K.Edw. Madam, yourself are not exempt in this,-|
Nor your son Dorset,-Buckingham, nor you;—
You have been factious one against the other.
Wife, love Lord Hastings, let him kiss your hand;
And what you do, do it unfeignedly.

Q. Eliz. There, Hastings;-I will never more
remember

Our former hatred, so thrive I, and mine!

K. Edw. Dorset, embrace him,-Hastings, love lord marquis.

Dor. This interchange of love, I here protest, Upon my part shall be inviolable.

Hast. And so swear I.

[Embraces Dorset.

K. Edw. Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou
this league

With thy embracements to my wife's allies,
And make me happy in your unity.

Buck. Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate
Upon your grace [To the Queen], but with all du-

teous love

Doth cherish you, and God punish me
yours,
With hate in those where I expect most love!
When I have most need to employ a friend,
And most assured that he is a friend,
Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile,
Be he unto me! this do I beg of heaven,
When I am cold in love, to you, or yours.

[Embracing RIVERS, &c.
K. Edw. A pleasing cordial, princely Buckinghain,
Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.
There wanteth now our brother Gloster here,
To make the blessed period of this peace.

Buck. And, in good time, here comes the noble

duke.

Enter GLOSTER.

Glo. Good-morrow to my sovereign king, and

queen;

And, princely peers, a happy time of day!

Q. Eliz. A holy-day shall this be kept hereafter:-
I would to God all strifes were well compounded.-
My sovereign ford, I do beseech your highness
To take our brother Clarence to your grace.

Glo. Why, madam, have I offer'd love for this,
To be so flouted in this royal presence?
Who knows not, that the gentle duke is dead?
[They all start.

You do him injury to scorn his corse.
K. Edw. Who knows not he is dead! who knows
he is?

Q. Eliz. All-seeing heaven, what a world is this!
Buck. Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest?
Dor. Ay,my good lord; and no man in the presence,
But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.

K. Edu. Is Clarence dead? the order was re-
vers'd.

Glo. 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, and not in blood,
Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,
And yet go current from suspicion.

Enter STANLEY.

Stan. A boon, my sovereign, for my service done!
K. Edw. pr'ythee, peace; my soul is full of

sorrow.

Stan. I will not rise, unless your highness hear me.
K. Edw. Then say at once, what is it thou re-
quest'st?

Stan. The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant's life;
Who slew to-day a riotous gentleman,
Lately attendant on the duke of Norfolk.

K. Edw. Have I a tongue to doom my brother's
death,

And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave?

K. Edw. Happy, indeed, as we have spent the My brother kill'd no man, his fault was thought,

day.

peers.

Brother, we have done deeds of charity;
Made peace
of enmity, fair love of hate,
Between these swelling wrong-incensed
Glo. A blessed labour, my most sovereign liege.
Among this princely heap, if any here,
By false intelligence, or wrong surmise,
Hold me a foe;

If I unwittingly, or in my rage,

Have aught committed that is hardly borne
By any in this presence, I desire

To reconcile me to his friendly peace:

"Tis death to me, to be at enmity;

I hate it, and desire all good men's love.-
First, madam, I entreat true peace of you,
Which I will purchase with my duteous service ;-
Of
you, my noble cousin Buckingham,

If ever any grudge were lodg'd between us :-
Of you, Lord Rivers, and Lord Grey, of you,-
That all without desert have frown'd on me ;-
Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen: indeed, of all.
I do not know that Englishman alive,
With whom my soul is any jot at odds,
More than the infant that is born to-night;
I thank my God for my humility.'

1 Milton has this observation:-- The poets, and some English, have been in this point so mindful of decorum. as to put never more pious words in the mouth of any person than of a tyrant. I shall not instance an abstruse author, wherein the king might be less conversant, but one whom we well know was the closet companion of these his solitudes, William Shakspeare; who introduced the person of Richard the Third, speaking in as high a strain of piety and mortification as is uttered in any passage in this book, and sometimes to the same sense and purpose with some words in this place. I intended (saith he), not only to oblige my friends, but my enemies. The like saith Richard:

'I do not know that Englishman alive,
With whom my soul is any jot at odds,
More than the infant that is born to-night;
I thank my God for my humility."

