Authors: William Shakespeare
To First Murderer
SECOND MURDERER
What shall we do?
CLARENCE
Relent, and save your souls.
Which of you, if you were a prince’s son,
Being
pent
255
from liberty, as I am now,
If two such murderers as yourselves came to you,
Would not entreat for life as you would beg,
Were you in my distress?
FIRST MURDERER
Relent? No: ’tis cowardly and womanish.
CLARENCE
Not to relent is
beastly
260
, savage, devilish.
To Second Murderer
My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks.
O, if thine eye be not a flatterer,
Come thou on my side, and entreat for me,
A begging prince what beggar pities not?
SECOND MURDERER
Look behind you, my lord.
FIRST MURDERER
Take that, and that: if all this will not do,
Stabs him
I’ll drown you in the malmsey-butt within.
Exit
[
with the body
]
SECOND MURDERER
A bloody deed, and
desperately dispatched.
268
How
fain
, like
Pilate, would I wash my hands
269
Of this most grievous murder!
Enter First Murderer
FIRST MURDERER
How now? What mean’st thou, that thou help’st me not?
By heaven, the duke shall know how slack you have been!
SECOND MURDERER
I would he knew that I had saved his brother.
Take thou the fee, and tell him what I say,
For I repent me that the duke is slain.
Exit
FIRST MURDERER
So do not I. Go, coward as thou art.
Well, I’ll go hide the body in some hole
Till that the duke give order for his burial.
And when I have my meed, I will away,
For this will
out
280
, and then I must not stay.
Exit
running scene 4
Flourish.
Enter the King, sick, the Queen, Lord Marquis Dorset, Rivers
,
Hastings, Catesby, Buckingham, Woodville
[
and others
]
KING EDWARD IV
Why, so. Now have I done a good day’s work.
You peers, continue this united league.
I every day expect an
embassage
3
From my redeemer to redeem me hence,
And more to peace my soul shall part to heaven,
Since I have made my friends at peace on earth.—
Dorset and Rivers, take each other’s hand:
Dissemble not
8
your hatred, swear your love.
RIVERS
By heaven, my soul is purged
from
9
grudging hate,
And with my hand I seal my
true
10
heart’s love.
Gives his hand to Hastings
HASTINGS
So
thrive
11
I, as I truly swear the like!
KING EDWARD IV
Take heed you
dally
12
not before your fking,
Lest he that is the supreme
king of kings
13
Confound
your hidden falsehood, and
award
14
Either of you to be the other’s
end.
15
HASTINGS
So prosper I, as I swear perfect love.
RIVERS
And I, as I love Hastings with my heart.
KING EDWARD IV
Madam, yourself is not exempt from this,
Nor you,
son
19
Dorset, Buckingham, nor you;
You have been
factious
20
one against the other.
Wife, love Lord Hastings: let him kiss your hand,
And what you do, do it
unfeignedly.
22
QUEEN ELIZABETH
There, Hastings, I will never more remember
Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine.
KING EDWARD IV
Dorset, embrace him.— Hastings, love Lord Marquis.
DORSET
This interchange of love, I here
protest
26
,
Upon my part shall be inviolable.
HASTINGS
And so swear I.
They embrace
KING EDWARD IV
Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league
With thy embracements to my wife’s
allies
30
,
And make me happy in your unity.
To the Queen
BUCKINGHAM
Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate
Upon your grace,
but with all duteous love
33
Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me
With hate in those where I expect most love.
When I have most need to employ a friend,
And most assurèd that he is a friend,
Deep
,
hollow
, treacherous, and full of
guile
38
Be he unto me. This do I beg of heaven,
When I am cold in love to you or yours.
Embrace
KING EDWARD IV
A pleasing
cordial
41
, princely Buckingham,
Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart.
There
wanteth
43
now our brother Gloucester here,
To make the blessèd
period
44
of this peace.
BUCKINGHAM
And,
in good time
45
,
Here comes Sir Richard Ratcliffe and the duke.
Enter Ratcliffe and
[
Richard, Duke of
]
Gloucester
RICHARD
Good
morrow
47
to my sovereign king and queen.
And, princely peers, a happy time of day!
KING EDWARD IV
Happy, indeed, as we have spent the day.
Gloucester, we have done deeds of charity,
Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate,
Between these
swelling
wrong-incensèd
52
peers.
RICHARD
A blessèd labour, my most sovereign lord.
Among this princely
heap
54
, if any here,
By false
intelligence
, or wrong
surmise
55
,
Hold me a foe, if I unwillingly, or in my rage,
Have aught committed that
is hardly borne
57
To any in this presence, I desire
To reconcile me to his friendly peace.
’Tis death to me to be at enmity:
I hate it, and desire all good men’s love.—
First, madam, I entreat true peace of you,
Which I will purchase with my duteous service.—
Of you, my noble cousin Buckingham,
If ever any grudge were lodged between us.—
Of you and you, Lord Rivers, and of Dorset,
That all without
desert
67
have frowned on me.—
Of you, Lord Woodville, and,
Lord Scales
68
, of you:
Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen, indeed, of all.
I do not know that Englishman alive
With whom my soul is any jot at odds
More than
the infant that is born tonight.
