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Richard III as rewritten by Colley Cibber
Note: This electronic edition is reproduced here by kind permission of the etext editor, Tom Dale Keever.
The
Tragical History
of
King Richard III
As it is Acted at the
Theatre Royal
_________________________________________________________________
By C. Cibber.
_________________________________________________________________
-------Domestica Facta
________________________________________________________________
LONDON,
Printed for B. Lintott at the Middle Temple-Gate, in Fleet-street, and
A. Bettesworth at the Red-Lyon on London Bridge.
________________________________________________________________
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Where Gentlemen and Ladies may have all sorts of Plays and Novels
* * * * *
Etext Editor's Introduction
David Richard Garrick first made his fame in the role of Richard III and it
remained the character for which he was most reknowned. The backstage
blessing, "Break a leg!" is attributed by some to a Garrick performance as
the hunch-backed villain during which the actor was so transported by the
role that he did not notice he had suffered a fracture. Yet Garrick never
spoke the lines modern readers most readily associate with the play, "Now
is the winter of our discontent / Made glorious summer by this son of
York." Like virtually all other Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century actors
Garrick performed not Shakespeare's script but the adaptation premiered in
1700 by Colly Cibber who cut the opening lines of Richard's famous
soliloquy. When Macready tried in the 1820's to reintroduce more of
Shakespeare's text critics sniffed that he had only shown how hopelessly
awkward the original was and audiences expressed their disappointment. He
bowed to the outcry and returned to Cibber's familiar "improved" script the
next season. As late as the turn of the century Samuel French distributed
Cibber's rewrite, as performed in a New York staging of the 1840's, as the
"acting version" of Richard III.
In our century opinion has turned a hundred eighty degrees. The once
despised original now rules the stage unchallenged and Cibber's version,
which was the most oft-produced "Shakespeare" play in Nineteenth Century
America, is relegated to the research stacks. Though Olivier preserved a
couple of Cibber's best known lines, "Off with his head! So much for
Buckingham," and "Richard is himself again," in his classic film version,
few other directors dare brave the rath of "traditionalists" who stand
guard against vandals who'd tinker with the "genuine" text. Given the
Cibber script's long and distinguished stage history it is hard to
understand what "tradition" these guardians so fiercely defend.
Though Shakespeare's original is not so unstageable as Cibber and his
contemporaries thought, neither is Cibber's play so unworthy as our century
has concluded. Cibber was not a poetic genius, his widely ridiculed
appointment as Poet Laureate notwithstanding, but he was a skilled
craftsman who understood how to make the theatrical conventions of his age
work effectively on stage almost as well as Shakespeare knew the tricks of
late Elizabethan theater. If his text didn't work well in performance it
would not have outlived all the other Restoration adaptations as long as it
did.
Though this text will interest curious scholars I hope it also draws the
attention of directors and performers. A theater company planning a season
might consider surprising its subscribers with a "Shakespeare" they are
certain never to have seen before. A director who is doing Shakespeare's
version might consider adding a little Cibber to the mix or trying some of
Cibber's cuts and doubling to reduce the often unwieldy size of
Shakespeare's cast or to tighten up the action. Richard's murder of Henry
VI in Cibber's first act or his brutal treatment of Ann in the third could
be added to an otherwise "traditional" production. The former is, after
all, mostly Shakespeare's, and the scene with Anne, though entirely
Cibber's invention, is in keeping with Richard's character as limned by
Shakespeare, and, though not immortal verse, is excellent melodrama.
For this etext edition I relied on the 1700 text, but I have noted some
additions made to the text and to the cast list in the 1718 version. The
later edition omitted Cibber's "Epistle Dedicatory" and "Preface" and did
not identify which lines were Cibbers and which Shakespeare's. As ASCII
does not have an italicized font I have marked the lines Cibber identified
as Shakespeare's by enclosing them in %'s. I have substituted ASCII's (')
for Cibber's reversed mark to identify the lines he claimed were "generally
[Shakespeare's] thoughts," trusting readers to cope with the occaisonal
initial "'Tis" or "'Twere." All others I left unmarked, tacitly accepting
Cibber's claim they are "intirely my own," even when in cases like, "I
would not pass another hour so dreadful / Though 'twere to buy a world of
happy days," I have my doubts. I have tried to reproduce the stage
directions in their full variety, some centered, some flushed right, some
bracketted, others with a parenthesis. The only change I have made in the
original's layout is to center the speaker's name in the line before each
speech to make the text more useful as a performing script. Both the 1700
and 1718 editions divide the play into five acts and, though scene changes
are noted, they are not numbered.
Alert readers will spot lines not only from Cibber's primary sources, RIII
and 3HVI, but also from 1&2HIV, HV, and 1&2HVI. Tables tracking the number
of these borrowed lines appear in Furness' _New Variorum_ and the appendix
to _Five Restoration Adaptations of Shakespere_. They differ slightly.
Tom Dale Keever
keever@phantom.com
New York,
March, 1994
* * * * *
Bibliography:
_The Tragical History of King Richard III_, by C. Cibber, c. 1700, A
facsimile published by Cornmarket Press from the copy in the Birmingham
Shakespeare Library, 1969
_The Tragical History of King Richard III_ As it is now Acted at the
Theatre-Royal in Drury-Lane, Reviv'd, with Alterations, by Mr. Cibber. A
facsimile of the 1718 edition by Cornmarket Press, 1969
_Five Restoration Adaptations of Shakespeare_, edited by Christopher
Spencer, Urbana, University of Illinois Press, 1965. Spencer follows the
1718 text, but reproduces Cibber's Preface and Dedicatory Epistle from the
first edition. He also preserves Cibber's italics and apostrophes to
identify the "Shakespearean" lines.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
To
Henry Brett, Jun.
of
Cowley, Esq;
I Was ever Fond and Proud of your good opinion,
it has sometimes recommended me to Men of
the first merit; where, whithout that umbrage,
perhaps, not all the Advantages of Fortune, could
have made me tolerable. You taught me first to
know a little of my self, then shew'd me other Men;
and knowing them, taught me to value You. I know
not whether the World will allow there can be any
Gratitude in a Dedication; but I am assur'd you
are well enough acquainted with my sincerity, to be-
lieve this comes purely from an Hearty and Uninte-
rested Inclination. I am loath to remind you of the
many handsom Obligations you have laid on me; for
in being thanked I have observ'd you often in a pain
great as your delight in giving : Which generous
softness in your Temper has made me many times
conclude, that were you once Passionately touch'd in
Love (as certainly no man was every so kindly form-
edfor it) the happy Fair One will at least have this
security, that your Natural Pleasure in obliging will
instruct her to reserve you long, and only Hers. I
can't help talking thus, because I am fond of pub-
lishing that ev'n such Qualities are what I have had
several Happy hours of leisure to observe in you. Nay,
I freely confess, I have all the Vanity of a young Lo-
ver, and can't really think the Fair One absolutely
mine, till I have told all the World of her favours.
I wou'd have my Lord, and all the Cheerful Table
know, that the very Gentleman they were so loath to
part with, had out staid his Appointment with Cibber
for the reading an Act or two of Richard III. I
would have my Lady know too, that ask'd the Ci-
vil Gentleman's name in the next Box, that 'twas
not her Ladyships kind advances that kept him there,
but a certain promise made him behind the Scenes,
that a little Extraordinary pains should be taken in
the Performance of one of Richard's Soliloquies ;
And I wou'd have the Players know, that my so
often wishing the Vacation near, is, because Cow-
ley and your Conversation in the Summer to me,
perhaps is as Entertaining an Amusement, as a Fa-
mily, and Uncertain pay in the Winter. I once de-
signed to have delay'd this Dedication till I was ca-
pable of prefixing it to some piece more worth your
Acceptance : You have often perswaded me to un-
dertake another Comedy ; but, I confess, your own
happy talent in that kind (you'll excuse my blab-
bing) and your common Conversation, have quite
discourag'd me : A Poet ought to be vain enough to
suppose himself the best in his kind, and unless I
could believe I were able to write, as you talk,
with the same life, and happy turn of Thought, it
will be Prudence in me to let it alone till I am ad-
vis'd to it by some body that knows you, as well as I
do : So that I rather chuse to pay this little, while
I have it, than by an idle Expectation of better suc-
cess, run the hazard of being in your debt as long as
I live: but that I am afraid I shall ever be; my
long Account will not be easily settled, while you for-
get as fast as you confer, and always grant a favour,
as if you were returning one, so 'tis partly your own
Fault if I subscribe my self,
Your eternally obliged
and humble Servant,
Colley Cibber.
Lon.Feb.
1700.
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
THE
PREFACE
This Play came upon the Stage with a very Unusual
disadvantage, the whole first Act being Intirely left out in the
Presentation ; and tho' it had been read by several persons of the
first Rank and Integrity, some of which were pleas'd to honour me
with an offer of giving it under their hands that the whole was an
Inoffensive piece, and free from any bold Paralel, or ill manner'd
reflection, yet this was no satisfaction to him, who had the
Relentless power of licensing it for the Stage. I did not spare
for intreaties; but all the reason I coul'd get for its being
refus'd, was, that Henry the Sixth being a Character Unfortunate
and Pitied, wou'd put the Audience in mind of the late King James
: Now, I confess, I never thought of him in the Writing it, which
possibly might proceed from there not being any likeness between
'em. But however, there was no hazard of offending the Government,
though the whole Play had been refus'd, and a man is not obliged to
be Just, when he can get as much by doing an Injury. I am only
sorry it hapned to be the best Act in the Whole, and leave it to
the Impartial Reader how far it is offensive, and whether its being
Acted would have been as injurious to good Manners, as the omission
of it was to the rest of the Play.
Tho' there was no great danger of the Readers mistaking any of
my lines for Shakesear's ; yet, to satisfie the curious, and
unwilling to assume more praise than is really my due, I have
caus'd those that are intirely Shakespear's to be Printed in this
%Italick Character% ; and those lines with this mark (') before 'em
are generally his thoughts, in the best dress I could afford 'em:
What is not so mark'd, or in a different Character is intirely my
own. I have done my best to imitate his Style, and manner of
thinking : If I have fail'd, I have still this comfort, that our
best living Author in his imitation of Shakespear's Style only writ
Great and Masterly.
(Etext Editor's note: Italics being beyond the means of
electronic text, the "Shakespearean" lines are enclosed by %'s. I
have not attempted to identify other italicized words or phrases.)
The Persons.
King Henry the Sixth, designed for Mr Wilks.
Edward Prince of Wales, | Mrs. Allison.
|
Richard Duke of York, the young sons of Ed- | Miss. Chock.
ward the Fourth. |
Richard Duke of Gloucester,
afterwards King of England. Mr. Cibber.
Duke of Buckingham. Mr. Powel.
Lord Stanley. Mr. Mills.
Duke of Norfolk. Mr. Simpson.
Ratcliff. Mr. Kent.
Catesby. Mr. Thomas.
Henry Earl of Richmond,
afterwards King of England. Mr. Evans.
Oxford. Mr. Fairbank.
Blunt, &c. -------------
Elizabeth, Relict of Edward the Fourth. Mrs. Knight.
Ann, Relict of Edward Prince of Wales,
Son to Henry the Sixth, afterwards Mrs. Rogers.
married to Richard the Third.
Cicely, Dutchess of York, mother
to Richard the Third. Mrs. Powel.
(Etext editor's note: The following characters appear in the play but are
not listed in the 1700 edition's list of "Persons." They are listed here
with the actors who appear in the 1718 edition's "Dramatis Personae" page)
Tressell Mr. Will. Wilks.
Lieutenant of the Tower Mr. Quin.
Lord Mayor Mr. Miller.
Tirrel Mr. Weller.
Forrest Mr. Wilson.
Dighton Mr. Higginson.
(The following characters in the play are not listed in the cast
lists of either the 1710 or the 1718 editions.)
Rivers
Dorset
Lovel
_________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
A C T the First.
The Scene, A Garden within the Tower.
________________________________________________________________
Enter the Lieutenant with a Servant.
_________________________________________________________________
LIEUTENANT
Has King Henry walk'd forth this Morning?
SERVANT
No, Sir, but 'tis near his Hour.
LIEUTENANT
At any time when you see him here,
Let no Stranger into the Garden:
I wou'd not have him star'd at --- See ! Who's that
Now entring at the Gate ?
SERVANT
Sir, the Lord Stanley.
LIEUTENANT
Leave me. --- [Ex. Servant.
Enter Lord Stanley.
Ny Noble Lord you're welcome to the Tower,
I heard last Night you late arriv'd with News
Of Edward's Victory to his joyful Queen.
STANLEY
Yes, Sir; and I am proud to be the Man
That first brought home the last of Civil Broils,
The Houses now of York, and Lancaster,
Like Bloody Brothers fighting for Birth-right,
No more shall wound the Parent that wou'd part 'em.
Edward now sits secure on England's Throne.
LIEUTENANT
Near Tewkesbury, my Lord I think they fought:
Has the Enemy lost any Men of Note ?
STANLEY
Sir I was Posted Home
E're an Account was taken of the Slain,
But as I left the Field, a Proclamation
From the King was made in Search of Edward,
Son to your Prisoner, King Henry the Sixth,
Which gave Reward to those Discover'd him,
And him his Life, if he'd surrender.
LIEUTENANT
That Brave Young Prince, I fear's unlike his Father,
Too high of Heart to brook submissive Life:
This will be heavy News to Henry's Ear:
For on thei Battles cast his All was set.
STANLEY
King Henry, and ill Fortune are familiar:
He ever threw with an indifferent Hand,
But never yet was known to lose his Patience:
How does he pass the Time in his Confinement?