Other stuff of this sort may be read throughout the tra
gedy, wherein the poet used not much licence in depart

And yet his punishment was bitter death.
Who sued to me for him? who, in my wrath,
Kneel'd at my feet, and bade me be advis'd ?
Who spoke of brotherhood? who spoke of love?
The mighty Warwick, and did fight for me?
Who told me, how the poor soul did forsake
Who told me, in the field at Tewksbury,
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 pluck'd, 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 defac'd
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;

Duch. Ah, that deceit should steal such gentle Alas, you three, on me, threefold distress'd,

Pour all your tears, I am your sorrow's nurse,
And I will pamper it with lamentations.

Dor. Comfort, dear mother; God is much dis-
pleas'd,

Son. Think you, my uncle did dissemble, gran- That you take with unthankfulness his doing; dam?

SCENE IV.

KING RICHARD IIL

Duch. God bless thee; and put meekness in thy | breast,

Love, charity, obedience, and true duty!

Glo. Amen; and make me die a good old man!— That is the butt-end of a mother's blessing; [Aside. I marvel, that her grace did leave it out.

Buck. You cloudy princes, and heart-sorrowing
peers,

That bear this mutual heavy 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-swoln hearts,
But lately splinted, knit, and join'd together,
Must gently be preserv'd, cherish'd, and kept:
Me seemeth good, that, with some little train,
Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fetch'd'
Hither to London, to be crown'd our king.

Riv. Why with some little train, my lord of
Buckingham?

Buck. Marry, my lord, lest, by a multitude,
The new-heal'd wound of malice should break out;
Which would be so much the more dangerous,
By how much the estate is green, and yet ungo-
vern'd:

Where every horse bears his commanding rein,
And may direct his course as please himself,
As well the fear of harm, as harm apparent,
In my opinion, ought to be prevented.

Glo. I hope, the king made peace with all of us;
And the compact is firm, and true, in me.

Riv. And so in me; and so, I think, in all:2
Yet, since it is but green, it should be put
To no apparent likelihood of breach,

Which, haply, by much company might be urg'd:
Therefore I say, with noble Buckingham,
That it is meet so few should fetch the prince.
Hast. And so say I.

Glo. Then be it so; and go we to determine
Who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow.
Madam, and you my mother, will you go
To give your censures in this weighty business?
[Exeunt all but BUCKINGHAM and GLOSTER.
Buck. 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 talk'd of,
To part the queen's proud kindred from the prince.
Glo. 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.
A Street. Enter two
SCENE III. The same.
Citizens, meeting.

1 Cit. Good morrow, neighbour: Whither away
so fast?

2 Cit. I promise you, I scarcely know myself:
Hear you the news abroad?
1 Cit.

Yes; the king's dead.
2 Cit. I news, by'r lady; seldom comes the
better:

I fear, I fear, 'twill prove a giddy world.

Enter another Citizen.

8 Cit. Neighbours, God speed.
1 Cit.

Give you good morrow, sir.

1 Edward, the young prince, in his father's lifetime, and at his demise, kept his household at Ludlow, as prince of Wales; under the governance of Anthony Woodville, earl of Rivers, his uncle by the mother's side. The intention of his being sent thither was to see justice done in the Marches; and, by the authority of his presence, to restrain the Welchmen, who were wild, dissolute, and ill-disposed, from their accustomed murders and outrages.-Vide Holinshed.

2 This speech seems rather to belong to Hastings, who was of the duke of Gloster's party. The next speech might be given to Stanley.

3 i. e. your judgments, your opinions.

4 That is preparatory, by way of prelude.

6 An ancient proverbial saying, noticed in The Eng. lish Courtier and Country Gentlemen, 4to. blk 1. 1686,

3 Cit. Doth the news hold of good King Ed-
ward's death?

2 Cit. Ay, sir, it is too true; God help the while!
3 Cit. Then, masters, look to see a troublous
world.

1 Cit. No, no; by God's good grace, his son
shall reign.

3 Cit. Woe to that land, that's govern'd by a

child !6

2 Cit. In him there is a hope of government;
That, in his nonage,' council under hin,
And, in his full and ripen'd years, himself,
No doubt, shall then, and till then, govern well.
1 Cit. So stood the state, when Henry the Sixth
Was crown'd in Paris but at nine months old.
3 Cit. Stood the state so? no, no, good friends,
God wot;

For then this land was famously enrich'd
With politic grave counsel; then the king
Had virtuous uncles to protect his grace.

1 Cit. Why, so hath this, both by his father and
mother.

3 Cit. Better it were they all came by his father;
Or, by his father, there were none at all:
For emulation now, who shall be nearest,
Will touch us all too near, if God prevent not.
O, full of danger is the duke of Gloster;
And the queen's sons, and brothers, haught and
proud:

And were they to be rul'd, and not to rule,
This sickly land might solace as before.

