Richard III (11 page)

ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
    Last night, I heard, they
lay
at
Stony Stratford
¹

And as
Northampton
²
they do rest tonight.

Tomorrow, or next day, they will be here.

DUCHESS OF WORK
    I long with all my heart to see the prince.

I hope he is much grown since last I saw him.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    But I hear, no. They say my son of York

Has almost overta’en him in his growth.

YORK
    Ay, mother, but I would not have it so.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Why, my good
cousin
⁹
, it is good to grow.

YORK
    Grandam, one night as we did sit at supper,

My uncle Rivers talked how I did grow

More than my brother. ‘Ay’, quoth my uncle Gloucester,

‘Small herbs have
grace
, great weeds do grow
apace.
¹³
’

And since, methinks, I would not grow so fast,

Because sweet flowers are slow and weeds make haste.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Good faith, good faith, the saying did not
hold
¹⁶

In him that did
object the same
¹⁷
to thee.

He was the wretched’st thing when he was young,

So long a-growing and so leisurely,

That, if his rule were true, he should be gracious.

ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
    And so no doubt he is, my gracious madam.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    I hope he is, but yet let mothers doubt.

YORK
    Now, by my
troth
²³
, if I had been remembered,

I could have given my uncle’s grace a
flout
²⁴
,

To
touch his growth nearer than he touched mine.
²⁵

DUCHESS OF YORK
    How, my young York? I prithee let me hear it.

YORK
    Marry, they say my uncle grew so fast

That he could
gnaw a crust at two hours old.
²⁸

’Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth.

Grandam, this would have been a
biting
³⁰
jest.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    I prithee, pretty York, who told thee this?

YORK
    Grandam, his nurse.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    His nurse? Why, she was dead ere thou wast born.

YORK
    If ’twere not she, I cannot tell who told me.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    A
parlous
³⁵
boy. Go to, you are too shrewd.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Good madam, be not angry with the child.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    
Pitchers have ears.
³⁷

ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
    Here comes a messenger. What news?

MESSENGER
    Such news, my lord, as grieves me to report.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    How doth the prince?

MESSENGER
    Well, madam, and in health.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    What is thy news?

MESSENGER
    Lord Rivers and Lord Grey are sent to
Pomfret
⁴³
,

And with them Sir Thomas Vaughan, prisoners.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Who hath committed them?

MESSENGER
    The mighty dukes, Gloucester and Buckingham.

ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
    For what offence?

MESSENGER
    The sum of all I
can
⁴⁸
, I have disclosed.

Why or for what the nobles were committed

Is all unknown to me, my gracious lord.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Ay me, I see the ruin of my
house.
⁵¹

The tiger now hath seized the gentle
hind
⁵²
,

Insulting
⁵³
tyranny begins to jut

Upon the innocent and
aweless
throne.
⁵⁴

Welcome, destruction, blood and massacre.

I see, as in a
map
⁵⁶
, the end of all.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Accurséd and unquiet wrangling day?,

How many of you have mine eyes beheld?

My husband lost his life to get the crown,

And often up and down my sons were tossed,

For me to joy and weep their gain and loss.

And being
seated
⁶²
, and domestic broils

Clean
overblown
⁶³
, themselves the conquerors,

Make war upon themselves, brother to brother,

Blood to blood, self against self. O,
preposterous
⁶⁵

And
frantic outrage
⁶⁶
, end thy damnèd spleen,

Or let me die, to look on earth no more!

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    Come, come, my boy, we will to
sanctuary.
⁶⁸
—

Madam, farewell.

DUCHESS OF YORK
    Stay, I will go with you.

QUEEN ELIZABETH
    You have no cause.

ARCHBISHOP OF YORK
    My gracious lady, go,

And thither bear your treasure and your goods.

For my part, I’ll resign unto your grace

The
seal
⁷⁵
I keep: and so betide to me

As well I tender you and all of yours!

Go, I’ll conduct you to the sanctuary.

BUCKINGHAM
    Welcome, sweet prince, to London, to your
chamber.
¹

RICHARD
    Welcome, dear cousin,
my thoughts’ sovereign.
²

The weary way hath made you melancholy.

PRINCE EDWARD
    No, uncle, but our
crosses
⁴
on the way

Have made it tedious, wearisome, and
heavy.
⁵

I
want
⁶
more uncles here to welcome me.

RICHARD
    Sweet prince, the untainted virtue of your years

Hath not yet dived into the world’s deceit.

