ACT 1
Scene 1
...The new-delivered Hastings?
Enter Lord Hastings.
Good time of day unto my gracious lord.
...Lordship brooked imprisonment?
With patience, noble lord, as prisoners must.
But I shall live, my lord, to give them thanks
That were the cause of my imprisonment.
...him as you.
More pity that the eagles should be mewed,
Whiles kites and buzzards prey at liberty.
...What news abroad?
No news so bad abroad as this at home:
The King is sickly, weak, and melancholy,
And his physicians fear him mightily.
...in his bed?
He is.
...will follow you.
Exit Hastings.
Scene 3
...at the height.
Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Hastings.
...right the innocent.
O, ’twas the foulest deed to slay that babe,
And the most merciless that e’er was heard of!
...bunch-backed toad.
False-boding woman, end thy frantic curse,
Lest to thy harm thou move our patience.
...upon your Grace.
All but Richard, Duke of Gloucester exit.
ACT 2
Scene 1
...must not stay.
Flourish. Enter King Edward, sick, Queen Elizabeth, Lord Marquess Dorset, Rivers, Hastings, Buckingham, Woodeville, Grey, and Scales.
...Swear your love.
RIVERS, taking Hastings’ hand
...true heart’s love.
So thrive I as I truly swear the like.
...the other’s end.
So prosper I as I swear perfect love.
...I and mine.
Hastings kisses her hand.
...shall be inviolable.
And so swear I.
They embrace.
...duke is dead?
They all start.
...Ah, poor Clarence.
Some exit with King and Queen.
Scene 2
...living Edward’s throne.
Enter Richard, Duke of Gloucester, Buckingham, Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby, Hastings, and Ratcliffe.
...fetch the Prince.
And so say I.
...in this business?
All but Buckingham and Richard exit.
ACT 3
Scene 1
...come or no!
Enter Lord Hastings.
...our mother come?
On what occasion God He knows, not I,
The Queen your mother and your brother York
Have taken sanctuary. The tender prince
Would fain have come with me to meet your Grace,
But by his mother was perforce withheld.
...go with me?
I go, my lord.
...haste you may.
The Cardinal and Hastings exit.
...a forward spring.
Enter young Duke of York, Hastings, and the Cardinal.
...unto the Tower.
A sennet. Prince Edward, the Duke of York, and Hastings exit. Richard, Buckingham, and Catesby remain.
Scene 2
...lord, my lord.
within
Who knocks?
...the Lord Stanley.
within
What is ’t o’clock?
...stroke of four.
Enter Lord Hastings.
Cannot my Lord Stanley sleep these tedious nights?
...your noble self.
What then?
...his soul divines.
Go, fellow, go. Return unto thy lord.
Bid him not fear the separated council.
His Honor 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, without instance.
And for his dreams, I wonder he’s so simple
To trust the mock’ry 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.
...my noble lord.
Good morrow, Catesby. You are early stirring.
What news, what news in this our tott’ring state?
...of the realm.
How “wear the garland”? Dost thou mean the crown?
...my good lord.
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?
...die at Pomfret.
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.
...that gracious mind.
But I shall laugh at this a twelve-month hence,
That they which 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.
...not for it.
O monstrous, monstrous! And so falls it out
With Rivers, Vaughan, Grey; and so ’twill do
With some men else that think themselves as safe
As thou and I, who, as thou know’st, are dear
To princely Richard and to Buckingham.
...upon the Bridge.
I know they do, and I have well deserved it.
Enter Lord Stanley.
Come on, come on. Where is your boar-spear, man?
Fear you the boar and go so unprovided?
...several councils, I.
My lord, I hold my life as dear as you do yours,
And never in my days, I do protest,
Was it so precious to me as ’tis now.
Think you but that I know our state secure,
I would be so triumphant as I am?
...day is spent.
Come, come. Have with you. Wot you what, my lord?
Today the lords you talked of are beheaded.
...Enter a Pursuivant.
Go on before. I’ll talk with this good fellow.
How now, sirrah? How goes the world with thee?
...please to ask.
I tell thee, man, ’tis better with me now
Than when thou met’st me last where now we meet.
Then was I going prisoner to the Tower
By the suggestion of the Queen’s allies.
But now, I tell thee—keep it to thyself—
This day those enemies are put to death,
And I in better state than e’er I was.
...Honor’s good content!
Gramercy, fellow. There, drink that for me.
Throws him his purse.
...see your Honor.
I thank thee, good Sir John, with all my heart.
I am in your debt for your last exercise.
Come the next sabbath, and I will content you.
...work in hand.
Good faith, and when I met this holy man,
The men you talk of came into my mind.
What, go you toward the Tower?
...your Lordship thence.
Nay, like enough, for I stay dinner there.
...will you go?
I’ll wait upon your Lordship.
They exit.
Scene 4
...again in heaven.
Enter Buckingham, Lord Stanley, Earl of Derby, Hastings, Bishop of Ely, Norfolk, Ratcliffe, Lovell, with others, at a table.
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?
...near in love.
I thank his Grace, I know he loves me well.
But for his purpose in the coronation,
I have not sounded him, nor he delivered
His gracious pleasure any way therein.
But you, my honorable lords, may name the time,
And in the Duke’s behalf I’ll give my voice,
Which I presume he’ll take in gentle part.
...for these strawberries.
His Grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning.
There’s some conceit or other likes him well
When that he bids good morrow with such spirit.
I think there’s never a man in Christendom
Can lesser hide his love or hate than he,
For by his face straight shall you know his heart.
...he showed today?
Marry, that with no man here he is offended,
For were he, he had shown it in his looks.
...their hellish charms?
The tender love I bear your Grace, my lord,
Makes me most forward in this princely presence
To doom th’ offenders, whosoe’er they be.
I say, my lord, they have deservèd death.
...have markèd me.
If they have done this deed, my noble lord—
...and follow me.
Woe, woe for England! Not a whit for me,
For I, too fond, might have prevented this.
Stanley did dream the boar did raze his helm,
And I did scorn it and disdain to fly.
Three times today my foot-cloth horse did stumble,
And started when he looked upon the Tower,
As loath to bear me to the slaughterhouse.
O, now I need the priest that spake to me!
I now repent I told the pursuivant,
As too triumphing, how mine enemies
Today at Pomfret bloodily were butchered,
And I myself secure in grace and favor.
O Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse
Is lighted on poor Hastings’ wretched head.
...see your head.
O momentary grace of mortal men,
Which we more hunt for than the grace of God!
Who builds his hope in air of your good looks
Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast,
Ready with every nod to tumble down
Into the fatal bowels of the deep.
...bootless to exclaim.
O bloody Richard! Miserable England,
I prophesy the fearfull’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.
They exit.
ACT 5
Scene 3
...bid thee flourish.
Enter the Ghost of Hastings.
(to Richard)
Bloody and guilty, guiltily awake,
And in a bloody battle end thy days.
Think on Lord Hastings. Despair and die!
(To Richmond.)
Quiet, untroubled soul, awake, awake.
Arm, fight, and conquer for fair England’s sake.
He exits.