1 Cit. Čome, come, we fear the worst: all will
be well.

3 Cit. 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.

2 Cit. Truly, the hearts of men are full of fear:
You cannot reason" almost with a man
That looks not heavily, and full of dread.

3 Cit. 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?
2 Cit. Marry, we were sent for to the justices.
3 Cit. And so was I; I'll bear you company.
[Exeunt.
SCENE IV. The same. A Room in the Palace.
Enter the Archbishop of York, the young DUKE
of YORK, QUEEN ELIZABETH, and the DUCH-
ESS of YORK.

Arch. Last night, I heard, they lay at Stony-
Stratford;

And at Northampton they do rest to-night: 10
To-morrow, or next day, they will be here.

Duch. I long with all my heart to see the prince;
I hope, he is much grown since last I saw him.
Q. Eliz. But I hear, no; they say, my son of York
Hath almost overta'en him in his growth.

sign. B: — as the proverbe sayth seldome come the
better. Val. That proverb indeed is auncient, and for the
most part true.'

6 Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child.' Ecclesiast. c. x. Shakspeare found it cited in the duke of Buckingham's speech to the citizens in More's Richard III.

7 We may hope well of his government under all circumstances; we may hope this of his council while he is in his nonage, and of himself in his riper years. 8 See note 6, p. 97.

9 Before such great things, men's hearts of a secret
instinct of nature misgive them; as the sea without wind
swelleth of himself some time before a tempest.'-From
More's Richard III. copied by Holinshed, 'III. 721.
10 This is the reading of the folio. The quarto of 1597
reads:-

Last night I hear they lay at Northampton:
At Stony-Stratford will they be to-night.
By neither reading can the truth of history be preserved.
According to the reading of the quarto the scene would

York. Ay, mother, but I would not have it so.
Duch. Why, my young cousin? it is good to grow.
York. Grandam, one night, as we did sit at sup-
per,

My uncle Rivers talk'd how I did grow
More than my brother; Ay, quoth my uncle Gloster,
Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace:
And since, methinks, I would not grow so fast,
Because sweet flowers are slow, and weeds make
haste.

Duch. '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.
Arch. And so, no doubt, he is, my gracious madam.
Duch. I hope, he is; but yet let mothers doubt.
York. Now, by my troth, if I had been remem-
ber'd,

I could have given my uncle's grace a flout,
To touch his growth, nearer than he touch'd mine.
Duch. How, my young York? I pr'ythee, 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.
Grandam, this would have been a biting jest.
Duch. I pr'ythee, pretty York, who told thee this?
York. Grandam, his nurse.

Duch. His nurse? why, she was dead ere thou
wast born.

York. If 'twere not she, I cannot tell who told me.
Q. Eliz. A parlous' boy: Go to, you are too
shrewd.

Arch. Good madam, be not angry with the child.
Q. Eliz. Pitchers have ears.

How many of you have mine eyes beheld?
My husband lost his life to get the crown;
And often up and down my sons were tost,
For me to joy, and weep, their gain, and loss;
And being seated, and domestic broils
Clean over blown, themselves, the conquerors,
Make war upon themselves; brother to brother,
Blood to blood, self 'gainst self:-0, preposterous
And frantic courage, end thy damned spleen;
Or let me die, to look on death no more
Q. Eliz. Come, come, my boy, we will to sanc
tuary.-
Madam, farewell.
Duch.

Stay, I will go with you.

Q. Eliz. You have no cause.
Arch.

My gracious lady, go. [To the Queen.

And thither bear your treasure and your goods.
For my part, I'll resign unto your grace
The seal I keep; And so betide to me,
As well I tender you, and all of yours!
Come, I'll conduct you to the sanctuary. [Exeunt.

ACT III.

SCENE I. London. A Street. The Trumpets sound. Enter the Prince of Wales, GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM, CARDINAL BOURCHIER, and

others.

Buck. Welcome, sweet prince, to London, to your chamber."

Glo. Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts' sove

reign:

The weary way hath made you melancholy.
Prince. No, uncle; but our crosses on the way
Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy:
I want more uncles here to welcome me..

