Enter another Messenger. 3 Mess. My lord, the army of great BuckinghamK. Rich. Out on ye, owls! nothing but songs of death?

[He strikes him. There, take thou that, till thou bring better news.

3 Mess. The news I have to tell your majesty, Is,--that, by sudden foods and fall of waters, Buckingham's army is dispers’d and scatter'd; And he himself wander'd

away

alone, No man knows whither. K. Rich.

0, I cry you mercy: There is my purse to cure that blow of thine. Hath any well advised friend proclaim'd Reward to him that brings the traitor in ? 3 Mess. Such proclamation hath been made, my

liege.

· Enter another Messenger. 4 Mess. Sir Thomas Lovel, and lord marquis Dorset, 'Tis said, my liege, in Yorkshire are in arms. But this good comfort bring I to your highness,The Bretagne navy is dispers'd by tempest: Richmond, in Dorsetshire, sent out a boat Unto the shore, to ask those on the banks, If they were his assistants, yea, or no; Who answer’d him, they came from Buckingham Upon his party : he, mistrusting them, Hois'd sail, and made his course again for Bretagne.

K. Rich. March on, march on, since we are up

in arms;

If not to fight with foreign enemies,
Yet to beat down these rebels here at home.

Enter CATESBY. Cate. My liege, the duke of Buckingham is taken, That is the best news; That the earl of Richmond

Is with a mighty power 37 landed at Milford,
Is colder news, but yet they 38 must be told.
K. Rich. Away towards Salisbury; while we rea-

son here,
A royal battle might be won and lost:-
Some one take order, Buckingham be brought
To Salisbury ;---the rest march on with me. [Exeunt.
SCENE V. A Room in Lord Stanley's House.
Enter STANLEY and SIR CHRISTOPHER

URSWICK 1.
Stan. Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from

me:-
That in the sty of this most bloody boar,
My son George Stanley is frank'd up in hold;
If I revolt, off goes young George's head;
The fear of that withholds my present aid.
But, tell me, where is princely Richmond now?

Chris.At Pembroke,or at Ha'rford-west,in Wales. 37 The earl of Richmond embarked with about two thousand men at Harfleur, in Normandy, August 1, 1485, and landed at Milford Haven on the 7th. He directed his course to Wales, hoping the Welsh would receive him cordially as their countryman, he having been born at Pembroke, and his grandfather being Owen Tudor, who married Katharine of France, the widow of King Henry V.

38 News was considered as plural by our ancient writers. So in Antony and Cleopatra, Act i. Sc. 1 :

• Att. News, my good lord, from Rome.

Cleo. Nay, hear them, Antony.' So in Cavendish’s Metrical Visions, p. 89:

• Alas, these woful newes made my hart agaste ! Sir Christopher Urswick, a priest, chaplain to the countess of Richmond, who was married to the Lord Stanley. This priest, the chronicles tell us, frequently went backwards and forwards, unsuspected, on messages between the countess of Richmond and her husband and the young earl of Richmond, whilst he was preparing to make his descent on England. He was afterwards almoner to King Henry VII. and refused the bishopric of Norwich. He retired to Hackney, where be died in 1527, and his tomb is, I believe, still to be seen in the church there.

2 Vide note on p. 37, ante.

Stan. What men of name resort to him?

Chris. Sir Walter Herbert, a renowned soldier; Sir Gilbert Talbot, Sir William Stanley ; Oxford, redoubted Pembroke, Sir James Blunt, And Rice ap Thomas, with a valiant crew; And

many other of great fame and worth : And towards London do they bend their course, If by the way they be not fought withal. Stan. Well, hie thee to thy lord; commend me

to him ; Tell him, the queen hath heartily consented He shall espouse Elizabeth her daughter. These letters will resolve him of my mind. Farewell. [Gives papers to SiR CHRISTOPHER.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE I. Salisbury'. An open Place. Enter the Sheriff, and Guard, with BUCKINGHAM,

led to execution. Buck. Will not King Richard let me speak with

him ?? Sher. No, my good lord; therefore be patient.

1 There is reason to think that Buckingham's execution took place at Shrewsbury, but this is not the place to discuss the question.

2 The reason why the duke of Buckingham solicited an interview with Richard is explained in King Henry. VIII. Acti:

I would have play'd
The part my father meant to act upon
The usurper Richard: who, being at Salisbury,
Made suit to come into his presence, which if granted,
As he made semblance of his duty, would

Have put his knife into him.'
See Holinshed, vol. ii. p. 1403, ed. 1577.

Buck. Hastings, and Edward's children, Rivers,

.Grey,
Holy King Henry, and thy fair son Edward,
Vaughan, and all that have miscarried
By underhand corrupted foul injustice;
If that your moody discontented souls
Do through the clouds behold this present hour,
Even for
revenge

mock

my

destruction This is All-Souls' day, fellows, is it not?

Sher. It is, my lord.
Buck. Why, then All-Souls' day is my body's

doomsday.
This is the day, which, in King Edward's time,
I wish'd might fall on me, when I was found
False to his children, or his wife's allies :
This is the day, wherein I wish'd to fall
By the false faith of him whom most I trusted;
This, this, All-Souls' day to my fearful soul,
Is the determin’d respite of my wrongs'.
That bigh All-seer which I dallied with,
Hath turned my feigned prayer on my head,
And given in earnest what I begg’d in jest.
Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
To turn their own points on their masters' bosoms :
Thus Margaret's curse falls heavy on my neck,-
When he, quoth she, shall split thy heart with sorrow,
Remember Margaret was a prophetess.-
Come, sirs, convey me to the block of shame;
Wrong hath but

wrong, and blame the due of blame 4.

[Ereunt BUCKINGHAM, &c.

3 The time to which the punishment of his injurious practices or the wrongs done by him was respited.

4 Johnson thinks this scene should be added to the fourth act, which would give it a more full and striking conclusion. In the original quarto copy, 1597, this play is not divided into acts and scenes: Malone suggests that the short scene between Stanley and Sir Christopher may bave been the opening of the fisth act.

SCENE II. Plain near Tamworth.

Enter, with drum and colours, RICHMOND, Ox

FORD1, Sir James Blunt?, SIR WALTER HERBERT, and Others, with Forces, marching. Richm. Fellows in arms, and my most loving

friends,
Bruis’d underneath the yoke of tyranny,
Thus far into the bowels of the land
Have we march'd on without impediment;
And here receive we from our father Stanley
Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,
That spoil'd your summer fields, and fruitful vines,
Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes his

trough
In your embowellid bosoms, this foul swine
Lies now even in the centre of this isle,
Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn:
From Tamworth thither, is but one day's march.
In God's name, cheerly on, courageous

friends,
To reap the harvest of perpetual peace
By this one bloody trial of sharp war.
Oxf. Every man's conscience is a thousand

swords,
To fight against that bloody homicide.

Herb. I doubt not, but his friends will turn to us.
Blunt. He hath no friends, but who are friends

for fear;
Which, in his dearest need, will fly from him.

John de Vere, earl of Oxford, a zealous Lancastrian, who, after a long confinement in Hammes Castle, in Picardy, escaped in 1484, and joined Richmond at Paris. He commanded the archers at the battle of Bosworth.

2 Sir James Blunt had been captain of the Castle of Hammes, and assisted Oxford in his escape.

3 Alluding to the proverb, ‘Conscientiæ mille testes.'