Enter the Lords to RICHMOND sitting in his tent.
LORDS Good morrow, Richmond.
RICHMOND Cry mercy, lords and watchful gentlemen,
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That you have ta’en a tardy sluggard here.
1 LORD 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.
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Methought their souls whose bodies Richard murder’d
Came to my tent and cried on victory.
I promise you my soul is very jocund
In the remembrance of so fair a dream.
How far into the morning is it, lords?
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1 LORD Upon the stroke of four
RICHMOND
Why then ’tis time to arm and give direction.
[Comes out from the tent.]
His oration to his soldiers.
More than I have said, loving countrymen,
The leisure and enforcement of the time
Forbids to dwell upon. Yet remember this:
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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.
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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;
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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;
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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,
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Your wives shall welcome home the conquerors;
If you do free your children from the sword,
Your children’s children quits in it your age.
Then, in the name of God and all these rights,
Advance your standards, draw your willing swords!
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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!
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God, and Saint George! Richmond and victory!
Exeunt Richmond and his followers.
Enter KING RICHARD, RATCLIFFE and soldiers.
KING RICHARD
What said Northumberland, as touching Richmond?
RATCLIFFE That he was never trained up in arms.
KING RICHARD
He said the truth. And what said Surrey then?
RATCLIFFE
He smil’d and said, ‘The better for our purpose.’
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KING RICHARD He was in the right, and so indeed it is.
[The clock striketh.]
Tell the clock there! Give me a calendar –
Who saw the sun today?
RATCLIFFE 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.
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A black day will it be to somebody.
Ratcliffe!
RATCLIFFE My lord?
KING RICHARD The sun will not be seen today!
The sky doth frown and lour upon our army:
I would these dewy tears were from the ground.
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Not shine today? Why, what is that to me
More than to Richmond? For the self-same 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.
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[Richard arms.]
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;
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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
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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.
[He sheweth him a paper.]
This I found on my tent this morning.
KING RICHARD [reading]
Jockey of Norfolk, be not so bold:
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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,
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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 it pell-mell –
If not to Heaven, then hand in hand to hell!
His oration to his army.
What shall I say, more than I have inferr’d?
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Remember whom you are to cope withal:
A sort of vagabonds, rascals, and runaways;
A scum of Bretons and base lackey peasants,
Whom their o’er-cloyed country vomits forth
To desperate adventures and assur’d destruction.
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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 Bretagne at our brother’s cost?
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A milksop! 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 overweening rags of France,
These famish’d beggars, weary of their lives –
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Who, but for dreaming on this fond exploit,
For want of means, poor rats, had hang’d themselves.
If we be conquer’d, let men conquer us!
And not these bastard Bretons, whom our fathers
Have in their own land beaten, bobb’d, and thump’d,
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And in record left them the heirs of shame.
Shall these enjoy our lands? Lie with our wives?
Ravish our daughters? [Drum afar off.]
Hark, I hear their drum.
Fight, gentlemen of England! Fight, bold yeomen!
Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head!
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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!
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NORFOLK My lord, the enemy is past 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,
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Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!
Upon them! Victory sits on our helms. Exeunt.
5.4 Alarum. Excursions. Enter NORFOLK and soldiers; then at the other door 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.
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Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost!
Exeunt Norfolk and soldiers.
Alarums. 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.
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I think there be six Richmonds in the field:
Five have I slain today instead of him.
A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse! Exeunt.
5.5 Alarum. Enter KING RICHARD and RICHMOND;
they fight. Richard is slain, then, retreat being sounded,
exit Richmond; Richard’s body is carried off.
Flourish. Enter RICHMOND, STANLEY, EARL OF DERBY
bearing the crown, with other lords and soldiers.
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!
[presenting the crown]
Lo, here, this long-usurped royalty
From the dead temples of this bloody wretch
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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,
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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 become their births.
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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,
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That long have frown’d upon their enmity.
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;
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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,
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By God’s fair ordinance conjoin together,
And let their heirs, God, if Thy will be so,
Enrich the time to come with smooth-fac’d peace,
With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days.
Abate the edge of traitors, gracious Lord,
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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.
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That she may long live here, God say Amen. Exeunt
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Love’s Labour’s Lost is generally labelled an ‘early comedy’ along with The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew and The Comedy of Errors. The four plays show Shakespeare at the beginning of his career experimenting with a range of materials and moods including romantic intrigue, classical farce and traditional folktale. Unlike the other three plays in this category, Love’s Labour’s Lost does not have a readily identifiable narrative or dramatic source, though affinities have been discerned with both literary and real-life accounts of courtly activities. Its presentation of Rosaline as a ‘dark’ heroine has encouraged some readers to speculate on possible connections with the narrative recounted in Shakespeare’s Sonnets. Somewhat blighted by its reputation as a ‘topical’ play, it is perhaps more often performed than studied today.
The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works Page 323