Richard III (15 page)

Welcome, my lord. I
dance attendance
⁵⁵
here:

I think the duke will not be spoke withal.

Now, Catesby, what says your lord to my request.

CATESBY
    He doth entreat your grace, my noble lord,

To visit him tomorrow or next day:

He is within, with two right reverend fathers,

Divinely
bent
⁶¹
to meditation,

And in no worldly
suits
⁶²
would he be moved,

To draw him from his holy
exercise.
⁶³

BUCKINGHAM
    Return, good Catesby, to the gracious duke:

Tell him myself, the Mayor and Alderman,

In
deep
designs, in matter of great
moment
⁶⁶
,

No less importing
⁶⁷
than our general good,

Are come to have some conference with his grace.

CATESBY
    I’ll signify so much unto him straight.

BUCKINGHAM
    Ah, ha, my lord, this prince is not an Edward!

He is not
lulling
⁷¹
on a lewd love-bed,

But on his knees at meditation:

Not
dallying
with a
brace
⁷³
of courtesans,

But meditating with two
deep
divines
⁷⁴
:

Not sleeping, to
engross
⁷⁵
his idle body,

But praying, to enrich his
watchful
⁷⁶
soul.

Happy
⁷⁷
were England, would this virtuous prince

Take on
his grace
⁷⁸
the sovereignty thereof:

But sure I fear we shall not win him to it.

MAYOR
    Marry, God
defend
⁸⁰
his grace should say us nay!

BUCKINGHAM
    I fear he will. — Here Catesby comes again.

Now, Catesby, what says his grace?

CATESBY
    He wonders to what end you have assembled

Such troops of citizens to come to him,

His grace not being warned thereof before.

He fears, my lord, you mean no good to him.

BUCKINGHAM
    Sorry I am my noble cousin should

Suspect me that I mean no good to him.

By heaven, we come to him in
perfect
⁸⁹
love,

And so once more return and tell his grace.

When holy and devout religious men

Are at their
beads
⁹²
, ’tis hard to draw them thence,

So sweet is
zealous
⁹³
contemplation.

MAYOR
    See, where his grace stands ’tween two clergymen.

BUCKINGHAM
    Two
props
⁹⁵
of virtue for a Christian prince,

To
stay
⁹⁶
him from the fall of vanity:

And, see, a book of prayer in his hand,

True ornaments to know a holy man.—

Famous Plantagenet, most gracious prince,

Lend favourable ear to our requests,

And pardon us the interruption

Of thy devotion and
right
¹⁰²
Christian zeal.

RICHARD
    My lord, there needs no such apology:

I do beseech your grace to pardon me,

Who, earnest in the service of my God,

Deferred the
visitation
¹⁰⁶
of my friends.

But, leaving this, what is your grace’s pleasure?

BUCKINGHAM
    Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above,

And all good men of this ungoverned isle.

RICHARD
    I do suspect I have done some offence

That seems
disgracious
¹¹¹
in the city’s eye,

And that you come to
reprehend my ignorance.
¹¹²

BUCKINGHAM
    You have, my lord: would it might please your grace,

On our entreaties, to amend your fault.

RICHARD
    
Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land?
¹¹⁵

BUCKINGHAM
    Know then, it is your fault that you resign

The supreme seat, the throne majestical,

The
sceptred
¹¹⁸
office of your ancestors,

Your
state
of fortune
¹¹⁹
and your due of birth,

The
lineal
¹²⁰
glory of your royal house,

To the corruption of a
blemished
stock
¹²¹
;

Whiles, in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts,

Which here we waken to our country’s good,

The noble isle doth
want
his
proper
¹²⁴
limbs:

His face defaced with scars of
infamy
¹²⁵
,

His royal stock
graft
with ignoble
plants
¹²⁶
,

And almost
shouldered
in the swallowing
gulf
¹²⁷

Of dark forgetfulness and deep oblivion.

Which to
recure
¹²⁹
, we heartily solicit

Your gracious self to take on you the charge

And kingly government of this your land —

Not as Protector, steward, substitute,

Or lowly
factor
¹³³
for another’s gain;

But as
successively
¹³⁴
from blood to blood,

Your right of birth, your
empery
¹³⁵
, your own.

For this,
consorted
¹³⁶
with the citizens,

Your very
worshipful
¹³⁷
and loving friends,

And by their vehement instigation,

In this just cause come I to
move
¹³⁹
your grace.

RICHARD
    I cannot tell if to depart in silence,

Or bitterly to speak in your reproof

Best firteth my
degree
or your
condition.
¹⁴²

If
not to
answer, you might
haply
¹⁴³
think

Tongue-tied ambition, not replying,
yielded
¹⁴⁴

To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty,

Which
fondly
¹⁴⁶
you would here impose on me.

