So cunning and so young is wonderful.
Glo. My lord, will 't please you pass along?
Myself and my good cousin Buckingham
Will to your mother; to entreat of her
To meet you at the Tower, and welcome you.
York. What, will you go unto the Tower, my
lord?

Prince. My lord protector needs will have it so.
York. I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower.
Glo. Why, sir, what should you fear?
York. Marry, my uncle Clarence' angry ghost:
My grandam told me he was murdered there.
Prince. I fear no uncles dead.

Glo. Nor none that live, I hope.

Prince. An if they live, I hope I need not fear. But come, my lord; and with a heavy heart, Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower.

[Exeunt PRINCE, YORK, HASTINGS, CAR

DINAL, and Attendants.

Buck. Think you, my lord, this little prating
York

Was not incensed by his subtle mother
To taunt and scorn you thus opprobriously?
Glo. No doubt, no doubt. O'tis a parlous boy:
Bold, quick, ingenious, forward, capable:
He's all the mother's from the top to toe.

Buck. Well, let them rest.-
Come hither, Catesby: thou art sworn
As deeply to effect what we intend
As closely to conceal what we impart.
Thou know'st our reasons urged upon the way :-
What think'st thou; is it not an easy matter
To make William, Lord Hastings, of our mind,
For the instalment of this noble duke
In the seat royal of this famous isle?

Cate. He for his father's sake so loves the prince,

That he will not be won to aught against him. Buck. What think'st thou, then, of Stanley; will not he?

Cate. He will do all in all as Hastings doth. Buck. Well then, no more but this:- Go, gentle Catesby,

And, as it were far off, sound thou Lord Hast

ings

How he doth stand affected to our purpose;
And summon him to-morrow to the Tower,
To sit about the coronation.

If thou dost find him tractable to us,
Encourage him, and tell him all our reasons:
If he be leaden, icy, cold, unwilling,
Be thou so too; and so break off the talk,
And give us notice of his inclination :
For we to-morrow hold divided councils,
Wherein thyself shalt highly be employed.
Glo. Commend me to Lord William: tell him,
Catesby,

Hast. Cannot thy master sleep these tedious nights?

Mess. So it should seem by that I have to say. First, he commends him to your noble lordship. Hast. And then,

Mess. And then he sends you word, he dreamt
To-night the boar had raséd off his helm:
Besides, he says, there are two councils held;
And that may be determined at the one
Which may make you and him to rue at the other.
Therefore he sends to know your lordship's
pleasure,

If presently you will take horse with him,
And with all speed post with him toward the north,
To shun the danger that his soul divines.

Hast. Go, fellow, go, return unto thy lord:

Bid him not fear the separated councils.
His honour and myself are at the one,
And at the other is my good friend Catesby:
Where nothing can proceed that toucheth us
Whereof I shall not have intelligence.
Tell him his fears are shallow, wanting instance:
And for his dreams, I wonder he's so fond
To trust the mockery of unquiet slumbers.
To fly the boar before the boar pursues,
Were to incense the boar to follow us,
And make pursuit where he did mean no chase.
Go, bid thy master rise and come to me;
And we will both together to the Tower,
Where he shall see the boar will use us kindly.
Mess. I'll go, my lord, and tell him what you
say.

Enter CATESBY.

[Exit.

Cate. Many good morrows to my noble lord! Hast. Good morrow, Catesby; you are early stirring :

What news, what news, in this our tottering state?
Cate. It is a reeling world, indeed, my lord;
And I believe will never stand upright
Till Richard wear the garland of the realm.
Hast. How! wear the garland! dost thou
mean the crown?

Cate. Ay, my good lord.

Hast. I'll have this crown of mine cut from my shoulders,

Before I'll see the crown so foul misplaced.
But canst thou guess that he doth aim at it?
Cate. Ay, on my life; and hopes to find
forward

you

Upon his party, for the gain thereof:
And thereupon he sends you this good news,
That this same very day your enemies,
The kindred of the Queen, must die at Pomfret.
Hast. Indeed I am no mourner for that news,
Because they have been still my adversaries :
But that I'll give my voice on Richard's side,
To bar my master's heirs in true descent,
God knows I will not do it, to the death.

