Ready, with every nod, to tumble down Lov. Come, come, despatch; 'tis bootless to exclaim. Hast. O, bloody Richard!-miserable England!" I prophesy the fearful'st time to thee, That ever wretched hath look'd upon.age Come, lead me to the block, bear him my head; They smile at me, who shortly shall be dead. [Exeunt. SCENE V. The same. The Tower Walls. Enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM, in rusty armour, and marvellous ill favoured. Glo. Come, cousin, canst thou quake, and change thy colour? Murder thy breath in middle of a word,— As if thou wert distraught, and mad with terror? · 9 Those who now smile at me shall be shortly dead themselves. 1 i. e. pretending. Thus in the Rape of Lucrece : For then is Tarquin brought unto his bed, And Timon of Athens, Act ii. Sc. 2, where it has been hitherto erroneously explained : And so intending other serious matters, After distasteful looks, and these hard fractions, Again in The Taming of the Shrew, Act iv. Sc. 1, p. 412: 'Ay, and amid this hurly, I intend [i. e. pretend] Are at my service, like enforced smiles; At any time, to grace my stratagems. Glo. He is; and, see, he brings the mayor along. Enter the Lord Mayor and CATEsby. Buck. Let me alone to entertain him.-Lord mayor, Glo. Look to the drawbridge there. Buck. Hark, hark! a drum. Glo. Catesby, o'erlook the walls. Buck. Lord mayor, the reason we have sent for you, Glo. Look back, defend thee, here are enemies. Buck. God and our innocence defend and guard us! Enter LOVEL and RATCLIFF2, with HASTINGS'S Head. Glo. Be patient, they are friends; Ratcliff, and Lovel. Lov. Here is the head of that ignoble traitor, The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings. Glo. So dear I lov'd the man, that I must weep. I took him for the plainest harmless creature, That breath'd upon the earth a Christian; Made him my book, wherein my soul recorded The history of all her secret thoughts: So smooth he daub'd his vice with show of virtue, I mean, his conversation3 with Shore's wife,- 2 The quarto has Enter Catesby with Hastings's Head.' For this absurd alteration, by which Ratcliff is represented at Pomfret and in London at the same time, it is probable the editors of the folio have to answer. 3 i. e. familiar intercourse: what is now called 'criminal conversation.' Buck. Well, well, he was the covert'st shelter'd traitor That ever liv'd.-Look you, my lord mayor, Glo. What! think you we are Turks, or infidels? The peace of England, and our persons' safety, May. Now, fair befall you! he deserv'd his death; And your good graces both have well proceeded, To warn false traitors from the like attempts. I never look'd for better at his hands, heard Buck. Yet had we not determin'd he should die, Until your lordship came to see his end; Which now the loving haste of these our friends, Somewhat against our meaning, hath prevented: Because, my lord, we would have had you The traitor speak, and timorously confess The manner and the purpose of his treasons; That you might well have signified the same Unto the citizens, who, haply, may Misconstrue us in him, and wail his death. May. But, my good lord, your grace's word shall serve, As well as I had seen, and heard him speak: Glo. And to that end we wish'd your lordship here, To avoid the censures of the carping world. Buck. But since you came too late of our intent*, Yet witness what you hear we did intend: And so, my good lord mayor, we bid farewell. [Exit Lord Mayor. Glo. Go after, after, cousin Buckingham. The mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all post:— There, at your meetest vantage of the time, Infer the bastardy of Edward's children: Tell them, how Edward put to death a citizen, Only for saying he would make his son Heir to the crown; meaning, indeed his house, Which, by the sign thereof, was termed so5. Moreover, urge his hateful luxury, And bestial appetite in change of lust; Which stretch'd unto their servants, daughters, wives, Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person:- 4 'Too late of our intent.' In common speech a similar phrase is sometimes used; viz. ' to come short of a thing.' Mason would have changed of to for. 5 This person was one Walker, a substantial citizen and grocer, at the Crown in Cheapside. These topics of Edward's cruelty, lust, unlawful marriage, &c. are enlarged upon in that most extraordinary invective, the petition presented to Richard before his accession, which was afterwards turned into an act of parliament. Parl. Hist. 2. p. 396. See also the duke of Buckingham's speech to the citizens in More's History, as copied by the Chronicles. Yet touch this sparingly, as 'twere far off; Glo. If you thrive well, bring them to Baynard's castle; Where you shall find me well accompanied, [Exit BUCKINGHAM. Glo. Go, Lovel, with all speed to doctor Shaw,- To draw the brats of Clarence out of sight; 6 Baynard's Castle was originally built by Baynard, a nobleman who (according to Stowe) came in with the conqueror. It had belonged to Richard duke of York, but was now Edward the Fifth's. This edifice, which stood in Thames Street, has been long pulled down; it is said that parts of its strong foundations may be seen at low water. 7 Edward Earl of Warwick, who, the day after the battle of Bosworth, was sent by Richard from his confinement at SheriffHutton Castle to the Tower, without even the shadow of an allegation against him, and who was afterwards cruelly sacrificed to a scruple of Ferdinand king of Spain, who was unwilling to marry his daughter Katherine to Arthur prince of Wales while he lived, conceiving that his claim might interfere with Arthur's succession to the crown, He was beheaded in 1499. Margaret, afterwards married to Sir Richard Pole, the last princess of the house of Lancaster, who was restored in blood in the fifth year of Henry VIII. and afterwards, in the thirty-first year of his reign [1540], barbarously led to the block at the age of seventy, for some offence conceived at the conduct of her son Cardinal Pole. |