby.

CATESBY

Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,

The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

So dear I loved the man that I must weep.

I took him for the plainest harmless creature

That breathed upon the earth, a Christian,

Made him my book wherein my soul recorded

The history of all her secret thoughts.

So smooth he daubed his vice with show of virtue

That, his apparent open guilt omitted—

I mean, his conversation with Shore’s wife—

He lived from all attainture of suspect.

BUCKINGHAM

The covert’st sheltered traitor that ever lived.

(To the Mayor) Would you imagine, or almost believe—

Were’t not that, by great preservation,

We live to tell it—that the subtle traitor

This day had plotted in the Council house

To murder me and my good lord of Gloucester?

MAYOR Had he done so?

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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,

Enforced us to this execution?

MAYOR

Now fair befall you, he deserved his death,

And your good graces both have well proceeded,

To warn false traitors from the like attempts.

I never looked for better at his hands

After he once fell in with Mrs Shore.

⌈RICHARD GLOUCESTER⌉

Yet had not we determined 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 hear

The traitor speak, and timorously confess

The manner and the purpose of his treason,

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 graces’ 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 cause.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

And to that end we wished your lordship here,

T’avoid the censures of the carping world.

BUCKINGHAM

Which, 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 Mayor

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Go after; after, cousin Buckingham!

The Mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all post;

There, at your meetest vantage 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 stretched 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.

He starts to go

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

If you thrive well, bring them to Baynard’s Castle,

Where you shall find me well accompanied

With reverend fathers and well-learnèd bishops.

BUCKINGHAM

I go, and towards three or four o’clock

Look for the news that the Guildhall affords.

Exit

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Now will I in, to take some privy order

To draw the brats of Clarence out of sight,

And to give notice that no manner person

Have any time recourse unto the Princes.

Exeunt

3.6 Enter a Scrivener with a paper in his hand

SCRIVENER

Here is the indictment of the good Lord Hastings,

Which in a set hand fairly is engrossed,

That it may be today 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 lived,

Untainted, unexamined, 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

3.7 Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester at one door and the Duke of Buckingham at another

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Touched you the bastardy of Edward’s children?

BUCKINGHAM

I did, with his contract with Lady Lucy,

And his contract by deputy in France,

Th‘insatiate greediness of his desire,

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 face 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

Untouched or slightly handled in discourse.

And when mine oratory grew toward end,

I bid them that did love their country’s good

Cry ‘God save Richard, England’s royal king!’

RICHARD GLOUCESTER And did they SO?

BUCKINGHAM

No, so God help me. They spake not a word,

But, like dumb statuas or breathing stones,

Stared each on other and looked deadly pale—

Which, when I saw, I reprehended them,

And asked the Mayor, what meant this wilful silence?

His answer was, the people were not used

To be spoke to but by the Recorder.

Then he was urged to tell my tale again:

‘Thus saith the Duke... thus hath the Duke inferred’—

But nothing spoke in warrant from himself.

When he had done, some followers of mine own,

At lower end of the Hall, hurled 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.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

What tongueless blocks were they! Would they not speak?

⌈BUCKINGHAM⌉ No, by my troth, my lord.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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 build a holy descant.

And be not easily won to our request.

Play the maid’s part: still answer ‘nay’—and take it.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

I go. An if you plead as well for them

As I can say nay to thee for myself,

No doubt we’ll bring it to a happy issue.

One knocks within

BUCKINGHAM

Go, go, up to the leads! The Lord Mayor knocks.—

Exit Richard

Enter the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and citizens

Welcome, my lord. I dance attendance here.

I think the Duke will not be spoke withal.

Enter Catesby

Now Catesby, what says your lord to my request?

CATESBY

He doth entreat your grace, my noble lord,

To visit him tomorrow, or next day.

He is within with two right reverend fathers,

Divinely bent to meditation,

And in no worldly suits would he be moved,

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 courtesans,

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.

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 warned 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 Richard aloft, between two bishops. ⌈Enter Catesby below⌉

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 request,

And pardon us the interruption

Of thy devotion and right Christian zeal.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

My lord, there needs no such apology.

I do beseech your grace to pardon me,

Who, earnest in the service of my God,

Deferred 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 ungoverned isle.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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 sceptred 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 blemished stock,

Whiles 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 defaced with scars of infamy,

Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants

And almost shouldered 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.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

I cannot tell if to depart in silence

Or bitterly to speak in your reproof

Best fitteth my degree or your condition.

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 barque to brook no mighty sea—

Than in my greatness covet to be hid,

And in the vapour of my glory smothered.

But God be thanked, 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, mellowed 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, betrothed

To Bona, sister to the King of France.

These both put off, a poor petitioner,

A care-crazed 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,

Seduced the pitch and height of his degree

To base declension and loathed 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 proffered benefit of dignity—

If not to bless us and the land withal,

Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry

From the corruption of abusing times,

Unto a lineal, true-derived course.

MAYOR (to Richard)

Do, good my lord; your citizens entreat you.

BUCKINGHAM (to Richard)

Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffered love.

CATFSBY (to Richard)

O make them joyful: grant their lawful suit.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Alas, why would you heap this care 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. ‘Swounds, I’ll entreat no more.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

O do not swear, my lord of Buckingham.

⌈Exeunt Buckingham and some others⌉

CATESBY

Call him again, sweet prince. Accept their suit.

⌈ANOTHER⌉

If you deny them, all the land will rue it.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

Will you enforce me to a world of cares?

Call them again.

Exit one or more

I am not made of stone,

But penetrable to your kind entreats,

Albeit against my conscience and my soul.

Enter Buckingham and the rest

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-faced 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.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

In saying so, you shall but say the truth.

BUCKINGHAM

Then I salute you with this royal title:

Long live kind Richard, England’s worthy king!

⌈ALL BUT RICHARD⌉ Amen.

BUCKINGHAM

Tomorrow may it please you to be crowned?

RICHARD GLOUCESTER

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

BUCKINGHAM

Tomorrow then, we will attend your grace.

And so, most joyfully, we take our leave.

RICHARD GLOUCESTER (to the bishops)

Come, let us to our holy work again.—

Farewell, my cousin. Farewell, gentle friends.

Exeunt Richard and bishops above, the rest below