William Shakespeare - KING RICHARD III

God keep you from them and from such false friends!

PRINCE

God keep me from false friends! but they were none.

GLOSTER

My lord, the mayor of London comes to greet you.

[Enter the LORD MAYOR and his train.]

MAYOR

God bless your grace with health and happy days!

PRINCE

I thank you, good my lord;—and thank you all.

[Exeunt MAYOR, &c.]

I thought my mother and my brother York

Would long ere this have met us on the way:

Fie, what a slug is Hastings, that he comes not

To tell us whether they will come or no!

BUCKINGHAM

And, in good time, here comes the sweating lord.

[Enter HASTINGS.]

PRINCE

Welcome, my lord: what, will our mother come?

HASTINGS

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.

BUCKINGHAM

Fie, 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.

CARDINAL

My Lord of Buckingham, if my weak oratory

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 blessèd sanctuary! not for all this land

Would I be guilty of so deep a sin.

BUCKINGHAM

You are too senseless-obstinate, my lord,

Too ceremonious and traditional:

Weigh it but with the grossness of this age,

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.

CARDINAL

My lord, you shall o’errule my mind for once.—

Come on, Lord Hastings, will you go with me?

HASTINGS

I go, my lord.

PRINCE

Good lords, make all the speedy haste you may.

[Exeunt CARDINAL and HASTINGS.]

Say, uncle Gloster, if our brother come,

Where shall we sojourn till our coronation?

GLOSTER

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 shall 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?

BUCKINGHAM

He did, my gracious lord, begin that place;

Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified.

PRINCE

Is it upon recórd, or else reported

Successively from age to age, he built it?

BUCKINGHAM

Upon recórd, my gracious lord.

PRINCE

But say, my lord, it were not register’d,

Methinks the truth should live from age to age,

As ‘twere retail’d to all posterity,

Even to the general all-ending day.

GLOSTER

[Aside]

So wise so young, they say, do never live long.

PRINCE

What say you, uncle?

GLOSTER

I say, without characters, fame lives long.—

[Aside]

Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,

I moralize two meanings in one word.

PRINCE

That Julius Caesar was a famous man;

With what his valour did enrich his wit,

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,—

BUCKINGHAM

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.

GLOSTER

[Aside]

Short summers lightly have a forward spring.

BUCKINGHAM

Now, in good time, here comes the Duke of York.

[Enter YORK, HASTINGS, and the CARDINAL.]

PRINCE

Richard of York! how fares our loving brother?

YORK

Well, my dread lord; so must I call you now.

PRINCE

Ay brother,—to our grief, as it is yours:

Too late he died that might have kept that title,

Which by his death hath lost much majesty.

GLOSTER

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.

GLOSTER

He hath, my lord.

YORK

And therefore is he idle?

GLOSTER

O, my fair cousin, I must not say so.

YORK

Then he is more beholding to you than I.

GLOSTER

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.

GLOSTER

My dagger, little 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.

GLOSTER

A greater gift than that I’ll give my cousin.

YORK

A greater gift! O, that’s the sword to it!

GLOSTER

Ay, gentle cousin, were it light enough.

YORK

O, then, I see you will part but with light gifts;

In weightier things you’ll say a beggar nay.

GLOSTER

It is too heavy for your grace to wear.

YORK

I weigh it lightly, were it heavier.

GLOSTER

What, would you have my weapon, little lord?

YORK

I would, that I might thank you as you call me.

GLOSTER

How?

YORK

Little.

PRINCE

My Lord of York will still be cross in talk:—

Uncle, your grace knows how to bear with him.

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 shoulders.

BUCKINGHAM

With what a sharp-provided wit he reasons!

To mitigate the scorn he gives his uncle,

He prettily and aptly taunts himself:

So cunning and so young is wonderful.

GLOSTER

My lord, wil’t please you pass along?

Myself and my good cousin Buckingham

Will to your mother, to entreat of her

To meet you at the Tower and welcome you.

YORK

What, will you go unto the Tower, my lord?

PRINCE

My lord protector needs will have it so.

YORK

I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower.

GLOSTER

Why, what should you fear?

YORK

Marry, my uncle Clarence’ angry ghost:

My grandam told me he was murder’d there.

PRINCE

I fear no uncles dead.

GLOSTER

Nor none that live, I hope.

PRINCE

An if they live, I hope I need not fear.

But come, my lord; and with a heavy heart,

Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower.

[Sennet. Exeunt PRINCE, YORK, HASTINGS, CARDINAL, and Attendants.]

BUCKINGHAM

Think you, my lord, this little prating York

Was not incensèd by his subtle mother

To taunt and scorn you thus opprobriously?

GLOSTER

No doubt, no doubt: O, ‘tis a parlous boy;

Bold, quick, ingenious, forward, capable:

He is all the mother’s, from the top to toe.

BUCKINGHAM

Well, let them rest.—Come hither, Catesby.