LIEUTENANT
As one whose Wishes never reacht a Crown,
The King seems Dead in him: But as a man
He sighs sometimes in want of Liberty.
Sometimes he Reads, and Walks, wishes
That Fate had blest him with an humbler Birth.
Not to have felt the falling from a Throne.
STANLEY
Were it not possible to see this King?
They say he'll freely talk with Edward's Friends,
And ever treats him with Respect, and Honour.
LIEUTENANT
This is his usual Time of walking forth.
(For he's allow'd the freedom of the Garden;)
After his Morning-Prayer; he seldom fails:
Behind this Arbor we unseen may stand
A while t'observe him. (They retire.)
Enter King Henry the Sixth in Mourning.
KING HENRY
By this time the Decisive Blow is struck,
Either my Queen and son are blest with Victory,
Or I'm the cause no more of Civil Broils.
%Wou'd I were Dead if Heavens good Will were so,%
'For what is in this World but Grief and Care?
What Noise, and Bustle do Kings make to find it?
When Life's but a short Chace, our Game content
Which most pursued is most compell'd to fly'
And he that mounts him on the swiftest Hope,
Shall often Run his Courser to a stand,
While the poor Peasant from some distant Hill
Undanger'd, and at Ease views all the Sport,
And sees Content take shelter in his Cottage.
STANLEY (Aside)
He seems Extreamly mov'd.
LIEUTENANT (Aside)
Does he know you?
STANLEY
No! nor wou'd I have him.
LIEUTENANT
We'll show ourselves.
(They come forward.)
KING HENRY
Why, there's another Check to Proud Ambition.
That Man receiv'd his Charge from me, and now
I'm his Prisoner, he lock's me to my Rest:
Such an unlook'd for Change who cou'd suppose,
That saw him kneel to Kiss the Hand that rais'd him?
But that I shou'd not now complain off,
Since I from thence may happily derive
His Civil Treatment of me, -- 'Morrow Lieutenant,
Is any News arriv'd? -- Who's that with you?
LIEUTENANT
A Gentleman that came last Night Express
From Tewkesbury. We've had a Battle, Sir.
KING HENRY
Comes he to me with Letters or Advice?
LIEUTENANT
Sir, he's King Edward's Officer, your Foe.
KING HENRY
Then he won't flatter me, you're welcome, Sir;
Not less because you are King Edward's Friend;
For I have almost learn'd my self to be so:
Cou'd I but once forget I was a King,
I might be truly Happy, and his Subject.
You've gain'd a Battle? Is't not so?
STANLEY
We have, Sir; How, will reach your Ear too soon.
KING HENRY
If to my Loss, It can't too soon? Pray speak,
For Fear makes Mischief greater than it is:
My Queen! my Son! say, Sir! are they living!
STANLEY
Since my Arrival, Sir, another Post
Came in, who brought us word your Queen, and Son
Were Prisoners now at Tewkesbury.
KING HENRY
Heav'ns Will be done! the Hunters have 'em now --
And I have only Sighs, and Prayers to help 'em!
STANLEY
King Edward, Sir, depends upon his Sword,
Yet prays heartily, when the Battle's won:
And Soldiers love a Bold and Active Leader,
Fortune like Women will be close pursu'd;
The English are high Mettl'd, Sir, and 'tis
No easie part to Sit 'em well. King Edward
Feels their Temper, and 'twill be hard to throw him.
KING HENRY
Alas, I thought 'em Men, and rather hop'd
To win their Hearts by Mildness, than Severity.
My Soul was never form'd for Cruelty,
In my Eye Justice has seem'd bloody,
When on the City Gates I have beheld
A Traytor's Quarters parching in the Sun,
My Blood has turn'd with Horror at the Sight,
I took 'em down, and Buried with his Limbs
The Memory of the Dead Man's Deeds: Perhaps
That Pity make me look less Terrible,
Giving the mind of weak Rebellion Spirit:
For King's are put in Trust for all Mankind,
And when themselves take Injuries, who is safe?
If so I have deserv'd these frowns of Fortune.
Enter a Servant to the Lieutenant.
SERVANT
Sir, here's a Gentleman brings a Warrant
For his Access to King Henry's Presence.
LIEUTENANT
I come to him.
STANLEY
His Business may require your Privacy,
I'll leave you, Sir, wishing you all the Good
That can be wish'd, not wronging him I serve. (Ex. Lord Stan.
KING HENRY
Farewell: Who can this be? A sudden Coldness
Like the Damp Hand of Death has seiz'd my Limbs:
I fear some heavy News! ---
Enter Lieutenant.
Who is it, good Lieutenant?
LIEUTENANT
A Gentleman, Sir, from Tewkesbury, he seems
A melancholly Messenger: For when I ask'd
What News? His Answer was a deep faught Sigh:
I wou'd urge him, but I fear 'tis fatal.
Enter Tressell in Mourning.
KING HENRY
%Fatal indeed! His Brows the Title Page%
%That speaks the Nature of a Tragick Volume;%
'Say, Friend, how does my Queen, my Son!
%Thou tremblest, and the whiteness of thy Cheek%
%Is apter than thy Tongue to tell the Errand,%
%Ev'n such a Man, so Faint, so Spiritless,%
%So Dull, so Dead in Look, so Woe be gone,%
%Drew Priam's Curtain in the Dead of Night,%
%And wou'd have told him half his Troy was burn'd,%
%But Priam found the Fire, e're he his Tongue,%
%And I my poor Son's Death e're thou relatest it;%
%Now wou'd'st thou say: Your Son did thus and thus,%
'And thus your Queen; So fought the Valiant Oxford,
%Stopping my greedy Ear with their bold Deeds,%
%But in the End (to stop my Ear indeed,)%
%Thou hast a Sigh to blow away this Praise,%
'Ending with Queen and Son, and all are Dead.
TRESSELL
'Your Queen yet Lives, and many of your Friends,
'But for my Lord you Son --
KING HENRY
Why, he is Dead; -- yet speak, I Charge thee!
'Tell thou thy Master his Suspicion lies,
%And I will take it as a kind Disgrace,%
'And thank thee well, for doing me such wrong.
TRESSELL
Wou'd it were wrong to say, but, Sir, your Fears are true.
KING HENRY
Yet for all this, say not my Son is Dead.
TRESSELL
Sir, I am sorry I must force you to
Believe, what wou'd to Heav'n I had not seen!
But in this last Battle, near Tewkesbury,
'Your Son, whose Active Spirit lent a Fire
'En'n to the dullest Peasant in your Camp,
Still made his way, where Danger stood t'oppose him,
A beraver Youth of more Couragious Heat,
'Ne'er spurr'd his Courser at the Trumpets sound:
But who can Rule th'uncertain Chance of War,
In Fine, King Edward won the Bloody Field,
Where both your Queen, and Son were made his Prisoners.
KING HENRY
'Yet, hold! for oh! this Prologue lets me in
'%To a most fatal Tragedy to come.% --
Dy'd he Prisoner, say'st thou? How? By Grief,
Or by the bloody Hands of those, that caught him?
TRESSELL
After the Fight, Edward in Triumph ask'd
To see the Captive Prince; the Prince was brought,
Whom Edward roughly Chid for bearing Arms,
Asking what Reparation he cou'd make
For having stirr'd his Subjects to Rebellion?
Your Son impatient of such Taunts, reply'd,
'Bow like a Subject, Proud Ambitious York!
'While I now speaking with my Father's Mouth,
'Propose the self same Rebel Words to thee,
'Which, Traytor, thou wou'dst have me answer to:
From these, more Words arose, till in the End
King Edward swell'd with what th'unhappy Prince
At such a time too freely spoke, his Gauntlet
In his young Face with Indignation struck:
At which Crook'd Richard, Clarence, and the rest
Buried their fatal Daggers in his Heart:
%In Bloody State I saw him on the Earth,%
%From whence with Life he never more sprung up.%
KING HENRY
'O had'st thou stabb'd at every Words deliverance,
'Sharp Ponyards in my Flesh, while this was told
'Thy Wounds had giv'n less Anguish than thy Words. ---
O Hean'ns! methinks I see my tender Lamb
Gasping beneath the Ravenous Wolves fell gripe?
But say, did all? Did they all strike him, say'st thou?
TRESSELL
All, Sir: But the first Wound Duke Richard gave.
KING HENRY
There let him stop! be that his last of Ills!
O barbarous Act; Unhospitable Men!
Against the rigid Laws of Arms to kill him!
Was't not enough, his hope of Birth-right gone,
But must your Hate be levell'd at his Life?
Nor cou'd his Father's Wrongs content you?
Nor cou'd a Father's Grief disswade the Deed?
'You have no Children, (Butchers if you had)
'The thought of them wou'd sure have stirr'd Remorse.
TRESSELL
Take Comfort, Sir; and Hope a better Day.
KING HENRY
%O! who can hold a Fire in his Hand,%
%By thinking of the Frosty Caucasus?%
%Or wallow Naked in December's Snow,%
'By bare remembrance of the Summer's Heat?
Away! by Heav'n, I shall abhor his Sight,
Whoever bids me be of Comfort more:
If thou wilt sooth my Sorrows, then I'll thank thee:
Ay! now thou'rt kind indeed! these Tears oblige me.
TRESSELL
Alas, my Lord! I fear more Evils toward you.
KING HENRY
Why, let it come! I scarce shall feel it now,
My present Woes have beat me to the Ground,
And my hard Fate can make me fall no lower:
What can it be? Give it its ugliest Shape, -- O my poor Boy! --
TRESSELL
A word does that it comes in Gloucester's Form.
KING HENRY
Frightful indeed! give me the worst that threatens.
TRESSELL
After the Murther of your Son, stern Richard,
As if unsated with the Wounds he had giv'n,
With unwash'd Hands went from his Friends in hast,
And being ask'd by Clarence of the Cause,
He low'ring cry'd, Brother, I must, to the Tower!
I've Business there, excuse me to the King,
Before you reach the Town, expect some News:
This said, he vanish'd, and I hear's arriv'd.
KING HENRY
Why, then the Period of my Woes is set;
For Ills but thoughtby him are half perform'd.
Enter Lieutenant with a Paper.
LIEUTENANT
Forgive me, Sir; what I'm compell'd to'bey
An Order for your close Confinement.
KING HENRY
Whence comes it, good Lieutenant?
LIEUTENANT
Sir, from the Duke of Gloucester.
KING HENRY
Good Night to all then: I obey it --
And now good Friend suppose me on my Death-bed,
And take of me, thy last, short, Living leave: --
Ney, keep thy Tears till thou hast seen me Dead:
%And when in tedious Winter Nights, with Good%
%Old Folks, thou sit'st up late%
%To hear 'em tell thee Dismal Tales%
'Of times long past, even now with Woe remember'd;
%Before thou bidst good night, to quit their Grief,%
%Tell thou the lamentable fall of me,%
%And send thy hearers weeping to their Beds.% (Exeunt
Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester. Solus.
RICHARD
%Now are our Brows bound with Victorious wreaths,%
%Our stern allarms are changed to Merry-meetings,%
%Our dreadfull marches to delightful measures.%
%Grim visaged War has smoothed his wrinkled Front,%
%And now instead of mounting Barbed Steeds%
%To fright the Souls of fearful Adversaries%
%He Capers nimbly in a Ladies Chamber%
%To the Lascivious Pleasing of a Lute;%
%But I that am not shaped for sportive tricks,%
%I that am curtailed of Man's fair proportion,%
%Deform'd, Unfinish'd, sent before my time%
%Into this breathing World scarce hald made up,%
%And that so lamely and unfashionable%
%That Dogs bark at me as I halt by 'em;%
%Why I, in this weak, this piping time of Peace,%
%Have no delight to pass away my hours,%
%Unless to see my shadow in the Sun,%
%And descant on my own deformity:%
%---Then since this Earth affords no joy to me,%
%But to Command, to Check, and to Orebear such,%
'As are of Happier Person than my self,
'Why then to me this restless World's but Hell,
Till this mishapen trunks aspiring head
'Be circled in a glorious Diadem --
But then 'tis fixt on such an heighth, O! I
Must stretch the utmost reaching of my Soul.
I'll climb betimes without Remorse or Dread,
And my first step shall be on Henry's Head. (Exit.
Scene, a Chamber in the Tower: K. Henry sleeping.
Enter Lieutenant.
LIEUTENANT
Asleep so soon! But sorrow minds no seasons,
The Morning, Noon, and Night with her's the same,
She's fond of any hour that yields Repose.
KING HENRY (rising.
Who's there? Lieutenant! is it you? Come hither.
LIEUTENANT
You shake, my Lord, and look affrighted.
KING HENRY
O! I have had the fearfull'st Dream; such sights,
That, as I live ---
I would not pass another hour so dreadful
Though 'twere to buy a world of happy days.
Reach me a Book -- I'll try if reading can
Divert these melancholy thoughts.
Enter Richard.
RICHARD
%Good day, my Lord; what, at your Book so hard?%
I disturb you.
KING HENRY
You do indeed --- (sighing.
RICHARD
Go, Friend, leave us to our selves; we must confer.
(Exit Lieu.
KING HENRY
What Bloody Scene has Roscius now to Act?
RICHARD
%Suspicion always haunts the guilty mind,%
%The Thief does fear each bush an Officer.%
KING HENRY
Where Thieves without Controulment rob and kill,
The Traveller does fear each bush a Thief:
%The poor bird that has been already lim'd%
%With trembling Wings misdoubts of every Bush,%
%And I, the hapless Male to one sweet Bird,%
%Have now the fatal object in my Eye,%
'By whom my young one bled, was caught and kill'd.
