Complete Plays, The (302 page)

Buckingham

Good Catesby, go, effect this business soundly.

Catesby

My good lords both, with all the heed I may.

Gloucester

Shall we hear from you, Catesby, ere we sleep?

Catesby

You shall, my lord.

Gloucester

At Crosby Place, there shall you find us both.

Exit Catesby

Buckingham

Now, my lord, what shall we do, if we perceive
Lord Hastings will not yield to our complots?

Gloucester

Chop off his head, man; somewhat we will do:
And, look, when I am king, claim thou of me
The earldom of Hereford, and the moveables
Whereof the king my brother stood possess’d.

Buckingham

I’ll claim that promise at your grace’s hands.

Gloucester

And look to have it yielded with all willingness.
Come, let us sup betimes, that afterwards
We may digest our complots in some form.

Exeunt

S
CENE
II. B
EFORE
L
ORD
H
ASTINGS
’
HOUSE
.

Enter a Messenger

Messenger

What, ho! my lord!

Hastings

[Within]
 
Who knocks at the door?

Messenger

A messenger from the Lord Stanley.

Enter Hastings

Hastings

What is’t o’clock?

Messenger

Upon the stroke of four.

Hastings

Cannot thy master sleep these tedious nights?

Messenger

So it should seem by that I have to say.
First, he commends him to your noble lordship.

Hastings

And then?

Messenger

And then he sends you word
He dreamt to-night the boar had razed his helm:
Besides, he says there are two councils held;
And that may be determined at the one
Which may make you and him to rue at the other.
Therefore he sends to know your lordship’s pleasure,
If presently you will take horse with him,
And with all speed post with him toward the north,
To shun the danger that his soul divines.

Hastings

Go, fellow, go, return unto thy lord;
Bid him not fear the separated councils
His honour and myself are at the one,
And at the other is my servant Catesby
Where nothing can proceed that toucheth us
Whereof I shall not have intelligence.
Tell him his fears are shallow, wanting instance:
And for his dreams, I wonder he is so fond
To trust the mockery of unquiet slumbers
To fly the boar before the boar pursues,
Were to incense the boar to follow us
And make pursuit where he did mean no chase.
Go, bid thy master rise and come to me
And we will both together to the Tower,
Where, he shall see, the boar will use us kindly.

Messenger

My gracious lord, I’ll tell him what you say.

Exit

Enter Catesby

Catesby

Many good morrows to my noble lord!

Hastings

Good morrow, Catesby; you are early stirring
What news, what news, in this our tottering state?

Catesby

It is a reeling world, indeed, my lord;
And I believe twill never stand upright
Tim Richard wear the garland of the realm.

Hastings

How! wear the garland! dost thou mean the crown?

Catesby

Ay, my good lord.

Hastings

I’ll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders
Ere I will see the crown so foul misplaced.
But canst thou guess that he doth aim at it?

Catesby

Ay, on my life; and hopes to find forward
Upon his party for the gain thereof:
And thereupon he sends you this good news,
That this same very day your enemies,
The kindred of the queen, must die at Pomfret.

Hastings

Indeed, I am no mourner for that news,
Because they have been still mine enemies:
But, that I’ll give my voice on Richard’s side,
To bar my master’s heirs in true descent,
God knows I will not do it, to the death.

Catesby

God keep your lordship in that gracious mind!

Hastings

But I shall laugh at this a twelve-month hence,
That they who brought me in my master’s hate
I live to look upon their tragedy.
I tell thee, Catesby —

Catesby

What, my lord?

Hastings

Ere a fortnight make me elder,
I’ll send some packing that yet think not on it.

Catesby

’Tis a vile thing to die, my gracious lord,
When men are unprepared and look not for it.

Hastings

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.

Catesby

The princes both make high account of you;

Aside

For they account his head upon the bridge.

Hastings

I know they do; and I have well deserved it.

Enter Stanley

Come on, come on; where is your boar-spear, man?
Fear you the boar, and go so unprovided?

Stanley

My lord, good morrow; good morrow, Catesby:
You may jest on, but, by the holy rood,
I do not like these several councils, I.

Hastings

My lord,
I hold my life as dear as you do yours;
And never in my life, I do protest,
Was it more precious to me than ’tis now:
Think you, but that I know our state secure,
I would be so triumphant as I am?