Cate. God keep your lordship in that gracious mind!

Hast. But I shall laugh at this a twelvemonth

hence,

That they who brought me in my master's hate I live to look upon their tragedy.

Well, Catesby, ere a fortnight make me older, I'll send some packing that yet think not on 't. Cate. "T is a vile thing to die, my gracious lord, When men are unprepared and look not for it. Hast. O monstrous, monstrous! and so falls

it out

With Rivers, Vaughan, Grey: and so 't will do With some men else, who think themselves as safe

As thou and I; who, as thou know'st, are dear To princely Richard and to Buckingham.

Cate. The princes both make high account of you :

For they account his head upon the bridge.

[Aside. Hast. I know they do; and I have well deserved it.

Enter STANLEY.

Come on, come on; where is your boar-spear, man?

Fear you the boar, and go so unprovided?
Stun. My lord, good morrow; and good
morrow, Catesby.-

You may jest on, but by the holy rood
I do not like these several councils, I.

Hast. My lord, I hold my life as dear as yours; And never in my life, I do protest,

Was it more precious to me than 't is now.
Think you, but that I know our state secure,
I would be so triumphant as I am?

Stan. The lords at Pomfret, when they rode

SCENE III.-Pomfret. Before the Castle.

Enter RATCLIFF, with a Guard, conducting RIVERS,
GREY, and VAUGHAN, to execution.
Rat. Come, bring forth the prisoners.
Riv. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this:
To-day shalt thou behold a subject die
For truth, for duty, and for loyalty.

Grey. God keep the prince from all the pack
of you!

A knot you are of damnéd bloodsuckers. Vaugh. You live that shall cry woe for this hereafter.

Rat. Despatch: the limit of your lives is out. Riv. O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison, Fatal and ominous to noble peers! Within the guilty closure of thy walls Richard the second here was hacked to death: And, for more slander to thy dismal seat, We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink. Grey. Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon our heads,

When she exclaimed on Hastings, you, and I, For standing by when Richard stabbed her son.

Riv. Then cursed she Hastings; then cursed she Buckingham;

Then cursed she Richard:-O remember, God,
To hear her prayers for them, as now for us!
And for my sister and her princely sons,
Be satisfied, dear God, with our true bloods,
Which, as thou know'st, unjustly must be spilt!
Rat. Make haste; the hour of death is ex-
piate.

Riv. Come, Grey; come, Vaughan; let us here embrace:

Farewell, until we meet again in heaven.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-London. A Room in the Tower. BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, the BISHOP OF ELY, CATESBY, LOVEL, and others, sitting at a table: Officers of the Council attending. Hast. Now, noble peers, the cause why we

are met

Is to determine of the coronation:
In God's name speak, when is the royal day?
Buck. Are all things ready for that royal

time?

Stan. They are; and wants but nomination. Ely. To morrow, then, I judge a happy day. Buck. Who knows the lord protector's mind herein:

Who is most inward with the noble duke? Ely. Your grace, we think, should soonest know his mind.

Buck. We know each other's faces: for our

hearts,

Buck. Had you not come upon your cue, my lord,

William, Lord Hastings, had pronounced your part (I mean your voice) for crowning of the King. Glo. Than my Lord Hastings no man might be bolder:

His lordship knows me well, and loves me well.-
My lord of Ely, when I was last in Holborn
I saw good strawberries in your garden there:
I do beseech you send for some of them.

Ely. Marry and will, my lord, with all my
heart.
[Exit ELY.

Glo. Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you. [Takes him aside. Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business; And finds the testy gentleman so hot, That he will lose his head ere give consent His master's child, as worshipfully he terms it, Shall lose the royalty of England's throne. Buck. Withdraw yourself awhile; I'll go with

you.

[Exeunt GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM. Stan. We have not yet set down this day of triumph.

To-morrow, in my judgment, is too sudden :
For I myself am not so well provided
As else I would be, were the day prolonged.

Re-enter the BISHOP OF ELY.

Ely. Where is my lord protector? I have sent for these strawberries.

