King Richard The Third

1 Enter Richard and Buckingham at several doors.
2 RICHARD.
3 How now, how now? What say the citizens?
4 BUCKINGHAM.
5 Now, by the holy mother of our Lord,
6 The citizens are mum, say not a word.
7 RICHARD.
8 Touched you the bastardy of Edward’s children?
9 BUCKINGHAM.
10 I did; with his contract with Lady Lucy,
11 And his contract by deputy in France;
12 Th’ insatiate greediness of his desire,
13 And his enforcement of the city wives;
14 His tyranny for trifles; his own bastardy,
15 As being got, your father then in France,
16 And his resemblance, being not like the Duke.
17 Withal, I did infer your lineaments,
18 Being the right idea of your father,
19 Both in your form and nobleness of mind;
20 Laid open all your victories in Scotland,
21 Your discipline in war, wisdom in peace,
22 Your bounty, virtue, fair humility;
23 Indeed, left nothing fitting for your purpose
24 Untouched or slightly handled in discourse.
25 And when mine oratory drew toward end,
26 I bid them that did love their country’s good
27 Cry “God save Richard, England’s royal King!”
28 RICHARD.
29 And did they so?
30 BUCKINGHAM.
31 No, so God help me, they spake not a word,
32 But, like dumb statues or breathing stones,
33 Stared each on other, and looked deadly pale.
34 Which when I saw, I reprehended them,
35 And asked the Mayor what meant this wilful silence.
36 His answer was, the people were not used
37 To be spoke to but by the Recorder.
38 Then he was urged to tell my tale again:
39 “Thus saith the Duke, thus hath the Duke inferred”
40 But nothing spoke in warrant from himself.
41 When he had done, some followers of mine own,
42 At lower end of the hall, hurled up their caps,
43 And some ten voices cried, “God save King Richard!”
44 And thus I took the vantage of those few.
45 “Thanks, gentle citizens and friends,” quoth I;
46 “This general applause and cheerful shout
47 Argues your wisdoms and your love to Richard.”
48 And even here brake off and came away.
49 RICHARD.
50 What, tongueless blocks were they! Would they not speak?
51 Will not the Mayor then and his brethren, come?
52 BUCKINGHAM.
53 The mayor is here at hand. Intend some fear;
54 Be not you spoke with but by mighty suit.
55 And look you get a prayer-book in your hand,
56 And stand between two churchmen, good my lord,
57 For on that ground I’ll make a holy descant.
58 And be not easily won to our requests.
59 Play the maid’s part: still answer nay, and take it.
60 RICHARD.
61 I go, and if you plead as well for them
62 As I can say nay to thee for myself,
63 No doubt we bring it to a happy issue.
64 BUCKINGHAM.
65 Go, go, up to the leads, the Lord Mayor knocks.
66 [_Exit Richard._]
67 Enter the Lord Mayor and Citizens.
68 Welcome, my lord. I dance attendance here.
69 I think the Duke will not be spoke withal.
70 Enter Catesby.
71 Now, Catesby, what says your lord to my request?
72 CATESBY.
73 He doth entreat your Grace, my noble lord,
74 To visit him tomorrow or next day.
75 He is within, with two right reverend fathers,
76 Divinely bent to meditation;
77 And in no worldly suits would he be moved
78 To draw him from his holy exercise.
79 BUCKINGHAM.
80 Return, good Catesby, to the gracious Duke;
81 Tell him myself, the Mayor and aldermen,
82 In deep designs, in matter of great moment,
83 No less importing than our general good,
84 Are come to have some conference with his Grace.
85 CATESBY.
86 I’ll signify so much unto him straight.
87 [_Exit._]
