The king enacts more wonders than a man,
Daring an opposite to every danger:
His horse is slain, and all on foot he fights,
Seeking for Richmond in the throat of death.
Rescue, fair lord, or else the day is lost!

Alarums. Enter KING RICHARD.

K. Rich. A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

Cate. Withdraw, my lord; I'll help you to a horse.

K. Rich. Slave, I have set my life upon a cast,

And I will stand the hazard of the die;

I think there be six Richmonds in the field:
Five have I slain to-day instead of him.
A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!

[Exeunt.

SCENE V. Another part of the field. Alarum. Enter RICHARD and RICHMOND; they fight. RICHARD is slain. Retreat and flourish. Re-enter RICHMOND, DERBY bearing the crown, with divers other lords. Richm. God and your arms be praised, victorious friends;

The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead. .Der. Courageous Richmond, well hast thou acquit thee.

Lo, here, this long-usurped royalty

From the dead temples of this bloody wretch

Whither, if it please you, we may now withdraw us.

Richm. What men of name are slain on either side?

Der. John Duke of Norfolk, Walter Lord Ferrers, [don. Sir Robert Brakenbury, and Sir William BranRichm. Inter their bodies as becomes their births:

20

Proclaim a pardon to the soldiers fled
That in submission will return to us:
And then, as we have ta'en the sacrament,
We will unite the white rose and the red:
Smile heaven upon this fair conjunction,
That long have frown'd upon their enmity!
What traitor hears me, and says not amen?
England hath long been mad, and scarr'd herself;
The brother blindly shed the brother's blood,
The father rashly slaughter'd his own son,
The son, compell'd, been butcher to the sire:
All this divided York and Lancaster,
Divided in their dire division.

I COME no more to make you laugh: things now,
That bear a weighty and a serious brow,
Sad, high, and working, full of state and woe,
Such noble scenes as draw the eye to flow,
We now present. Those that can pity, here
May, if they think it well, let fall a tear;
The subject will deserve it. Such as give
Their money out of hope they may believe,
May here find truth too. Those that come to see
Only a show or two, and so agree

10

The play may pass, if they be still and willing,
I'll undertake may see away their shilling
Richly in two short hours. Only they
That come to hear a merry bawdy play,
A noise of targets, or to see a fellow
In a long motley coat guarded with yellow,
Will be deceived; for, gentle hearers, know,
To rank our chosen truth with such a show
As fool and fightis, beside forfeiting

21

Our own brains, and the opinion that we bring,
To make that only true we now intend,
Will leave us never an understanding friend.
Therefore, for goodness' sake, and as you are
known

The first and happiest hearers of the town,
Be sad, as we would make ye; think ye see
The very persons of our noble story
As they were living; think you see them great,
And follow'd with the general throng and sweat
Of thousand friends: then, in a moment, see
How soon this mightiness meets misery:
And, if you can be merry then, I'll say
A man may weep upon his wedding-day.

30

ACT I.

21

Shone down the English; and. to-morrow, they
Made Britain India: every man that stood
Show'd like a mine. Their dwarfish pages were
As cherubims, all gilt: the madams too,
Not used to toil, did almost sweat to bear
The pride upon them, that their very labor
Was to them as a painting: now this masque
Was cried incomparable; and the ensuing night
Made it a fool and beggar. The two kings,
Equal in lustre, were now best, now worst,
As presence did present them; him in eye, 30
Still him in praise: and, being present both,
'Twas said they saw but one; and no discerner
Durst wag his tongue in censure. When these

Of all the gentry: for the most part such
To whom as great a charge as little honor
He meant to lay upon: and his own letter,
The honorable board of council out,
Must fetch him in the papers.
Aber.
I do know 80
Kinsmen of mine, three at the least, that have
By this so sicken'd their estates, that never
They shall abound as formerly.
Buck.
O, many
Have broke their backs with laying manors on'em
For this great journey. What did this vanity
But minister communication of
A most poor issue?

Nor.
Grievingly I think,
The peace between the French and us not values
The cost that did conclude it.
Buck.
Every man,

| After the hideous storm that follow'd, was
A thing inspired; and, not consulting, broke
Into a general prophecy; That this tempest.
Dashing the garment of this peace, aboded
The sudden breach on't.

Nor.

90

Which is budded out; For France hath flaw'd the league, and hath attach'd

Our merchants' goods at Bordeaux.
Aber.

The ambassador is silenced?

Nor.

Is it therefore

Marry, is't.

Aber. A propertitle of a peace; and purchased At a superfluous rate!

Buck.

Why, all this business Our reverend cardinal carried. Nor.

Like it your grace, 100 The state takes notice of the private difference Betwixt you and the cardinal. I advise youAnd take it from a heart that wishes towards you Honor and plenteous safety-that you read The cardinal's malice and his potency Together; to consider further that What his high hatred would effect wants not A minister in his power. You know his nature, That he's revengeful, and I know his sword Hath a sharp edge: it's long and, 't may be said, It reaches far, and where 'twill not extend, 111 Thither he darts it. Bosom up my counsel, You'll find it wholesome. Lo, where comes that rock

That I advise your shunning.

