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Immaculate devotion, holy thoughts,

I tender not thy beauteous princely daughter!
In her consists my happiness, and thine ;
Without her, follows to myself, and thee,
Herself, the land, and many a christian soul,
Death, desolation, ruin, and decay :
It cannot be avoided, but by this;
It will not be avoided, but by this.
Therefore, dear mother, (I must call you so,)
Be the attorney of my love to her.

Plead what I will be, not what I have been ;
Not my deserts, but what I will deserve :
Urge the necessity and state of times,
And be not peevish found in great designs.

Q.Eliz. Shall I be tempted of the devil thus ?
K.Rich. Ay, if the devil tempt thee to do good.
Q.Eliz. Shall I forget myself, to be myself?
K.Rich. Ay, if your self's remembrance wrong yourself.
Q.Eliz. But thou didst kill my children.

K.Rich. But in your daughter's womb I bury them :
Where, in that nest of spicery, they shall breed
Selves of themselves, to your recomforture.

Q.Eliz. Shall I go win my daughter to thy will?
K.Rich. And be a happy mother by the deed.
Q.Eliz. I go.-Write to me very shortly,
And you shall understand from me her mind.

K.Rich. Bear her my true love's kiss, and so farewel.
[Kissing her. Exit Q. ELIZ.
Relenting fool, and shallow, changing-woman !5
How now? what news?

Enter RATCLIFF; CATESBY following.

Rat. Most mighty sovereign, on the western coast
Rideth a puissant navy; to the shore

Throng many doubtful hollow-hearted friends,
Unarm'd, and unresolv'd to beat them back :
'Tis thought, that Richmond is their admiral;
And there they hull, expecting but the aid
Of Buckingham, to welcome them ashore.

K.Ric.Some light-foot friend post to the duke of Norfolk; -Ratcliff, thyself,- -or Catesby; where is he?6

Cate. Here, my good lord.

[5] Such was the real character of this queen dowager, who would have married her daughter to king Richard, and did all in her power to alienate the Marquis of Dorset, her son, from the Eari of Richmond. STEEV.

[6] Richard's precipitation and confusion is in this scene very happily rep. resented by inconsistent orders, and sudden variations of opinion. JOHNS.

K.Rich. Catesby, fly to the duke.

Cate. I will, my lord, with all convenient haste.
K.Rich. Ratcliff, come hither: Post to Salisbury ;
When thou com'st thither,-Dull unmindful villain,
[To CATESBY.

Why stay'st thou here, and go'st not to the duke?
Cat. First,mighty liege,tell me your highness' pleasure,
What from your grace I shall deliver to him.

K.Rich. O,true, good Catesby ;-Bid him levy straight
The greatest strength and power he can make,
And meet me suddenly at Salisbury.

Cate. I go.

[Exit.

Rat. What, may it please you, shall I do at Salisbury? K. Rich. Why, what would'st thou do there, before I go? Rat. Your highness told me, I should post before. K.Rich. My mind is chang'd.

Enter STANLEY. -Stanley, what news with you?

Stan. None good, my liege, to please you with the hearing;

Nor none so bad, but well may be reported.

K.Rich. Heyday, a riddle! neither good nor bad!
What need'st thou run so many miles about,

When thou may'st tell thy tale the nearest way?
Once more, what news?

Stan. Richmond is on the seas.

K.Rich. There let him sink, and be the seas on him ! White-liver'd runagate, what doth he there ?

Stan. I know not, mighty sovereign, but by guess.
K.Rich. Well, as you guess ?

Stan. Stirr'd up by Dorset, Buckingham, and Morton, He makes for England, here to claim the crown.

K.Rich. Is the chair empty? is the sword unsway'd ? Is the king dead? the empire unpossess'd?

What heir of York is there alive, but we ?

And who is England's king, but great York's heir?
Then, tell me, what makes he upon the seas?

Stan. Unless for that, my liege, I cannot guess.
K.Rich. Unless for that he comes to be your liege,
You cannot guess wherefore the Welshman comes.
Thou wilt revolt, and fly to him, I fear.

Stan. No, mighty liege; therefore mistrust me not. K. Rich. Where is thy power then, to beat him back? Where be thy tenants, and thy followers?

Are they not now upon the western shore,

Safe conducting the rebels from their ships?

Stan. No, my good lord, my friends are in the north. K.Rich. Cold friends to me: what do they in the north, When they should serve their sovereign in the west? Stan. They have not been commanded, mighty king: Pleaseth your majesty to give me leave,

I'll muster up my friends; and meet your grace, Where, and what time, your majesty shall please. K.Rich. Ay, ay, thou would'st be gone to join with Richmond:

I will not trust you, sir.

Stan. Most mighty sovereign,

You have no cause to hold my friendship doubtful ;
I never was, nor never will be false.

K. Ric. Well,go, muster men. But hear you leave behind
Your son, George Stanley; look, your heart be firm,
Or else his head's assurance is but frail.

Stan. So deal with him, as I prove true to you. [Exit. Enter a Messenger.

Mes. My gracious sovereign, now in Devonshire,
As I by friends am well advértised,

Sir Edward Courtney, and the haughty prelate,
Bishop of Exeter, his elder brother,

With many more confederates, are in arms.

Enter another Messenger.