72
I thank my God for my humility.
QUEEN ELIZABETH
A holy day shall this be kept hereafter.
I would to God all strifes were
well compounded.
75
—
My sovereign lord, I do beseech your highness
To take our brother Clarence
to your grace.
77
RICHARD
Why, madam, have I offered love for this
To be so
flouted
79
in this royal presence?
Who knows not that the
gentle
80
duke is dead?
They all start
You do him injury to scorn his corpse.
KING EDWARD IV
Who knows not he is dead? Who knows he is?
QUEEN ELIZABETH
All-seeing heaven, what a world is this?
BUCKINGHAM
Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest?
DORSET
Ay, my good lord, and no man in the presence
But his red colour hath
forsook
86
his cheeks.
KING EDWARD IV
Is Clarence dead? The order was reversed.
RICHARD
But he, poor man, by your first order died,
And
that
a wingèd
Mercury
89
did bear:
Some
tardy
cripple
bare the countermand
90
,
That came too
lag
91
to see him burièd.
God grant that some, less noble and less loyal
92
,
Nearer in bloody thoughts, and not in blood,
Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did,
And yet
go current
95
from suspicion.
Enter
[
Lord Stanley
,]
Earl of Derby
Kneels
DERBY
A
boon
96
, my sovereign, for my service done.
KING EDWARD IV
I prithee peace. My soul is full of sorrow.
DERBY
I will not rise, unless your highness hear me.
KING EDWARD IV
Then say at once what is it thou requests.
Rises
DERBY
The
forfeit, sovereign, of my servant’s life
100
,
Who slew today a riotous gentleman
Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk.
KING EDWARD IV
Have I a tongue to
doom my brother’s death
103
,
And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave?
My brother killed no man: his fault was thought,
And yet his punishment was bitter death.
Who
sued
107
to me for him? Who, in my wrath,
Kneeled at my feet, and bid me
be advised?
108
Who spoke of brotherhood? Who spoke of love?
Who told me how the poor soul did
forsake
110
The mighty Warwick and did fight for me?
Who told me, in the
field
112
at Tewkesbury
When Oxford had me
down
113
, he rescued me,
And said, ‘Dear brother, live, and be a king’?
Who told me, when we both lay in the field,
Frozen almost to death, how he did
lap
116
me
Even in his garments, and did give himself,
All
thin
and naked, to the
numb
118
cold night?
All this from my
remembrance
119
brutish wrath
Sinfully plucked, and not a man of you
Had so much grace to put it in my mind.
But when your
carters
or your
waiting vassals
122
Have done a drunken slaughter, and
defaced
123
The precious image of our dear Redeemer,
You
straight
125
are on your knees for pardon, pardon,
And I, unjustly too, must grant it you.
But
127
for my brother not a man would speak,
Nor I,
ungracious
128
, speak unto myself
For him, poor soul. The
proudest
129
of you all
Have been
beholding
130
to him in his life,
Yet none of you would once beg for his life.
O God, I fear thy justice will take hold
On
me, and
you
133
, and mine, and yours for this!—
Come, Hastings, help me to my
closet.
134
Ah, poor Clarence.
Exeunt some with King and Queen
RICHARD
This is the fruits of rashness.
Marked
136
you not
How that the guilty kindred of the queen
Looked pale when they did hear of Clarence’ death?
O, they did urge it
still
139
unto the king!
God will revenge it. Come, lords, will you go
To comfort Edward with our company.
BUCKINGHAM
We wait upon your grace.
Exeunt
running scene 4 continues
Enter the old Duchess of York with the two children of Clarence
BOY
Good
grandam
1
, tell us, is our father dead?
DUCHESS OF YORK
No, boy.
DAUGHTER
Why do you weep so oft, and beat your breast,
And cry ‘O Clarence, my unhappy son’?
BOY
Why do you look on us, and shake your head,
And call us orphans,
wretches
,
castaways
6
,
If that our noble father were alive?
DUCHESS OF YORK
My pretty
cousins
8
, you mistake me both:
I do lament the sickness of the king,
As
10
loath to lose him, not your father’s death.
It were
lost
11
sorrow to wail one that’s lost.
BOY
Then you conclude, my grandam, he is dead.
The king mine uncle is to blame for it.
God will revenge it, whom I will
importune
14
With earnest prayers all to that effect.
DAUGHTER
And so will I.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Peace, children, peace. The king doth love you well.
Incapable
and
shallow
18
innocents,
You cannot guess who caused your father’s death.
BOY
Grandam, we can, for my good uncle Gloucester
Told me the king, provoked to it by the queen,
Devised
impeachments
22
to imprison him;
And when my uncle told me so, he wept,
And pitied me, and
kindly
24
kissed my cheek,
Bade me rely on him as on my father,
And he would love me dearly as a child.
DUCHESS OF YORK
Ah, that deceit should steal such
gentle shape
27
,
And with a virtuous
visor
28
hide deep vice!
He is my son — ay, and therein my shame.
Yet from my
dugs
30
he drew not this deceit.
BOY
Think you my uncle did dissemble, grandam?
DUCHESS OF YORK
Ay, boy.