Well, Catesby, ere a fortnight make me older,
I’ll send some packing that yet think not on’t.
CATESBY
‘Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord,
When men are unprepared, and look not for it.
LORD HASTINGS
O monstrous, monstrous! And so falls it out
With Rivers, Vaughan, Gray—and so ‘twill do
With some men else, that think themselves as safe
As thou and I, who as thou know’st are dear
To princely Richard and to Buckingham.
CATESBY
The Princes both make high account of you—
(Aside) For they account his head upon the bridge.
LORD HASTINGS
I know they do, and I have well deserved it.
Enter Lord Stanley
Come on, come on, where is your boar-spear, man?
Fear you the boar, and go so unprovided?
STANLEY
My lord, good morrow.—Good morrow, Catesby.—
You may jest on, but by the Holy Rood
I do not like these several councils, I.
LORD HASTINGS
My lord, I hold my life as dear as you do yours,
And never in my days, I do protest,
Was it so precious to me as ‘tis now.
Think you, but that I know our state secure,
I would be so triumphant as I am?
STANLEY
The lords at Pomfret, when they rode from London,
Were jocund, and supposed their states were sure,
And they indeed had no cause to mistrust;
But yet you see how soon the day o’ercast.
This sudden stab of rancour I misdoubt.
Pray God, I say, I prove a needless coward.
What, shall we toward the Tower? The day is spent.
LORD HASTINGS
Come, come, have with you! Wot you what, my lord?
Today the lords you talked of are beheaded.
STANLEY
They for their truth might better wear their heads
Than some that have accused them wear their hats.
But come, my lord, let us away.
Enter a Pursuivant named ⌈hastings⌉
LORD HASTINGS
Go on before; I’ll follow presently.
Exeunt Stanley and Catesby
Well met, Hastings. How goes the world with thee?
PURSUIVANT
The better that your lordship please to ask.
LORD HASTINGS
I tell thee, man, ‘tis better with me now
Than when I met thee last, where now we meet.
Then was I going prisoner to the Tower,
By the suggestion of the Queen’s allies;
But now, I tell thee—keep it to thyself—
This day those enemies are put to death,
And I in better state than e’er I was.
PURSUIVANT
God hold it to your honour’s good content.
LORD HASTINGS
Gramercy, Hastings. There, drink that for me.
He throws him his purse
PURSUIVANT God save your lordship.
Exit
Enter a Priest
PRIEST
Well met, my lord. I am glad to see your honour.
LORD HASTINGS
I thank thee, good Sir John, with all my heart.
I am in your debt for your last exercise.
Come the next sabbath, and I will content you.
⌈He whispers in his ear.⌉
Enter Buckingham
BUCKINGHAM
What, talking with a priest, Lord Chamberlain?
Your friends at Pomfret, they do need the priest;
Your honour hath no shriving work in hand.
LORD HASTINGS
Good faith, and when I met this holy man
The men you talk of came into my mind.
What, go you toward the Tower?
BUCKINGHAM
I do, my lord, but long I cannot stay there;
I shall return before your lordship thence.
LORD HASTINGS
Nay, like enough, for I stay dinner there.
BUCKINGHAM (aside)
And supper too, although thou know’st it not.
Come, will you go?
LORD HASTINGS
I’ll wait upon your lordship.
Exeunt
3.3 Enter Sir Richard Ratcliffe with Halberdiers taking Lord Rivers, Lord Gray, and Sir Thomas Vaughan to death at Pomfret
RIVERS
Sir Richard Ratcliffe, let me tell thee this:
Today shalt thou behold a subject die
For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.
GRAY (to Ratcliffe)
God bless the Prince from all the pack of you!
A knot you are of damned bloodsuckers.
VAUGHAN (to Ratcliffe)
You live, that shall cry woe for this hereafter.
RATCLIFFE
Dispatch. The limit of your lives is out.
RIVERS
O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison,
Fatal and ominous to noble peers!
Within the guilty closure of thy walls,
Richard the Second here was hacked to death,
And, for more slander to thy dismal seat,
We give to thee our guiltless blood to drink.
GRAY
Now Margaret’s curse is fall’n upon our heads,
For standing by when Richard stabbed her son.
RIVERS
Then cursed she Hastings; then cursed she Buckingham;
Then cursed she Richard. O remember, God,
To hear her prayer for them as now for us.
And for my sister and her princely sons,
Be satisfied, dear God, with our true blood,
Which, as thou know’st, unjustly must be spilt.
RATCLIFFE
Make haste: the hour of death is expiate.
