KING EDWARD
Is Clarence dead? The order was reversed.
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
But he, poor man, by your first order died,
And that a winged Mercury did bear;
Some tardy cripple bore the countermand,
That came too lag to see him buried.
God grant that some, less noble and less loyal,
Nearer in bloody thoughts, but not in blood,
Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,
And yet go current from suspicion.
Enter Lord Stanley Earl of Derby
STANLEY (kneeling)
A boon, my sovereign, for my service done.
KING EDWARD
I pray thee, peace! My soul is full of sorrow.
STANLEY
I will not rise, unless your highness hear me.
KING EDWARD
Then say at once, what is it thou requests?
STANLEY
The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant’s life,
Who slew today a riotous gentleman,
Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk.
KING EDWARD
Have I a tongue to doom my brother’s death,
And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave?
My brother slew no man; his fault was thought;
And yet his punishment was bitter death.
Who sued to me for him? Who in my wrath
Kneeled at my feet, and bid me be advised?
Who spoke of brotherhood? Who spoke of love?
Who told me how the poor soul did forsake
The mighty Warwick and did fight for me?
Who told me, in the field at Tewkesbury,
When Oxford had me down, he rescued me,
And said, ‘Dear brother, live, and be a king’?
Who told me, when we both lay in the field,
Frozen almost to death, how he did lap me
Even in his garments, and did give himself
All thin and naked to the numb-cold night?
All this from my remembrance brutish wrath
Sinfully plucked, and not a man of you
Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
But when your carters or your waiting vassals
Have done a drunken slaughter, and defaced
The precious image of our dear redeemer,
You straight are on your knees for ‘Pardon, pardon!’—
And I, unjustly too, must grant it you.
But, for my brother, not a man would speak,
Nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself
For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all
Have been beholden to him in his life,
Yet none of you would once beg for his life.
O God, I fear thy justice will take hold
On me—and you, and mine, and yours, for this.—
Come, Hastings, help me to my closet.
Ah, poor Clarence!
Exeunt some with King and Queen
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
This is the fruits of rashness. Marked you not
How that the guilty kindred of the Queen
Looked pale, when they did hear of Clarence’ death?
O, they did urge it still unto the King.
God will revenge it. Come, lords, will you go
To comfort Edward with our company?
BUCKINGHAM We wait upon your grace. Exeunt
2.2 Enter the old Duchess of York with the two children of Clarence
BOY
Good grannam, tell us, is our father dead?
DUCHESS OF YORK No, boy.
GIRL
Why do you weep so oft, and beat your breast,
And cry, 'O Clarence, my unhappy son’?
BOY
Why do you look on us and shake your head,
And call us orphans, wretches, castaways,
If that our noble father were alive?
DUCHESS OF YORK
My pretty cousins, you mistake me both.
I do lament the sickness of the King,
As loath to lose him, not your father’s death.
It were lost sorrow to wail one that’s lost.
BOY
Then you conclude, my grannam, he is dead.
The King mine uncle is to blame for this.
God will revenge it—whom I will importune
With earnest prayers, all to that effect.
GIRL And so will I.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Peace, children, peace! The King doth love you well.
Incapable and shallow innocents,
You cannot guess who caused your father’s death.
BOY
Grannam, we can. For my good uncle Gloucester
Told me the King, provoked to it by the Queen,
Devised impeachments to imprison him,
And when my uncle told me so he wept,
And pitied me, and kindly kissed my cheek,
Bade me rely on him as on my father,
And he would love me dearly as his child.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes,
And with a virtuous visor hide deep vice!
He is my son, ay, and therein my shame;
Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit.
BOY
Think you my uncle did dissemble, grannam?
DUCHESS OF YORK Ay, boy.
BOY
I cannot think it. Hark, what noise is this?
Enter Queen Elizabeth with her hair about her ears
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Ah, who shall hinder me to wail and weep?
To chide my fortune, and torment myself?
I’ll join with black despair against my soul,
And to myself become an enemy.
DUCHESS OF YORK
What means this scene of rude impatience?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
To mark an act of tragic violence.
Edward, my lord, thy son, our king, is dead.
Why grow the branches when the root is gone?
Why wither not the leaves that want their sap?
If you will live, lament; if die, be brief,
That our swift-winged souls may catch the King‘s,
Or like obedient subjects follow him
To his new kingdom of ne’er-changing night.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow
As I had title in thy noble husband.
I have bewept a worthy husband’s death,
And lived with looking on his images.
