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?
To-day the lords you talk of are beheaded.
Lord 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
Hastings
Go on before; I’ll talk with this good fellow.
Exeunt Stanley and Catesby
How now, sirrah! how goes the world with thee?
Pursuivant
The better that your lordship please to ask.
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!
Hastings
Gramercy, fellow: there, drink that for me.
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.
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.
Hastings
Good faith, and when I met this holy man,
Those men you talk of came into my mind.
What, go you toward the Tower?
Buckingham
I do, my lord; but long I shall not stay
I shall return before your lordship thence.
Hastings
’Tis like enough, for I stay dinner there.
Buckingham
[Aside] And supper too, although thou know’st it not.
Come, will you go?
Hastings
I’ll wait upon your lordship.
Exeunt
SCENE III. POMFRET CASTLE.
Enter Ratcliff, with halberds, carrying Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan to death
Ratcliff
Come, bring forth the prisoners.
Rivers
Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this:
To-day shalt thou behold a subject die
For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.
Grey
God keep the prince from all the pack of you!
A knot you are of damned blood-suckers!
Vaughan
You live that shall cry woe for this after.
Ratcliff
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 hack’d to death;
And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,
We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink.
Grey
Now Margaret’s curse is fall’n upon our heads,
For standing by when Richard stabb’d her son.
Rivers
Then cursed she Hastings, then cursed she Buckingham,
Then cursed she Richard. O, remember, God
To hear her prayers 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.
Ratcliff
Make haste; the hour of death is expiate.
Rivers
Come, Grey, come, Vaughan, let us all embrace:
And take our leave, until we meet in heaven.
Exeunt
SCENE IV. THE TOWER OF LONDON.
Enter Buckingham, Derby, Hastings, the Bishop Of Ely, Ratcliff, Lovel, with others, and take their seats at a table
Hastings
My lords, at once: the cause why we are met
Is, to determine of the coronation.
In God’s name, speak: when is the royal day?
Buckingham
Are all things fitting for that royal time?
Derby
It is, and wants but nomination.
Bishop Of Ely
To-morrow, then, I judge a happy day.
Buckingham
Who knows the lord protector’s mind herein?
Who is most inward with the royal duke?
Bishop Of Ely
Your grace, we think, should soonest know his mind.
Buckingham
Who, I, my lord I we know each other’s faces,
But for our hearts, he knows no more of mine,
Than I of yours;
Nor I no more of his, 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.
I have not sounded him, nor he deliver’d
His gracious pleasure any way therein:
But you, my noble 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 Gloucester
Bishop Of Ely
Now in good time, here comes the duke himself.
Gloucester
My noble lords and cousins all, good morrow.
I have been long a sleeper; but, I hope,
My absence doth neglect no great designs,
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.
Gloucester
Than my Lord Hastings no man might be bolder;
His lordship knows me well, and loves me well.
Hastings
I thank your grace.
Gloucester
My lord of Ely!
Bishop Of Ely
My lord?
Gloucester
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
Gloucester
Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you.
Drawing him aside
Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business,
And finds the testy gentleman so hot,
As he will lose his head ere give consent
His master’s son, as worshipful as he terms it,
Shall lose the royalty of England’s throne.
Buckingham
Withdraw you hence, my lord, I’ll follow you.
Exit Gloucester, Buckingham following
Derby
We have not yet set down this day of triumph.
To-morrow, in mine opinion, is too sudden;
For I myself am not so well provided
As else I would be, were the day prolong’d.
Re-enter Bishop Of Ely
Bishop Of Ely
Where is my lord protector? I have
sent for these strawberries.
Hastings
His grace looks cheerfully and smooth to-day;
There’s some conceit or other likes him well,
When he doth bid good morrow with such a spirit.
I think there’s never a man in Christendom
That can less hide his love or hate than he;
For by his face straight shall you know his heart.
Derby
What of his heart perceive you in his face
By any likelihood he show’d to-day?
Hastings
Marry, that with no man here he is offended;
For, were he, he had shown it in his looks.
Derby
I pray God he be not, I say.
Re-enter Gloucester and Buckingham
Gloucester
I pray you all, tell me what they deserve
That do conspire my death with devilish plots
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 noble presence
To doom the offenders, whatsoever they be
I say, my lord, they have deserved death.
Gloucester
Then be your eyes the witness of this ill:
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,
Consorted with that harlot strumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have marked me.
Hastings
If they have done this thing, my gracious lord —
Gloucester
If I thou protector of this damned strumpet —
Tellest thou 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.
Lovel and Ratcliff, look that it be done:
The rest, that love me, rise and follow me.
