London. A Room in the Palace. | |
| |
Enter KING EDWARD sick, QUEEN ELIZABETH, DORSET, RIVERS, HASTINGS, BUCKINGHAM, GREY, and Others. | |
| K. Edw. Why, so: now have I done a good day’s work. | |
| You peers, continue this united league: | 4 |
| I every day expect an embassage | |
| From my Redeemer to redeem me hence; | |
| And more in peace my soul shall part to heaven, | |
| Since I have made my friends at peace on earth. | 8 |
| Rivers and Hastings, take each other’s hand; | |
| Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love. | |
| Riv. By heaven, my soul is purg’d from grudging hate; | |
| And with my hand I seal my true heart’s love. | 12 |
| Hast. So thrive I, as I truly swear the like! | |
| K. Edw. Take heed, you dally not before your king; | |
| Lest he that is the supreme King of kings | |
| Confound your hidden falsehood, and award | 16 |
| Either of you to be the other’s end. | |
| Hast. So prosper I, as I swear perfect love! | |
| Riv. And I, as I love Hastings with my heart! | |
| K. Edw. Madam, yourself are not exempt in this, | 20 |
| Nor you, son Dorset, Buckingham, nor you; | |
| You have been factious one against the other. | |
| Wife, love Lord Hastings, let him kiss your hand; | |
| And what you do, do it unfeignedly | 24 |
| Q. Eliz. There, Hastings; I will never more remember | |
| Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine! | |
| K. Edw. Dorset, embrace him; Hastings, love lord marquess. | |
| Dor. This interchange of love, I here protest, | 28 |
| Upon my part shall be inviolable. | |
| Hast. And so swear I. [They embrace. | |
| K. Edw. Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league | |
| With thy embracements to my wife’s allies, | 32 |
| And make me happy in your unity. | |
| Buck. [To the QUEEN.] Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate | |
| Upon your Grace, but with all duteous love | |
| Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me | 36 |
| With hate in those where I expect most love! | |
| When I have most need to employ a friend, | |
| And most assured that he is a friend, | |
| Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile, | 40 |
| Be he unto me! This do I beg of God, | |
| When I am cold in love to you or yours. [They embrace. | |
| K. Edw. A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham, | |
| Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart. | 44 |
| There wanteth now our brother Gloucester here | |
| To make the blessed period of this peace. | |
| Buck. And, in good time, here comes the noble duke. | |
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Enter GLOUCESTER. | 48 |
| Glo. Good morrow to my sovereign king and queen; | |
| And princely peers, a happy time of day! | |
| K. Edw. Happy, indeed, as we have spent the day. | |
| Gloucester, we have done deeds of charity; | 52 |
| Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate, | |
| Between these swelling wrong-incensed peers. | |
| Glo. A blessed labour, my most sovereign lord. | |
| Among this princely heap, if any here, | 56 |
| By false intelligence, or wrong surmise, | |
| Hold me a foe; | |
| If I un wittingly, or in my rage, | |
| Have aught committed that is hardly borne | 60 |
| By 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. | 64 |
| 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 lodg’d between us; | 68 |
| Of you, Lord Rivers, and Lord Grey, of you, | |
| That all without desert have frown’d on me; | |
| Of you, Lord Woodvile, and Lord Scales, of you; | |
| Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen; indeed, of all. | 72 |
| I do not know that Englishman alive | |
| With whom my soul is any jot at odds | |
| More than the infant that is born to-night: | |
| I thank my God for my humility. | 76 |
| Q. Eliz. A holy day shall this be kept hereafter: | |
| I would to God all strifes were well compounded. | |
| My sov’reign lord, I do beseech your highness | |
| To take our brother Clarence to your grace. | 80 |
| Glo. Why, madam, have I offer’d love for this, | |
| To be so flouted in this royal presence? | |
| Who knows not that the gentle duke is dead? [They all start. | |
| You do him injury to scorn his corse. | 84 |
| K. Edw. Who knows not he is dead! who knows he is? | |
| Q. Eliz. All-seeing heaven, what a world is this! | |
| Buck. Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest? | |
| Dor. Ay, my good lord; and no man in the presence | 88 |
| But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks. | |
| K. Edw. Is Clarence dead? the order was revers’d. | |
| Glo. But he, poor man, by your first order died, | |
| And that a winged Mercury did bear; | 92 |
| Some tardy cripple bore the countermand, | |
| That came too lag to see him buried. | |
| God grant that some, less noble and less loyal, | |
| Nearer in bloody thoughts, and not in blood, | 96 |
| Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did, | |
| And yet go current from suspicion. | |
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Enter STANLEY. | |
| Stan. A boon, my sov’reign, for my service done! | 100 |
| K. Edw. I prithee, peace: my soul is full of sorrow. | |
| Stan. I will not rise, unless your highness hear me. | |
| K. Edw. Then say at once, what is it thou request’st. | |
| Stan. The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant’s life; | 104 |
| Who slew to-day a riotous gentleman | |
| Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk. | |
| K. Edw. Have I a tongue to doom my brother’s death, | |
| And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave? | 108 |
| My brother kill’d no man, his fault was thought; | |
| And yet his punishment was bitter death. | |
| Who su’d to me for him? who, in my wrath, | |
| Kneel’d at my feet, and bade me be advis’d? | 112 |
| Who spoke of brotherhood? who spoke of love? | |
| Who told me how the poor soul did forsake | |
| The mighty Warwick, and did fight for me? | |
| Who told me, in the field at Tewksbury, | 116 |
| When Oxford had me down, he rescu’d 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 me | 120 |
| Even in his garments; and did give himself, | |
| All thin and naked, to the numb cold night? | |
| All this from my remembrance brutish wrath | |
| Sinfully pluck’d, and not a man of you | 124 |
| Had so much grace to put it in my mind. | |
| But when your carters or your waiting-vassals | |
| Have done a drunken slaughter, and defac’d | |
| The precious image of our dear Redeemer, | 128 |
| You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon; | |
| And I, unjustly too, must grant it you; | |
| But for my brother not a man would speak, | |
| Nor I, ungracious, speak unto myself | 132 |
| For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all | |
| Have been beholding to him in his life, | |
| Yet none of you would once beg for his life. | |
| O God! I fear, thy justice will take hold | 136 |
| On me and you and mine and yours for this. | |
| Come, Hastings, help me to my closet. O! poor Clarence! [Exeunt KING EDWARD, QUEEN, HASTINGS, RIVERS, DORSET, and GREY. | |
| Glo. This is the fruit of rashness. Mark’d you not | |
| How that the guilty kindred of the queen | 140 |
| Look’d pale when they did hear of Clarence’ death? | |
| O! they did urge it still unto the king: | |
| God will revenge it. Come, lords; will you go | |
| To comfort Edward with our company? | 144 |
| Buck. We wait upon your Grace. [Exeunt. | |
