Act 3 — fce SCENE V. The Tower-walls.

Enter GLOUCESTER and BUCKINGHAM, in rotten armour, marvellous ill-favoured.

♦ Glou. Come, cousin, canst thou quake, and change thy colour,

♦ Murder thy breath in middle of a word,

♦ And then begin again, and stop again,

♦ As if thou wert distraught and mad with terror?

5 Buck. Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian,

Speak and look back, and pry on every side,

♦ Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,

♦ Intending deep suspicion: ghastly looks

Are at my service, like enforced smiles;

10 And both are ready in their offices,

At any time, to grace my stratagems.

But what, is Catesby gone?

♦ Glou. He is; and, see, he brings the mayor along.

Enter the Mayor and CATESBY.

♦ Buck. Lord mayor,—

15 Glou. Look to the drawbridge there!

♦ Buck. Hark! a drum.

♦ Glou. Catesby, o’erlook the walls.

♦ Buck. Lord mayor, the reason we have sent—

♦ Glou. Look back, defend thee, here are enemies.

20 Buck. God and our innocency defend and guard us!

♦ Glou. Be patient, they are friends, Ratcliff and Lovel.

Enter LOVEL and RATCLIFF, with HASTINGS’ head.

♦ Lov. Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,

The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.

Glou. So dear I loved the man, that I must weep.

25 I took him for the plainest harmless creature

♦ That breathed upon this earth a Christian;

♦ Made him my book, wherein my soul recorded

The history of all her secret thoughts:

So smooth he daub’d his vice with show of virtue

30 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 shelter’d traitor

That ever lived.

35 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 Gloucester?

40 May. What, had he so?

♦ Glou. What, think you we are Turks or infidels?

♦ Or that we would, against the form of law,

♦ Proceed thus rashly to the villain’s death,

♦ But that the extreme peril of the case,

45 The peace of England and our persons’ safety,

♦ Enforced us to this execution?

May. Now, fair befall you! he deserved his death;

♦ And you, my good lords both, have well proceeded,

To warn false traitors from the like attempts.

50 I never look’d for better at his hands,

After he once fell in with Mistress Shore.

♦ Glou. Yet had not we determined he should die,

♦ Until your lordship came to see his death;

♦ Which now the loving haste of these our friends,

55 Somewhat against our meaning, have prevented:

♦ Because, my lord, we would have had you heard

The traitor speak and timorously confess

♦ The manner and the purpose of his treason;

That you might well have signified the same

60 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 doubt you not, right noble princes both,

65 But I’ll acquaint our duteous citizens

♦ With all your just proceedings in this cause.

♦ Glou. And to that end we wish’d your lordship here,

♦ To avoid the carping censures of the world.

♦ Buck. But since you come too late of our intents,

70 Yet witness what you hear we did intend:

And so, my good lord mayor, we bid farewell. [Exit Mayor.

♦ Glou. Go, after, after, cousin Buckingham.

The mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all post:

♦ There, at your meet’st advantage of the time,

75 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.

80 Moreover, urge his hateful luxury

♦ And bestial appetite in change of lust;

♦ Which stretched to their servants, daughters, wives,

♦ Even where his lustful eye or savage heart,

♦ Without control, listed to make his prey.

85 Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person:

Tell them, when that my mother went with child

♦ Of that unsatiate Edward, noble York

♦ My princely father then had wars in France;

♦ And, by just computation of the time,

90 Found that the issue was not his begot;

Which well appeared in his lineaments,

Being nothing like the noble duke my father:

♦ But touch this sparingly, as ’twere far off;

♦ Because you know, my lord, my mother lives.

95 Buck. Fear 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.

Glou. If you thrive well, bring them to Baynard’s Castle;

Where you shall find me well accompanied

100 With reverend fathers and well-learned bishops.

♦ Buck. I go; and towards three or four o’clock

♦ Look for the news that the Guildhall affords. [Exit.

♦ Glou. Go, Lovel, with all speed to Doctor Shaw;

♦ [To Cate.] Go thou to Friar Penker; bid them both

105 Meet me within this hour at Baynard’s Castle. [Exeunt all but Gloucester.

♦ Now will I in, to take some privy order,

To draw the brats of Clarence out of sight;

♦ And to give notice, that no manner of person

♦ At any time have recourse unto the princes. [Exit.