Richm. All for our vantage. Then, in God's

name, march:

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings, Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings. [Exeunt.

SCENE III. Bosworth Field.

Enter KING RICHARD, and Forces; the DUKE of NORFOLK, EARL of SURREY, and Others.

K. Rich. Here pitch our tents, even here in Bosworth field.

My lord of Surrey, why look you so sad?

Sur. My heart is ten times lighter than my looks. K. Rich. My lord of Norfolk,

Nor.

Here, most gracious liege. K. Rich. Norfolk, we must have knocks: Ha!

must we not?

Nor. We must both give and take, my loving lord: K. Rich. Up with my tent: Here will I lie to-night1; [Soldiers begin to set up the King's tent. But where, to-morrow?—Well, all's one for thatWho hath descried the number of the traitors?

Nor. Six or seven thousand is their utmost power. K. Rich. Why, our battalia trebles that account 2: Besides, the king's name is a tower of strength, Which they upon the adverse faction want. Up with the tent.-Come, noble gentlemen, Let us survey the vantage of the ground;Call for some men of sound direction 3:

1 Richard is reported not to have slept in his tent on the night before the battle, but in the town of Leicester.

2 Richmond's forces are said to have been only five thousand; and Richard's army consisted of about twelve thousand. But Lord Stanley lay at a small distance with three thousand men, and Richard may be supposed to have reckoned on them as his friends, though the event proved otherwise.

3 i. e. tried judgment, military skill.

Let's want no discipline, make no delay;
For, lords, to-morrow is a busy day.

[Exeunt.

Enter, on the other side of the Field, RICHMOND, SIR WILLIAM BRANDON, OXFORD, and other Lords. Some of the Soldiers pitch RICHMOND'S Tent.

1

Richm. The weary sun hath made a golden set,
And, by the bright track of his fiery car,
Gives token of a goodly day to-morrow.
Sir William Brandon, you shall bear my standard.-
Give me some ink and paper in my tent;-
I'll draw the form and model of our battle,
Limit each leader to his several charge,
And part in just proportion our small power.
My lord of Oxford, you, Sir William Brandon,-
And you, Sir Walter Herbert, stay with me:
The earl of Pembroke keeps 5 his regiment;-
Good Captain Blunt, bear my good night to him,
And by the second hour in the morning
Desire the earl to see me in my tent:

Yet one thing more, good captain, do for me;
Where is Lord Stanley quarter'd, do you know?
Blunt. Unless I have mista'en his colours much
(Which, well I am assur'd, I have not done),
His regiment lies half a mile at least

South from the mighty power of the king.
Richm. If without peril it be possible,

Sweet Blunt, make some good means to speak with him,

And give him from me this most needful note.

4 Appoint.

'I'll make so bold to call,
For 'tis my limited service.'

5 Remains with.

Macbeth.

6 i. e. contrive, take some pains or earnest measures. in The Two Gentlemen of Verona :

'To make such means for her as thou hast done.' ·

Thus

Blunt. Upon my life, my lord, I'll undertake it; And so, God give you quiet rest to night!

Richm. Good night, good captain Blunt. Come, gentlemen,

Let us consult upon to-morrow's business;
In to my tent, the air is raw and cold.

[They withdraw into the Tent.

Enter, to his Tent, KING RICHARD, NORFolk,

RATCLIFF, and CATESBY.

K. Rich. What is't o'clock?

Cate.

It's nine o'clock.

K. Rich.

I will not sup to-night.

Give me some ink and paper.

What, is my beaver easier than it was?

And all my armour laid into my tent?

Cate. It is, my liege; and all things are in readiness.

K. Rich. Good Norfolk, hie thee to thy charge; Use careful watch, choose trusty sentinels.

Nor. I go, my lord.

K. Rich. Stir with the lark to-morrow, gentle Norfolk.

Nor. I warrant you, my lord.

K. Rich. Ratcliff,

Rat. My lord?

K. Rich.

[Exit.

