RICHARD Then be your eyes the witness of their evil.
See 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,
70
Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have marked me.
HASTINGS
If they have done this deed, my noble lord –
RICHARD If? Thou protector of this damned strumpet,
Talk’st thou to me of ifs! Thou art a traitor:
75
Off with his head! Now by Saint Paul I swear
I will not dine until I see the same.
Lovell and Ratcliffe, look that it be done;
The rest that love me, rise and follow me.
Exeunt all but Lovell and Ratcliffe and the Lord Hastings.
HASTINGS Woe, woe for England; not a whit for me –
80
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 today my foot-cloth horse did stumble,
And started when he look’d upon the Tower,
85
As loath 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
Today at Pomfret bloodily were butcher’d,
90
And I myself secure in grace and favour.
O Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse
Is lighted on poor Hastings’ wretched head.
RATCLIFFE
Come, come, dispatch: the Duke would be at dinner;
Make a short shrift: he longs to see your head.
95
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
100
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.
LOVELL Come, come, dispatch: ’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.
105
Come, lead me to the block: bear him my head.
They smile at me who shortly shall be dead. Exeunt.
3.5 Enter RICHARD and BUCKINGHAM in rotten armour, marvellous ill-favoured.
RICHARD
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,
5
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
10
At any time to grace my stratagems.
But what, is Catesby gone?
Enter the Lord Mayor and CATESBY.
RICHARD He is, and see, he brings the Mayor along.
BUCKINGHAM Lord Mayor –
RICHARD Look to the draw-bridge there!
15
BUCKINGHAM Hark, a drum!
RICHARD Catesby, o’erlook the walls! Exit Catesby.
BUCKINGHAM Lord Mayor, the reason we have sent –
Enter LOVELL and RATCLIFFE, with Hastings’s head.
RICHARD Look back! Defend thee, here are enemies!
BUCKINGHAM
God and our innocence defend and guard us!
20
RICHARD
Be patient, they are friends: Ratcliffe and Lovell.
LOVELL Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,
The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.
RICHARD So dear I lov’d the man that I must weep.
I took him for the plainest harmless creature
25
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 –
30
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.
Would you imagine, or almost believe,
Were’t not that by great preservation
35
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 What, think you we are Turks or infidels?
40
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.
45
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.
BUCKINGHAM I never look’d for better at his hands
After he once fell in with Mistress Shore.
50
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
55
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
Misconstrue us in him and wail his death.
60
MAYOR
But, my good lord, your Graces’ words 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.
65
RICHARD
And to that end we wish’d 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.
70
Exit Lord Mayor.
RICHARD 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
75
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,
80
Which stretch’d unto their servants, daughters, wives,
Even where his raging eye or savage heart
Without control lusted to make a prey.
Nay, for a need, thus
far come near my person:
Tell them, when that my mother went with child
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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,
90
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
95
Were for myself; and so, my lord, adieu.
RICHARD
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
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Look for the news that the Guildhall affords. Exit.
RICHARD Go, Lovell, with all speed, to Doctor Shaa;
[to Ratcliffe] Go thou to Friar Penker; bid them both
Meet me within this hour at Baynard’s Castle.
Exeunt Ratcliffe and Lovell.
Now will I go to take some privy order
To draw the brats of Clarence out of sight,
105
And to give notice that no manner person
Have, any time, recourse unto the Princes. Exit.
3.6 Enter a Scrivener with a paper in his hand.
SCRIVENERS
Here is the indictment of the good Lord Hastings,
Which in a set hand fairly is engross’d,
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,
5
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
10
That cannot see this palpable device?
Yet who’s 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 and BUCKINGHAM at several doors.
RICHARD 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
Touch’d you the bastardy of Edward’s children?
BUCKINGHAM I did, with his contract with Lady Lucy,
5
And his contract by deputy in France;
Th’unsatiate 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,
10
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,
15
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 to an end,
20
I bid them that did love their country’s good
Cry, ‘God save Richard, England’s royal King!’
RICHARD And did they so?
BUCKINGHAM
No, so God help me: they spake not a word,
But like dumb statues or breathing stones
25
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.
30
Then he was urg’d to tell my tale again:
‘Thus saith the Duke; thus hath the Duke inferr’d’ –
But nothing spake in warrant from himself.
When he had done, some followers of mine own
At lower end of the hall, hurl’d up their caps,
35
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
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 315