RICHARD
%Why, what a peevish Fool was that of Creet,%
%That taught his Son the office of a Fowl?%
%And yet for all his Wings the fool was drown'd:%
Thou should'st have taught thy Boy his Prayers alone,
And then he had not broke his neck with Climbing.
KING HENRY
%Ah, kill me with thy weapons, not with words,%
%My breast can better brook thy Daggers Point,%
'Than can my ears that piercing story.
%But wherefore dost thou come, is't for my life?%
RICHARD
%Thinkest thou I am an Executioner?%
KING HENRY
%If Murthering Innocents be Executing%
'Thou'rt then the worst of Executioners.
RICHARD
%Thy Son I kill'd for his Presumption.%
KING HENRY
%Hadst thou been kill'd when first thou didst Presume,%
%Thou hadst not liv'd to kill a Son of mine.%
But thou wert born to Massacre Mankind.
'How many Old Mens sighs, and Widows moans,
'How many Orphans Water standing eyes,
'%Men, for their sons, Wives for their Husbands Fate,%
'%And Children, for their Parents timeless death,%
'%Will rue the hour that ever thou wert born?%
%The Owl shriek'd at thy Birth: An Evil sign.%
'%The night Crow cry'd, foreboding luckless time,%
%Dogs howl'd, and hideous Tempests shook down Trees;%
%The Raven rook'd her on the Chimenys top,%
%And chattering Pies in Dismal discords sung.%
%They Mother felt more than a Mothers Pain,%
%And yet brought forth less than a Mothers Hope:%
%Teeth hadst thou in thy head when thou wert born,%
%Which plainly said, Thou cam'st to bite Mankind,%
%And if the rest be true which I have heard,%
%Thou cam'st ---%
RICHARD
%I'll hear no more: Dye, Prophet, in thy speech.% (Stabs him.
%For this, amongst the rest was I ordain'd.%
KING HENRY
%O! and for much more slaughter after this.%
'%Just Heaven forgive my sins, and pardon thee.% [Dies.
RICHARD
%What, will the aspiring blood of Lancaster%
%Sink in the ground? -- I thought it would have mounted.%
%See how my Sword weeps for the poor King's death;%
%---O, may such purple tears be always shed%
%From those that wish the Downfall of our House.%
%If any spark of Life be yet remaining,%
%Down, down to Hell! and say, I sent thee thither.% (stabs him again.
%I that have neither Pity, Love nor Fear:%
%Indeed 'tis true, what Henry told me of,%
%For I have often heard my Mother say,%
%I came into the World with my Leg's forward:%
%The Midwife wonder'd, and the Women cry'd,%
%Good Heaven bless us, he is born with Teeth;%
%And so I was, which plainly signified,%
%That I should snarl and bite, and play the Dog.%
%Then since the Heavens have shap'd my body so,%
%Let Hell make crooked my mind to answer it ---%
%I have no Brother, am like no Brother,%
%And this word Love, which Gray beards call Divine,%
%Be resident in Men, like one another,%
%And not in me -- I am -- my self alone.%
%Clarence, beware, thou keep'st me from the Light,%
%But if I fail not in my deep intent,%
%Thou'st not another day to live, which done,%
%Heaven take the weak King Edward to his Mercy,%
%And leave the World for me to bustle in :%
But soft -- I'm sharing spoil before the Field is won,
Clarence still Breaths, Edward still Lives and Reigns,
When they are gone, then I must count my gains. (Exit.
The End of the first ACT.
ACT the Second
The SCENE, St. Pauls.
Enter Tressel meeting Lord Stanley.
TRESSELL
My Lord, your Servant, pray what brought you to Paul's?
STANLEY
I came amongst the Crowd to see the Corps
Of poor King Henry. 'Tis a dismal sight,
But yesterday I saw him in the Tower;
His talk is still so fresh within my memory:
That I could weep to think how Fate has us'd him.
I wonder where's Duke Richard's policy
Is suffering him to lie exposed to view?
Can he believe that Men will love him for't?
TRESSELL
O yes, Sir, love him, as he loves his Brothers:
When was you with King Edward, pray, my Lord?
I hear he leaves his Food, is Melancholy,
And his Physicians fear him mightily.
STANLEY
'Tis thought he'll scarce recover:
Shall we to Court, and hear more News of Him?
TRESSELL
I am oblig'd to pay Attendance here,
The Lady LADY ANN has license to remove
King Henry's Corps to be Interr'd at Chertsey,
And I am engag'd to follow her.
STANLEY
Mean you King Henry's Daughter-in-Law?
TRESSELL
The same, Sir, Widow to the late Prince Edward,
Whom Cloucester kill'd at Tewkesbury.
STANLEY
Alas, poor Lady, she'd severely used.
And yet I hear Richard attempts her Love:
Methinks the wrongs he's done her should discourage him.
TRESSELL
Neither those wrongs nor his own shape can fright him;
He sent for leave to visit her this morning,
And she was forc'd to keep her Bed to avoid him.
But see, she is arriv'd: Will you along
To see this doleful Ceremony?
STANLEY
I'll wait on you. (Exeunt.
Richard. Solus.
RICHARD
'Twas her excuse t'avoid me -- Alas!
She keeps no Bed ---
She has health enough to progress far as Chertsey,
Tho' not to bear the sight of me;
-- I cannot blame her ---
%Why Love forswore me in my Mothers Womb, %
%And for I should not deal in his soft Laws, %
%He did corrupt frail Nature with some Bribe %
%To shrink my Arm up like a wither'd Shrub, %
%To make an envious Mountain on my bvack, %
%Where sits Deformity to mock by Body, %
%To shape my Legs of an unequal size, %
%To disproportion me in every part: %
And am I then a man to be belov'd?
O monstrous Thought! more vain my Ambition.
Enter Lieutenant hastily.
Lieutenant
My Lord, I beg your Grace ---
RICHARD
Be gone, Fellow -- I'm not at leisure ---
Lieutenant
My Lord, the King your Brother's taken ill.
RICHARD
I'll wait on him, leave me, Friend -- [Exit Lieutenant.]
Ha! Edward ta'en ill! ---
%Wou'd he were wasted, Marrow-bones and all, %
'That from his loins no more young Brats may rise
'To cross me in the golden time I look for ---
But see, my Love appears: Look where she shines,
Darting pale Lustre, like the Silver Moon
Through her dark Veil of Rainy sorrow:
So mourn'd the Dame of Ephesus her Love,
And thus the Soldier arm'd with Resolution
Told his soft tale, and was a thriving Woer.
'Tis true, my Form perhaps, will little move her,
But I've a Tongue shall wheadle with the Devil.
Yet hold; She mourns the Man whom I have kill'd :
First, let her sorrows take some vent -- Stand here;
I'll take her passion in its wain, and turn
This storm of grief to gentle drops of pity
For his Repentant Murderer. -- (He retires.
Enter Bearers with King Henry's Body, the Lady LADY ANN in
Mourning, Lord Stanley, Tressel, and Guards, who all advance from
the middle Isle of the Church.
LADY ANN
'Hung be the Heavens with black, yield day to night,
'Comets importing change of Times and States,
'Brandish your fiery Tresses in the Sky,
'And with'em scourge the bad revolting Stars
'That have consented to King Henry's death:
%O be accurst the Hand that shed this Blood;
%Accurst the Head that had the Heart to do it, %
%More direful hap betide that hated Wretch %
%Than I can wish to Wolves, to Spiders, Toads, %
%Or any creeping venom'd thing that lives: %
%If ever he have Wife, let her be made %
'More miserable by the Life of him,
'Than I am now by Edward's death and thine.
RICHARD
Poor Girl! What pains she takes to curse her self? (apart.
LADY ANN
%If ever he have Child Abortive be it, %
%Prodigious and Untimely brought to Light, %
'Whose hideous Form, whose most unnatural Aspect
%May fright the hopeful Mother at the view, %
%And that be Heir to his unhappiness. %
'Now on, to Chertsey with your sacred Load.
Richard comes forward.
RICHARD
%Stay, you that bear the Coarse, and set it down. %
LADY ANN
%What black Magician Conjures up this Fiend %
%To stop devoted charitable deeds? %
RICHARD
%Villains, set down the Coarse, or by St. Paul, %
%I'll made a Coarse of him that disobeys. %
GUARD
%My Lord, stand back, and let the Coffin pass. %
RICHARD
'Unmanner'd Slave!
%Stand thou, when I command: %
%Advance thy Halbert higher than my Breast, %
%Or, by St. Paul, I'll strike thee to my foot, %
%And spurn thee, beggar, for this boldness. %
LADY ANN
Why dost thou haunt him thus, unsated Fiend?
%Thou hadst but power over his mortal Body, %
%His soul thou canst not reach; therefore be gone. %
RICHARD
%Sweet Saint, be not so hard for Charity. %
LADY ANN
%If thou delight to view thy heinous deeds, %
%Behold this pattern of thy Butcheries. %
Why didst thou do this deed? Cou'd not the Laws
Of Man, of Nature, nor of Heavan disswade thee?
%No Beast so fierce, but knows some touch of pity. %
RICHARD
If want of pity be a Crime so hateful,
Whense is it thou, fair Excellence, art guilty?
LADY ANN
What means the slanderer?
RICHARD
%Vouchsafe, Divine Perfection of a Woman, %
%Of these my Crimes suppos'd to give me leave %
%By Circumstance, but to acquit my self. %
LADY ANN
Then take that Sword, whose bloody point still reeks
With Henry's Life, with my lov'd Lord young Edwards,
And here let out thy own t'appease their Ghosts.
RICHARD
%By such despair I shou'd accuse my self. %
LADY ANN
%Why by despairing only canst thou stand excused? %
%Dist thou not kill this King? %
RICHARD
%I grant ye. %
LADY ANN
%O! he was Gentle, Loving, Mild and Vertuous; %
But he's in Heaven, where thou canst never come.
RICHARD
Was I not kind to send him thither then?
%He was much fitter for that place than Earth. %
LADY ANN
%And thou unfit for any place but Hell. %
RICHARD
%Yes, one place else, if you will hear me name it. %
LADY ANN
%Some Dungeon. %
RICHARD
%Your Bed Chamber. %
LADY ANN
%Ill rest betide the Chamber where thou liest. %
RICHARD
%So it will, Madam, till I lie in yours. %
LADY ANN
%I hope so. %
RICHARD
%I know so. But gentle Lady LADY ANN, %
'To leave this keen encounter of our Tongues,
'And fall to something a more serious method.
%Is not the cause of th'untimely deaths %
%Of these Plantagenets, Henry and Edward, %
%As blameful as the Executioner? %
LADY ANN
%Thou wert the cause, and most accurst effect. %
RICHARD
%your Beauty was the cause of that effect: %
%Your Beauty that did haunt me in my sleep, %
%To undertake the Death of all the World, %
%So I might live one hour in that soft Bosom. %
LADY ANN
%If I thought that, I tell thee, Homicide, %
'These Hands shou'd rend that Beauty from my Cheeks.
RICHARD
%These Eyes cou'd not endure that Beauties rack, %
%You shou'd not blemish it, if I stood by. %
'As all the World is nourish'd by the Sun,
%So I by that: It is my Day, my Life. %
LADY ANN
%I wou'd it were to be reveng'd on thee. %
RICHARD
%It is a Quarrel most Unnatural %
%To wish revenge on him that loves thee. %
LADY ANN
Say rather 'tis my duty,
'To seek revenge on him that kill'd my Husband.
RICHARD
Fair Creature, he that kill'd thy Husband
'Did it to -- help thee to a better Husband.
LADY ANN
%His better does not breath upon the Earth. %
RICHARD
%He lives that lov'd thee better, than he could. %
LADY ANN
%Name him. %
RICHARD.
%Plantagenet. %
LADY ANN
%Why, that was he. %
RICHARD
%The self same Name, but one of softer Nature. %
LADY ANN
%Where is he? %
RICHARD
Ah! take sore pity in thy Eyes, and see him - here.
LADY ANN
%Wou'd they were Basilisks to strike thee dead. %
RICHARD
%I wou'd they were, that I might die at once, %
%For now they kill me with a living death, %
Darting with cruel aim unpitied Love,
%I never sued to Friend or Enemy, %
%My Tongue could never learn sweet smoothing Works, %
%But now thy Beauty is propos'd my Fee %
%My proud Heart sues, and prompts my Tongue to speak. %
LADY ANN
Is there a Tongue on Earth can speak for thee?
Why dost thou Court my hate?
___
TRESSELL |
|
Where will this end ? she frowns upon him yet. |
} aside.
STANLEY |
|
But yet she hears him in her frowns ; I fear him. |
___
RICHARD
'O! teach not thy soft lip such cold contempt --
%If thy Relentless Heart cannot forgive, %
%Lo, here I lend thee this sharp pointed Sword, %
%Which if thou please to hide in this true Breast, %
%And let the honest Soul out, that adores thee, %
%I lay it naked to the deadly stroke, %
%And humbly beg that Death upon my knee. %
LADY ANN Aside.
What shall I say or do? Direct me Heaven;
When stones weep sure the tears are natural,
And Heaven it self instructs us to forgive,
When they do flow from a sincere Repentance.
RICHARD
%Nay, do not pause: For I did kill King Henry, %
%But 'twas thy wondrous Beauty that provoked me; %
%Nay now dispatch: 'Twas I that stab'd young Edward, %
%But 'twas thy Heavenly face that set me on, %
And I might still persist (so stubborn is
My Temper) to rejoice at what I've done,
But that thy powerful Eyes (as roaring Seas
Obey the changes of the Moon) have turn'd
My Heart, and made it flow with Penitence.
(She lets fall the Sword.