Hast. His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning:

There's some conceit or other likes him well,
When he doth bid good morrow with such spirit.
I think there's ne'er a man in Christendom
Can lesser hide his love or hate than he:
For by his face straight shall you know his heart.
Stan. What of his heart perceive you in his face,
By any likelihood he shewed to-day?

Hast. Marry that with no man here he is offended:

For were he, he had shewn it in his looks.

Consorted with that harlot, strumpet Shore,
That by their witchcraft thus have markéd me.
Hast. If they have done this deed, my noble
lord,-

Glo. If! thou protector of this damnéd strum-
pet;

Talk'st thou to me of ifs?-Thou art a traitor :-
Off with his head :-now, by saint Paul I swear,
I will not dine until I see the same.-
Lovel and Catesby, look that it be done :
The rest that love me, rise and follow me.
[Exeunt Council, with GLOSTER and
BUCKINGHAM.

Hast. Woe, woe, for England! not a whit for

me;

For I, too fond, might have prevented this:
Stanley did dream the boar did rase his helm;
But I disdained it, and did scorn to fly.
Three times to-day my footcloth horse did stumble,
And startled when he looked upon the Tower,
As loath to bear me to the slaughter-house.
O now I want the priest that spake to me:
I now repent I told the pursuivant,
As too triumphing, how mine enemies
To-day at Pomfret bloodily were butchered,
And I myself secure in grace and favour.
O Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse
Is lighted on poor Hastings' wretched head.

Cate. Despatch, my lord; the duke would be

at dinner:

Make a short shrift; he longs to see your head.
Hast. O momentary grace of mortal men,
Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!
Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks,
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast;
Ready, with every nod, to tuinble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.

Lov. Come, come, despatch: 't is bootless to exclaim.

Hast. Obloody Richard!-Miserable England! I prophesy the fearful'st time to thee That ever wretched age hath looked upon.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, marvellous ill-favoured.

Glo. Come, cousin, canst thou quake and change thy colour;

Murder thy breath in middle of a word,
And then again begin, and stop again,
As if thou wert distraught and mad with terror?

Enter LovEL and RATCLIFF, with HASTINGS' 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 loved the man that I must weep. I took him for the plainest harmless creature, That breathed upon the earth a Christian : Made him my book, wherein my soul recorded The history of all her secret thoughts.

So smooth he daubed his vice with shew of virtue,
That, his apparent open guilt omitted
(I mean his conversation with Shore's wife),
He lived from all attainder of suspect.

Buck. Well, well, he was the covert'st sheltered traitor

That ever lived.-Look you, my lord mayor,
Would you imagine or almost believe
(Were 't not that by great preservation
We live to tell it you), the subtle traitor
This day had plotted, in the council-house,
To murder me and my good lord of Gloster?
May. What! had he so?

Glo. What! think you we are Turks or in-
fidels?

Or that we would, against the form of law,
Proceed thus rashly in the villain's death,
But that the extreme peril of the case,
The peace of England and our persons' safety,
Enforced us to this execution?

May. Now fair befal you! he deserved his death:

And your good graces both have well proceeded,

To warn false traitors from the like attempts.
I never looked for better at his hands
After he once fell in with Mistress Shore.

Buck. Yet had we not determined 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 heard
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:
And do not doubt, right noble princes both,
But I'll acquaint our duteous citizens
With all your just proceedings in this case.

Glo. And to that end we wished 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 so.
Moreover, urge his hateful luxury,
And bestial appetite in change of lust:
Which stretched unto their servants, daughters,
wives,

Even where his raging eye or savage heart,
Without control, listed to make his prey.
Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person :
Tell them, when that my mother went with child
Of that insatiate Edward, noble York,
My princely father, then had wars in France;
And, by just computation of the time,
Found that the issue was not his begot:
Which well appeared in his lineaments,
Being nothing like the noble duke my father.
Yet touch this sparingly, as 't were far off:
Because, my lord, you know my mother lives.
Buck. Doubt not, my lord. I'll play the orator
As if the golden fee for which I plead
Were for myself: and so, my lord, adieu.

Glo. If you thrive well, bring them to Bay