Exeunt all but Hastings, Ratcliff, and Lovel
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 his helm;
But I disdain’d it, and did scorn to fly:
Three times to-day my foot-cloth horse did stumble,
And startled, when he look’d upon the Tower,
As loath to bear me to the slaughter-house.
O, now I want the priest that spake to me:
I now repent I told the pursuivant
As ’twere triumphing at mine enemies,
How they at Pomfret bloodily were butcher’d,
And I myself secure in grace and favour.
O Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse
Is lighted on poor Hastings’ wretched head!
Ratcliff
Dispatch, my lord; the duke would be at dinner:
Make a short shrift; he longs to see your head.
Hastings
O momentary grace of mortal men,
Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!
Who builds his hopes in 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.
Lovel
Come, come, dispatch; ’tis bootless to exclaim.
Hastings
O bloody Richard! miserable England!
I prophesy the fearful’st time to thee
That ever wretched age hath look’d upon.
Come, lead me to the block; bear him my head.
They smile at me that shortly shall be dead.
Exeunt
SCENE V. THE TOWER-WALLS.
Enter Gloucester and Buckingham, in rotten armour, marvellous ill-favoured
Gloucester
Come, cousin, canst thou quake, and change thy colour,
Murder thy breath in the middle of a word,
And then begin again, and stop again,
As if thou wert distraught and mad with terror?
Buckingham
Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian;
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,
At any time, to grace my stratagems.
But what, is Catesby gone?
Gloucester
He is; and, see, he brings the mayor along.
Enter the Lord Mayor and Catesby
Buckingham
Lord mayor,—
Gloucester
Look to the drawbridge there!
Buckingham
Hark! a drum.
Gloucester
Catesby, o’erlook the walls.
Buckingham
Lord mayor, the reason we have sent —
Gloucester
Look back, defend thee, here are enemies.
Buckingham
God and our innocency defend and guard us!
Gloucester
Be patient, they are friends, Ratcliff and Lovel.
Enter Lovel and Ratcliff, with Hastings’ head
Lovel
Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,
The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.
Gloucester
So dear I loved the man, that I must weep.
I took him for the plainest harmless creature
That breathed upon this 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,
I mean, his conversation with Shore’s wife,
He lived from all attainder of suspect.
Buckingham
Well, well, he was the covert’st shelter’d traitor
That ever lived.
Would you imagine, or almost believe,
Were’t not that, by great preservation,
We live to tell it you, the subtle traitor
This day had plotted, in the council-house
To murder me and my good Lord of Gloucester?
Lord Mayor
What, had he so?
Gloucester
What, think You we are Turks or infidels?
Or that we would, against the form of law,
Proceed thus rashly to 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?
Lord Mayor
Now, fair befall you! he deserved his death;
And you my good lords, both have well proceeded,
To warn false traitors from the like attempts.
I never look’d for better at his hands,
After he once fell in with Mistress Shore.
Gloucester
Yet had not we determined he should die,
Until your lordship came to see his death;
Which now the loving haste of these our friends,
Somewhat against our meaning, have prevented:
Because, my lord, we would have had you heard
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
Misconstrue us in him and wail his death.
Lord Mayor
But, my good lord, your grace’s word shall serve,
As well as I had seen and heard him speak
And doubt you not, right noble princes both,
> But I’ll acquaint our duteous citizens
With all your just proceedings in this cause.
Gloucester
And to that end we wish’d your lord-ship here,
To avoid the carping censures of the world.
Buckingham
But since you come too late of our intents,
Yet witness what you hear we did intend:
And so, my good lord mayor, we bid farewell.
Exit Lord Mayor
Gloucester
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,
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 to their servants, daughters, wives,
Even where his lustful eye or savage heart,
Without control, listed to make his prey.
Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person:
Tell them, when that my mother went with child
Of that unsatiate Edward, noble York
My princely father then had wars in France
And, by just 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:
But touch this sparingly, as ’twere far off,
Because you know, my lord, my mother lives.
Buckingham
Fear 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.
Gloucester
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
Look for the news that the Guildhall affords.
Exit Buckingham
Gloucester
Go, Lovel, with all speed to Doctor Shaw;
To Catesby
Go thou to Friar Penker; bid them both
Meet me within this hour at Baynard’s Castle.
Exeunt all but 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 of person
At any time have recourse unto the princes.
Exit
SCENE VI. THE SAME.
Enter a Scrivener, with a paper in his hand
Scrivener
This is the indictment of the good Lord Hastings;
Which in a set hand fairly is engross’d,
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