York. You mean, to bear me,not to bear with me:Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me ; Because that I am little, like an ape, He thinks that you should bear me on your shoul- Buck. With what a sharp provided wit he reasons! So cunning, and so young, is wonderful. The earldom of Hereford, and all the movables Glo. My gracious lord, will't please you pass along? And, look, when I am king, claim thou of me York. What, will you go unto the Tower, my lord? Glo. Nor none that live, I hope. Prince. An if they live, I hope, I need not fear. [Exeunt Prince, YORK, HASTINGS, Cardinal, Buck. Think you, my lord, this little prating York Glo. No doubt, no doubt: O, 'tis a parlous boy; Come hither, gentle Catesby; thou art sworn Thou know'st our reasons urg'd upon the way;- Cate. He for his father's sake so loves the prince, not he? Cate. He will do all in all as Hastings doth. And, as it were far off, sound thou Lord Hastings, If thou dost find him tractable to us, Glo. Commend me to Lord William: tell him, His ancient knot of dangerous adversaries Cate. My good lords both, with all the heed I can. 1 York alludes to the protuberance on Gloster's back, which was commodious for carrying burdens. 2 i. e. incited, instigated. 3 Capable is quick of apprehension, susceptible, intelligent. Buck. I'll claim that promise at your grace's hand. SCENE II.$ Mess. [Exeunt. Before Lord Hastings' House. Enter a Messenger. [Knocking. Mess. My lord, my lord,- Enter HASTINGS. Hast.Cannot thy master sleep these tedious nights? Mess. And then he sends you word, he dreamt sure, If presently, you will take horse with him, Hast. Go, fellow, go, return unto thy lord; Enter CATESBY. [Erit. Cate. Many good morrows to my noble lord! What news, what news, in this our tottering state? Cate. Aye, my good lord. 5 Every material civcumstance in this scene is from Holinshed, except that a is a knight with whom Hastings converses instead of Buckingham. 4 But the protectoure and the duke after they had sent to the lord cardinal, the Lord Stanley, and the Lord 6 This term rased or rashed, is always given to deHastings, then lord chamberlaine, with many other no-scribe the violence inflicted by a boar. By the boar, blemen, to commune and devise about the coronation in throughout this scene, is meant Gloster, in allusion to one place, as fast were they in another place, contriving his crest. the contrarie to make the protectoure king. The Lord Stanley, that was after earle of Darby, wisely mistrusted it,and said unto the Lord Hastings that he much mislyked these too several councels.-Holinshed, from Sir T. More. 7 This was the usual address to noblemen in Shakspeare's time; it was indifferently used with your lordship. See any old letter or dedication of that age. 8 Instance is here put for motive, cause. 9 Weak, silly. Hast. I'll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders, Before I'll see the crown so foul misplac'd. Purs. The better, that your lordship please to ask. Hast. I tell thee, man, 'tis better with me now, Than when thou met'st me last where now we meet: Cate. Ay, on my life; and hopes to find you for- Then I was going prisoner to the Tower, ward Upon his party, for the gain thereof: And, thereupon, he sends you this good news,- Hast. Indeed, I am no mourner for that news, Cate. God keep your lordship in that gracious mind! Hast. But I shall laugh at this a twelvemonth hence, That they, who brought me in my master's hate, Well, Catesby, ere a fortnight make me older, Cote. "Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord, When men are unprepar'd, and look not for it. Hast. O monstrous, monstrous! and so falls it out With Rivers, Vaughan, Grey: and so 'twill do With some men else, who think themselves as safe As thou, and I; who, as thou know'st, are dear To princely Richard, and to Buckingham. Cate. The princes both make high account of you, For they account his head upon the bridge. [Aside. Hast. I know, they do; and I have well deserv'd it. Enter STANLEY. Come on, come on, where is your boar-spear, man? Stan. My lord, good morrow; and good morrow, You may jest on, but, by the holy rood,' I do not like these several councils, I. By the suggestion of the queen's allies; Purs. God hold it, to your honour's good content! Buck. What, talking with a priest, lord chamberlain? Your friends at Pomfret, they do need the priest; Your honour hath no shriving work in hand. Hast. 