%Take up the Sword again, or take up me. %
LADY ANN
%No, tho' I wish thy Death, %
%I will not be thy Executioner. %
RICHARD
%Then bid me kill my self, and I will do it. %
LADY ANN
%I have already. %
RICHARD
%That was in they rage: %
%Say it again, and even with thy word %
'This guilty hand that rob'd thee of thy Love
'Shall for thy Love revenge thee on thy Lover;
%To both their deaths shalt thou be Accessary. %
___
TRESSELL |
|
By Heaven she wants the heart to bid him do't. |
|
STANLEY |
|
What think you now, Sir? |
|
TRESSELL |
} aside.
I'm struck! I scarce can credit what I see. |
|
STANLEY |
|
Why, you see -- A Woman. |
|
TRESSELL |
|
When future Chronicles shall speak of this |
They will be thought Romance, not History. |
---
RICHARD
What, not a word to pardon or condemn, me?
But thou art wise -- and canst with silence kill me;
Yet even in death my fleeting Soul pursues thee:
Dash not the tears of Penitence away.
I ask but leave t'indulge my cold despair:
By Heaven, there's Joy in this extravagance
Of Woe; 'tis Melting, Soft, 'tis pleasing Ruin.
Oh! 'tis too much, too much for Life to bear
This aching tenderness of thought.
LADY ANN
Wou'dst thou not blame me to forgive thy Crimes?
RICHARD
They are not to be forgiven: No, not even
Penitence can atone 'em. O misery
Of Thought! that strikes me with at once Repentance
And Despair; tho' unpardon'd yield me pity.
LADY ANN
%I Wou'd I knew thy heart. %
RICHARD
%'Tis figur'd in my Tongue. %
LADY ANN
%I fear me both are false. %
RICHARD
%Then never Man was true. %
LADY ANN
%Put up thy Sword. %
RICHARD
%Say then, my Peace is made. %
LADY ANN
%That shalt thou know hereafter. %
RICHARD
%But shall I live in hope? %
LADY ANN
%All Men, I hope, live so. %
RICHARD
I swear, bright Saint, I am not what I was:
Those Eyes have turn'd my stubborn heart to Woman,
This goodness makes me soft in Penitence,
And my harsh thoughts are tun'd to Peace and Love.
%O! if they poor devoted Servant might %
%But beg one favour at they gracious hand, %
%Thou wouldst confirm his Happiness for ever. %
LADY ANN
%What is it?%
RICHARD
%That it may please thee, leave these sad designs %
%To him that has most cause to be a Mourner, %
%And presently repair to Crosby House, %
%Where, after I have solemnly Interr'd %
%At Chertsey Monastery, this Injur'd King, %
%And wet his Grave with my repentant Tears, %
%I will with all expedient duty see you: %
%For divers unknown reasons I beseech you %
'Grant me this favour.
LADY ANN
%I do my Lord, and much it joys me too %
To see you are become so Penitent, %
Tressel and Berkley %go along with me. %
RICHARD
%Bid me Farewell. %
LADY ANN
%'Tis more that you deserve; %
%But since you teach me how to flatter you, %
%Imagine I have said Farewell already. % [Exit with Tress. and Berk.
GUARD
%Towards Chertsey, my Lord? %
RICHARD
%Now to White-Fryars, there attend my coming. %
[Exit with the Body.
Richard Solus
RICHARD (smiling)
%Was ever Woman in this humour wooed? %
%Was ever Woman in this humour won? %
%I'll have her: But I will not keep her long. %
%What! I that kill'd her Husband and her Father, %
%To take her in her Hearts extreamest hate, %
%With Curses in her mouth, Tears in her Eyes, %
%The bleeding witness of my hatred by, %
%Having Heaven, her Conscience, and these Bars against me, %
%And I no Friends to back my suit withal, %
%But the plain Devil, and dissembling looks? %
%And yet to win her! All the world to nothing. %
%Can she abase her Beauteous eyes on me? %
%Whose all not equals Edward's moiety? %
%On me! that halt and am mishapen, Thus %
'My Dukedom to a Widows Chastity
%I do mistake my Person all this while! %
%Upon my life! she finds, altho I cannot, %
%My self to be a marvellous proper Man, %
'I'll have my Chambers lin'd with Looking-glass
%And entertain a score or two of Taylors %
%To study fashions to adorn my body. %
%Since I am crept in favour with my self, %
%I will maintain it with some little cost. %
'But first, I'll turn St. Harry to his grave,
%And then return lamenting to my Love. %
'Shine out fair Sun till I salute my Glass,
%That I may see my shadow as I pass. %
( Exit.
SCENE the Presence: Enter the Duke of Buckingham
hastily, Lord Stanley meeting him.
BUCKINGHAM
Did you see the Duke?
STANLEY
What Duke my Lord?
BUCKINGHAM
His Grace of Gloucester, did you see him?
STANLEY
Not lately, my Lord - I hope no ill news.
Bckingham
The worst that heard e're bore, or tongue can utter.
Edward the King! his Royal Brother's Dead.
STANLEY
'Tis sad indeed - I wish by your impatience
To acquaint him tho you think it so to him. aside.
Did the King, by Lord, make any mention
Of a Protector for his Crown and Children?
BUCKINGHAM
He did, Duke Richard has the care of both.
STANLEY
That sad news you are afraid to tell him too. (aside.
BUCKINGHAM
He'll spare no toile, I'm sure to fill his Place!
STANLEY
Pray Heav'n he's not too diligent! (aside.
My lord, is not that the Dutchess of York,
The King's Mother? coming I fear to visit him.
BUCKINGHAM
'Tis she ! little thinking what has befallen us.
Enter Dutchess of York.
DUTCHESS
Good day, my Lords! How takes the King his Rest.
BUCKINGHAM
Alas! Madam, too well! he sleeps for ever ?
DUTCHESS
Dead! - Good Heav'n support me!
BUCKINGHAM
Madam, 'twas my unhappy lot to hear
His last Departing Groans, and close his eyes.
DUTCHESS
Another taken from me too! why just Heav'n
Am I still left the last in life and woe?
'First I bemoan'd a nobel Husbands death,
'Yet liv'd with looking on his Images.
'But now my last support is gone, First Clarence,
Now Edward is forever taken from me.
Both Crutches now the unrelenting hand
Of Death has stricken from my feeble Arms
And I must now of force sink down with sorrow.
BUCKINGHAM
Your youngest Son, the Noble Richard lives.
His love I know will feel his Mothers Cares,
And bring new comfort to your latter days.
DUTCHESS
'Twere new indeed! for yet of him I've none,
Unless a churlish disobedieence may
Be counted for a Child a Mothers Comfort:
'From his malicious grudge I know my Son.
'His brother Clarence death was first contriv'd
But may his Penitence find Heav'n's mercy.
Where is the Queen, my Lord?
BUCKINGHAM
I left her with her kinsmen deep in Sorrow,
Who have with much adoe perswaded her
To leave the Body -- Madam they are here.
Enter the Queen attended with Rivers and Dorset, and
others.
QUEEN
Why do you thus oppose my grief, unless
To make me Rave, and Weep the faster? Ha!
My Mother too in Tears! Fresh Sorrow strikes
My heart, at sight of every Friend, that lov'd
My Edward living -- O Mother! He's Dead!
Edward, my Lord, thy Son, our King is Dead.
O that my eyes cou'd weep away my Soul!
Than I might follow worthy of his Hearse.
STANLEY
Your Duty, Madam, of a Wife is Dead,
And not the Mother's only claims your care.
Think on the Prince your Son: send for him strait,
And let his Coronation clear your eyes.
Bury your griefs in the dead Edward's Grave,
Revive your Joys on living Edward's Throne.
QUEEN
Alas! That thought, but adds to my Afflictions.
New Tears for Edward gone, and fears for Edward living,
'An helpless Child, and his Minority
'Is in the Trust of his stern Uncle Gloucester,
A man that frowns on me, and all of mine. (Weeps.
BUCKINGHAM
Judge not so hardly, Madam, of his love,
Your Son will find in him a Father's Care.
Enter Richard behind.
RICHARD
Why ay! -- These tears look well! sorrow's the mode,
And every one at Court must wear it now --
With all my heart, I'll not be out of Fashion.
(aside.
QUEEN
My Lord, just Heav'n knows I never hated Richard,
But wou'd on any terms embrace his friendship.
BUCKINGHAM
These words would make him weep, -- I know him yours.
See where he comes in sorrow for our loss.
RICHARD
My Lords, -- good morrow -- Cousin of Buckingham,
I am yours -- (Weeping.
BUCKINGHAM
Good-morning to your Grace.
RICHARD
Methinks --
We meet, like men, that had forgot to speak.
BUCKINGHAM
We may remember: But our argument
Is now too mournful to admit much talk.
RICHARD
It is indeed! Peace be with him has made it so.
'Sister! Take Comfort -- Tis true we've all cause
'To mourn the dimming of our shining Star:
But sorrow never cou'd revive the dead --
--And if it cou'd, hope wou'd prevent our tears,
So we must weep, because we weep in vain.
'Madam, my Mother -- I do cry your mercy:
'My grief was blind -- I did not see your Grace,
%Most humbly on my knee I crave your Blessing.%
DUTCHESS
Thou hast it, and may thy charitable
Heart, and Tongue love one another, may Heaven
Indow thy breast with meekness, and obedience.
RICHARD
%Amen, and make me die a good old man, %
%That's the old Butt-end of a Mother's Blessing; %
%I marvel that her Grace did leave it out. %
[Aside.
BUCKINGHAM
%My Lords, I think 'twere fit, that now Prince Edward %
%Forthwith from Ludlow shou'd be sent for home, %
%In order to his Coronation. %
RICHARD
By all means, my Lords, come let's in to Counsel,
And appoint who shall be the messengers.
%Madam, and you my Sister, please you go %
'To give your sentiments on this occasion?
QUEEN
My Lord, your Wisdom needs no help from me,
My glad consent you have in all that's just:
Or for the peoples good, tho I suffer by't.
RICHARD
Please you to retire, Madam, we shall propose
What you'd not think the peoples wrong, nor yours.
QUEEN
May Hean'n prosper all your good intent.
[Exit with all but Buck. and Richard.
RICHARD
Amen, with all my Heart. For min'es the Crown.
And is not that a good one? ha! Pray'd she not well, Cousin?
BUCKINGHAM
I hope she propehsied -- You now stand Fair.
RICHARD
Now by St. Paul, I feel it here! Methinks
The massy weight on't galls my laden Brow.
What think'st thou, Cousin, wer't not an easie matter
To get Lord Stanley's hand to help it on.
BUCKINGHAM
'My Lord, I doubt that for his Fathers sake,
'He loves the Prince to well, he'll scarce be won
'To any thing against him.
RICHARD
Poverty the reward of Honest Fools
O'retake him for't! what thinkst thou then of Hastings?
BUCKINGHAM
He shall be tri'd my Lord: I'll find out Catesby,
Who shall at subtle distance sound his thoughts,
But we must still suppose the worst may happen,
What if we find him cold in our design?
RICHARD
%Chop of his head. -- Something we'll soon determine. %
But haste, and find out Catesby,
That done, follow me to the Counsel Chamber;
We'll not be seen together much, nor have
It known that we confer in Private -- Therefore
Away good Cousin.
BUCKINGHAM
I am gone, My Lord. (Exit Buck.
RICHARD
Thus far we run before the wind --
[*Ed's note - see inserted text below]
Let me see,
The Prince will soon be here -- let him - the Crown!
O yes! he shall have twenty, Globes, and Scepters too,
New ones made to play withall -- But no Coronation!
No! nor no Court flies about him, no Kinsmen --
--Hold ye! -- Where shall he keep his Court!
-- Ay! -- the Tower.
The end of the Second ACT
* The following lines occur at this point in the 1718 edition:
My Fortune smiles, and gives me all that I dare ask.
The conquer'd Lady Anne is bound in Vows,
Fast as the priest can make us, we are One.
The King my Brother, sleeps without his Pillow,
And I am left the Guardian of his Infant Heir.
_____________________________________________________________
ACT the III
Enter Prince Edward, with the Dukes of Gloucester, Buckingham,
Lord Stanley, Tressel and Attendants.
RICHARD
'Now, my Royal Cousin, welcome to London,
'Welcome to all those honour'd Dignities
'Which by your Father's Will, and by your Birth,
'You stand the undoubted Heir Possess'd of;
And, if my plain simplicity of Heart
May take the liberty to shew it self,
You're farther welcome to your Uncles Care
And Love: Why do you sigh, my Lord?
%The weary way has made you melancholy. %
PRINCE EDWARD
%No, Uncle, but our crosses on the way %
%Have made it Tedious, Wearisome and Heavy, %
%I want more Uncles here to welcome me. %
___
TRESSEL |
|
More Uncles! What means his Highness? |
|
LORD STANLEY |
|
Why, Sir, the careful Duke of Gloucester has } Aside.
Secur'd his Kinsmen on the way: Lord Rivers, Gray, |
Sir Thomas Vaughan, and others of his Friends, |
Are Prisoners now in Pomfret Castle; |
On what pretence it boots not: There they are; |
Let the Devil and the Duke alone to accuse 'em. |
---
RICHARD
%My Lord, the Mayor of London comes to greet you. %
Enter Lord Mayor, and Citizens.
LORD MAYOR
Vouchsafe, most Gracious Sovereign to accept
The general Homage of your Loyal City;
We farther beg your Royal leave to speak
In deep Condolement of your Father's loss:
And, far as our true sorrow will permit
To gratulate your Accession to the Throne.
