KING RICHARD THE THIRD

Act 3 Scene 5

(Enter Richard Duke of Gloucester and the Duke of Buckingham in rotten armour, marvellous ill-favoured)
l1l	Richard Gloucester	 Come, cousin, canst thou quake and change thy colour?
l2l		Murder thy breath in middle of a word?
l3l		And then again begin, and stop again,
l4l		As if thou wert distraught and mad with terror?
l5l	Buckingham	Tut, I can counterfeit the deep tragedian,
l6l		Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,
l7l		Speak, and look back, and pry on every side,
l8l		Intending deep suspicion# ghastly looks
l9l		Are at my service, like enforcèd smiles,
l10l		And both are ready in their offices
l11l		At any time to grace my stratagems.
		(Enter the Lord Mayor)
l12l	Richard Gloucester	(aside to Buckingham)
		 Here comes the Mayor.
l13l	Buckingham	(aside to Richard)
		 Let me alone to entertain him.—Lord Mayor—
l14l	Richard Gloucester	(calling as to one within)
		 Look to the drawbridge there!
l15l	Buckingham	Hark, a drum!
l16l	Richard Gloucester	(calling as to one within)
		 Catesby, o’erlook the walls!
l17l	Buckingham	Lord Mayor, the reason we have sent—
l18l	Richard Gloucester	Look back, defend thee! Here are enemies.
l19l	Buckingham	God and our innocence defend and guard us.
		(Enter Sir William Catesby with Hastings' head)
l20l	Richard Gloucester	 O, O, be quiet! It is Catesby.
l21l	Catesby	Here is the head of that ignoble traitor,
l22l		The dangerous and unsuspected Hastings.
l23l	Richard Gloucester	So dear I loved the man that I must weep.
l24l		I took him for the plainest harmless creature
l25l		That breathed upon the earth, a Christian,
l26l		Made him my book wherein my soul recorded
l27l		The history of all her secret thoughts.
l28l		So smooth he daubed his vice with show of virtue
l29l		That, his apparent open guilt omitted—
l30l		I mean, his conversation with Shore’s wife—
l31l		He lived from all attainture of suspect.
l32l	Buckingham	The covert’st sheltered traitor that ever lived.
l33l		(To the Mayor)
		 Would you imagine, or almost believe—
l34l		Were ’t not that, by great preservation,
l35l		We live to tell it—that the subtle traitor
l36l		This day had plotted in the Council house
l37l		To murder me and my good lord of Gloucester?
l38l	Mayor	Had he done so?
l39l	Richard Gloucester	What, think you we are Turks or infidels,
l40l		Or that we would against the form of law
l41l		Proceed thus rashly in the villain’s death
l42l		But that the extreme peril of the case,
l43l		The peace of England, and our persons’ safety,
l44l		Enforced us to this execution?
l45l	Mayor	Now fair befall you, he deserved his death,
l46l		And your good graces both have well proceeded,
l47l		To warn false traitors from the like attempts.
l48l		I never looked for better at his hands
l49l		After he once fell in with Mrs Shore.
l50l	[Richard Gloucester]	Yet had not we determined he should die,
l51l		Until your lordship came to see his end,
l52l		Which now the loving haste of these our friends—
l53l		Something against our meanings—have prevented#
l54l		Because, my lord, we would have had you hear
l55l		The traitor speak, and timorously confess
l56l		The manner and the purpose of his treason,
l57l		That you might well have signified the same
l58l		Unto the citizens, who haply may
l59l		Misconster us in him, and wail his death.
l60l	Mayor	But, my good lord, your graces’ word shall serve
l61l		As well as I had seen and heard him speak.
l62l		And do not doubt, right noble princes both,
l63l		But I’ll acquaint our duteous citizens
l64l		With all your just proceedings in this cause.
l65l	Richard Gloucester	And to that end we wished your lordship here,
l66l		T’ avoid the censures of the carping world.
l67l	Buckingham	Which, since you come too late of our intent,
l68l		Yet witness what you hear we did intend,
l69l		And so, my good Lord Mayor, we bid farewell.
		(Exit Mayor)
l70l	Richard Gloucester	 Go after# after, cousin Buckingham!
l71l		The Mayor towards Guildhall hies him in all post#
l72l		There, at your meetest vantage of the time,
l73l		Infer the bastardy of Edward’s children.
l74l		Tell them how Edward put to death a citizen
l75l		Only for saying he would make his son
l76l		“Heir to the Crown”—meaning indeed, his house,
l77l		Which by the sign thereof was termèd so.
l78l		Moreover, urge his hateful luxury
l79l		And bestial appetite in change of lust,
l80l		Which stretched unto their servants, daughters, wives,
l81l		Even where his raging eye, or savage heart,
l82l		Without control, listed to make a prey.
l83l		Nay, for a need, thus far come near my person:
l84l		Tell them, when that my mother went with child
l85l		Of that insatiate Edward, noble York,
l86l		My princely father, then had wars in France,
l87l		And by true computation of the time
l88l		Found that the issue was not his begot—
l89l		Which well appearèd in his lineaments,
l90l		Being nothing like the noble Duke my father.
l91l		Yet touch this sparingly, as ’twere far off,
l92l		Because, my lord, you know my mother lives.
l93l	Buckingham	Doubt not, my lord, I’ll play the orator
l94l		As if the golden fee for which I plead
l95l		Were for myself. And so, my lord, adieu.
		(He starts to go)
l96l	Richard Gloucester	 If you thrive well, bring them to Baynard’s Castle,
l97l		Where you shall find me well accompanied
l98l		With reverend fathers and well-learnèd bishops.
l99l	Buckingham	I go, and towards three or four o’clock
l100l		Look for the news that the Guildhall affords.
		(Exit)
l101l	Richard Gloucester	 Now will I in, to take some privy order
l102l		To draw the brats of Clarence out of sight,
l103l		And to give notice that no manner person
l104l		Have any time recourse unto the Princes.
		(Exeunt)