88 BUCKINGHAM.
89 Ah ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward!
90 He is not lolling on a lewd love-bed,
91 But on his knees at meditation;
92 Not dallying with a brace of courtesans,
93 But meditating with two deep divines;
94 Not sleeping, to engross his idle body,
95 But praying, to enrich his watchful soul.
96 Happy were England would this virtuous prince
97 Take on his Grace the sovereignty thereof.
98 But sure I fear we shall not win him to it.
99 MAYOR.
100 Marry, God defend his Grace should say us nay!
101 BUCKINGHAM.
102 I fear he will. Here Catesby comes again.
103 Enter Catesby.
104 Now, Catesby, what says his Grace?
105 CATESBY.
106 He wonders to what end you have assembled
107 Such troops of citizens to come to him,
108 His Grace not being warned thereof before.
109 He fears, my lord, you mean no good to him.
110 BUCKINGHAM.
111 Sorry I am my noble cousin should
112 Suspect me that I mean no good to him.
113 By heaven, we come to him in perfect love,
114 And so once more return and tell his Grace.
115 [_Exit Catesby._]
116 When holy and devout religious men
117 Are at their beads, ’tis much to draw them thence,
118 So sweet is zealous contemplation.
119 Enter Richard aloft, between two Bishops. Catesby reenters.
120 MAYOR.
121 See where his Grace stands ’tween two clergymen!
122 BUCKINGHAM.
123 Two props of virtue for a Christian prince,
124 To stay him from the fall of vanity;
125 And, see, a book of prayer in his hand,
126 True ornaments to know a holy man.
127 Famous Plantagenet, most gracious Prince,
128 Lend favourable ear to our requests,
129 And pardon us the interruption
130 Of thy devotion and right Christian zeal.
131 RICHARD.
132 My lord, there needs no such apology.
133 I do beseech your Grace to pardon me,
134 Who, earnest in the service of my God,
135 Deferred the visitation of my friends.
136 But, leaving this, what is your Grace’s pleasure?
137 BUCKINGHAM.
138 Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above,
139 And all good men of this ungoverned isle.
140 RICHARD.
141 I do suspect I have done some offence
142 That seems disgracious in the city’s eye,
143 And that you come to reprehend my ignorance.
144 BUCKINGHAM.
145 You have, my lord. Would it might please your Grace,
146 On our entreaties, to amend your fault.
147 RICHARD.
148 Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?
