William Shakespeare - KING RICHARD III

By the suggestion of the queen’s allies;

But now, I tell thee,—keep it to thyself,—

This day those enemies are put to death,

And I in better state than e’er I was.

PURSUIVANT

God hold it, to your honour’s good content!

HASTINGS

Gramercy, fellow: there, drink that for me.

[Throwing him his purse.]

PURSUIVANT

I thank your honour.

[Exit.]

[Enter a PRIEST.]

PRIEST

Well met, my lord; I am glad to see your honour.

HASTINGS

I thank thee, good Sir John, with all my heart.

I am in your debt for your last exercise;

Come the next Sabbath, and I will content you.

[Enter BUCKINGHAM.]

BUCKINGHAM

What, talking with a priest, lord chamberlain!

Your friends at Pomfret, they do need the priest;

Your honour hath no shriving work in hand.

HASTINGS

Good faith, and when I met this holy man,

The men you talk of came into my mind.—

What, go you toward the Tower?

BUCKINGHAM

I do, my lord, but long I cannot stay there;

I shall return before your lordship thence.

HASTINGS

Nay, like enough, for I stay dinner there.

BUCKINGHAM

[Aside]

And supper too, although thou knowest it not.—

Come, will you go?

HASTINGS

I’ll wait upon your lordship.

[Exeunt.]

[Enter RATCLIFF, with Guard, conducting RIVERS, GREY, and VAUGHAN to execution.]

RIVERS

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 bless the prince from all the pack of you!

A knot you are of damnèd blood-suckers.

VAUGHAN

You live that shall cry woe for this hereafter

.

RATCLIFF

Despatch; the limit of your lives is out.

RIVERS

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 to thee 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.

RIVERS

Then curs’d she Richard, then curs’d she Buckingham,

Then curs’d she Hastings:—O, remember, God,

To hear her prayer for them, as now for us!

And for my sister, and her princely sons,

Be satisfied, dear God, with our true blood,

Which, as Thou know’st, unjustly must be spilt.

RATCLIFF

Make haste; the hour of death is expiate.

RIVERS

Come, Grey;—come, Vaughan;—let us here embrace.

Farewell, until we meet again in heaven.

[Exeunt.]

[BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, the BISHOP of ELY, RATCLIFF, LOVEL, and others sitting at a table: Officers of the Council attending.]

HASTINGS

Now, noble peers, the cause why we are met

Is to determine of the coronation.

In God’s name speak,—when is the royal day?

BUCKINGHAM

Are all things ready for that royal time?

STANLEY

Thery are, and wants but nomination.

ELY

Tomorrow, then, I judge a happy day.

BUCKINGHAM

Who knows the lord protector’s mind herein?

Who is most inward with the noble duke?

ELY

Your grace, we think, should soonest know his mind.

BUCKINGHAM

We know each other’s faces: for our hearts,

He knows no more of mine than I of yours;

Or I of his, my lord, than you of mine.—

Lord Hastings, you and he are near in love.

HASTINGS

I thank his grace, I know he loves me well;

But for his purpose in the coronation

I have not sounded him, nor he deliver’d

His gracious pleasure any way therein:

But you, my honourable lords, may name the time;

And in the duke’s behalf I’ll give my voice,

Which, I presume, he’ll take in gentle part.

ELY

In happy time, here comes the duke himself.

[Enter GLOSTER.]

GLOSTER

My noble lords and cousins all, good morrow.

I have been long a sleeper; but I trust

My absence doth neglect no great design

Which by my presence might have been concluded.

BUCKINGHAM

Had you not come upon your cue, my lord,

William Lord Hastings had pronounc’d your part,—

I mean, your voice,—for crowning of the king.

GLOSTER

Than my Lord Hastings no man might be bolder;

His lordship knows me well and loves me well.—

My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn

I saw good strawberries in your garden there:

I do beseech you send for some of them.

ELY

Marry, and will, my lord, with all my heart.

[Exit.]

GLOSTER

Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you.

[Takes him aside.]

Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business,

And finds the testy gentleman so hot

That he will lose his head ere give consent

His master’s child, as worshipfully he terms it,

Shall lose the royalty of England’s throne.

BUCKINGHAM

Withdraw yourself awhile; I’ll go with you.

[Exeunt GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM.]

STANLEY

We have not yet set down this day of triumph.

Tomorrow, in my judgment, is too sudden;

For I myself am not so well provided

As else I would be, were the day prolong’d.

[Re-enter BISHOP OF ELY.]

ELY

Where is my lord the Duke of Gloster?

I have sent for these strawberries.

HASTINGS

His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning;

There’s some conceit or other likes him well

When that he bids good morrow with such spirit.

I think there’s ne’er a man in Christendom

Can lesser hide his love or hate than he;

For by his face straight shall you know his heart.

STANLEY

What of his heart perceive you in his face

By any livelihood he showed to-day?

HASTINGS

Marry, that with no man here he is offended;

For, were he, he had shown it in his looks.

[Re-enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM.]

GLOSTER

I pray you all, tell me what they deserve

That do conspire my death with devilish plots

Of damnèd witchcraft, and that have prevail’d

Upon my body with their hellish charms?

HASTINGS

The tender love I bear your grace, my lord,

Makes me most forward in this princely presence

To doom the offenders: whosoe’er they be.

I say, my lord, they have deservèd death.

GLOSTER

Then be your eyes the witness of their evil:

Look how I am bewitch’d; behold, mine arm

Is, like a blasted sapling, wither’d up:

And this is Edward’s wife, that monstrous witch,

Consorted with that harlot-strumpet Shore,

That by their witchcraft thus have markèd me.

HASTINGS

If they have done this deed, my noble lord,—

GLOSTER

If!—thou protector of this damnèd strumpet,

Talk’st thou to me of “ifs”?—Thou art a traitor:—

Off with his head!—now, by Saint Paul I swear,

I will not dine until I see the same.—

Lovel and Ratcliff:—look that it be done:—

The rest, that love me, rise and follow me.

[Exeunt all except HASTINGS, LOVEL, and RATCLIFF.]

HASTINGS

Woe, woe, for England! not a whit for me;

For I, too fond, might have prevented this.

Stanley did dream the boar did raze his helm;

And I did scorn it, and disdain to fly.

Three times to-day my footcloth horse did stumble,

And started, when he look’d upon the Tower,

As loth to bear me to the slaughterhouse.