'Good faith, and when I met this holy man, The men you talk of came into my mind. What, go you toward the Tower? Buck. I do, my lord; but long I cannot stay there: I shall return before your lordship thence. not. [Exeunt, Hast. My lord, I hold my life as dear as you do SCENE III. Pomfret. Before the Castle. Enter yours; And never, in my life, I do protest, Was it more precious to me than 'tis now: I would be so triumphant as I am? Stan. The lords at Pomfret, when they rode from Were jocund, and suppos'd their states were sure, Hast. Come, come, have with you.-Wot3 you what, my lord? To-day, the lords you talk of are beheaded. Stan. They, for their truth, might better wear their heads, Than some, that have accus'd them, wear their hats. But come, my lord, let's away. Enter a Pursuivant. RATCLIFF, with a Guard, conducting RIVERS, GREY, and VAUGHAN, to Execution. Rat. Come, bring forth the prisoners. Riv. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this,To-day, shalt thou behold a subject die, For truth, for duty, and for loyalty. Grey. God keep the prince from all the pack of you! A knot you are of damned blood-suckers. hereafter. Rat. Despatch; the limit of your lives is out. Riv. 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 hack'd to death And, for more slander to thy dismal seat, We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink. Grey. Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon our heads, When she exclaim'd on Hastings, you, and I, For standing by when Richard stabb'd her son. Riv. Then curs'd she Hastings, then curs'd sho Buckingham, Then curs'd she Richard :-0, remember, God, To hear her prayers for them, as now for us! 8 Confession. 9 Queen Elizabeth Grey is deservedly pitied for the loss of her two sons; but the royalty of their birth has so engrossed the attention of historians, that they never reckon into the number of her misfortunes the murder of this her second son, Sir Richard Grey. It is remarkable how slightly the death of Earl Rivers is always mentioned, though a man invested with such high offices of trust and dignity; and how much we dwell on the execution of the lord chamberlain Hastings, a man in every light his inferior. In truth, the generality draw their ideas of English story from the tragic rather than the historic authors.-Walpole. 10 The limit for the limited time. And for my sister, and her princely sons,- Farewell, until we meet again in heaven. [Exeunt. Buck. We know each other's faces; for our He knows no more of mine, than I of yours; Enter GLOSTER. Ely. In happy time, here comes the duke himself. row: I have been long a sleeper; but, I trust, His lordship knows me well, and loves me well.- you. Glo. Cousin of Buckingham, a word with That he will lose his head, ere give consent, Ely. Where is my lord protector? I have sent Hast. His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this There's some conceit or other likes him well, Hast. Marry, that with no man here he is of For, were he, he had shown it in his looks. Re-enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM, Hast. The tender love I bear your grace, my lord, Glo. Then be your eyes the witness of their evil, lord, Glo. If thou protector of this damned strumpet, [Exeunt Council, with GLO. and BUCK. 1 We have this word in the saine sense again in ix of the clocke, saluting them curtesly, and excusing Shakspeare's twenty-second Sonnet : Then look I death my days should expiate. I cannot but think with Steevens that it is an error of the press for expirute. 2 Dr. John Morton, who was elected to the see of Ely in 1479. He was advanced to the see of Canterbury in 1486, and appointed lord chancellor in 1487. He died in the year 1500. This prelate first devised the scheme of putting an end to the long contests between the houses of York and Lancaster, by a marriage between Henry earl of Richmond, and Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Edward IV.; and was a principal agent in procuring Henry, when abroad, to enter into a covenant for the purpose.-See More's Life of Richard III. 3 The only thing wanting is appointment of a particular day for the ceremony. 4 Intimate, confidential. 5 See note on Hamlet, Act ii. Sc. 2. 