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CLARENCE: Erroneous vassal! the great King of kings Hath in the tables of his law commanded That thou shalt do no murder: and wilt thou, then, Spurn at his edict and fulfil a man's? Take heed; for he holds vengeance in his hands, To hurl upon their heads that break his law. |
Second Murderer: And that same vengeance doth he hurl on thee, For false forswearing and for murder too: Thou didst receive the holy sacrament, To fight in quarrel of the house of Lancaster. |
First Murderer: And, like a traitor to the name of God, Didst break that vow; and with thy treacherous blade Unrip'dst the bowels of thy sovereign's son. |
Second Murderer: Whom thou wert sworn to cherish and defend. |
First Murderer: How canst thou urge God's dreadful law to us, When thou hast broke it in so dear degree? |
CLARENCE: Alas! for whose sake did I that ill deed? For Edward, for my brother, for his sake: Why, sirs, He sends ye not to murder me for this For in this sin he is as deep as I. If God will be revenged for this deed. O, know you yet, he doth it publicly, Take not the quarrel from his powerful arm; He needs no indirect nor lawless course To cut off those that have offended him. |
First Murderer: Who made thee, then, a bloody minister, When gallant-springing brave Plantagenet, That princely novice, was struck dead by thee? |
CLARENCE: My brother's love, the devil, and my rage. |
First Murderer: Thy brother's love, our duty, and thy fault, Provoke us hither now to slaughter thee. |
CLARENCE: Oh, if you love my brother, hate not me; I am his brother, and I love him well. If you be hired for meed, go back again, And I will send you to my brother Gloucester, Who shall reward you better for my life Than Edward will for tidings of my death. |
Second Murderer: You are deceived, your brother Gloucester hates you. |
CLARENCE: O, no, he loves me, and he holds me dear: Go you to him from me. |
Both: Ay, so we will. |
CLARENCE: Tell him, when that our princely father York Bless'd his three sons with his victorious arm, And charged us from his soul to love each other, He little thought of this divided friendship: Bid Gloucester think of this, and he will weep. |
First Murderer: Ay, millstones; as be lesson'd us to weep. |
CLARENCE: O, do not slander him, for he is kind. |
First Murderer: Right, As snow in harvest. Thou deceivest thyself: 'Tis he that sent us hither now to slaughter thee. |
CLARENCE: It cannot be; for when I parted with him, He hugg'd me in his arms, and swore, with sobs, That he would labour my delivery. |
Second Murderer: Why, so he doth, now he delivers thee From this world's thraldom to the joys of heaven. |
First Murderer: Make peace with God, for you must die, my lord. |
CLARENCE: Hast thou that holy feeling in thy soul, To counsel me to make my peace with God, And art thou yet to thy own soul so blind, That thou wilt war with God by murdering me? Ah, sirs, consider, he that set you on To do this deed will hate you for the deed. |
Second Murderer: What shall we do? |
CLARENCE: Relent, and save your souls. |
First Murderer: Relent! 'tis cowardly and womanish. |
CLARENCE: Not to relent is beastly, savage, devilish. Which of you, if you were a prince's son, Being pent from liberty, as I am now, if two such murderers as yourselves came to you, Would not entreat for life? My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks: O, if thine eye be not a flatterer, Come thou on my side, and entreat for me, As you would beg, were you in my distress A begging prince what beggar pities not? |
Second Murderer: Look behind you, my lord. |
First Murderer: Take that, and that: if all this will not do, I'll drown you in the malmsey-butt within. |
Second Murderer: A bloody deed, and desperately dispatch'd! How fain, like Pilate, would I wash my hands Of this most grievous guilty murder done! |
First Murderer: How now! what mean'st thou, that thou help'st me not? By heavens, the duke shall know how slack thou art! |
Second Murderer: I would he knew that I had saved his brother! Take thou the fee, and tell him what I say; For I repent me that the duke is slain. |
First Murderer: So do not I: go, coward as thou art. Now must I hide his body in some hole, Until the duke take order for his burial: And when I have my meed, I must away; For this will out, and here I must not stay. |
KING EDWARD IV: Why, so: now have I done a good day's work: You peers, continue this united league: I every day expect an embassage From my Redeemer to redeem me hence; And now in peace my soul shall part to heaven, Since I have set my friends at peace on earth. Rivers and Hastings, take each other's hand; Dissemble not your hatred, swear your love. |
RIVERS: By heaven, my heart is purged from grudging hate: And with my hand I seal my true heart's love. |
HASTINGS: So thrive I, as I truly swear the like! |
KING EDWARD IV: Take heed you dally not before your king; Lest he that is the supreme King of kings Confound your hidden falsehood, and award Either of you to be the other's end. |
HASTINGS: So prosper I, as I swear perfect love! |
RIVERS: And I, as I love Hastings with my heart! |
