Stan. The lords at Pomfret, when they rode from London, Were jocund, and suppos'd their states were sure, Pray God, I say, I prove a needless coward! To-day, the lords you talk of are beheaded. Stan. They, for their truth, might better wear their heads, Than some, that have accus'd them, wear their hats. But come, my lord, let's away. Enter a Pursuivant. By the suggestion of the queen's allies; Purs. God hold it, to your honour's good content! . Purs. I thank your honour. Enter a Priest. Priest. Well met, my lord; I am glad to see your honour. Hast. I thank thee, good sir John, with all my heart. I am in your debt for your last exercise ;2 Come the next sabbath, and I will content you. Enter BUCKINGHAM. Buck. What, talking with a priest, lord chamberlain? Your friends at Pomfret, they do need a priest ; Your honour hath no shriving work in hand. 3 [1] This phrase signified merely "I will go along with you ;" and is an expression in use at this day. M. MASON. [2] Attending him in private to hear his confession. [3] Shriving work is confession. JOHNS. MAL. Hast. 'Good faith, and when I met this holy man, The men you talk of came into my mind. What, go you toward the Tower ? Buck. I do, my lord; but long I cannot stay there; I shall return before your lordship thence. Hast. Nay, like enough, for I stay dinner there. Hast. I'll wait upon your lordship. SCENE III. [Exeunt. Pomfret. Before the Castle. Enter RATCLIFF, with a Guard, conducting RIVERS, GREY, and VAUGHAN, to Execution. Rat. Come, bring forth the prisoners. Riv. Sir Richard Ratcliff, let me tell thee this,To-day, thou shalt behold a subject die, For truth, for duty, and for loyalty. Grey. God keep the prince from all the pack of you! A knot you are of damned blood-suckers. Vaugh. You live, that shall cry woe for this hereafter. Rat. Despatch; the limit of your lives is out. Riv. O Pomfret, Pomfret! O thou bloody prison, Fatal and ominous to noble peers! Within the guilty closure of thy walls, Richard the Second here was hack'd to death; And, for more slander to thy dismal seat, We give thee up our guiltless blood to drink. Grey. Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon our heads, Then curs'd she Richard :-O, remember, God, Which, as thou know'st, unjustly must be spilt ! Farewel, until we meet again in heaven. [Exeunt. [4] Expiate is used for expiated; It seems to mean, fully completed, and ended. MAL. 30 VOL. V. SCENE IV. London. A Room in the Tower. BUCKINGHAM, STANLEY, HASTINGS, the Bishop of ELY, CATESBY, LOVEL, and others, sitting at a Table: Officers of the Council attending. Hast. 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? Buck. Who knows the lord protector's mind herein? Who is most inward with the noble duke? Ely. Your grace, we think, should soonest know his mind. Buck. We know each other's faces: for our hearts,— He knows no more of mine, than I of yours ; Nor I, of his, my lord, than you of mine :Lord Hastings, you and he are near in love. Hast. I thank his grace, I know he loves me well; But, for his purpose in the coronation, I have not sounded him, nor he deliver'd Ely. In happy time, here comes the duke himself. Glo. My noble lords and cousins, all, good-morrow : I have been long a sleeper; but, I trust, My absence doth neglect no great design, Glo. Than my lord Hastings, no man might be bolder; [5] i. e. the only thing wanting, is appointment of a particular day for the ceremony. STEEV. [6] This expression is borrowed from the theatre. The cue, queue, or tail of a speech consists of the last words, which are the token for an entrance or answer. To come on the cue, therefore, is to come at the proper time. JOHNS. Ely. Marry, and will, my lord, with all my heart. [Exit ELY. Glo. Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you. [Takes him aside. Catesby hath sounded Hastings in our business; And finds the testy gentleman so hot, That he will lose his head, ere give consent, Buck. Withdraw yourself awhile, I'll go with you. As else I would be, were the day prolong'd. Ely. Where is my lord protector? I have sent For these strawberries. Hast. His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning; There's some conceit or other likes him well, For by his face straight shall you know his heart. Hast. Marry, that with no man here he is offended ; For, were he, he had shown it in his looks. Re-enter GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM. Glo. I pray you all, tell me what they deserve, That do conspire my death with devilish plots Of damned witchcraft; and that have prevail'd Upon my body with their hellish charms? Hast. The tender love I bear your grace, my lord, Makes me most forward in this noble presence 'To doom the offenders: Whosoe'er they be, I say, my lord, they have deserved death. Glo. Then be your eyes the witness of their evil, And this is Edward's wife, that monstrous witch, That by their witchcraft thus have marked me. Hast. If they have done this deed, my noble lord,- Lovel, and Catesby, look, that it be done ; [Exe. Council, with GLOSTER and BUCKINGHAM. Three times to-day my foot-cloth horse did stumble, O, Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse Is lighted on poor Hastings' wretched head. Cate. Despatch, my lord, the duke would be at dinner; Make a short shrift, he longs to see your head. Hast. O momentary grace of mortal men, Which we more hunt for than the grace of God! Who builds his hope in air of your fair looks,9 Lives like a drunken sailor on a mast ; Ready, with every nod, to tumble down Into the fatal bowels of the deep. Lov. Come, come, despatch; 'tis bootless to exclaim. Hast. Oh, bloody Richard !-miserable England! I prophesy the fearful'st time to thee, That ever wretched age hath look'd upon. Come, lead me to the block, bear him my head ; They smile at me, who shortly shall be dead. [Exeunt. [8] So, in The Legend of Lord Hastings, M. D. 1463. [Master Dolman.] " My palfrey in the playnest paved streete, Thryse bow'd his boanes, thryse kneled on the flower, Thryse shonnd (as Balams asse) the dreaded tower." The housings of a horse, and sometimes the horse himself, were anciently denominated a foot-cloth. STEEV. [9] So, Horace : Nescius auræ fallacis. JOHNS. |