PRINCE EDWARD
%I thank you, good my Lord, and thank you all. %
Alas, my youth is yet unfit to govern,
Therefore the Sword of Justice is in abler hands:
But be assur'd of this, so much already
I perceive I love you, that tho' I know not yet
To do you offices of good, yet this I know,
I'll sooner die, than basely do you wrong.
RICHARD
%So wise, so young, they say do never live long. % [Aside.
PRINCE EDWARD
%My Lords, %
%I thought my Mother and my Brother York %
%Wou'd long e're this have met us on the way: %
%Say, Uncle Gloucester, if your Brother come, %
%Where shall we sojourn till our Coronation? %
RICHARD
%Where it shall seem best to your Royal self, %
%May I advise you, Sir, some day or two %
%Your Highness shall repose you at the Tower, %
%Then where you please, and shall be thought most fit %
%For your best Health and Recreation. %
PRINCE EDWARD
Why at the Tower? But be it it as you please.
BUCKINGHAM
My Lord, your Brother's Grace of York.
Enter the young Duke of York attended.
PRINCE EDWARD
%Richard of York! How fares our dearest Brother? %
DUKE OF YORK
O! my dear Lord! So I must call you now. [embracing.
PRINCE EDWARD
I, Brother, to our grief, as it is yours:
'Too soon he dy'd who might have better worn
'That Title, which in me will loose its Majesty.
RICHARD
%How fares our Cousin, Noble Lord of York? %
DUKE OF YORK
%Thank you kindly, dear Uncle. O my Lord, %
%You said that Idle Weeds were fast in growth, %
%The King my Brother has out grown me far. %
RICHARD
%He has my Lord. %
DUKE OF YORK
%And therefore is he Idle? %
RICHARD
O pretty Cousin, I must not say so.
DUKE OF YORK
Nay, Uncle, I don't believe the sayings true,
For if it were, you'd be an Idle Weed.
RICHARD
%How so, cousin? %
DUKE OF YORK
%Because I've heard Folds say you grew so fast %
%Your Teeth wou'd gnaw a Crust at two hours old, %
%Now 'twas two years e'er I cou'd get a Tooth. %
RICHARD
Indeed -- I find the Brat is taught this lesson. (Aside.
Who told thee this, my pretty merry Cousin?
DUKE OF YORK
%Why, your Nurse, Uncle. %
RICHARD
%My Nurse, Child, she was dead before thou wert born. %
DUKE OF YORK
%If 'twas not she, I can't tell who told me. %
RICHARD
%So subtle too; 'tis pity thou art short liv'd. % [Aside.
PRINCE EDWARD
%My Brother, Uncle, will be cross in talk. %
RICHARD
%O, fear not, my Lord, we shall never Quarrel. %
PRINCE EDWARD
%I hope your Grace knows how to bear with him? %
DUKE OF YORK
%You mean to bear me; not to bear With me, %
%Uncle, my Brother mocks both you and me, %
%Because that I am little, like and Ape, %
%He thinks that you should bear me on your shoulders. %
PRINCE EDWARD
%Fie, Brother, I have no such meaning. %
___
STANLEY |
|
%With what a sharp, provided Wit he reasons, % |
%To mitigate the scorn he gives his Uncle: % |
%He prettily and aptly taunts himself. % } Aside.
|
TRESSEL |
|
%So cunning, and so young, is wonderful. % |
---
RICHARD
%My Lord, wilt please you pass along? %
%My self, and my good Cousin Buckingham %
%Will to your Mother to entreat of her %
%To meet and bid you welcome at the Tower. %
DUKE OF YORK
%What will you go to the Tower, my dear Lord? %
PRINCE EDWARD
%My Lord Protector will have it so. %
DUKE OF YORK
%I shan't sleep in quiet at the Tower. %
RICHARD
I'll warrant you King Henry lay there,
And he sleeps in quiet. [Aside.
PRINCE EDWARD
%What shou'd you fear, Brother? %
DUKE OF YORK
%My Uncle Clarence Ghost, my Lord. %
%My Grandmother told me he was kill'd there. %
PRINCE EDWARD
%I fear no Uncles dead. %
RICHARD
'Nor any, Sir, that live, I hope.
PRINCE EDWARD
'I hope so too. But come, my Lords,
'To the Tower, since it must be so. [Ex. all but R. and B.
BUCKINGHAM
%Think you, my Lord, this little prating York %
%Was not instructed by his subtle Mother %
%To taunt and scorn you thus Opprobriously? %
RICHARD
'No doubt, no doubt. O! 'tis a shrewd young Master:
%Stubborn, Bold, Quick, Forward, and Capable; %
%He is all the Mothers from Top to Toe. %
%But let them rest: now what says Catesby? %
BUCKINGHAM
My Lord, 'tis much as I suspected, and
He's here himself to inform you.
Enter Catesby
RICHARD
So, Catesby, hast thou been tampering? What News?
CATESBY
My Lord, according to the instruction given me,
With words at distance dropt I sounded Hastings,
Piercing how far he did affect your purpose,
To which indeed I found him Cold, Unwilling.
The sum is this, he seem'd a while to understand me not.
At length from plainer speaking urg'd to answer,
He said in heart, rather than wrong the Head
To whom the Crown was due, he'd lose his own.
RICHARD
Indeed, his own then answer for that saying,
He shall be taken care of: Mean while Catesby,
Be thou near me: Cousin of Buckingham
%Lets lose no time: The Mayor and Citizens %
%Are now in buisie meeting in Guild-Hall, %
'Thither I'd have you haste immediately,
'And at your meetest 'vantage of the time
'Improve those Hints I gave you late to speak of:
%But above all, infer the Bastardy %
%Of Edward's Children; %
%Nay, for a need, thus far come near my Person, %
%Tell'em, when my Mother went with Child of him, %
%My Princely Father then had Wars in France, %
%And by true Computation of his time %
%Found, that the issue was not his begot, %
%Which in his lineaments too plain appear'd, %
%Being nothing like the Noble York my Father: %
%Yet touch this sparingly, as 'twere far of, %
%Because, my Lord, you know my Mother lives. %
BUCKINGHAM
'Doubt not, my Lord, I'll play the Orator
'As if my self might wear the Golden Fee,
'For which I Plead.
RICHARD
%If you thrive well, bring 'em to see me here, %
'Where you shall find me seriously employ'd
'With the most Learned Fathers of the Church.
BUCKINGHAM
I fly, my Lord, to serve you.
RICHARD
To serve thy self, my Cousin;
%For look, when I am King, claim thou of me %
%The Earldom of Hereford, and all those Moveables, %
%Whereof the King my Brother stood possest. %
BUCKINGHAM
%I shall remember that your Grace was Bountiful. %
RICHARD
Cousin, I have said it.
BUCKINGHAM
I am gone, my Lord. [Exit Buck.
RICHARD
So -- I've secur'd my Cousin here: These Moveables
Will never let his Brains have rest till I am King: Catesby,
%Go thou with speed to Doctor Shaw, and thence %
'To Fryar Beuker: Haste, and bid 'em both
'Attend me here, within an hour at farthest:
[Exit Catesby.
Mean while my private orders shall be given
To lock up all admittance to the Princes.
Now, by St. Paul, the work goes bravely on --
How many frightful stops wou'd Conscience make
In some soft heads to undertake like me:
-- Come; this Conscience is a convenient Scarecrow,
It Guards the fruit which Priests and Wisemen tast,
Who never set it up to fright themselves:
They know 'tis rags, and gather in the face on't,
While half-starv'd shallow Daws thro Fear are honest.
Why were Laws made, but that we're Rogues by Nature?
Conscience! 'tis our Coin, we live by parting with it,
And he thrives best that has the most to spare:
The protesting Lover buys hope with it,
And the deluded Virgin short liv'd pleasure.
Old gray beards cram their Avarice with it,
Your Lank-jaw'd hungry Judge will dine upon't,
And hang the Guiltless rather than eat his Mutton cold.
The crown'd Head quits it for Despotick sway,
The stubborn People for unaw'd Rebellion:
There's not a Slave but has his share of Villain;
Why then shall after Ages think my deeds
Inhumane? Since my worst are but Ambition:
Ev'n all Mankind to some lov'd Ills incline,
Great Men chuse Greater Sins -- Ambition's mine. [Exit.
Enter Lady Ann, Sola.
ANN
When, when shall I have rest? Was Marriage made
To be the Scourge of our Offences here?
Ah no! 'Twas meant a Blessing to the Vertuous,
It once was so to me, tho' now my Curse:
The fruit of Edward's Love was sweet and pleasing:
But oh! Untimely cropt by cruel Richard,
Who rudely having grafted on his stock
Now makes my Life yield only sorrow.
Let me have Musick to compose my thoughts. [Song here.
It will not be: Nought but the grave can close my Eyes.
-- How many labouring Wretches take their rest,
While I, night after night, with cares lie waking,
As if the gentle Nurse of Nature, Sleep,
Had vow'd to rock my peevish sense no more.
'O partial sleep! Canst thou in smoaky Cottages
'Stretch out the Peasants Limbs on Beds of Straw,
'And lay him fast, cram'd with distressful Bread?
Yet in the softest breeze of Peaceful Night
'Under the Canopis of costly State,
'Tho' lull'd with sounds of sweetest melody,
Refuse one moments slumber to a Princess?
O mockery of Greatness! But see,
He comes! The rude disturber of my Pillow.
Enter Richard, Aloof.
RICHARD
___
Ha! still in tears; let 'em flow on; they're signs |
Of a substantial grief -- Why don't she die? |
She must: My Interest will not let her live. |
The fair Elizabeth hath caught my Eye, |
My Heart's vacant; and she shall fill her place -- } (Aside.
They say that Women have but tender hearts, |
'Tis a mistake, I doubt; I've found 'em tough: |
They'll bend, indeed: But he must strain that cracks 'em.|
All I can hope's to throw her into sickness: |
Then I may send her a Physicians help. ___|
So, Madam: What, you still take care, I see
To let the World believe I love you not,
This outward Mourning now has malice in't,
So have these sullen disobedient tears:
I'll have you tell the World I doat on you.
ANN
I wish I could, but 'twill not be believ'd:
Have I deserv'd this usage?
RICHARD
You have: You do not please me as at first.
ANN
What have I done? What horrid Crime committed?
RICHARD
To me the worst of Crimes, out-liv'd my liking.
ANN
If that be Criminal, Just Heaven be kind,
And take me while my Penitence is warm:
O Sir, forgive and kill me.
RICHARD
Umh! No, -- The medling World will call it murder,
And I wou'd have 'em think me pitifull:
Now wert thou not afraid of self-Destruction,
Thou hast a fair excuse for't.
ANN
How fain wou'd I be Friends with Death? O name it.
RICHARD
Thy Husbands hate: Nor do I hate thee only
From the dull'd edge of sated Appetite
But from the eager Love I bear another:
Some call me Hypocrite: What think'st thou now,
Do I dissemble?
ANN
Thy Vows of Love to me were all dissembled.
RICHARD
Not one: For when I told thee so, I lov'd:
Thou art the only Soul I never yet deceiv'd:
And 'tis my honesty that tells thee now
With all my heart, I hate thee ---
If this have no Effect, she is immortal. [Aside.
ANN
Forgive me ;Heave, that I forgave this Man.
O may my story told in after Ages,
Give warning to our easie Sexes ears:
May it Unveil the heartsof Men, and strike
Them deaf to their dissimulated Love. [Enter Catesby.
CATESBY
My Lord, his Grace of Buckingham attends
Your Highness Pleasure.
RICHARD
Wait on him; I'll expect him here. (Exit Cat.
Your Absence, Madam, will be necessary.
ANN
Wou'd my death were so. (Exit.
RICHARD
It may be shortly.
%So my Cousin, What say the Citizens? % Enter Buckingham.
BUCKINGHAM
'Now, by our hopes, my Lord, they're senseless stones,
'Their hesitating fear has struck 'em dumb.
RICHARD
%Touch'd you the Bastardy of Edward's Children? %
BUCKINGHAM
%I did, with his Contract to Lady Lucy. %
%Nay, his own Bastardy and Tyranny for Trifles; %
%-- Laid open all your Victories in Scotland, %
%Your Discipline in War, Wisdom in Peace: %
%Your Bounty, Justice, fair Humility. %
%Indeed left nothing that might gild our Cause %
%Untouch'd, or slightly handled in my talk, %
%And when my Oration drew towards an end, %
%I urg'd of them that lov'd their Countries good %
%To do you right, and cry, Long live King Richard. %
RICHARD
%And did they so? %
BUCKINGHAM
'Not one, by Heaven: But each like Statues fix'd
'Speechless and Pale, star'd in his fellows Face,
%Which when I saw, I reprehended them, %
%And ask'd the Mayor what meant this wilfull silence? %
%His answer was, the people were not us'd %
%To be spoken to but by the Recorder, %
'Who then took on him to repeat my words.
%Thus saith the Duke, thus hath the Duke inferr'd: %
%But nothing urg'd in Warrant from himself. %
%When he had done, some Followers of my own %
%At lower end of th'Hall, hurl'd up their Caps, %
%And some ten voices cry'd, God save King Richard, %
%At which I took the 'vantage of those few, %
%And cry'd, Thanks gentle Citizens and Friends, %
%This general applause and chearful shout %
%Argues your Wisdom, and your Love of Richard, %
%And even here broke of, and came away. %
RICHARD
%O Tongueless Blocks! Wou'd they not speak? %
%Will not the Mayor then and his Brethren come? %
BUCKINGHAM
%The Mayor is here at hand: Feign you some fear, %
%And be not spoke with, but by mighty suit: %
'A Prayer-Book in your hand, my Lord, were well,
%Standing between two Churchmen of Repute, %
%For on that ground I'll make an holy descant: %
%Yet be not easily won to our Repuests, %
'Seem, like the Virgin, fearful of our wishes.