KING EDWARD IV: Madam, yourself are not exempt in this, Nor your 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. |
QUEEN ELIZABETH: Here, Hastings; I will never more remember Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine! |
KING EDWARD IV: Dorset, embrace him; Hastings, love lord marquess. |
DORSET: This interchange of love, I here protest, Upon my part shall be unviolable. |
HASTINGS: And so swear I, my lord |
KING EDWARD IV: Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league With thy embracements to my wife's allies, And make me happy in your unity. |
BUCKINGHAM: Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate On you or yours, but with all duteous love Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me 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, Be he unto me! this do I beg of God, When I am cold in zeal to yours. |
KING EDWARD IV: A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham, is this thy vow unto my sickly heart. There wanteth now our brother Gloucester here, To make the perfect period of this peace. |
BUCKINGHAM: And, in good time, here comes the noble duke. |
GLOUCESTER: Good morrow to my sovereign king and queen: And, princely peers, a happy time of day! |
KING EDWARD IV: Happy, indeed, as we have spent the day. Brother, we done deeds of charity; Made peace enmity, fair love of hate, Between these swelling wrong-incensed peers. |
GLOUCESTER: A blessed labour, my most sovereign liege: Amongst this princely heap, if any here, By false intelligence, or wrong surmise, Hold me a foe; If I unwittingly, or in my rage, Have aught committed that is hardly borne 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. 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 lodged between us; Of you, Lord Rivers, and, Lord Grey, of you; That without desert have frown'd on me; Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen; indeed, of all. 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. |
QUEEN ELIZABETH: A holy day shall this be kept hereafter: I would to God all strifes were well compounded. My sovereign liege, I do beseech your majesty To take our brother Clarence to your grace. |
GLOUCESTER: Why, madam, have I offer'd love for this To be so bouted in this royal presence? Who knows not that the noble duke is dead? You do him injury to scorn his corse. |
RIVERS: Who knows not he is dead! who knows he is? |
QUEEN ELIZABETH: All seeing heaven, what a world is this! |
BUCKINGHAM: Look I so pale, Lord Dorset, as the rest? |
DORSET: Ay, my good lord; and no one in this presence But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks. |
KING EDWARD IV: Is Clarence dead? the order was reversed. |
GLOUCESTER: But he, poor soul, by your first order died, And that a winged Mercury did bear: 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, but not in blood, Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did, And yet go current from suspicion! |
DORSET: A boon, my sovereign, for my service done! |
KING EDWARD IV: I pray thee, peace: my soul is full of sorrow. |
DORSET: I will not rise, unless your highness grant. |
KING EDWARD IV: Then speak at once what is it thou demand'st. |
DORSET: The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant's life; Who slew to-day a righteous gentleman Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk. |
KING EDWARD IV: Have a tongue to doom my brother's death, And shall the same give pardon to a slave? My brother slew no man; his fault was thought, And yet his punishment was cruel death. Who sued to me for him? who, in my rage, Kneel'd at my feet, and bade me be advised Who spake of brotherhood? who spake 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 by Tewksbury When Oxford had me down, he rescued 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 Even in his own garments, and gave 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 Had so much grace to put it in my mind. But when your carters or your waiting-vassals Have done a drunken slaughter, and defaced The precious image of our dear Redeemer, 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 For him, poor soul. The proudest of you all Have been beholding to him in his life; Yet none of you would once plead for his life. O God, I fear thy justice will take hold On me, and you, and mine, and yours for this! Come, Hastings, help me to my closet. Oh, poor Clarence! |
GLOUCESTER: This is the fruit of rashness! Mark'd you not How that the guilty kindred of the queen Look'd pale when they did hear of Clarence' death? O, they did urge it still unto the king! God will revenge it. But come, let us in, To comfort Edward with our company. |
BUCKINGHAM: We wait upon your grace. |
Boy: Tell me, good grandam, is our father dead? |
DUCHESS OF YORK: No, boy. |
Boy: Why do you wring your hands, and beat your breast, And cry 'O Clarence, my unhappy son!' |
Girl: Why do you look on us, and shake your head, And call us wretches, orphans, castaways If that our noble father be alive? |
DUCHESS OF YORK: My pretty cousins, you mistake me much; I do lament the sickness of the king. As loath to lose him, not your father's death; It were lost sorrow to wail one that's lost. |