But now two mirrors of his princely semblance
Are cracked in pieces by malignant death,
And I for comfort have but one false glass,
That grieves me when I see my shame in him.
Thou art a widow, yet thou art a mother,
And hast the comfort of thy children left.
But death hath snatched my husband from mine arms
And plucked two crutches from my feeble hands,
Clarence and Edward. O what cause have I,
Thine being but a moiety of my moan,
To overgo thy woes, and drown thy cries?
BOY (to Elizabeth)
Ah, aunt, you wept not for our father’s death.
How can we aid you with our kindred tears?
DAUGHTER (to Elizabeth)
Our fatherless distress was left unmoaned;
Your widow-dolour likewise be unwept.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Give me no help in lamentation.
I am not barren to bring forth complaints.
All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes,
That I, being governed by the wat’ry moon,
May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world.
Ah, for my husband, for my dear Lord Edward!
CHILDREN
Ah, for our father, for our dear Lord Clarence!
DUCHESS OF YORK
>
Alas, for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence!
QUEEN ELIZABETH
What stay had I but Edward, and he’s gone?
CHILDREN
What stay had we but Clarence, and he’s gone?
DUCHESS OF YORK
What stays had I but they, and they are gone?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Was never widow had so dear a loss!
CHILDREN
Were never orphans had so dear a loss!
DUCHESS OF YORK
Was never mother had so dear a loss!
Alas, I am the mother of these griefs.
Their woes are parcelled; mine is general.
She for an Edward weeps, and so do I;
I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she.
These babes for Clarence weep, and so do I;
I for an Edward weep, so do not they.
Alas, you three on me, threefold distressed,
Pour all your tears. I am your sorrow’s nurse,
And I will pamper it with lamentation.Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester, the Duke of
Buckingham, Lord Stanley Earl of Derby, Lord
Hastings, and Sir Richard Ratcliffe
RICHARD GLOUCESTER (to Elizabeth)
Sister, have comfort. All of us have cause
To wail the dimming of our shining star,
But none can help our harms by wailing them.—
Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy.
I did not see your grace. Humbly on my knee
I crave your blessing.
DUCHESS OF YORK
God bless thee, and put meekness in thy breast,
Love, charity, obedience, and true duty.
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
Amen. (Aside) ‘And make me die a good old man.’
That is the butt-end of a mother’s blessing;
I marvel that her grace did leave it out.
BUCKINGHAM
You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers
That bear this heavy mutual load of moan,
Now cheer each other in each other’s love.
Though we have spent our harvest of this king,
We are to reap the harvest of his son.
The broken rancour of your high-swoll’n hearts
But lately splinted, knit, and joined together,
Must gently be preserved, cherished, and kept.
Meseemeth good that, with some little train,
Forthwith from Ludlow the young Prince be fet
Hither to London to be crowned our king.
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
Then be it so, and go we to determine
Who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow.—
Madam, and you my sister, will you go
To give your censures in this weighty business?
QUEEN ELIZABETH and DUCHESS OF YORK With all our hearts.
Exeunt all but Richard and Buckingham
BUCKINGHAM
My lord, whoever journeys to the Prince,
For God’s sake let not us two stay at home,
For by the way I’ll sort occasion,
As index to the story we late talked of,
To part the Queen’s proud kindred from the Prince.
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
My other self, my counsel’s consistory,
My oracle, my prophet, my dear cousin!
I, as a child, will go by thy direction.
Towards Ludlow then, for we’ll not stay behind.
Exeunt
2.3 Enter one Citizen at one door and another at the other
FIRST CITIZEN
Good morrow, neighbour. Whither away so fast?
SECOND CITIZEN
I promise you, I scarcely know myself.
Hear you the news abroad?
FIRST CITIZEN
Yes, that the King is dead.
SECOND CITIZEN
Ill news, by‘r Lady; seldom comes the better.
I fear, I fear, ’twill prove a giddy world.
Enter another Citizen
THIRD CITIZEN
Neighbours, God speed.
FIRST CITIZEN
Give you good morrow, sir.
THIRD CITIZEN
Doth the news hold of good King Edward’s death?
SECOND CITIZEN
Ay, sir, it is too true. God help the while.
THIRD CITIZEN
Then, masters, look to see a troublous world.
FIRST CITIZEN
No, no, by God’s good grace his son shall reign.
THIRD CITIZEN
Woe to that land that’s governed by a child.
SECOND CITIZEN
In him there is a hope of government,
Which in his nonage council under him,
And in his full and ripened years himself,
No doubt shall then, and till then, govern well.