6 This circumstance of asking the bishop for some of his strawberries seems to have been mentioned by the old historians merely to show the unusual affability and good humour which the dissembling Gloster affected at the very time he had determined on the death of Hastings. It originates with Sir Thomas More, who menBone the protector's entrance to the council 'fyrste about himself that he had ben from them so long, sajeng merily that he had been a slepe that day. And after a little talking with them he said unto the bishop of Elye, my lord, you have very good strawberries at your gar dayne in Holberne, I require you let us have a messe of them.' It is remarkable that this bishop (Morton) is supposed to have furnished Sir Thomas More with the materials of his history, if he was not the original au thor of it. See Preface to More's Life of Richard III. ed. 1821. 7 i. e. semblance, appearance. 8 For foot-cloth see note on King Henry VI. Part 2. Act iv. Sc. 7. A foot-cloth horse was a paffrey covered with such housings, used for state; and was the usual mode of conveyance for the rich, at a period when carriages were unknown. This is from Holinshed, who copies Sir Thomas More: In riding toward the Tower the same morning in which he [Hastings] was beheaded, his horse twice or thrice stumbled with him, almost to the falling; which thing, albeit each man wot well daily happeneth to them to whome no such mischance is toward: yet hath it beene of an old rite and custome observed as a token oftentimes notablie foregoing some great misfortune. As too triumphing, how mine enemies, Make a short shrift, he longs to see your head. Lov. Come, come, despatch; 'tis bootless to ex- Hast. O, bloody Richard !-miserable England! [Exeunt. SCENE V. The Same. The Tower Walls. Enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM, in rusty arand marvellous ill-favoured. mour, Glo. Come, cousin, canst thou quake, and change Murder thy breath in middle of a word,- As if thou wert distraught, and mad with terror? Glo. He is; and, see, he brings the mayor along. Enter the Lord Mayor and CATESBY. Enter LovEL and RATCLIFF,4 with HASTINGS's Glo. Be patient, they are friends; Ratcliff, and Lov. Here is the head of that ignoble traitor, So smooth he danb'd his vice with show of virtue, 1 'Nescius auræ fallacis.'-Horace. William Lord Hastings was beheaded on the 13th of June, 1493. His eldest son by Catherine Neville, daughter of Richard Neville, earl of Salisbury, and widow of William Lord Bonville, was restored to his honours and estate by King Henry VII. in the first year of his reign. The daughter of Lady Hastings, by her first husband, was married to the marquis of Dorset, who appears in the present play. 2 Those who now smile at me shall shortly be dead themselves. 3 i. e. pretending 4 The quarto has Enter Cateshy with Hastings's head. For this absurd alteration, by which Ratcliff is represented at Pomfret and in London at the same time, it is probable the editors of the folio have to answer. Buck. Well, well, he was the covert'st shelter'd traitor That ever liv'd.-Look you, my lord mayor, Glo. What! think you we are Turks, or infi- Or that we would, against the form of law, May. Now, fair befall you! he deserv'd his death: Buck. Yet had we not determin'd he should die, Misconstrue us in him, and wail his death. serve, As well as I had seen, and heard him speak: To avoid the censures of the carping world. Glo. Go after, after, cousin Buckingham. Even where his lustful eye, or savage heart, Buck. Doubt not, my lord; I'll play the orator, 5 i. e. familiar intercourse: what is now called 'criminal conversation.' 6 Too late of our intent. In common speech a similar phrase is sometimes used; viz. to come short of a thing. Mason would have changed of to for. 7 This person was one Walker, a substantial citizen and grocer, at the Crown in Cheapside. These topics of Edward's cruelty, lust, unlawful marriage, &c. are enlarged upon in that most extraordinary invective, the petition presented to Richard before his accession, which was afterwards turned into an act of parliament. Parl. Hist. 2. p. 396. See also the duke of Buckingham's speech to the citizens in More's History, as copied by the Chronicles. As if the golden fee, for which I plead, Where you shall find me well accompanied, [Exit BUCKINGHAM. Which in a set hand fairly is engross'd, (Exit. SCENE VII. The same. Court of Baynard's