The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works

by William Shakespeare

  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<
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  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

  4.1 Enter Queen Elizabeth, the old Duchess of York, and Marquis Dorset at one door; Lady Anne (Duchess of Gloucester) with Clarence’s daughter at another door

  DUCHESS OF YORK

  Who meets us here? My niece Plantagenet,

  Led in the hand of her kind aunt of Gloucester?

  Now for my life, she’s wand’ring to the Tower,

  On pure heart’s love, to greet the tender Prince.—

  Daughter, well met.

  LADY ANNE

  God give your graces both 5

  A happy and a joyful time of day.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH

  As much to you, good sister. Whither away?

  LADY ANNE

  No farther than the Tower, and—as I guess—

  Upon the like devotion as yourselves:

  To gratulate the gentle princes there.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH

  Kind sister, thanks. We’ll enter all together—Enter from the Tower ⌈Brackenbury⌉ the Lieutenant

  And in good time, here the Lieutenant comes.

  Master Lieutenant, pray you by your leave,

  How doth the Prince, and my young son of York?

  BRACKENBURY

  Right well, dear madam. By your patience,

  I may not suffer you to visit them.

  The King hath strictly charged the contrary.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH

  The King? Who’s that?

  BRACKENBURY

  I mean, the Lord Protector.

  QUEEN ELIZABETH