Stanley

The lords at Pomfret, when they rode from London,
Were jocund, and supposed their state was sure,
And they indeed had no cause to mistrust;
But yet, you see how soon the day o’ercast.
This sudden stag of rancour I misdoubt:
Pray God, I say, I prove a needless coward!
What, shall we toward the Tower? the day is spent.

Hastings

Come, come, have with you. Wot you what, my lord?
To-day the lords you talk of are beheaded.

Lord Stanley

They, for their truth, might better wear their heads
Than some that have accused them wear their hats.
But come, my lord, let us away.

Enter a Pursuivant

Hastings

Go on before; I’ll talk with this good fellow.

Exeunt Stanley and Catesby

How now, sirrah! how goes the world with thee?

Pursuivant

The better that your lordship please to ask.

Hastings

I tell thee, man, ’tis better with me now
Than when I met thee last where now we meet:
Then was I going prisoner to the Tower,
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.

Throws him his purse

Pursuivant

God save your lordship!

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.

He whispers in his ear

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,
Those men you talk of came into my mind.
What, go you toward the Tower?

Buckingham

I do, my lord; but long I shall not stay
I shall return before your lordship thence.

Hastings

’Tis like enough, for I stay dinner there.

Buckingham

[Aside]
 
And supper too, although thou know’st it not.
Come, will you go?

Hastings

I’ll wait upon your lordship.

Exeunt

S
CENE
III. P
OMFRET
C
ASTLE
.

Enter Ratcliff, with halberds, carrying Rivers, Grey, and Vaughan to death

Ratcliff

Come, bring forth the prisoners.

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 keep the prince from all the pack of you!
A knot you are of damned blood-suckers!

Vaughan

You live that shall cry woe for this after.

Ratcliff

Dispatch; 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 thee up our guiltless blood to drink.

Grey

Now Margaret’s curse is fall’n upon our heads,
For standing by when Richard stabb’d her son.

Rivers

Then cursed she Hastings, then cursed she Buckingham,
Then cursed she Richard. O, remember, God
To hear her prayers 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 all embrace:
And take our leave, until we meet in heaven.

Exeunt

S
CENE
IV. T
HE
T
OWER
OF
L
ONDON
.

Enter Buckingham, Derby, Hastings, the Bishop Of Ely, Ratcliff, Lovel, with others, and take their seats at a table

Hastings

My lords, at once: 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 fitting for that royal time?

Derby

It is, and wants but nomination.

Bishop Of Ely

To-morrow, then, I judge a happy day.

Buckingham

Who knows the lord protector’s mind herein?
Who is most inward with the royal duke?

Bishop Of Ely

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

Buckingham

Who, I, my lord I we know each other’s faces,
But for our hearts, he knows no more of mine,
Than I of yours;
Nor I no more of his, 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 noble 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.

Enter Gloucester

Bishop Of Ely

Now in good time, here comes the duke himself.

Gloucester

My noble lords and cousins all, good morrow.
I have been long a sleeper; but, I hope,
My absence doth neglect no great designs,
Which by my presence might have been concluded.

Buckingham

Had not you come upon your cue, my lord
William Lord Hastings had pronounced your part,—
I mean, your voice,— for crowning of the king.

Gloucester

Than my Lord Hastings no man might be bolder;
His lordship knows me well, and loves me well.

Hastings

I thank your grace.

Gloucester

My lord of Ely!

Bishop Of Ely

My lord?

Gloucester

When I was last in Holborn,
I saw good strawberries in your garden there
I do beseech you send for some of them.

Bishop Of Ely

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

Exit

Gloucester

Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you.

Drawing him aside

Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business,
And finds the testy gentleman so hot,
As he will lose his head ere give consent
His master’s son, as worshipful as he terms it,
Shall lose the royalty of England’s throne.

Buckingham

Withdraw you hence, my lord, I’ll follow you.

Exit Gloucester, Buckingham following

Derby

We have not yet set down this day of triumph.
To-morrow, in mine opinion, 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

Bishop Of Ely

Where is my lord protector? I have sent for these strawberries.

Hastings

His grace looks cheerfully and smooth to-day;
There’s some conceit or other likes him well,
When he doth bid good morrow with such a spirit.
I think there’s never a man in Christendom
That can less hide his love or hate than he;
For by his face straight shall you know his heart.

Derby

What of his heart perceive you in his face
By any likelihood he show’d to-day?