Buck. With what a sharp provided wit he reasons! So cunning, and so young, is wonderful. Glo. Shall we hear from you,Catesby,ere we sleep? both. Glo. At Crosby-place, there shall you find us Lord Hastings will not yield to our complots? Glo. My gracious lord, will't please you pass along? And, look, when I am king, claim thou of me The earldom of Hereford, and all the movables Buck. I'll claim that promise at your grace's hand. 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, Be thou so too; and so break off the talk, Glo. Commend me to Lord William: tell him, Catesby, 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. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Before Lord Hastings' House. Mess. My lord, my lord,— [Knocking. Who knocks? Enter HASTINGS. Hast.Cannot thy master sleep these tedious nights? First, he commends him to your noble lordship. Mess. So it should seem by that I have to say. Host. And then, Mess. And then he sends you word, he dreamt Which may make you and him to rue at the other. sure, If presently, you will take horse with him, Hast. Go, fellow, go, return unto thy lord; Enter CATESBY. [Exit. 5 Every material circumstance in this scene is from Holinshed, except that n 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 de. Hastings, then lord chamberlaine, with many other no-scribe the violence inflicted by a boar. By the hoar, 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 two several councels Holinshed, from Sir T. Mere. 7 This was the usual address to noblemen in Shak speare's time; it was indifferently used with your lord ship. See any old letter or dedication of that age. 8 Instance is here put for motivez cause. 9 Weak, silly. Hast. I'll have this crown of mine cut from my 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, Cute. Ay, on my life; and hopes to find you for- Then I was going prisoner to the Tower, Upon his party, for the gain thereof: And, thereupon, he sends you this good news,- Cute. God keep your lordship in that gracious 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, Cate. "Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord, Hast. O monstrous, monstrous! and so falls it out Cate. The princes both make high account of you, 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,1 I do not like these several councils, I. By the suggestion of the queen's allies; Buck. What, talking with a priest, lord chamber- Your friends at Pomfret, they do need the priest; Hast. 'Good faith, and when I met this holy man, Buck. I do, my lord; but long I cannot stay not. I shall return before your lordship thence. 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.-Wot you 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, Rat. Come, bring forth the prisoners. Grey. God keep the prince from all the pack of A knot you are of damned blood-suckers. hereafter. Rat. Despatch; the lirait of your lives is out. When she exclaim'd on Hastings, you, and I, Then curs'd she Richard :-O, remember, God, 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 remark. able 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 exc cution 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. D Buck. We know each other's faces; for our hearts, He knows no more of mine, than I of yours; Enter GLOSTER. Ely. In happy time, here comes the duke himself. Glo. My noble lords and cousins, all, good mor row: I have been long a sleeper; but, I trust, His lordship knows me well, and loves me well.— That he will lose his head, ere give consent, To-morrow, in my judgment, is too sudden; Ely. Where is my lord protector? I have sent For these strawberries. Hast. His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning; There's some conceit or other likes him well, Hast. Marry, that with no man here he is of fended; For, were he, he had shown it in his looks. Re-enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM. Glo. I pray you all, tell me what they deserve That do conspire my death with devilish plots Of damned witchcraft, and that have prevail'd Upon my body with their hellish charins? Hast. The tender love I bear your grace, my lord, Makes me most forward in this noble presence To doom the offenders: Whosoe'er they be, I say, my lord, they have deserved death. Glo. 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 marked me. Hast. If they have done this deed, my noble lord, Glo. If thou protector of this damned 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 Catesby, look, that it be done; The rest that love me, rise, and follow me. [Exeunt Council, with GLO. and BUCK. Hast. Woe, woe, for England! not a whit for me; For 1, too fond, might have prevented this: Stanley did dream the boar did raise his helm; But I disdain'd it, and did scorn to fly. Three times to-day my foot-cloth horse did stumble, And startled, when he look'd upon the Tower, As loath to bear me to the slaughter-house. O, now I want the priest that spake to me: I now repent I told the pursuivant, 1 We have this word in the same 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 expirate. 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 partieular 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 mentions the protector's entrance to the council fyrste about himself that he had ben from them so long, saieng me rily 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 car. riages were unknown. This is from Holinshed, who copies Sir Thomae 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 misfor tune.' |