Send out a pursuivant at arms

To Stanley's regiment; bid him bring his power
Before sun-rising, lest his son George fall

Into the blind cave of eternal night.—

Fill me a bowl of wine.-Give me a watch7:[TO CATESBY.

7 By a watch is most probably meant a watch-light. The nature of which will appear from the following note of Sir Francis Kinaston upon Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida, in the very VOL. VII.

8

Saddle white Surrey for the field to-morrow.— Look that my staves be sound, and not too heavy. Ratcliff,

Rat. My lord?

K. Rich. Saw'st thou the melancholy Lord Northumberland9?

Rat. Thomas the earl of Surrey, and himself, Much about cock-shut 10 time, from troop to troop, Went through the army, cheering up the soldiers.

curious rhiming Latin Version of that poem which I possess in manuscript. This word [morter] doth plainely intimate Jeffery Chaucer to have been an esquire of the body in ordinary to the king, whose office it is, after he hath chardged and set the watch of the gard, to carry in the morter and to set it by the king's bed-side, for he takes from the cupboard a silver bason, and therin poures a litle water, and then sets a round cake of virgin wax in the middest of the bason, in the middle of which cake is a wicke of bumbast, which being lighted burnes as a watch-light all night by the king's bed-side. It hath, as I conceive, the name of morter for the likenes it hath when it is nere consumed unto a morter wherin you bray spices, for the flame first hollowing the middle of the waxe cake, which is next unto it, the waxe by degrees, like the sands in a houre glasse, runs evenly from all sides to the middle to supply the wicke. This royal ceremony Chaucer wittily faines to be in Cresseid's bedchamber, calling this kind of watch-light by the name of morter, which very few courtiers besides esquires of the body (who only are admitted after ALL NIGHT is served to come into the king's bedchamber), do understand what is meant by it.' Kinaston was himself esquire of the body to King Charles I. Baret mentions 'watching lamps, or candles; lucernæ vigiles:' and watching candles are mentioned in many old plays. Steevens says that he has seen them represented in some of the pictures [qu. prints?] of Albert Durer.

8 i.e. the staves or poles of his lances. It was the custom to carry more than one into the field.

9 Richard calls him melancholy because he did not join heartily in his cause. Holinshed says 'He stood still and mixed not in the battle, but was incontinently [after] received into favour [of Richmond] and made of the counsaile.'

10 i. e. twilight. Thus in Ben Jonson's Masque of Gypsies:For you would not yesternight

Kiss him in the cock-shut light.'

A cock-shut was a large net stretched across a glade, and so sus

K. Rich. So, I am satisfied. Give me a bowl of

wine:

I have not that alacrity of spirit,

Nor cheer of mind, that I was wont to have.—
Set it down.-Is ink and paper ready?

Rat. It is, my lord.

K. Rich.

Bid my guard watch; leave me.

About the mid of night, come to my tent,

And help to arm me.-Leave me, I

say.

[KING RICHARD retires into his Tent. Exeunt RATCLIFF and CATESBY.

RICHMOND'S Tent opens, and discovers him, and Officers, &c.

Enter STANLEY.

Stan. Fortune and victory sit on thy helm! Richm. All comfort that the dark night can afford, Be to thy person, noble father-in-law! Tell me, how fares our loving mother?

Stan. I, by attorney 11, bless thee from thy mother, Who prays continually for Richmond's good: So much for that.-The silent hours steal on, And flaky darkness breaks within the east. In brief, for so the season bids us be, Prepare thy battle early in the morning; And put thy fortune to the arbitrement Of bloody strokes, and mortal-staring war, I, as I may (that which I would, I cannot), With best advantage will deceive the time,

pended upon poles as easily to be drawn together, and was employed to catch woodcocks. These nets were chiefly used in the twilight of the evening, when woodcocks 'take wing to go and get water, flying generally low; and when they find any thoroughfare, through a wood or range of trees, they venture through.' The artificial glade made for them to pass through were called cock-roads. Hence cock-shut time and cock-shut light were used to express the evening twilight.

11 i. e. by deputation.