RIVERS
Come, Gray; come, Vaughan; let us here embrace.
Farewell, until we meet again in heaven.
Exeunt
3.4 Enter the Duke of Buckingham, Lord Stanley Earl of Derby, Lord Hastings, Bishop of Ely, the Duke of Norfolk, ⌈Sir William Catesby⌉, with others at a table
LORD HASTINGS
Now, noble peers, the cause why we are met
Is to determine of the coronation.
In God’s name, speak: when is the royal day?
BUCKINGHAM
Is all things ready for that solemn time?
STANLEY
It is, and wants but nomination.
BISHOP OF ELY
Tomorrow, then, I judge a happy day.
BUCKINGHAM
Who knows the Lord Protector’s mind herein?
Who is most inward with the noble Duke?
BISHOP OF ELY
Your grace, methinks, should soonest know his mind.
BUCKINGHAM
We know each other’s faces. For our hearts,
He knows no more of mine than I of yours,
Or I of his, my lord, than you of mine.—
Lord Hastings, you and he are near in love.
LORD HASTINGS
I thank his grace; I know he loves me well.
But for his purpose in the coronation,
I have not sounded him, nor he delivered
His gracious pleasure any way therein.
But you, my honourable lords, may name the time,
And in the Duke’s behalf I’ll give my voice,
Which I presume he’ll take in gentle part.
Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester
BISHOP OF ELY
In happy time, here comes the Duke himself.
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
My noble lords, and cousins all, good morrow.
I have been long a sleeper, but I trust
My absence doth neglect no great design
Which by my presence might have
been concluded.
BUCKINGHAM
Had not you come upon your cue, my lord,
William Lord Hastings had pronounced your part—
I mean, your voice, for crowning of the King.
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
Than my Lord Hastings no man might be bolder.
His lordship knows me well, and loves me well.—
My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn
I saw good strawberries in your garden there.
I do beseech you send for some of them.
BISHOP OF ELY
Marry, and will, my lord, with all my heart. Exit
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you.
(Aside) Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business,
And finds the testy gentleman so hot
That he will lose his head ere give consent
His ‘master’s child’—as worshipful he terms it—
Shall lose the royalty of England’s throne.
BUCKINGHAM
Withdraw yourself a while; I’ll go with you.
Exeunt Richard ⌈and Buckingham⌉
STANLEY
We have not yet set down this day of triumph.
Tomorrow, in my judgement, is too sudden,
For I myself am not so well provided
As else I would be, were the day prolonged.
Enter Bishop of Ely
BISHOP OF ELY
Where is my lord, the Duke of Gloucester?
I have sent for these strawberries.
LORD HASTINGS
His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning.
There’s some conceit or other likes him well,
When that he bids good morrow with such spirit.
I think there’s never a man in Christendom
Can lesser hide his love or hate than he,
For by his face straight shall you know his heart.
STANLEY
What of his heart perceive you in his face
By any likelihood he showed today?
LORD HASTINGS
Marry, that with no man here he is offended—
For were he, he had shown it in his looks.
STANLEY I pray God he be not.
Enter Richard ⌈and Buckingham⌉
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
I pray you all, tell me what they deserve
That do conspire my death with devilish plots
Of damned witchcraft, and that have prevailed
Upon my body with their hellish charms?
LORD HASTINGS
The tender love I bear your grace, my lord,
Makes me most forward in this princely presence
To doom th’offenders, whatsoe’er they be.
I say, my lord, they have deserved death.
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
Then be your eyes the witness of their evil:
See how I am bewitched. Behold, mine arm
Is like a blasted sapling withered up.
And this is Edward’s wife, that monstrous witch,
Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have marked me.
LORD HASTINGS
If they have done this deed, my noble lord—
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
'If’? Thou protector of this damned strumpet,
Talk’st thou to me of 'ifs’ ? Thou art a traitor.—
Off with his head. Now, by Saint Paul I swear,
I will not dine until I see the same.
Some see it done.
The rest that love me, rise and follow me.
Exeunt all but ⌈Catesby⌉ and Hastings
LORD HASTINGS
Woe, woe for England! Not a whit for me,
For I, too fond, might have prevented this.
Stanley did dream the boar did raze our helms,
But I did scorn it and disdain to fly.
Three times today my footcloth horse did stumble,
And started when he looked upon the Tower,
As loath to bear me to the slaughterhouse.
O now I need the priest that spake to me.
I now repent I told the pursuivant,
As too triumphing, how mine enemies
Today at Pomfret bloodily were butchered,
And I myself secure in grace and favour.