Glo. Sweet prince, the untainted virtue of your
years

Hath not yet div'd into the world's deceit :
No more can you distinguish of a man,
Than of his outward show; which, God he knows,
Seldom, or never, jumpeth with the heart.
Those uncles, which you want, were dangerous;
Your grace attended to their sugar'd words,
But look'd not on the poison of their hearts:
God keep you from them, and from such false
friends!

I thought, my mother, and my brother York,
Would long ere this have met us on the way:
Fye, what a slug is Hastings! that he comes not
To tell us whether they would come, or no.

1 Parlous is a popular corruption of perilous; jocularly used for alarming, amazing.

2 The quarto reads to jet, which Mr. Boswell thought To jut upon the

3 Afterwards, however, this obsequious archbishop [Rotheram] to ingratiate himself with Richard III. put his majesty's badge, the Hog, upon the gate of the Public Library at Cambridge.

4 Thomas Bourchier was made a cardinal, and elected Archbishop of Canterbury in 1464. He died in 1486.

be on the day on which the king was journeying from Northampton to Stratford; and of course the messen-preferable; but the folio is right. ger's account of the peers being seized, &c. which hap-throne,' is to make inroads or invasions upon it. See pened on the next day after the king had lain at Strat- Cooper's Dictionary, 1584, in voce incurso. Awless is ford, is inaccurate. If the folio reading be adopted the not producing awe, not reverenced. scene is indeed placed on the day on which the king was seized; but the archbishop is supposed to be apprized of a fact which, before the entry of the messenger, he manifestly does not know; namely, the duke of Gloster's coming to Stratford the morning after the king had lain there, taking him forcibly back to Northampton, and seizing the Lords Rivers, Grey, &c. The truth is, that the queen herself, the person most materially interested in the welfare of her son, did not hear of the king's being carried back from Stony-Stratford to Northa inpton till about midnight of the day on which this violence was offered to him by his uncle. See Hall, Edward V. fol. 6. Malone thinks this an unanswerable argument in favour of the reading of the quarto; while Steevens thinks it a matter of indifference, but prefers the text of the folio copy on account of the versification.

5 London was anciently called Camera Regis. See Coke's Institutes, 4. 243; Camden's Britannia, 374: and Ben Jonson's Entertainment to King James, pass ing to his Coronation. London is called the king's spe cia' chamber in the duke of Buckingham's oration to the citizens (apud More,) which Shakspeare has taken other phrases from.

6 To jump with, is to agree with, to suit, or corres pond with.

Enter HASTINGS.

As 'twere retail'd to all posterity,

Buck. And in good time, here comes the sweat-Even to the general all-ending day.

ing lord.

Prince. Welcome, my lord: What, will our mo-
ther come?

Hast. On what occasion, God he knows, not I,
The queen your mother, and your brother York,
Have taken sanctuary: The tender prince
Would fain have come with me to meet your grace,
But by his mother was perforce withheld.
Buck. Fye! what an indirect and peevish course
Is this of hers ?-Lord cardinal, will your grace
Persuade the queen to send the duke of York
Unto his princely brother presently?

If she deny,-Lord Hastings, go with him,
And from her jealous arms pluck him perforce.

Card. My lord of Buckingham, if my weak ora

tory

Can from his mother win the duke of York,
Anon expect him here: But if she be obdurate
To mild entreaties, God in heaven forbid
We should infringe the holy privilege

Of blessed sanctuary! not for all this land,
Would I be guilty of so deep a sin.

age,

Buck. You are too senseless-obstinate, my lord,
Too ceremonious, and traditional:1
Weigh it but with the grossness2 of this
You break not sanctuary in seizing him.
The benefit thereof is always granted
To those whose dealings have deserv'd the place,
And those who have the wit to claim the place:
This prince hath neither claim'd it, nor deserv'd it;
And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it:
Then, taking him from thence, that is not there,
You break no privilege nor charter there.
Oft have I heard of sanctuary men;
But sanctuary children, ne'er till now.

Card. My lord, you shall o'errule my mind for

once.

Come on, Lord Hastings, will you go with me?
Hast. I go, my lord.

Prince. Good lords, make all the speedy haste

You may. [Exeunt Cardinal and HAST.
Say, uncle Gloster, if our brother come,
Where shall we sojourn till our coronation?

Glo. Where it seems best unto your royal self.
If I may counsel you, some day, or two,
Your highness shall repose you at the Tower:
Then where you please, and sha!! be thought most fit
For your best health and recreation.

Prince. I do not like the Tower, of any place:-
Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?

