Enter GLOSTER, in a Gallery above, between Two Bishops. CATESBY returns.

May. See, where his grace stands 'tween two clergymen !

Buck. Two props of virtue for a christian prince, To stay 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-christian zeal.
Glo. My lord, there needs no such apology;
I rather do beseech you pardon me,
Who, earnest in the service of my God,
Neglect the visitation of my friends.

But, leaving this, what is your grace's pleasure? Buck. Even that, I hope, which pleaseth God above,

And all good men of this ungovern'd isle.

Glo. I do suspect, I have done some offence, That seems disgracious in the city's eye; And that you come to reprehend my ignorance. Buck. You have, my lord; Would it might please

your grace,

On our entreaties, to amend your fault!

Glo. Else wherefore breathe I in a Christian land? Buck. Know, then, it is your fault, that you resign

The supreme seat, the throne majestical,

The sceptred office of your ancestors,

Your state of fortune, and your due of birth,
The lineal glory of your royal house,
To the corruption of a blemish'd stock:
Whilst, in the mildness of your sleepy thoughts
(Which here we waken to our country's good),

The noble isle doth want her proper

limbs ;

Her face defac'd with scars of infamy,

Her royal stock graft with ignoble plants9,
And almost shoulder'd 10 in the swallowing gulf
Of dark forgetfulness and deep oblivion.
Which to recure 11, 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 for another's gain:
But as successively, from blood to blood,
Your right of birth, your empery, your own.
For this, consorted with the citizens,
Your very worshipful and loving friends,
And by their vehement instigation,
In this just suit come I to move your grace.
Glo. I cannot tell, if to depart in silence,
Or bitterly to speak in your reproof,
Best fitteth my degree or your condition:
If, not to answer,—you might haply think,
Tongue-tied ambition, not replying, yielded
To bear the golden yoke of sovereignty,
Which fondly you would here impose on me;
If to reprove you for this suit of yours,
So season'd with your faithful love to me,
Then, on the other side, I check'd my friends.
Therefore, to speak, and to avoid the first;

9 Shakspeare seems to have remembered the text on which Dr. Shaw preached his remarkable sermon at St. Paul's Cross :Bastard slips shall never take deep root.'

10 Shoulder'd in has the same meaning as rudely thrust into. Thus in a curious paper quoted by Mr. Lysons in his Environs of London, vol. iii. p. 80, n. 1:- Lyke tyrauntes and lyke madde men helpynge to shulderynge other of the sayd bannermen ynto the dyche.'

11 Recover. The word is frequently used by Spenser; and both as a verb and a substantive by Lyly.

my

desert

And, then in speaking, not to incur the last,—
Definitively thus I answer you.
Your love deserves my thanks; but
Unmeritable, shuns your high request.
First, if all obstacles were cut away,
And that my path were even to the crown,
As my ripe revenue 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,—
Being a bark to brook no mighty sea,-
Than in my greatness covet to be hid,
And in the vapour of my glory smother'd..
But, God be thank'd, there is no need of me;
(And much I need 12 to help you, if need were);
The royal tree hath left us royal fruit,

Which, mellow'd by the stealing hours of time,
Will well become the seat of majesty,
And make, no doubt, us happy by his reign.
On him I lay what you would lay on me,
The right and fortune of his happy stars,-
Which, God defend, that I should wring from him!
Buck. My lord, this argues conscience in your

grace;

But the respects thereof are nice 13 and trivial,
All circumstances well considered.

You say, that Edward is your brother's son;
So say we too, but not by Edward's wife:
For first he was contract to Lady Lucy,
Your mother lives a witness to his vow;
And afterwards by substitute betroth'd
To Bona, sister to the king of France.

12 And I want much of the ability requisite to give you help, if help were needed.

13 Weak, silly. See note on The Taming of the Shrew, Act iii. Sc. 2.

14

These both put by, a poor petitioner 1*,
A care-craz'd mother to a many sons,
A beauty-waning and distressed widow,
Even in the afternoon of her best days,
Made prize and purchase of his wanton eye,
Seduc'd the pitch and height of all his thoughts
To base declension and loath'd bigamy 15:
By her, in his unlawful bed, he got

This Edward, whom our manners call-the prince. More bitterly could I expostulate,

Save that, for reverence to some alive 16,

I give a sparing limit to my tongue.
Then, good my lord, take to your royal self
This proffer'd benefit of dignity:

If not to bless us and the land withal,
Yet to draw forth your noble ancestry
From the corruption of abusing time,
Unto a lineal true-derived course.

May. Do, good my lord; your citizens entreat you. Buck. Refuse not, mighty lord, this proffer'd love. Cate. O, make them joyful, grant their lawful suit. Glo. Alas, why would you heap those cares 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.

Buck. If you refuse it, as in love and zeal, Loath to depose the child, your brother's son;

14 See King Henry VÍ. Part III. Act iii.

15 Bigamy, by a canon of the council of Lyons, A.D. 1274 (adopted by a statute in 4 Edw. I.), was made unlawful and infamous. It differed from polygamy, or having two wives at once; as it consisted in either marrying two virgins successively, or once marrying a widow. This is from Sir T. More, as copied by Hall and Holinshed.

16 The duke here hints at the pretended bastardy of Edward and Clarence. By some alive' is meant the duchess of York, the mother of Edward and Richard. This is very closely copied from Sir Thomas More.

As well we know your tenderness of heart,
And gentle, kind, effeminate remorse 17,
Which we have noted in you to your kindred,
And equally, indeed, to all estates,--
Yet know, whe'r you accept our suit or no,
Your brother's son shall never reign our king;
But we will plant some other in your throne;
To the disgrace and downfall of your house.
And, in this resolution, here we leave you;
Come, citizens, we will entreat no more.

[Exeunt BUCKINGHAM and Citizens. Cate. Call them again, sweet prince, accept their suit;

If you deny them, all the land will rue it.

Glo. Will you enforce me to a world of cares? Well, call them again; I am not made of stone, But penetrable to your kind entreaties,

[Exit CATESBY. Albeit against my conscience and my soul.

Re-enter BUCKINGHAM and the rest.

Cousin of Buckingham,—and you sage,grave men,—
Since you will buckle fortune on my back,
To bear her burden, whe'r I will, or no,
I must have patience to endure the load:
But if black scandal, or foul-fac'd reproach,
Attend the sequel of your imposition,

Your mere enforcement shall acquittance me
From all the impure blots and stains thereof;
For God he knows, and you may partly see,
How far I am from the desire of this.

May. God bless your grace! we see it, and will say it.

Glo. In saying so, you shall but say the truth. Buck. Then I salute you with this royal title,Long live King Richard, England's worthy king!

17 Pity.