O Margaret, Margaret! Now thy heavy curse
Is lighted on poor Hastings’ wretched head.
⌈CATESBY⌉
Come, come, dispatch: the Duke would be at dinner.
Make a short shrift; he longs to see your head.
LORD HASTINGS
O momentary grace of mortal men,
Which we more hunt for than the grace of God.
Who builds his hope in th’air of your good looks
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,
Ready with every nod to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.
⌈CATESBY⌉
Come, come, dispatch. ‘Tis bootless to exclaim.
LORD HASTINGS
O bloody Richard! Miserable England!
I prophesy the fearful’st time to thee
That ever wretched age hath looked upon.—
Come lead me to the block; bear him my head.
They smile at me, who shortly shall be dead. Exeunt
3.5Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Buckingham in rotten armour, marvellous ill-favoured
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
Come, cousin, canst thou quake and change thy colour?
Murder thy breath in middle of a word?
And then again begin, and stop again,
As if thou wert distraught and mad with terror?
BUCKINGHAM
Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian,
Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,
Speak, and look back, and pry on every side,
Intending deep suspicion; ghastly looks
Are at my service, like enforced smiles,
And both are ready in their offices
At any time to grace my stratagems.
Enter the Lord Mayor
RICHARD GLOUCESTER (aside to Buckingham)
Here comes the Mayor.
BUCKINGHAM (aside to Richard)
Let me alone to entertain him.—Lord Mayor—
RICHARD GLOUCESTER ⌈calling as to one within⌉
Look to the drawbridge there!
BUCKINGHAM Hark, a drum!
RICHARD GLOUCESTER ⌈calling as to one within⌉
Catesby, o’erlook the walls!
BUCKINGHAM Lord Mayor, the reason we have sent—
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
Look back, defend thee! Here are enemies.
BUCKINGHAM
God and our innocence defend and guard us.
Enter ⌈Sir William Catesby⌉ with Hastings’ head
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
O, O, be quiet! It is Catesby.
CATESBY
Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,
The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
So dear I loved the man that I must weep.
I took him for the plainest harmless creature
That breathed upon the earth, a Christian,
Made him my book wherein my soul recorded
The history of all her secret thoughts.
So smooth he daubed his vice with show of virtue
That, his apparent open guilt omitted—
I mean, his conversation with Shore’s wife—
He lived from all attainture of suspect.
BUCKINGHAM
The covert’st sheltered traitor that ever lived.
(To the Mayor) Would you imagine, or almost believe—
Were’t not that, by great preservation,
We live to tell it—that the subtle traitor
This day had plotted in the Council house
To murder me and
my good lord of Gloucester?
MAYOR Had he done so?
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
What, think you we are Turks or infidels,
Or that we would against the form of law
Proceed thus rashly in the villain’s death
But that the extreme peril of the case,
The peace of England, and our persons’ safety,
Enforced us to this execution?
MAYOR
Now fair befall you, he deserved his death,
And your good graces both have well proceeded,
To warn false traitors from the like attempts.
I never looked for better at his hands
After he once fell in with Mrs Shore.
⌈RICHARD GLOUCESTER⌉
Yet had not we determined he should die,
Until your lordship came to see his end,
Which now the loving haste of these our friends—
Something against our meanings—have prevented;
Because, my lord, we would have had you hear
The traitor speak, and timorously confess
The manner and the purpose of his treason,
That you might well have signified the same
Unto the citizens, who haply may
Misconster us in him, and wail his death.
MAYOR
But, my good lord, your graces’ word shall serve
As well as I had seen and heard him speak.
And do not doubt, right noble princes both,
But I’ll acquaint our duteous citizens
With all your just proceedings in this cause.
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
And to that end we wished your lordship here,
T’avoid the censures of the carping world.
BUCKINGHAM
Which, since you come too late of our intent,
Yet witness what you hear we did intend,
And so, my good Lord Mayor, we bid farewell.
Exit Mayor
RICHARD GLOUCESTER
Go after; after, cousin Buckingham!
The Mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all post;
There, at your meetest vantage of the time,
Infer the bastardy of Edward’s children.
Tell them how Edward put to death a citizen
Only for saying he would make his son
‘Heir to the Crown’—meaning indeed, his house,
Which by the sign thereof was termed so.
Moreover, urge his hateful luxury
And bestial appetite in change of lust,
Which stretched unto their servants, daughters, wives,
Even where his raging eye, or savage heart,
The Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works Page 75
