King Richard III (The Unabridged Play) + The Classic Biography: The Life of William Shakespeare (eBook)

ACT III

SCENE I. London. A street

[The trumpets sound. Enter the PRINCE OF WALES, GLOSTER, BUCKINGHAM, CATESBY, CARDINAL BOURCHIER, and others.]
BUCKINGHAM
Welcome, sweet prince, to London, to your chamber.

GLOSTER
Welcome, dear cousin, my thoughts’ sovereign:
The weary way hath made you melancholy.

PRINCE
No, uncle; but our crosses on the way
Have made it tedious, wearisome, and heavy:
I want more uncles here to welcome me.

GLOSTER
Sweet prince, the untainted virtue of your years
Hath not yet div’d into the world’s deceit:
Nor more can you distinguish of a man
Than of his outward show; which, God He knows,
Seldom or never jumpeth with the heart.
Those uncles which you want were dangerous;
Your grace attended to their sugar’d words
But look’d not on the poison of their hearts:
God keep you from them and from such false friends!

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

GLOSTER
My lord, the mayor of London comes to greet you.
[Enter the LORD MAYOR and his train.]
MAYOR
God bless your grace with health and happy days!

PRINCE
I thank you, good my lord;—and thank you all.
[Exeunt MAYOR, &c.]
I thought my mother and my brother York
Would long ere this have met us on the way:
Fie, what a slug 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.
[Enter HASTINGS.]
PRINCE
Welcome, my lord: what, will our mother come?

HASTINGS
On what occasion, God He knows, not I,
The queen your mother and your brother York
Have taken sanctuary: the tender prince
Would fain have come with me to meet your grace,
But by his mother was perforce withheld.

BUCKINGHAM
Fie, what an indirect 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?
If she deny, Lord Hastings, go with him,
And from her jealous arms pluck him perforce.

CARDINAL
My Lord of Buckingham, if my weak oratory
Can from his mother win the Duke of York,
Anon expect him here; but if she be obdurate
To mild entreaties, God in heaven forbid
We should infringe the holy privilege
Of blessèd sanctuary! not for all this land
Would I be guilty of so deep a sin.

BUCKINGHAM
You are too senseless-obstinate, my lord,
Too ceremonious and traditional:
Weigh it but with the grossness of this age,
You break not sanctuary in seizing him.
The benefit thereof is always granted
To those whose dealings have deserv’d the place
And those who have the wit to claim the place:
This prince hath neither claim’d it nor deserv’d it;
And therefore, in mine opinion, cannot have it:
Then, taking him from thence that is not there,
You break no privilege nor charter there.
Oft have I heard of sanctuary-men;
But sanctuary-children ne’er till now.

CARDINAL
My lord, you shall o’errule my mind for once.—
Come on, Lord Hastings, will you go with me?

HASTINGS
I go, my lord.

PRINCE
Good lords, make all the speedy haste you may.
[Exeunt CARDINAL and HASTINGS.]
Say, uncle Gloster, if our brother come,
Where shall we sojourn till our coronation?

GLOSTER
Where it seems best unto your royal self.
If I may counsel you, some day or two
Your highness shall repose you at the Tower:
Then where you please and shall be thought most fit
For your best health and recreation.

PRINCE
I do not like the Tower, of any place.—
Did Julius Caesar build that place, my lord?

BUCKINGHAM
He did, my gracious lord, begin that place;
Which, since, succeeding ages have re-edified.

PRINCE
Is it upon recórd, or else reported
Successively from age to age, he built it?

BUCKINGHAM
Upon recórd, my gracious lord.

PRINCE
But say, my lord, it were not register’d,
Methinks the truth should live from age to age,
As ‘twere retail’d to all posterity,
Even to the general all-ending day.

GLOSTER
[Aside]
So wise so young, they say, do never live long.

PRINCE
What say you, uncle?

GLOSTER
I say, without characters, fame lives long.—
[Aside]
Thus, like the formal vice, Iniquity,
I moralize two meanings in one word.

PRINCE
That Julius Caesar was a famous man;
With what his valour did enrich his wit,
His wit set down to make his valour live;
Death makes no conquest of this conqueror;
For now he lives in fame, though not in life.—
I’ll tell you what, my cousin Buckingham,—

BUCKINGHAM
What, my gracious lord?

PRINCE
An if I live until I be a man,
I’ll win our ancient right in France again,
Or die a soldier as I liv’d a king.

GLOSTER
[Aside]
Short summers lightly have a forward spring.

BUCKINGHAM
Now, in good time, here comes the Duke of York.
[Enter YORK, HASTINGS, and the CARDINAL.]
PRINCE
Richard of York! how fares our loving brother?

YORK
Well, my dread lord; so must I call you now.

PRINCE
Ay brother,—to our grief, as it is yours:
Too late he died that might have kept that title,
Which by his death hath lost much majesty.

GLOSTER
How fares our cousin, noble Lord of York?

YORK
I thank you, gentle uncle. O, my lord,
You said that idle weeds are fast in growth:
The prince my brother hath outgrown me far.

GLOSTER
He hath, my lord.

YORK
And therefore is he idle?

GLOSTER
O, my fair cousin, I must not say so.

YORK
Then he is more beholding to you than I.

GLOSTER
He may command me as my sovereign;
But you have power in me as in a kinsman.

YORK
I pray you, uncle, give me this dagger.

GLOSTER
My dagger, little cousin? with all my heart!

PRINCE
A beggar, brother?

YORK
Of my kind uncle, that I know will give,
And being but a toy, which is no grief to give.

GLOSTER
A greater gift than that I’ll give my cousin.

YORK
A greater gift! O, that’s the sword to it!

GLOSTER
Ay, gentle cousin, were it light enough.

YORK
O, then, I see you will part but with light gifts;
In weightier things you’ll say a beggar nay.

GLOSTER
It is too heavy for your grace to wear.

YORK
I weigh it lightly, were it heavier.

GLOSTER
What, would you have my weapon, little lord?

YORK
I would, that I might thank you as you call me.

GLOSTER
How?

YORK
Little.

PRINCE
My Lord of York will still be cross in talk:—
Uncle, your grace knows how to bear with him.

YORK
You mean, to bear me, not to bear with me:—
Uncle, my brother mocks both you and me;
Because that I am little, like an ape,
He thinks that you should bear me on your shoulders.

BUCKINGHAM
With what a sharp-provided wit he reasons!
To mitigate the scorn he gives his uncle,
He prettily and aptly taunts himself:
So cunning and so young is wonderful.

GLOSTER
My lord, wil’t please you pass along?
Myself and my good cousin Buckingham
Will to your mother, to entreat of her
To meet you at the Tower and welcome you.

YORK
What, will you go unto the Tower, my lord?

PRINCE
My lord protector needs will have it so.

YORK
I shall not sleep in quiet at the Tower.

GLOSTER
Why, what should you fear?

YORK
Marry, my uncle Clarence’ angry ghost:
My grandam told me he was murder’d there.

PRINCE
I fear no uncles dead.

GLOSTER
Nor none that live, I hope.

PRINCE
An if they live, I hope I need not fear.
But come, my lord; and with a heavy heart,
Thinking on them, go I unto the Tower.
[Sennet. Exeunt PRINCE, YORK, HASTINGS, CARDINAL, and Attendants.]
BUCKINGHAM
Think you, my lord, this...