149 BUCKINGHAM.
150 Know then, it is your fault that you resign
151 The supreme seat, the throne majestical,
152 The sceptered office of your ancestors,
153 Your state of fortune, and your due of birth,
154 The lineal glory of your royal house,
155 To the corruption of a blemished stock;
156 Whiles in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts,
157 Which here we waken to our country’s good,
158 The noble isle doth want her proper limbs;
159 Her face defaced with scars of infamy,
160 Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants,
161 And almost shouldered in the swallowing gulf
162 Of dark forgetfulness and deep oblivion;
163 Which to recure, we heartily solicit
164 Your gracious self to take on you the charge
165 And kingly government of this your land,
166 Not as Protector, steward, substitute,
167 Or lowly factor for another’s gain,
168 But as successively, from blood to blood,
169 Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
170 For this, consorted with the citizens,
171 Your very worshipful and loving friends,
172 And by their vehement instigation,
173 In this just cause come I to move your Grace.
174 RICHARD.
175 I cannot tell if to depart in silence
176 Or bitterly to speak in your reproof
177 Best fitteth my degree or your condition.
178 If not to answer, you might haply think
179 Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded
180 To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty,
181 Which fondly you would here impose on me;
182 If to reprove you for this suit of yours,
183 So seasoned with your faithful love to me,
184 Then, on the other side, I checked my friends.
185 Therefore, to speak, and to avoid the first,
186 And then, in speaking, not to incur the last,
187 Definitively thus I answer you:
188 Your love deserves my thanks, but my desert
189 Unmeritable shuns your high request.
190 First, if all obstacles were cut away,
191 And that my path were even to the crown
192 As the ripe revenue and due of birth,
193 Yet so much is my poverty of spirit,
194 So mighty and so many my defects,
195 That I would rather hide me from my greatness,
196 Being a bark to brook no mighty sea,
197 Than in my greatness covet to be hid,
198 And in the vapour of my glory smothered.
199 But, God be thanked, there is no need of me,
200 And much I need to help you, were there need.
201 The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,
202 Which, mellowed by the stealing hours of time,
203 Will well become the seat of majesty,
204 And make, no doubt, us happy by his reign.
205 On him I lay that you would lay on me,
206 The right and fortune of his happy stars,
207 Which God defend that I should wring from him.
208 BUCKINGHAM.
209 My lord, this argues conscience in your Grace;
210 But the respects thereof are nice and trivial,
211 All circumstances well considered.
212 You say that Edward is your brother’s son;
213 So say we too, but not by Edward’s wife.
214 For first was he contract to Lady Lucy
215 Your mother lives a witness to his vow,
216 And afterward by substitute betrothed
217 To Bona, sister to the King of France.
218 These both put off, a poor petitioner,
219 A care-crazed mother to a many sons,
220 A beauty-waning and distressed widow,
221 Even in the afternoon of her best days,
222 Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye,
223 Seduced the pitch and height of his degree
224 To base declension and loathed bigamy.
225 By her, in his unlawful bed, he got
226 This Edward, whom our manners call the Prince.
227 More bitterly could I expostulate,
228 Save that, for reverence to some alive,
229 I give a sparing limit to my tongue.
230 Then, good my lord, take to your royal self
231 This proffered benefit of dignity,
232 If not to bless us and the land withal,
233 Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry
234 From the corruption of abusing times
235 Unto a lineal true-derived course.
236 MAYOR.
237 Do, good my lord. Your citizens entreat you.
238 BUCKINGHAM.
239 Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffered love.
240 CATESBY.
241 O, make them joyful; grant their lawful suit.
242 RICHARD.
243 Alas, why would you heap those cares on me?
244 I am unfit for state and majesty.
245 I do beseech you, take it not amiss;
246 I cannot, nor I will not, yield to you.
247 BUCKINGHAM.
248 If you refuse it, as in love and zeal
249 Loath to depose the child, your brother’s son—
250 As well we know your tenderness of heart
251 And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse,
252 Which we have noted in you to your kindred,
253 And equally indeed to all estates—
254 Yet know, whe’er you accept our suit or no,
255 Your brother’s son shall never reign our king,
256 But we will plant some other in the throne,
257 To the disgrace and downfall of your house.
258 And in this resolution here we leave you.
259 Come, citizens; zounds, I’ll entreat no more.
260 [_Exeunt Buckingham, the Mayor and citizens._]
261 CATESBY.
262 Call him again, sweet Prince; accept their suit.
263 If you deny them, all the land will rue it.
264 RICHARD.
265 Will you enforce me to a world of cares?
266 Call them again. I am not made of stones,
267 But penetrable to your kind entreaties,
268 Albeit against my conscience and my soul.
269 Enter Buckingham and the rest.
270 Cousin of Buckingham, and sage grave men,
271 Since you will buckle Fortune on my back,
272 To bear her burden, whe’er I will or no,
273 I must have patience to endure the load.
274 But if black scandal or foul-faced reproach
275 Attend the sequel of your imposition,
276 Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
277 From all the impure blots and stains thereof,
278 For God doth know, and you may partly see,
279 How far I am from the desire of this.
280 MAYOR.
281 God bless your Grace! We see it, and will say it.
282 RICHARD.
283 In saying so, you shall but say the truth.
284 BUCKINGHAM.
285 Then I salute you with this royal title:
286 Long live King Richard, England’s worthy King!
287 ALL.
288 Amen.
289 BUCKINGHAM.
290 Tomorrow may it please you to be crowned?
291 RICHARD.
292 Even when you please, for you will have it so.
293 BUCKINGHAM.
294 Tomorrow, then, we will attend your Grace;
295 And so most joyfully we take our leave.
296 RICHARD.
297 [_To the Bishops_.] Come, let us to our holy work again.
298 Farewell, my cousin, farewell, gentle friends.
299 [_Exeunt._]