ACT FIFTH

SCENE I

Salisbury. An open place.

Enter the Sheriff, and Buckingham, with halberds, led to execution.

Buck. 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!

1. "Buckingham"; Buckingham was executed on All-saints' day, November 1, 1483. The story is told thus by the chroniclers: "The duke, being by certeine of the kings councell diligentlie examined, what things he knew prejudiciall unto the kings person, declared franklie all the conjuration, without glosing; trusting, because he had plainlie revealed all things, that he should have licence to speake to the king; which, whether it were to sue for pardon, or whether he, being brought to his presence, would have sticked him with a dagger, as men thought, he sore desired. But when he had confessed the whole conspiracie, upon All-soules daie, without arreigment or judgement, he was at Salisburie, in the open marketplace, on a new scaffold, beheaded and put to death." See, also, King Henry VIII, Act i. sc. 2.-H. N. H.

This is All-Souls' day, fellows, is it not? 10 Sher. It is, my lord.

Buck. Why, then All-Souls' day is my body's dooms-day.

This is the day that, 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 I trusted most;
This, this All-Souls' day to my fearful soul
Is the determined respite of my wrongs:
That high All-seer that I dallied with
Hath turn'd my feigned prayer on my head,
And given in earnest what I begg❜d in jest.
Thus doth he force the swords of wicked men
To turn their own points on their masters' bos-

oms:

20

Now Margaret's curse is fallen upon my head; 'When he,' quoth she, 'shall split thy heart with

sorrow,

Remember Margaret was a prophetess.'

Come, sirs, convey me to the block of shame;
Wrong hath but wrong, and blame the due of
blame.
[Exeunt.

19. "Respite of my wrongs"; the time to which the punishment of his injurious practices or the wrongs done by him was respited.H. N. H.

28. "Come shame." Johnson thinks this scene should be added to the fourth act, which would give it a more full and striking conclusion. In the original quarto copy, 1597, this play is not divided into acts and scenes. Malone suggests that the short scene between Stanley and Sir Christopher may have been the opening of the fifth act.-H. N. H.

SCENE II

The camp near Tamworth.

Enter Richmond, Oxford, Blunt, Herbert, and others, with drum and colors.

Richm. Fellows in arms, and my most loving friends,

Bruised underneath the yoke of tyranny,

Thus far into the bowels of the land

Have we march'd on without impediment;
And here receive we from our father Stanley
Lines of fair comfort and encouragement.
The wretched, bloody, and usurping boar,
That spoil'd your summer fields and fruitful
vines,

"Richmond." On his father's side the earl of Richmond was grandson to Owen Tudor and Katharine of France, widow of Henry V. His mother was Margaret, daughter and heir to John Beaufort, the first duke of Somerset, and of course great-granddaughter to John of Ghent by Catharine Swynford; on which account, after the death of Henry VI and his son, Richmond was looked to by both friends and foes as the next male representative of the Lancastrian line. The first Beauforts, as the reader may be aware, were born out of wedlock, though their parents were afterwards married. The children were legitimated indeed, but the act of legitimation expressly barred them and their posterity from the throne. So that in himself Richmond had no legal claim to the kingdom. Nevertheless the Lancastrians all regarded him as their natural chief; and many of the Yorkists accepted him because of his having bound himself by solemn oath to marry the Princess Elizabeth, whom they of course considered the rightful heir to the crown after the death of her brothers.-H. N. H.

Swills your warm blood like wash, and makes
his trough

In your embowel'd bosoms, this foul swine
Lies now even in the center of this isle,

10

Near to the town of Leicester, as we learn:
From Tamworth thither is but one day's march.
In God's name, cheerly on, courageous friends,
To reap the harvest of perpetual peace

By this one bloody trial of sharp war.
Oxf. Every man's conscience is a thousand swords,
To fight against that bloody homicide.

Herb. I doubt not but his friends will fly to us. Blunt. He hath no friends but who are friends for

fear,

20

Which in his greatest need will shrink from him. Richm. All for our vantage. Then, in God's name, march:

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings;

Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures [Exeunt.

kings.

17. "Every man's conscience is a thousand swords"; Ff., "men" for "swords"; the words paraphrase "Conscientia nulle testes."—I. G.

SCENE III

Bosworth Field.

Enter King Richard in arms with Norfolk, the Earl of Surrey, and others.

K. Rich. Here pitch our tents, even here in Bosworth field.

My Lord of Surrey, why look you so sad? Sur. My heart is ten times lighter than my looks. K. Rich. My Lord of Norfolk—

Nor.

Here, most gracious liege.

K. Rich. Norfolk, we must have knocks; ha! must

we not?

Nor. We must both give and take, my gracious

lord.

K. Rich. Up with my tent there! here will I lie tonight:

But where to-morrow? Well, all 's one for that. Who hath descried the number of the foe? Nor. Six or seven thousand is their utmost power. K. Rich. Why, our battalion trebles that ac

count:

11

Besides, the king's name is a tower of strength,

2. "My Lord of Surrey, why look you so sad?"; so the Folios; Q. 1 reads, "Whie, how now Catesbie, whie lookst thou so bad?" the other Quartos, "Whie so sad?"-I. G.

11. "Our battalion trebles that account." Richmond's forces are said to have been only five thousand; and Richard's army consisted of about twelve thousand. But lord Stanley lay at a small distance with three thousand men, and Richard may be supposed to have reckoned on them as his friends, though the event proved therwise.— H. N. H.