Castle. Enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM, meeting. Glo. How now, how now? what say the citizens? Buck. Now by the holy mother of our Lord, The citizens are mum, say not a word. Glo. Touch'd you the bastardy of Edward's children? Buck. I did; with his contract with Lady Lucy,' And his contract by deputy in France: The insatiate greediness of his desires, And his enforcement of the city wives; His tyranny for trifles; his own bastardy,As being got, your father then in France;" And his resemblance, being not like the duke, Withal, I did infer your lineaments,Being the right idea of your father, 1 Baynard's Castle was originally built by Baynard, a nobleman who (according to Stowe) came in with the conqueror. It had belonged to Richard duke of York, but was now Edward the Fifth's. This edifice, which stood in Thames Street, has been long pulled down; it is said that parts of its strong foundations may be seen at low water. 2 Edward Earl of Warwick, who, the day after the battle of Bosworth, was sent by Richard from his confinement at Sheriff-Hutton Castle to the Tower, without even the shadow of an allegation against him, and who was afterwards cruelly sacrificed to a scruple of Ferdinand king of Spain, who was unwilling to marry his daughter Katharine to Arthur prince of Wales while he lived, conceiving that his claim might interfere with Arthur's succession to the crown. He was beheaded in 1499. Margaret, afterwards married to Sir Richard Pole, the last princess of the house of Lancaster, who was restored in blood in the fifth year of Henry VIII. and afterwards, in the thirty-first year of his reign (1540,] barbarously led to the block at the age of seventy, for some offence conceived at the conduct of her son Cardinal Pole. 3 i. e. the original draft from which the engrossment was made. This circumstance, like the others, in the play, is taken from Holinshed, who follows Sir Thomas More. 4 i. e. seen in silence, without notice or detection. 5 The king had been familiar with this lady before his marriage, to obstruct which his mother alleged a precontract between them. But Elizabeth Lucy, being worn to speak the truth, declared that the king had not been affianced to her, though she owned she had been Both in your form and nobleness of mind: Buck. No, so God help me, they spake not a word; Glo. What tongueless blocks were they: Would they not speak? Will not the mayor then, and his brethren, come? Buck. The mayor is here at hand; intends some fear; Be not you spoke with, but by mighty suit: Enter, from the Castle, CATESBY. Now, Catesby! what ys your lord to my request? Cate. He doth entreat your grace, my noble lord, To visit him to-morrow, or next day: He is within, with two right reverend fathers, his concubine. Edward, however, had been married to Lady Eleanor Butler, widow of Lord Butler of Sudely, and daughter to the great earl of Shrewsbury. On this ground his children were declared illegitimate by the only parliament assembled by King Richard III.; but no mention was made of Elizabeth Lucy. 6 This tale is supposed to have been first propagated by the duke of Clarence when he obtained a settlement of the crown on himself and his issue after the death of Henry VI. Sir Thomas More says that the duke of Gloster,soon after Edward's death,revived this scandal. Walpole thinks it highly improbable that Richard should have urged such a topic to the people, or start doubts of his own legitimacy, which was too much connected with that of his brothers, to be tossed and bandied about before the multitude.' He has also shown that Richard lived in perfect harmony with his mother, and lodged with her in her palace at this very time.'-Historic Doubts, 4to. 1768. 7 It would not be difficult (says Mr. Reed) to fill whole pages with instances to prove that statue was formerly a word of three syllables; and there are several passages in Shakspeare where it is necessary so to pronounce it. It has been thought advisable in these instances to adhere to the old orthography, statua, which distinguishes it as a trisyllable, as in the present instance. 8 Pretend. 9 Buckingham is to plead for the citizens; and if (says Richard) you speak for them as plausibly as I in my own person, or for my own purposes shall seem to deny your suit, there is no doubt we shall bring all to a happy issue. |