No more can you distinguish of a man

Than of his outward show, which — God he knows —

Seldom or never
jumpeth
¹¹
with the heart.

Those uncles which you want were dangerous:

Your grace
attended
¹³
to their sugared words,

But looked not on the poison of their hearts.

God keep you from them, and from such false friends.

PRINCE EDWARD
    God keep me from false friends, but they were none.

RICHARD
    My lord, the Mayor of London comes to greet you.

LORD MAYOR
    God bless your grace with health and happy days.

PRINCE EDWARD
    I thank you, good my lord, and thank you all.—

I thought my mother, and my brother York,

Would long
ere
²¹
this have met us on the way.

Fie, what a
slug
²²
is Hastings, that he comes not

To tell us whether they will come or no.

BUCKINGHAM
    And, in good time, here comes the sweating lord.

PRINCE EDWARD
    Welcome, my lord. What, will our mother come?

HASTINGS
    
On what occasion
²⁶
, God he knows, not I,

The queen your mother, and your brother York,

Have taken sanctuary. The
tender
²⁸
prince

Would
fain
²⁹
have come with me to meet your grace,

But by his mother was
perforce
³⁰
withheld.

BUCKINGHAM
    Fie, what an
indirect
³¹
and peevish course

Is this of hers?— Lord Cardinal, will your grace

Persuade the queen to send the Duke of York

Unto his princely brother
presently?
³⁴
—

If she deny, Lord Hastings, go with him,

And from her
jealous
³⁶
arms pluck him perforce.

CARDINAL
    My lord of Buckingham, if my weak
oratory
³⁷

Can from his mother win the Duke of York,

Anon
³⁹
expect him here. But if she be obdurate

To mild entreaties, God forbid

We should infringe the holy privilege

Of blessèd sanctuary. Not for all this land

Would I be guilty of so great a sin.

BUCKINGHAM
    You are too
senseless
⁴⁴
obstinate, my lord,

Too ceremonious and traditional.

Weigh it but with
⁴⁶
the grossness of this age,

You break not sanctuary in seizing him.

The
benefit
⁴⁸
thereof is always granted

To those whose
dealings
⁴⁹
have deserved the place,

And those who have the
wit
⁵⁰
to claim the place:

This prince hath neither claimed it nor deserved it,

And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it.

Then, taking him from
thence that is not there
⁵³
,

You break no privilege nor
charter
⁵⁴
there.

Oft have I heard of sanctuary men,

But sanctuary children ne’er till now.

CARDINAL
    My lord, you shall o’er-rule my mind for once.—

Come on, Lord Hastings, will you go with me?

HASTINGS
    I go, my lord.

PRINCE EDWARD
    Good lords, make all the speedy haste you may.—

Say, uncle Gloucester, if our brother come,

Where shall we
sojourn
⁶²
till our coronation?

RICHARD
    Where it think’st best unto your royal self.

If I may counsel you, some day or two

Your highness shall
repose you
at the
Tower
⁶⁵
:

Then where you please, and shall be thought most fit

For your best health and recreation.

PRINCE EDWARD
    I do not like the Tower, of
any place.
⁶⁸
—

Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?

BUCKINGHAM
    He did, my gracious lord, begin that place,

Which, since, succeeding ages have
re-edified.
⁷¹

PRINCE EDWARD
    Is it
upon record?
⁷²
Or else reported

Successively from age to age, he built it?

BUCKINGHAM
    Upon record, my gracious lord.

PRINCE EDWARD
    But say, my lord, it were not
registered
⁷⁵
,

Methinks the truth should live from age to age,

As ’twere
retailed
⁷⁷
to all posterity,

Even to the
general ending day.
⁷⁸

RICHARD
    
So wise so young, they say, do never live long.
⁷⁹

PRINCE EDWARD
    What say you, uncle?

RICHARD
    I say, without
characters
⁸¹
, fame lives long.—

Thus, like the
formal Vice
⁸²
, Iniquity,

I
moralize
⁸³
two meanings in one word.

PRINCE EDWARD
    That Julius Caesar was a famous man.

With what his valour did enrich his wit
⁸⁵
,

His wit set down to make his valour live.

Death makes no conquest of
his conqueror
⁸⁷
,

For now he lives in fame, though not in life.

I’ll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham—

BUCKINGHAM
    What, my gracious lord?

PRINCE EDWARD
    
An if
⁹¹
I live until I be a man,

I’ll win our ancient right in France again,

Or die a soldier, as I lived a king.