Boy: Then, grandam, you conclude that he is dead. The king my uncle is to blame for this: God will revenge it; whom I will importune With daily prayers all to that effect. |
Girl: And so will I. |
DUCHESS OF YORK: Peace, children, peace! the king doth love you well: Incapable and shallow innocents, You cannot guess who caused your father's death. |
Boy: Grandam, we can; for my good uncle Gloucester Told me, the king, provoked by the queen, Devised impeachments to imprison him : And when my uncle told me so, he wept, And hugg'd me in his arm, and kindly kiss'd my cheek; Bade me rely on him as on my father, And he would love me dearly as his child. |
DUCHESS OF YORK: Oh, that deceit should steal such gentle shapes, And with a virtuous vizard hide foul guile! He is my son; yea, and therein my shame; Yet from my dugs he drew not this deceit. |
Boy: Think you my uncle did dissemble, grandam? |
DUCHESS OF YORK: Ay, boy. |
Boy: I cannot think it. Hark! what noise is this? |
QUEEN ELIZABETH: Oh, who shall hinder me to wail and weep, To chide my fortune, and torment myself? I'll join with black despair against my soul, And to myself become an enemy. |
DUCHESS OF YORK: What means this scene of rude impatience? |
QUEEN ELIZABETH: To make an act of tragic violence: Edward, my lord, your son, our king, is dead. Why grow the branches now the root is wither'd? Why wither not the leaves the sap being gone? If you will live, lament; if die, be brief, That our swift-winged souls may catch the king's; Or, like obedient subjects, follow him To his new kingdom of perpetual rest. |
DUCHESS OF YORK: Ah, so much interest have I in thy sorrow As I had title in thy noble husband! I have bewept a worthy husband's death, And lived by looking on his images: But now two mirrors of his princely semblance Are crack'd in pieces by malignant death, And I for comfort have but one false glass, Which grieves me when I see my shame in him. Thou art a widow; yet thou art a mother, And hast the comfort of thy children left thee: But death hath snatch'd my husband from mine arms, And pluck'd two crutches from my feeble limbs, Edward and Clarence. O, what cause have I, Thine being but a moiety of my grief, To overgo thy plaints and drown thy cries! |
Boy: Good aunt, you wept not for our father's death; How can we aid you with our kindred tears? |
Girl: Our fatherless distress was left unmoan'd; Your widow-dolour likewise be unwept! |
QUEEN ELIZABETH: Give me no help in lamentation; I am not barren to bring forth complaints All springs reduce their currents to mine eyes, That I, being govern'd by the watery moon, May send forth plenteous tears to drown the world! Oh for my husband, for my dear lord Edward! |
Children: Oh for our father, for our dear lord Clarence! |
DUCHESS OF YORK: Alas for both, both mine, Edward and Clarence! |
QUEEN ELIZABETH: What stay had I but Edward? and he's gone. |
Children: What stay had we but Clarence? and he's gone. |
DUCHESS OF YORK: What stays had I but they? and they are gone. |
QUEEN ELIZABETH: Was never widow had so dear a loss! |
Children: Were never orphans had so dear a loss! |
DUCHESS OF YORK: Was never mother had so dear a loss! Alas, I am the mother of these moans! Their woes are parcell'd, mine are general. She for an Edward weeps, and so do I; I for a Clarence weep, so doth not she: These babes for Clarence weep and so do I; I for an Edward weep, so do not they: Alas, you three, on me, threefold distress'd, Pour all your tears! I am your sorrow's nurse, And I will pamper it with lamentations. |
DORSET: Comfort, dear mother: God is much displeased That you take with unthankfulness, his doing: In common worldly things, 'tis call'd ungrateful, With dull unwilligness to repay a debt Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent; Much more to be thus opposite with heaven, For it requires the royal debt it lent you. |
RIVERS: Madam, bethink you, like a careful mother, Of the young prince your son: send straight for him Let him be crown'd; in him your comfort lives: Drown desperate sorrow in dead Edward's grave, And plant your joys in living Edward's throne. |
GLOUCESTER: Madam, have comfort: all of us have cause To wail the dimming of our shining star; But none can cure their harms by wailing them. Madam, my mother, I do cry you mercy; I did not see your grace: humbly on my knee I crave your blessing. |
DUCHESS OF YORK: God bless thee; and put meekness in thy mind, Love, charity, obedience, and true duty! |
GLOUCESTER: |
BUCKINGHAM: You cloudy princes and heart-sorrowing peers, That bear this mutual heavy load of moan, Now cheer each other in each other's love Though we have spent our harvest of this king, We are to reap the harvest of his son. The broken rancour of your high-swoln hearts, But lately splinter'd, knit, and join'd together, Must gently be preserved, cherish'd, and kept: Me seemeth good, that, with some little train, Forthwith from Ludlow the young prince be fetch'd Hither to London, to be crown'd our king. |
RIVERS: Why with some little train, my Lord of Buckingham? |