FIRST CITIZEN
So stood the state when Henry the Sixth
Was crowned in Paris but at nine months old.
THIRD CITIZEN
Stood the state so? No, no, good friends, God wot.
For then this land was famously enriched
With politic, grave counsel; then the King
Had virtuous uncles to protect his grace.
FIRST CITIZEN
Why, so hath this, both by his father and mother.
THIRD CITIZEN
Better it were they all came by his father,
Or by his father there were none at all.
For emulation who shall now be near’st
Will touch us all too near, if God prevent not.
O full of danger is the Duke of Gloucester,
And the Queen’s sons and brothers haught and proud.
And were they to be ruled, and not to rule,
This sickly land might solace as before.
FIRST CITIZEN
Come, come, we fear the worst. All will be well.
THIRD CITIZEN
When clouds are seen, wise men put on their cloaks;
When great leaves fall, then winter is at hand;
When the sun sets, who doth not look for night?
Untimely storms make men expect a dearth.
All may be well, but if God sort it so
’Tis more than we deserve, or I expect.
SECOND CITIZEN
Truly the hearts of men are full of fear.
You cannot reason almost with a man
That looks not heavily and full of dread.
THIRD CITIZEN
Before the days of change still is it so.
By a divine instinct men’s minds mistrust
Ensuing danger, as by proof we see
The water swell before a boist’rous storm.
But leave it all to God. Whither away?
SECOND CITIZEN
Marry, we were sent for to the justices.
THIRD CITIZEN
And so was I. I’ll bear you company. Exeunt
2.4 Enter ⌈Lord Cardinal⌉, young Duke of York, Queen Elizabeth, and the old Duchess of York
⌈CARDINAL⌉
Last night, I hear, they lay them at Northampton.
At Stony Stratford they do rest tonight.
Tomorrow, or next day, they will be here.
DUCHESS OF YORK
I long with all my heart to see the Prince.
I hope he is much grown since last I saw him.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
But I hear, no. They say my son of York
Has almost overta’en him in his growth.
YORK
Ay, mother, but I would not have it so.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Why, my young cousin, it is good to grow.
YORK
Grandam, one night as we did sit at supper,
My uncle Rivers talked how I did grow
More than my brother. ‘Ay’, quoth my nuncle
Gloucester,
‘Small herbs have grace; gross weeds do grow apace’.
A
nd since, methinks I would not grow so fast,
Because sweet flow’rs are slow, and weeds make
haste.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Good faith, good faith, the saying did not hold
In him that did object the same to thee.
He was the wretched’st thing when he was young,
So long a-growing, and so leisurely,
That if his rule were true he should be gracious.
⌈CARDINAL⌉
Why, so no doubt he is, my gracious madam.
DUCHESS OF YORK
I hope he is, but yet let mothers doubt.
YORK
Now, by my troth, if I had been remembered,
I could have given my uncle’s grace a flout
To touch his growth, nearer than he touched mine.
DUCHESS OF YORK
How, my young York? I pray thee, let me hear it.
YORK
Marry, they say my uncle grew so fast
That he could gnaw a crust at two hours old.
’Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth.
Grannam, this would have been a biting jest.
DUCHESS OF YORK
I pray thee, pretty York, who told thee this?
YORK Grannam, his nurse.
DUCHESS OF YORK
His nurse? Why, she was dead ere thou wast born.
YORK
If ’twere not she, I cannot tell who told me.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
A parlous boy! Go to, you are too shrewd.
⌈CARDINAL⌉
Good madam, be not angry with the child.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Pitchers have ears.
Enter ⌈Marquis Dorset⌉
⌈CARDINAL⌉
Here comes your son, Lord Dorset.
What news, Lord Marquis?
⌈DORSET⌉ Such news, my lord,
As grieves me to report.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
How doth the Prince?
⌈DORSET⌉
Well, madam, and in health.
DUCHESS OF YORK
What is thy news then?
⌈DORSET⌉
Lord Rivers and Lord Gray are sent to Pomfret,
And with them Thomas Vaughan, prisoners.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Who hath committed them?
⌈DORSET⌉
The mighty dukes,
Gloucester and Buckingham.
⌈CARDINAL⌉
For what offence?
⌈DORSET⌉
The sum of all I can, I have disclosed.
Why or for what the nobles were committed
Is all unknown to me, my gracious lord.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
Ay me! I see the ruin of our house.
The tiger now hath seized the gentle hind.
Insulting tyranny begins to jet
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 73
