Flourish. Enter King ⌜Edward,⌝ sick, Queen ⌜Elizabeth,⌝
Lord Marquess Dorset, Rivers, Hastings, Buckingham,
Woodeville, ⌜Grey, and Scales.⌝KING EDWARD 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 more ⟨in⟩ peace my soul shall part to heaven Since I have made my friends at peace on Earth. ⟨Rivers and Hastings,⟩ take each other’s hand. Dissemble not your hatred. Swear your love.RIVERS, ⌜taking Hastings’ hand⌝ By heaven, my soul is purged from grudging hate,10 And with my hand I seal my true heart’s love.HASTINGS So thrive I as I truly swear the like.KING EDWARD Take heed you dally not before your king, Lest He that is the supreme King of kings Confound your hidden falsehood and award15 Either of you to be the other’s end.HASTINGS So prosper I as I swear perfect love.
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RIVERS And I as I love Hastings with my heart.KING EDWARD, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝ Madam, yourself is not exempt from this,— Nor you, 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.QUEEN ELIZABETH There, Hastings, I will never more remember Our former hatred, so thrive I and mine.⌜Hastings kisses her hand.⌝KING EDWARD 25 Dorset, embrace him.—Hastings, love Lord Marquess.DORSET This interchange of love, I here protest, Upon my part shall be inviolable.HASTINGS And so swear I.⌜They embrace.⌝KING EDWARD 30 Now, princely Buckingham, seal thou this league With thy embracements to my wife’s allies And make me happy in your unity.BUCKINGHAM, ⌜to Queen Elizabeth⌝ Whenever Buckingham doth turn his hate Upon your Grace, but with all duteous love35 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 assurèd that he is a friend, Deep, hollow, treacherous, and full of guile40 Be he unto me: this do I beg of ⟨God,⟩ When I am cold in love to you or yours.⌜Queen Elizabeth and Buckingham⌝ embrace.KING EDWARD A pleasing cordial, princely Buckingham,
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Is this thy vow unto my sickly heart. There wanteth now our brother Gloucester here45 To make the blessèd period of this peace.BUCKINGHAM And in good time Here comes Sir Richard Ratcliffe and the Duke.Enter Ratcliffe, and ⌜Richard, Duke of⌝ Gloucester.RICHARD Good morrow to my sovereign king and queen, And, princely peers, a happy time of day.KING EDWARD 50 Happy indeed, as we have spent the day. Gloucester, we have done deeds of charity, Made peace of enmity, fair love of hate, Between these swelling, wrong-incensèd peers.RICHARD A blessèd labor, my most sovereign lord.55 Among 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 borne60 ⟨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,65 Which I will purchase with my duteous service;— Of you, my noble cousin Buckingham, If ever any grudge were lodged between us;— Of you and you, Lord Rivers and of Dorset, That all without desert have frowned on me;—70 Of you, Lord Woodeville and Lord Scales;—of you, Dukes, earls, lords, gentlemen; indeed, of all. I do not know that Englishman alive With whom my soul is any jot at odds
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More than the infant that is born tonight.75 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 lord, I do beseech your Highness To take our brother Clarence to your grace.RICHARD 80 Why, madam, have I offered love for this, To be so flouted in this royal presence? Who knows not that the gentle duke is dead?They all start. You do him injury to scorn his corse.KING EDWARD Who knows not he is dead! Who knows he is?QUEEN ELIZABETH 85 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 man in the presence But his red color hath forsook his cheeks.KING EDWARD Is Clarence dead? The order was reversed.RICHARD 90 But he, poor man, by your first order died, And that a wingèd Mercury did bear. Some tardy cripple bare the countermand, That came too lag to see him burièd. God grant that some, less noble and less loyal,95 Nearer in bloody thoughts, and not in blood, Deserve not worse than wretched Clarence did, And yet go current from suspicion.Enter ⌜Lord Stanley,⌝ Earl of Derby.
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STANLEY, ⌜kneeling⌝ A boon, my sovereign, for my service done.KING EDWARD I prithee, peace. My soul is full of sorrow.STANLEY 100 I will not rise unless your Highness hear me.KING EDWARD Then say at once what is it thou requests.STANLEY The forfeit, sovereign, of my servant’s life, Who slew today a riotous gentleman Lately attendant on the Duke of Norfolk.KING EDWARD 105 Have I a tongue to doom my brother’s death, And shall that tongue give pardon to a slave? My brother killed no man; his fault was thought, And yet his punishment was bitter death. Who sued to me for him? Who, in my wrath,110 Kneeled ⟨at⟩ my feet, and ⟨bade⟩ me be advised? Who spoke of brotherhood? Who spoke 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 at Tewkesbury,115 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 garments and did give himself,120 All thin and naked, to the numb-cold night? All this from my remembrance brutish wrath Sinfully plucked, and not a man of you Had so much grace to put it in my mind. But when your carters or your waiting vassals125 Have done a drunken slaughter and defaced The precious image of our dear Redeemer,
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You straight are on your knees for pardon, pardon, And I, unjustly too, must grant it you.⌜Stanley rises.⌝ But for my brother, not a man would speak,130 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 beg for his life. O God, I fear Thy justice will take hold135 On me and you, and mine and yours for this!— Come, Hastings, help me to my closet.— Ah, poor Clarence.Some exit with King and Queen.RICHARD This is the fruits of rashness. Marked you not How that the guilty kindred of the Queen140 Looked pale when they did hear of Clarence’ death? O, they did urge it still unto the King. God will revenge it. Come, lords, will you go To comfort Edward with our company?BUCKINGHAM We wait upon your Grace.They exit.
Richard III
