Act 2 — fba SCENE I. London. The palace.

Flourish. 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:

I every day expect an embassage

♦ From my Redeemer to redeem me hence;

5 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.

♦ Riv. By heaven, my soul is purged from grudging hate;

10 And with my hand I seal my true heart’s love.

♦ 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

15 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,

♦ Nor your son Dorset; Buckingham, nor you;

20 You have been factious one against the other.

Wife, love Lord Hastings, let him kiss your hand;

And what you do, do it unfeignedly.

♦ Q. Eliz. Here, Hastings; I will never more remember

Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine!

25 K. Edw. Dorset, embrace him; Hastings, love lord marquess.

♦ Dor. This interchange of love, I here protest,

♦ Upon my part shall be unviolable.

♦ Hast. And so swear I, my lord. [They embrace.

♦ K. Edw. Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league

30 With thy embracements to my wife’s allies,

♦ And make me happy in your unity.

Buck. [To the Queen] Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate

♦ On you or yours but with all duteous love

Doth cherish you and yours, God punish me

35 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,

40 When I am cold in zeal to you or yours. [They embrace.

K. Edw. 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.

45 Buck. And, in good time, here comes the noble duke.

Enter GLOUCESTER.

Glou. 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.

♦ Brother, we have done deeds of charity;

50 Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate,

♦ Between these swelling wrong-incensed peers.

♦ Glou. A blessed labour, my most sovereign liege:

♦ Amongst this princely heap, if any here,

By false intelligence, or wrong surmise,

55 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:

60 ’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,

65 If ever any grudge were lodged between us;

♦ Of you, Lord Rivers, and, Lord Grey, of you,

♦ That all without desert have frown’d on me;

Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen; indeed, of all.

I do not know that Englishman alive

70 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.

♦ Q. Eliz. A holy day shall this be kept hereafter:

♦ I would to God all strifes were well compounded.

75 My sovereign liege, I do beseech your majesty

To take our brother Clarence to your grace.

Glou. Why, madam, have I offer’d love for this,

♦ To be so flouted in this royal presence?

♦ Who knows not that the noble duke is dead? [They all start.

80 You do him injury to scorn his corse.

♦ Riv. 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 one in this presence

85 But his red colour hath forsook his cheeks.

K. Edw. Is Clarence dead? the order was reversed.

♦ Glou. But he, poor soul, by your first order died,

♦ And that a winged Mercury did bear;

♦ Some tardy cripple bore the countermand,

90 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!

Enter DERBY.

95 Der. A boon, my sovereign, for my service done!

♦ K. Edw. I pray thee, peace: my soul is full of sorrow.

♦ Der. I will not rise, unless your highness grant.

♦ K. Edw. Then speak at once what is it thou demand’st.

♦ Der. The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant’s life;

100 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?

♦ My brother slew no man; his fault was thought,

105 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

110 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

115 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

120 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;

125 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;

130 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! [Exeunt some with King and Queen.

♦ Glou. This is the fruit of rashness. Mark’d you not

135 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.

140 Buck. We wait upon your grace. [Exeunt.