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.
35
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.
HASTINGS
How, wear the garland? Dost thou mean the crown?
40
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
45
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,
50
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.
55
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.
60
CATESBY ’Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord,
When men are unprepar’d and look not for’t.
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
65
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.
HASTINGS I know they do, and I have well deserv’d it.
70
Enter STANLEY, EARL OF DERBY.
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.
75
HASTINGS My lord, I hold my life as dear as you,
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?
80
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;
85
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?
Today the lords you talk’d of are beheaded.
STANLEY
They, for their truth, might better wear their heads
90
Than some that have accus’d them wear their hats.
But come, my lord, let’s away.
Enter HASTINGS, a Pursuivant.
HASTINGS Go on before; I’ll talk with this good fellow.
Exeunt Stanley and Catesby.
Well met, Hastings; how goes the world with thee?
H. PURSUIVANT
The better that your lordship please to ask.
95
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 –
100
This day those enemies are put to death,
And I in better state than e’er I was!
H. PURSUIVANT
God hold it to your honour’s good content.
HASTINGS
Gramercy, Hastings: there, drink that for me.
[Throws him his purse.]
H. PURSUIVANT I thank your honour. Exit.
105
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.
[He whispers in his ear.]
Enter BUCKINGHAM.
PRIEST I’ll wait upon your lordship. Exit Priest.
110
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.
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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 know’st it not.
120
Come, will you go?
HASTINGS I’ll wait upon your lordship.
Exeunt.
3.3 Enter SIR RICHARD RATCLIFFE, with halberds, carrying the nobles, RIVERS, GREY and VAUGHAN, to death at Pomfret.
RATCLIFFE Come, bring forth the prisoners.
RIVERS Sir Richard Ratcliffe, let me tell thee this:
Today shalt thou behold a subject die
For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.
GREY God bless the Prince from all the pack of you!
5
A knot you are of damned bloodsuckers.
VAUGHAN
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!
10
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 fall’n upon our heads,
15
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;
20
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
25
Farewell, until we meet again in Heaven. Exeunt.
3.4 Enter BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, EARL OF DERBY,
HASTINGS, the Bishop of ELY, NORFOLK, RATCLIFFE,
LOVELL, with others, at a table.
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 the royal time?
STANLEY It is, and wants but nomination.
5
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?
ELY
Your Grace, we think, should soonest know his mind.
BUCKINGHAM
We know each other’s faces; for our hearts
10
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
15
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.
20
Enter RICHARD.
ELY In happy time, here comes the Duke himself.
RICHARD
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.
25
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.
RICHARD
Than my Lord Hastings no man might be bolder:
His lordship knows me well, and loves me well.
30
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.
RICHARD Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you.
35
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.
40
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 prolong’d.
45
Enter Bishop of ELY.
ELY Where is my lord the Duke of Gloucester?
I have sent for these strawberries.
HASTINGS
His Grace looks cheerfully and smooth today:
There’s some conceit or other likes him well
When that he bids good morrow with such spirit.
50
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 livelihood he show’d today?
55
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, I say.
Enter RICHARD and BUCKINGHAM.
RICHARD I pray you all, tell me what they deserve
That do conspire my death with devilish plots
60
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 th’offenders, whatso’er they be:
65
I say, my lord, they have deserved death.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 314