RICHARD
'My other self! My Counsel's Consistory!
'My Oracle! my Prophet! My dear Cousin! [Embracing.
'I, as a Child, will go by thy direction.
BUCKINGHAM
Hark! the Lord Mayor's at hand: Away, my Lord;
Nor doubt, but yet we reach our point propos'd.
RICHARD
We cannot fail, my Lord, while you are Pilot.
A little flattery sometimes does well. [Aside.]
[Exit Rich.
Enter Lord Mayor, and Citizens.
BUCKINGHAM
%Welcome, my Lord, I dance attendance here; %
%I'm afraid the Duke will not be spoke withal. % [Enter Catesby.
%Now, Catesby, what says your Lord to my request? %
CATESBY
%My Lord, he humbly does intreat your Grace %
%To visit him to morrow, or next day. %
%He's now retir'd with two Right Reverend Fathers %
%Divinely bent to Meditation, %
%And in no worldly suits wou'd he be mov'd, %
%To interrupt his Holy Exercise. %
BUCKINGHAM
%Return, good Catesby, to the gracious Duke; %
%Tell him, my Self, the Mayor, and Citizens, %
%In deep designs, in matters of great moment, %
%No less imooirting than our general good, %
%Are come to have some Conference with his Grace. %
CATESBY
My Lord, I'll instantly inform his Highness.
BUCKINGHAM
%Ah! my good Lord! This Prince is not an Edward, %
%He is not lolling on a lewd Love-bed; %
%But on his knees at Meditation: %
%Not dallying with a brace of Curtizans, %
%But with two deep Divines in secret praying. %
%Happy were England wou'd this Vertuous Prince %
%Take on himself the toil of Sovereignty. %
LORD MAYOR
Happy indeed, my Lord.
He will not sure refuse our profer'd Love?
BUCKINGHAM
Alas my Lord, you know him not, his mind's
Above this World; he's for a Crown Immortal!
Look there! His door opens: Now where's our hope?
LORD MAYOR
%See where his Grace stands 'tween two Clergymen? %
BUCKINGHAM
Ay, ay; 'tis there he's caught: There's his Ambition.
LORD MAYOR
How low he bows to thank 'em for their care!
And, see, a Prayer-Book in his hand!
BUCKINGHAM
Wou'd he were King, we'd give him leave to pray.
Methinks I wish it for the love he bears the City.
How have I heard him vow hethought it Hard
The Mayor should lose his Title with his Office?
Well! who knows? he may be won?
LORD MAYOR
Ah! my Lord!
BUCKINGHAM
See! He comes forth: my Friends be resolute,
I know he's cautious to a fault but do not
Leave him till our honest suit be granted.
Enter Richard with a Book.
RICHARD
%Cousin of Buckingham! %
%I do beseech your Grace to pardon me,%
%Who, earnest in my Zealous Meditation, %
%So long deferr'd the service of my Friends: %
%Now do I fear I've done some strange offence, %
%That looks disgracious in the City's Eye; If so, %
%'Tis Just you shou'd reprove my Ignorance. %
BUCKINGHAM
%You have, my Lord: We wish your Grace %
%On our entreaties wou'd amend your fault. %
RICHARD
Else wherefore breath I in a Christian Land?
BUCKINGHAM
%Know then it is your fault, that you resign %
%The Sceptred Office of your Ancestors, %
%Fair England's Throne, your own due right of Birth, %
%To the Corruption of a blemisht stock, %
%While in the Mildness of your sleeping thoughts, %
%(Which here we waken to our Country's good) %
%This wounded Isle does want her proper Limbs, %
'Which to secure, joyn'd with these Loyal Men,
'Your very Worshipful and Loving Friends,
%And by your vehement Instigation, %
%In this Just Cause, I come to move your Highness, %
%That on your gracious self you'd take 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 own, by right of Birth, and lineal Glory. %
RICHARD
%I cannot tell, if to depart in silence, %
%Or bitterly to speak in your reproof, %
%Fits best with my Degree or your Condition: %
'Therefore to speak in just refusal of your suit,
%And then in speaking not to check my Friends. %
%Definitively thus I answer you; %
%Your Love deserves my thanks, but my desert %
%Unmeritable shuns your fond Request: %
%For, Heaven be thanked, there is no need of me; %
%The Royal stock has left us Royal fruit, %
%Which mellow'd by the stealing hours of time, %
%Will well become the seat of Majesty, %
%And make us (no doubt) happy by his Reign. %
%On him I lay what you wou'd lay on me, %
%The Right and Fortune of his happy Stars, %
'Which Heaven forbid my thoughts shou'd rob him of.
BUCKINGHAM
%My Lord, this argues Conscience in your Grace, %
%But Circumstances well consider'd: %
%The weak respects thereof are nice and trivial. %
%You say that Edward was your Brothers Son %
%So say we too, but not by Edward's Wife: %
'If solemn Contracts are of any force
'That Title Justice gave to Lady Lucy:
'Even of his Birth cou'd I severely speak;
'%Save that for reverence to some alive,%
%I give a spairing limit to my Tongue. %
LORD MAYOR
Upon our knees, my Lord, we beg your Grace
To wear this precious Robe of dignity,
Which on a Child must sit too loose and heavy.
'Tis yours; befitting both your Wisdom and your Birth.
CATESBY
My Lord, this coldness is unkind,
Nor suits it with such ardent Loyalty?
BUCKINGHAM
%O make 'em happy: Grant their Lawful Suit. %
RICHARD
%Alas! Why wou'd you heap this care on me? %
%I am unfit for State and Majesty. %
I thank you for your Loves, but must declare
(I do beseech you take it not amiss)
I will not! dare not! must not yield to you.
BUCKINGHAM
%If you refuse us through a soft remorse, %
%Loth to depose the Child, your Brother's Son: %
%(As well we know your tenderness of Heart) %
%Yet know, tho' you deny us to the last, %
%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 thus resorlv'd I bid you, Sir, Farewell.
My Lord, and Gentlemen, I crave your pardon
For this vain trouble: M'intent was good,
I wou'd have serv'd my Country and my King;
But 'twill not be: Farewel! When next we meet --
LORD MAYOR
Be not too rash, my Lord, his Grace relents.
BUCKINGHAM
Away, you but decieve your selves -- [Exit Buc.
CATESBY
%Call him again; sweet Prince accept their suit. %
LORD MAYOR
If you deny us, all the Land will rue it.
RICHARD
%Call him again -- You will enforce me to %
%A World of cares; I am not make of stone, %
%But penetrable to your kind entreaties: %
%Tho' Heaven knows against my own Inclining. %
%Cousin of Buckingham, and sage grave Men. % [Re-enter Buc.
%Since you will buckle Fortune on my Back %
%to bear her burthen whether I will or no, %
%I must have patience to endure the load: %
%But if black Scandal or foul-fac's Reproach %
%Attend the sequel of your Imposition, %
%Your meer Enforcement shall Aquittance me: %
%For Heaven knows, as you may all partly see, %
%How far I am from the desire of this. %
LORD MAYOR
%Heaven guard your Grace: We see it, and will say it. %
RICHARD
You will but say the truth, my Lord.
BUCKINGHAM
My heart's so full it scarce has vent for words;
My knee will better speak my duty now. [Kneels.
Long live our Soveraign, Richard King of England.
RICHARD
Indeed your words have touch'd me nearly Cousin:
Pray rise. I wish you cou'd recall 'em.
BUCKINGHAM
It wou'd be Treason now, my Lord: To morrow,
'If it so please your Majesty, from Counsel
'Orders shall be given for your Coronation.
RICHARD
%Even when you please: for you will have it so. %
BUCKINGHAM
%To morrow then we will attend your Majesty: %
And now we take our leaves with joy.
RICHARD
%Cousin Adieu! my loving Friends farewel: %
%I must to my Holy Work again. % [Exeunt B. and Citizens.
Richard. Solus.
Why now my golden dream is out --
Ambition like an early Friend throws back
My Curtains with an eager Hand, o'rejoy'd
To tell me what I dreamt is true -- A Crown!
Thou bright reward of ever daring minds,
O! How thy awful Glory fills my Soul!
Nor can the means that got thee dim thy lustre;
For, not mens Love, Fear pays thee Adoration:
And Fame not more survives from Good than Evil deeds.
Th'aspiring youth that fir'd th'Ephesian Dome
Out-lives in Fame the pious Fool that rais'd it:
Conscience, lie still -- More lives must yet be drain'd,
Crowns got with Blood must be with Blood maintain'd. [Exit.
The End of the Third ACT.
_____________________________________________________________
ACT the Fourth
The Scene, The Tower
Enter the two Princes with the Queen, the Dutchess
of York, and Lady Ann in tears.
PRINCE EDWARD
Pray, Madam, do not leave me yet,
For I have many more complaints to tell you.
QUEEN
And I unable to redress the least:
What wou'dst thou say, my Child?
PRINCE EDWARD
O Mother! Since I first have lain in'th'Tower
My rest has still been broke with frightful Dreams,
Of shocking News has wak'd me into tears.
I'm scarce allow'd a Friend to visit me:
All my old honest Servants are turn'd off,
And in their rooms are strange ill-natur'd fellows,
Who look so bold, as they were all my Masters;
And, I'm afraid, they'll shortly take you from me.
DUTCHESS OF YORK
O mournful hearing!
ANN
O unhappy Prince!
DUKE OF YORK
Dear Brother, why do you weep so?
You make me cry too.
QUEEN
Alas, poor Innocence!
PRINCE EDWARD
Wou'd I but knew at what my Uncle aims;
If 'twere my Crown, I'd freely give it him,
So he'd but let me 'joy my life in quiet.
DUKE OF YORK
Why! will my Uncle kill us, Brother?
PRINCE EDWARD
I hope he wo'n't: We never injur'd him.
QUEEN
I cannot bear to see 'em thus. --- [Weeping.
Enter to them, Lord Stanley.
STANLEY
Madam, I hope your Majesty will pardon
What I am griev'd to tell, Unwelcome News.
QUEEN
Ah me! more sorrow yet! My Lord; we've long
Despair'd of happy Tydings, pray what is't?
STANLEY
On Tuesday last, your noble Kinsmen Rivers,
Grey, and Sir Thomas Vaughan at Pomfret,
Were Executed on a publick Scaffold.
DUTCHESS OF YORK
O dismal Tydings.
PRINCE EDWARD
O poor Uncles! I doubt my turn is next.
ANN
Nor mine, I fear, far off.
QUEEN
Why, then let's welcome Blood and Massacre,
Yield all our Throats to fierce Tygers rage,
And die lamenting one another's wrongs.
O! I foresaw this ruin of our House. [Weeps.
Enter Catesby to Lady Ann.
CATESBY
Madam, the King
Has sent me to inform your Majesty
That you prepare (as is advis'd from Counsel)
To morrow for your Royal Coronation.
QUEEN
What do I hear? Support me, Heaven!
ANN
Despightful Tydings! O unpleasing News!
Alas, I heard of this before, but cou'd not
For my soul take heart to tell you of it.
CATESBY
The King does further wish your Majesty
Wou'd less employ your visits at the Tower.
He gives me leave t'attend you to the Court,
And is impatient, Madam, till he sees you.
ANN
Farewel to all, and thou, poor injur'd Queen:
Forgive the unfriendly duty I must pay.
QUEEN
Alas, kind Soul, I envy not thy Glory,
Nor think I'm pleas'd thou'rt partner in our sorrow.
CATESBY
Madam. --
ANN
I come ---
QUEEN
%Farewell, thou woeful welcomer of Glory. %
CATESBY
Shall I attend your Majesty?
ANN
Attend me! Whither, to be Crown'd?
%Let me with deadly Venome be Anointed, %
%And die e'er Men can say, Long live the Queen. %
QUEEN
%Poor grieving heart, I pity thy complaining. %
ANN
%No more than with my Soul I mourn for yours: %
A long farewel to all. --- (Exit Lady A. and Cat.
STANLEY
Take comfort, Madam.
QUEEN
Alas, where is it to be found?
Death and Destruction follow us so close,
They shortly must o'retake us.
STANLEY
In Brittany
My Son-in-Law the Earl of Richmond still
Resides, who with a jealous Eye observes
The lawless actions of aspiring Richard:
To him, (wou'd I advise you) Madam, fly
Forthwith for Aid, Protection, and Redress.
He will I'm sure with open arms receive you.
DUTCHESS OF YORK
Delay not Madam,
For 'tis the only hope that Heaven has left us.
QUEEN
Do with me what you please: For any Change
Must surely better our Condition.
STANLEY
I farther wou'd advise you, Madam, this
Instant to remove the Princes to some
Remote Abode, where you your self are Mistress.
PRINCE EDWARD
Dear Madam take me hence: For I shall ne'er
Enjoy a moments quiet here.
DUKE OF YORK
Nor I: Pray Mother let me go too?
QUEEN
Come then, my pretty young ones, lets away:
For here you lie within the Falcon's reach,
Who watches but th' unguarded hour to seize you.
Enter Lieutenant with an Order.
LIEUTENANT
I beg your Majesty will pardon me:
But the young Princes must, on no account,
Have egress from the Tower,
Nor must, without the King's especial License,
Of what degree soever, any Person
Have admittance to 'em. -- All must retire.
QUEEN
'I am their Mother, Sir, who else commands 'em?
'If I pass freely, they shall follow me.
'For you -- I'll take the peril of your fault upon my self.
LIEUTENANT
My Inclination, Madam, wou'd oblige you,
'But I am bound by Oath, and must obey.