Glo. He did, my gracious lord, begin that place;
Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified.
Prince. Is it upon record? or else reported
Successively from age to age he built it?

Buck. Upon record, my gracious lord.
Prince. But say, my lord, it were not register'd;
Methinks, the truth should live from age to age,

1 Ceremonious for superstitious; traditional for adherent to old customs.

Glo. So wise so young, they say, do ne'er live
long,
[Aside.

Prince. What say you, uncle?

Glo. I say, without characters, fame lives long.
Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,
Aside.

I moralize two meanings in one word.
With what his valour did enrich his wit,
Prince. That Julius Cæsar was a famous man ;"
His wit set down to make his valour live.
Death makes no conquest of this conqueror ;
For now he lives in fame, though not in life.-
I'll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham.
Buck. What, my gracious lord?
Prince. An if I live until I be a man,

I'll win our ancient right in France again,
Or die a soldier, as I liv'd a king.

Glo. Short summers lightly have a forward
spring.
[Aside.

Enter YORK, HASTINGS, and the Cardinal. Buck. Now, in good time, here comes the duke of York.

Prince. Richard of York! how fares our loving brother?

York. Well, my dread lord; so I must call you now.
Prince. Ay, brother; to our grief, as it is yours: 7
Too late" he died, that might have kept that title,
Which by his death hath lost much majesty.

Glo. How fares our cousin, noble lord of York? -
York. I thank you, gentle uncle. O, my lord,
You said that idle weeds are fast in growth:
The prince my brother hath outgrown me far
Glo. He hath, my lord.
York.
And therefore is he idle?
Glo. O, my fair cousin, I must not say so.
York. Then is he more beholden to you, than I.
Glo. He may command me, as my sovereign;
But you have power in me, as in a kinsman."

York. I pray you, uncle, give me this dagger.
Glo. My dagger, littie cousin? with all my heart.
Prince. A beggar, brother?

York. Of my kind uncle, that I know will give;
And, being but a toy, which is no grief to give.
Glo. A greater gift than that I'll give my cousin.
York. A greater gift! O, that's the sword to it?
Glo. Ay, gentle cousin, were it light enough.
York. O then, I see, you'll part but with light gifts:
In weightier things you'll say a beggar, nay.

Glo. It is too weighty for your grace to wear.
York. I weigh it lightly, were it heavier."
Glo. What, would you have my weapon, little lord?
York. I would, that I might thank you as you
call me.

Glo. How?

York. Little.

of the ancient, having after a sorte attained that by dis ease which other have by course of yeares; whereon I take it the proverbe ariseth, that they be of shorte life who are of wit so pregnant.-Bright's Treatise of Me

2 Grossness here means plainness, simplicity. Warburton, not understanding the word, would have changed it. Johnson has misinterpreted it; and Malone, though he defends the reading, leaves it unex-lancholy, 1586, p. 52. plained.

3 This argument is from More's History, as printed in the Chronicles, where it is very much enlarged upon. • Verelye I have often heard of saintuarye men, but I never heard erste of saintuarye chyldren ***. But he can be no saintuarye manne, that neither hath wise dome to desire it, nor malice to deserve it, whose lyfe or libertye can by no lawfull processe stand in jeopardie. And he that taketh one oute of saintuary to dooe hym good, I saye plainely that he breaketh no saintuary. More's History of Kinge Richard the Thirde. Edit. 1921, p. 48.

4 i. e. recounted. Minsheu, in his Dictionary, 1617, besides the verb retail, in the mercantile sense, has the

verb to retaile or retell.

5 I have knowne children languishing of the splene, obstructed and altered in temper, talke with gravity and wisdome surpassing those tender years, and their judg. mente carrying a marvellous imitation of the wisdome

6 For an account of the vice in old plays, see note on Twelfth Night, Act iv. Sc. 2. He appears (says Mr. Gifford) to have been a perfect counterpart of the har. lequin of the modern stage, and had a two-fold office, to instigate the hero of the piece to wickedness, and, at the same time, to protect him from the devil, whom he was permitted to buffet and baffle with his wooden sword, till the process of the story required that both the protector and the protected should be carried off by the fiend, or the latter driven roaring from the stage by some miraculous interposition in favour of the repentant offender.'

7 Short summers commonly have a forward spring.' So in an old proverb preserved by Ray"There's lightning lightly before thunder.' 8 Lately.

9 This taunting answer of the prince has been misth terpreted: he means to say, I hold it cheap, or care but little for it, even were it heavier than it is,'