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Buck. I hear the news, my lord.

K.Rich. Stanley, he is your wife's son :-Well, look

to it.

Buck. My lord, I claim the gift, my due by promise, For which your honour and your faith is pawn'd; The earldom of Hereford, and the moveables, Which you have promised I shall possess. 5

K.Rich. Stanley, look to your wife; if she convey Letters to Richmond, you shall answer it.

Buck. What says your highness to my just request ?
K.Rich. I do remember me,-Henry the Sixth

Did prophesy, that Richmond should be king,
When Richmond was a little peevish boy.
A king-perhaps
Buck. My lord,-

K.Kich. How chance, the prophet could not at that time,
Have told me, I being by, that I should kill him?
Buck. My lord, your promise for the earldom,—
K.Rich. Řichmond !-When last I was at Exeter,
The mayor in courtesy show'd me the castle,

And call'd it-Rouge-mont: at which name, I started ; Because a bard of Ireland told me once,

I should not live long after I saw Richmond.

Buck. My lord,

K.Rich. Ay, what's o'clock ?

Buck. I am thus bold to put your grace in mind

Of what you promis'd me.

K.Rich. Well, but what is't o'clock ?

Buck. Upon the stroke of ten.

K.Rich. Well, let it strike.

Buck. Why, let it strike?

K.Rich. Because that, like a Jack, thou keep'st the stroke 6

Betwixt thy begging and my meditation.

[5] Thomas duke of Gloster, the fifth son of Edward the Third, married one of the daughters and coheirs of Humphrey de Bohun Earl of Hereford. Henry Stafford Duke of Buckingham was lineally descended from Thomas Duke of Gloster, his only daughter Anne having married Edmund Earl of Stafford, and Henry being the great grandson of Edmund and Anne. In this right he and his ancestors had possessed one half of the Hereford estate; and he claimed and actually obtained from Richard III. after he usurped the throne, the restitution of the other half, which had been seized on by Edward; and also the earldom of Hereford, and the office of Constable of England, which had long been annexed by inheritance to that earldom. Many of our historians, however, ascribe the breach between him and Richard to Richard's refusing to restore the moiety of the Hereford estate; and Shakspeare has followed them. MAL.

[6] An image, like those at St. Dunstan's church in Fleet Street, and at the market-houses at several towns in this kingdom, was usually called a Back of the clock-house. Richard resembles Buckingham to one of those au

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Tyrrel. O thus, (quoth Forest,) lay the gentle babes thus girdling one another.

I am not in the giving vein to-day.

Buck. Why, then resolve me whe'r you will, or no. K.Rich. Thou troublest me; I am not in the vein. [Exeunt K. RICHARD and Train. Buck. And is it thus? repays he my deep service With such contempt? made I him king for this? O, let me think on Hastings; and be gone To Brecknock, while my fearful head is on.

SCENE III.

The same. Enter TYRREL.

Tyr. The tyrannous and bloody act is done;
The most arch deed of piteous massacre,
That ever yet this land was guilty of.
Dighton, and Forrest, whom I did suborn
To do this piece of ruthless butchery,

[Exit.

Albeit they were flesh'd villains, bloody dogs,
Melting with tenderness and mild compassion,
Wept like two children, in their deaths' sad story.
O thus, quoth Dighton, lay the gentle babes,--
Thus, thus, quoth Forrest, girdling one another
Within their alabaster innocent arms:

Their lips were four red roses on a stalk,
Which, in their summer beauty, kiss'd each other.
A book of prayers on their pillow lay ;

Which once, quoth Forrest, almost chang'd my mind ;
But, oh, the devil-there the villain stopt;
When Dighton thus told on,-we smothered
The most replenished sweet work of nature,
That, from the prime creation, e'er she fram❜d.--
Hence both are gone with conscience and remorse,
They could not speak; and so I left them both,
To bear this tidings to the bloody king.

Enter King RICHARD.

And here he comes :-All health, my sovereign lord K.Rich. Kind Tyrrel! am I happy in thy news? Tyr. If to have done the thing you gave in charge Beget your happiness, be happy then,

For it is done.

K. Rich. But didst thou see them dead?

tomatons, and bids him not suspend the stroke on the clock-bell, but strike, that the hour may be past, and himself be at liberty to pursue his medita tions. SIR J. HAWKINS.

Tyr. I did, my lord.

K.Rich. And buried, gentle Tyrrel?

Tyr. The chaplain of the Tower hath buried them; But where, to say the truth, I do not know.

K.Rich. Come to me, Tyrrel, soon, at after supper, When thou shalt tell the process of their death. Meantime, but think how I may do thee good, And be inheritor of thy desire. Farewel, till then.

[Exit.

Tyr. I humbly take my leave. K.Rich. The son of Clarence have I penn'd up close ; 7 His daughter meanly have I match'd in marriage; The sons of Edward sleep in Abraham's bosom, And Anne my wife hath bid the world good night. Now, for I know the Bretagne Richmond aims At young Elizabeth, my brother's daughter, And, by that knot, looks proudly on the crown, To her go I, a jolly thriving wooer.

Cate. My lord,

Enter CATESBY.

K.Rich. Good news or bad, that thou com'st in so bluntly?

Cate. Bad news, my lord: Morton is fled to Richmond; And Buckingham, back'd with the hardy Welshmen, Is in the field, and still his power increaseth.

K.Rich. Ely with Richmond troubles me more near,
Than Buckingham and his rash levied strength.
Come,-I have learn'd, that fearful commenting
Is leaden servitor to dull delay;

Delay leads impotent and snail-pac'd beggary :
Then fiery expedition be my wing,

Jove's Mercury, and herald for a king!

Go, muster men: My counsel is my shield;

We must be brief, when traitors brave the field. [Exe.

[7] In Sheriff Hutton Castle, Yorkshire; where he remained till the coming of Henry VII. who immediately after the battle of Bosworth sent him to the Tower, and some few years after, most treacherously and barbarously put him to death; being, from a total want of education and commerce with mankind, so ignorant, that he could not, according to Hall, discern a goose from a capon. With this unfortunate young nobleman ended the male line of the illustrious house of Plantagenet. RITSON.

[8] Timorous thought and cautious disquisition are dull attendants on delay. JOHNS,

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