Nor, Madam, can I now with safety answer
For this continued Visit.
Please you my Lord to read these Orders. (Gives'em Ld Stanley.
QUEEN
O Heavenly powers! Shall I not stay with 'em?
LIEUTENANT
Such are the Kings Commands, Madam.
QUEEN
My Lord!
STANLEY
'Tis too true, and it were vain t'oppose 'em.
QUEEN
Support me Heaven!
For life can never bear the pangs of such a parting.
O my poor Children! O distracting thought!
I dare not bid 'em (as I shou'd) farewel,
And then to part in silence stabs my Soul.
PRINCE EDWARD
What, must you leave us, Mother?
QUEEN
What shall I say? (Aside.
But for a time, my Loves -- we shall meet again,
At least in Heaven. [To her sons.
DUKE OF YORK
Won't you take me with you, Mother?
I shall be so 'fraid to stay when you are gone.
QUEEN
I cannot speak to 'em, and yet we must
Be parted -- Then let these kisses say farewel. [kissing 'em.
Why! O why just Heaven, must these be our last?
DUTCHESS OF YORK
Give not your grief such way: be sudden when you part.
QUEEN
I will -- since it must be, to Heaven I leave 'em.
Hear me, you Guardian powers of Innocence!
Awake or sleeping: O! protect 'em still,
Still may their helpless youth attract mens pity;
That when the arm of Cruelty is rais'd,
Their looks may drop the lifted Dagger down
From the stern murderers relenting hand,
And throw him on his knees in penitence.
BOTH PRINCES
O Mother! Mother!
QUEEN
O my poor Children! (Ex. parted severally.
The Scene changes to the Presence, discovering Richard seated
with Buckingham, Catesby, Ratcliff, Lovel,
other Lords and Attendants
RICHARD
%Stand all apart: Cousin of Buckingham. %
BUCKINGHAM
%My gracious Sovereign. %
RICHARD
%Give me thy hand: %
%At length by thy advice and thy assistance %
%Is Richard seated on the English Throne. %
%But say, my cousin, what, %
%Shall we wear these Glories for a day? %
%Or shall they last, and we rejoyce in 'em? %
BUCKINGHAM
I hope for Ages, Sir, Long may they Grace you.
RICHARD
%O Buckingham! now do I play the touch-stone, %
'To try if thou be current Friend indeed.
'Young Edward lives: So does his Brother York.
'Now think what I wou'd speak!
BUCKINGHAM
'Say on, my gracious Lord.
RICHARD
I tell thee, Cuz, I've lately had two Spiders
Crawling upon my startled hopes: Now tho'
Thy friendly hand has brush'd'em from me,
Yet still they Crawl offensive to my Eyes,
I wou'd have some Friend to tread upon 'em.
%I wou'd be King, my Cousin --- %
BUCKINGHAM
%Why so I think you are, my Royal Lord. %
RICHARD
%Ha, am I King? 'Tis so - But - Edward lives! %
BUCKINGHAM
Most true, my Lord.
RICHARD
%Cousin, thou wert not wont to be so dull -- %
%Shall I be plain? I wish the Bastards dead. %
%And I wou'd have it suddenly perform'd - %
%'Now cousin, canst thou answer me? %
BUCKINGHAM
%None dare dispute your Highness Pleasure. %
RICHARD
'Indeed, methinks thy kindness freezes Cousin;
'Thou dost refuse me then! - They shall not die?
BUCKINGHAM
'My Lord, since 'tis an action cannot be
'Recall'd, allow me but some pause to think,
'I'll instantly resolve your Highness. (Ex. Buc.
CATESBY
%The King seems angry; see he gnaws his lip. %
RICHARD
%I'll henceforth deal with shorter sighted Fools, %
%None are for me that look into my Deeds, %
'With thinking Eyes ---
%High reaching Buckingham grows Circumspect. %
The best on't is it may be done without him,
Tho' not so well perhaps - had he consented,
Why, then the murther had been his, not mine. --
-- We'll make a shift as 'tis -- Come hither, Catesby.
Where's that same Tirrel whom thou toldst me of?
Hast thou given him those sums of Gold I order'd?
CATESBY
I have, my Liege.
RICHARD
Where is he?
CATESBY
He waits your Highness pleasure.
RICHARD
Give him this Ring, and say my self
Will bring him farther Orders instantly. (Ex. Cat.
'The deep revolving Duke of Buckingham
%No more shall be the Neighbour of my Counsels: %
%Has he so long held out with me untir'd, %
%And stops he now for breath? Well, be it so.--- %
Enter Lord Stanley.
%How now, Lord Stanley? What's the News? %
STANLEY
%I hear, my Liege, the Lord Marquess of Dorset %
%Is fled to Richmond, now in Brittany. %
RICHARD
Why let him go, my Lord, he may be spar'd.
Hark thee, Ratcliff, when saw'st thou Ann, my Queen?
Is she still weak? Has my Physician seen her?
RATCLIFF
He has, my Lord, and fears her mightily.
RICHARD
But he's excelling skillful, she'll mend shortly.
RATCLIFF
I hope she will, my Lord.
RICHARD
And, if she does, I have mistook my man. (aside.
%I must be married to my Brother's Daughter, %
At whom I know the Brittain Richmond aims;
%And by that knot looks proudly on the Crown. %
%But then to stain me with her Brother's Blood: %
%Is that the way to wooe the Sisters Love? %
'- No matter what's the way - For while they live
'My goodly Kingdom's on a weak Foundation.
'Tis done: My daring heart's resolv'd - they're dead.
Re-enter Duke of Buckingham.
BUCKINGHAM
%My Lord, I have consider'd in my mind, %
%The late Request that you did sound me in. %
RICHARD
%Well, let that rest: Dorset is fled to Richmond. %
BUCKINGHAM
%I have heard the News, my Lord. %
RICHARD
%Stanley, he's your near Kinsman - Well, look to him. %
BUCKINGHAM
%My Lord, I claim that gift, my due by promise, %
'For which your Honour and your Faith's engag'd;
'The Earldom of Hereford, and those Moveables,
'Which you have promis'd I shall possess.
RICHARD
%Stanley, look to your Wife; if she convey %
%Letters to Richmond, you shall answer it. %
BUCKINGHAM
'What says your Highness to my Just request?
RICHARD
%I do remember me, Henry the Sixth %
%Did Prophecy that Richmond should be King, %
When Richmond was a peevish Boy!
''Tis odd -- A King perhaps.
Enter Catesby.
CATESBY
My Lord, I have obey'd your Highness Orders.
BUCKINGHAM
May it please you to resolve me in my Suit?
RICHARD
Lead Tirrel to my Closet, I'll meet him.
BUCKINGHAM
I beg your Highness ear my Lord --
RICHARD
I'm busie: Thou troubl'st me -- I'm not i'th'vein. [Ex. Rich.
BUCKINGHAM
O patience, Heaven! Is't thus he pays my service?
Was it for this I rais'd him to the Throne?
Since he forgets the Hand that lifted him,
That seated still supports him; then 'tis time
To loose my hold, and let him fall as low,
As this contemn'd, this out-cast Buckingham.
O! if the peaceful dead have any sence
Of those vile injuries they bore, while living:
Then sure the joyful Souls of Blood-suck'd Edward,
Henry, Clarence, Hastings, and All that through
His foul corrupted dealings have miscarried,
Will from the Walls of Heav'n in smiles look down
to see this Tyrant tumbling from his Throne,
His Fall unmourn'd, and Bloody as their own. (Exit.
Scene the Tower: Enter Tirrel, Dighton, and Forest.
TIRREL
Come, Gentlemen:
Have you concluded on the means?
FOREST
Smothering will make no noise, Sir.
TIRREL
Let it be done i'th'dark: For shou'd you see
Their young faces, who knows how far their looks
Of innocence may tempt you into pity.
FOREST
'Tis ease and living well makes Innocence:
I hate a face less guilty tham my own:
Were all that now seem Honest deep as we
In trouble and in want they'd all be Rogues.
TIRREL
Stand back -- Lieutenant, have you brought the Keys?
Enter Lieutenant
LIEUTENANT
I have 'em, Sir.
TIRREL
Then here's your warrant to deliver 'em. (gives a Ring.
LIEUTENANT
Your Servant, Sir. ---
What can this mean? Why, at this dead of night
To give 'em too? -- 'Tis not for me t'enquire.
(Ex. Lieu.
TIRREL
There, Gentlemen: (Giving them the Keys.
That way! You have no farther need of me. [Ex. severally.
[Editor's note: The following soliloquy appears in the 1718
edition, but not in the 1700 text which goes immediately to the
beginning of the murder scene.]
Enter Richard.
RICHARD
Wou'd it were done: There is a busie something here,
That foolish Custom has made terrible,
To the intent of evil Deeds;
And Nature too, as if she knew
Me Womanish, and Weak, tugs at
My Heart-Strings with complaining Cries,
To talk me from my Purpose --
And then the thought of what
Mens Tongues will say, of what their Hearts must think;
To have no Creature love me Living, nor
My Memory when Dead.
Shall future Ages, when these Childrens Tale
Is told, drop Tears in pity of their hapless Fate,
And read with Detestation the Misdeeds of Richard,
The crook-back Tyrant, Cruel, Barbarous,
And Bloody -- will they not say too,
That to possess the Crown, nor Laws Divine
Nor Humane stopt my way -- why let 'em say it;
They can't but say I had the Crown;
I was not Fool as well as Villain.
Hark! the Murder's doing; Princes farewel,
To me there's Musick in your Passing-Bell. [Exit.
[Editor's note: the following scene appears in the 1700 edition
but is ommitted in the 1718 edition where Richard's exit is
followed immediately by "Enter Tirrel. solus."]
SCENE a Chamber, the Princes in Bed. The Stage darkened.
PRINCE EDWARD
Why do you startle, Brother?
DUKE OF YORK
O! I have been so frighted in my sleep!
Pray turn this way?
PRINCE EDWARD
Alas, i fain wou'd sleep, but cannot
Tho' 'tis the stillest night I ever knew.
Not the least breath has stir'd these four hours
Sure all the World's asleep but we.
DUKE OF YORK
Hark, Pray Brother count the Clock! (Clock strikes.
--But two! O tedious night : I've slept an Age.
Wou'd it were day, I am so melancholy.
PRINCE EDWARD
Hark! What noise is that?
I thought I heard some one upon the stairs!
Hark! Again!
DUKE OF YORK
O dear, I hear 'em too! Who is it, Brother?
Enter Dighton and Forrest with dark lanterns.
PRINCE EDWARD
Bless me! What frightful men are these?
DUKE OF YORK
Who's there?
PRINCE EDWARD
Who's there?
DIGHTON
Hist, we've waked 'em! What shall we say?
FORREST
Nothing. We come to do.
DIGHTON
I'll see their Faces ------
DUKE OF YORK
Won't they speak to us?
(Dighton looks in with his Lanthorn.
O save me! Hide me! Save me, Brother!
PRINCE EDWARD
O mercy Heaven! Who are you, Sirs,
That look so ghastly pale and terrible?
DIGHTON
I am a Fool. -----I cannot answer 'em.
FORREST
You must die, my Lord, so must your Brother.
PRINCE EDWARD
O stay, for pity sake! What is our Crime, Sir?
Why must we die?
DIGHTON
The King, your Uncle, loves you not.
PRINCE EDWARD
O Cruel Man!
Tell him we'll live in Prison all our days,
Wnd, when we give occasion of offence,
Then let us die: H'as yet no cause to kill us.
FORREST
Pray.
PRINCE EDWARD
We do, Sir, to you. O spare us gentlemen!
I was some time your King, and might have shown
You mercy : For your dear Souls sake pity us.
FORREST
We'll hear no more.
BOTH PRINCES
O Mercy, Mercy!
FORREST
They smother them, and the
Down, down with 'em. Scene shuts on them.
Enter Tirrel. Solus
TIRREL
''Tis done: The barbarous bloody act is done.
'O the most Arch-deed of pitious Massacre
'That ever yet this Land was guilty of.
Ha! the King: His coming hither at this
Late hour, speaks him impatient for the welcome News.
Enter Richard.
RICHARD
Now my Tirrel, how are the Brats dispos'd?
Say; am I happy? Hast thou dealt upon 'em?
TIRREL
'If to have done the thing you gave in charge
'Beget your happiness, then, Sir, be happy;
For it is done.
RICHARD
%But didst thou see 'em dead? %
TIRREL
%I did, my Lord. %
RICHARD
%And buried, my good Tirrel? %
TIRREL
In that I thought to ask your Grace's Pleasure.
RICHARD
I have't -- I'll have 'em sure -- Get me a Coffin
Full of holes, let 'em be both cram'd into't;
And, hark thee, in the night-tide throw 'em down
The Thames; once in, they'll find the way to th'bottom,
%Mean time but think how I may do thee good, %
%And be Inheritor of thy desire. %
TIRREL
I humbly thank your Highness.
RICHARD
About it strait, good Tirrel.
TIRREL
Conclude it done, my Lord. (Exit Tir.
RICHARD
Why then my lowdest fears are husht.
'The Sons of Edward have Eternal Rest,
'And Ann, my Wife, has bid this World good night,
While fair Elizabeth my beauteous Neice
Like a New Morn lights onward to my wishes.
Enter Catesby.
CATESBY
My Lord!
RICHARD
%Good News, or bad, that thou comest in so bluntly? %
CATESBY
%Bad News, my Lord, Morton is fled to Richmond, %
%And Buckingham, back'd with the hardy Welshmen, %
%Is in the Field, and still his Power increases. %
RICHARD
Morton with Richmond, touches me more near
Than Buckingham and his rash levied numbers.
