Your gracious self to take on you the charge In this just suit come I to move your grace. Best fitteth my degree, or your - condition: If, not to answer, you might haply think, Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty, Which fondly you would here impose on me; If to reprove you for this suit of yours, So season'd with your faithful love to me, Then, on the other side, I check'd my friends. Therefore, to speak, and to avoid the first; And, then in speaking, not to incur the last, Definitively thus I answer you. Your love deserves my thanks; but my desert Unmeritable, shuns your high request. First, if all obstacles were cut away, And that my path were even to the crown, That I would rather hide me from my greatness, ४ But, Heaven be thank'd, there is no need of me; (And much I need to help you, if need were ;) The royal tree hath left us royal fruit, 7 Empire. VOL. VII. 8 Want ability. I Which, mellow'd by the stealing hours of time, But the respects thereof are nice and trivial, You say, that Edward is your brother's son; By her, in his unlawful bed, he got This Edward, whom our manners call-the prince. More bitterly could I expostulate, Save that, for reverence to some alive, I give a sparing limit to my tongue, Then, good my lord, take to your royal self If not to bless us and the land withal, May. Do, good my lord; your citizens entreat you. • Minute. Glo. Alas, why would you heap those cares on me? I am unfit for state and majesty : ; I do beseech you, take it not amiss [Exeunt BUCKINGHAM and Citizens. Cate. Call them again, sweet prince, accept their suit; If you deny them, all the land will rue it. Glo. Will you enforce me to a world of cares? Well, call them again; I am not made of stone, But penetrable to your kind entreaties, [Exit CATESBY. Albeit against my conscience and my soul. Re-enter BUCKINGHAM and the rest. Cousin of Buckingham,—and sage, grave men,- 1 Pity. For heaven best knows, and you may partly see, May. God bless your grace! we see it, and will say it. Glo. In saying so, you shall but say the truth. Buck. Then I salute you with this royal title, Long live king Richard, England's worthy king! All. Amen. Buck. To-morrow may it please you to be crown'd? Glo. Even when you please, since you will have it so. Buck. To-morrow then we will attend your grace; And so, most joyfully, we take our leave. Glo. Come, let us to our holy work again :[To the Bishops. Farewell, good cousin ;-farewell, gentle friends. ACT THE FOURTH. [Exeunt, SCENE I. Before the Tower. Enter on one side, Queen ELIZABETH, Duchess of YORK, and Marquis of DORSET; on the other, ANNE, Duchess of Gloster, leading Lady MARPLANTAGENET, CLARENCE's young GARET Daughter. Duch. Who meets us here -my niece Plantagenet Led in the hand of her kind aunt of Gloster? Now, for my life, she's wand'ring to the Tower, On pure heart's love, to greet the tender prince.— Daughter, well met. Anne. Heaven give your graces both A happy and a joyful time of day! Q. Eliz. As much to you, good sister! Whither away? Anne. No further than the Tower; and, as I guess, Upon the like devotion as yourselves, To gratulate the gentle princes there. Q. Eliz. Kind sister, thanks; we'll enter all together: Enter BRAKENBURY. And, in good time, here the lieutenant comes.— The king hath strictly charg'd the contrary. Brak. I mean, the lord protector. Q. Eliz. The Lord protect him from that kingly title! Hath he set bounds between their love, and me? I am their mother, who shall bar me from them? Duch. I am their father's mother, I will see them. Anne. Their aunt I am in law, in love their mother: Then bring me to their sights; I'll bear thy blame, And take thy office from thee, on thy peril. Brak. No, madam, no, I may not leave it so; I am bound by oath, and therefore pardon me. [Exit BRAKENbury. Enter STANLey. Stan. Let me but meet you, ladies, one hour hence, And I'll salute your grace of York as mother, And reverend looker-on of two fair queens. |