Enter CARDINAL WOLSEY, the purse borne before him, certain of the Guard, and two Secretaries with papers. The CARDINAL in his passage fixeth his eye on BUCKINGHAM, and BUCKINGHAM on him, both full of disdain. Wol. The Duke of Buckingham's surveyor, ha? Where's his examination? Here, so please you.

First Secr.

Wol. Is he in person ready?
First Secr.

Ay, please your grace.
Wol. Well, we shall then know more; and
Buckingham
Shall lessen this big look.

[Exeunt Wolsey and his Train. Buck. This butcher's cur is venom-mouth'd, and I Have not the power to muzzle him; therefore best Not wake him in his slumber. A beggar's book

120

Outworths a noble's blood.
Nor.
What, are you chafed?
Ask God for temperance; that's the appliance
only

Which your disease requires.
Buck.

I read in's looks
Matter against me; and his eye reviled
Me, as his abject object: at this instant
He bores me with some trick: he's gone to the
king:

I'll follow and out-stare him.
Nor.
Stay, my lord,
And let your reason with your choler question
What 'tis you go about: to climb steep hills 131
Requires slow pace at first: anger is like
A full-hot horse, who being allow'd his way,
Self-mettle tires him. Not a man in England
Can advise me like you: be to yourself
As you would to your friend.
Buck.
I'll to the king;
And from a mouth of honor quite cry down
This Ipswich fellow's insolence; or proclaim
There's difference in no persons.
Nor.

140

Be advised;
Heat not a furnace for your foe so hot
That it do singe yourself: we may outrun,
By violent swiftness, that which we run at,
And lose by over-running. Know you not,
The fire that mounts the liquor till't run o'er,
In seeming to augment it wastes it? Be advised:
I say again, there is no English soul
More stronger to direct you than yourself,
If with the sap of reason you would quench,
Or but allay, the fire of passion.
Buck.
Sir,

I am thankful to you; and I'll go along 150
By your prescription: but this top-proud fellow,
Whom from the flow of gall I name not but
From sincere motions, by intelligence,
And proofs as clear as founts in July when
We see each grain of gravel, I do know
To be corrupt and treasonous.
Nor.

Say not treasonous.' Buck. To the king I'll say't; and make my vouch as strong

165

As shore of rock. Attend. This holy fox,
Or wolf, or both,-for he is equal ravenous
As he is subtle, and as prone to mischief
As able to perform't; his mind and place
Infecting one another, yea, reciprocally-
Only to show his pomp as well in France
As here at home, suggests the king our master
To this last costly treaty, the interview,
That swallow'd so much treasure, and like a glass
Did break i' the rinsing.

Faith, and so it did.

Nor. Buck. Pray, give me favor, sir. This cunning cardinal

The articles o' the combination drew

As himself pleased; and they were ratified 17
As he cried Thus let be:' to as much end
As give a crutch to the dead: but our count-
cardinal

Has done this, and 'tis well; for worthy Wolsey,
Who cannot err, he did it. Now this follows,
Which, as I take it, is a kind of puppy
To the old dam, treason, -Charles the emperor,
Under pretence to see the queen his aunt,-
For 'twas indeed his color, but he came

180

To whisper Wolsey,-here makes visitation:
His fears were, that the interview betwixt
England and France might, through their amity,
Breed him some prejudice; for from this league
Peep'd harms that menaced him: he privily
Deals with our cardinal; and, as I trow,-
Which I do well; for I am sure the emperor
Paid ere he promised; whereby his suit was
granted

Ere it was asked; but when the way was made,
And paved with gold, the emperor thus desired,
That he would please to alter the king's course,
And break the foresaid peace. Let the king know,
As soon he shall by me, that thus the cardinal 191
Does buy and sell his honor as he pleases,
And for his own advantage.
I am sorry

Nor.

To hear this of him; and could wish he were Something mistaken in't.

Buck.

No, not a syllable:
I do pronounce him in that very shape
He shall appear in proof.

Enter BRANDON, a Sergeant-at-arms before him,
and two or three of the Guard.
Bran. Your office, sergeant; execute it.
Serg
Sir,

My lord, the Duke of Buckingham, and Earl
Of Hereford, Stafford, and Northampton, I 200
Arrest thee of high treason, in the name
Of our most sovereign king.
Buck.
Lo, you, my lord,

The net has fall'n upon me! I shall perish
Under device and practice.
I am sorry

Bran.

To see you ta'en from liberty, to look on
The business present: 'tis his highness' pleasure
You shall to the Tower.

Buck.

It will help me nothing To plead my innocence; for that dye is on me Which makes my whitest part black. The will

of heaven