2 Mes. In Kent, my liege, the Guilfords are in arms; And every hour more competitors?

Flock to the rebels, and their power grows strong.
Enter another Messenger.

3 Mes. My lord, the army of great BuckinghamK.Rich. Out on ye, owls! nothing but songs of death? [He strikes him. There, take thou that, till thou bring better news. 3 Mes. The news I have to tell your majesty, Is,-that, by sudden floods and fall of waters, Buckingham's army is dispers'd and scattered ; And he himself wander'd away alone, No man knows whither.

K.Rich. O, I cry you mercy :

There is my purse, to cure that blow of thine.
Hath any well-advised friend proclaim'd
Reward to him that brings the traitor in ?

3 Mes. Such proclamation hath been made, my liege,

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Enter another Messenger.

4 Mes. Sir Thomas Lovel, and lord marquis Dorset, 'Tis said, my liege, in Yorkshire are in arms. But this good comfort bring I to your highness,— The Bretagne navy is dispers'd by tempest: Richmond, in Dorsetshire, sent out a boat Unto the shore, to ask those on the banks, If they were his assistants, yea, or no ;

Who answer'd him, they came from Buckingham
Upon his party : he, mistrusting them,

Hois'd sail, and made his course again for Bretagne.8
K. Rich. March on, march on, since we are up in arms;
If not to fight with foreign enemies,

Yet to beat down these rebels here at home.

Enter CATESBY.

Cate. My liege, the duke of Buckingham is taken, That is the best news; That the earl of Richmond Is with a mighty power landed at Milford,

Is colder news, but yet they must be told.

K.Ric. Away towards Salisbury; while we reason here, A royal battle might be won and lost :

Some one take order, Buckingham be brought

To Salisbury ;-the rest march on with me. [Exeunt.

SCENE V.

A Room in Lord STANLEY's House. Enter STANLEY, and Sir CHRISTOPHER URSWICK.

Stan. Sir Christopher, tell Richmond this from me :— That, in the sty of this most bloody boar,

My son George Stanley is frank'd up in hold;
If I revolt, off goes young George's head ;

The fear of that withholds my present aid.

[8] Henry Tudor Earl of Richmond, the eldest son of Edmund of Hadham Earl of Richmond, (who was half-brother to King Henry VI.) by Margaret, the only daughter of John the first duke of Somerset, who was grandson to John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster, was carried by his uncle Jasper Earl of Pembroke immediately after the battle of Tewksbury into Britany, where he was kept in a kind of honourable custody by the Duke of Bretagne, and where he remained till the year 1484, when he made his escape and fled for protection to the French court. Being considered at that time as nearest in blood to King Henry VI. all the Lancastrian party looked up to him even in the life-time of King Edward IV. who was extremely jealous of him; and after Richard usurped the throne, they with more confidence supported Richmond's claim. The claim of Henry Duke of Buckingham was in some respects inferior to that of Richmond; for he was descended by his mother from Edmund the second Duke of Somerset, the younger brother of Duke John; by his father from Thomas Duke of Gloster, the younger brother of John of Gaunt: but whatever priority the Earl of Richmond might claim by his mother, he could not plead any title through his father, who in fact had no Lancastrian blood whatsoever nor was his maternal title of the pur est kind, for John the first Earl of Somerset was an illegitimate son of John of Gaunt. MAL.

But, tell me, where is princely Richmond now?

Chris. At Pembroke, or at Ha'rford-west, in Wales.
Stan. What men of name resort to him?

Chris. Sir Walter Herbert, a renowned soldier ;
Sir Gilbert Talbot, Sir William Stanley;
Oxford, redoubted Pembroke, Sir James Blunt,
And Rice ap Thomas, with a valiant crew;
And many other of great fame and worth:
And towards London do they bend their course,
If by the way they be not fought withal.

Stan. Well,hie thee to thy lord; commend me to him; Tell him, the queen hath heartily consented

He shall espouse Elizabeth her daughter.
These letters will resolve him of my mind.
Farewell. [Gives Papers to Sir CHRIS. Exeunt.

ACT V.

"SCENE I.-Salisbury. An open Place. Enter the Sheriff, and Guard, with BUCKINGHAM, led to execution.

Buckingham.

WILL not king Richard let me speak with him?
Sher. No, my good lord; therefore be patient.
Buck. Hastings, and Edward's children, Rivers, Grey,
Holy king Henry, and thy fair son Edward,

Vaughan, and all that have miscarried

By underhand, corrupted, foul injustice ;

If that your moody discontented souls

Do through the clouds behold this present hour,
Even for revenge mock my destruction !-

This is All-Souls' day, fellows, is it not?

Sher. It is, my lord.

Buck. Why,then All-Souls' day is my body's doomsday. This is the day, which, in king Edward's time,

I wish'd might fall on me, when I was found

False to his children, or his wife's allies ;
This is the day, wherein I wish'd to fall
By the false faith of him whom most I trusted;
This, this All-Souls' day to my fearful soul,
Is the determin'd respite of my wrongs,

[1] This scene should, in my opinion, be added to the foregoing Act, so the fourth Act will have a more full and striking conclusion and the fifth Act will comprise the business of the important day, which put an end to the competition of York and Lancaster. JOHNS.

33 VOL. V.

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