'But come, dangers retreat when boldly they're oppos'd,
'And dull delays lead impotence and fear.
'Then fiery Expedition raise my Arm,
And fatal may it fall on crush'd Rebellion.
%Let's muster Men, my Councel is my Shield, %
%We must be brief when Traytors brave the Field. % [Exit.
Enter the Queen and Dutchess of York
QUEEN
O my poor Childen! O my tender Babes!
My unblown flowers pluck'd by untimely hands:
'If yet your gentle Souls fly in the Air,
'And be not fix'd in doom perpetual;
'Hover about me with your Airy wings,
'And hear your Mothers Lamentation:
Why slept their Guardian Angels, when this deed was done?
DUTCHESS
'So many miseries have drain'd my Eyes,
'That my woe-wearied Tongue is still and mute.
'Why should Calamity be full of Words?
QUEEN
Let's give 'em scope, for tho' they can't remove,
'Yet they do ease Affliction.
DUTCHESS
Why then let us be loud in Exclamations
To Richard! Haste, and pierce him with our cries!
That from henceforth his Conscience may out-Tongue
The close whispers of his relentless heart.
Hark! His Trumpet sounds! This way he must pass.
QUEEN
Alas, I've not the Daring to confront him.
DUTCHESS
I have a Mothers right, I'll force him hear me.
Enter Richard with his Powers,
the Dutchess meets and stops him, etc.
RICHARD
%Who intercepts me in my Expedition? %
DUTCHESS
%Dost thou not know me? Art thou not my Son? %
RICHARD
%I cry you mercy, Madam, is it you? %
DUTCHESS
'Art thou not my Son?
RICHARD
%I, I thank Heaven, my Father and your Self. %
DUTCHESS
'Then I command thee, hear me.
RICHARD
%Madam, I have a touch of your condition, %
%That cannot brook the accent of Reproof. %
DUTCHESS
%Stay, I'll be mild and gentle in my Words. %
RICHARD
%And brief, good Mother, for I am in haste. %
DUTCHESS
%Why, I have staid for thee (just Heaven knows) %
%In Torment and Agony. %
RICHARD
%And came I not at last to comfort you? %
DUTCHESS
%No, on my Soul, too well thou know'st it. %
%A grievous burthen was thy Birth to me; %
%Tetchy and way-ward was thy Infancy, %
%Thy prime of Manhood daring, bold and stubborn: %
%Thy Age confirm'd most subtle, proud and bloody. %
RICHARD
%If I am so disgracious in your eye, %
%Let me march on, and not offend you, Madam. %
%Strike up the Drum. %
DUTCHESS
Yet stay, I charge thee hear me.
QUEEN
If not, hear me; for I have wrongs will speak
Without a Tongue: methinks the very sight
Of me shou'd turn thee into stone.
'Where are my Children, Richard?
DUTCHESS
'Where is they Brother Clarence?
QUEEN
Where Hastings?
DUTCHESS
'Rivers?
QUEEN
'Vaughan?
DUTCHESS
'Grey?
RICHARD A Flourish, Trumpets: Srike Allarum, Drums.
%Let not the Heavens hear these Tell-tale Women %
%Rail on the Heavens Anointed. Strike, I say. %
[Allarum of Drums and Trumpets.
%Either be patient and intreat me fair, %
%Or with the Clamorous report of War %
%Thus will I drown your Exclamations. %
DUTCHESS
Then hear me Heaven, and Heaven at his latest hour
Be Deaf to Him as he is now to me:
'E'er from this War he turn a Conqueror,
Ye Pow'rs, cut off his dangerous thread of Life,
Least his black sins rise higher in Account,
Than Hell has pains to punish ---
Mischance and sorrow wait thee to the Field:
Hearts Discontent, languid and lean Despair
With all the Hells of Guilt pursue thy steps for ever. [Ex. Duc.
QUEEN
Tho'far more cause, yet much less power to curse
Abides in me: I say Amen to her.
RICHARD
%Stay, Madam, I wou'd beg some words with you? %
QUEEN
'What canst thou ask, that I have now to grant?
'Is't another Son? Richard I have none.
RICHARD
%You have a Beauteous Daughter call'd Elizabeth. %
QUEEN
'Must she die too?
RICHARD
%For whose fair sake I'll bring more Good to you, %
%Than ever You or Yours from me had Harm; %
%So in the Lethe of thy angry Soul %
%Thou'lt drown the sad remembrance of those wrongs %
'Which thou supposest me the cruel cause of.
QUEEN
%Be brief, least that the process of they Kindness %
%Last longer telling than thy kindness Date. %
RICHARD
'Know then, that from my Soul I love the fair
'Elizabeth, and will, with your permission,
'Seat her on the Throne of England.
QUEEN
'Alas, vain man, how canst thou wooe her?
RICHARD
%That would I learn of you, %
%As one being best acquainted with her humour. %
QUEEN
%If thou wilt learn of me, then wooe her thus, %
%Send to her, by the man that kill'd her Brothers, %
'A pair of bleeding Hearts; thereon Engrave
'Edward and York: Then haply will she weep.
'On this present her with an Hankerchief
'Stain'd in their Blood, to wipe her woeful Eyes.
%If this Inducement move her not to Love, %
%Read o'er the History of they Noble Deeds; %
'Tell her, thy Policy took off her Uncle
Clarence, Rivers, Grey; nay, and for her sake,
%Made quick conveyance with her dear Aunt Ann. %
RICHARD
%You mock me, Madam; this is not the way %
%To win your Daughter. %
QUEEN
%There is no other way, %
%Unless thou coulds't put on some other form, %
%And not be Richard that has doen all this. %
RICHARD
%As I intend to prosper and Repent, %
%So thrive I in my dangerous Affairs %
%Of Hostile Arms: My self, my self confound, %
%Heaven and Fortune bar me happy hours: %
%Day yield me not they light, nor Night thy Rest; %
%Be opposite all Planets of good luck, %
%To my Proceeding, if with dear Hearts Love, %
%Immaculate Devotion, Holy Thoughts, %
%I tender not the fair Elizabeth, %
%In her consists my happiness and thine: %
%Without her follows to myself and thee, %
%Her self, the Land, and many a Christian Soul, %
%Death, Desolation, Ruin and Decay. %
'It cannot, will not be avoided, but by this.
QUEEN
___
What shall I say? still to afront his love, |
I fear will but incense him to Revenge. |
And to consent I shou'd abhor my self, |
Yet I may seemingly comply, and thus } Aside.
By sending Richmond Word of his Intent, |
Shall gain some time to let my Child escape him. |
It shall be so, |
---
I have consider'd, Sir, of your important wishes,
And cou'd I but believe you real ---
RICHARD
Now by the sacred Hosts of Saints above ---
QUEEN
O do not swear, my Lord, I ask no Oath;
Unless my Daughter doubts you more than I.
RICHARD
%O my kind Mother (I must call you so) %
%Be thou to her my loves soft Orator; %
%Plead what I Will be, not what I Have been; %
%Not my deserts, but what I Will deserve: %
'And when this Warlike arm shall have chastis'd
'The'audacious Rebel hot-brain'd Buckingham:
%Bound with Triumphant Garlands will I come, %
%And lead thy Daughter to a Conqueror's Bed. %
QUEEN
My Lord, farewel: in some few days expect
To hear how fair a progress I have made.
Till when be Happy, as you're Penitent.
RICHARD
My heart goes with you to my Love, farewel. [Exit Queen.
'Relenting, Shallow-thoughted Woman.
How now! the News?
Enter Ratcliff.
RATCLIFF
%Most gracious Sovereign, on the Western Coasts %
%Rides a most powerful Navy and our fears %
%Inform us Richmond is their Admiral, %
%There do they Hull Expecting but the aid, %
%Of Buckingham to welcome them a shore. %
RICHARD
'We must prevent him then. Come hither Catesby.
CATESBY
'My Lord, your pleasure?
RICHARD
%Post to the Duke of Norfolk instantly; %
%Bid him strait levy all the strength and power %
%That he can make, and meet me suddenly %
At Salisbury: Commend me to his Grace: away! (Exit Cat.
Well, my Lord, What News have you gather'd?
Enter Lord Stanley.
STANLEY
%Richmond is on the seas, my Lord. %
RICHARD
%There let him sink, and be the Seas on Him: %
%White Liver'd Runnagade, what does he there? %
STANLEY
%I know not, mighty Sovereign, but by guess. %
RICHARD
%Well, as you guess? %
STANLEY
%Stir'd up by Dorset, Buckingham, and Morton, %
%He makes for England here to claim the Crown. %
RICHARD
Traytor, the Crown: Where is thy power then
To beat him back?
%Where be thy Tenants, and thy Followers? %
'The Foe upon our Coast, and thou no Friends to meet 'em?
%Or hast thou marched 'em to the Western shore, %
%To give the Rebels Conduct from their Ships? %
STANLEY
%My Lord, my Friends are ready all, i'th'North. %
RICHARD
%The North! Why, what do they do in the North, %
%When they shou'd serve their Sovereign in the West? %
STANLEY
They yet have had no Orders, Sir, to move:
If 'tis your Royal Pleasure they should march,
'I'll lead 'em on with utmost haste to joyn you,
'Where, and what Time your Majesty shall please.
RICHARD
%What, thou wou'dst be gone, to joyn with Richmond? %
STANLEY
'Sir, you've no Cause to doubt my Loyalty;
'I ne'er yet was, nor ever will be false.
RICHARD
Away then, to thy Friends, and lead 'em on
'To meet me -- Hold! Come back! I will not trust thee,
I've thought a way to make thee sure: Your Son
%George Stanley, Sir, I'll have him left behind; %
%And look your Heat be Firm,
%Or else his heads Assurance is but Frail.
STANLEY
%As I prove true, my Lord, so deal with him.%
(Exit Stan.
Enter a Messenger.
MESSENGER
%My Lord, the Army of Great Buckingham %
%By sudden Floods, and fall of Waters, %
%Is half lost and scatter'd, %
%And he himself wander'd away alone; %
%No man knows whither. %
RICHARD
'Has any careful Officer proclaim'd
%Reward to him that brings the Traytor in? %
Enter Catesby
CATESBY
%My Liege, the Duke of Buckingham is taken. %
RICHARD
%Off with his head. So much for Buckingham. %
CATESBY
My Lord, I'm sorry I must tell more News.
RICHARD
Out with it.
CATESBY
%The Earl of Richmond with a mighty power %
%Is Landed, Sir, at Milford: %
%And, to confirm the News, Lord Marquess Dorset, %
%And Sir Thomas Lovewel are up in Yorkshire. %
RICHARD
Why ay, this looks Rebellion. Ho! my Horse!
By Heaven the News allarms my stirring Soul.
'And as the Wretch, whose fever-weakned joynts,
'Like strengthless hinges buckle under Life:
'Impatient of his fit, breaks like a fire
'From his fond Keeper's Arms, and starts away:
'Even so these War-worn Limbs grown weak
'From Wars disuse, being now inrag'd with War,
'Feel a new Fury, and are thrice themselves.
Come forth my Honest Sword, which here I vow,
By my Souls hope, shall ne'er again be sheath'd,
Ne'er shall these watching Eyes have needful rest,
Till Death has clos'd 'em in a glorious Grave,
Or Fortune given me Measure of Revenge. [Exeunt.
The End of the Fourth ACT.
_____________________________________________________________
ACT the Fifth
Scene, The Field:
Enter Richmond, Oxford, Blunt, Herbert, and others,
marching.
RICHMOND
%Thus far into the bowels of the Land %
%Have we march'd on without Impediment. %
'Richard, the bloody and devouring Boar,
'Whose Ravenous Appetite has spoil'd your Fields;
'Laid this rich Country waste, and rudely crop'd
'Its ripned hopes of fair Posterity,
%Is now ev'n in the center of the Isle, %
%As we're inform'd, near to the Town of Leicester: %
%From Tamworth thither, is but one days march, %
%And, here receive we from our Father Stanley, %
%Lines of fair Comfort and Encouragement, %
Such as will help and animate our cause,
On which lets Cheerly on, Couragious Friends,
To reap the harvest of a lasting Peace;
Or Fame more lasting from a well fought War.
OXFORD
Your words have fire, my Lord, and warm our men,
Who look'd methought but cold before, hisheartned
With the unequal numbers of the Foe.
RICHMOND
Why, double 'em still, our Cause wou'd Conquer 'em.
%Thrice is he arm'd that has his Quarrel Just, %
%And he but naked, tho'lock'd up in Steel, %
%Whose Conscience with Inustice is Corrupted: %
The very weight of Richard's guilt shall crush him.
BLUNT
His best of Friends,no doubt will soon be ours.
OXFORD
He has no Friends but what are such thro' fear.
RICHMOND
And we no Foes but what are such to Heaven;
Then doubt not, Heaven's for us. Let's on, my Friends:
%True hope ne'er tires, but mounts with Eagles wings, %
%Kings it makes Gods, and meaner Creatures Kings. % (Exit.
The Scene, Bosworth Field: Enter Richard in Arms, with
Norfolk, Ratclif, Surrey, etc.
RICHARD
%Here pitch our Tent, ev'n in Bosworth Field: %
My good Lord of Norfolk, the cheerful speed
Of your supply, has merited my thanks.
NORFOLK
I am rewarded, Sir, in having power
To serve your Majesty.
RICHARD
You have our thanks, my Lord. %Up with my Tent: %
%Here will I lie to night -- But where to morrow? Well, %
%No matter where -- Has any careful Friend %
%Discover'd yet the number of the Rebels? %
NORFOLK
'My Lord, as I from certain Spies am well
'Inform'd, six or seven thous