If to reprove you for this suit of yours,

So seasoned with your faithful love to me,

Then on the other side I
checked
¹⁴⁹
my friends.

Therefore, to speak, and to avoid the first,

And then, in speaking, not to incur the last,

Definitively thus I answer you:

Your love deserves my thanks, but my
desert
¹⁵³

Unmeritable shuns your high request.

First, if all obstacles were
cut away
¹⁵⁵
,

And that my path were
even
¹⁵⁶
to the crown,

As the ripe
revenue
¹⁵⁷
and due of birth,

Yet so much is my poverty of spirit,

So mighty and so many my defects,

That I would rather hide me from my
greatness
¹⁶⁰
—

Being a
bark
to
brook
¹⁶¹
no mighty sea —

Than
in my greatness covet to be hid
¹⁶²
,

And in the
vapour
¹⁶³
of my glory smothered.

But, God be thanked, there is no need of me,

And
much I need
¹⁶⁵
to help you, were there need.

The
royal tree
¹⁶⁶
hath left us royal fruit,

Which,
mellowed
by the
stealing
¹⁶⁷
hours of time,

Will well
become
the
seat
¹⁶⁸
of majesty,

And make, no doubt, us happy by his reign.

On him I lay
that
¹⁷⁰
you would lay
on me,

The right and fortune of his
happy
¹⁷¹
stars,

Which God
defend
that I should
wring
¹⁷²
from him!

BUCKINGHAM
    My lord, this
argues
¹⁷³
conscience in your grace,

But the
respects thereof
are
nice
¹⁷⁴
and trivial,

All circumstances well considerèd.

You say that Edward is your brother’s son:

So say we too, but not by Edward’s wife,

For first was he
contract to Lady Lucy —
¹⁷⁸

Your mother lives a witness to his vow —

And afterward by
substitute
¹⁸⁰
betrothed

To Bona,
sister
¹⁸¹
to the King of France.

These both put off, a poor
petitioner
¹⁸²
,

A
care-crazed
¹⁸³
mother to a many sons,

A beauty-waning and distressèd widow,

Even in the afternoon of her best days,

Made prize and
purchase
of his
wanton
¹⁸⁶
eye,

Seduced the
pitch
¹⁸⁷
and height of his degree

To
base declension
and loathed
bigamy.
¹⁸⁸

By her, in his unlawful bed, he got

This Edward, whom
our manners
¹⁹⁰
call the prince.

More bitterly could I
expostulate
¹⁹¹
,

Save that, for reverence to
some alive
¹⁹²
,

I give a
sparing
¹⁹³
limit to my tongue.

Then, good my lord, take to your royal self

This proffered
benefit
of
dignity
¹⁹⁵
:

If not to bless us and the land withal,

Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry

From the corruption of abusing times,

Unto a lineal
true-derivèd
¹⁹⁹
course.

MAYOR
    Do, good my lord: your citizens entreat you.

BUCKINGHAM
    Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffered love.

CATESBY
    O, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit!

RICHARD
    Alas, why would you heap this
care
²⁰³
on me?

I am unfit for state and majesty.

I do beseech you, take it not amiss:

I cannot nor I will not yield to you.

BUCKINGHAM
    If you refuse it —
as
, in love and
zeal
²⁰⁷
,

Loath to depose the child, your brother’s son,

As well we know your tenderness of heart

And gentle, kind,
effeminate
²¹⁰
remorse,

Which we have noted in you to your kindred

And equally indeed to all
estates
²¹²
—

Yet know, whe’er you accept our suit or no,

Your brother’s son shall never reign our king,

But we will plant some other in the throne

To the disgrace and downfall of your house:

And in this resolution here we leave you.—

Come citizens, we will entreat no more.

CATESBY
    Call him again, sweet prince. Accept their suit.

If you deny them all the land will rue it.

RICHARD
    Will you enforce me to a world of cares?

Call them again. I am not made of stones,

But penetrable to your kind entreaties,

Albeit against my conscience and my soul.

Cousin of Buckingham, and sage, grave men,

Since you will
buckle
fortune on
my back
²²⁶
,

To bear her burden, whe’er I will or no,

I must have patience to endure the load:

But if black scandal or foul-faced reproach

Attend the
sequel
²³⁰
of your imposition,

Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
²³¹

From all the impure blots and stains thereof;

For God doth know, and you may partly see,

How far I am from the desire of this.

MAYOR
    God bless your grace! We see it and will say it.

RICHARD
    In saying so, you shall but say the truth.

BUCKINGHAM
    Then I salute you with this royal title:

Long live King Richard, England’s worthy king!

ALL
    Amen.

BUCKINGHAM
    Tomorrow may it please you to be crowned?

RICHARD
    
Even
²⁴¹
when you please, for you will have it so.

BUCKINGHAM
    Tomorrow, then, we will attend your grace.

And so most joyfully we take our leave.